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Now that it’s time to hire again, organizations in every industry are struggling to determine who the right hire is – and how to find them.

From the mountains of resumes to the endless “how to fake the interview” courses, companies are doing more and more detective work and adding automatic disqualifiers in order to end the hiring nightmare. All at a time when it seems each and every day brings new roadblocks to streamlining the hiring process.

Over 51% of organizations expect to increase in size over the next 12 months, according to a recent survey through Talent Technology. Meanwhile, experts estimate that 1% of the resumes received for an average job represent qualified applicants.

So what can you do to get results, reduce hiring stress and keep compliant? TTI has five simple steps to get you started.
1. Let the Job Talk - Spend more time determining what the ideal candidate looks like from not only a hard skills and experience perspective, but also from a behavioral, motivational and personal skills point of view.
2. Protect Yourself Against EEOC and OFCCP - Verify how all of the screening requirements are job-related and predictable in determining superior performance for your organization.
3. Plan for Hiring Success - Create a plan for consistency without over-exposing your opinions and viewpoints. Document the process and completion of steps without documenting every thought or interaction.
4. Structured Screening Process - Create a phone or online interview and assessment process to help lower-performing applicants decide this job isn’t for them.
5. Keep Your Biases Out of the Process - Conduct consistent and objective face-to-face interviews that are structured and cover the same questions for each applicant.
Once you have fought your way through the hiring puzzle, be sure to on-board quickly and effectively, as superior performers want to be productive as soon as possible. Remember, if a new hire is not properly on-boarded, your chances of repeating your hiring nightmare will increase dramatically.
Want more information on the proper implementation of these five steps and simple to use forms to guide you through the process? We’ll have a FREE 30-minute, action-oriented webinar on March 22nd.

By: Ashley Bowers Reprinted with permission from TTI Performance Systems People Energizing People Newsletter 02/21/2012

Today’s economy is challenging each and every organization to take a deeper look at its employees and what motivates them. But how do you truly measure the total person? Many companies have one or two ways to measure what a person brings to the job. The fact of the matter is that people are complex, and one or two views of them will not give an organization enough information to hire, develop or motivate a person.

Behavioral assessments are one of the most popular tools used. They’re great for communication and basic management ideas. However, behavioral assessments only look at HOW a person does something. It won’t tell WHY a person would do something or even if they CAN DO what the job requires.

By looking at how a person acts, why they act and what skills they have, an organization can start to place people in the right positions, develop them according to their needs and tap into their own intrinsic motivators. Each and every organization needs to be taking a total person analysis approach in order to minimize limitations, maximize strengths and increase overall productivity.

TTI has more than seven assessments to look at the person and over five ways to look at the job. This allows any organization to get a full view of what a person brings to the workplace as well as what the job requires. When the two are in sync, productivity and job satisfaction will skyrocket.

Behaviors, Skills or Attitude? What’s more important when hiring or developing employees, behavior, skills or attitude? This is a trick question and cannot be answered without identifying the job. During the hiring process, all of these aspects need to be considered because people bring their knowledge, skills, behavior and attitudes along with them to the job. If you are biased and only look at one part of the person, chances are they won’t work out.

If the job could talk, it would explain precisely what is necessary to achieve superior performance. We could ask the job to tell us about:
Knowledge required
Personal attributes (skills)
Hard skills vital for the job
Behaviors necessary to perform at peak levels
Intrinsic rewards
Proper attitude

Listening to the job talk is difficult. Only when recruiters or managers have identified and acknowledge their biases can they deliver a true set of job requirements that will lead to superior performance.

Many hiring managers and recruiters are willing to defend their emotional biases. But these biases create a blind spot and, sometimes, make it impossible to actually hire the right person.
The best way to strip away biases is with an impartial facilitator. A skilled facilitator can lead subject matter experts into discovering the real performance issues for any job.

If you cannot hear the job talk or if you are not happy with the performance of the people you are hiring, you need to contact hireMAX at 888-251-7606 info@hiremax.com. Your ROI will reflect one of your best investments in 2010.
People Energizing People Newsletter

1. Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them. Have a clear, concise description of the job and the expectations of the person in that job.

