August 13, 2003
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-- Worforce Preparedness Starts at the Top
-- Problem Drinking Staggers Business Bottom Lines
-- Rule #1 of a good employee: Show up for work.
-- Curing the Turnover Disease
-- 5 Tips for Setting "A Hire Standard"
-- Get certified now and save $500! CriteriaOne training - September 4-6, 2003
-- The Manager's Pocket Guide to Emotional Intelligence
-- Now Open - Celebrate the Grand Opening of our new online Book Store
-- - and More Pocket Books.
-- 50 Activities for Developing Emotional Intelligence

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

Written and published each Wednesday by Ira S. Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions. (Yes, Ira does writes every article, every week!) Success Performance Solutions and Ira S. Wolfe ©2003 - All Rights Reserved.

Reprints and other distribution by permission only.

What's New?

Our website at Success Performance Solutions See our new look, improved navigation and more assessments, books, and training tools, including video-based turn-key programs.

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Hire and Retain Top Performers: Accurately Assess Personality and Competence

One-day only - August 20, 2003 at The Lancaster Chamber.

"Register today"

Tuition is FREE for Chambers members and $20 for non-members.

Registration is limited to the first 20. Stop Guessing, Start Knowing - How to Accurately Assess Personality and Competencies. was sold out in Atlanta and Lancaster.

Worforce Preparedness Starts at the Top
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Roger is the 41 year-old Vice President of Human Resources for a service-based business. This organization is the fastest growing company in their region and ranked as one of the Best Places to Work in the state. Roger's company anticipates increasing its employment base by 25 percent this year and at least 50 percent the next year through growth and acquisitions. Roger has been with this organization for 9 years and is considered a valuable member of the executive inner circle and confidante of the CEO.

An integral and crucial piece of this strategic initiative is streamlining the application process. Currently the company receives between 1500 and 2000 resumes each month. The majority of these are faxed or mailed but an increasing percentage are received through e-mail.

With the current system, each email and attached resume is printed out. The volume of applications is expected to double if not triple within 18 months as they enter new markets and add new positions. So far they hired two additional recruiters and two more administrative assistants just to sift through the paperwork and contact desirable candidates. But the volume of paperwork and administrative has overwhelmed - and exhausted - everyone.

Worst of all, they discovered that by the time they reached top-notch candidates, it was too late. While recruiters were spending time screening and attempting to contact hundreds of candidates, the majority of which were unqualified, the top talent was snatched up quickly. Top talent isn't sitting around waiting for a phone call.

In addition to missed talent opportunities, the HR administrative budget was skyrocketing with little to show for it. Vacancies weren't being filled fast enough and turnover was still a problem. Their HR department estimated the cost of recruitment and interviewing at over $800 per interviewed candidate after they tallied the cost of ads, administrative wages for screening and managerial and recruiter salaries for interviewing and reference/background checks.

The CEO declared in late spring that he expects a solution before year's end and that the solution must include an online applicant tracking and screening system.

On paper the initiative reads well. In the executive meetings proposals are being reviewed and vendors weeded out. But there is one glaring problem. If implemented, the VP of HR couldn't even apply for the job he now holds. You see, Roger is a computer functional illiterate.

Yes, he can use Word® to type, edit and print a letter. He can plug in numbers into Excel® spreadsheets. And he can send and receive emails. But creating or even adjusting a spreadsheet is out of the question. Without his assistant, sending and opening email attachments just doesn't happen. In fact, Roger is so uncomfortable with email - he once deleted an important message about a meeting - that he has his assistant receive and print out all of it, including every attachment. He has been heard to say more than once, "I don't trust computers. I prefer mail and fax."

Ironically Roger is responsible for the selection and oversight of what likely will be a $500,000 to $1,000,000 solution. This solution will be the exclusive gateway through which every candidate must pass if he or she wants to become an employee. With Roger guarding the henhouse, who is guarding the hens?

Unfortunately decisions like this are being made daily in corporate America as well as in ma-and-pa small businesses. Managers hesitate hiring educated, bright, and motivated physically handicapped individuals for a sedentary white collar job but don't think twice about hiring and retaining MBA carrying managers who can't type, save, or click n'surf.

Employees and managers alike yell foul when terminated or laid off after jobs are shipped offshore. And yet an inordinate number of employees -both employed and unemployed, hourly and salaried - are pre-wired for the Stone Age to communicate in a digital world. The stark reality is that typing 80 words a minute, welding rivets, hammering nails, and attending management meetings for 30 years just aren't enough anymore.

Computer skills including Internet literacy is but one competency that is required to function effectively in today's business environment and yet it is overlooked routinely when it comes down to selecting hourly employees as well as middle and senior managers.

How prepared is your workforce?

How does the competence of your workforce compare to other businesses?

What are the top five competencies required for success in your workplace?

We would like to hear from you. Please take five minutes to complete the SPS Workforce Competence Survey. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymous. Results will be published in The Total View on August 27, 2003.

And PLEASE pass the survey onto a friend or co- worker.

Click here to take our Workforce Competency Benchmarking Survey.

Problem Drinking Staggers Business Bottom Lines
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Health care costs are skyrocketing. Layoffs are increasing. And whether or not job and personal stress is enough to drive people to drink, the cost of problem drinkers to businesses is staggering.

Problem drinking is the primary or secondary cause of many medical conditions, including heart and liver disease and cancer.

Problem drinking also contributes to unintentional injuries like car accidents, burns and falls. In addition, alcohol interferes with many medications making them either useless or toxic or both.

Problem drinkers also use the emergency room 70 percent more often than people without drinking problems and stay in hospitals almost two days longer.

Problem drinkers don't only boost health care costs but kill productivity as well. Hangovers and health related problems drive problem drinkers to call in sick or just skip work altogether 2 times as often as workers who don't have a drinking problem. They also tend to arrive late and leave early.

How common are alcohol related problems in business? For every 1000 employees, there are: