March 26, 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Anatomy of a Good Decision
-- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Approves CriteriaOne
-- The conversation usually starts like this:
-- Test your hiring manager's Interviewing IQ
-- Personality has huge effect on quality of decision making
-- Stop Guessing, Start Knowing - 2nd Workshops Added in Atlanta and Lancaster
-- Developing and Assessing Competencies Just Got A Lot Easier!
-- New! The Pricey Hiring Mistake
-- A little bit goes a loooooong way
-- The Solution to Entry-Level Employee Turnover
-- Managing Generation Y

Greetings!

Have you ever wondered, "What in the world were they thinking"?

Have you ever worked with a manager who couldn't make a decision to save his life?

What about working with another employee who makes a lot of decisions - just not very good choices?

One of the five competencies we are asked to assess the most is decision-making ability. The challenge until now has been anticipating how effective an individual's decisions will be before you hire or promote and before you delegate new responsibilties to them. Read on to learn how CriteriaOne(R) assessment technologies takes the guesswork out of assessing competencies and personality.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Approves CriteriaOne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week Success Performance Solutions received notification from the U.S Patent and Trademark Office that CriteriaOne was registered as a trademark.

What is CriteriaOne? It is a highly reliable, intuitive and successful solution for employee selection and performance management.

CriteriaOne was developed by Ira S. Wolfe, the founder of Success Performance Solutions. The 'secret" to CriteriaOne is the blending of assessment tools and techniques (including the interview and personality testing) to assess the "whole person". The whole person approach directly links an individual's behavior, attitude and personality to job related competencies.

Register for our next Train-the-trainer CriteriaOne workshop to be held on June 5-6-7, 2003 in Lancaster PA. Read what one participant in our last workshop had to say about his experience:

"Your CriteriaOne seminar this weekend was incredible. For years I did both contingency and retained search work for clients nationwide thinking the screening tools I used were serving us well. The information and skills you shared during our training are light years ahead of the rest of the screening and assesment systems out there."

B.M., Sr. Sales Consultant

To receive more information about CriteriaOne, click here. Please indicate the best time and day to contact you.

The conversation usually starts like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you have a test or something that can tell me if an employee will make good decisions?"

"What type of decisions are you expecting the employee to make," I ask.

Here are a few of the responses I get: "They need to make decisions without asking me stupid question every time. Decisions that don't cost us a lot of money. Prompt decisions."

"Tell me why the last employee didn't work out as expected", I ask. And to my amazement, I'll hear: "They should have known better. That's not the way we do things around here."

With that I begin to probe what "without asking me stupid questions" really means. If the employee asks for help, is he looking for guidance, confirmation or just shirking responsibility? If he doesn't ask for help, is this out of fear of looking "stupid" or can it be overconfidence in his own abilities? Of course it could be that he makes the correct decision but management doesn't appreciate that they weren't consulted. In these cases, management shouldn't be looking for workers with strong decision-making skills as much as identifying individuals who are motivated to follow set protocol and directions.

Be careful what you ask for - you may get it. If you hire people to think on their own, you can't penalize them when they do what they do best - make decisions on their own.

Test your hiring manager's Interviewing IQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Test your interviewing skills and then order "Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers" for only $9.95 plus S/H.

Click here to order your copy today..

Save 5% on orders of 10 to 50 and 10% on orders of 51 or more.

Over 500 managers have taken the Interviewing IQ test since we first introduced it just three weeks ago.

Click here to test your Interviewing IQ.

Personality has huge effect on quality of decision making
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What we are finding repeatedly is that competence in decision-making is not always assessed the same way by all people. Just because someone can make a decision doesn't always mean his or her choices are good ones or prompt ones. In other words, many choices are not judged by the outcomes but by the way they are made.

In assessing competencies like effective decision making, organizations need to look beyond whether an individual has the knowledge to make good decisions. They need to assess how they evaluate the risks and how they make the choices.

Through understanding behaviors, attitudes, abilities and personality factors, managers can begin to assess with a high degree of accuracy how likely employees will make consistently effective and timely decisions.

Let's take a look at some of the factors that can be assessed through personality assessment technologies.

1. General Abilities assess how accurately and quickly an individual can work with numbers, words and shapes when placed in unfamiliar situations or are pressured for time. Can they think on the fly when under duress, assess the risk and still make timely and effective choices?

2. Attitudes assess how an individual might view the outcomes of the decisions. Some may be motivated to do the research while others will make choices based on how much time or money needs to be invested. Still others might decide one choice is better than the other based on how it will impact other people and take the path of least conflict. Sometimes this is good - and sometimes conflict is unavoidable. Individuals who prefer to avoid conflict often times avoid making decisions even when it is their responsibility.

3. Motivational research (Quality of Motivation Theory) suggests that despite intense study into a subject, some individuals accept the information at face value while others question the integrity of all the new information they find. Many people are well read but don't question the source while others become "skeptical experts" and are paralyzed by analysis.

