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Success Performance Solutions
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Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

April 7, 2004
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-- Jobseekers Create "Resu-mess" for Employers
-- Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #131 to #135
-- Eight Crucial Survival Skills
-- Managing Values, Valuing Results
-- Have you ever avoided an employee's review and hoped they would quit first?
-- A Closer Look at Behavior-Based Interviewing
-- What Is It That Employees Really Value?
-- Just the facts: Bring Home the Bacon

Greetings!

Welcome to this week's issue of The Total View.

Ira S. Wolfe ©2004 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.


With more candidates applying and looking for jobs on the Internet, it's like having six lanes of traffic merging into a two-lane tunnel and that translates into a bottleneck at the hiring tollgate. Don't miss this week's column abou the "Resu-mess".


To learn more about Success Performance Solutions or read back issues of The Total View, stop by our website at www.super-solutions.com.

Our most popular link in last week's issue: Sample Report - Interview Generator


  • Understanding Business Values and Motivators and The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book are here. Preview the introduction and first chapter of Understanding Business Values and Motivators at no charge by following the link in the Understanding Business Values and Motivators section below.

    Continue reading The Total View and order your copy below.


    April Seminar Schedule.

    April 13, 2004 - Total Applicant Processing System - Eliminate The Headaches and Logjams When Screening Candidates Register Here for APS.

    April 21-23, 2004 - CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer: Learn to Hire Competence with Confidence. Register below for CriteriaOne.


    Jobseekers Create "Resu-mess" for Employers
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    A massive influx of resumes is creating an administrative nightmare, a "resu-mess" in human resource.

    In addition, just like the neighbor attending an open house just to get a peak about how the people on the other side of the street live, an increasing number of job candidates are just "shopping".

    But more candidates isn't necessarily better. Sifting through the resumes takes time. Few managers, human resource profressionals and assistants have the time to screen the applications, call the candidates, fight the voice mail tag, complete phone interviews, schedule face-to-face interviews and so on.

    Successful recruiting strategies to select-in more of the right candidates are being derailed by a voluminous response of applicants. While attempting to disqualify the unqualified or disinterested applicants, high-demand qualified candidates are overlooked and turned off by slow response times, cumbersome hiring hurdles, or inexperienced, and sometimes inept, interviewers.

    To further complicate matters, 44 percent of 2.6 million resumes reportedly contained at least some lies. (Source: Avert Inc)

    A survey from the Society of Human Resource Management reports human resource professionals are uncovering lies in these categories:

  • Length of employment, 53 percent.
  • Past salaries, 51 percent.
  • Criminal records, 45 percent.
  • Former job tales, 44 percent.
  • Former employers, 35 percent.
  • Driving records, 33 percent.
  • College degrees, 30 percent.
  • Credit, 24 percent.
  • Schools attended, 22 percent.
  • Social Security number, 14 percent.

    Lying isn't just a problem at the hourly level either. "At least 23 percent of 7,000 resumes submitted for president, V.P. and board of director positions had been a little cooked." (Source: Christian & Timbers)

    The problem doesn't stop there. Forty million drug tests are conducted each year on job candidates and employees. But employees learn "the ropes".

    But the prevalence of screening and the reach of the Internet has fostered a thriving cottage industry of entrepreneurs who promise to help workers beat the tests. Products like Urine Luck to counteract urine tests, Get Clean Shampoo intended to counteract hair tests and Quick Fizz tablets for saliva tests are readily available. Businesses are at a crossroads. Business just wasn't always as complex as it is today. Everything has changed. Streamlining recruitment, hiring quickly, and selecting the right people are no longer options but key growth strategies.

    Stop the "Resu-mess" here.

    Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #131 to #135
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    Fact #131

  • 99% of all workers perform some reading-related work each day; to keep pace on the job they read 113 minutes a day.

    Fact #132

  • 50% of the U.S. population, ages 16-65 are functionally illiterate.

    Fact #133

  • 52% of high school graduates lack the basic skills required to do their jobs adequately.

    Fact #134

  • Only 25% of high school graduates are considered to have excellent basic skills.

    Fact #135

  • The estimated yearly cost of illiteracy due to non-productivity, crime and loss of tax revenue is $225 billion.

