May 14, 2003
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-- Just released! May issue of Labor Storm Alert.
-- A minute here, a dollar there.
-- The Lighter Side of General Abilities
-- Ouch! The cost of turnover hits hard
-- Poor documentation, inconsistencies cut into bottom line.
-- A solution for managers who hate doing performance reviews.
-- Question of the week: What should I do if a candidate refuses to take a pre-employment test?
-- Missed a previous issue?
-- CriteriaOne Certification Training - June 5-6-7, 2003
-- Pocket Guides for Managers As Low as $9.95

Just released! May issue of Labor Storm Alert.
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Click here to read your May issue of Labor Storm Alert.

A minute here, a dollar there.
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The average American spends almost 4 minutes searching for lost keys, televison remote controls, mobile telephones, and other items every time one of the little suckers sprouts legs and walks off. Four minutes may not sound like a long time, but the minutes add up. If a person misplaces his wallet once every week, he would spend 3.5 hours each year trying to hunt the darn thing down.

Americans who consider themselves as "extremely organized" spend as little as 1 minute and 18 seconds finding misplaced items while adults who say they are not organized at all take up to 8.5 minutes to locate a missing item.

In the average small business, each staff member spends at least 3 to 5 hours per week looking for information. At an hourly rate of $12 per hour that adds up to over $2,800 per employee per year. Even worse, other employees join in the search and the $12 turns into $24, $36 and more. This does not even consider the lost opportunities or delayed customer callbacks.?

In larger businesses it takes the average employee from 30 minutes to 4 hours to find files stored in cabinets or computer files depending upon what they are looking for. Even then they will never be 100% sure that they have found all of the information.

Even with widespread computer usage, 70% of all documentation remains paper based. The average useable life-span of a document is only 30 to 90 days. Often they are never accessed again after this time. Office space is at a premium though - and the more files you have the more space required which leaves less space for additional staff members to grow your business and/or higher rent for storage space.

An average small business creates 1 x 4-draw cabinet per staff member per year, up to 5 4-draw cabinets before they get stored offsite after the 5th year - which also costs.

If you cannot answer a client's request immediately, the cost is staggering and frightening! Did you know that telephone tag costs you an average of $936 per employee per year. And worst yet, 25% of all clients are lost due to poor response to requests. If you have 1,000 clients, then you're losing on average 250 clients a year, at a cost of $25,000 to $50,000!

Organization is an essential competency. With more demands being placed on limited resources in nearly every organization today, time wasted finding and re- finding information costs lots of money. With cutbacks, resignations and retirements, critical information is walking out the door every day.

TotalView Assessment System helps identify individuals who have the ability to organize, follow procedures, and follow-through and to coach those employees who are missing expectations.

Get the TotalView - Assess Abilities and Personality with Accuracy. To receive a free report and consultantion, click here. Type "TotalView" in the comment box.

The Lighter Side of General Abilities
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Last week I introduced the importance of understanding how General Abilities (or cognitive skills) affects job performance. This week I received an email that couldn't have described what General Abilities looks like in the workplace. Below are excerpts from a Wall Street Journal column on computer literacy in the workplace.

1. SAT technical support had a caller complaining that her mouse was hard to control with the dust cover on. The cover turned out to be the plastic bag the mouse was packaged in.

2. Another SAT customer was asked to send a copy of her defective diskettes. A few days later a letter arrived from the customer along with photocopies of the floppies.

3. A confused caller to IBM was having troubles printing documents. He told the technician that the computer had said it "couldn't find printer." The user had also tried turning the computer screen to face the printer but that his computer still couldn't "see" the printer."

4. An exasperated caller to Dell Computer Tech Support couldn't get her new Dell Computer to turn on. After ensuring the computer was plugged in, the technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her response, "I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens,"The "foot pedal" turned out to be the mouse.

5. Another Dell customer called to say he couldn't get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of troubleshooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the "send" key.

6. Another IBM customer had troubles installing software and rang for support. "I put in the first disk, and that was OK. It said to put in the second disk, and I had some problems with the disk. When it said to put in the third disk, I couldn't even fit it in...." The user hadn't realized that "Insert Disk 2" meant to! remove Disk 1 first.

