A Data-Driven Selection System for a Safety-Critical Workforce
AmeriGas, the largest propane distributor in the United States, operates in a business where hiring quality is not simply an HR priority—it is a safety, service, and operational imperative. Founded in 1959 and now a wholly owned subsidiary of UGI Corporation, AmeriGas serves residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial customers nationwide. Its work includes propane delivery for home heating and cooking, commercial operations, industrial uses, and barbecue cylinder distribution. Because propane is a hazardous substance, AmeriGas places a strong emphasis on safety, rigorous training, reliability, and customer service.
To support that mission, AmeriGas needed a more structured, consistent, and scientifically grounded approach to identify candidates most likely to succeed in key field- and customer-facing roles. The company partnered with Scheig Solutions, an I/O consulting firm specializing in employee selection and development tools, to develop and implement customized assessment systems to help managers identify stronger candidates, improve hiring consistency, reduce turnover, and support a strong safety culture.
The Challenge: Hiring for Safety, Reliability, and Retention
Before engaging Scheig Solutions, AmeriGas was working to reduce turnover in key positions and strengthen its safety programs. The company had recently brought in new safety leadership and was focused on implementing safety protocols across the organization. Hiring mistakes were costly, particularly for propane delivery drivers. These employees handle hazardous materials, complete extensive training, and must perform their work with precision, sound judgment, and attention to detail.
As AmeriGas explained, high turnover disrupted operations because new hires required significant time and training before becoming fully productive. In a propane delivery environment, the stakes are higher than in many industries: employees must be properly trained, detail-oriented, and safety-minded. Repeatedly hiring and training people who did not stay or perform effectively created operational inefficiency and strain.
AmeriGas needed a way to identify people who shared the company’s safety, reliability, and performance mindset. At the same time, hiring managers needed a practical tool to narrow applicant pools and focus their time on candidates most likely to succeed.
The Solution: Custom SelectRight™ Assessments Built Around Top Performers
Scheig Solutions worked with AmeriGas to develop customized SelectRight™ assessments for key roles. Rather than using a generic assessment, Scheig Solutions conducted a job analysis and research to understand the requirements of AmeriGas roles and identify the qualities associated with successful performance. The initial focus was on the delivery representative role, but the program later expanded to customer relations representatives and district managers.
AmeriGas complied with Scheig Solutions’ assessment development and implementation process, which included on-site work, employee interviews, job analysis, assessment development, and manager training. According to AmeriGas, the assessment development process took only a couple of weeks, followed by a structured rollout over a couple of months to accommodate AmeriGas’s unique business demands and seasonal scheduling.
The implementation was designed to ensure consistency across AmeriGas’s 400+ U.S. locations. Managers were trained to use the assessments, interpret results, and apply the tool within the broader hiring process. AmeriGas described the rollout as smooth and well organized, noting that Scheig Solutions “had it all worked out” and handled the training, while AmeriGas supported internal communication and implementation.
Building Manager Confidence Through Training
A critical part of the program’s success was manager education. The SelectRight™ assessment was not designed to identify a single “wrong answer” that disqualified a candidate. Instead, candidates were evaluated using a model that compared their assessment response patterns with those of AmeriGas’s top performers in the role. This gave managers a data-backed way to gauge how closely a candidate aligned with proven high performers.
As new managers joined the organization over time, AmeriGas and Scheig Solutions recognized the need for ongoing training. Together, they developed a learning management system course to help new managers understand the science, credibility, and proper use of the assessment. This helped ensure continued adoption and confidence in the process.
The Results: Better Hiring Focus, Improved Safety and Turnover, and a More Structured Process
AmeriGas reported that when the company first tracked results, turnover decreased and safety metrics improved. Although AmeriGas no longer had the original statistics available at the time of the interview, the company confirmed that the assessment helped address the original goals of improving safety and reducing turnover.
The assessments also made the hiring process more efficient. Managers appreciated having a tool that helped narrow large applicant pools, especially for customer relations representative roles that drew high volumes of applications. By pre-qualifying candidates and reducing the applicant pool to a more manageable group, the assessment saved substantial administrative time and allowed managers to focus on stronger candidates.
The process also helped standardize hiring. Candidates were evaluated against consistent criteria, including their SelectRight™ T-score and their performance relative to top performers in the role. This gave AmeriGas a more structured, data-driven selection process while still allowing managers to consider resumes, interviews, background checks, and other relevant hiring factors.
Long-Term Value: Standards, Protocols, and a Reliable Talent Measure
Over time, the greatest benefit for AmeriGas was the establishment of a scientific, reliable hiring protocol. Scheig Solutions helped AmeriGas define high-performance standards across multiple roles and implement structured talent-selection protocols. According to AmeriGas, the SelectRight™ assessment provided the company with “a scientific and reliable data-driven tool to measure people against our top performers”—a measure the company would not otherwise have had.
The strength of Scheig Solutions’ methodology was later reinforced when AmeriGas developed its core competencies after the assessments were already in use. AmeriGas asked Scheig Solutions to review whether the assessments needed to be updated to reflect the new competencies. Scheig Solutions completed the review and confirmed that the existing assessments remained aligned and appropriate.
A Partnership Built on Responsiveness and Service
Beyond the assessment tools themselves, AmeriGas emphasized Scheig Solutions’ customer service as a key factor in the relationship’s continuation. With hundreds of managers using the system, questions inevitably arose. AmeriGas described Scheig Solutions as attentive, responsive, detailed, and easy to do business with. The Scheig team answered managers’ questions promptly, provided reports upon request, and proactively alerted AmeriGas when a manager appeared to need additional support or training.
For organizations evaluating selection partners, AmeriGas’s experience underscores the importance of both scientific rigor and client support. A strong assessment tool must be valid, job-relevant, and practical—but it must also be implemented so that managers understand, trust, and consistently use it.
Conclusion
For AmeriGas, partnering with Scheig Solutions went beyond an assessment to create a structured, data-driven hiring system aligned with the demands of a safety-critical industry. The SelectRight™ assessments helped AmeriGas identify candidates who more closely matched the qualities of proven high performers, improve the efficiency of applicant screening, support more consistent hiring, and contribute to reductions in turnover and safety incidents.
For HR leaders, talent acquisition professionals, trainers, and executives, the AmeriGas case demonstrates how a well-designed selection system can strengthen workforce quality while supporting broader business outcomes. In roles where safety, reliability, customer service, and retention matter, Scheig Solutions helped AmeriGas make hiring a more disciplined, measurable, and strategically valuable process.
