2015 HRM Impact Award Winner

Message from Michael Sherman, Global Head of Talent Acquisition

Bank of America is honored to receive this award for the innovative Universal Fit Pre-Hire Assessment.  In order to achieve our vision of making the financial lives of our customers better, we need to ensure we are selecting top talent into the organization.  This assessment is essential in helping us identify the individuals who will perform successfully and provide exceptional customer service.  It also provides candidates with an engaging and informative assessment experience that educates them on critical aspects of our roles and culture.  The Universal Fit Pre-hire Assessment ultimately allows us to improve the candidate experience, increase new hire retention and improve on-the-job performance.

PROJECT TITLE

Bank of America Universal Fit Pre-Hire Assessment

PROJECT SUMMARY

Bank of America has many call center and operations roles that are similar yet unique because they focus on different products, services and customer segments.  In the past, candidates applied for these different roles across the bank, which required them to complete multiple, similar assessments.  Through assessments, the bank is interested in increasing on-the-job performance and reducing turnover given the criticality of these positions for delivering exceptional customer service. The Universal Fit Pre-Hire Assessment was developed to replace the existing assessments to streamline the assessment process, improve the candidate experience, and increase on-the-job performance and retention.

In partnership with SHAKER, Bank of America created an innovative, custom assessment and realistic job preview (RJP), which was based on a comprehensive job analysis and validated through a criterion-related, concurrent validation approach. Validation involved analyzing assessment and performance data for incumbents from 38 job codes across 11 sublines of business. The modular assessment requires all candidates to take a core set of modules relevant for all roles, which are augmented by job-specific modules including situational judgment scenarios, biodata items, various simulation components and RJPs. The specific modules candidates complete are dependent upon the job family to which they applied and the modules they previously completed.  When candidates apply for multiple jobs that require the Universal Fit Pre-hire Assessment, they do not need to re-take the common modules they have completed already.

This assessment was implemented in 2014 and screened over 42,000 applicants in its first year. The following outcomes have been empirically demonstrated since implementation: reduced candidate assessment time resulting in total time savings of over 4,500 hours; a more engaging and informative candidate experience with the majority of candidates indicating the assessment helped them to better understand the role; increased new hire retention leading to $6.8 million in cost savings; and improved new hire performance.

Video Message from Bank of America: