This week, a group of 22 managers from Kemin International Inc. offices throughout the world will be holed up at Perry’s historic Hotel Pattee for five days of intensive training in how to better recruit and manage top talent.

“It’s a ‘hostage crisis,’ but it’s a nice place to be held hostage,” said Rowena Crosbie, president of West Des Moines-based Tero International Inc., which is coordinating the training.

Through the company’s Kemin University, a program Kemin began two years ago, managers are learning a technique called behavior-based interviewing, which officials say has already dramatically reduced companywide turnover rates. So far, Kemin has put more than 80 managers through the training, using classes that intentionally mix employees from different continents and management levels.

“We can now say we’re selecting people much better, based on our training,” said Marc Scantlin, Kemin’s worldwide human resources manager. The company’s overall turnover rate has dropped to less than 17 percent, down from 22 percent two years ago, he said. In its Asian offices, the company reduced its turnover from about 50 percent to 18 percent. Kemin’s goal is to reach 12 percent companywide, Scantlin said.

“When you have all these cultures coming together, the one thing we have to come back to is our core values,” he said. “I would say 80 percent of it is assessing whether they will be able to acclimate into our culture, and our core values define our culture.”

If employees are a good fit for their jobs and know what’s expected of them, they’re more likely to stay, said Crosbie.

“And it’s amazing how often one or both of those aren’t in place,” she said. “We know that if we do a behavioral-based interview, we know we’re going to get a lot closer to that first criterion, making sure we have a good fit.”

Considering the compatibility of the employee with the corporate culture is becoming increasingly important to companies, Crosbie said.

“They’re realizing you can have a highly skilled person, but if they don’t fit your corporate culture, they’re not going to be as highly successful as they could be.”

To practice the interviewing techniques, Kemin managers will conduct interviews for mock positions with eight Iowa State University students, recruited through ISU’s Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship.

“We like to simulate a real-life business setting,” Crosbie said, “and to do that, we need real interview candidates. The managers get to practice with real-life people, and for the students, it turns out to be a great development opportunity … They get to impress a worldwide science company and practice their interviewing skills.” Each student is paid $50 for the half-day commitment.

Though neither Scantlin nor Crosbie know of any students who were subsequently hired by Kemin, “I know that in some cases the Kemin managers were impressed enough that they decided to follow up,” Crosbie said.

Behavioral-based interviewing is based on the premise that in many cases, past behavior predicts future behavior, Crosbie said.

“So if the competency I’m trying to hire on is how well-organized they are, I can ask how well-organized they’ve been in the past, and be completely free from asking questions that would be improper,” she said. “If you end up getting sued, then you can tell the judge, ‘I didn’t hire the person because of the following reasons,’ rather than saying, ‘I didn’t like the looks of him.’”