| Past Newsletters-
February 2010 - The outlook for 2010 is
optimistic. As the economy heals, and businesses
retract their hiring freezes there are plentiful
opportunities to refresh and revive the
workplace. The January edition of Profiles
Advantage provides useful information about how
to relieve the workplace of stress and anxiety
to start the year off right.
- CEO Jim Sirbasku's "All Four
Letter Words are Not Bad" reminds
us that communication is an essential
element in any productive workplace.
Read
more...
- The "Did You Know?" section is a new
addition to the newsletter. It boasts
unusual information that may change
your perspective on stress and its
damaging effects in the workplace.
Read
more...
- The Feature Article explores the ways
employees and managers can remedy
stress in the work environment.
Read
more...
Take a deep breath, and relax.
The New Year is another chance at a new
you. Employees are the foundation of any
organization, and happy employees are productive
employees.
Read Profiles Advantage Newsletter...
January 2010 - We end 2009 with lists—not gift lists, nor
a list of resolutions for 2010, but lists of things top leaders can do
to retain each valuable customer and each
valuable employee. In this issue of Profiles Advantage, you
will find these compilations:
- CEO Jim Sirbasku's eight questions that customer-facing
leaders can ask themselves to model superb customer service
behavior to employees.
Read More...
- A case study showing the ways a financial
services firm used Customer Service Profile to improve
retention.
Read More...
- Jim Sirbasku and Bud Haney's ideas for getting to know
clients, and how these ideas pay off in unexpected ways in
an excerpt from their book, 40 Strategies for Winning in
Business.
Read More...
- Profiles' eight-question Pop Quiz. Although
this little test seems to operate in shades of gray instead of
black-and-white, pick an answer that sounds the most appropriate.
Don't worry if you believe there is more than one way to
help customers. You are correct! Our quiz just asks you to
think about the possibilities.
Read More...
- What Profiles' product comes in four versions and offers
four reports? Customer Service Profile, of course. See what
it can do for your customer-facing employees, no matter what your
industry.
Read More...
- Finally, read a Profiles employee's essay on
becoming an employee of awesomeness.
Read More...
Check your lists twice and then check them again as
you end the year. Customer service is too important to leave to
chance. Make every customer count.
Read
Profiles Advantage Newsletter...
December 2009 - November traditionally marks the
beginning of the holiday season, when people everywhere celebrate by
eating well and giving thanks for abundance. This issue of
Profiles Advantage encourages thanking your best
managers, the ones who outdo themselves each day, by shoring up
the weaknesses of those who do not. Read on to get ideas for
improving or moving the strugglers who can bring down your
organization.
- CEO Jim Sirbasku has nothing against turkeys, but notes that
they belong on the Thanksgiving table, not in the office.
Readers will appreciate his systematic approach to moving them out
of positions of responsibility.
Read More...
- Profiles' Pop Quiz helps you succeed, not fail.
You can share your score with others or not, but reading the
explanations that follow the true-false test will help you
recognize behaviors that can make or break a
company, and put a stop to the latter.
Read More...
- See your managers' strengths from every angle,
advise Jim Sirbasku and Bud Haney in an excerpt from their 40
Strategies for Winning in Business. They tell you exactly how to do
it, too.
Read More...
- A good leader never goes into the development game
unarmed. Two Profiles' assessments, Checkpoint and
Team Analysis, provide eye-opening help in identifying and
fixing problem areas.
Read More...
As you celebrate professional success in this season
of giving thanks, envision soaring with the eagles this
Thanksgiving, and keep that vision all year long.
Read
Profiles Advantage Newsletter
November 2009 - We don't want to spook you—there are
enough ghosts and goblins hovering around already this month—but do you
have any managers hiding behind a mask? With 40 percent of
workers claiming they have bad bosses, what are the odds that
some of them might be populating your offices? If you decide it's time
to do something about the ineffective managers who work for you, this
month's edition of Profiles Advantage offers
solutions. Read on:
- What have your managers done for you lately?
