Employee assessments and performance improvement

A Four Step Process to Easily Reduce Employee Turnover.

2006-08-01T16:30:00.000-04:00

Companies either struggle with employee turnover reduction plans or, worse yet, do absolutely nothing to reduce it. Robert A. Cameron & Associates suggests how to correct this problem in four easy steps that companies can easily implement immediately.

Would you like to reduce employee turnover? Who wouldn’t? Do an internet search of “reduce employee turnover” and you will get lots of technical and complicated advice. Actually reducing turnover is a lot simpler than what many of the articles prescribe. The solution is simple, place the right people in the right job, recognize their performance, reward them occasionally, and treat them with respect. Yes money and benefits are important but study after study proves that they aren’t the most important factors in employee retention.

So why do companies not focus on this issue? There are lots of reasons I hear but frankly they all amount to weak excuses. Take a look at the companies in any industry and you will find a number with high turnover and some with low turnover. The difference is caused by just subtle, but very effective, differences in their hiring and retention strategies. Of course the first step is to have a strategy! Here is a simple four step process to get your employee turnover lower.

First, use a validated and legal pre employment test to screen out people with a poor work ethic and bad attitude that make it through normal hiring processes. They typically take about 20 minutes and they reveal more about that candidate then you will ever get in an interview, job app or background check. Average cost $20. Let someone else hire the riff raff.

Second, use a job fit assessment to match the right people to the right job. A person may interview well, have the right education and background, but doesn’t mean they fit the job. Find out if they have the same profile as your top performers. To do this is very simple with the employee assessment tools available. They are easy to use and understand, and will help you determine if the candidate fits the job. Average time is about 30 minutes with a cost under $100.

Third, do employee evaluations regularly. People need feedback, good or bad. How can we expect change if we don’t communicate? Use a simple online system, so administration is a snap and there are no excuses for not getting them done. Remember, people leave supervisors, not companies. They take about an hour to prepare and about the same to present, with a cost of about $25.

Finally, implement an employee recognition program. Reward employees with gifts on service anniversaries or to recognize significant achievements. People need this recognition and, once again, there are all sorts of online employee recognition programs that are easy to implement. You control the budget but a nice $25 gift says a lot and only takes a few minutes to do. Most importantly, say thank you. It’s free and it goes a long way to making people feel happy and appreciated.

So for a modest investment and very little time, you can reduce employee turnover significantly. That will give you a substantial return, given the high cost of turnover. If you are a company suffering from high turnover, take a look at these four easy steps and get on the road to improvement.

For more information on this critical business issue and the online solutions to handle it, contact Robert A. Cameron & Associates, Weston FL. They work with employers across the country to help them increase the effectiveness of their employee selection, hiring and development, and improve their company’s productivity and profitability. They can be reached at 954-385-8701, racameron@bellsouth.net or visit their website at www.racameron.com

