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

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1. U.S. losing $105 billion a year to poor hiring and
management practices.
2. A Google Search for Interview Questions Provides More
Answers than Questions
3. Best Practice Tips and Resources
4. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #206 to #210
5. New! Strategic Leadership Type Indicator.(SLTi)
6. New audio releases. Hear Ira Wolfe on the WJJZ hot seat.
7. Summer/Fall Workshop and Speaking Schedule
8. Are You Wasting Too Much Time Sorting Through Unqualified
Resumes?
9. Build a High Motivation Employee Team

Success Performance Solutions is giving away up to $10,100.00.
What are we crazy? (Don't answer that!)

In celebration of our new solution - Best-Small-Business-Solutions.com, a new website exclusively for small business owners and hiring managers, we are giving away $101 in products and services to each owner, manager, consultant, HR professional or vendor who shares a Best Small Business Solution if your story is selected for inclusion in our new e-book, 101 Best Small Business Solutions.

Submit as many entries as you like. You can have more than one winning solution. Every participant will receive a complimentary copy of of our new e-book, 101 Best Small Business Solutions. Each 101 Best Small Business Solutions winner will receive a certificate valued at $101 for products and services from Success Performance Solutions.

Your Best Small Business Solutions should include a brief case study of the problem, what you did to solve the problem, approximate costs if any, and any other information you can provide about you, yourself, your company and how others might find the same or similar solution.

The 101 Best Small Business Solutions will be published in September 2004 - and each person who submits a solution will also receive a free copy of our Secrets to Hiring High Motivation Employees (mid-September 2004).

Submit your solution now at Best-Small-Business-Solutions.com

1. The United States is losing $105 billion a year to poor hiring and management practices.

This shortfall is worth 1.05% of total US GDP. (Source: SHL Group PLC)

Companies talk about people being their biggest asset yet they fail to match the right people to the right jobs.

Failure to match the right people to the right jobs is widespread. Currently, one out of eight US employees leaves their job before becoming competent. With an average 8 months necessary to attain the required performance level, a mismatch proves costly for the employee as well as the company.

Just a few weeks ago The 2004 Recruiting Metrics and Performance Benchmark Report, published by Staffing.org, reported that cost-per-hire in 2004 was $4,262, an increase of over $260 since 2001. On a broader scale, the cost to hire employees in 2003 ranged from 14 to 29 percent of total employee compensation, a 2.5 increase over the two previous years. And this occurred during a period supposedly where the competition for employees was down!

Add to this cost-to-hire, training costs, lost opportunities, mistakes, morale problems and hiring the wrong people is costing companies a big chunk of change.

Yet these figures are only the tip of the iceberg. According to the report, nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of US workers believe their colleagues are incompetent. More worrying still, while they may be critical of their co-worker’s performance, US employees also admit that 68 per cent of the mistakes they personally make never come to their manager’s attention.

2. . A Google Search for Interview Questions Provides More Answers than Questions

"How can I ace my job interview?" I keyed that very question into a search engine and, in under a minute, I had a sixteen-page list of web sites. The advice ranged from A-anticipating the interview questions-to Z, zooming in on the right answers.

How times have changed. The secrets of job interviewing are uncloaked. The mystery is gone. A resourceful job applicant can learn, fairly quickly, what to expect during an interview. While the hiring manager is busy putting out the daily fires, the job candidate is surfing the Net preparing for the interview. Match a mediocre interviewer with savvy job applicants and the chance of hiring the right person can be as low as one in fourteen.

Even skilled interviewers, those who ask the good questions and carefully listen to the interview questions answers, rely on applicants to be honest and forthright. Most hiring managers base hiring decisions on the interview and information that can be confirmed - education, experience, salary history. Add a healthy dose of gut instinct, and a job offer is made.

This long-used formula comes with the comfort level common to anything that is familiar and accepted. Maybe it's time to shake things up. Although interviewing, fact confirmation, and reference checks are useful, that sequence of events has no predictive value when it comes to making the correct hiring decision.

Name one other process in business so fraught with poor reliability that continues to be used over and over gain. Yet traditional interviews remain the tool of choice to screen job applicants and to promote staff.

Okay, so now you know you've got to do something different. The tough question is, "What?"

You can improve your hiring success rate by 50% by following these interview tips:

1. Know the difference between what you need and what you want. Make sure you understand the skills - hard and soft - necessary to do the job.

2. Prioritize the skills according to absolutely required, important, and nice-to-have.

3. Don't just "wing" the interview. Write a structured interview question guide. The guide should include a minimum of two to four behavioral interview questions for each core skill. An automated online program like Interview Generator is easy to use and cost-effective.

4. Ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered with "yes" or "no." Open-ended questions allow the interviewer to probe how an applicant thinks and solves problems.

5. Stay away from leading statements and follow-up questions. For instance, let's say you are evaluating the applicant's ability to cold call. Don't ask: "Do you like cold calling" or "This job requires a lot of cold calling. Do you mind doing that"?

6. Do ask probing questions that dig deeper. Then dig some more. Follow the The Rule of 3's - You need to ask 3 questions to get to "truth". Begin with "If we hire you, describe how you will bring in new business." Whatever he or she answers, follow with: "How has that worked for you in the past?". But don't stop now. Then ask "Tell me about another way you plan to bring in new business" or "What did you do when your marketing efforts didn't work?"

7. Make sure applicants give job relevant information. A job applicant has access to an endless stream of on-line interview tips.
Most applicants are well rehearsed for the interview and will anticipate standard questions. Don't accept a standard response.
The interview is not a true-false test but an evaluation to see if the candidate can actually do the job for you.

A successful interview depends on more than the skill and experience of the interviewer. To choose the right person from a pool of applicants, you must be clear about the technical and interpersonal skill set required, translate that knowledge into behavior-based questions, and probe the answers.

The most accurate and final probe of a candidate's fit comes through the use of personality testing. Combining targeted behavioral interview questions with personality testing raises your hiring success rates as high as 90%. With many online personality tests, you get the best of both words - personality and pre-employment screening tools like SELECT, FirstView, and TotalView to name just a few include job-specific interview questions with each report. These newest generation personality inventories bring balance and reliability to an otherwise inherently subjective system of gut
instinct.

3. Best Practice Tips and Resources

Best Practice Tips and Resources for Interviewing and Hiring High Motivation Employees

CriteriaOne® Train-the-Trainer: Competency Identification, Personality Testing and Behavioral Interviewing. Special Fee for The Total View readers - save an $500 off our registration fee of $1595. Your fee only $1095.
Learn to identify competencies, complete a job analysis and interpret behavioral, values and personality assessments and build a behavioral interview.

The next Train-the-Trainer will be held from August 18-20, 2004 in Lancaster PA. Register early and save $500. Register a 2nd person from your company at no additional cost.
Register online or call 717.656.4632.

Increase your hiring success by over 50% with behavioral interview questions. Interview Generator is an easy to use database of interview questions to assess an individual's competencies and behaviors.

Call or email for online pricing. CD pricing on the web.

Order your first Interview Guide and receive The Manager's Guide to Interviewing and Hiring Top Performers (A $9.95 value)

4.  Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #206 and 210

Like it or not, we are aging.

Fact #206: There are now 34 million Americans over 65.

Fact #207: There are now 1.5 million Americans over 90.

Fact #208: There are roughly 300,000 Americans over the age of 100.

Fact #209: There are now more people over 90 or 100 than in all of American history put together.

Fact #210: Currently there are 2.4 million deaths in the U.S. annually. By 2040, that number will double. (Do you see a shortage of funeral directors on the horizon?)

Source: American Demographics, June 2004


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 - $7.95 includes no shipping costs for limited time only.

