Welcome to the April 23, 2008 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 this issue of The TotalView:

1.  It's Only a Matter of Time for Subject Matter and Super Experts

Every company has their Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). But great companies also have Super Experts.  

Everyone knows who the Super Experts are: They are the people that even the Subject Matter Experts call when they need help making a decision. They are the people that lead executives to seriously wonder, "what do we do if Joe gets hit by a truck?" Super Experts are the "brains" behind key, complex, and high-value decisions.  

Subject Matter Experts

Subject Matter Experts are the people who make a lot of decisions in a little bit of time. You might classify them as micro-decisions.  SMEs could easily make hundreds or thousands of micro-decisions in a day. Yet each decision is a crucial step in a larger process, such as building a product, making a sale, or taking a reservation. And each micro-decision is crucial: A mistake at any point in the process will make the entire product, service or process defective. But many of these decisions have implications within a short time span. If the wrong choice is made, the consequences are quickly revealed. Micro-decisions involve situations like:

• Is this customer eligible for this particular product?
• What discounts is this customer entitled to for this particular transaction?
• What is the commission for this booking?
• What should I up-sell to this customer?
• What should I cross-sell to this customer?
• Do I have all the information I need to save this record in the system?
• How do I work-around the bug or limitation in the system?
• Who should we assign as the company contact person for this sale?
• Does the customer want window or aisle?
• Does the customer want a double bed or king bed?
• What credit card does the customer want to use?

Super Experts

Super Experts are the rare individuals who solve the toughest problems in the company. They routinely make complex decisions, and they make it look easy. Their phone is constantly ringing. A Super Expert is the only one in the company who has the knowledge, experience, and expertise to make the right decision nearly every time. Instead of making a hundred micro-decisions a day, the Super Expert worries about making one big decision.  

Super Experts may only make one decision a day. All the micro-decisions they make comprise just small pieces of an expansive jigsaw puzzle (unlike the SMEs or mainstream employees whose feel the micro-decision is the goal.) The final decision may take a few days, or even weeks. But each decision can save - or cost - the company millions of dollars. Each decision can determine how thousands of transactions will be handled, and how millions or dollars will recorded in the books. Super expert decisions consider:

• How do we solve this customer's mission critical problem? 
• How do we design our facility so to minimize waste and maximize safety? 
• Where should we build the plant? Where should we build the product? Where should we hire the employees?
• What will our price program structure look like next year?
• What will our discount policy be next year?
• What do we do to improve yields and revenue? 
• What is the best way to structure this deal?
• How do we minimize tax and maximize revenue for this contract?   
• How do we troubleshoot this problem?

A favorite example I use to explain the difference between mainstream employees, subject matter experts, and super-experts involves time-span.  Let's say your fiscal year ends June 30. That means the next three months is a very busy time in your business, putting next year's budget together.  For the majority of people, budget preparation is a 3-month process. They collect the numbers, plug it into spreadsheet, multiply by some percentage increase and voila - the budget is done.  

The subject matter experts attempt to project out approximately 12 months when forecasting revenues and associated costs.  They might take into consideration increases for inflation, rising costs of supplies and fuel, hiring and training needs.  Their comfort zone for forecasting however still remains within 12 months, give or take a few weeks.  After the budget is submitted and accepted, SMEs tend to function within the constraints of the 12-month budget.  

Finally you have the Super Experts who view budgets as merely a metric in a much bigger strategy.   These experts aren't only thinking about revenues and expenses 12 months from now but how those numbers will affect the following 24 or 36 months and beyond. While the SME might anticipate how many additional employees might be needed, the Super Expert anticipates where these new employees will reside.  The SME adjusts the budget for a new desk, chair, phone and PC.  

The Super Expert asks: What implications will additional employees have on the communication and network system? Will the current telecom box support additional phone lines? Will the broadband connection support additional users? How many addditional software licenses might be needed?  Will the vendor be able to support more users? The Super-Expert is thinking way beyond the obvious.  

Who are the Subject Matter Experts and Super Experts in your company?  Have you mistakedly placed mainstream and SMEs in Super Expert roles? What happens if your SMEs and Super Experts leave or retire? Do you have replacements who have the cognitive capacity to fill the gaps?    