When a test turns into a trial

2006-04-14T11:09:00.000-04:00

hWhen a test turns into a trial
Things to keep in mind about psychological testing
By Larry R. Seegull and Emily J. Caputo
Since the earliest days of testing, it has been the test taker who is nervous, tense or riddled with anxiety. Today, employers who administer tests to employees in the hiring or promotion process may find themselves feeling anxious or nervous. Why? The legal obstacles and risks to employment testing are significant. Most companies are realizing there is great value in using psychological tests as part of the employee selection and promotion process. A 2000 survey by the American Management Association found that 33 percent of employers surveyed used psychological testing with their applicants and employees. Psychological testing in the employment arena is also a booming $400 million industry and expanding annually at a rate of 10 to 15 percent. A case in point can be seen in the use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which is a popular personality test given to approximately 2.5 million people each year and is used by 89 of the companies listed on the Fortune 100.So, why is knowing what is going on inside an employee or applicant's head so important? The answer is actually rather simple: money. Pre-employment testing weeds out poor matches whose personality likely would not mesh with the company culture. When a company's turnover is high, it must spend precious time and money retraining new recruits. When administered properly, psychological testing of employees can offer many financial rewards to a company. An appropriate test can dramatically reduce the time HR personnel use to interview applicants by automatically eliminating a percentage of the applicant pool.Psychological tests are also a vital tool in the employer's arsenal of determining an employee or applicant's honesty and integrity. Integrity tests are written tests that predict whether an employee will engage in theft as well as their general trustworthiness and dependability. Employers have turned to written integrity tests for two reasons. First, former employers are more reluctant to provide detailed references for applicants for fear of being sued for defamation. Second, with the passage of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act in 1988, as well as comparable state laws, employers are substantially limited in resources for determining an individual's integrity.The federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act and most state laws prohibit employers, except under very limited circumstances, from requiring or even requesting an employee or applicant to take a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. Under the federal law, a lie detector test includes everything from an actual polygraph exam to psychological stress evaluators. With these limitations, an employer is left with few options to investigate an applicant or employee's honesty.Enter integrity tests, which have already become commonplace in many companies. These tests are administered by an estimated 6,000 companies in the United States and are taken by as many as 5 million people each year. Employers realize the financial risks they take by not investigating an applicant or employee's honesty. Studies have estimated that employee theft costs companies $15-25 billion a year. In addition, experts suggest that employee theft accounts for up to 30 percent of all business failures.At this point, employers may be thinking that psychological testing of applicants and employees is definitely the way to go. One wishes it were that simple. The truth is that there are serious legal implications in administering psychological tests to employees and prospective employees. It is essential that employers thoroughly examine whether testing is appropriate and whether their testing violates the law — otherwise they test at their own peril. A case decided in 2005 in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Karraker v. Rent-A-Center Inc. , demonstrates one of the risks with psychological testing. The Rent-A-Center case held that administering certain psychological tests to employees violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Specifically, the court found that the employer's use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) as part of its testing process for managers violated the ADA. The MMPI is a widely researched test for adult psychopathology and can measure such traits as depression, hysteria, paranoia and mania. High scores on the MMPI test can be used by medical professionals in the diagnosis of some psychiatric disorders.Congress originally enacted the ADA in response to findings in studies and national polls documenting that individuals with disabilities occupy an inferior status in the United States and are severely disadvantaged socially, vocationally, economically and educationally. Congress intended the ADA to provide a national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities. The ADA is relevant to psychological testing in the employment context because the act includes mental impairments in its definition of "disability." The court in the Rent-A-Center case particularly noted that people with psychiatric disabilities have suffered as a result of stereotypes, resulting in an employment rate that is drastically lower than people without disabilities. Congress enacted three specific provisions limiting the ability of employers from using "medical examinations and inquiries" as a condition of employment. First, an employer cannot use medical examinations as pre-employment tests or before an offer of employment is made. Second, an employer cannot use medical tests that lack job-relatedness. Third, an employer cannot use medical tests that screen out or have the tendency to screen out people with disabilities. Under the ADA, the total prohibition against medical examinations is lifted once a conditional offer of employment is made. At that point, a medical test can be given provided that it is given to all similarly situated persons, the results are kept confidential, and the test is administered in accordance with the ADA.In the Rent-A-Center case, three brothers were applying for manager positions within the company. In order to be considered for a promotion at Rent-A-Center, an employee was required to take an APT Management Trainee-Executive Profile, which consisted of nine tests designed to measure math and language skills as well as personality traits. In testing an applicant's personality traits, Rent-A-Center chose 502 questions from the MMPI. Rent-A-Center scored the nine tests together, and any applicant with more than 12 "weighted deviations" was not considered for promotion. It was, therefore, possible for an applicant to be denied promotion solely because of his responses on the MMPI portion of the test.The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines "medical examination" as "a procedure or test that seeks information about an individual's physical or mental impairments or health." The EEOC lists several factors to consider when determining whether a test should be construed as a medical examination, any of which could be enough to determine that the test is medical. One such factor is whether the test is "designed to reveal an impairment of physical or mental health." The issue that the court had to decide in Rent-A-Center was whether the MMPI was considered a "medical examination" under the ADA. Specifically, the court had to decide if the MMPI was designed to reveal a mental impairment. If such a determination was made, then Rent-A-Center would be liable for damages to the plaintiffs because it violated the ADA, which prohibits the use of medical examinations in a pre-employment context. The court decided to look at this as a pre-employment situation even though the brothers already were employed at Rent-A-Center because the brothers were essentially required to apply for new jobs within the company.The Rent-A-Center decision can be distressing to companies that test applicants and employees because the court considered the MMPI portion of the test to be a "medical examination," which could not be given in a pre-employment situation. The court came to this conclusion even though Rent-A-Center took affirmative steps that had been suggested by the EEOC to ensure that psychological tests used by companies were not classified as medical examinations under the ADA. In particular, the company did not have the MMPI portion of the managerial test administered by a psychologist nor was the test interpreted by a psychologist. In fact, there are two tools for interpreting the MMPI, a vocational measure and a clinical measure. Rent-A-Center specifically used the vocational measure rather than the clinical measure in grading the responses in order to prevent the appearance that it was administering a medical examination.In the end, none of this mattered to the Seventh Circuit. Instead, the court articulated a distinction between psychological tests that are designed to identify mental disorders and impairments and those that measure personality traits like honesty; the former in the court's eye being classified as a medical examination under the ADA. Because the MMPI was designed, at least in part, to reveal mental illness, the Seventh Circuit found that it qualified as a medical examination that could not be administered in a pre-employment context regardless of whether the company took affirmative steps to ensure that it was used vocationally rather than clinically.In contrast, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decided differently when it examined the use of the MMPI in the context of testing police officer applicants. The plaintiff in Miller v. City of Springfield was a female applicant who applied for an officer position with the Springfield Police Department. The department required officer applicants to pass agility and psychological tests.On the MMPI portion of the psychological test, Miller received a score of 66, which indicated above-normal depression. Based on these results, she was denied employment as a police officer. Miller sued the police department claiming she was screened out in violation of the ADA because of her psychological evaluation results. Unlike the Seventh Circuit in Rent-A- Center, the court in Miller found for the employer and determined that the MMPI was an appropriate job-related psychological screening tool that was consistent with a business necessity.The differences between the Rent-A-Center and Miller decisions may simply be explained by the fact that courts may be more willing to accept certain psychological tests for applicants and employees when such tests serve a business necessity or are in the public interest. There is little doubt that a strong argument can be made that it is more necessary to determine the psychological well-being and honesty of an individual applying to be a police officer versus an individual applying to be a department store manager.This business necessity/public interest reasoning is right in line with how federal and state governments regulate employers who wish to polygraph applicants or employees. Generally, such examinations are prohibited; however, police officers and those applying to become police officers are commonly exempt from federal and state polygraph protection statutes.Though the Rent-A-Center and Miller cases only dealt with an employer's liability under the ADA, an employer who administers the wrong psychological test could face further legal action under varying federal and state laws. For instance, an employee could challenge a psychological test under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Title VII prohibits testing designed to, or that has a tendency to, discriminate based on race, gender, religion or national origin. Therefore, to the extent that a psychological test has a disproportionate adverse effect on minorities or women, the employer could face additional litigation under Title VII.In addition, employers could face suits from employees who claim that confidentiality laws were violated in the handling of their test results. Employers have an obligation to maintain confidentiality of the test answers and to avoid providing information that could be deemed confidential without the employee's consent. Certain states also have placed laws on their books prohibiting the psychological testing of employees. For example, Massachusetts has broadened its polygraph-protection law to prohibit employers from using any written examinations, which are used to render a diagnostic opinion regarding an individual's honesty. California and Rhode Island's polygraph-protection laws require that honesty and integrity exams not be the primary basis for making hiring, firing or promotion decisions. While less overt, Wisconsin has a statute in place that allows employees to challenge "unfair honesty tests." Moreover, while some states have tightly worded statutes banning the use of lie-detector testing, other states have somewhat vague bans on such tests — Delaware and Idaho, for example. Ambiguous statutes could be interpreted to ban written psychological exams as well as polygraphs and other types of lie detector tests. It is fair to say that increased use of any kind of testing of employees or applicants means an increase in the potential for litigation. An employer, however, can take special precautions in order to minimize the risk of litigation. Some things employers should consider before administering psychological tests to employees or applicants include:
Never using tests as the sole criterion for hiring or promotion decisions.
Avoid using tests that require analysis by a psychologist, psychiatrist or social worker.
Review existing tests to ensure that they do not include a psychological diagnostic component. In other words, make sure the test does not contribute to a finding of a particular mental impairment or psychological disorder.
Make sure that the test is statistically valid, reliable and devoid of cultural and ethnic bias.
Use tests that are job-related and of a business necessity. For example, tests for extroversion might be justified for people seeking sales positions, but not for people seeking positions that do not focus heavily on interaction with others. Similarly, an integrity test might be more justifiably job-related for financial and security positions.
Administer the test in a standardized fashion that ensures that all job applicants or employees are assessed in the same way.
Monitor the test results to ensure that there is not a disparate impact on women and minorities.
Take active steps to ensure the confidentiality of test responses.
Monitor workplace statistics on attrition, theft, turnover and production to determine whether the use of these tests has resulted in a reduction of identified counterproductive behaviors.
Consult a lawyer with expertise in the area of employment testing before going ahead with any test. At a minimum, an employer must comply with federal requirements, as well as additional requirements imposed by the particular state where the test is being administered.
Deciding whether to implement psychological testing with applicants and employees does not need to be an anxiety-riddled experience. With careful planning and execution, an employer should be able to use psychological testing as a way of efficient hiring and promotion without violating federal and state laws.
Seegull is a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP, in Baltimore. His e-mail is larry.seegull@dlapiper.com. Caputo is an associate at the same firm. Her e-mail is emily.caputo@dlapiper.com.

Six Truths About Employee Turnover

2006-04-05T12:16:00.000-04:00

Truth No.1: Turnover HappensAchieving zero percent turnover is not realistic, especially in today’s job market.

Truth No. 2: Some Turnover Is DesirableZero percent turnover is not desirable for a couple of reasons. First, if all employees stayed and the organization grew steadily, most employees would be at or near the top of their pay ranges and salary expenses would be extremely high. Secondly, new employees bring new ideas, approaches, abilities, and attitudes and keep the organization from becoming stagnant.

Truth No. 3: Turnover Is CostlyMost managers know that turnover is expensive, but two-thirds of 1,290 managers were unable to quantify the cost of turnover when asked in a recent poll. The cost of hiring and training a new employee can vary greatly—from only a few thousand dollars for hourly employees to between $75,000 and $100,000 for top executives. Estimates of turnover costs may range from 25 percent to almost 200 percent of annual compensation. Costs that are more difficult to estimate include customer service disruption, emotional costs, loss of morale, burnout/absenteeism among remaining employees, loss of experience, continuity, and “corporate memory.”

Truth No. 4: More Money Is Not the “Silver Bullet”Talented workers want to feel they are being paid comparably to what other companies pay for similar work in the industry. They also care about being paid equitably with others in similar positions making comparable contributions. When these two conditions exist along with interesting and meaningful work, acceptable working conditions and good management practices, the prospect of making a little more money in an another organization where these softer factors are unknown is usually not enough to pull the employee away.

Truth No. 5: Managers Hold Most of the Keys to Keeping the Right TalentOne recent study showed that 50 percent of the typical employee’s job satisfaction is determined by the quality of his/her relationship with the manager. Many companies are floundering today in their attempts to improve employee retention because they have placed the responsibility for it in the hands of human resources instead of the managers. Many companies have begun to measure managers’ turnover rates and vary the size of their annual bonuses accordingly.

Truth No. 6: Reducing Turnover Starts with CommitmentThe organizations that achieve the most dramatic reductions in turnover and maintain those lower levels are usually the ones where the top executive or owner makes it a priority. Even when the top executive is not committed, however, one committed manager can still make a difference.

Adapted from—KEEPING THE PEOPLE WHO KEEP YOU IN BUSINESS: 24 Ways to Hang on to Your Most Valuable Talentby F. Leigh Branham (AMACOM; October 2000)

http://www.racameron.com/assessments.htm

Employee Turnover to Increase in Early 2006

2006-03-22T17:21:00.000-05:00

Employee Turnover to Increase in Early 2006

November 22 2005

A significant increase in employee turnover is forecast for the first quarter of 2006, according to workforce futurists at The Herman Group. “All the indicators we watch suggest the possibility of a surge in job-hopping,” says CEO Roger Herman.

Workers have been disenchanted for the past five years, Herman explained. They experienced a serious emotional let-down when the go-go years of the late 1990s stopped short with the economic downturn. As employment shifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market, too many employers took their employees for granted, becoming complacent.

People who were so highly sought after and valued in the late nineties have become disengaged from employers who don’t seem to care about them anymore. “Engagement is an emotional issue,” says Joyce Gioia (joy-yah), president of The Herman Group. “If workers are not appreciated by their superiors and co-workers, the emotional bonds holding them to the employer weaken. They become much more receptive to other employment opportunities where they will be valued.”

In a study that has drawn a lot of attention, Towers Perrin HR Services reports that just 14 percent of workers say they are “fully engaged” on the job and “willing to go the extra mile for their companies.” A huge percentage of respondents revealed that they are really not engaged and would just as soon work somewhere else. Those workers are psychologically ready to jump ship if, or rather when, the right opportunity becomes available.

How serious is the problem? The Society for Human Resource Management says a whopping 76 percent of employees are looking for new employment opportunities. About half of these people are actively seeking a new position—posting their resume on Internet job boards, surfing the web, talking with recruiters, networking with friends and colleagues. The rest are described as “passive jobseekers.” They’re not aggressively searching for a job, but are quite receptive to invitations to consider opportunities.

Jobless claims are at their lowest levels in a long time. Economic growth is creating more jobs; opportunities for people to change jobs are expanding. Corporate recruiters are becoming more active. Retained search firms are enjoying higher levels of orders than they’ve seen in years. Staffing associations report that their members can’t keep up with the demand for qualified employees. Practically every employer surveyed by The Herman Group has mission-critical job vacancies.

“We attribute part of the delay in job movement to a shift in worker priorities,” Herman says. “People are more concerned about life-work balance today. As a result of 9/11 and other influences, they’re putting family and personal interests ahead of—or at least even with—work demands. That’s part of the engagement story: They’re engaging more with family than with work.”

Employment decisions are being put aside until after the holidays. This period of relative quiet in job movement will send a false signal of security and stability to employers, warns The Herman Group. Recognized thought leaders in employee retention since Roger Herman wrote the first edition of Keeping Good People in 1990, the firm notes recent media commentary about the use of year-end bonuses. “It’s all about the level—and sincerity of employee appreciation,” notes Gioia. “Workers who feel taken for granted will not stick around when they have other choices.”

A significant growth in the use of the Internet to connect employers and applicants will affect impending job movement. Since 1996, Weddle's has conducted ground-breaking surveys of recruiters, job seekers and Web-sites providing employment-related services on the Internet. In a recent study of 3,000 jobseekers, a significantly strong sample, Weddle’s discovered that 69.7 percent expect to find their next job from an Internet job board. And the niche job boards are leading the way. These specialized job boards report unprecedented increases in traffic from both employers and job seekers. Interest in job movement is unquestionably rising.

“The Herman Group has experienced a noticeable increase in inquiries from employers concerned about employee retention,” notes Herman. The concern is evident, however Herman sees more talk than action. “We’re fascinated at how employers are waiting, putting off implementation of retention strategies until they think the time is right. Many of these companies will be caught trying to close the barn door after the horses are gone. As the employment market tightens even further early next year, those employers who take pre-emptive action now will have the competitive advantage.”

http://www.racameron.com/assessments.htm

The State of Recruitment & Staffing: Be Aggressive, or Be Gone

2006-03-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

The State of Recruitment & Staffing: Be Aggressive, or Be Gone
As they begin to feel the pinch for talent, employers can't just wait for the résumés to trickle in. They have to emphasize active sourcing--tapping in-house referrals, networking 24/7 and snapping up top candidates at the first opportunity.
By John Zappe
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Todd Davis recruited for a needle in a haystack. As senior clinician recruitment consultant with California’s largest physician group, Davis sought out doctors and professional staff. He was accustomed to finding nurses with unique specialties and doctors in high-demand fields. But in January he was looking for a computer specialist with a medical degree to fill the job of director of medical informatics with 3,500-employee HealthCare Partners Medical Group.

"I’m not going to fill this job by posting to a (job) board. I don’t know that you ever could, but not now--not with the competition such as it is," says Davis, who left the company this month. He found his candidates through the network built by going to two or three events a month, working the phones and tapping employees for their contacts.

"Unless you are actively working every minute, as a recruiter you’re going to be in trouble," he says. "Recruiters who wait for the candidates to come in to them aren’t doing their job. In 2006, they aren’t going to be successful."

After four years of economic slowdown in the United States, recruiters last year began to feel the pinch for talent as hiring accelerated and the unemployment rate edged down. Last month, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent.

Though the rate is still well above the all-time low of 3.8 percent in April 2000, talent shortages are apparent in select skill areas and professions, rather than across the board. At the same time, the oldest of the baby boomers are beginning to retire. While there is still some debate about the predicted labor shortage, no one doubts the need to be competitive and creative in order to find quality candidates.

Heather Tinguely, recruiting manager for fast-growing software company Inovis, says she just had the busiest December of her eight-year career. "If I waited one or two weeks, the candidate was gone." Based in Atlanta, Inovis has a large office in the San Francisco Bay Area. "Right now, that is the hardest place to recruit for IT," she says. "But it’s not that much easier here in Georgia. Companies are recruiting from everywhere."

Get used to it, recruitment consultants say. "2006 is the year when it is really going to hit home," says Gerry Crispin, recruitment consultant and co-founder of CareerXroads. "This isn’t anything new this year--just that some companies are suddenly going to discover there’s a talent shortage when they can’t find the people they need."

Employee referral programs, the No. 1 source of hires according to a Society for Human Resource Management poll in November, are getting more attention than ever. Davis says he actively courted the doctors in the company looking for referrals. "Peer referrals are the most powerful recruiting tool," he says. "When I get a referral in-house I know the candidate is going to have the skills and the interest, because a colleague has already made the contact."

Temp-to-hire, already a tool being used by the biggest companies, will gain in popularity as a form of outsourced recruiting.

Crispin, whose firm recently completed its annual "Source of Hire" report, says the survey’s results show an increase in the number of contingent workers hired as permanent employees. "Temp-to-hire is hot, and continues to be so," he says.

That is part of a broader trend toward unbundling outsourced HR services, according to Elliot Clark, COO of Kenexa, an HR software and talent acquisition company. Outsourcing recruiting in particular will be popular with the smaller companies that don’t have the resources to hire specialists, he says. "The war for talent in certain areas is going to be hot," Clark says. "That will lead more companies to outsource that function."

Larger companies will boost their recruiting staff, drawing from the headhunting ranks.

"I believe that by the end of 2006 you will see a major shift toward hiring more third-party recruiters into corporate recruiting," says Michael Homula, director of talent acquisition at Quicken Loans. His reasoning is that not many corporate recruiters have experience sourcing in a tight labor market. He and other HR professionals explain that as the economy went south beginning in late 2000, recruiters moved into other HR jobs or were downsized. Those filling the vacancies--entry-level HR jobs at many companies--didn’t so much recruit as sift through the résumés that came in by the hundreds from job board postings.

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"2006 is the year when it is really going to hit home. This isn’t anything new this year--just that some companies are suddenly going to discover there’s a talent shortage when they can’t find the people they need."
--Gerry Crispin, recruitment consultant and co-founder of CareerXroads.
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The aggressive style of third-party recruiters will take some getting used to, Homula says. "The biggest challenge with this trend," he notes, "is that corporate HR leaders are not often able to stomach the behaviors and tactics that actually get results, and don’t want to compensate recruiters for what they produce like the third-party world does. … The trend will start in 2006, but most corporations will not figure out how to work with the third-party mind-set until the labor pool shortage causes them pain."

Increasingly, companies are recognizing that the quality of hires has a direct bearing on their success, and are beginning to evaluate recruiters on the performance of their hires.

"Accountability is the major trend I see emerging in 2006," says Master Burnett, managing director of Dr. John Sullivan & Associates, an HR recruiting consulting firm. For many companies that will mean objectively assessing employee performance, then using that to measure the quality of a recruiter’s hiring.

How will recruiters find top talent in 2006? By pursuing the passive job seeker.

"People in staffing are going to have to think like marketing people," Kenexa’s Clark says. That will mean branding the company, making better use of corporate job sites, networking and trying some of the newer tools, like Jobster and LinkedIn.

Data mining--not searching résumé databases, but combing through public and private databases--will help build candidate lists and identify those who are most likely to be receptive to a call. Burnett says the best companies use multiple databases to identify and qualify leads.

