Case Study

The Company

Founded in 1965, Remedy Intelligent Staffing has offices nationwide and is part of the independently-owned Select Family of Staffing Companies, a top 10 industry leader.

The Challenge

Remedy Intelligent Staffing's workers compensation-related expenses were becoming a "huge" drag on the company's overall fiscal health in 2002 and 2003, according to Diana J. Rich, Remedy's director of risk management at the time at its Orange County, Calif. headquarters.

Remedy's OSHA incidence rate for workers compensation hovered between 11.39 and 12.56 per 100 FTEs during the fiscal years 2002-2005 throughout its 60 corporate branches in California, according to Rich.

"Workers comp. took on a very high profile in the organization," Rich said.

Rich added that Remedy's existing background-check process was inefficient and often monopolized certain staffers’ time. Remedy staffers would check two references for each applicant and verify any gaps in employment that extended beyond six months. Remedy staffers generally made 10 phone calls per applicant to check references.

The pre-employment compliance process effectively undermined Remedy’s sales efforts, Rich said.

“The old-fashioned way was keeping us from filling orders quickly,” Rich said. “When you need a temp, you need them right then.”

The Solution

Remedy's CEO retained the services of Houston-based Risk Control Services (RCS) for risk-management counsel in 2004 to address its challenge, Rich said. RCS recommended that Remedy use Insight Worldwide's integrity-test products to reduce its workers compensation costs and re-tool its screening process.

Remedy implemented a pilot program in March of 2005 whereby it introduced its team members to Insight's pre-employment integrity tests and overall approach to screening applicants, according to Rich.

The pre-employment tests -- developed with the help of Insight’s industry advisory committee -- adhere to state and federal employment regulations. The tests were typically administered on PDAs loaded with the surveys and supplied by Insight. Remedy and Insight flagged applicants whose answers revealed a history of counterproductive work behaviors -- or cautions -- in five categories: violence, illegal drug use, workers comp. fraud, theft and dependability.

Remedy then rolled out the Insight program to about 60 corporate branches in California, Rich said. Ultimately, Remedy introduced the Insight program to about 85 corporate locations and franchisees nationwide.

"We saw an immediate drop in our accident frequency," Rich said.

Rich added that Remedy replaced its traditional procedure for administering background-checks with the new integrity-test program.

The Benefits

Remedy leaned on Insight's integrity-test products, pre-screen expertise and initial reforms in workers-comp. law to drop its OSHA incidence rate for workers compensation in California from a high of 12.56 per 100 FTEs in 2003-2004 to 8.99 per 100 FTEs by 2005-2006, Rich said.

Remedy's integrity-test program helped the staffing company reduce its total incurred claims cost in California by 44 percent by 2005-2006, according to Rich.

The decrease in incurred claims costs was due, in part, to two factors, Rich said. During the launch and roll-out phase of Remedy’s integrity-test program, the average number of hours worked by Remedy’s new hires increased by 30% -- a byproduct of the company’s ability to identify better-quality candidates and decrease turnover. The candidates’ longer tenures and, in turn, increased on-the-job experience also helped to reduce Remedy’s number of workers comp. claims and its average claim cost by 22%.

Rich added that Insight's integrity tests and related Web-based tools allowed Remedy’s team members to efficiently perform routine background checks, deliver screened candidates to customers in a timely fashion and close new business.

"What we found out was that the Insight tool was far superior in allowing us to perform checks and fulfill orders," Rich said.

For instance, Remedy used some 25 PDAs loaded with the integrity tests to help its clients conduct high-volume candidate screenings at job fairs.

At its branches, Remedy used the PDAs and Insight’s Web-based software to retrieve applicants’ test results and produce related in-house data on key metrics such as compliance.