Welcome to the September 1, 2004 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

"Hiring the right people is the hardest part of a manager's job."  Listen to how Union National Community Bank and Advanced Automation Associates, 2 of PA Best Place to Work companies, have used SPS online personality tests and CriteriaOne services to hire the right people and improve customer service.

Segment 1 -High-tech company hires the right people with CriteriaOne

Segment 2 -Personality Tests help Community Bank embrace diverse workforce

(Download speeds may vary - please be patient or contact us for a CD)

Ira Wolfe in the News!  Business Values and Motivators Make News On CN8 Money Matters

What's Inside

1.  The Dog Ate My Homework and Other White Lies –for some employees, business ethics are situational. Do you want these folks working for you?

2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #236 to #240

3. Tips You Can Use

4. Learn to Hire High Motivation Employees On A Limited Budget

5. Employee Motivation: It Takes Two to Tango...and Tangle

6 . Exploring Generational Differences and Interview for Success

7 . Fall Workshop and Speaking Schedule

8 . You don't need a huge budget and staff to hire the best employees

9 . Thousands of Small Business Owner Now Build High Motivation Teams Who Never Thought They Could

10. Ten excuses employees might give when they're caught sleeping at their desks.

1.  The Dog Ate My Homwork and Other White Lies People Tel
From padding expense accounts to pilfering paperclips, more and more often employees feel entitled to get a “little extra” from their employers. Short of watching every person every minute, there is no way of measuring how often white lies are told or petty theft occurs in the workplace.

If, like Pinocchio’s nose, each lie became immediately apparent in a person’s profile, business owners could easily weed out employees who cheat and deceive. So, how can an employer predict who might be prone to “borrow” a few dollars, take advantage of sick days, or even surf the Net to find the next job while still on your clock?

Background checks catch a very small percentage of the “white lie club” because the majority of employees who steal—68.6 percent—have no prior criminal record. It’s the apparently honest employee who typically commits this sort of soft deceit.

Most people think of themselves as trustworthy. Others may disagree. Research shows that people lie in one-fourth of their daily social interactions with 91 percent of those surveyed saying they lie routinely about matters they consider trivial. (Source: The book The Day America Told the Truth) One out of every four adults in the United States may lie to get ahead. Ninety-three percent of Americans admit to lying at work. Most of us lie an average of three times a day, about as often as we eat

Where does this behavior start? Apparently at home and long before a person joins the workforce. Twenty percent of parents polled by U.S. News and World Report think it’s appropriate to do their children’s homework. Twenty-five percent of adults think lying is all right if it helps you get ahead.

In a 2003 Josephson Institute of Ethics survey of 12,000 American high school students, 74 percent admitted to cheating on an exam at least once in the past year. Thirty-eight percent of respondents say they stole from a store in the past year. Those who say they would be willing to lie to get a good job jumped from 11 percent from 2000 to 2002, according to study results.

There is light on the horizon: Eighty-four percent of students agreed with the statement: “My parents want me to do the ethically right thing, no matter what the cost.”

What can an employer do to take advantage of this hopeful statistic? Consider using the newest generation of personality tests for pre-employment screening. These tests gauge what hourly employees consider good and bad workplace behavior and what path an executive, professional or manager might take when forced to choose between right and wrong. Although an effective screen, these tests may not be enough to filter all bad behavior traits. That is where a skilled interviewer can make the critical difference. By asking behavioral and situation-based questions, this interviewer can expose the “little devil” in all of us and cut though the magnetism of a suave and debonair candidate before bad behavior later on repulses him.

Hire employees with good dogs …those that don’t eat homework. Even more important, hire employees whose ethics match those of your business. Check out the resources listed below to see how Success Performance Solutions screening tests that gauge a person’s tendency to behave in an ethical manner.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #236 to #240


Fact #236:   A recent study has found that entrepreneurial activity in the United States will grow over the next five years....BUT the entrepreneurs will be doing little to no hiring. The study found that 80 percent of American entrepreneurs plan to hire fewer than five employees over the next five years. (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)

Fact #237:   The study also found that 11.9 percent of Americans created or grew new businesses in 2003. This is up from 10.5 percent in 2002. (Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)

Fact #238: More and more American workers will opt to telecommute from home in the next few years. One-third of the nation's workforce - about 44 million people - is expected to work from home on at least a part-time basis in 2004. That number is expected to rise to 51 million in 2008 with about 14 million people working full-time from home.
(Source: In-Stat/MDR)

Fact #239:  Small busineses provide approximately 75 percent of the net new jobs added to the economy.  (Source: SBA)

Fact #240:   Small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employers.

Listen to The Perfect Labor Storm - live at the 2003 PA Chamber HR Conference

Don't be caught in storm without all the facts. "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends for decades to come. Order your copy today - $7.95 includes no shipping costs for limited time only.

Get the forecast LIVE at your next meeting or conference. Now scheduling 2004-2005 keynotes - Ira Wolfe, What's Ahead In Hiring Trends or Generations in the Workplace - You can't work with them, You can't work without them.

3.  Tips You Can Use

Weed out high risk candidates early in the hiring process. Save time and money with these pre-employment tests:

SELECT Associate System,

Counter Productive Behavior Index, and

TotalView Assessment System.

