Welcome to the February 1, 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.   Personality Tests Crack the Job Fit Code

What does it mean when people talk about finding the right personality for a job?

Personality is typically defined as the unique bundle of motivations, attitudes and behaviors that make each of us who we are. One individual’s bundle may be outgoing, creative, and excitable and another is reserved, organized, and calm. But when the quiet speak and the assertive are tamed, do aliens suddenly take over their bodies to do these weird things? Can people actually change their personalities so easily?

No, not really. When you observe changes like these, you typically are observing behaviors. Behaviors describe how individuals react to specific situations like problems, people, pace of environment and procedures. People, when willing and able, can adapt and modify their behavior easily but can personalities be changed? Do personalities keep us stuck in our ways?

Overwhelmingly consensus agrees that personalities rarely change after adolescence and when change does happen it happens slowly. For example. Your salesperson refuses to work your database and call prospects and clients. He has been "diagnosed" as having call reluctance. You invest thousands in training, provide coaching and phone scripts, and add sales incentives. Maybe, just maybe his behavior will change. But will this change stick? Not likely. If it does, how long will it be until the core personality shows through again or the individual burns out?

When it comes to the workplace, behaviors are like the wrapping on the gift. Sometimes the shape of the box and the design of the paper give away hints to what is inside. Many times the gift inside turns out to be something totally unexpected.

What is happening as a result of many of today's hiring and succession decisions is that managers are making decisions based on the "gift wrap" or behaviors. After the gift is unwrapped and the proverbial honeymoon is over, all that is left is what's inside - the personality. And many managers are wishing they kept the receipts because they are now stuck with very expensive unwanted gifts.

Personality testing is saving managers the enormous expense, heartache and embarrassment of hiring a "great personality" only to find out who they really hired is the wrong fit or worse, the infamous "problem personality". Pesonality tests based on the five-factor model are widely accepted due to their usefulness in finding out who a person really is and how they will fit an environment, a team, or a job.

One five factor employee assessment TotalView helps hiring managers easily separate the achievers from the do-ers, the risk-takers from the risk-averse, the outgoing from the reserved, and the relaxed from the easily excitable. It helps predict if an individual will adapt and lead change, display leadership or sales ability, and benefit from coaching and development.

When looking to build an organization of people with the "right stuff", think personality. Breakthroughs in technologies and volumes of empirical research are beginning to crack the code for identifying and developing peak performers.

View TotalView sample reports.

Download "What You Need To Know About Personality and Job Fit"  here.

2.  HR's Believe It or Not

When a grandmother recently admitted to stealing $280,000 from her employer, she told police she just didn't have enough money to pay all her credit card bills...and she needed to buy her grandkids some gifts. Her only mistake...."I said things I shouldn't have said some things to police."

Just a few hours earlier in the morning newspaper, the headlines revealed a registred s*x offender was found working at a city child-care center.

In a recent study by InfoLink Screening Services, more than one-fourth of job applicants were found to have discrepancies in their reported past employment, 8 percent had criminal records, and 3 percent tested positive for illegal drugs.

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.

What's the point? 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.”

Find out how Counter-Productive Behavior Index, CandidClues, and SELECT can help screen high-risk candidates out before it's too late.

3.  The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback

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. "The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback" is just one of hundreds of pages of reproducible facts, tips and sample evaluation forms included in Janus Performance Managerment System Volume 1. Click on the link below for tips on "The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback"

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

4.   Perfect Labor Storm Alerts # 499 to # 501

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

Fact #499:   U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the construction industry will need to add 100,000 jobs a year each year through 2102, while also filling an additional 90,000 openings annually for positions vacated by retiring baby boomers and those leaving the industry for other reasons.

Fact #500:   Over 31 percent of college-educated male workers are regularly logging 50 or more hours a week at work, up from 22 percent in 1980. About 40 percent of American adults get less than seven hours of sleep on weekdays, up from 34 percent in 2001. Almost 60 percent of meals are rushed, and 34 percent of lunches are choked own on the run. (Source: BusinessWeek, October 3, 2005 )

Fact #501:  In 1955, 40.5 percent of the U.S. workforce was engaged in manufacturing, construction, and mining. By 2005, those industries employed only 15.8 percent of the workforce while service-producing industry sent paychecks to 41.8 percent of workers. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

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!

6.  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.