Luxury Hotelier - November 2007 - (Page 52)

52| Insight Cornell University Screen for lower costs, better service Integrity tests show potential employees’ true colors and help employers save money ew hoteliers would argue that the best time to learn about your employees is before they start working for you. The idea of careful hiring has been a part of the hotel industry for nearly a century: “Hire only goodnatured people,” E.M. Statler wrote in 1917. As proprietor of one of the early hotel chains in the United States, his idea was that pleasant people would be more likely to render top-notch guest service as much by how they behave as by the work they do. Needless to say, the hotel industry has advanced from Statler’s ancient dictum. GLENN Human resources managWITHIAM ers maintain due diligence on prospective hires at all Glenn Withiam levels. But the problem of is director of publications at the predicting which employees Cornell University will be reliable once they Center for Hospiare hired still remains. Most tality Research in Ithaca, New York. managers rely on interviews, Contact him at but employees can appear grw4@cornell.edu. pleasant in an interview and then bring with them expensive and troublesome problems. Perhaps nowhere is employee reliability more important than in upscale and luxury hotels where the entire staff works together for excellent service. An entire industry has sprung up to help employers screen out job candidates who would bring with them undesirable workplace behavior. The key element in the screening process is in- F tegrity tests, which are the subject of a recent report from the Cornell University Center for Hospitality Research. In the study, “The Truth About Integrity Tests: The Validity and Utility of Integrity Testing for the Hospitality Industry,” authors Michael Sturman and David Sherwyn analyze the experience of a large hotel chain based in the United States. The report is available free of charge at chr.cornell.edu. Sturman and Sherwyn, who are associate professors at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, first looked at the validity of integrity tests. Their question was, what job candidate ever would admit on a test to stealing from the workplace or taking drugs? It turns out that a fairly large percentage of people are willing to admit to such transgressions, for whatever reason. In this case, more than 30 percent of those who took the hotel chain’s integrity test were classified as high risk. (For people who do attempt to misrepresent themselves, the tests also have control questions to catch fakers.) The tests are not 100-percent perfect, but the researchers found that implementing the test saved the hotel chain considerable money in an unexpected area—workers’ compensation claims. By comparing the screened new hires with the unscreened existing employees, Sturman and Sherwyn were able to calculate a value for the screening tests in terms of savings on workers’ compensation claims. While the percentage of claims was small in both groups, the unscreened employees filed claims at twice the rate of the screened employees. Claim size also was different for the two groups. Average claim size for the new hires was about two-thirds the size of claims for the existing employees. The researchers are quick to point out that the hotel chain continued to use all of its other selection mechanisms during this study. No test of this kind can replace managers’ judgment regarding whom to hire. But Sturman and Sherwyn argue that it makes sense to start with a group of job candidates who have been screened for theft, drug use and other potentially dangerous activities. While only a small percentage of people engage in undesirable workplace actions, given the close staff cooperation required to operate a high-quality hotel, the best situation is to have no disruptive employees at all. So far, the hotel industry makes relatively little use of integrity screenings. The tests do represent another expense in the search process, but they also represent another link in the chain of careful hiring. Moreover, this study shows a considerable return on the investment in workers’ compensation savings. In the 1917 note to his managers, Statler summed up the key to excellent service as follows: “Gracious service means more than ‘perfect’ service.” Avoiding employees with hidden bad habits allows a hotel to take a large step in the direction of always offering gracious service. Luxury Hotelier | November 2007 | www.LuxuryHotelier.com http://chr.cornell.edu http://www.LuxuryHotelier.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Hotelier - November 2007

Luxury Hotelier - November 2007 Contents Editor's Letter Publisher's Letter Inform: News and Notes Network: People Personalities: Traditional Innovator Insight: Smith Travel Research / The Bench Insight: Ypartnership Properties: A Front-Row Seat to Moscow Properties: Northern Star Inspire: Outdoor Showers Deliver: Wellness and Fitness Protocols: The Real Deal Insight: Cornell University Innovate: In-Room Technology Development: Global Project Pipeline Indulge: Coffee and Tea Insight: Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne Connect: Regional Marketing Update: IH/M&RS Luxury Product Collection Dossier: Davide Bertilaccio of The Rocco Forte Collection’s Le Richemond

Luxury Hotelier - November 2007

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