Welcome to the January 25, 2006 issue of The Total View

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

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

What's Inside:

1.   Calculating Tips Challenges College Student Skills

If the threat level for the imminent shortage of skilled workers is likened to the Homeland Security Advisory System, then employers beware: the risk conditions have increased from "elevated" (a significant risk) to "severe" risk following the release of a new national literacy survey of America's College Students.

The survey measured abilities related to three types of skills ranging from the ability to read and understand information in newspapers, brochures, and instructional materials to the ability to understand job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, prescription and drug labels. The survey also assessed the ability for college students to perform basic computations such as balancing a checkbook, calculting a tip, or completing an order form.

Literacy levels ranged from below basic to proficient. A below basic level indicated the a student struggled struggled with the most simple tasks: signing a form or adding the amounts on a bank deposit slip. Basic skills include using a television guide to find out what programs are on at a specific time or comparing ticket prices for two events. Intermediate skills indicate an ability to read a map or calcuate the total cost of ordering supplies from a catalog. Proficient skills assure an ability to compare viewpoints in two editorials, interpret a table about blood pressure, age and physical activity, and computing and comparing the cost per ounce of food items.

The good news is that most students at community colleges and four-year schools showed intermediate skills. That means they can at least identify a location on a map. The "severe" risk threat comes when you look for students who can demonstrate proficient skills.

More than half of the students at four-year colleges - and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges - lack the literacy to handle, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers or computing a restaurant tip.

Even more ominous news about our future workforce surfaces when only 30 percent of students in 2-year and 20 percent in 4-year schools have only the basic skills of calculating the cost of a sandwich and salad from a menu or estimate if their car had enough gas left to get to the service station.

And the biggest threat of all? These students, our future workers, score significantly higher than that of adults in our current workforce. For all the talk about preparing our workers to compete globally in service and knowledge based markets, these results sound a deafening siren - the Perfect Labor Storm has landed!

2.  Ripped from the Headlines: Employee Theft

The following incidents were front page news during the week ending January 22, 2006:

• A laborer steals $40,000 of concrete forms from his employer and re-sells them.
• A dental assistant forges her employer's signature and deposits checks worth over $21,000 into her personal account.
• An employee at a nuclear power plant falsified the fire watch records used to safely operate the dual-reactors.
• A distribution center supervisor uses her company credit card to pay personal expenses such as gas, groceries, and gifts.

Employees are helping themselves to company funds costing U.S. businesses about $660 billion annually, according to a recent report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. The report also revealed that more than 46 percent of all workplace fraud happens to small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that employee theft is growing by as much as 15 percent each year. According to an Auditors Inc. survey of 1,000 certified public accountants, as many as 40 percent of small-business owners are embezzlement victims. And up to 30 percent of the nation's workers will steal at some time in their career, with up to 75 percent of all employee theft going unnoticed, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

When you add it all up, businesses lose 6 percent loss of their annual revenue to fraud and abuses by employees.

Isn't it time you stop hiring employees who help themselves to your bottom line? Pre-employment testing cuts the risk of hiring employees with counter-productive attitudes such lack of integrity, poor dependability, hostility, and even the possibility the employee will use illegal drugs or alcohol while at work or show up drunk, high or badly “hung over.”

To view sample reports and learn more about screening high-risk candidates out before it's too late, go to Pre-Employment Tests.

3.  A Checklist for Setting Employee Performance Objectives

Employee appraisals are one of the most dreaded activities a manager has to do. On top of that, there are dozens of traps managers fall into. Avoid the traps managers fall into doing employee evaluations. Click on the link below to download a one page excerpt from the Janus Performance Management System on "Setting Performance Objectives"
http://www.super-solutions.com/pdfs/105_Checklist_for_Setting_Performance_Objectives.pdf

"Setting Performance Objectives" is just one of hundreds of pages of reproducible facts, tips and sample evaluation forms included in Janus Performance Managerment System Volume 1.

Begin to improve your employee appraisal process today with the Janus Performance Management System.

4.   Perfect Labor Storm Alerts # 497 to # 498

Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm. Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites.

Fact #497: U.S. high school students are getting their lunches eaten when it comes to math and science scores compared to the most advanced economies of Europe and Asia. On the recently released National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, 39 percent of white eighth graders were proficient in reading vs. just 15 percent of Hispanics and 12 percent of blacks. (Source: Nation at Risk)

Fact #498: In 2002 just 68 percent of high school students graduated four years after they started ninth grade. That's down from 75 percent in the early 1980s. And just 10 percent of students from the bottom quartile of family income brackets earn a BA by the time they're 24 vs 81 percent from the top quartile. (Source: Nation at Risk)

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 - Only $7.95.

5.   Supervisory Skills Boot Camp begins February 21, 2006

Ever since Success Performance Solutions introduced Managing to Excel in 2002, hundreds of Central PA supervisors and managers have been learning and developing proficiency in the twelve competencies that highly effective managers and supervisors have that average performers don't.

Success Performance Solutions will offer Managing to Excel workshops beginning in February 2006. Each workshop will be limited to 6 supervisors. Topics will include Settings Goals, Time Management, and Scheduling Work.

Read more about Managing to Excel.

Learn more about Managing Your Job/Managing to Excel workshops,

Managing to Excel is also available for purchase by in-house trainers and human resource professionals. The per participant cost per program is as low as $20!

5.  CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer: Job Benchmarking and TotalView Certification

The next CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer is scheduled for February 2 to 4, 2006 in Lancaster, PA. Learn to identify and assess essential core competencies, select the right psychometric assessments, and develop behavioral event interview guides in just 3 days.

Register for CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer  today.