PREDICTING INSURANCE AGENT TURNOVER USING A VIDEO-BASED SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT TEST

High turnover of newly contracted insurance agents is a widespread pro blem faced by many insurance companies. The objective of the present s tudy was to examine the usefulness of a video-based selection test in the prediction of turnover for insurance agents. Newly contracted insu rance agents (N = 677) responded to items presented on a video-based s ituational judgment test. Each item presented a videotaped situation s howing an agent interacting with client. Following the situation, the agents responded to a multiple-choice question indicating how they wou ld handle the situation. Turnover information was gathered on the agen ts one year after contract. Using an empirical scoring method, data an alyses indicated a significant relationship between test scores and th e turnover criterion.