4. Behavioral styles affect whether individuals might come to you with questions or just give you the marching orders. These work styles will also determine how individuals might attempt to influence other people to their viewpoint - with words, with logic, or with data.

5. Personality factors assess if the individual might engage other people in their decision process or just make decisions on his own - and then ask forgiveness if it doesn't work out. Personality factors also determine if individuals prefer to hold meetings or send emails. If they do attend a meeting, will they participate by being outspoken or cooperative? Will they base their decisions on how well things were done in the past or how things need to be done in the future? Will they follow through on decisions or react only to deadlines? How will they cope with stress when time is of the essence? If there is conflict among the other team members or with the clients, will they attempt to build consensus, go for the win-win, or push for the take-it- or-leave-it deal?

To learn how to accurately assess personality and competence, register today for Stop Guessing, Start Knowing in Atlanta or Lancaster (PA).

Stop Guessing, Start Knowing - 2nd Workshops Added in Atlanta and Lancaster
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have you ever hired or promoted anyone who didn't meet your expectations? Then don't wait one minute longer to register for The HRD Press/Training House workshops: Stop Guessing, Start Knowing - How to Accurately Assess Personality and Competencies.

We have just a few seats open for the morning workshop so we've added an afternoon workshop.

The seminar will be presented in Atlanta (GA) on April 9 and Lancaster (PA) on April 30, from 8:30 AM to Noon and again from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Attention Consultants. Contact us about TotalView and Job Analysis Certification scheduled for April 10-12 and May 1-3. Become an HRD associate before March 31, 2003 and tuition is waived for this 3- day training. For more information call 800.803.4303.

Attendance at Stop Guessing, Start Knowing is limited to the first 20 participants and registration is FREE to HR and sales managers, COO, CFO, CEO, plant managers, and general managers. To register for this seminar, click on the link below. Just a few seats remain.

Yes, register me today for the Stop Guessing, Start Knowing Seminar.

Developing and Assessing Competencies Just Got A Lot Easier!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leadership ability.

Delegation skills.

Analytical thinking.

Change handling skills.

Motivation skills.

These are just a few of the required crucial skills needed by managers and leaders today.

Janus Performance Management Systems is an easy to use and cost effective approach for improving performance, assessing jobs, aligning an organization, and meeting other HR goals. Many organizations have identified competencies but have not had positive results during the implementation phase - until now.

The Online Janus System makes it easy to identify from 3 to 10 core competencies per position, build competency-based job descriptions, develop job- specific interview questions and adminster performance evaluations - a seamless, continuous, cost-effective solution to selecting and managing top performers.

Click here to schedule a no-obligation tour and demo of the Online Janus Website. Please let us know the best time and day to contact you.

New! The Pricey Hiring Mistake
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What other process in business today has such poor reliability and continues to be the tool of choice to screen and promote an organization's most valuable asset, its people? This reliance on the traditional interview creates two very expensive problems for employers: the cost of hiring the wrong employee and the hassles and expense associated with terminating a wrong hire.

March Business2Business column just released. Click here to read this and other B2B articles.

A little bit goes a loooooong way
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HRBenchmarks recently showed the cost of turnover for one Fortune 500 company.

Total compensation (wages and benefits) for average employee was $50,025;

Annual turnover rate for full-time employees was 23.8 percent;

estimated turnover cost per full-time vacancy was $12,506;

The annual cost of turnover - $119 million!!

By increasing (or decreasing) the turnover rate by just one percentage point, $5 million per year would be added (or subtracted) to the bottom line.

The Solution to Entry-Level Employee Turnover
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have you ever hired an employee who didn't show up for work and when they did they were late? What about an employee who showed up to work high on illegal drugs? Or have you ever hired an employee who had a bad attitude toward your customers?

Stop the madness! SELECT Associate System is your turn-key solution for screening out high-risk candidates before they have a chance to waste your time and run off your customers. SELECT is easy to use and available 24/7 with real-time turnaround. Reports are available for many positions including customer service, production/distribution, office/light industrial, retail sales and managers, call centers, hospitality, healthcare and more.

Click here to learn more about reducing turnover. (Scroll down to view SELECT)

Managing Generation Y
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They're blunt. They're savvy. They're contradictory. Self-confident and optimistic. Independent and goal-oriented. Masters of the Internet and PC. Young adults who believe education is cool, integrity is admirable, and parents are role models.

They're the children of Baby Boomers and the upbeat younger siblings of Gen X. They are the 29 million young adults born between 1978 and 1984 streaming into the workplace whose presence will continue to grow each year for the next ten years. They are Generation Y.

Managing Genertion Y is for those who want to become the employer of choice for the next cohort of young adults. Discover the Gen Y traits that pose the greatest challenges to managers as well as the best practices you can implement now to keep these upbeat, techno-savvy workers focused and motivated.

Visit the SPS bookstore and order Managing Generation Y.