2. Let your talented people experience other jobs within the organization. Take advantage of the multiple skills your talented people possess.

3. Make sure your people have all the tools and knowledge necessary to do the job right. Know their strengths and their physical needs.

4. Make sure you have a fast track for distributing important information to your people. Nothing turns off talent quicker than to find out about company strategy after the fact.

5. Know what your people can and will do. Give them the opportunity to do those things everyday.

6. Freely give personal encouragement publicly and privately. Identify key players and spend time with them.

7. Give managers the responsibility of having a development plan for talented people on their team and assume a partnership role with the employee to get it done.

8. Get to know people and continually update your understanding of your key people. Revisit people on a regular basis; their needs and wants change.

9. Train managers in productivity coaching and hold managers accountable for talent development within their units.

10. Teach and train managers in the art of High Touch. People want to be respected, recognized, and rewarded for outstanding performance.

By Stephen J. Blakesly

Does the view from the top keep you up at night? Do you need to hang on to high performing employees so you can elevate performance and profits, or do you worry that a crisis could suddenly undermine your company’s ability to compete? Systematically creating a high performance culture using job matching will bring peace of mind.

It’s not event driven, it’s not reactive, and it is not a futile attempt to predict where and when the next crisis will arise; when job matching permeates your organization, you’re ready for anything.

• Selecting superior performers
• Reducing turnover expense
• Increasing retention of high performers
• Planning professional development unique to each job and employee
• Cultivating the next wave of managers
• Preparing the next key leaders to enter the C-suite
• Assuring that everyone’s focused on achieving the goals in the strategic plan
• Making high performance the norm in your organization

In the past, these objectives would have been tackled as separate issues, but 30 years of research in talent management at TTI has revealed that a unified job matching system is the most cost effective and efficient way to accomplish them all. The key is using job matching at every stage of an employee’s tenure with the company. It capitalizes on the efforts of HR to support the day-to-day activities of the entire workforce and aligns both with the strategic plan for beating the competition.

Job matching is the science of defining superior performance in each position by using objective criteria to match someone who has the right traits for the job. It starts with a comprehensive definition of why a job exists; and based on the three to five key accountabilities of the position, it assures hiring someone who can get results. No matter who occupies a position, they will need a uniquely specific set of traits and skills to excel in that position. By defining those traits and skills in a benchmark, you systematically calibrate each position for superior performance.

A team of subject matter experts is deliberately selected to include only those who work closely with the position or who have recently excelled in it. The standard this expert team produces will define the value motivators that make the job fulfilling for the right person, the behavioral traits they need to meet goals and the specific skill set that will set the stage for success.

With the comprehensive TTI job matching process, you get all of the information you need about a person when they are assessed. You even get a view into a person’s thought processes and the perspectives that affect performance. Assessing for acumen indicators illuminates how clearly they understand situations, and thus their capacity for meeting challenges in business. It can even reveal skills that an individual possesses that may not have been fully utilized on the job yet. Whatever gaps a high potential employee may have will also be revealed. A development plan is generated as part of the job matching process, so their immediate supervisor automatically has a coaching and development plan ready to implement. (For more about how this works, see the TTI white paper Job Matching – The Key to Performance for a copy e-mail: info@hiremax.com )

When an entire organization is job matched, the results are dramatic. High performance becomes the norm. By carefully matching each person to the job that’s right for them, the organization benefits from employees who can ramp up quickly to be productive and who can be superior performers. Each employee occupies a job that they most naturally have a passion for and are successful in, which makes for an engaged, happy employee. Multiply that times everyone and what do you get? Higher levels of engagement and productivity, less turnover-related expense, and employees who have good things to say about what it’s like to work at your company. They act like a magnet to help attract additional talented employees to join the team. Job matching leads to a high performance ethos in your organization. With the right system in place, you’re ready for anything.

