Welcome to the April 9, 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.  A  Warning to Star-Struck Managers: Stop the Star Wars     

Amidst all the financial chaos and controversy over the JP Morgan Chase acquisition of near-defunct Bears Stearns, a significant storyline was lost. Not only did CEO Jamie Dimond oversee the deal of the century but he surreptitiously acquired many of the best minds on Wall Street in the deal. When the dust settles and analysts look back upon this historical financial bailout, don't be surprised to read that the most valuable asset that JP Morgan gained will be talent, not the real estate, clients or portfolio.

But every investment has its risks. In the end some will be winners. Others will be losers. If you are sitting in Jamie Dimond's seat, how would you decide who should stay and who should go?

You might be thinking "What a stupid question. Just hire the top performers." I'd suggest you'd be wrong. The results of a study that tracked the performance of over 1000 star analysts after they jumped ship for another company. In this study, the researchers found that the blazing success of top performers quickly fades after job hopping. In fact, "fades" may be an understatement. The negative results are downright staggering. Top performers resemble fleeting comets more often than shining stars.

The researchers found that when a company hires a star, nearly half of the star analysts did poorly in the new company. After they switched loyalties, their performance dropped an average of 20%. This drop wasn't just temporary either. The decline in performance was more or less permanent as many of these had-been stars became has-beens overnight. Even after five years, many never regained their star status, despite all the fanfare, high salaries, perks and bonuses showered on them.

So what happens when a star enters the world of free agency? Does he suddenly lose his smarts and intelligence overnight? Does he clean out his desk and turn in his skills and experience along with his security pass and keys?

Hardly.

What this study showed was something I've intuitively known and shared with clients for several years. It's now comforting to know I wasn't just making this stuff up!

Simply put, job fit - skills and personality - only solves one piece of the hiring puzzle. Just as critical are two other "fits": team and culture.

It's the importance of these team and culture fits that was explained by the study: only 30% of a star's top performance stems from personal competencies and capabilities. Seventy percent - yes, that is seven -zero-percent -depends on the procedures, personalities, relationships and subcultures of the organization he works for. As a result, a star's performance may be unable to be repeated in another company unless the systems, processes and people are nearly the same or until he learns to work the new system. The lesson: don't expect to see star performance unless you can support the star in a style to which he is accustomed. It is impossible for a star to survive with a supportive team, manager, and staff.

You might think of hiring a star as organ transplant. A quality hire depends on the willingness of the new team to accept the new hired gun. Resentful of the high pay and status given to the star, peers and support staff may avoid the newcomer, cut off information and refuse to cooperate. Like the body, an organization can reject the prized organ that operated so well inside another body. On some occasions, the new organ hurts healthy parts of the body by demanding a disproportionate blood supply. Other parts of the body start to malfunction or stop working. In organizations, the star siphons, and even hordes, an unjustified amount of time, resources and attention.

Before "transplanting" a star into your organization, you might want to think twice. You could get lucky, but success is rare!

Stars don't stay with organizations very long with organizations either, at least not long enough for employers to get a return on the huge investment paid out to bag them in the first place. Thirty-six percent of the stars left their new jobs within 36 months and another 29% quit before 5 years. Once stars start changing jobs, they keep on truckin'.

When all is said and done, it's just not that easy to integrate an outside star into most organizations.

What can an employer do to attract top performing employees?
Stay tuned for Part II in next week's Total View.

If patience is not your virtue (or you have an immediate need to recruit and hire top performers and ID high potentials), call us at 717.291.4640 or reply to this email.
 

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Every day I receive dozens of stories highlighting

another shortage of workers. Each week I'll post

one or two of the more interesting ones.  This week's

post is:

This week's post comes from the Seattle Times. The story ironically tells a tale of a worker shortage in the most unlikely of places - Ohio.  

Yes, Ohio - a "rust belt" state that has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs over the last few years. And yet, business owner after business owner, cries the blues about too much business for too few skilled workers.  How is this possible?  

Put simply, the article states, "Even after a century of manufacturing focus and higher-than-average salaries, the region suffers an imbalance between available skills and the personnel needs of growing enterprises.......Many out-of-work trades people don't fit into today's technology-intensive factories."  

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)

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. 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.

4. All the books you need to start a management library for as little as $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.

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.

Read more about Management Development books.

5. Speaking Schedule: Ira S Wolfe

2008:

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

May 16 - Sovereign Benefits Solutions HR Conference, Hershey PA

June 6 - CEO Roundtable, Boston MA

October (tentative) - American Staffing Association Annual Meeting - Workforce Trends That Change The Way You Will Do Business  

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

6. New Book: Coming Job Boom

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. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different."

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