"You find someone in Boston who owns a boat, and you’ve got a job where it is possible to go boating all year. That person becomes a potential candidate," Burnett says.

Microsoft recruiter Shally Steckerl says recruiters will have two choices: become a sourcer, or become obsolete. "If sales waited around for customers to come in the door, they would starve," Steckerl says.

In December, HotJobs held a recruitment round table attended by such leading recruitment professionals as Lou Adler, John Sullivan, Jac Fitz-enz and Peter Weddle. It was titled "The Era of the Active Recruiter."

"Good recruiters have known that all along," Crispin says. "Lazy recruiters could get by going through the résumés that came in from Monster or wherever. No more. Do that now and you’ve lost."

Workforce Management, February 27, 2006, pp. 29-31 -- Subscribe Now!

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John Zappe is a freelance writer in Long Beach, California. E-mail editors@workforce.com to comment.

http://www.racameron.com

Plugging the memory drain caused by employee turnover

2006-03-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

Plugging the memory drain caused by employee turnover is a critical step in securing your company’s success. Hiring expert, Robert Cameron examines the issue and the solutions.

It is a fairly common characteristic of employee turnover that it is long term employees who leaves voluntarily. The impact of losing these valuable employees is that a critical piece of your business’ memory leaves with them.

The ex-employees have knowledge about procedures, where assets are stored, critical business data, and other information that no one else in the company might have. For example, the person who left may be the only one who knows where to find critical computer files you need.

A recent study revealed 80% of company’s digital data is generally inaccessible because it is stored as personal files on personal computers. That’s means businesses could lose up to 80% of its memory due to employee turnover, and that spells huge problems.

Although not all turnover you can be prevented, it is estimated that approximately 80% of employee turnover can be eliminated. Unwanted turnover is prevented two ways. First, hire people who are a good risk for long term employment and second, providing better leadership and management.

Often hiring managers assume that a capable person with proper training can perform any job well. This flawed assumption does not account for job matching of soft skills found in behavioral traits, personal interests and thinking styles. More often than not conflicts between job requirements and employees’ soft skills, often referred to as job fit, lead to poor performance and turnover.

To reduce turnover you should use professional assessments that match employees to the work they do. People with jobs that match their skills and preferences tend to stay in their jobs, perform efficiently, and solve problems, not create them. Assessments are easy to use and the best ones provide job matching information and information on the total person, plus interview questions. See www.racameron.com/assessments.htm

Now for the second half of this two part solution, effective leadership. Our research discloses that people do not quit companies; people quit people – generally their managers.

Unwanted turnover suggests that a manager’s performance may need evaluation and improvement. Too often we think the loss of a manager will hurt our organization when the truth is it may be the best solution to the turnover problem.

To keep your company from getting into these situations you need an effective tool to help you, and the people he/she works with, evaluate that manager. A 360 Feedback survey is based on leadership and management skills followed by a targeted program for management skill development. We recommend a 360 for every manager, not just the ones who are causing turnover. They are easy to implement and you get a complete picture as to how their subordinates, peers, superior, and themselves, perceive their performance.

In summary, cut the risk of losing valuable information because of employee turnover. Implement these simple steps to improve your selection process and develop your leaders. People who are in a job that fits them and receive good leadership will stay with you. With skilled labor supply shrinking this is a critical step.

For more information on this critical business issue and the employee assessments to handle it, contact Robert A. Cameron & Associates, Weston FL, a Strategic Business Partner of Profiles International. Mr. Cameron’s team works with employers to help them increase the effectiveness of their employee selection, hiring and development, and improve their company’s productivity and profitability. They can be reached at 954-385-8701 or visit their website at www.racameron.com

EMPLOYERS KEEP SCREENING OUT GREAT SALES CANDIDATES

2006-03-03T11:39:00.000-05:00

Stop screening out the best sales candidates. Robert Cameron shows you how to adjust your hiring process and launches a pre employment sales test to help you select the best.

Companies hiring sales reps stick to the same old hiring practices, and hire low performers that turn over, while screening out some of the best candidates. Robert Cameron examines two hiring myths and shows you how to easily select sales people who can sell.

There are two common sales recruiting myths that are screening out top sales candidates. The first is having some sort of college degree and the second is a number of years sales experience. Wouldn’t you want to see a candidate that has the talent for sales or one who has established relationships with prospective clients? You may not be attracting those people because of these two knockout questions in your hiring process.

Studies show that 55% of sales people shouldn’t be in sales and 20-25% are selling the wrong product or service. So hiring experienced sales people simply recycles mediocrity and gives you an 80% chance to fail.

Lack of experience can be overcome with training. A lack of sales talent cannot. Hiring an experienced sales rep who was someone else’s low performer is not a winning strategy. Ever heard about the 80/20 rule?

The 80/20 rule in sales says 20 percent of the sales people make 80 percent of the sales. Our research has proven that the selling profession requires qualities not everyone has. The high turnover of salespeople in so many organizations simply reveals ineffective sales hiring and selection processes.

The solution is to stop screening out good candidates and a sales assessment tool that enables you to hire people who match your top performers. Imagine what sales would be if you had more people like your top performers?