CEO Jim Sirbasku lists the symptoms of sick management
that top leaders must fix before it’s too late.
Read More...
- How do effective managers and leaders fire up their
people in 21 days? Take a chapter from the book 40
Strategies for Winning in Business by Bud Haney and Jim
Sirbasku. After reading "Fire 'em Up," you will
know exactly what to do. Bonus: It works many times over!
Read More...
- What do you do when faced with a crisis? Do you
put off decisions because you're afraid of making the wrong one?
Take our Profiles' Pop Quiz to see if your actions
qualify you for the Manager's Hall of Fame, or if you need to repeat
your management classes.
Read More...
- Even a sharp manager needs help in the complex
area of directing others. By using Profiles
Performance Indicator™ and Profiles Workforce Compatibility™, they
will know exactly what to do to develop their teams to be productive
contributors.
Read More
Give your employees a real treat and unmask the
incompetent managers in your organization. There are no tricks
involved—even if the results you realize are magical.
Read
Profiles Advantage Newsletter.
September
2009- Knowing how to motivate your team to excellence can be one
big mystery. Each employee may possess a different skill set and, even
more critical to knowing how to coach them, may have needs of their
manager that vary from the needs of other team members.
We designed this issue of Profiles Advantage to help
you lead your workers from weak performance to peak performance.
- What does luck have to do with hiring the right people
for the job? Not much, says CEO Jim Sirbasku. Read
"Good Hiring Requires More than Good Luck" to find out
more.
Read More...
- Team dysfunction is funny only in the funny papers—never in real
life. Discover how Profiles Team Analysis™ helps
create a harmonious office atmosphere by guiding
leaders to develop goal-driven, successful teams.
Read More...
- How well do your employees understand their
responsibilities and the
organization's expectations? Take our pop quiz to find out
if you’re helping your workers focus, or if you’re
just making the picture blurry.
Read More...
- In our case study, managers at a healthcare organization
grow more confident in their hiring practices by using the ProfileXT®
to create a Job Match Pattern for enrollment
specialists.
Read More...
- In this month's offering from the book 40 Strategies for
Winning in Business, authors Jim Sirbasku and
Bud Haney attack the underperformance problem from
the other side: What smart employees do to become—and
stay—productive. Read all about it in "Day Before Vacation."
Read More...
Once you know why you're getting lackluster performance from
smart employees, you can correct the problems and ask
for the success you know is possible. What are you waiting for?
Read
Profiles Advantage Newsletter.
August
2009- It's blistering hot, but we know that the summer heat
won't get in our way if we plan for it. So we make sure
our homes are cool and comfortable, pace ourselves whether at work or
play, and take time off to enjoy life. If the AC goes out, we know what
to do next. Planning for workplace growth and smooth operations
is just as important, and yet only a few organizations use an
organized planning process.
In this issue of Profiles Advantage, we give you a
systematic approach to the kind of planning that leads
to success:
- How many people does it take to change a light bulb? Profiles'
CEO Jim Sirbasku says maybe we should be looking
instead at how long it's taking to get the lights back on
so that we're not operating in the dark.
Read More...
- In their book 40 Strategies for Winning in Business,
Jim Sirbasku and Bud Haney talk about planning for what you
want, using the analogy of antelopes and chipmunks. Why
those two examples? Hint 1: Always choose your targets
strategically. Hint 2: Don't bother with the little prey.
Read More...
- Is your workplace a ticking time bomb, on the
verge of explosion and disintegration? In Product Focus,
we examine ProfileXT® and Profiles
WorkForce Compatibility™, which help organizations get the
most bang for their buck.
Read More...
- Our case study examines job fit in an institution
of higher learning, and what leaders learned about their
enrollment counselors.
Read More...
Your job this summer is to stay cool and plan for the next
phase of both surprises and expected events. Neither will be a
problem if you planned for it.
Read Profiles
Newsletter...
July 2009- Are your managers on track to
deliver?
Times of change present many challenges for organizations,
particularly for front-line managers whose people will be responsible
for implementing the change. Pressure to perform is high, as are
emotions, and everyone is expected to do more with less.
