Case Study: Texas-Based Market Research Firm achieves 63% higher employee productivity with Criteria Corp's CBST

Market Research Firm Uses Criteria to Predict Employee Productivity

A Texas-based market research and call center firm was spending excessive time and money hiring and training research associates who often left within six months. The firm’s selection process failed to identify candidates with the basic literacy and math skills needed for the role, resulting in lower-than-expected productivity.

The company administered Criteria’s Basic Skills Test (CBST), a 20-minute, 40-item assessment, and conducted a validation study comparing scores to manager productivity ratings. Employees who passed the CBST (raw score ≥28) averaged a productivity rating of 9.8 versus 6.0 for those who failed — a 63% productivity improvement — and 89% of passers earned “fair” or better performance compared with 50% of failers; the test–performance validity coefficient was 0.26.