I have been involved with test writing and development in the public sector since 1992, and CritiCall is one of the best testing tools for public safety dispatching I have ever seen. Not only does it allow for customization to the individual organizational needs, it provides a built-in validation module which is extremely easy for subject matter experts and HR analysts to use and understand. Candidates frequently tell me they have never taken a test which is so closely relates to what they do on the job. After I demonstrated this product to another agency in our valley, they purchased it immediately! I’d recommend this product to any public sector organization that wants a valid and reliable tool for their public dispatching recruitment process.
Jeanne Hudgins
Senior Employment Analyst
City of Henderson (Nevada)
City of Henderson, NV – Customer Story
Harrison County
“We completed a hiring session earlier this month. CritiCall, as has been our practice, played an important part in the selection process. We are very pleased with the program. The quality of hires selected has improved greatly since we incorporated CritiCall into our operations.”
Jim Copenhaver
911 Administrative Coordinator
Harrison County Bureau of Emergency Services, WV
Washington County
Before we started using CritiCall, we successfully trained and retained only 15% of our new hires. In mid-2001, we began to use CritiCall and our retention rate rose to 54%. In 2002, we did even better, retaining 86% of our new-hires. Believe it or not, the next year we had a 100% retention rate! CritiCall was not the only change we made …, but I consider it to be one of the most integral parts.”
Susan Koch
Training Coordinator
Washington County 911, OR
Yolo County
“As an ‘observer’ of the dispatch employees, I can say that the caliber of employees we have hired since implementing CritiCall has significantly improved. We’ve hired about fifteen this year and they are smart, inquisitive, motivated, excited, they learn quickly and appear to have a good work-ethic.
Prior to implementing CritiCall it was common for us to spend an entire day interviewing candidates only to have just one or two with which we were impressed enough to advance them to the background check phase; sometimes we didn’t have even one person at the end of the day! Since using CritiCall, our interview board members are advancing 70% to 80% of the candidates to the background check phase. As you recall, it took me a long time to implement CritiCall implemented, here. The benefits of using CritiCall have been validated and — having pushed for it — I feel a bit validated too!”
Marianne Wolf
Support Services Manager
Yolo County Communications Emergency Service Agency, CA
Rock County
“[CritiCall] has dramatically reduced our turnover rate since we started using it over two years ago. We have not lost anyone to training failure and our turnover is less than half of what it was in prior years.”
Kathy Sukus
Operations Manager
Rock County Communications Center, WI
City of Windsor
“CritiCall is one of those main factors that weeds out people that aren’t suitable for the job. CritiCall saves us time by having applicants take themselves out of the hiring process. They come out of testing saying, ‘I know I can’t do this job, if that (the testing) is what it (the job) is like.’ CritiCall saves us money, because training is extremely expensive and we find out quickly who to train, and who to not. We will use CritiCall for many years to come. CritiCall is one of those tools that we cannot do without.”
Lori Powers
Director E911 Centre
City of Windsor Police Service
Windsor, ON
City of Fairborn
“The candidates we have now are of a much better quality than we have hired in the past so we are completely sold on the software. We believe this software will pay for itself just by the sheer fact that we aren’t putting people through a training process in our Dispatch Center and then finding out that they can’t handle the job or don’t like the job.”
Tonia S. Ward
Administrative Assistant
Fairborn Police Department, OH
City of Wilmington
“The CritiCall testing program is an excellent tool in identifying candidates best suited for communications in our 911 communications center. Since we have implemented CritiCall as a testing mechanism, our turnover has drastically reduced.”
Sheila Martin
HR Administrator
City of Wilmington, DE
Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region
“911 is a support system that very few people think about until they need to dial 911. Our emergency communications center is the first voice of hope that anyone hears when calling for help. It impacts people in an extraordinary time of need. Our challenges and endeavors succeed because of our people involved, and by engaging the best people our organization can accomplish great deeds.
Our best assets are the people who work in our emergency communications center. The utilization of the CritiCall Pre-employment testing software affords our organization the ability to minimize the recruitment process time and ensure that our human resources are optimized so that best fit solutions are incorporated into our recruiting process. The fusion of the key characteristics, skills and traits required in emergency communication specialists is quickly identified with the CritiCall testing package.
Since deploying the CritiCall testing software into our recruitment process our turnover rate has decreased dramatically and operational performance has increased, creating greater employee satisfaction, morale, and optimal customer service to our key stakeholders and the community we serve.
In my 25 years of public safety emergency service I can say, without a doubt, that the development of the CritiCall testing software has been one of the most significant gains in the recruiting process in the arena of public safety.”
Kim Gutwin
Supervisor of Regional Communication EMS Division
Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region