The times when you need your managers to perform at their very best are
the times they are most likely to fail.
This got us thinking: Why do front-line managers fail and what can be
done to avoid failure? The July issue of Profiles Advantage offers keen
insight on this topic.
- Heard of functional silos and the people who operate
behind silo walls? You likely have some of them in your
organization. If you do, you will want to read what our CEO Jim
Sirbasku says about bringing those silo walls down.
Read More...
- In "Dare to be Different," from their book 40 Strategies
for Winning in Business, Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku define Profiles'
culture and detail the duo's focus on exploiting what makes the
organization unique. This is a “must read” for firms trying to
find their niche and for managers who resist change because
they believe it threatens their existence. One important note, say
the authors and founders of Profiles, is to constantly
differentiate yourself from the competition.
Read More...
- Our Product Focus explores two assessments that will get your
managers out of their silos and back onto the team at large:
CheckPoint 360™ and Profiles Team Analysis™. Our example
focuses on the fictional employee with not-so-fictional manager
weaknesses, and illustrates how a manager can use Profiles' products
to develop a key worker.
Read More...
- Are your employees resisting change? Read our Case Study
to see common symptoms of this fear, and see how one leader in a
large healthcare organization determined a way to make necessary
cultural changes using the multipurpose reports of ProfileXT®.
Read More...
- In our June quiz, adapted from Profiles' "Five Critical
Management Derailers: Symptoms and Remedies," learn how
better training can help at-risk managers perform at top levels.
Specific problems and solutions are also offered.
Read More...
Let us show you how constant evaluation and maintenance will
help keep your organization on the success track.
Read the July
Profiles Advantage Newsletter...
June 2009 -America's Best Companies and
How They Do It
"Pro" words infuse this issue of Profiles' Advantage. Here we
examine the common attributes shared by productive organizations,
even in a wobbly economy. If you've been hearing only the "con" side of
commerce, here is the rest of the story:
Profiles' research reveals that America's best organizations
share strong practices. Even better, we share some of them with you
as CEO Jim Sirbasku lays out a short formula for success in his monthly
message.
Read
More...
- A productivity toolkit is as essential to smooth
operations as a first aid kit is to safety. In Product Focus, we
describe assessments you should pack in your organization's
own productivity toolkit.
Read More...
- In our case study, we reveal how managers at a medical
equipment firm used ProfileXT® to determine the top performers
on their sales team.
Read More...
- With the help of Profiles, a healthcare organization in
Dublin used two assessments to create a path to successful
hiring. VHI Health shares its tale in this month's Success
Story.
Read More...
- How do you find and develop world-class salespeople?
Authors Jim Sirbasku and Bud Haney spell out the details in their
book, 40 Strategies for Winning in Business.
Read More...
- Finally, what does "PRODUCTIVE" spell? Discover the extra
message in each letter of the word. Display it in a prominent place
as a reminder that success is available to those willing to work for
it.
Read More...
This issue of Profiles' Advantage will help you create your own
path to productivity. The benefits that follow may make your
organization's name a household word.
Read Profiles
Advantage Newsletter June 2009...
May 2009- So you’ve reduced
your workforce and created a plan for maintaining—and
maybe even growing—your organization. You are poised to take
advantage of an economic recovery.
But if history is any indication, you still have a big job ahead of
you. Your remaining employees, although top performers, may not be
jumping for joy at the prospects before them. They may fear the
future and wonder how they will complete their own work
plus the work of their recently dismissed colleagues.
Now is the time to complete your plan by repurposing your
workers to perform essential tasks. Provide
all employees with the big picture outlook and make
sure they understand what they will be doing to ensure the
future of the organization.
This issue of Profiles Advantage serves up all the details:
- Do you believe that the employees who kept their jobs
during your last layoff are going to work harder for you? That's not
necessarily so. Jim Sirbasku shows you how to use goal
alignment and other means to ensure that everyone is in his
proper role, working smart, and maintaining a good attitude.