TTI Newsletter People Energizing People Mar 15, 2011 02:12PM

Imagine you are the president of a company that has been in business for the last 25 years. All of your procedures and systems are firmly established, as well as your company culture. The business operates smoothly, turning a fair profit and is well respected within its network and community. Because of all the aforementioned characteristics of your company, the majority of its employees have worked there for 15 years. Now imagine that new management is brought in above you, performs a process of “weeding out” and removes all of your loyal long-term employees. Your only choice is to hire a new workforce to fill an entire organization. Would you hire a set of fresh employees with lower cost and train them? Or, hire more experienced employees at a higher cost? How do you feel about this? Stressed because the thought of training so many new hires is overwhelming? Or afraid that the new employees won’t understand the company’s mission and lose sight of the overall goal?

Now you understand the importance of your long-term employees. The knowledge they carry regarding your organization is beyond what employers are capable of covering in training materials. They know the company inside and out, allowing them to be the most productive of your employees. We have already seen the consequences of unexpectedly losing valuable experienced employees. What are some of the benefits associated with retaining them through their first years of retirement? While the salary of a long-term employee might be higher than that of a new hire, don’t let it fool you into thinking that two new fresh or experienced employees are a better deal than one long-term employee. It is possible that costs associated with training a new hire from square one could cancel out any profit made by releasing a long-term employee. The biggest profit occurs when a less expensive, fresh, new hire and a long-term employee can pair up. The gain from a long-term employee leaving a legacy, so to speak, to a green and eager to learn employee, is beyond calculations. The continuity within the organization is enough reason to hold on to long-term employees just a little longer, apart from all of the personal benefits reaped by both the mentor and the mentee. A cross-generational partnership allows the younger, technology-savvy, multi-tasking employees to learn from the hands-on, experienced, long-term employees.

The ROI for long-term employees is higher than the ROI of a newer employee, this we already know. But is the ROI higher for an unexperienced new employee? Or for an experienced new employee? The obvious answer is the experienced new-hire. The not so obvious, but still correct answer, is the un-experienced new-hire. This fresh-faced employee will not only require a lower salary, but will pair well with an experienced long-term employee. The fresh new hire does not yet have internal systems which dictate the way that things should be done. Their openness to understanding what this company in particular has set in place, is greater than an employee who has experienced another company’s culture for a number of years. The experienced new employee, on the other hand, will understand the checks and balances that occur within any business, and will not need to be so closely watched. When this mentoring combination of knowledgeable and new to the company, old and young, traditional and technologically innovative mix, a profit is gained that is much more powerful than could be gained with a new hire who is denied the experience of being mentored by a long-term employee.

By investing in your long-term employees and retaining them through their early retirement years as mentors to the organization, you will see a positive progression in the workplace. Not only are you going to reap benefits that will save hours of time otherwise wasted (when new hires learn by trial and error what experience has already taught long-term employees), meaning a higher productivity rate, but you will also have a continuity of knowledge throughout time, a stronger brand because you care for your employees and a succession plan that will secure progress in your organization.

TTI Newsletter   “People Energizing People”   Jun 21, 2011 03:20PM

by Veranova Success News

Fear often stands between us and our ability to make decisions, take action, ask for what we want–even to know what we really want. It is the gatekeeper of our comfort zone. But as poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.” Below are 10 fears that commonly get in our way.

1. Fear of being judged. Needing approval from colleagues, family or peers can keep us from going after dreams and goals.

2. Fear of rejection. Rejection just means that someone else has a different opinion.

3. Fear of failure. A biggie for most of us and born of the notion that it’s not okay to fail.

4. Fear of success. More responsibility, more attention and pressure to perform can be frightening when we don’t believe in ourselves.

5. Fear of emotional pain. Rather than incapacitate us, painful feelings can tell us what we really want in life.

6. Fear of embarrassment. Making mistakes publicly is awful only when we let ourselves feel ashamed.

7. Fear of being alone/abandoned. A strong sense of self-worth and what we can offer the world reduces this fear.

8. Fear of expressing feelings. An authentic life means being willing to express our true feelings to our loved ones, colleagues, adversaries–even ourselves.

