Assessments

Rev Up Your Bottom Line Using Qualified Hiring Assessments

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It’s 2016 and many companies are focused on increasing sales, saving money and improving profitability while finalizing budgets and plans for the year. They will spend a lot of time evaluating equipment and systems to ensure the best ROI. However, they will almost always fail to take the same amount of care when selecting and managing their most important asset—their employees!  As a result, they’ll miss many opportunities to hire the right people, and often lose top talent and customers due to their mistakes, costing them time, money and market share. No matter the size of your company, the biggest mistake is whether or not you are using the right tools to hire the right people.

Cost of Poor Hiring Practices

Many managers know their turnover rate. And, many don’t. Some are proud that it is below industry standard. However, they may not have quantified the financial impact of turnover on their bottom line, or they may be in denial that they can do anything to improve it.

When you take the time required to actually see the real cost of a bad hire, promoting the wrong person or losing a talented employee, you will realize you must objectively assess potential job candidates for job fit, core values and required skills. Using qualified assessments (instead of hiring by gut alone) will significantly lower theft, cost of turnover, workers’ compensation, unemployment and other employment/liability claims when used appropriately.

Why Should You Select Qualified Hiring Assessments?

There are over 3,000 publishers of assessment products in the market. Most assessments do not comply with the Department of Labor’s guidelines for pre-employment use (See: Testing and Assessment: An Employer’s Guide to Good Practices, Department of Labor*). High-quality and qualified tools will have technical manuals (not just a letter from a law firm) to ensure each assessment meets the validity and reliability specifications for pre-employment and selection purposes. Ask for the technical manual and refuse to use an assessment for pre-employment purposes without one. This is one of the key factors in lowing turnover since using a less-than-qualified assessment rarely makes a difference.

Qualified Assessments Are Incredibly Accurate

Not only is using the right assessment of legal importance, using tools that actually have the highest validity and reliability will measure people accurately and objectively—a requirement for predicting future success. People are like icebergs: they only let you see what they want you to see – what you don’t see is more significant than what you do see! The best assessments provide you with the ability to become a laser-like coach while improving your selection process and reducing costs.

Remember, any tool, system or process used during the hiring or promotion process must comply with pre-employment requirements.

When you select the right qualified assessments and use them as directed, they work and will positively rev up your bottom line in 2016 and beyond.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2015-2016

*Contact SeibCo for a copy of the DOL regulations @ http://SeibCo.com/contact

Source: Hire Amazing Employees, Chapter 11, “Assess for Job Fit—Use Qualified Assessments,” http://BizSavvyHire.com

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and facilitator for over 23 years; she guides the creation of new solutions for business challenges and is the author of Hire Amazing Employees (http://BizSavvyHire.com). Check out her website: http://SeibCo.com or contact Jeannette at http://SeibCo.com/contact.

Do you need caffeine to do your job?

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“Your best performance of today must become your normal performance of tomorrow.” James Arthur Ray, author of the book, Life Unleased: A Blueprint for Ultimate Human Performance

 

According to a Gallup poll, over 71 percent of us get up every morning and go to jobs we hate.

Having a job you enjoy, engaging in work responsibilities that keep you awake and excelling in your career is a gift to you, your family and your employer! It reduces the ever-present need for caffeine to stay awake. It also helps you avoid boredom and surpass your norm—which can be very inspiring to you and others!

5 ways to stay off the caffeine

How can you use your current position to build a career that fits you and provides a positive difference in the quality of your life—professionally and personally?

  1. Learn the basics of the job, company and industry. Many of us fail to learn the basics of any job assignment. The key to learning any job is drilling down to the finer points. This requires rolling up your sleeves and not hovering at 30,000 feet. By doing so, you will uncover new opportunities and be able to incorporate technology to make the job easier and create new efficiencies. Don’t forget to inquire about the legal ramifications, P&L, ROI and other business metrics, and other important data required to make better decisions. Learn how to use this information effectively and communicate it appropriately—it will advance your career quickly.
  2. Build on the basics to develop mastery in your work—however beware of jumping from 0 to 100 and skipping all the steps in between. Learning your job is a process, and overestimating your skills and knowledge will create internal chaos and stress for you and others.
  3. Get out of the office and become a business partner. Meet with others during their coffee break. Never eat lunch alone. Set up one-on-one meetings. Interview other employees and management about how to improve the services and quality your department provides to achieve the company’s mission and vision.
  4. Network outside your company and develop a reputation of being the go-to person. Get to know others in your profession and industry, including their challenges and solutions. This will keep you out of “know-it-all” thinking that is often internally bred and can derail future career choices and options.
  5. Join a trade or professional organization—attend meetings and participate in events. Talk with others to expand your thinking and how to address ever-present issues and develop new solutions.

