You’re budgeting to recruit and train employees in 2027. How many of those positions will you end up filling twice?
In physically demanding jobs, you can be weeks into training before you realize a new hire can’t handle the work. Often, the employee is just as surprised by what the job ends up requiring.
Now the team is covering another vacancy, and someone who expected a fresh start is back on the job market.
What are you learning after someone starts the job that you both would have been better off knowing earlier?
Post Offer Employment Testing, or POET, can help answer that question before the first day.
Warehouse employees moving product. Drivers loading and unloading freight. Manufacturing employees who lift, carry, push, and pull.
When those jobs have recurring early turnover or injuries among newer employees, it’s worth looking at how employers evaluate physical ability during hiring.
Becky Wheeler, WorkWell’s Director of Operations for POET, listens for those patterns when she talks with employers. They can signal a gap between hiring someone who wants the job and knowing whether they can meet its physical demands.
POET assesses those abilities after a conditional offer of employment and before work begins. The assessment must reflect the actual physical demands of the job. A route driver gets in and out of a truck throughout the day, while a long-haul driver does different work, yet both may have the same job title. The title alone doesn’t tell the whole story, and the job description needs to capture those differences, something I explored in The Job Is Never as Simple as It Looks.
Dee Daley, WorkWell’s Director of Clinical Practice, recalls a candidate who passed the POET and then turned the job down. Doing the tasks actually changed their mind.
The HR director’s response: “I’d rather know that now than after they’ve been here for a month.”
Both sides learned something useful before day one. The candidate can make a more informed choice, and the employer can keep recruiting before spending money to onboard and train someone who's unlikely to stay.
You'd easily miss that value if you measured success only by how many candidates failed.
The employer wants someone who can do the work and stay. The employee deserves to know what they are signing up for.
Legal exposure is one reason to build a POET program correctly from the ground up. ADA and applicable EEOC requirements must shape the job-specific assessment, how employers administer it, and how they use the results.
Without a formal program, employers may still ask candidates to climb ladders carrying tools, enter crawl spaces, or perform other physical tasks. Informal assessments and individual judgment calls create inconsistent standards and decisions that are hard to support.
A properly developed program addresses job relevance, validation, consistent administration, confidentiality, and reasonable accommodation. WorkWell helps employers establish and manage that process, working with HR and legal counsel as appropriate.
Informal hiring practices can leave those same questions unanswered.
WorkWell coordinates the whole process: job-specific protocols, trained testing providers, scheduling, clinical review, and help resolving questions. Employers hiring across multiple locations get support keeping administration consistent.
That’s why comparing test prices alone misses part of the investment.
The program gives HR, safety, and operations a consistent process for evaluating physical job fit before work begins. WorkWell manages the details, with results delivered automatically to the employer so hiring can move forward.
The return employers are looking for is fewer early departures, fewer first-year injuries, and less money spent filling the same position twice. Customers report reduced turnover and fewer first-year injuries after implementing POET. Results will vary, but these are meaningful outcomes to track alongside the program's cost.
Start with jobs where new employees struggle or leave early. Bring HR, safety, and operations together to understand what’s happening, and whether physical job fit is part of it.
WorkWell can help you determine whether POET is appropriate, what a program would involve, and where to start.
As you plan next year’s hiring, consider what would help you and your next employee better understand the work before the first day.