To achieve its goal of building long-term, repeat-buyer relationships, La-Z-Boy knew it needed to establish a productive sales force with a long term commitment. “By using the Predictive Index as an interview tool, I was able to hire the people whose personalities fit the requirements of the jobs and the needs of the company. Not only did we begin to hire smarter, but we also made employees happier by placing them in positions that matched their personality strengths and helped to ensure their personal success in the company.” said Kathy Till, Director of Training.
Profile:
La-Z-Boy Inc. is an international retail furniture company with major distribution throughout North America. Corporate annual revenues exceed of $2.3 billion per year. The Predictive Index system is utilized in their proprietary operation, consisting of stores in the Phoenix area with an employee roster of 140+.
The Challenge:
When Kathy Till joined the staff of the Phoenix La-Z-Boy network as Director of Training in 1997, she found that employee turnover was over 100 percent, a sure signpost of low job satisfaction and morale. Kathy knew from experience the high toll employee turnover takes on a company’s financial and psychological well being. She also knew that La-Z-Boy would not achieve its goal of building long-term, repeat-buyer relationships without establishing a productive sales force with a longer term commitment.
The Process:
Till made the decision to enlist the help of the Predictive Index (PI) and gave the PI survey to every employee. This enabled management to examine the behavioral patterns of all their employees and identify the profiles of their top performers. Using these behavioral traits as a model, management was able to supplement its sales force with hires that matched the desirable gregarious, persuasive PI profile of the top sales people. PI also enabled La-Z-Boy to identify the patterns of those employees who were underperforming in sales roles and to place a number of those individuals in positions better utilizing their natural abilities.
The Results:
Over the next three years the turnover rate was reduced by 30 to 40 percent in any given year. “By using the Predictive Index as an interview tool, I was able to hire the people whose personalities fit the requirements of the job and the needs of the company. Not only did we begin to hire smarter, but also we made employees happier by better placing them in positions that matched their personality strengths and helped to ensure their personal success in the company,” said Till.
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