Ensure you’re on the career path that fits you and prepares you for future opportunities

The Pathway PlannerTM, based upon the world’s largest validation and reliability studies, uses the same assessment information that thousands of companies use to hire. (For more information, contact http://SeibCo.com/contact.) This educational and career planning tool helps people discover what career possibilities best suit them at any age (16++). The key, like anything, is taking action and learn about different career paths that may fit. SeibCo provides the how-to in the book It’s Time to Brag! Career Edition, (Time2Brag.com). This book also includes networking and interviewing advice for success.

To get career fit, contact SeibCo today: http://SeibCo.com/contact

To purchase the book, It’s Time to Brag! Career Edition, go to http://Time2Brag.com 

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning and internationally recognized business advisor. For the past 23 years, she has helped thousands of people work smarter, enjoy financial freedom, and realize their dreams now. She has an uncanny ability to help her clients identify roadblocks and help them focus to quickly produce unprecedented results. Each client brings their own unique challenges; Jeannette’s gift is helping each one create their success in their own unique way. Along the way, with her commitment she helped create three millionaires.

Hiring biases cost you money.

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Today, many recruiters are complaining about not finding qualified candidates. Yet candidates with the credentials and required experience never hear back after applying for opportunities. Or, if they are interviewed, they’re told they are overqualified, don’t have a particular skill set, or don’t have the right pedigree (e.g., industry experience, professional titles, salary history, etc.).

Age does matter. Although the EEO and other agencies frown upon age discrimination, we all know it happens all too often. Recruiters are simply following edicts from their bosses to find someone younger and cheaper. They don’t know how to “sell” a qualified candidate to these bosses. Bosses and recruiters don’t believe they have the time to strategically assess what is truly needed and are unwilling to think outside the box to find the gold. Statistically, younger employees are more job-mobile and will leave a position when more qualified ones will not. More-experienced employees have been through the instability every company experiences and have learned to roll up their sleeves and wait it out.

Here’s a newsflash: Amateurs don’t save companies money! A well-qualified professional who fits the job, regardless of age, can normally do it faster, more thoroughly, and with better quality than someone without experience. The failure by hiring managers to objectively assess for job fit by using qualified assessments can hinder your company’s ability to select the right employees. The truth is poor job fit will create short-term employees or employees who simply do enough to get by and keep their paychecks but no more. It’s a costly status quo with a limited return on investment, because it keeps your company focus in a reactive mode, not on proactive growth.

Filter and invest. Infuse objective data into the process upfront, before the interview, because quality information will make for better decisions. Interviews are inherently biased and can filter out well-qualified candidates because of bias factors (e.g., age, weight, tattoos, gray hair, bald, etc.). Example: If you’re looking for a trainer and have candidates who have done training, talk with them. Use a qualified assessment to determine if they have an interest in presenting the subject matter required. What training and skill development will they need over time? Will they be comfortable in small or large groups? Can they write training content or do they rely on off-the-shelf programs? What will be the best return on investment for the company in the long run? What other skills are currently missing in the company that they can provide?

Remember, using qualified assessments can make a huge difference in vetting the right people, regardless of experience. Hiring qualified people, regardless of age and other biases, and investing in them builds a stronger company faster.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Emotional hiring can be dangerous!

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Many executives are good decision-makers or they wouldn’t have the title. However, many are so busy that they fail to listen during interviews unless the candidate says the right things. Then their impulsiveness and impatience kicks in and they hire people that “feel like the right ones”! Hiring based on intuitive powers may sound great, but in reality it is an excuse for not using a strategic hiring system.  

Anytime you hire someone who doesn’t fit all the necessary job requirements but has the likeability factor, you’re doomed for failure. Frequent job-seekers—people with backgrounds to hide and manipulative types—have honed their interview skills well! They know what to say and how to sell themselves to get a job. They know how to be likeable.

Infuse objectivity early in the hiring process. (http://wp.me/p2POui-nj ) This will significantly reduce the possibility of interviewing these types of job candidates and falling into the emotional hiring trap. Use a structured interview process, qualified assessments, and due diligence. Call those references! (Learn how to hire the right person. Get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition. It could save your own job!  http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Do you believe you’ve mastered the art of skimming resumes?

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Many HR professionals and recruiters falsely believe they’ve mastered the art of skimming resumes. The sad truth is they miss out on many great candidates. Although job candidates do have a responsibility to learn how to sell themselves (http://TimeToBrag.com), reliance on reviewing hundreds of resumes with our inherent biases and limited analysis skills will not attract the right people to our enterprises. Learn how to infuse objectivity early in your hiring process and you’ll increase your qualified candidate pool while achieving better hiring results. (See: Easily Infuse Objectivity Early In Your Hiring System: http://wp.me/p2POui-nj)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

GPAs are not good success predictors

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Many companies today rely on applicants’ GPAs from high school or college as an objective indicator to predict their success on the job. Unfortunately, knowledge does not mean you know how to use information effectively in a business setting. There are street-smart individuals with lower GPAs who will trump those with book smarts in achieving the intended results. Why? Many street-smart people know how to work with and through others to solicit the 90 percent of information not found in books or on the Internet. Using qualified assessments can objectively help you determine if a person’s thinking style will fit the job you need to have done. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Do you hold your hiring managers accountable?

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Very few companies manage their hiring processes by holding their hiring managers accountable. Instead, they experience high levels of turnover and increased difficulty finding qualified candidates because managers reliance on gut reactions or play the blame game.  Neither will resolve systems or bias issues when new employees fail. What would happen if instead your hiring manager’s compensation was tied to employee turnover and performance? A bad manager would either step aside or improve in order to create an environment for employee success. (http://ow.ly/mL7n0 (Bad Managers eGuide)) They would improve their use of qualified hiring tools to ensure the best objective information is being utilized and reviewed to ensure laser-like coaching for employee success. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Do your employees feel safe?

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With white-collar crime and substance abuse on the rise, the chances of your company hiring co-workers and bosses with different sets of values has greatly increased. Poor hiring practices will cause your employees, clients, and vendors to distrust you and your company. The good news? Poor hiring practices can be changed! Although the results derived from using qualified hiring tools and processes cannot guarantee 100 percent success, objective information will always improve your selection decisions. Remember, as a business owner and/or executive, you have a fiduciary responsibility to protect your employees, customers, proprietary information, tools, and communities. (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Mediocrity Stifles Results

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All business owners and executives wish to succeed in their business. Yet when they hire inexperienced and unseasoned professionals, thinking they are saving money, their bottom line suffers. Why? The employees have not had time to develop the business knowledge and acumen needed to perform at the level required, instead relying on “it’s good enough.” Mediocrity stifles results—you get what you pay for.

When hiring for any position, be clear about the attributes required for the person to succeed, and the required results for the company to prosper. Use a structured interview to ensure the person has the actual hands-on experience by drilling down into his or her responses. Often candidates talk hypothetically, not having had the actual responsibility you are looking for. Use a qualified assessment to ensure they have the thinking style, occupational interests, and capabilities to do the job the way it needs to be done to achieve great results. Don’t be afraid to conduct reference checks to ensure the person can and will actually do the work, not just talk about it. (For further information on how to do it, get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition (BizSavvyHire.com).

Although hiring people light on experience and heavy on job fit can be a good idea, realize it will take an extra investment of time and money before they can produce at the level required. Adjust your expectations appropriately.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Jeannette Seibly has been hiring amazing employees for over 34 years. She delivers straight talk with immediate results to business owners and executives of $1MM to $30MM enterprises, achieving dynamic results. You may contact her at JLSeibly@SeibCo.com to discuss your hiring challenges. Get her newest book, Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition: Improve Your Profits (and Your Work Life)! http://BizSavvyHire.com.  It includes templates for interviews and reference checking.

Moving Top Performers

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Did you know promoting or transferring top performers into the wrong job can be the greatest hidden expense for many companies? Other high-cost risks include relocating employees geographically or offering them the opportunity to become a business partner. What seems like a great opportunity can become one of your greatest challenges.  And yet most companies don’t take the time to incorporate objective information into their decision-making process and are surprised when the outcomes are not win-win. They fail to understand how moving top performers can negatively impact results.  

What happened? Usually the boss was focused on rewarding a top performer or employees threatened to leave if they weren’t given what they wanted.  During pre-move conversations, employees may conceptually understand their new role, but the reality can very different. Many employees rely upon their initial excitement and fail to ask enough good business questions before accepting the new assignment, and therefore don’t know what is required to succeed. After they are on the job, some may not wish to work that hard to develop the new skills required of the position (despite what they tell you), or they may lack the qualifications or “job fit” to achieve the required results.  Believe it or not, some employees find themselves being offered new jobs because they said the right thing to the right person at the right time!

What’s missing? A clear directive and navigational guide on how to do it that works for them. Instead, employees are determined to do things their own way. Then, when things don’t work out, these once stellar performers feel forced to leave rather than return to their old jobs. Their egos prevent them from taking a reduction in status, perks, and compensation, or there are no other options available since the previous position was filled or is no longer needed. So they end up leaving with all the training, proprietary information, and on-the-job knowledge you provided them – many times taking other employees with them!  Some pursue costly litigation. Meanwhile, your clients and remaining employees are concerned about how this impacts them.

As part of the decision-making process, use a qualified assessment to objectively clarify a person’s strengths and weaknesses. Contrary to some opinions, you can’t build a successful career focused on weaknesses. Don’t fall into the trap of believing you can fix and change the person to fit into the new job responsibilities —nobody works that hard. Put together a 180-day plan to keep newly promoted employees focused on critical areas for client interactions, critical goals, people and project management, and self-development while providing training to enhance these skills. Hire them a coach from outside the company— it’s a requirement to develop these superstars faster and more effectively. All of these steps can also prevent these top performers from leaving when inevitable challenges occur and no one knows how to manage them.

©Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Jeannette Seibly delivers straight talk with immediate results to business owners and executives of $1MM to $30MM enterprises, achieving dynamic results. Along the way, she helped create three millionaires. You may contact her at JLSeibly@SeibCo.com to discuss your coaching challenges.