Savannah Luggage Works: How we use Wonderlic to find critical thinkers

“Wonderlic tests are an accurate measure of how a person will perform. If you aren’t using psychological testing for hiring, you don’t know who you are going to get.”

Looking for custom, cut-and-sewn finished luggage? Savannah Luggage Works in Vidalia, Georgia, is your place. On top of hand-crafted baggage, the organization creates components and assemblies for many OEM, military, and industrial applications including travel, footwear, flooring, sports and military. Their campus features 150,000 square feet of fabricating facilities, state-of-the-art CAD/CAM cutting, sewing, and fabricating equipment.

Wonderlic tests are an accurate measure of how a person will perform.

If you aren’t using psychological testing for hiring, you don’t know who you are going to get.

David Rice, Savannah Luggage Works VP of Operations

The Challenge

Working at Savannah Luggage Works requires a very specific set of skills- kind of like John Wick, but they’re not looking for assassins. Really, David Rice, Vice President of Operations, just needs smart, qualified employees who can handle the rigorous demands of the job. To get right down to it, Rice needs workers who are capable of critical thinking.

“As a manufacturer, we encounter a number of problems that need to be solved every day. You need strong analytical skills for that.”

The Solution

For more than eight years, David Rice has relied on Wonderlic pre-employment testing to help him hire the best people for his manufacturing environment. “Wonderlic tests tell you a great deal about people that you wouldn’t otherwise know,” he explains.

Candidates are assessed based on their ability to learn a specific job, solve problems, understand instructions, and apply knowledge to situations. Rice is also able to assess his applicants’ character in terms of job-related strengths and weaknesses. He looks at emotional intensity, intuition, sensitivity, assertiveness, and recognition motivation- all traits that lead to analytic workers.

Once the scores are in, Rice can tailor his interview questions around how the candidates did. He’s hired some people who scored low in various categories, and he uses that knowledge to shape the way he works with them.

The Results

While Rice has never measured the impact testing has had on turnover, he believes the Wonderlic tests have a significant impact on his ability to hire the right people. Thanks to the Wonderlic assessments, Rice has created an efficient team of analytic thinkers, able to get the job done.

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