Welcome to the November 10, 2004 issue of The Total View

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

New! Human Resources Blog - We're very excited to announce our new 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.  Reply to this email how to syndicate our blogs on your commercial websites or intranets.

In the News!

Business2Business - November 2004

What Is Keeping Human Resource Professionals Awake at Night?

(This original article written by Ira S. Wolfe was the November 2004 cover story.)

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - October 31, 2004

Firms probing employees' pasts

Central Penn Business Journal - October 8, 2004

Companies struggle to replace good, retiring managers

What's Inside

1. You can’t hide what others can see.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #286 to #290

3. Tips You Can Use - NEW!   Background Checks

4. How to Hire High Motivation Employee

5. The Complete Manager's Pocket Guide Library

6. SMILE!   A true story out of San Francisco.

7.  Over 250 Supervisors Have Attended Managing to Excel Workshops

8 . Fall Workshop and Speaking Schedule

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

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

1.  You can’t hide what others can see.

“Tell me,” Barbara asked. “Can she do a good job? “. Barbara, who manages a small administrative department for a Success Performance Solutions client, was holding a personality test report for a new employee, Tanya. “It looks like Tanya can do a good job,” I replied, “but I should warn you she will probably drive you nuts with questions.” Barbara was okay with that. “I don’t care about questions as long as she can get her work done. I’d rather have a new employee ask questions instead of making stupid mistakes.”

Within three days, Barbara called again. “Tanya drives me nuts,” she wailed. “Why didn’t I listen to you? When she’s not asking about my preference for font size on letters she’s off on some tangent about her kids, parents, neighbors, husband, pets. You name it, she talks about it. You were dead-on with your assessment – she’s great at what she does, when she does it.”

Let’s turn to Sally, who was amazed with the results of her assessment. Sally took the DISC behavioral type personality assessment for self-development. “What you learn from a 10-minute questionnaire can be pretty spooky,” she said. I simply smiled. I know something Sally doesn’t know. Assessments such as DISC are based on behavior. Since behavior can be observed, most people can tell a lot about you by simply paying attention. So much for our “little secrets.”

Sometimes a client disagrees with the report generated from personality assessments. That’s fine, because no test is perfect. If a client believes the results are faulty, we ask the person to share the report with trusted friends or co-workers. Then, after the shock fades and the laughter subsides, the client realizes the assessment accurately describes his or her behavior “most of the time.” In other words, you can’t hide what others already can see.

I was in Pennsylvania and Sally was in Ohio when we first spoke. First, I walked Sally through her personalized report page-by-page. The report described how Sally prefers to deal with problems, communicate with other people, handle the pace of work, and follow the rules set by other people. When we finally reached the graph that maps Sally’s preferred response to people, pace, procedures and problems and the graph that mapped how she meets those challenges on the job, Sally was amazed at the significant difference between the two. I suggested this discrepancy indicated workplace stress between how she prefers to do her job and how the job needs to be done. If left unchecked, this discrepancy can lead to chronic stress, burnout, and maybe long-term health problems.

It stunned Sally that I picked up on her stress level without ever meeting her. It turns out she was not happy in her new job. The much too heavy work load was taking its toll. Chronic aches and pains, migraines, and hypertension became normal for her. As the workload increased, so did her health problems.

Let’s go from the specific to the general, using Barbara as an example. Barbara, like many managers and small business owners, is learning that employee selection requires more than evaluating job skills. When deciding which candidates to hire, as well as those to retain and promote, managers should look for a three-way match– job, team and culture. When a manager bases a hiring decision on skills alone the chances are good that same person will be fired because of attitude. Although job skills are important, team fit rules when it comes to retention.

Want proof? Popular employees who fit in get considerable slack in meeting expectations. Co-workers and managers defend the team player’s mediocre performance, often protecting the person’s from upper management’s line of sight. By way of contrast, place a highly skilled, top producer with an attitude on a team and watch the sparks fly as people leave. Time doesn’t heal this wound. As long as the mismatch continues, the teamwork and the team continue to fall apart. The worse case scenario occurs when the manager has the attitude. Studies show that employees leave bosses, not organizations. I’m adding a personal corollary, which is employees leave teams, not jobs.

Barbara hired Tanya based on skills. She could do the job, but the fit with her manager shows clear signs of a mismatch. Personality tests don't measure right or wrong, good or bad. They just assess personality and when compared with the requirements of the job, determine a good job fit or bad fit. The simple fact is Barbara’s work style conflicts with Tanya’s need for contact and conversation. This resulting conflict stresses both of them.

The current business community buzz is “hire people who share our values.” That reflects the third match - culture fit. In smaller organizations, team and culture fit can be one of the same. With some larger businesses, departmental or team values may supersede company values. An employee might be a great company person and top talent, but a mismatch with co-workers means that person will not work with the team.

In a nutshell, selecting the right employee boils down to job matching. Job matching makes sure the employee fits with the team, the culture, and the job, in that order. Before you assume that’s a pitch for promoting mediocrity consider that job fit is a moot point if you ignore team and culture fit. Proper position, a good fit for team and culture, means an employee, even one with mediocre skills, will want to improve performance because the desire to remain a part of the team is so strong. Of course clearly defined performance expectations are essential.

Reluctantly, Barbara admitted she should have “listened” to the SPS assessment. Now she’s listening to Tanya.

As for Sally, who is so stressed her health is failing, she needs some relief from her boss. Instead of rewarding her perseverance and work ethic with more to do, Sally’s boss must make the workload realistic. If that doesn’t happen, the stress will play out with presenteeism, absenteeism, and health care costs. She may quit. Consider that cost.

