The Boeing Company

Need:

With the dramatic increase in launches of commercial communications satellites, Boeing planned to build a new manufacturing facility in Decatur, Alabama, to produce the latest generation of rockets used to propel these satellites into space. Boeing needed to staff this facility, which could employ as many as 2,000 people by the end of 2004.

Solution:

DDI designed and implemented start-up selection processes for the facility's four job families-supervisors/managers, individual contributors (professionals, such as accountants and engineers), assembly workers, and maintenance personnel. DDI developed Targeted Selection® interview guides for the supervisors/managers and individual contributor positions and certified Boeing management in Targeted Selection® interviewing techniques. For the assembly and maintenance positions, DDI designed a four-phase selection process consisting of application screening, testing, assessment, and interviewing phases. This process incorporated DDI-developed screening criteria; AppTRACK®, DDI's tracking and data-management system; a battery of tests and inventories; and a four-hour assessment center phase involving assembly and problem-solving exercises, and a group assembly exercise.

Results:

Through the DDI-developed selection systems, more than 11,000 production and maintenance candidates were screened, more than 7,000 tested, more than 3,000 assessed, and hundreds interviewed. In the end, about 100 team members were hired. Boeing managers reported an 80 to 90 percent hiring success rate at the interview stage, and the percentage of candidates who drop out of the process during the pre-employment training phase is less than five percent.