9. Fear of intimacy. Emotional intimacy–really being seen by another–can be as scary as sexual intimacy.

10. Fear of the unknown. The unknown can be exciting and vast if we shift our fear to curiosity.

Research studies of top sales people in both the United States and Europe confirm that top sales performance can be predicted. The most successful organizations in the world already know that hiring the right people has the potential of becoming the most powerful “secret weapon” in their arsenal of competitive strategies. What they don’t know is that hiring the right sales people can be as simple as following a recipe based on recent findings from an international study conducted by Frank Scheelen of Institut for Managementhberatung and Bildungsmarketing and myself, Bill Bonnstetter of Target Training International, Ltd. in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As a result of our twenty years of research, development and distribution of assessment tools to measure performance, we have been telling organizations that it is what’s on the inside, not the outside, that counts, especially in sales performance. What we are fighting is the myth that hiring people who look and sound good leads to good performance. As global competition forces organizations to greater heights in key performance arenas such as customer service, quality and customization, aggressive organizations must be ever vigilant in the identification, acquisition, development and integration of innovative technology. This type of innovative technology is now available to select top performers.

Much of the research conducted in the past on top salespeople has been focused on behavior. Behavioral research has been popular because, like looking good and sounding good, behavior can be observed. Little, if any significant study has been focused on what goes on inside a top salesperson. Our groundbreaking research in the United States and Europe now confirms that attitudes far outweigh looking good, sounding good or behavior in distinguishing top salespeople.

Two of our most significant assumptions were confirmed by the two studies. (1) Top performing salespeople around the world are similar and, (2) Attitudes or values are more important than behavior in sales performance. (See Study 1 and Study 2 attachment)

In both studies, only top performing salespeople responded. In the United States study and a separate German study, top performing salespeople responded to two assessments. One was based on the internationally validated DISC behavioral model and the other was based on the Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values model, currently being validated internationally.

Note that in the United States study of 178 firms, top sales performers tended to be spread across three behavioral dimensions. In the German study, top sales performers tended to be spread across the same three behavioral dimensions. In view of these results, it is reasonable to conclude that salespeople can sell in most, if not all, behavioral dimensions.

However, when it comes to what is on the inside of top performing salespeople, both United States studies as well as the German study confirm it is hands-down, a Utilitarian Attitude.

In September, for the first time since Deloitte began its longitudinal study of global talent trends and strategies, surveyed executives are more inclined to believe the worst of the economic crisis has passed, rather than the worst lies ahead. Many of these corporate leaders are preemptively leaning into the recovery, adopting talent strategies aimed at heading off a looming “resume tsunami” in the hope of preventing key employees from departing for better opportunities. Nevertheless, many companies risk being left behind because they have not implemented either the talent or innovation strategies needed to seize the opportunities presented by a recovering economy.

Since January 2009, Deloitte has been conducting a longitudinal survey to evaluate how executives are managing their workforces during the economic downturn—and whether they have effective strategies in place for the recovery to come. The September 2009 survey, like its predecessors,
provides insights into the talent plans and priorities of major companies across every sector of the global economy. The results of the September survey revealed the following key findings:

The hints of economic optimism that first appeared in the May survey have grown considerably. Surveyed executives and talent managers who believe the worst is behind us outnumber those who believe the worst is yet to come—and by a considerable margin.

Many companies in the survey are implementing strategies to avoid a resume tsunami by going on the offensive to retain today’s key employees and train the next generation of leaders. Corporate layoffs, which have been prevalent throughout this survey series, declined significantly at these companies, suggesting that many companies have completed the task of rightsizing their workforces.

While nearly all surveyed companies recognize the importance of innovation, few of them appear to have talent plans in place to drive innovation in their businesses.

