ATS Testing Changes

To:  All AT&T (Legacy T) Locals

The Company has notified us that they will be changing vendors for test administration.  This change could potentially benefit our members.  The transition will take place in two phases.  The first phase will be done manually, so it is important to understand the process so that none of our members, especially those who are surplus, are harmed.

The current vendor, Promissor, is terminating testing services with AT&T effective February 28, 2007.  The new vendor will be Performance Assessment Network (PAN).  PAN administers tests in CompUSA locations across the country.  Promissor only had eighty locations nationwide, which caused some of our members to travel several hundred miles in order to be tested.  We know CompUSA has hundreds of locations but we are not certain if every location will be a test center.  We have requested this information from AT&T and will share it with you as soon as it is provided.

Phase 1 will begin on March 1, 2007.  During this time period, the ability to call the service center and obtain a real time testing date will be suspended.  When a request is made to the service center to schedule a test, the employee will need to leave a phone number or email address.  Within 24 hours, the employee will receive an email or phone call advising them when and where to take the test.  If you do not have access to phones during work hours and choose to leave your supervisor's telephone number, please let your supervisor know they need to notify you when the call comes in.  If employees are unable to receive email or phone calls, they will receive a copy of their reservation via US Mail to their home address. 

We are very concerned about employees who call to schedule testing during the rest of February.  ATS Guidelines state surplus employees need to be tested within 15 days of their request, and career placement within 30 days.  We have notified the Company that they must find a way to be certain no employee calling to schedule a test during this time period falls through the cracks.  If you are a surplus employee and you have any problem, you need to immediately contact Mary Ann Alt, the ATS/ARS Coordinator, on 202-434-1493.

Phase 2 of the test scheduling process will take place on April 1, 2007.  The ATS Service Center will be able to schedule tests with a real-time response to the employee.  The 24 hour turnaround will no longer be necessary.  Employees will still continue to receive an email or US Mail confirmation of their test reservation.

In addition to the scheduling process, there will also be changes in test administration.  Temporarily all tests, with the exception of CORE-TAB, B-TAB, TQT1, TS-TAB and WPI-SERV, will be administered by paper and pencil.  They expect to migrate these tests to a web based platform within 6 to 9 months.  The Typing (TYP) and Data Entry (DEST) test PAN utilizes has been determined by AT&T HR Research to be equivalent to the tests used today.  Of course Typing and Data Entry will continue to be computer based.

Today, paper qualification reports for tests are provided to the employee upon completion of the test.  As of now we are being told that, at the conclusion of the test, employees will be able to view their qualifications but they will not be provided with a copy when they leave.  Employees will receive their results via email or US Mail.  We have notified AT&T that this is unacceptable and that they need to find a way to provide a hard copy of the test result to the employees prior to their leaving.  We'll share their response as soon as we receive it.

We are awaiting answers from the Company and will keep you updated as we receive more detail.  Until then, anyone experiencing problems with testing should contact Mary Ann Alt, the ATS/ARS Coordinator, on 202-434-1493, so we can resolve the matter as quickly as possible.  As in the past, should anyone experience problems while at the testing location, they should notify the tester immediately and contact their local so Mary Ann can have these situations resolved.

In Unity,

Mary Ann Alt
Lois Grimes
Ruth Marriott

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