7. True story from a Novell NetWare Sysop: Caller: "Hello, is this Tech Support?" Tech: "Yes, it is. How may I help you?" Caller: "The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting that fixed?" Tech: "I'm sorry, but did you say a cup holder?" Caller: "Yes, it's attached to the front of my computer." Tech: "Please excuse me. If I seem a bit stumped, it's because I am. Did you receive this as part of a promotional at a trade show? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?" Caller: It came with my computer. I don't know anything about a promo! tion. It just has '4X' on it." At this point, the Tech Rep had to mute the caller because he couldn't stand it. He was laughing too hard. The caller had been using the load drawer of the CD-ROM drive as a cup holder and snapped it off the drive.

Click here to learn more about TotalView

Ouch! The cost of turnover hits hard
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Conservative estimates put the comprehensive cost of replacing a lost employee at 25 percent or more of the annual compensation amount.

For the typical full-time employee who earns $38,481 and receives $50,025 in total compensation, the total cost of turnover would amount to $12,506 per employee. the annual total corporate turnover cost forvarious annual turnover rates in the context of a Fortune500 firm with 40,000 full-time employees. For such a firm,total annual turnover cost can range from $75 million to $250 million per year, depending on the employee turnover rate. Each one percentage point variation in the turnover rate for full-time employees is equivalent to $5 million.

Reducing turnover starts at the front door. Click here to read how SPS helped one company take the bite out of turnover.

Poor documentation, inconsistencies cut into bottom line.
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In a recent case (Barnett v. The Boeing Company, Nov. 15, 2001), a supervisor with a history of absenteeism was passed over for a promotion. Due to inconsistencies among different supervisors in promoting employees combined with poor documentation, the employee was awarded a judgment.

Assessments are by no means the end all and be all. But had the decision to select another employee been based on objective and standardized information, Boeing had precedent case law in its favor.

The moral? Objective and consistent evaluation of candidates not only increases productivity but tremendously reduces the threat of employee discrimination.

To learn more about our train-the-trainer program for building an objective employee performance evaluation system, click here.

A solution for managers who hate doing performance reviews.
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It's time to take a serious look at Janus Performance Management System. With Janus it's easy to identify the competencies that should be evaluated, set up evaluation forms (online or paper), and assess from 1 to 1000s of employees in minutes.

Each employee and manager then receives a report identifying skill gaps, providing recommendations for improvement and guiding employees through an individual development plan. Reports are available in self, 180 and 360 versions.

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.

Contact us about scheduling a free tour of Janus. Please type "call me about Janus" in the comment box.

Question of the week: What should I do if a candidate refuses to take a pre-employment test?
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To this I ask, what would you do if a candidate refused to complete your application or submit a resume or answer questions at the interview? Pre-employment testing falls in the same category as the resume, interview and drug test and you are required to hold all candidates for a position to the same criteria.

But that's the legal response. On a more practical basis, if a candidate refuses to comply with your selection procedure, you've just had the first indication how he will respond to situations on the job that he doesn't want to do. If you're looking for an individual who challenges your system and authority, hire him - he just passed the test! If you are looking for an individual who shares your values and wants to be part of your team, this individual doesn't even have to put a pen to the paper for you to score the test. His refusal gives you all the information you need.

To post your questions about employee selection and testing, click here and join our Bulletin Board. It's FREE.

Missed a previous issue?
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Just visit our online library at www.super-solutions.com to view all the past issues of The Total View, Labor Storm Alert along with dozens of articles.

Click here to read previous newsletter and articles.

CriteriaOne Certification Training - June 5-6-7, 2003
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"Light years ahead of the competition" says one CriteriaOne participant.

"A must for anyone interested in lowering turnover and improving productivity."

If job analysis, job matching or employee testing is on your strategic calendar this year, you don't want to miss CriteriaOne. ( CritieriaOne® received trademark status in March 2003.)

Register before May 20 and save $400 off our registration fee for our next CriteriaOne Train-the-trainer 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

Become certified in CriteriaOne: The Whole Person Approach. Cllick here. Please indicate the best time and day to contact you.

Pocket Guides for Managers As Low as $9.95
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The perfect training tools for supervisors and managers. Practical, easy to read and budget-friendly.

Visit our new pocket guide section in our bookstore. Find titles such as:

Manager's Pocket Guide to Emotional Intelligence

Manager's Pocket Guide to Effective Meetings

Managing the Generation Mix

Managing Generation Y

and more. Order one for every manager.

Management tip: Start a monthly book club for your management team. Purchase a new title for each manager and schedule a breakfast or lunch meeting to share new solutions about managing and motivating employees.

Buy 11 and get the 12th FREE; 100 or more and save 10%.

Visit the Pocket Guides for Managers.