There are clear and compelling differences between talent and innovation leaders and talent and innovation laggards. We identify talent and innovation leaders as those companies with a deep understanding of the link between talent and innovation, making them far more likely to have identified the critical employees who drive innovation in their companies; far more likely to have specific training programs in place to develop critical innovation employees; and far more likely to be making the investments—both financial and non-financial— needed to retain the employees who drive innovation in their companies.

Deloitte believes that companies that remain in a defensive posture risk losing the fight for talent that this survey suggests is already heating up. Hunkering down with cost cutting and headcount reductions alone may prove to be a losing strategy for weathering the resume tsunami, leaving
companies without the workforce strength they need to benefit from the economic recovery.

When looking forward to the next quarter, surveyed executives no longer rank “reducing employee headcount” as their top talent priority—the first time since the survey’s launch in January 2009.

As headcount reductions slide down the management agenda and layoffs abate, many of the surveyed companies are ramping up retention initiatives to keep key leaders and high-potential employees on board—and to prevent competitors from stealing them away. Surveyed companies seeking to survive the potential resume tsunami are focused on several key retention tactics, such as opening up more opportunities for career advancement and offering better financial incentives.

Nearly one-in-three executives surveyed (31%) reported they are increasing career path opportunities—a jump of eleven points from January (20%) After nearly a year of austerity, even compensation is back on the table, with 28% reporting they plan to increase compensation levels over
the next 12 months, up from 15% in January. Talent managers also see flexible work arrangements as an effective retention tactic; 35% of those surveyed plan to increase their focus on this area.

Retaining high-potential employees is just the first step in developing an effective talent strategy. Future corporate leaders must also be trained to handle greater levels of responsibility as their careers develop. In previous reports, Deloitte flagged the renewed attention to training and development
programs among executives and talent managers. That trend grew even stronger in September, particularly when it comes to nurturing the careers of key employees.

According to the September data, nearly half of surveyed executives plan to increase high-potential employee development programs (49%) and a similar number are ramping up initiatives to develop future leaders/managers (48%) over the next 12 months (Figure 7). Programs aimed at developing top talent and training corporate leaders easily outrank all other training initiatives, including regulatory/risk training and sales-specific training.

Signs of life in recruitment: With many companies on a talent offensive, recruitment efforts are showing signs of life. The number of executives who report they plan to increase experienced hires over the next year rose to 39%. There was also some relatively good news for recent college graduates seeking entry into the workforce: 26% of executives plan to increase campus hires—up from 15% in both March and January. As in previous surveys, “experienced hires” remain in high demand, ranking first among recruiting categories for every industry surveyed: Financial Services (48%), Energy/Utilities (40%), Consumer/Industrial Products (37%), Life Sciences/ Health Care (32%), Technology/Media/Telecommunications (32%).

60% of surveyed talent leaders are concerned they could lose key employees to their competitors.

Many surveyed companies appear convinced that high potential talent that is not properly developed can be easily poached by competitors. Despite a weak economy, concern over losing key employees to better opportunities has been growing steadily, increasing from 43% in January to 44% in March to 51% in May. In September, the number of executives who said they were either highly or very highly concerned about losing high-potential employees grew to 60%.

A red flag: Companies value innovation, but do not have the talent strategies to drive it. Deloitte sees a clear red flag in the survey data: While most participating executives recognize the importance of innovation, many are not implementing the talent strategies they need to drive innovation within their companies.

More than six out of ten survey participants (61%) acknowledged they either had no talent strategy currently in place to drive innovation or did not know if they had one.

Just four in ten surveyed executives (42%) believed their companies have identified the key employees and leaders most responsible for driving innovation within their organizations (Figure 10). Only 39% of survey participants have put specific programs in place over the last year to retain and develop this critical band of talent. Just four in ten surveyed executives (42%) believed their companies had identified the key employees and leaders most responsible for driving innovation within their organizations.
An overwhelming majority of surveyed executives (88%) fear they will not have the necessary talent to lead their innovation programs after the recession ends.

