February 4, 2003
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-- How many unemployed people do you have on your payroll?
-- Be careful what you ask for!
-- OOOPS, You say.
-- STOP the Guessing: Hire for Higher Performance
-- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hiring An Assistant
-- HRD Press Announces TotalView, Job Analysis and Benchmarking Training and Certification
-- There's still time to register -
-- NOW OPEN! The SPS Bookstore
-- FREE audio tape from WJJZ interview.
-- JANUS: Looking Forward and Looking Back
-- Surveys! Surveys! Surveys!
-- New! Situational Interviewing and CriteriaOne

Greetings!

How many times have you hired an employee who didn't meet your expectations?

Are any of them still on your payroll?

How many unemployed people do you have on your payroll?
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No - that's not a trick question. You pay employees a wage in exchange for labor - whether it be manual labor, service labor or knowledge manual. When the employee doesn't deliver what you expected, it makes no difference who you pay. Money goes out the door and you receive nothing in return.

Whether the cause of low productivity is absenteeism, job dissatisfaction or inadequate skills, it doesn't really matter. The bottom line is your bottom line can't afford non-productive or ineffective workers. Margins today are squeezed from global competition, rising insurance costs, an aging workforce, threats of terrorism, and for the moment a sagging economy. Workers who are not productive are a cost few businesses can afford.

Join me on February 12, 2003 at 11 PM for a FREE tele-conference:How to Hire Profitable Employees. Register now by clicking here and type: "Register me for Feb 12" in the comment box.

Be careful what you ask for!
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One of the biggest problems causing mis-hires is that managers describe the desirable individual traits but don't understand how to measure them.

For instance, what job doesn't require people skills, enthusiasm and motivation? I have the perfect employee - Robin Williams or Richard Simmons. They love people. They're full of energy and highly motivated.

OOOPS, You say.
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So you're not looking for quite that much enthusiasm or motivation. Well, how much are you looking for? On a scale of 1 to 10, are you looking for a 3? 5? 9?

Let's say you decide you need a 7 in motivation, how do you know your candidate has enough - and not too much? If they have it today, how do you know they can sustain it? Can they remain motivated during tough and stressful times? How about when the pace quickens or when the competition increases?

STOP the Guessing: Hire for Higher Performance
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How much customer focus, effective decision making, competitiveness, attention to detail, and initiative does an employee need to be effective?

By first identifying the core competencies (see Janus Performance Management below) required to do a job well and then linking desirable personality traits, abilities, work styles and work values to the essential competencies, managers can now hire for higher performance without the guesswork.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hiring An Assistant
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Two weeks ago, I placed a classifed ad for an administrative assistant. The ad ran for two days. E- mails and faxes arrived for two weeks. That's the good news. It was only 10 months ago that I ran an ad and received barely a dozen responses. The qualified candidates were slim.

Now just a few months later, the response was bountiful - and full of surprises. More than half the responses were triggered through the Internet classified, not the Sunday print newspaper. This frankly surprised even me (the Perfect Labor Storm guy). WOW - an hourly, part-time clerical position and 50 resumes in one day from the Internet. But shortening a long story, after sifting through just short of 100 resumes from new graduates with GEDs to PhDs, from hourly workers with little experience to teachers with master's, few of these candidates were qualified for the three essential but basic skills I needed - organization, Internet, and dependability. The best I got was two out of three. The number of job-seeking employees may have increased but the pool of qualified employees was only diluted, not improved.

HRD Press Announces TotalView, Job Analysis and Benchmarking Training and Certification
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HRD Press/Training House announced that Ira Wolfe and his Success Performance Solutions team will provide training and support for their selection tools to HRD associates and clients. Wolfe will be responsible for recruiting associates, TotalView certification for associates and clients, job analysis training, and client support for TotalView, FirstView and Janus Performance Management Systems in the Eastern United States and for all SPS private clients.

Dates have been set for Lancaster (PA) on April 30, May 1 to 3 and and Atlanta (GA) on April 9 to 12, 2003. To learn more about becoming certified in Job Analysis or TotalView -

Click here to request more information. Type "TotalView training" in the comment box.

There's still time to register -
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- but you need to act fast. It's not too late to register for Managing to Excel 2003 at The Lancaster Chamber. Call us today at 717.656.4632 to register or receive the complete schedule.

The Communication Cluster begins February 19, 2003. Sign up for the Building Your Team, Managing Your Job and Thinking Analytically clusters and save $$$.

More on Managing to Excel

NOW OPEN! The SPS Bookstore
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Right Person-Right Job: Guess or Know by Chuck Russell. Only $12.95.

Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers by Sarah J. Ennis. Only $9.95.

Click here to visit the new SPS bookstore

FREE audio tape from WJJZ interview.
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Ira Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions, was the guest on Philadelphia Focus with host Bill Brosey on December 29 and broadcast on WJJZ-FM, 106.1 in the Philadelphia area. To receive a free audio tape of the show, email us at iwolfe@super-solutions.com for a free tape of the show.

Ira will also be speaking at the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce in March.

Click here for a free audio tape! FREE Shipping, too.

JANUS: Looking Forward and Looking Back
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Janus, the ancient Roman god with two faces, was originally considered to be the benevolent creator and god of gods. He later came to represent change and transition, such as the progression of past to future or one vision or condition to another. Janus was chosen as the ideal symbol for this performance management system because it, also, is about looking back and looking forward.

In the Janus System, the four core organizational competency areas are: 1. Strategic Customer and Operational Expertise (Customers) 2. Innovation and Continuous Process Improvement (Processes) 3. People-Motivation and Empowerment (People) 4. Risk Management and Adding Value (Value) When all of the core competencies are appropriately integrated, they create the synergies that we call "high performance" or "enterprise excellence."

Get your organization "looking forward". Click here and type "Janus" in the comment box.

Surveys! Surveys! Surveys!
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Hate the hassle of inputting survey results? Not enough time to query the data and create reports? Are you putting off getting much needed feedback from customers and employees?

Contact us today about real-time e-mail and web based surveys. No more hassles with entering results and creating presentations. Let SPS do the work for you. We can help you write, set-up, distribute (electonically), process and present in less time for less cost.

For more information about customer satisfaction or employee morale surveys, click here and type " surveys" in the comment box

New! Situational Interviewing and CriteriaOne
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According to the Handbook of Industrial & Organizational Psychology, the traditional standard interview is accurate only 7% of the time in predicting performance. The situational interview is 54% accurate and job matching is correct 3 out of 4 times. CriteriaOne provides all the tools you need to build a "whole person approach" for selection AND development of employees, including a behavioral and competency based interview.

First time in 2003! CriteriaOne is a two-day workshop that has been described as "outstanding". Consultants, owners and HR specialists from PA to CA attended this program in 2002. There's still time for you to register for the March 14-15, 2003 workshop to be held in Lancaster, PA. Register early and save $150!

To register or receive more information, click here.