The right mix of personality tests are a manager’s best friend. These personality assessments can predict how well the applicant can do the job, and comfortably fit with the team and the culture. The result? Higher productivity, longer retention, and better morale.

At SPS we recommend three assessment tests. There is DISC, the test that showed Sally how she'll do the job, and Business Values and Motivators and TotalView. Although DISC accurately predicts sources of conflict and stress, it does not assess how well an individual can handle stress. That dimension is picked up using the stability factor in the TotalView Assessment System, along with nineteen other dimensions. The Business Values and Motivators assessment identifies the match between cultural incentives and personal motivators.

For information on TotalView and Business Values and Motivators, watch for future issues of The Total View.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #286 to #290
Visit our blog, too.

While the population ages, so do the health care workers.  An aging population uses health care services more often but the population of health care workers is shrinking in many cases.

Fact #286:   In 2000, physicians spent an estimated 32 percent of patient care hours providing services to the age 65 and older population. If current consumption patterns continue, this percentage could increase to 39 percent by 2020. (Source: HRSA)

Fact #287:   The aging population will increase the demand for physicians per thousand population from 2.8 in 2000 to 3.1 in 2020. Demand for full-time-equivalent (FTE) registered nurses per thousand population would increase from 7 to 7.5 during this same period. (Source: HRSA)

Fact #288: The aging of the health workforce raises concerns that many health professionals will retire about the same time that demand for their services is increasing. Furthermore, the declining proportion of the population age 18 to 30 raises concerns regarding the ability to attract a sufficient number of new health workers. (Source: HRSA)

Fact #289: The aging population could result in rising average patient acuity, which could in turn require higher nurse and physician staffing levels. (Source: HRSA)

Fact #290: Total requirements for FTE RNs are expected to increase from approximately 2 million in 2000 to 2.8 million in 2020 (a 41 percent increase). Requirements for FTE LPNs are expected to increase from 618,000 in 2000 to 905,000 in 2020 (a 46 percent increase). There is an expected increase in FTE nurse aide and home health aide requirements from 1.5 million in 2000 to 2.3 million in 2020 (a 50 percent increase). (Source: HRSA)

Do you sit on a program committee for your local civic, business or professional association?   "The Perfect Labor Storm" is the perfect topic for meetings, conferences and keynotes.  Schedule Ira Wolfe today.  Find out what's ahead in employment trends and how it will affect career opportunities, education, quality of life issues and more.  Call 717.656.4632 for more information.

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.

3.  Tips You Can Use - Background Checks

Just last week, the Arizona Diamondbacks hired......then fired their manager.  Wally Beckman admitted to several "mistakes" in his past life - arrests for domestic disputes, drunken-driving, restraining orders - only after he was hired.  Ken Kendrick, one of the Diamondbacks' managing partners, after the "mistakes" became public stated they will now make background checks a layer of their hiring.

The owner of a motel in New Holland PA might want to do the same.  A young couple working as managers were arrested for stealing the cash payments received by guests.

If, like Pinocchio's nose, each lie a candidate told on his/her resume or during the interview became immediately apparent, business owners could easily weed out employees who cheat and deceive. So, how can you tell if an employee is lying about their work experience,

To provide our clients with one-stop shopping for employee evaluation from pre-employment to career succession, we are very pleased to introduce our new partnership with Information Architects, a leading provider of Employment Screening and Background Investigations.

BACKGROUND CHECKS.  Sixty-one percent of the human resource (HR) professionals surveyed said they find inaccuracies in résumés after carrying out background checks. (Source: SHRM Background Checks/ Résumé Inaccuracies online survey, 2004)

Services include:

• Employment Verification
• Criminal Records Search
• Civil Records Search
• Workers Comp Search
• SSN Verification
• Credit Reports
• DMV Reports
• Bankruptcy Search
• Degree Verification
• Professional License Verification
• Drug Screening

Learn more about background checks here.

4.  How to Hire High Motivation Employees.

It is finally here - The How to Hire The High Motivation Employee audio series. 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, ask the right interview questions, 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 $197 (valued at $257)

Order How to Hire The High Motivation Employee

5.  The Complete Manager's Pocket Guide Library

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 workshops.

Each guide covers an important topic such as managing generations, mentoring, creativity, project management, knowledge management or strategies for handling people issues such as conflict management, sexual harassment and performance.

Order the complete library of these 32 best selling Manager's Pocket Guides for only $279 - that's like getting 5 books free, a savings of $39. 

Order the Manager's Pocket Guide Library for Management Development today.

Plus this bonus!  We'll include a copy of "Understanding Business Values and Motivators"

at nor additional charge, a $12.95 value.

6.  SMILE!   A true story out of San Francisco.

A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote "this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag." While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo Bank. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said "OK" and left. The Wells Fargo teller then called the police who arrested the man a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.

7. Over 250 Supervisors Have Attended Managing to Excel Workshops

Ever since Success Performance Solutions introduced Managing to Excel in 2002, 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. 

To read more about Managing to Excel, visit Managing to Excel - Management Competency 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!

8.  Fall 2004 Workshop and Speaking Schedule

January 16, 2005 - 2005 International Builders Show,  Orlando, FL

February 28, 2005 - IQPC''s Best Practices in Disease Management,   Las Vegas, NV

9. 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.

10. 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

To learn more about Success Performance Solutions or read back issues of The Total View, stop by our website at www.super-solutions.com.

Order your personal copy of Understanding Business Values and Motivators.


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Ira S. Wolfe. 2004 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.

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