The Write Stuff

This may be the age of the electronic keyboard and the video display terminal, but more and more U.S. companies are turning to old-fashioned penmanship as a tool to help screen would-be employees. "Handwriting analysis delves deeper into the things you cannot uncover in a live interview," says Phil Wizer, the Omaha-based owner of several Thrifty rent-a-car franchises.

While graphology has long been used by European firms to evaluate potential employees, it has only recently caught on in the U.S. Handwriting Analyst Sheila Kurtz, who started her own New York-based consulting firm in 1973, now advises an estimated 200 companies. Business has been particularly brisk since the Hitler-diary hoax started a new interest in handwriting analysis. But some maintain that graphology is sometimes no more reliable than the Führer's scribblings. Says Theodore Hurst, a partner in the Chicago consulting firm of Worthington, Hurst & Associates: "It's a $10 idea made into a $100 product."

Companies generally require job applicants to provide a one-page writing sample. Experts then examine it for anywhere from three to ten hours. Cost of a handwriting study: $50 to $250. More than 300 personality traits, including enthusiasm, imagination and ambition, are assessed. Among the telltale tidbits scrutinized are the size and slant of the script, how the t's are crossed and whether the m's and n's are round, pointed or wedge-shaped. The letter t crossed high above the stem shows a dreamer, while a t bar appearing halfway down the letter suggests a practical personality.

One company that takes graphology seriously is Crown Office Products in Chicago. The firm once hired an applicant solely on the basis of his handwriting analysis. "I would never have hired this man otherwise. He had inadequate oral skills and an inadequate appearance," says Crown President Edward Arvey. "He turned out to be the best employee we ever had." The man became Crown's general manager.