Read More...
- Texas organizations reveal their top challenges for 2009
in a new Profiles survey. See
selected findings in our report on the "Top Challenges for
Texas Businesses, 2009," conducted in partnership with Sam
Houston State University.
Read More...
- Key workers who are off the track are a concern
at any time, but especially when you are trying to
maintain—and even grow—operations with fewer employees.
Workforce Analysis Profile™ provides insights into
employees' needs, helps you keep employees on track, and
ensures that they will ultimately benefit the bottom line.
Read More...
If you ever wondered about the meaning behind the adage, "He looked good
in uniform, but he couldn't play," check out "Who Knows What’s
Hidden Right Under Your Nose?" This chapter from the book
40 Strategies for Winning in Business by Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku
will tell you how to discover the "buried
treasure" among your workers.
Read
More...
April 2009
- Hiring well is always important, but it has never been more
critical for watchful organizations than it is now. Your top-performing
employees will find creative ways to keep business robust, even in the
most challenging times.
This issue of Profiles Advantage offers counsel on hiring the
best, coaching them, and helping them maintain the highest levels of
performance:
- Jim Sirbasku's vital message for organizations is this: Hire
the best and train them well. He offers 10 questions for leaders
to ask themselves in order to diagnose their organizations'
hiring and training processes.
Read More...
- Product Focus explains why you should pay attention to your
inner voice when it tells you that someone might not be right
for a position. The ProfileXT® can help you here.
Read More...
- Broaden your understanding of ProfileXT® by testing your
knowledge of its terminology in our pop quiz.
Read More...
- Hiring top performers is the objective of a fire and rescue
organization in this month's Case Study.
Read More...
- In our Success Story, Baby Boomer retirees present a
challenge for Idaho Fish and Game. Learn how their top manager
met the challenge with Profiles' help.
Read More...
- Bud Haney and Jim Sirbasku treat us to six strategies for
savvy hiring in "The New Art of Hiring Smart" from their book 40
Strategies for Winning in Business.
Read More...
If your organization is looking for answers, let Profiles Advantage
serve as your beacon.
Read More...
March 2009
- Consumers trying to preserve their cash will be more likely to spend
it with your organization if they are already your customers. That's
a priceless advantage for you, because the cost of keeping the customers
you have is far less expensive than finding new ones. This issue of
Profiles Advantage offers timely advice for retaining your best
customers, which is just as important as keeping your top-performing
employees.
- See CEO Jim Sirbasku's advice about how to instill customer
loyalty. While you are at it, check out his short list of the
things customers really want from your business.
Read More...
- Take our self-scored customer service quiz, "What's Your
Customer Service IQ?" to find out if you truly are a customer
servant or need to work on your knowledge and skills a bit more.
Read More...
- Read solid customer service advice from the Jim Sirbasku/Bud
Haney book, 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS. This month's
book chapter, "Talk 'Em Down," tells you how to make customer
complaints work for you. The authors note that complaining
customers still want to do business with you – if you are
willing to make some changes. Lend a willing ear and you will be
rewarded.
Read More...
- Also, check out this month's featured product, Customer
Service Profile™. It's an invaluable assessment in helping
organizations recruit and select employees who match the
company's standards.
Read More...
In any economy – but especially this one – keeping valuable customers
happy is a win-win proposition. Think of Profiles Advantage as your
confidant/mentor/partner/ in finding the answers to all of your customer
service challenges.
Read Profiles
Advantage Newsletter March 2009...
February
2009-The new year presents heads of organizations with big
challenges to examine – Perhaps bigger than those of any other year
in recent history. If you are thinking about how to profit and grow in a
tough economy, it's important to face the challenges with a team of
topnotch leaders. This issue of Profiles Advantage will help you do just
that.
- First stop – check out CEO Jim Sirbasku's framework for starting
the new year. In particular, he offers ideas on how leaders can see
themselves as others do – an often difficult task because it
requires us to look deeply within, minus defensive blinders.
Read More...
