Welcome to the April 5, 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:

The Greater Valley Forge Human Resource Association
Organization Development Special Interest Group presents

Navigating the Talent Management Rough-Water:
Charting for the Labor Shortage Ahead

Keynote Speaker: Ira S Wolfe, Author - Perfect Labor Storm

What does all the current buzz about “Talent Management” mean in light of the impending labor shortages we face? This forum is your opportunity to get an insiders view of the latest statistical data as well as hear how several well known companies are “battening down their hatches” to prepare for the changing tides.

Listen to presentations and ask questions of:

• Ira S. Wolfe, Author and Founder of Success Performance Solutions
• Virginia Clarke, VP Organization & Talent Management, SAP America
• Gail Townsend, Organizational Development Specialist and Tiny Dyer, Human Resources Generalist, W. L. Gore
• Scott Cook, Sr. Director, Human Resources, Day and Zimmerman

To learn more or register for Navigating Talent Management Rough-Water.

1.   Why Personality Testing is Legal...and when it's not.
By Marilyn Walker, MS - Director of SPS Assessment Center

Within minutes of returning to my office, I received the following email. It came from an HR manager who just attended the monthly SHRM meeting. The speaker, an employment law attorney, presented a legal update and highlighted a recent decision relating to the use of personality tests in the workplace.

The sender inquired about the attorney's statement: "the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit Court ruled that the MMPI (Minnesota Mulitphasic Personality Inventory) is a medical exam under the Americans with Disabilities Act."

"Isn't this like the TotalView test your company supplies us with?" she asked.

What an excellent question. Surely, this ruling puts our assessments on the firing line and our clients in jeopardy, right?

The answer is an irrefutable and absolute "NO."

What separates MMPI from assessments like TotalView and ASSESS?

The MMPI is a diagnostic tool. Think of a blood test. Your physician might order a blood test to rule out or diagnose a thyroid condition or diabetes. But he might order an MMPI to rule out or diagnose schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, or a personality disorder such as Narcissistic, Histrionic or Borderline Personality Disorder. The most common use of diagnostic tools like the MMPI occurs in a clinical or hospital (inpatient or outpatient) setting. Clinicians use the MMPI as well as the Rorschach, the PAI (Personality Assessment Inventory), or the 16PF (Personality Factors) to confirm a suspected diagnosis or gain insight into issues a patient might struggle with.

Any assessment used in the workplace must avoid any adverse impact or discrimination against applicants who are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. To ensure that people with disabilities are not unfairly screened out by pre-employment testing, the law is very specific: pre-employment tests must accurately measure people's job-related skills and traits (TotalView or ASSESS), not their clinical disorders (MMPI).

Once you decide to offer the applicant a job, the criteria for using a test like MMPI might change. You might be able to include a clinical diagnostic tool if you can prove the testing is job-related. For instance, if the job puts the employee in high stress situations and requires high levels of composure similar to jobs in the CIA, law enforcement, or the military, the MMPI might be allowed. But this decision should be made only after a thorough job analysis and consultation with an employment law attorney.

In contrast to the MMPI, the TotalView Assessment or the ASSESS Expert System simply evaluate personality functioning, not personality dysfunction. Both assessments are constructed using the Big 5 Personality Model. This model does not judge good and bad personality or behavior. It simply provides a "normative" evaluation - how the individual functions compares to other people. In other words, TotalView and ASSESS are designed to identify common work behaviors while clinical tests expose potentially deep, dark secrets.

In the last 15 years there have been numerous studies which demonstrate that personality, as assessed through standardized instruments that tap into the Five Factor model, has a predictive relationship with job performance. Recent research has demonstrated that personality assessment contributes unique information to the prediction of job performance, over and above that offered by methods such as cognitive ability testing alone and managerial assessment centers.

The five factors of personality can be described with the acronym: OCEAN.
O - Openness to change.
C - Conscientiousness.
E - Extroversion.
A - Agreeableness.
N - Neuroticism (or emotional stability).

When applied to work-related competencies or job requirements, Five-Factor personality traits can help distinguish between applicants that have the potential to be top performers and those that do not. This is consistent with the US Department of Labor recommendations regarding "Job Matching: identifying the tasks, duties, responsibilities, and working conditions associated with a job and the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics required to perform the job." (US Department of Labor - Testing and Assessment: An Employers' Guide to Good Practices. 2000)

The bottom line is this: tests constructed to diagnose clinical disorders and personality dysfunctions are clearly illegal except under the most extreme circumstances. Personality assessments based on the Five-Factor model, when used to predict potential job performance, satisfy the job-related assessment criteria recommended by the Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

For more information about TotalView

For more information about ASSESS Expert Systems

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Alerts # 519 to 520

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

Bonus! $237 million in wages was lost by employers for every 13.5 munutes workers spent watching March Madness games on the Internet.
(Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas)

Fact #519:  An obese (30 or more pounds over a healthy weight) employee costs an additional $460 to $2,500 annually in medical expenditures and work absences, compared with a normal-weight worker, according to a new report published in the September/October 2005 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Fact #520:  Higher expenses for obesity are absorbed by:
all employees, who end up paying higher health-care premiums;
by employers, if they must hire replacement workers or pick up a larger share of insurance costs; and the obese employees themselves, if they aren't paid for their time off. (Source: September/October 2005 issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion)

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.

3.  Ask The Hiring Expert
As a hiring manager or small business owner, what is the most nagging question you have when it comes to hiring smarter, in less time, and finding the right person for the job?"

Don't be afraid to ask - no obligation, just submit your question and we'll respond within 24 hours. To ask your question, go to Ultimate Hiring Solution.

4.   Quotes from Hire Authorities

To grasp and hold a vision - that is the very essence of successful leadership.
Ronald Reagan

5.    Screen Employees Fast

JobClues™, a part of the CLUES™ Assessments family of products, was designed by Leonard Goodstein, Ph.D. and Richard Lanyon, Ph.D. It is perhaps the world's leading psychometric assessment for screening employees. Business managers have tested more than 100,000 employees with JobClues™ to measure how well they fit a job description. JobClues™ requires just 15 minutes on-line.

For more on JobClues.

6.   Assess 360 for Sales and Leadership
This web-facilitated multi-rater survey component of the ASSESS platform utilizes dimensions and behaviors populated directly from the organization's competency model. A participant can rate multiple people at a time and the system allows for comparative ratings. Reports provide detailed individual feedback on:

• Competency Rankings

• Behavior Ratings

• Developmental Suggestions

• Action Planning Guidance

View a Sample ASSESS 360 Degree Report.

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Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.