In the course of this longitudinal study, Deloitte has identified a clear divide between companies that are positioning themselves effectively for the economic recovery and companies that are in danger of being left behind. In the September survey, this divide was evident once again when it comes to implementing talent strategies dedicated to driving innovation. While hunkering down may help a company survive the recession, we believe it represents a losing strategy for companies that want to excel during changing times and the economic recovery.

The talent and innovation leader’s checklist:
Does your company really have a talent strategy to drive innovation? The September survey revealed clear fault lines between how “talent and innovation leaders” and “talent and innovation laggards” are positioned for the coming economic recovery. The talent and innovation leaders represent the 39% of surveyed companies with an innovation plan, while the talent and innovation laggards represent the 61% of companies with no innovation plan currently in place.

The following checklist outlines the primary behaviors uncovered by our survey that underscore the intersection between talent and innovation and separate leaders from laggards.

• Identify who drives innovation. Talent and innovation leaders are more likely to haveidentified the critical employees in their companies who drive innovation—by a 47-point margin over talent and innovation laggards.

• Deploy strategies to retain and train innovative talent. By more than 3:1 (68% to 20%), talent and innovation leaders are more likely to have specific programs in place to retain and develop the critical talent that drives innovation in their companies.

• Develop the next generation of corporate leaders. Talent and innovation leaders are significantly more likely to be ramping up training and development programs for the next generation of talent. By a 19-point margin, talent and innovation leaders expect to increase their focus on leadership/management development (59% to 40%) and highpotential
employee development (61% to 42%) compared to talent and innovation
laggards.

• Invest in critical talent. Talent and innovation leaders make the investments—both financial and non-financial—to reward innovative employees. By double-digit margins, they are more likely than talent and innovation laggards to be increasing compensation levels and benefits (36% to 23%) and opening more career opportunities (41% to 25%) for their top talent. By a 12-point margin (56% to 44%), talent and innovation leaders are
more likely to tie bonuses or there financial incentives to innovation and, by a 10-point margin (34% to 24%), are more likely to make innovation a key factor in employee performance reviews and promotions.

• Be proactive in the talent marketplace. When it comes to recruiting, talent and innovation leaders are more actively recruiting critical talent (50% to 39%) and attracting critical leaders (46% to 35%) who can drive innovation in their organizations. Innovation leaders are not just focused on acquiring proven talent; they are also boosting efforts to bring in future leaders by increasing on-campus recruiting at a higher rate (37% to 18%).

• Go on offense, not just defense. By a nine- point margin (29% to 20%), talent and innovation leaders are more likely to be focused on developing new products and services. Talent and innovation laggards, on the other hand, remain firmly on the defensive, cutting costs at a greater rate than talent and innovation leaders (61% to 53%) and reducing headcount at a higher rate (39% to 23%). This may be one reason why, by a 13-point margin (39% to 26%), talent and innovation leaders are more likely to believe the
worst of the economic crisis has passed.

• Stay paranoid or lose key talent. One reason innovators are so keen on recruiting, retaining, and training key employees is because they understand talent will become a scarce commodity once the economy recovers. By nearly a 2:1 margin (22% to 12%), talent and innovation leaders have “very high” concerns about losing high potential employees to their competitors.

The bottom line: Talent and innovation leaders have a deep understanding of the link between talent and innovation and are actively deploying talent strategies that will drive innovation within their businesses. Talent and innovation laggards risk losing ground, not only to a weak economy, but also to competitors who will be better positioned to benefit from the recovery because they are taking the right steps now to integrate talent and innovation priorities.

Busy professionals with a strong desire to achieve sometimes fall into slumps which can destroy creative drive. Do your best to avoid these slumps by accepting that you cannot do everything. Delegate responsibilities to others qualified to perform the task. They should share your goals for success.

♦ Be a lifetime learner – Don’t assume you’ve learned all you need to know. Have a plan for personal growth and work on challenging goals in all areas of your life.

♦ Be Proactive – Solve problems before they occur. Carefully plan procedures to prevent problems and proper handling in the event they do happen.

♦ Communicate your goals and let others know how they can help you achieve them. Listen carefully to information they prived you.