Suite Spots: Pinpoint Top Performers Without Bias
When it comes time to right size, reorganize, or expand operations, companies want their best talent where it will have the most impact. Thus, they need a reliable, objective, straightforward way to evaluate employee performance. The process for creating an organization-wide performance snapshot is known as 15dots’ Suite Spots™ – Pinpointing Top Performers Without Bias. For nearly 40 years, corporations have used Suite Spots to assess the job performance for groups of 20-1,000 employees.
Systematic & Objective Assessments
Suite Spots was first used at a Kentucky corrugated medium mill. A new owner was closing the facility but wanted its top employees to work at a sister mill. Using Suite Spots, the mill’s management team ranked 120 employees from top performer to marginal performer. Using a systematic and objective assessment, the company identified 57 top performers to employ at sister mills.
Initial Suite Spots’ work led to other applications that strengthened organizational results, including:
- A Minnesota facility reduced its workforce by 30%, resulting in $1M savings
- A Wisconsin facility selected the top 50% of its employees for a new biomass project
- A Texas facility used Suite Spots to identify performers for lines of progression in a new organization and chose accordingly, resulting in a legal challenge. However, the Suite Spots data led to a decision in favor of the company
- A Washington State facility reduced its workforce by 20%, resulting in $1M savings and an arbitration decided in favor of the company
What kind of performer is this employee?
Instead of “gut instinct” or random selection, Suite Spots’ personnel decisions are based on performance data. The process begins when primary and secondary evaluators use a 9-point scale to rate each employee on seven factors. Performance indicators can be customized to the job and the organization. 15dots has analyzed 30,000 jobs, primarily in the Wood Products Industry, and has a comprehensive list of behavioral and performance indicators.
Suite Spots’ commonly used behaviorally-anchored and performance indicators include:
- Observing/interpreting what is sensed
- Machine and equipment operating
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Coordinating tasks with others
- Physically handling the demands of the job
- “Stick-to-it -ness” when doing repetitive activity
Several techniques are used during the rating process to ensure data reliability. These include the use of two independent raters, a statistically-based data sorting mechanism, and the use of behaviorally-anchored rating scales reviewed in-depth with each rater.
Employee Selection Breakthrough
Suite Spots was developed by Joe “Doc” Nowlin, an industrial psychologist and business professor. Suite Spots is an offshoot of the Nowlin™ Selection Process, known today as the 15dots® Selection Process. 15dots refers to five ability tests and 10 behavior-based interview dimensions critical to employee selection. Nowlin and his team determined that 15dots test scores and interview scores were predictive of success in job performance. As a result, job performance and Suite Spots were validated as an effective assessment to use when restructuring, organizing, and rightsizing.
Above-Average Performers Become the Norm
Is your company putting its best talent where it will make the most impact? Contact Joe Nowlin, Joe@15dots.com or (812)-332-1102 to take a laser-like assessment of how employees are performing. Learn how to pinpoint top job performers without bias with Suite Spots.