An effective sales assessment takes the guesswork out of hiring people for sales positions. It should assess key behaviors, including competitiveness, persistence, sales drive, energy, and self reliance. It should also predict critical sales behaviors including prospecting, closing sales, call reluctance, self starting, teamwork, building and maintaining relationships, and compensation preference.

The use of this approach will lower employee turnover in the sales department and improve sales productivity. It is a minor adjustment to the hiring process but one that can increase sales and reduce turnover costs. High turnover in the sales force shouldn’t be accepted as “normal in our industry”. It is only normal if one continues to use flawed hiring practices, while their competitors change and hire the best.

Before you make an assessment decision

2006-03-03T11:31:00.000-05:00

Robert A. Cameron & Associates
Strategic Partner of Profiles International

Before you make an assessment decision, ask the following of your vendor:

What was the most recent date of your product (s) validity & reliability studies?
What were the final scores from these studies? .50, .60, .70, .80, .85?
Can you send me a copy of these studies? And a legal opinion manual?
Does your product measure the total person? Cognitive, occupational, personality & behavior?
How many different reports are you able to generate?
Are the results real-time?
Are there any other charges? Training cost or certifications?
Tell me about your client support and training? Any cost involved?
Will you be able to demonstrate how the product is working for me? What kind of return on investment reports can you provide?
Is your assessment multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and can it be given in other languages. If so, how many?
How long does it take for results?
Do I need someone from your company to interpret the results?
Is proctoring required?
Is it customized for my company, position, department, manager, geography, or any combination?
Can it be taken over the internet or paper and pencil?
What else are the results used for?

U.S. Department of Labor's 13 Guidelines for Using Assessments
Use assessment tools in a purposeful manner.
Use the “whole-person” approach to assessment.
Use only assessment instruments that are unbiased and fair to all groups.
Use only reliable assessment instruments and procedures.
Use only assessments procedures and instruments that have been demonstrated to be valid for the specific purpose for which they are being used.
Use assessment tools that are appropriate for the target population.
Use assessment instruments for which understandable and comprehensive documentation is available.
Ensure that administrative staff is properly trained.
Ensure that testing conditions are suitable for all test takers.
Provide reasonable accommodation in the assessment process for people with disabilities.
Maintain security of assessment instruments.
Maintain confidentiality of assessment results.
Ensure that scores are interpreted properly and consistently.

Profiles International

Validity & Reliability
We confidently stand behind our products knowing that they are effectively utilized by thousands of our clients everyday. The research that lead to our products’ development was conducted by qualified professionals following the guidelines for test development endorsed by the American Psychological Association. We are proud to put our name on every product that we provide and pleased to furnish to our clients the many benefits that our assessments provide for them—helping them place the right people in the right jobs.
Developing Our Products
The research behind our assessments supports their reliability and validity in business settings. The questions we use are researched and demonstrate good reliability and appropriate validity for identifying a specific trait or factor in an individual. Used as designed, our products have become an indispensable part of the selection and evaluation process for over 35,000 clients.
Our Technical ManualsThe technical manuals for our products reflect the research and development work done as a part of the process to bring the product to you. They have been written in clear language to facilitate their understanding. These manuals are continually updated to reflect the results of the latest research on each product.
Ongoing Research and ImprovementThe products are always evolving into instruments that are more effective. We are continually working with the users of our products to research the effect that using our products has on their business. We utilize the feedback from our clients, as well as the results of ongoing research, to modify the products when warranted.

Email racameron@bellsouth.net
Phone 954-385-8701

Employee Development

2005-07-25T11:35:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wished employees came with instruction manuals? Sometimes a manager just can’t seem to figure out how to get an employee to improve their performance. Now there is an employee assessment that will provide essential information on an employee’s personality, and how to help make them more productive and satisfied.

Robert A. Cameron & Associates offers employers an employee assessment tool called the Profiles Performance Indicator that will generate easy to read management reports that are like an “instruction manual” for an employee. When evaluating employees whose performance is beneath their potential you must ask three key questions:

Can they do the job?
Do they want to do the job?
Will they do the job?

The Profiles Performance Indicator will help you create a professional development plan for the employee for whom you have answered yes to these questions. Every person is different and this tool allows employers to use the right approach with each employee.

Employee development expert, Robert Cameron, states, “This assessment tool is very effective in acquiring a much better understanding of an employee. By gaining this knowledge you can resolve issues involving quality, initiative, teamwork, communication, customer service, motivation, behavioral conflicts, and stress.” He goes on to say, “Imagine if you had a unique instruction manual for each employee, wouldn’t that make things run so much smoother in the workplace?”