Get the forecast LIVE at your next meeting or conference. Now scheduling 2004-2005 keynotes - Ira Wolfe, What's Ahead In Hiring Trends or Generations in the Workplace - You can't work with them, You can't work without them.

5. New! Strategic Leadership Type Indicator.(SLTi)

Help leaders understand their own leadership habits and learn how they can respond more effectively in the future. The first part of the SLTi is a self-assessment that gives leaders feedback about their use of multiple leadership strategies. The second part guides them in selecting the best strategic leadership style to use, and the third part illustrates how leaders can develop their direct reports using these strategies.

Each leader's Strategic Leadership Type Indicator self-scoring workbook is only $25.


Strategic Leadership Facilitator's Guide - $497


Now forming for the fall! Strategic Leadership Academy - 5 days of comprehensive training for current and future leaders. Includes a certificate of completion in SPS Strategic Leadership, self assessments, coaching, case studies, and 360 degree follow-up six months to one year later. Strategic Leadership Academy is also available at your company location.
Email for details.

6.New Audio Releases

For all you sleepy-heads who missed Ira Wolfe's interview at the crack of dawn on July 11, you have another chance! We awaiting our digital recording and will soon have it available on CD-Rom. Ira was interviewed on Phildelphia Focus/Empower Half-Hour, a Philadelphia public affairs program hosted by Lehronda Upshur. Lehondra interviewed Ira Wolfe on The Perfect Labor Storm and how to motivate employees.

To order a copy of this 30 minute interview, click here.

Other recent interviews:
The "Resu-mess" on WHP-TV (Harrisburg, PA). View the interview with Sherry Christian and Ira Wolfe.


Worker Shortages Loom Ahead. Jim Plummer, PA Radio (a Public Radio affiliate), interview Ira on The Perfect Labor Storm.


In August, Ira wil be a interviewed on CN8. Watch for more details.

7. Summer 2004 Workshop and Speaking Schedule

Just announced! Ira will be a presenter at the 2005 International Builders Show in Orlando, FL at the end of January. Watch for more details.

August 18-20, 2004 - CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer: How to Identify Competencies and Use Assessments for Hiring, Promoting, and Managing Performance. The Hampton Inn, Lancaster, PA. Call 717.656.4632 for more information and to reserve your seat. Limit - 10.

September 1, 2004 - Ethical Shenanigans: How Susceptible Is Your Business? Small Business Group Breakfast. To reserve your place, call The Lancaster Chamber at 717.394.3531. Speaker: Ira S. Wolfe

September 13, 2004 - What is This Thing Called Emotional Intelligence
….And Why We Need It In The Workplace?" Sponsored by Clemson University; Location - Harrisburg, PA. Speaker: Marilyn Walker

September 27, 2004 – Best Practices in Performance Consulting, Atlanta, GA. Sponsored by International Quality and Productivity Center. Speaker: Ira S. Wolfe. Ira will join leaders from Dell, Microsoft, HomeBanc, Harley-Davidson,Hewlett-Packard, Putnam Investments, EDS, Synovus and Internal Revenue Service.

8. Are You Wasting Too Much Time Sorting Through Unqualified Resumes?

Eliminate The Hassles and Headaches Associated With Screening Candidate with Total APS.

The Total Applicant Processing System enables the small and medium sized employer to do online recruiting and screen applicants with customizable and scorable filtering questions with a click of the mouse.

Use Total APS to recruit and screen applicants for your next job opening. View more information about resume screening by Total-APS.

9. Wondering if you have the right people on your team?
Everyone wants to build the High Motivation Employee Team.  Do it with team building activities packaged exclusively for small businesses and home businesses.

Contact Information:
Success Performance Solutions 2481 New Holland Pike, Suite 2, Lancaster, PA 17601

email: tv@super-solutions.com
voice: 717.656.4632
web: http://www.super-solutions.com

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

Order your personal copy of Understanding Business Values and Motivators.


Order your personal copy of The Perfect Labor Storm. at


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