SPSS - Customers

Helvetia

Situation

Helvetia is one of Switzerland's five largest general insurance companies with annual premiums of 5.3 billion Swiss francs.

With 4,600 employees and more than two million customers, the company provides comprehensive insurance and financial services for private individuals and corporate clients.

Challenge

Personalized selling is an important element of the sales process in the insurance sector. Having the right people on your staff can make the difference between closing a sale or losing a lead.

Recognizing the importance of staff personalities and capabilities, Helvetia decided to develop an online tool to support the pre-selection of employees as part of the recruitment process. The goal was to improve hiring accuracy by setting clear criteria for potential candidates and eliminating arbitrary decision-making.

The company opted to work in collaboration with a close partner on the recruitment front, Dr. Peter Holderegger, an organizational psychologist heading up the Focus Select GmbH consultancy, and the Assessment Centre Online (AC-Online) project was born.

Solution

Having a view of the characteristics of existing employees was a critical element of the project and in order to get an idea of the personalities already on staff, Helvetia undertook a detailed online survey of its sales force.

Helvetia selected some 800 psychologically-oriented questions to survey the current sales force. The questions and answers best corresponded to the profile of a successful customer consultant. As part of this process SPSS Inc. was chosen to create and host the initial questionnaire for the sales team and provide the resulting data and predictive analysis.

Drawing on the initial survey results from existing staff, Dr. Holderegger created a definitive questionnaire with 100 key questions relating to the personality, professional experience, and attitude of job candidates. All potential sales team recruits are now required to fill out the survey online, before the recruitment process can be taken further.

The resulting responses are analyzed to predict, with a high degree of probability, whether the way in which the applicant answered the questions matched the answering behaviour of employees who had already proven to be successful. If the applicant's profile is similar, the personnel representative can then make a recommendation to take the recruitment process further and invite the candidate for a more in-depth face-to-face interview.

This enterprise-wide tool was created by working closely with SPSS Inc. and using its survey solution to develop and host the questionnaire. The results are then analyzed using SPSS Inc.'s data mining software.

With AC-Online all stages are implemented nationwide on the Web via browser access with no need for local installation. A great deal of value is placed on data protection and the security of the operational processes.

Interested in Helvetia? Download the PDF

Results

For Helvetia, AC-Online has helped to cut costs and save money in the recruitment process. Only once candidates have passed through the pre-screening process does the more in-depth and time-consuming recruitment process start. This means area, regional, and personnel managers do not spend as much time interviewing and reviewing applications from unsuitable candidates.

In addition, the recruitment process has become more efficiently run and is standardized across the company. The employee turnover rate has dropped, as the selection process has helped to improve the sales force. There also have been benefits to the company at a commercial level. With lower staff churn, customer loyalty has improved as employees stay with the company longer and are able to develop closer relationships with their clients. This has created more cross- and up-sell opportunities--and increased revenues.

An evaluation showed that the new employees who passed AC-Online with positive results are working successfully within the company.

Helvetia is so satisfied with this unique procedure for targeted personnel recruitment that a similar AC-Online system for the Austrian subsidiary was recently introduced.

Dr. Holderegger summed up the project's success: "SPSS Inc. demonstrated a willingness to consider things from the customer perspective and was extremely reliable in respecting its engagements. Throughout the project SPSS Inc. was always on the ball, showed a great sense of service, communicated transparently, and looked to find solutions quickly."