Welcome to the May 23, 2007 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. 3 Hiring Lessons: Putting Round Pegs in Round Holes

You've likely heard the story about the boss pleading with his/her recruiters that the company needs to do a better job at recruiting and hiring round pegs to fill round holes. This analogy hangs right up there with putting the right people on the bus, made famous by Jim Collins in his book "Good to Great." Regardless of how a manager tells the story, the message is the same: hiring the right people the first time is gaining more importance.

In this week's column let's take a look at how companies can do a better job at identifying the "round pegs," the best candidates and then making sure they fit the "round holes," the job.

Before we start talking about resumes, interviews, and personality tests, the first thing that goes through my mind is this: are you sure the hole you want to fill is round? What if you found a square peg and modified the hole, the hole being the job? Could this square peg in a square hole perform the functions of the job as well, if not better than the round peg? In other words, is the hole really round? Or is it just that only round pegs have filled the position before and managers merely made the assumption that only round pegs could do the job?“

Lesson #1: Before looking for round pegs, you need to first be sure the hole needs to be round. You can do this by completing a job analysis to identify the essential functions of the job, the responsibilities of the people filling the position, and the skills and behaviors required to fulfill these responsibilities. To make the job analysis functional, managers must then identify how to measure performance - what are the expectations of the round peg and how well is it functioning?

For the purpose of this column, let's say we know for certain that the hole is round and therefore only round pegs will fit properly.

You advertise for the position and you are overwhelmed with pegs - you have big pegs and little pegs, square pegs and oblong pegs, rectangular pegs and triangular pegs. You even have a few rhomboidal
and octagonal pegs. And thankfully, a number of round pegs apply too.

Lesson #2: After completing the job analysis and determining the hole really is round the next step in the process is to begin identifying the round pegs. You begin the sifting process. Reading their resumes eliminates a few right away. Calling several more on the phone eliminates others.

This part of the process – identifying the pegs that don't fit – is called screening. Typically screening tools include observation, resumes or job applications, education, work history and so on. The initial phone or face-to-face interview also is considered a screening tool or assessment.

This screening phase for many companies is becoming very costly and ineffective. The job market is so tight for many positions that companies need to spread a wide net to find enough pegs to fill all
the holes. But when a company is looking specifically for a round peg, much time and resources are wasted sifting through all the non-round pegs who apply.

In search of a better system to screen, companies are now using sophisticated hiring "sieves" to separate out the round pegs from the non-round ones. (A sieve separates wanted/desired elements from unwanted material - you know draining the water from the spaghetti, coins from the sand, and for our purposes, weeding out the non-round pegs.)

Advancements in technology and employee assessments offer easy-to-implement, cost-effective screening solutions. Applicant processing systems in the past were complex and costly to implement,
therefore excluding small and mid-sized businesses. But systems like Total Application Processing System (Total-APS) or HR Clues are now affordable for even micro-businesses and for companies looking to fill one or one hundred positions. Applicants apply by submitting a resume and responding to an online interview. Companies can customize the questions specific to the job and company culture requirements. Each question is rated and weighted allowing managers to quickly differentiate the perfectly round pegs from the almost round pegs to the not-at-all round pegs with little or no time expended on their part. Prompt response and focused attention can then be directed to only the round pegs.

"Personality tests" can be an additional screening tool. It is important to note at this point that not all personality tests are screening tests nor are all screening tests predictive of job performance and competence. For instance an assessment like CandidClues is excellent at predicting a candidate's attitude toward dependability, honesty and hostile tendencies but is not useful at all at assessing teamwork, problem solving, drive or persistence. JobClues on the other hand is a very reliable personality and cognitive test for teamwork, conscientiousness, detail-orientation and more when used as a screening tool. And while the Clues assessments provide an excellent screening tool, they are not recommended for selection. I reserve my selection assessment recommendations to Prevue (formerly know as TotalView) and ASSESS.

Whatever method is used for sifting out the non-round pegs – resume, interview, APS, personality test – you should now have only round pegs left in the candidate pool.

Where managers go from here depends on how exact the fit of the round peg must be into the round hole.

Lesson #3: Let's say the diameter of the round hole is 3.25 inches. For a manager, this means the individual who fills this position must have specific skills and abilities, the motivation to do the job, the
behavioral style to fit with the rest of the team, and values that fit with the culture. Translation: only round pegs with a diameter equal to or less than 3.25 will fit into the hole. At this point the question that managers must ask is "how exact does the fit need to be?" Will a 2.5 inch or 3.75 inch round peg suffice or are the dimensions critical too?

An individual’s motivation, behavioral style, values, personality traits determine the roundness of the peg. Cognitive skills and job competence affect the size of the peg. For example – you could have a
perfectly round peg that has the essential qualifications to fit the hole: It’s round. But if the hole requires a 3.25 inch peg, a peg measuring 5 inches may be over-qualified and not challenged by the job
responsibilities. The peg has too much of something while a 2 inch peg would need a lot of filler to make it work.

If close is good enough, then a structured behavioral interview and a screening assessment such as Clues may be predictive enough to find the best fitting round peg. But if the margin of error is small, then
any peg smaller than 3.24 inches or larger than 3.26 inches could cause performance problems or disruptions on the team.

What if your job analysis showed that only red pegs work and blue pegs won't? What if you know that only pegs made out of specific materials work? When a job requires specific competencies, behavioral styles, or cognitive skills and the company culture requires certain values and motivations, then the use of selection assessments, not screening tests, are a must.

When essential functions are clearly identified and the skills and abilities to carry out these functions are fairly specific, then selection tools, combined with a structured competency-based behavioral interview, create a sieve within a sieve. Once you have narrowed down the candidate pool to the round pegs that most closely fit the round hole, selection tools identify all the essential characteristics in advance - how well can they perform the job, what potential does the candidate have to grow and learn, how well will they fit on the team, will he/she embrace the company culture, and so on.

Click here to read more about any of these screening and selection hiring systems from SPS
or call us at 717.291.4640 or 800.803.4303.

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Facts and Trends

Graduation is just around the corner and millions of new workers will be applying for jobs. Here's a quick peek at a few of their quirks:

The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently reported that communication skills top the list of what employers look for the most in employees and job candidates. Ironically, communication skills also top the list of skills most lacking in new college graduates.

More than a third of 18 to 25 year olds have a tattoo. Thirty percent of 18 to 25 year olds have piercing somewhere besides their earlobes. 

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

58 percent of college graduates from 2000 to 2006 moved home after school and 32 percent stayed more than a year.
Source: Experience Inc.

73 percent of 18 to 25 year olds received financial assistance from their parents in the past year and 64 percent have gotten help with errands.
Source: Pew Research Center

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is now available. The year 2007 will see an increase in skilled worker shortages and more competition. The result will be higher salaries, more training and career advancement opportunities, and more flexible work cultures.  How prepared is your company to find skilled and dependable workers?  

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is the newly updated and revised 2007 edition of best-selling book first published in 2005.  You can now download an advance copy of PLS 2.0. a $10 value with every purchase of the original Perfect Labor Storm, still a great value at $9.95. 

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

3.  New! Upcoming Webinars, Workshops and Training Dates

Get Clues: Solving the mystery of hiring employees
Date: June 5, 2007
Time: 11:00 AM EDT
Place: On the web
Cost: FREE - limited to first 10 participants.

Looking for an easy to use, low cost tool to uncover employee clues that predict successful job performance? Then you don't want to miss this free webinar conducted by Marilyn Walker, Director of the SPS Assessment Center.

Click here to register!

ASSESS Expert System Certification
Date: June 12 and 13, 2007
Time: 8:30 - 5:00; 2nd day ends at 12:30PM
Place: Lancaster, PA
Tuition: $1500 per person; $1000 for 2nd person, same company

ASSESS Expert System User Certification has been rescheduled due to the inclement weather experienced in the Northeast from April 15-17. New dates will be June 12 and 13.

For the first time ever, Bigby Havis and Success Performance Solutions have partnered to sponsor a 2-day ASSESS User Certification in Central PA. (Bigby Havis is one of the top U.S. organizational psychology consulting firms with domestic and international clients.)

Participation is limited and over half the seats are already filled.
Don't wait. Call 800-803-4303 for information.

Hiring Tool Kit 101
During this webinar you will when it is appropriate to use pre-employment tests, how to compare different hiring tools for reliability, and how to differentiate between screening and selection tools. 
Date: June 14, 2007
Time: 2:00 PM EDT (11:00 AM PDT)
Place: On the Web
Cost:  FREE - limited to first 10 participants.
Register for Hiring Tool Kit 101

4. Are All Workers With Mental Illnesses Covered by ADA?

As a follow up to last week's column about Workplace Jerks and the May 9 column about Anger and Violence, this posting from HR Daily Advisor seemed noteworthy:

Mental illness can take many forms, ranging from mild depression to severe, psychosis-driven violence. And it's often hard to find the line between "personality disorders," which are usually not considered
disabilities to more severe conditions that are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA, however, tries to find that line.

For a mental illness to be protected under the ADA, it:

1) Must inhibit one or more of the employee's major life activities, such as eating, sleeping, or performing tasks of personal care; and

2) Must not (with a reasonable accommodation, if needed) prevent the employee from performing the essential functions of his or her job, nor impose an undue hardship on the employer.

The challenge, of course, comes in dealing with actions caused by mental illness that fall between mild disorders and those that may threaten physical harm to the employee or to others.

To read the full post, go to HR Daily Advisor

5. Bridge the Generation Gaps with Generational Style Assessment

Your top candidate arrives at the interview with his fiancé . He is bright, educated, articulate, ambitious - and engaged. He arrives at the interview with his fiancé and then insists she participate. During the interview, they hold hands and she massages his neck. What do you do? How do you bridge the gap between people of different ages in your workplace?

The chances are, you’ve struggled with someone older – or younger – who just doesn’t see things your way. This assessment will help you understand the differences between the generations and identify ways to “flex” your own behavior to better work with or manage people of all ages.

Click here to see more about Generational Style Assessment and other tools and books.

6. Monster Poll reveals 10 percent tell monster lies on resumes

Monster.com is running a poll on their Resume Tips message board, asking Monster members if they have ever lied on their resumes. Here are the results as of May 21, 2007:

10% chose “Yes, I told a whopper.”
48% chose “Not really, though I may have prettied-up the details a bit.”
42% chose “No, my resume is the stone-cold truth.”

Uncover the lies with Interviews for Success and online personality tests like CandidClues. Call us at 800.803.4303 to learn more.

7.  Quotes from Hire Authorities

"The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of
those who look at it without doing anything."
Albert Einstein

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