One of the most common reasons for problems in the workplace is that we simply don’t understand each other well enough. With this simple 20 minute online assessment you can gain a much better understanding of an employee and how to get them to improve their individual and team performance. It can eliminate much of the time spent resolving misunderstandings, stress issues, and other interpersonal problems.
Getting people to perform well as a team is a challenge, unless you understand the individual behavioral characteristics of each team member. The data from this assessment can be analyzed from a team perspective to measure where there might be potential for conflict or gaps in certain styles of behavior needed to make the team

Put the right people in the right job

2005-03-15T17:17:00.000-05:00

Putting the right person in the right job benefits employers and employees
“I think that there are not bad jobs or bad employees,” says hiring expert Bud Haney, “but there are bad job matches.” He goes on to explain that most employers use a thorough process to qualify job candidates for such things as education and experience, but fail to make certain that the people they select actually “fit” the work they are hired to do.
“It is called ‘job matching,’” Haney says, “and it is the overlooked factor that leaves employers wondering why so many of the well-qualified people they hire perform their jobs so poorly.
“There is a well-known study that was published in the Harvard Business Review that concluded that job match is the most significant indicator of job success,” says Haney. “Except for jobs requiring specific technical training, job match is more important than a person’s education, years of experience, age, sex, race, or any other factor,” he says.
Haney is the president of Profiles International, Inc. in Waco, Texas. His firm has just introduced a new management tool, The Profile XT™, that helps employers achieve job match when they hire and when they reassign and promote their present employees.
“The Profile XT gives employers a means of evaluating what we call “The Total Person” so they can obtain better information for making better decisions about allocating their human capital,” Haney says. “it is,” he says, “an extremely versatile instrument that has many valuable uses, such as providing a means of enhancing job descriptions, designing job performance benchmarks, making training programs more effective, and providing managers and supervisors with the information they can use to coach and motivate the people who depend on them for leadership.
“When people participate on The Profile XT, their thinking styles, behavioral traits, and occupational interests are measured and quantified,” Haney says. “These factors are the intangibles that answer the essential questions: Can the person do the job? Does the person want to do the job? And, will the person do the job?”
When asked how The Profile XT is different from other employment tests, Haney responded, “First let me say that The Profile XT is not a test. Calling it a test suggests that it is something you can pass or fail, which is not the case. It is more accurately called an assessment because it asses each person’s unique attributes, which are the positive factors he or she brings to the job. You can’t fail who you are.”
“The benefits of using The Profile XT for employers are fairly obvious,” Haney says, “but employees are really the big winners. When they are placed in jobs that fit who they are, they succeed. Nobody wins when a person gets a job they don’t like and in which they will ultimately fail.
Haney says everybody can use The Profile XT because it is available on the Internet so employers can evaluate job candidates anywhere in the world and have the results in about an hour. “We call ourselves ‘The Information Company’ because we have products that executives and managers can use to get the information they must have to make their most effective decisions,” says Haney.
The Profile is available in this area from Robert A Cameron of Robert A. Cameron & Associates, Weston FL. Mr. Cameron works with employers in this area to help them increase the effectiveness of their human resources departments and improve their company’s productivity and profitability.
Profiles International, Inc. is the world’s leading publisher of employment-related assessments. Profiles International, Inc. has more than 800 representatives throughout the United States and in over sixty other countries. Its products serve the needs of business, industry, education, and government .by providing a means of getting the information employers can use to make better human resources decisions. The Profile XT and the company’s other assessments are used for hiring, training, evaluating integrity, teambuilding, and succession planning.

How do your manager's rate?

2005-03-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

Robert A. Cameron & Associates offers an innovative online leadership development program through Profiles International’s unique Checkpoint 360 Degree Feedback System. The program combines direct feedback by direct reports, peers, and supervisor, with a personalized program for developing specific leadership skills based on that feedback. By learning the perceptions of the people around the leader you can identify and capture both the leader’s strengths as well as areas that require development.

Employees don't quit companies, they quit managers. That is why it is critical to discover how a manager's perception of themselves compares to the perception their peers, subordinates, and superior have of them. Perception equals fact, but unless it is measured, it can’t be changed. The result of not knowing a manager’s perceived weaknesses is typically employee turnover, particularly within the ranks of your top performers.
Deploying the 360 degree survey is very easy. Leaders and the people who they interact with the most participate in a 20 minute online survey that evaluates 18 critical skill sets. Anonymity is maintained by grouping the participants' answers. A powerful, full color report is created showing areas of alignment as well as gaps in the perception of their skills. This report provides tangible information to help the leader as well as the organization improve. From that point, leaders are able to participate in an individualized Skillbuilder series of programs to build on the area identified through the Checkpoint 360 Degree Feedback System.
Leadership skill sets assessed in the Checkpoint 360;
Listens to others
Processes information
Communicates effectively
Instills trust
Provides direction
Delegates responsibly
Adjusts to circumstances
Thinks creatively
Builds personal relationships
Facilitates team success
Works efficiently
Works competently
Takes action
Achieves results
Cultivates individual talents
Motivates successfully
Displays commitment
Seeks improvement
This validated assessment provides a very complete analysis as to where a manager's performance is rated by the people they work with, and by themselves. More effective managers will impact a business in a number of positive ways, most notably employee retention and the bottom line.For more information on this leadership development assessment contact Robert A. Cameron & Associates, Weston FL, a Strategic Business Partner of Profiles International. They work with employers to help them increase the effectiveness of their employee selection and development. They can be reached at 954-385-8701 via email racameron@bellsouth.net or at www.racameron.com