Welcome to the February 28, 2007 issue of The Total View

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

Pre-employment assessment tests have been around for ages.
Some are pinpoint accurate and will help you make smart hiring decisions. Others deliver only a surface-level look at a candidates personality traits ... and little else.

Attend this 60-minute web-event on to learn about how good employee assessments work and how to make sure you are using the right ones.

Click here to register for this mini-course.

Only a few seats left. Don't delay - register now or call 800.803.4303

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:

"Choose the Best Employee Assessment Test and Put the RIGHT Person In the Job" Audioconference.

Click here to order the CD or transcript or call 800.803.4303 for information.

1.  Survey: Is it getting harder to find qualified and dependable workers?

Are worker shortages and turnover costing your business more?
Is it taking longer to hire workers? Is the quality of available workers hurting your business productivity?

Tell us what's going on. Share your comments. It will take you less than five minutes to complete this short nine question survey.

Forward the survey to a friend, boss, or colleague. The more responses we get, the more valuable the survey.  Results will be shared in the March 7, 2007 newsletter and on our HR Blog.

Click here to complete the survey.  It takes less than 2 minutes!

2.  Managing Poor Performance

Managing poor work performance is really about two things:

* Managing static poor performance by having a clear and fair framework within which everyone can work. This involves clear and fair rules on such things as unacceptable behavior, safety, and timekeeping, as well as having agreed-upon standards of work for all employees.

* Managing dynamic poor performance by actively ensuring that all rules and standards are kept and taking action to close any gap between required and actual performance.

It is imperative that you address unacceptable performance as soon as it becomes apparent--before the situation deteriorates or the opportunity to address the issue disappears. If you put it off, the only options you will have are a range of blunt tools such as discipline, job transfer, or termination.
Resorting to these measures is likely to be extremely costly to both the enterprise and the individual in question.

The Managing Poor Performance SkillBuilder booklet provides general guidance on how to handle unacceptable performance in a positive and constructive manner (wherever possible, without having to resort to formal discipline). It also provides specific guidance on what steps might need to be taken when the performance shortfall has become significantly more serious and more formal (and typically written) measures have to be taken.

The first step at managing poor performance is "Analyze."

If you can't identify it, you can't correct it, and if you can't correct it, you can't improve it.

The purpose of taking corrective action is to get the individual back on track and to help them improve, not to make them feel bad or penalize them. Taking corrective action is an integral part of the ongoing performance management process, and it should be done with the genuine hope and intention that the individual will quickly improve and even become "high performing" again. There are four kinds of performance problems, as described below:

* "Can't" problems generally have to do with a lack of aptitude (the capacity to learn and/or do the job). They are best avoided by carefully selecting the right people for the right job. Motivational techniques and training will rarely result in improvement if the problem is aptitude.

* "Won't" problems generally have to do with lack of motivation and can be overcome by listening to the employee and then leading them safely forward through persuasion and incentive.

* "Don't know" problems generally arise from lack of information (or sometimes plain ignorance). In such cases, simple communication might be all that is needed.

* "Don't know how" problems are generally associated with a lack of training.

Unlike communication, training takes more time and there must be opportunities to work collaboratively.

This simple four-item list helps us focus on what is wrong with performance so that we don't put out mixed messages or create confusion in terms of what is expected of individual employees.

To learn more about managing employee performance, receive instant access to Managing Poor Performance, order the 12 page SkillBuilder booklet, for only $6.95.

Success Performance Solutions offers a variety of development and performance management tools including behavioral and competency-based assessments. To learn more call us at 800.803.4303.

3.  Perfect Labor Storm Alerts # 620 - 624

Pre-release Special! The Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 has landed.
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 $7.95.

Fact #620: In the year 2000, Mexico and Germany had roughly equivalent workforce populations, about 51 million each. By the year 2030, Mexico will have a working age population (ages 20-64) that is twice the size of Germany's, 80.5 million versus 43.1 million respectively.
(Source: Watson Wyatt, World Economic Forum 2004)

Fact #621: In the current 15 European Union (EU) nations, the number of people aged 20-59 years will reduce from 208. million in 2000 to 151.2 million in 2050. Meanwhile during the same period, the amount of people over the age of 60 will climb from 82.1 million to 125.1 million.
(Source: Watson Wyatt, World Economic Forum 2004)

Fact #622: Japan will have to increase its immigration rate 11-fold to make up for its low fertility rate.
(Source: Watson Wyatt, World Economic Forum 2004)

Fact #623: In India, on the other hand, the number of working-age people will increase by 335 by 2030 - almost as much as the total working population of the EU and the United States combined in 2000.
(Source: Watson Wyatt, World Economic Forum 2004)

Fact #624: Southeast Asia will see its workforce grow by 58 percent within the next 30 years.
(Source: Watson Wyatt, World Economic Forum 2004)

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

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.

4.  The Manager's Pocket Guide to Documenting Employee Performance By Terry L. Fitzwater

This guide will help you document and change unwanted work behaviors before they become issues for termination. It includes information on a four-step progressive discipline process and how to apply it; clarifying gaps in execution vs. gaps in knowledge; behavior modification through corrective action; a process for documenting peformance issues; and a look at the legal framework surrounding discipline.

Order Manager's Pocket Guide to Documenting Employee Performance

5.  Ten Reasons Why Performance Reviews Fail

Ask any manager what he hates most about his or her job and you'll likely hear "performance reviews".

For many reasons, these periodic employee evaluations have been done poorly if at all in the past. What follows is a list of the 10 most important reasons why performance reviews fail.

Read more about why performance reviews fail in a previous issue of The Total View.

6.  Employee Evaluations Made Easy - 360s too!

Janus Performance Management System - tailored to match individual needs by developing the competencies that are most relevant for every job.

Ten stand-alone individual module workbooks are divided into three volumes.

Janus provides a comprehensive, step-by-step planning design to help manage this process effectively. Janus not only provides a suite of goal setting and appraisal forms and templates to help this action planning process, but also helps to ensure that all written documents are in plain language, complete, comprehensive, and easy-to-use.

Online 360 assessments now available!

View sample employee evaluation forms and more.

7.   Quotes from Hire Authorities

"Without everyone embracing what we want to do, we haven't got a prayer."
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

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