Succession planning and talent management is more than hiring and promoting replacements.  Slotting people into new positions without considering the time span of their decision-making process can lead to catastrophic business mistakes.  

Call us today (800-803-4303) for a free consult on how to assess key employees for cognitive capacity, the ability to make effective decisions over time.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog and receive skilled

worker shortage updates like this:

New Perfect Labor Storm videos added. Watch now!

What factors will increase the likelihood that a business/industry will go under in 2010?

• Demographic composition of the workforce
• Aging and generational differences
• English as a Second Language Skills
• Low basic skills
• Low technology levels
• Projected skilled labor shortage

Listen to the Maintenance Worker Crisis

Song now available for easier viewing on YouTube.

Read more about skilled worker shortages in the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)

Now on Sale!  Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)  

Order today and save 25%.

NEW Chapters!  Generational Conflicts in the Workplace, Managing the Future Workforce, Attracting Young Employees in a Seller's Job Market plus hundreds of new facts, trends and stats.

View Table of Contents  

Save 25% off retail by ordering now.

Hard Cover: $29.99         Soft Cover: $19.99  

Your Price: $22.49           Your Price: $14.99

To order Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, call 800.803.4303.  Discounts for orders of 10 or more.  Specify hard or soft cover.

3.  Understanding Business Values and Motivators

Business values and motivators determine the "why" of human behavior. For managers, Business Values and Motivators answers the nagging question - How can I motivate my employees? For employees and individuals looking to re-energize their careers, the Business Values and Motivators report helps them understand what they value most. As people, we tend to value certain viewpoints positively and judge others negatively. How we value or judge determines our motivations and provide us with our sources of energy or conflicts and stress in our personal and professional lives.   Watch author Ira S Wolfe describe the "bucket" theory of employee motivation.

4.  This Week's Featured Books - Only $12.95 each

Today's busy leaders and knowledge workers are looking for informative, to the point self-study resources that will answer questions, stimulate new thinking and help solve problems.

These management development pocket guides are ideal for self-directed learning, training and coaching workers, corporate universities, or to use in seminars and workships.

Manager's Pocket Guide to Emotional Intelligence

Manager's Pocket Guide to Documenting Employee Performance  

Manager's Pocket Guide to Employee Relations

5. Speaking Schedule: Ira S Wolfe

2008:

May 16 - Sovereign Benefits Solutions HR Conference, Hershey PA

September 8 - Electrical Generation Systems Associatino - "The Perfect Labor Storm"

Watch and listen to Ira speaking about the Perfect Labor Storm

Call 717.291.4640 to schedule Ira for your next meeting or conference.

6.  Hot Off The Press!  "Coming Job Boom" - Buy Today! 

Ira recently collaborated with Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder on a new book, The Coming Job Boom.  Bonnie is the author of The Public School Parent's Guide to Success. The Coming Job Boom is the "ying" for the "yang" of The Perfect Labor Storm.  While the Perfect Labor Storm is beginning to make managers feel like storm chasers looking for qualified workers, high school and college students must be smiling at this Upcoming Job Boom. For those young workers with the right skills and motivation, the job market will make these kids feel like  - well, like kid's in a candy store! 

Order Coming Job Boom today - only $10.95  

Save $2 and shipping costs - download the Coming Job Boom e-book now.  

7.   Success Performance Solutions partners with PayScale to

       provide clients with real-time salary data

One of your biggest challenges our clients face is creating compensation packages that reflect today's job market rates. I am excited to announce that we partnered with PayScale to provide businesses like yours with the real-time salary data you need to retain and recruit today's top talent! PayScale has agreed to give all of our Total View readers a free PayScale Employer Compensation Report on a job title of your choice. There are truly no strings attached.  

Here's all you have to do to get your complimentary report. Visit the PayScale website by going here. Once there, locate the link on the right-hand side of the page that says "Request a Free Trial Report." Fill out the form and within 24 hours, a PayScale product consultant will provide you with the information you need to create your own salary report.

8. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch."

Ivern Ball, poet

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe."  We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission