Performia

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the managing director of a construction company. I am no longer with that employer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Performia?

We had hired employees that weren’t the right fit for our business goals. We then engaged Performia to provide recruitment training to improve hiring.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Performia’s provided guidance, support, and advice for our recruitment process. The team put us on a training program and gave us access to their testing system. Their training started with face-to-face communication, but eventually transitioned to interfacing online.

What is the team composition?

I worked with an account manager.

How did you come to work with Performia?

I received a referral from a consultant that worked with our company. We didn’t consider other HR vendors because Performia’s representative made us comfortable with hiring them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2010. I left the company in 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Performia had a significant impact on our business. They helped us assemble the right team to get the result we wanted. Also, their telephone support was a valuable service.

How did Performia perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve never worked with a company with such good customer service. I had also never worked with a vendor for so long. Performia’s open collaboration was fantastic and well-suited for the long-term partnerships. We communicated via phone and email. I could call their head office in Melbourne directly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team had strong technical skills and provided excellent customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t have any major issues with them, but Performative could have touched base more proactively.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should take advantage of Performia’s training program and interact with the system as much as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former general manager of an Australian franchised fast food company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Performia?

We hired Performia to provide consulting services during our searches for franchisee and store manager candidates.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In their searches, Performia sought to identify candidates that were reliable, that fit in well with our culture, that would be productive, and that would, hopefully, stick with us for the long term. Because it costs so much to hire and train someone, it can be detrimental to hire the wrong person. Performia’s candidate screening services mitigated that likelihood.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with the owner and one account manager for the entirety of our engagement.

How did you come to work with Performia?

A friend of mine recommended them to me.

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from 2003–2010 with the fast food company. I have since continued working with them at my new job, which is at a management consultant company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The franchisees and store managers they helped select perfectly fit our ideals in terms of production, dedication, and additions to the culture. It was evident that the new employees enjoyed their roles and wanted to stay with us.

How did Performia perform from a project management standpoint?

Because of the nature of the service and the ease of the online evaluation tools, it wasn’t necessary that we meet in person, but our communication never suffered. They were quick to respond to every question we had.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their evaluations are never wrong. The only mistake you can make when using Performia is to not accept their recommendations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have been very happy with their services.

Any advice for potential customers?

Trust their process because it works. They’ll find suitable candidates. And If they say a candidate is not recommended, trust their judgment.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m responsible for making sure that HR is doing its job for our $15-million air conditioning installation and construction company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Performia?

Hiring can be frustrating for managers and business owners. In construction—or any other industry—it’s hard to predict how a new staff member will perform. For a small business with 20 staff, one person can either make or break the whole team. As such, we needed a reliable method of vetting potential new employees, so we approached Performia to support our recruitment efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Whereas resume interviews only consider interpersonal interactions, Performia’s screening service provides accurate personality profiles comprised of three parts. The first area shows how an individual behaves when no one’s looking, including their outlook on life, risk factors, whether they focus on problems versus solutions, and whether or not they want others to succeed. The second portion examines modes of execution. It considers how candidates handle responsibility and task completion. The last component shows how they deal with other people.

This system detects people with bad intentions by analyzing their underlying personalities to eliminate any shock factors. Once a candidate is in the system, we know what their personalities are before we hire them. Based on my personality graph, I’m a bit sensitive and respond better to statements like “hey, have a look at this” than “you did that wrong.” We use it every single day.

Along with hiring for existing roles, we’re continually building a database of potential candidates, so we never go without staff. Construction has a high turnover rate. If a job comes up that requires ten plumbers, I have pre-screened options to call or text. It works as both a hiring and management tool.

Performia offers services they perform independently, collaborative ones, and paid training we can conduct on our own. At this point, I’m fully trained. I pay for a license to use their system in-house, which is the most affordable option. For $10,000 per year, we can do as many tests as we want. Paying Performia per recruitment cycle can run up to $3,000–$5,000 each. The training includes an initial two-day workshop, 100 hours of self-paced online training to reiterate that material, and unlimited support. At times, I send them personality graphs I’m unsure of to ask how they would rate it. They help us with anything we need.

What is the team composition? 

Performia assigned someone to take care of us; we can go to her whenever we have questions. My contact person only does high-level general manager hiring. Like us, she is based in Melbourne. I typically message her 6–8 times per month for help, and she always follows through.

How did you come to work with Performia?

I used to be a business consultant in Sydney and found them six years ago through a colleague. I attended some seminars with their owners and eventually partnered with them while at my previous job. I also referred my clients to their service.

Due to the long learning curve, I’ve had to make a conscious decision to keep using them. It was frustrating when we hired someone who turned out differently than we thought. As an HR manager, it was hard to figure out how to screen people out instead of in. Every recruiting center tries to get 100 interviews to hire one of their candidates. Conversely, Performia is very selective. Even though it takes longer, we get long-term, reliable new employees and know their weaknesses ahead of time.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Performia when I began my role here in 2017. Our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Performia offers both personality and production profiling. They assess our entire history of recruitments and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure how well we achieve our targets. Most hiring processes look for the most qualified person, which doesn’t always equate to the most productive one.

Using this perspective, we’ve found new employees with great track records at our company even when they technically weren’t qualified. We’ve hired people fresh out of university for $30,000–$50,000 less than someone more experienced, and they’ve produced the same and even better work than the more expensive person might have. We’ve found 20 resources like this. One project manager I hired for $25,000 would probably have cost $100,000. This is an immediate value I can point to, considering how much money the company used to spend hiring staff members without a predictable outcome.

How did Performia perform from a project management standpoint?

Performia always answers my questions. Their response times are always fast. I usually hear back within five hours. They check in often to see if we’re doing okay. Since we talk all the time, this isn’t even required. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Performia’s services are excellent. We never have to wonder how long something will take. Their quick answers keep the hiring cycles moving. They can gain impressive insights about people based on their graphs. If I ask them questions about someone’s personality profile, they can tell we should have them focus on the end result before starting something new.  They’re really good at day-to-day asset management.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Performia is excellent from a delivery point of view, but their outdated branding doesn’t reflect that. It has a 90’s look and feel with low-quality fonts, photos, and colors. This is their only significant fault, but it can be uncomfortable when referring them to others. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should review financial data about the direct cost of hiring, fees from recruiting firms, and wages paid to poorly performing employees. Compare this to the money you could make with a productive staff member. If you hire a salesperson to sell $100,000 items per month and they’re only selling $17,000, I would count the difference as a loss. For perspective, consider the time and money spent screening 100 poorly performing staff.

Secondly, answering every question about “why” would maximize Performia’s utility. I’m trained in their system and understand it really well, but seeing constant employee rejections would be discouraging without knowing why. Have Performia teach you how their system works, so it makes sense.