- Do you wonder what kind of leader you are? Take our fun quiz to
see if you are an A, B, C or D. Don't worry – it's a self-graded
test so no one will see your answers unless your share them. You may
learn something about yourself.
Read More...
- Author John Maxwell often hears from people in the middle of
organizations who ask him how in the world they could offer guidance
from that vantage point. The leadership expert answers the question
in his book, THE 360 DEGREE LEADER, including advice about leading
up, down and across – or, put another way, leading from where you
are now.
Read More...
- While we are on the subject of leadership, check out the Product
Focus examination of CheckPoint 360°. The assessment should be a
part of any discussion about improving leadership.
Read More...
- Success Stories – more than one this month – takes the
discussion a bit further, with multiple client remarks about how the
assessment helped them. Their numerous perspectives offer the
details that just might result in answers for your organization.
Read More...
Profiles Advantage wants to be your partner in starting 2009 with
strength and enthusiasm. Please accept our best wishes – and our ideas –
for meeting your leadership challenges head-on.
Read
Profiles Advantage Newsletter February 2009...
January 2009-Closing Thought for 2008 – Remember Your Employees-
As 2008 winds down, we want to leave you with some final thoughts about
how to realize top employee performance. As we have in the past, we
continue to emphasize looking ahead, and that's why we believe
performance reviews as we are doing them now are yesterday's news. Thus
we devote this issue of Profiles Advantage to the importance of coaching
and the performance PREview. Just what is a performance preview?
- Jim Sirbasku gives you an imaginary look at how such a preview
session with an employee would unfold if you were using this method
in your office.
Read More...
- What does good coaching mean? Opinions differ, but you can test
your skill with our "Coaching IQ" quiz. It includes a scorecard at
the end; see if you need an attitude adjustment or you are on top of
your game.
Read More...
- Shopping for last-minute gifts? How about something for your
organization? Check out our Product Focus for ideas for everyone on
your list.
Read More...
- One tangible gift to consider is Jathan Janove's THE STAR
PROFILE: A Management Tool to Unleash Employee Potential. Who among us
could not use stars running the business?
Read More...
- Finally, you can get a first-hand peek into how managers at
Controlco are using ProfileXT to grow the business.
Read More...
As we all remember those most dear to us in this happy season,
remember that including your employees in your journey is bound to make
your pathway smoother and the load lighter.
Read More...
December
2008 - It's All About Relationships-"There
is something rare, something finer far, something much more scarce than
ability. It's the ability to recognize ability." Writer Elbert
Hubbard penned those words to live by many years ago, but they still
have legs today. Consider organizations facing tough business
decisions. They need the most competent people
they can find to help them survive. This November issue of
Profiles Advantage is all about "the ability to recognize
ability," and what to do about it once you discern it.
- For starters, CEO Jim Sirbasku talks about the wild
acrobatics that CEOs are enduring currently and how
important it is to ask every worker to give his or her all on
the job. That means all of their creativity, innovation,
inspiration and energy. Of course asking them to give
150 percent every day comes after finding, developing
and retaining the people who can roll with the bumps.
One crucial piece of advice is to count your blessings
if you are not operating under a hiring freeze. But
don't stop with hiring well!
Read More...
- Think you are a good leader? Test yourself with our
pop quiz. The answers are backed up by employee
research and who knows, maybe some of your employees responded
to the questions that fueled the research results.
Read More...
- In our Success Story, leaders at the
John Henry Foster Co. celebrate job fit
and share the secret of their triumph.
Read More...
- The Nirvana Company is imaginary, but the assessment
it uses – Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™ –
is very real. This new product analyzes seven important
characteristics of each of your employees so
you can get to know your workers as individuals. No secrets
here, either. Both the manager and employer can read a
report that steers them to the next steps of acquiring
a smooth work relationship.
Read More...
- Read our review of Judith M. Bardwick's One Foot
Out the Door and see what she says about a
"psychological recession" wreaking havoc on some
American companies.
Read More...
Do you have that rare ability to recognize ability, or are you
blind to the possibilities? Let this issue of Profiles
Advantage give you ideas that will help you view
your employees with newfound clarity.
Read
More...
November
2008-The ghouls of Halloween are imaginary good fun. But this
month's Profiles Advantage is deadly serious as it takes on the
real ghouls that companies face all year long – the ones you find in the
office:
- CEO Jim Sirbasku talks about the frightening things
that scary hires can do to your company. Without
betraying the plot of this suspenseful tale, we can tell you it
has to do with the evils of high turnover, low production,
and ever spiraling costs you cannot afford.
Read More...
- Scary can be bad or good. In the good category, you can find
out how the ProfileXT helped a sports rehab company focus
on the thinking style and behavioral traits of its
most successful providers.
Read More...
- Also in the scary good category is the Case Study.
Using the PXT, a retail organization increased its sales by
1,000 percent. That is not a misprint.
Read More...
- And that's why we focus on PXT's Job Match Percent in
Product Focus. Isn't it time to see what this assessment
can do for you?
Read More...
- No need to be scared of being stranded in Death Valley
in your sales cycles. As Jim Sirbasku and Bud Haney point out in
this chapter from 40 Strategies for Winning in Business,
sales are all about relationships.
Read More...
- Are your business meetings from somewhere south of Earth? In
the new book, No More Meetings from Hell, author Jack
Rahaim tells you exactly what to do to lift them to a loftier
realm.
Read More...
- Finally, for a short take on what NOT to do, review our list
of 10 scary hiring practices to avoid like a black cat.
Read More...
This issue of Profiles Advantage gives you the antidote
to all of the scary scenarios in your workday. Take us along
with you and the ghouls will quake in horror at your
confidence.
Read
More...
October
2008-The Possibilities of Learning - Welcome to this
back-to-school issue of Profiles Advantage! We are taking a page from
the teacher's lesson plan in urging everyone to consider that leadership
and learning go hand-in-hand, and both are lifetime pursuits. Here is a
peek at some of the information in this issue:
- How do teachers take vastly different students
and fill their heads with knowledge? This is something that Jim
Sirbasku explores as he examines training and development
programs and notes that a single kind of training does not fill
every need.
Read More...
- Ready for a pop quiz? Ours offers 10 Things Good Leaders
Do (And How They Do Them). See if you can match them up.
Read More...
- In Pass it On, a chapter from Bud Haney and Jim
Sirbasku's 40 Strategies For Winning In Business, you will
see a step-by-step guide to an oft-ignored part of leadership:
delegating. If this is one of your weak areas, be sure to learn
the secret of successfully "passing it on."
Read More...
- Make a plan, says "head coach" Daniel S. Harkavy in
his book, Becoming a Coaching Leader: The Proven Strategy For
Building Your Own Team of Champions. Learn what he teaches
clients in his Building Champions organization. Hint: He builds
everything on the foundation of his "Core Four."
Read More...
- No back-to-school lesson plan would be complete
without a coaching guide. That's what Checkpoint's
SkillBuilder™ is, and we guarantee the information it offers the
employee/manager is too valuable to gather dust on the shelf.
Read More...
The new school year is ripe with possibilities, not only for the
classroom student, but also for the student within us all. Let this
issue of Profiles Advantage be the start of your organization's
commitment to employee development that works.
Read More...
August
2008-Leaders ready to address stress in the workplace
should save this issue of Profiles Advantage to refer to repeatedly.
Here we offer non-perishable ideas for knowing what motivates employees
so you can predict with accuracy how they will respond to stressful
situations. And knowledge is power. Once you know that first thing, you
will know what to do about it.
- Stress costs business and industry more than $300 billion a
year, according to the American Institute of Stress. With that
astonishing figure in mind, CEO Jim Sirbasku offers a guide to
coaching employees through stress and conflict.
Read More...
- See our handy list of 10 Positive Results of Less Workplace
STRESS to gain more ideas about how getting this prickly problem
under control will serve your workplace well.
Read More...
- Add a "P" for productivity to the Profiles Performance
Indicator™. The well-grounded coaching report it provides to
managers tells them all about employee motivation and offers fresh
and individual ways to coach and communicate. Another advantage:
Employees get their own separate report and insights into how they
can grow professionally.
Read More...
- With the summer fun season upon us, check out DAY BEFORE
VACATION from the book 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS by
Jim Sirbasku and Bud Haney. This good read tells you how to turn
that day before vacation energy into a powerful force that works for
you every day.
Read More...
- Anna Maravelas' book, HOW TO REDUCE WORKPLACE CONFLICT AND
STRESS, gets rave reviews for a very good reason. She offers
methods to thoughtfully combat the workplace angst that sabotages
productivity and tells leaders how to create a blame-resistant,
emotionally resilient workforce.
Read More...
July 2008-
This issue of Profiles Advantage is all about coaching to get the best
performance possible from your employees, which requires that you know
them as well as or better than they know themselves.
- Knowing your workforce well enough to give people
what they want leads to getting the performance your
organization requires to grow, CEO Jim Sirbasku advises. That's
a good deal all around.
Read More...
- If you are ready, willing and able to coach but just
need to see what it looks like, our 10 Ways to Coach by Example
should spark even more ideas. With daily practice, you will soon
be coaching like the most experienced team leader.
Read More...
- Organizations that want to step out smartly in the hiring
arena need to bookmark The New Art of Hiring Smart from the
Bud Haney-Jim Sirbasku book, 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN
BUSINESS. The chapter lists six tried-and-true practices for
hiring smart that will put organizations in the comfortable seat
of success.
Read more...
- Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert's new book, THE
BREAKTHROUGH IMPERATIVE, offers four simple principles that
leaders need to follow to realize the fast performance growth so
desired today.
Read more...
- In our case study, the coaching report in ProfileXT®
helps a travel agency on two fronts: increasing sales and
reducing turnover.
Read More...
- Expanding on the "envision coaching" theme, our Product
Focus shows how the coaching report from the ProfileXT®
helps supply coaching instruction when a worker needs an extra
boost in a couple of areas.
Read More...
June 2008
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk- Developing the Recession-Proof
Workforce - The latest labor statistics help tell the story
of the continuous churn in the workforce. Unemployment was 5
percent for April; the annual average for 2007 was 4.6 percent.
The rest of the story is that the most talented employees are
coming and going as usual, because hiring does not stop even in
a down economy. They will do what they believe is best for them.
And among the departures may be some of your top talent.
Read
More...
- Top Advice-10 Ways to Keep Talent through Tough Times -
1. How many top performers are enough? Mine for talent all
the time, not just when talent leaves or changes jobs.
Read
More...
- Case Study-ProfileXT® Helps Healthcare Firm Enroll Top
Performers - Low employee productivity can trouble a company
anytime, not just during bad times. A healthcare organization
troubled with exactly this problem found help through ProfileXT®
when it sought a way to increase its frequency of hiring
employees that excelled in their positions. This case study
examines the relationship between employee productivity and Job
Match to ProfileXT®.
Read More...
- Product Focus-Two Products to Grow Your Workers – AND
Your Business - Let's say an organization sees the soft
economy as a time to maintain the business it has. It views open
positions or an overall reduction in the workforce as good ways
to save money during a downtown.
Read More...
- Strategies for Winning-The sky is not falling * Good
Tactics for Bad Times - September 11, 2001, will live in the
minds of people forever. Three thousand lives were lost and our
psyche was struck that day. For a period, Americans were
crippled with fear. The attacks caused people to be cautious and
hesitant. The atmosphere debilitated our economy into
stagnation. The momentum we had worked so hard to create in our
business had come to a standstill.
Read More...
