Discoveries 9-12-25

Putting Employees in charge of their own development 

When I joined Schwan Foods as Personnel Manager in 1975 employees were asking that we add a test to the process of selecting Supervisors.  Our Corporate Personnel Director had identified the APT Test offered by Associated Personnel Technicians of Wichita Ks as a possible selection test.

Schwan Foods was big on employee development. My Training Supervisor conducted weekly classes

On quality and getting along.

The Plant Manager and I would conduct line meetings with all employees in all production departments. My notes from these meetings went to the Maintenance Supervisor.

I suggested that the Personnel Management Staff all take the APT Test, so we could assess it as a group. The Staff included a Training Supervisor, Employee Relations Supervisor, EmpIoyment Supervisor, myself and our Personnel Director. It took 4 hours and the results were incredible. It included timed and untimed reading cognition, some physics, some math and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI. We approved it for Supervisor selection and later used it for moves from Production to Administrative Office Jobs.

I insisted that those who took the MMPI be given copies of their Test Reports by our Training Supervisor who administered the tests. Some test takers contacted our Training Supervisor to see if they could get training to increase their reading speed and comprehension. ATP offered a class on speed reading. APT also had books like Math Made Simple, Physics Made Simple and other Books. APT offered scoring for retest items and print retest reports for these employees. My Training Supervisor would give them copies.

This process of offering re-tests resulted in employees taking responsibility for their own training.  

My Office Supervisor and her staff handled Administration and Payroll. I added a computer to the Plant that connected to the Mainframe in Marshall Minnesota to upload and download the payroll and print paychecks. I also replaced Timecards with Rusco Card Entry and reassigned the Office Staff to work on new systems.

I designed a Performance Appraisal Form that produced a total score. The Office Staff entered attendance data and their Supervisors entered Production ratings. The employees began to take responsibility for their own performance.

When we went to Direct Deposit, we no longer had to print paychecks, but the computer was used to track daily operations and accounting.

Although this all took place with adult manufacturing employees, I am convinced that feedback from testing, focused training and re-testing can result in Students taking responsibility for their own Education. This occurs in Homeschooling and should be adopted by Public Schools.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader