Client

Nationwide (U.S.) Retail Bank

Challenge

The client experienced extremely high applicant volume for their Teller and Personal Banker positions and needed a way to add process efficiency while ensuring that the most qualified applicants were moved forward to later stages of the hiring process. The client was especially concerned with ensuring that the screening tools used in the new hiring process were validated and legally defensible. The client initially retained an IT/data science firm to build out a complete hiring system that included an online application and automated interview scheduling tools. As the project commenced, the client determined that building and validating screening questions to be included in the online application required additional expertise in psychometrics and legal compliance. The client’s internal Industrial-Organizational psychologist retained Rocket-Hire to partner with the data science vendor to build and validate a biodata assessment and ensure it was assessment was job relevant and would not introduce risk due to adverse impact.

Solution

Rocket-Hire partnered with the client’s data science vendor to develop and validate a set of biodata screening questions. The process included a review of previous job analysis results as well as detailed discussions with SMEs. An initial experimental item set was developed. These items went through a thorough review by the client’s internal diversity counsel, and edits were made. A concurrent validation study was then conducted. The data from the validation and hold-out samples were analyzed in partnership with data scientists from the vendor partner. This collaboration allowed for the development of scoring algorithms that were based on a blend of data science and psychology. Rocket-Hire created a detailed technical report documenting the entire test development and validation effort. This technical report was reviewed by the client’s internal assessment review counsel who then green lighted the use of the tools developed by Rocket-Hire.

Results

The biodata inventories developed by Rocket-Hire displayed no adverse impact while showing a great deal of lift in predictive accuracy over the client’s existing application process. On-going analysis by the client continues to provide support for the value add of Rocket-Hire’s biodata inventories, while verifying that there is no adverse impact associated with the tools. The Rocket-Hire biodata inventory has been highly successful for the client and has proven to be a critical part of their hiring process for Personal Bankers and Tellers.