From Football to Franchising: How Charles Wonderlic is Transforming Employee Testing Both On and Off the Field

Today, the hiring process is more complex than it’s ever been before. In an age of LinkedIn Easy Apply and online job applications, businesses of all sizes are receiving an excess of resumes that need to be sorted. That’s where the Wonderlic test has the potential to make a major change across all industries – including franchising.

The Wonderlic test – or Wonscore – was originally created by Charles Wonderlic for growing businesses looking to streamline the hiring process. Designed to provide an easier and faster way to hire better employees, Wonscore assesses candidates in three areas that are proven to predict job performance: cognitive ability, motivation and personality. The NFL is already capitalizing on this tool ahead of the draft by having players complete this assessment. And now, businesses of all sizes have the opportunity to take advantage of Wonscore’s features in order to quickly identify candidates who are most likely to succeed in a specific role.

In an interview with 1851 Publisher Nick Powills, Wonderlic explained that numerous businesses are already tapping into Wonscore when assessing potential employees.

He said, “For about 75 years, Wonderlic has helped businesses of all sizes improve their hiring practices through the use of assessment. And because we’ve been around for so long, our initial approach to assessment was paper-based, so, it would be something that an employer would administer – paper and pencil – and score with an answer key. Well, things have changed. The internet specifically enabled us to eliminate all of the hands-on, burdensome travel components of using assessments. But now, taking it to a next level, it’s not just that these things are administered online, but that all of the work that was historically done by our team of consultants, programmers and trainers is now fully automated and delivered in a self-service bundle.”

No matter the size of a company, being able to hire right the first time has the potential to make a big difference overall. By leveraging an assessment like Wonscore, brands are able to gain a more complete look at a candidate before making a final decision. By going beyond traditional resumes and interviews, employers are armed with more information, ultimately putting them in a better position to succeed.

“The fact of the matter is, whether you are a small, medium or large employer – or an NFL team – what you’re trying to do is understand the whole person as best as you can. And when I say as best as you can, let’s face it – people are super complicated. There’s no magic DNA test that says, ‘This person is going to be a successful quarterback.’ But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. And so, part of trying is to figure out what are the tools that we have at our disposal to vet this person and how can we best leverage those tools. Assessments are just one component,” said Wonderlic.

Wonscore is no stranger to franchising – Wonderlic notes that there are a “tremendous number of franchisors who use our assessment for their hiring purposes.” However, there seems to be a gap when it comes to the number of brands that are using Wonscore in the franchise development process. When brands are following leads and speaking with qualified franchise candidates, this idea of an assessment is being left out. And according to Wonderlic, that’s where opportunity for improvement lies.

He said, “I think what they’re all finding – we’re all finding in our new world economy – is strong or nothing. So, it doesn’t really matter whether you get a footprint somewhere with something. You’re not going to survive unless that something is competitive. And so, I think that short-sighted ‘we’ll take your money, we’ll give you the site and it really doesn’t matter if you have experience’ … running every aspect of a business is something you have to learn. And so, if they’re trying to figure out whether or not somebody can learn how to do that or not, that’s motivation, absolutely – you’ve got to work really hard. Running a business is a very mentally demanding job, and you’re constantly learning new things. And if you’re not, I don’t know how it’s possible you’re going to succeed. It’s not just about having a clean facility and timely service – even if you are a franchise, you need keep in front of everything.”

The potential impact of Wonscore goes far beyond football and franchising. As the hiring process continues to evolve in today’s digital-centric world, the possibility of a universal employee score becomes more likely. The same way that a GPA measures academic performance or a FICO score measures credit, an overarching employee score could set a standard for predicting job performance.

“What we find the biggest challenge with coming up with a similar concept, is that there’s not one score that makes a person good for everything. It has to be interpreted relative to a job – at a minimum – and potentially relative to a job and a company,” Wonderlic said.

And while a lot of steps need to be taken to get from where the overall state of hiring is today to a place where candidate assessments are commonplace, a strong foundation has been established to make that journey.

“We believe the first step to achieving that goal is number one, get the ability to derive those scores at the person and organization level. And then from there that would be much more possible,” said Wonderlic. “So, what we believe also is that that score shouldn’t be based on just one piece of information. It can’t be perfect … what we’re trying to do is assemble the things that can be measured that really matter that measure across multiple jobs and then summarize those in terms of a single job, like FICO. So, I think we’re on that trail. We have what’s necessary to get there.”