Things were getting ugly in the cosmetic departments at Bon‐Ton Department stores and something had to be done, fast. Beauty Advisors (also called cosmetic associates) in their 277 stores were leaving the company at much higher rates than salespeople in other parts of the stores during their first few months on the job. It didn’t make sense. Beauty advisors received more training and had higher income potential than most other selling associates in the Bon‐Ton chain, yet turnover was much higher than all other selling positions in the store. Bon‐Ton already had an assessment in place that was supposed to determine if an applicant was a good fit, but it clearly wasn’t working for the Beauty Advisor position.

Bon‐Ton HR started asking some tough questions about what it takes to be successful in a beauty sales position. Since cosmetic sales require getting up close and personal with wwcustomers, much more so than other sales positions, they wondered if a Beauty Advisor needed to have different personality traits than someone selling clothing or bedding. Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that demand for sales workers would grow at a faster rate than other professions, Bon‐Ton couldn’t afford to be constantly replacing sales workers, especially since they receive 30 hours of training in their first 60 days of employment. It was both time consuming and expensive.

Consultants interviewed hundreds of high‐performing Beauty Advisors and managers at Bon‐Ton to try and determine the traits essential for job success. The results were surprising. Prior to the survey, managers assumed that friendly, customer‐service oriented people who loved fashion and beauty were good candidates. Those factors were important, but cognitive and problem‐solving ability were critical. Successful Beauty Advisors, they found, are intelligent problem solvers as much as they are sales people, as they help customers with very personal skincare, makeup, and fragrance needs.

As a result, ten questions were developed for store managers to ask when interviewing applicants. A new assessment was also developed and validated for adverse impact and other discriminatory factors. All applicants for Beauty Advisor associate positions are now required to take the 80‐question assessment test— it takes around 20 minutes to complete—and the results have been encouraging. Beauty Advisors now remain with Bon‐Ton stores 12 percent longer than they did before the assessment test was implemented and turnover is the lowest of any sales group in the store. New associates also achieve 2.1 percent more total sales per hour than associates hired before the assessment was developed.

Questions:

1. What attributes should be included in the Bon‐Ton assessment? Explain how you would structure an interview to determine if a candidate possesses those attributes.

2. Explain whether impression management and interviewer bias would be more of a concern when hiring beauty advisors than when hiring for other sales positions. 

3. What type of validity is indicated by the findings that Beauty Advisors now remain in their jobs 12 percent longer and sell 2.1 percent more than candidates hired before the new assessment? Explain your choice.

4. Research: Are Bon‐Ton and other retailers making efforts to recruit and hire candidates with that cognitive and problem‐solving ability? Search videos, realistic job previews, job postings, and articles for evidence and summarize your findings. Include your sources in your answer.