    Source = Adult Literacy Survey

    "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is HERE! Order your copy today - $7.95 includes free shipping for limited time only.

    Order your copy of The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book today!

    Eight Crucial Survival Skills
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    1. Technology

    2. Communication

    3. Computation skills

    4. Critical thinking and problem solving

    5. Information management skills

    6. Interpersonal skills

    7. Personal skills

    8. Community skills

    Source: Learning Outcomes for the 21st Century, Workplace Visions, 2002

    Only 1 seat remains for the next CriteriaOne Train-the- Trainer scheduled for April 21 - 23 in Lancaster, PA. Learn to identify and assees essential core competencies.

    Begin to Hire Competence with Confidence.

    Managing Values, Valuing Results
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    "Avoiding a disconnect between the cultures of worker and company"

    When people are hired, they come with personalities - individual preferences to think and behave in certain ways. And yet many managers still downplay the impact that personalities has on performance (or the lack of it) and continue to rely on experience, education and "gut feeling" as the primary rights of passage for hiring the "right" people.

    To read more about Managing Values, Valuing Results as published in Business2Business, click here.

    Have you ever avoided an employee's review and hoped they would quit first?
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    Or have you ever -

  • Put off giving employee evaluations to the last minute (or completely avoided them entirely).
  • Promoted an employee into a position for which he or she wasn't qualified.
  • Paid out a bonus to an employee who didn't deserve it.
  • Postponed terminating an under-performing or disruptive employee because you lacked adequate documentation of incidents and performance failures.

    Then Pathfinder, the Integrated Performance System may be for you. What are the benefits of Pathfinder?

  • Links individual employee productivity to strategic goals and business profitability.
  • Pays for performance not tenure.
  • Takes the hassle out of employee evaluations.
  • Holds employees accountable for meeting individual goals and personal development.
  • Gives managers the ability to track employee performance 24/7 from any location

    View a sample report of Performance Facilitator here.

    A Closer Look at Behavior-Based Interviewing
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    Behavior-based interviewing has been around for 25 years, but the practice has recently been gaining momentum with the increasing demand for skilled and competent employees.

    "Behavioral interviewing" is defined as an analysis of a candidate's potential abilities by examining skills that have been used in past job performance. The main difference between this type of interviewing and a regular interview is that candidates are asked to give specific examples of how they acted in the past, instead of being asked to share their opinions or ideas. To read more about Success Stories using behavioral inteviewing, Click Here.

    To conduct a behavioral interview, interviewers need to know what to look for in a candidate's response. Online Interview Generator(r) pairs specific "target behaviors" to over 60 competency based interview questions.

    Online Interview Generator(r) (IG) allows users to create company and job specific customized behavioral interview guides in minutes. Satisfied IG users include hiring managers, employers, human resources professionals, and consultants.

    As an IG user, you can choose an already- developed interview guide from our Job Library of over 40 standard job titles (from Administrative Assistant to COO), then quickly and easily edit to fit your open job. Or, you can choose to design your own interview guide from "scratch" using our extensive database of 65 competencies, and over 1,500 different target behaviors (interview "answers"), and corresponding interview questions.

    IG is extremely versatile and flexible - it can be used for selection in every industry, business and organizational environment. IG is inexpensive and cost- effective; clients can purchase interview units separately, or through a site license.

    View a sample Interview Guide created with Interview Generator.

    What Is It That Employees Really Value?
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    6 Proven Motivators are revealed in Understanding Business and Values.

    Order your copy of "Understanding Business Values and Motivators". (Yes, Understanding Business Values and Motivators is finally here.)

    Understanding Business Values and Motivators is an introduction to understanding the six business values and motivators that drives human performance. In this book, Ira Wolfe describes how each of the motivators affects peoples' behavior in the workplace and how managers can tap into those motivators to increase productivity and improve performance.

    Order your copy today - only $12.95. Want a copy of all your managers - call us for volume discounts.

    Attention Consultants - call us about affiliate and re-seller programs.

    Preview Understanding Business Values and Motivators today.


    Just the facts: Bring Home the Bacon
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    In the Old Days sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of both wealth and that a man could "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and sit around and "chew the fat."




    Contact Information
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    email: iwolfe@super-solutions.com
    voice: 717.656.4632
    web: http://www.super-solutions.com

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