Case Studies Criteria Helps Armorous Improve Quality of Hire for Security Officers

The Challenge

Armorous is a security agency that staffs security officers across a wide range of contracts. From weddings and funerals to retailers and food manufacturers, Armorous’ security professionals are responsible for ensuring the security, safety, and comfort of their clients. For Shannon Benjamin, Director of HR and Recruiting at Armorous, this means that finding high-quality job candidates is critical for not only meeting, but exceeding, their customers’ expectations.

Because of the high-volume nature of staffing, Armorous was looking for a way to make the hiring process more efficient and effective at identifying qualified candidates, with the goal to raise quality of hire across the business.   

The Solution

Armorous partnered with Criteria to assess candidates who were applying for security officer roles. The company opted to use three assessments: the Criteria Attention Skills Test (CAST), the Employee Personality Profile (EPP), and the Workplace Productivity Profile (WPP). The CAST is a cognitive assessment that measures a person’s concentration and ability to sustain focus while avoiding distractions. The EPP is a general personality assessment that evaluates how well a candidate’s personality traits align with the demands of a particular role. The WPP is a risk assessment that measures the likelihood that someone will be conscientious, reliable, and productive at work.

Within the hiring process, Armorous incorporated the assessments prior to the in-person interview stage. First, a candidate would submit a simple application to the role. Next, Armorous would conduct a brief phone screen. Following the phone screen, Armorous sends the candidate a link to fill out the internal application along with the three assessments to take prior to the in-person interview. At the end of the process, the final offer would be extended.

The Results

Better Quality of Hire

After using Criteria’s assessments for several months, Armorous noticed a marked improvement in employee performance. After establishing benchmarks for each assessment and getting used to factoring the results into each hiring decision, Shannon Benjamin felt that Armorous was able to “become a lot more picky, and it’s really increased the quality of people that we’re hiring. There’s a huge difference from the time I started here until now.”

Shannon ran her own internal study and found that there was a strong correlation between employee performance and the test scores as well. Employees who met the benchmarks were significantly more likely to have high performance ratings, and they were also significantly less likely to be terminated.

Reduced Turnover

Criteria helped Armorous identify candidates who were more likely to succeed on the job, helping the company reduce the high turnover that is common in staffing. According to Shannon, “anytime you’re dealing in the staffing world, you’re going to have turnover, so I do see it impacted in a positive way.” According to one report from the American Staffing Association, turnover in the staffing industry averages around 350% per year. According to Shannon’s most recent annual calculation, Armorous’ turnover was standing at a remarkable 22%.

Assessments Became Central to the Process

In Shannon Benjamin’s 20 years of experience in staffing and recruiting, she had never fully adopted an established assessment program. After experiencing clear results with Criteria’s assessments, Shannon now shares that “we don’t hire anybody without test results.” With the additional cost-savings and time-savings gained from reducing turnover and improving performance, the assessments serve as a highly effective tool for helping the Armorous team achieve their business goals.

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