Recommended Readings:

"How Full is Your Bucket": Positve Strategies for Work and Life

by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton and published by Gallup Press.

According to Gallup research, 65% of people polled said they got no recognition for good work last year. And the No. 1 reason most Americans leave their jobs is because they don't feel appreciated.  Rath and Clifton say each person carries an invisible bucket. Fill the bucket and an employee is motivated.  Dip into an employee's bucket and stress and dissatisfactions sets in.

"Understanding Business Values and Motivators" takes the bucket analogy one step better.  Employees have a choice of buckets, six of them as a matter of fact.  Over a life time, people value two of them more than the others.  To recognize and praise employees in areas they value, managers must know which buckets the employee is carrying.  In this book, Ira Wolfe describes the six personal motivators with easy to read stories and analogies that any manager or business owner can understand and apply immediately.

The Manager's Guide to Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers is for individuals with training responsibilities who are looking for tools to help their managers, supervisors, and/or team leaders interview, hire, and retain top performers.

4. Learn To Hire High Motivation Employees On A Limited Budget

It is finally here. After three years and hundreds of hours, The How to Hire The High Motivation Employee audio series is complete. Six 30-minute CDs - more than three hours of interviews - guide a manager through each section of the TotalView(tm) Assessment System, complete with examples and stories you can use to hire the right employee and build the best teams. Why TotalView? It is simply the best job matching and employee evaluation system on the market today.

The first CD begins with an overview of the TotalView(tm) Assessment System and explanations of each of the Abilities scales. The second CD focuses on Motivations and Interests. And CDs three through six discuss the four major personality traits and eight sub-scales in detail.

As a  thank you for reading The Total View newsletter, we're offering the complete audio series for only $159 through September 30, 2004.

Order How to Hire The High Motivation Employee today.

5. Employee Motivation: It Takes Two to Tango...or Tangle.

Sustained productivity and profitiablity doesn't just happen. Employees have varied needs. Managers have preferred leadership styles. These needs and styles don't always match.

But managers and leaders can now get the results they want with a revolutionary new approach to leadership. It's called Strategic Leadership.

Strategic leadership gives leaders the knowledge and insights to adjust their approach to match the varied capabilities and commitment of employees.

To schedule Strategic Leadership training in your company for the Fall 04/Winter 05, contact us today.

New! Strategic Leadership Type Indicator.(SLTi)
Help leaders understand their own leadership habits and learn how they can respond more effectively in the future. The first part of the SLTi is a self-assessment that gives leaders feedback about their use of multiple leadership strategies. The second part guides them in selecting the best strategic leadership style to use, and the third part illustrates how leaders can develop their direct reports using these strategies.

View Brochure here.

Email for more details or pricing.

6. Schedule Your Fall/Winter Workshops Today

Exploring Generational Differences is designed to explore the differences between the four workforce generations and how to build bridges between them. If you've ever heard "what's wrong with the younger generation" or "I'm too old to learn this stuff", this is the perfect program for your workforce. Half-day or Full-day.

Learn more about bridging generation gaps


Interview for Success: This disciplined approach to interviewing candidates, identifying competencies and developing questions and target behaviors for specific positions, is nearly 50 percent more effective than traditional interviewing at hiring the right employee. Half-day or ull-day.

Improve your behavioral interviewing skills.

Speak with Ira or Marilyn about scheduling Exploring Generational Differences or Interview For Success.

7.  Fall 2004 Workshop and Speaking Schedule
Just announced! Ira will be a presenter at the 2005 International Builders Show in Orlando, FL at the end of January. Watch for more details.


September 13, 2004 - What is This Thing Called Emotional Intelligence
….And Why We Need It In The Workplace?" Sponsored by Clemson University; Location - Harrisburg, PA. Speaker: Marilyn Walker

September 23, 2004 - Lancaster Chamber Job Fair - Human Resources Panel Discussion at 10:15 AM, prior to job fair.

September 27, 2004 – Best Practices in Performance Consulting, Atlanta, GA. Sponsored by International Quality and Productivity Center. Speaker: Ira S. Wolfe. Ira will join leaders from Dell, Microsoft, HomeBanc, Harley-Davidson,Hewlett-Packard, Putnam Investments, EDS, Synovus and Internal Revenue Service.

October 4, 2004 - Columbia/Donegal/Elizabethtown Consortium - The Perfect Labor Storm

October 21-23, 2004 - The Most Reliable Hiring System Ever Used - CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer. Competency ID, 3 Personality Assessments, Behavioral Interviewing and more.

8. You don't need a huge budget and staff to hire the best employees

Eliminate The Hassles and Headaches Associated With Screening Candidate with Total APS.

The Total Applicant Processing System enables the small and medium sized employer to do online recruiting and screen applicants with customizable and scorable filtering questions with a click of the mouse.

Use Total APS to recruit and screen applicants for your next job opening.

9. Wondering if you have the right people on your team?

Everyone wants to build the High Motivation Employee Team. Do it with team building activities packaged exclusively for small businesses and home businesses.

Contact Information:
Success Performance Solutions 2481 New Holland Pike, Suite 2, Lancaster, PA 17601

email: tv@super-solutions.com
voice: 717.656.4632
web: http://www.super-solutions.com