Greggs is the UK’s leading bakery retailer. With over 1,000 shops nationwide, a Greggs branch is never far away, serving approximately 4 million customers each week through its shops. The people at Greggs passionately believe in product freshness, quality and outstanding value for money. Greggs had been using PreVisor’s, formerly ASE, General Ability Tests (Verbal and Numerical) as part of their recruitment process for many years. After an internal review of their use of psychometrics for selection and development, a decision was made to collect data for internal ‘norms’ and to undertake a predictive validity study to look at how the tests performed in identifying individuals who would go on to perform in their job roles. At the same time, the test was being republished as an updated version - General Ability Tests 2 (GAT2).

To undertake a concurrent predictive validation study with Area and Production Managers. In addition, to assure existing employees of the confidentiality of the process, an external organisation was required to process the psychometric results and undertake the data analysis.

The assessments sessions were delivered at a variety of sites. The occupational psychologists from PreVisor administered GAT2 Numerical and Verbal tests to a large sample of employees and entered their scores into a database of age, gender and job grade. Consultants from PreVisor provided confidential written feedback to each employee explaining the nature of the assessments and their own results. For those candidates unable to attend a face-to-face feedback session, PreVisor provided further confidential telephone feedback where requested. They also designed a rating form for job performance data to be completed by line managers. Once the client gained line manager rating it passed the form back to PreVisor for entry into the database. PreVisor’s Research Consultant developed local ‘norms’ and undertook a performance validation study.

The study showed there to be a significant relationship between performance on both assessments and performance on the job. The food retailer is now continuing to collect the relevant on-going test data to add to their local normative group. Greggs has fully integrated the General Ability Tests 2 into their recruitment processes and are committed to working with PreVisor in the future.