Chaired by the CEO of e-Selex.com, Dr. Terry W. Mitchell, the session presented the experiences of e-Selex.com’s retail, financial, and consumer products industry customers in using biodata to accomplish organizational objectives.

• From the retail industry, Dr. Dennis L. Warmke presented data showing an annual gain of $200 million in gross sales and $4 million in sales profit from the use of biodata to select sales associates at Circuit City Stores. Amazingly, this increase in sales profit was accomplished with zero adverse impact on racial and ethnic minority groups.

• Also from the retail industry, Dr. Terrence Guth reported a nearly 50% decrease in turnover resulting from the use of biodata for both sales associates and store managers across over 4,000 Payless ShoeSource stores. The total dollar value of this decrease in turnover for both positions was conservatively estimated as saving $6 million annually in replacement costs alone.

• From the financial industry, Dr. L. Alan Witt of NationsBank reported criterion-related cross-validity that was substantially higher for biodata predictor scales than for cognitive or personality tests in predicting job performance factors for telebanking associates. Additionally, in separate studies of computer programmers and loan officers, Dr. Witt and Mr. William L. Farmer of the University of Oklahoma found biodata to be judged by job incumbents as more fair and effective than standardized general mental ability tests used as part of the selection process.