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« Back to the March/April 2005 Explorer newsletter
BEST PRACTICES
Advance Auto Parts: A Case Study
By Mike Littman, Vice President - Brainbench
Advance Auto Parts (Advance), a Fortune 500 company, is the second largest specialty retailer of automotive parts, accessories and maintenance items in the United States. Advance operates more than 2,600 stores in 39 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In addition to serving the “Do-it-yourself” customers, they also serve the professional installer market, which represents approximately 16% of their total sales.
Situation Analysis
In 2002, the COO of Advance, Mike Coppola established the vision that the Advance Parts Specialist be seen as the most knowledgeable auto parts professional in the local community. The Parts Specialist embodies the automotive parts knowledge Advance prides itself for, and is ultimately the face to the customer in that respect. Advance already had the most ASE certified professionals in the industry (the ASE is the foremost certification for Parts Specialists in the automotive industry). Coppola wanted to raise the bar.
Coppola’s vision ties right into the bottom line – the more often the customer is in the store, the more often they will make purchases. Put the right people behind the counter and the customer will come back again and again. Advance needed to identify, develop and retain the “right people”.
Doug Bryant, Advance’s Vice President Organizational Development and Training of Advance, was tasked with making Coppola’s vision a reality. “We equate our Parts Specialists to your local pharmacist,” says Bryant, “looking to them for advice, and developing a one-to-one relationship with them”.
Bryant used the following three-pronged approach to build the desired high performance organization:
- Conduct a talent re-calibration
- Implement training to more quickly fill the knowledge gap of Team Members
- Implement measures to ensure better qualified candidates are selected as part of the hiring process
From 2002-2003, Advance conducted the talent re-calibration, whereby low potential, low performance Team Members that had been with the company for a long time, were moved to different job categories where they could be more effective. This activity led to Advance getting closer to becoming the high performance organization they planned to become.
Training was also incorporated during this timeframe. Training is offered to all Parts Specialists, but Bryant knew it could only correct so much. “We quickly realized the challenges of improving the current workforce,” says Bryant. “First, there are technical challenges in logistically deploying e-learning opportunities to over 2,600 stores. Second, training itself only produces a limited improvement in the overall performance of the organization, as compared to simply hiring better talent the first time around. Ensuring the selection of high performance, high potential Parts Specialists would much more dramatically raise the bar for the organization.”
In October 2003, Advance introduced a job-specific skills assessment as part of the hiring process for Parts Specialists. Advance worked with Brainbench to develop and deliver a test that specifically measured the parts knowledge of the job candidates. Applicants are screened on-site at the Advance retail stores, accessing the test via the Internet. Over 3,500 tests have been administered since the system was put in place. Bryant expected that an improved selection process would have the most dramatic impact on the performance of the organization in the long term.
Results
Getting started was not easy. According to Tonya Baker, Manager of Organizational Development and Talent Management group, “Initially, across the board, managers were creating pushback on the testing – they felt it would delay the hiring process, and they might lose otherwise good candidates. The tide began to turn, however, when the managers saw that those who had been tested were a better fit for the job. Now we hear, ‘I won’t hire a Parts Specialist until I see their score.’”
In order to determine the effectiveness of the program, Advance compared the test scores of the Parts Specialists who were hired since Jan. 1, 2004 against the entire universe of Advance Parts Specialists test scores. This information included performance evaluation scores, ASE certification status, and employment status (active vs. terminated). What Bryant hoped to establish, was that if managers adhered to using the assessment as part of the hiring process, they would have more productive and longer tenured Team Members.
The results were dramatic.
- Performance Evaluations
- Advance saw a 50% increase in the number of Parts Specialists who received a performance evaluation of “Greatly Exceeds Performance Measures” for those who went through the testing process.
- Those who received a score reflecting “Greatly Exceeds Performance Measures” had an average score in the top 33% of all scores; those receiving an evaluation of “Does Not Meet Performance Measures” had scored on average below 50% of their counterparts.
- Employment
- Those who remain employed by Advance scored on average in the top 40% of all test-takers; those who have since been terminated scored on average in the bottom 50%.
- ASE Certification
- 32% of all employees who were tested in 2004 as part of the selection process have received the ASE certification, compared to 25% of those who had not been tested.
- ASE-certified Parts Specialists scored on average in the top 39% of all test-takers, VS 47% for those who are not yet ASE-certified.
Advance has been able to realize the value of introducing assessments into the hiring process – hiring candidates with higher scores led to Team Members more likely to exceed manager expectations, stay with the company longer, and more likely to achieve ASE certification. All of these factors support Coppola’s vision of creating the industry’s most knowledgeable workforce, leading to greater customer satisfaction, and ultimately positively impacting the bottom line. “We saw a direct correlation between test scores and our key metrics. We rely heavily on factual data and assessment,” says Bryant.
Assessment as part of the hiring process is mandated across all regions within Advance. The regions have embraced the tests and have managers who support the findings above. “The test adds a valuable piece of information to consider in the hiring decision. It can make the job much easier. In one case, it validated a team member’s knowledge to others who questioned their skill level. The team member was promoted and is currently doing very well,” said Doug Price, Store Manager.
What’s next? Advance continues to collect information documenting the positive impact assessments have had in creating a higher performance organization. Studies documenting impact on sales, turnover, and overall impact on revenue, will be released later this year. Furthermore, Advance is even considering augmenting their skills tests with assessments measuring personality and ability traits.
Bottom line – assessment as part of the hiring process is helping Advance achieve their objective of creating a higher performance organization. According to Bryant, “In order for Advance Auto Parts to build a high-performance workforce we had to focus on the selection of high-performance Team Members. This focus has contributed to Advance Auto Parts being named by Forbes Magazine as the #1 Retailer in America!”