- Success Story-Building Leadership at DMJM Harris -
Editor's note: DMJM Harris, the transportation flagship company
of AECOM Technology Corporation, specializes in services that
include transit-rail, highways and bridges, aviation, marine,
planning, energy and power, and design and construct. With
headquarters in New York and Los Angeles, it has more than 2,200
employees in the United States. The company is the employer of
choice within the industry and boasts a reputation for
attracting and retaining highly talented employees while
advancing their professional development. The Greater New York
Chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) named DMJM
Harris as its 2007 Employer of the Year in recognition of its of
its support of diversity and of women in the transportation
industry. DMJM Harris is also a Profiles Client of the Year.
Read More...
May 2008 -
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - Coach Early And Often -
Even employers with the best of intentions are guilty of
assuming too much. As they see workers of different ages,
genders and racial makeup working side-by-side, they might think
that this one fits in a group that wants to multitask at a fast
pace because she is young, while her counterpart from another
generation is interested in slowing down. Read More...
- Top Advice - 18 Ways to Motivate Different People in Your
Workplace - Research conducted in 2004 found six different
segments in the American workplace. All workplaces, especially
large ones, will likely employ some of each type of worker. Read
More...
- Case Study - PXT Helps Financial Firm Match Bankers to
Job - Companies suffering from low worker productivity need
to investigate how well their employees match their job duties.
One financial services organization in the Southeast, facing a
productivity problem, conducted a study to examine the
relationship between employee performance and job match to the
ProfileXT®. What they learned has armed them to better select
productive employees. Read More...
- Product Focus - Putting the Puzzle Pieces Where They Fit
- If your workforce resembles that of most organizations, many
different kinds of people are toiling under one roof. In one
area, you have a person striving for better pay and benefits
working next to someone for whom the pay is secondary to the job
duties. Nearby, an employee struggles to balance work and home
life. And yet another worker on the same team is looking for a
new position because he thrives on change and is seeing the same
old tasks every day. Read More...
- Strategies for Winning - What Goes Around * - See Your
Managers' Strengths from Every Angle - A senior manager
announces his decision to move to a competitor and the senior
management team convenes a crisis-management meeting to figure
how the organization will survive. Meanwhile, for the rest of
the team, it's party time! The champagne is flowing; everyone's
wearing funny hats, blowing noisemakers, and toasting their good
fortune. The topic du jour is "With that clown gone, maybe now
we can get on with business." Read More...
- Success Story - PXT Spotlights Team Leaders at JPS Health
Network - EDITOR’S NOTE: Judith B. Redd, a 19-year employee
with JPS Health Network, is executive director of JPS Institute
for Learning in Fort Worth. The Institute is using the ProfileXT®
to measure leadership bench strength and to help identify people
who can lead organization-wide teams. Read More...
April 2008 - Performance Management
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk-Coach Early And Often- In
our office, we like to encourage a variation on the electoral
theme "Vote early and often." We substitute the word "coach" for
"vote," and as opposed to the humor in the voting phrase, we are
dead serious. We believe coaching is imperative to improved
performance, and that the act of coaching offers a more robust
work experience to both employees and managers.
Read More...
- Top Advice-10 Steps to Effective Coaching-Read
More...
- Case Study-ProfileXT® Helps Healthcare Firm Gain Footing
in Selecting Workers-To ensure high productivity and low
turnover in the workplace, make sure your employees fit the
requirements of their jobs. Sounds simple enough, right?
Read More...
- Product Focus-Is Your Team Lacking a Coach?-Let's say
your organization provides assessments that tell employees where
they are and where they need to go. That's good; you have given
them valuable, clear training. Now you wait for it to take hold.
And wait. And wait some more.
Read More...
- Strategies For Winning-Antelope and Chipmunks-Know Your
Goals and Focus on Them- Goal setting is a subject to be
emphasized early in the development of a business career, and we
can't emphasize it enough. We have formed the habit of setting
goals daily, weekly, monthly, annually and for the next 10
years! We think you should, too.
Read More...
March 2008
- From Jim Sirbasku's Desk-Crisp and Vivid High Def
Customer Service - That's a great picture on your new HD
television, isn't it? The images are sharp and crisp and the
colors so vivid. It's grand to kick back and watch a sporting
event when you feel as if you are in the middle of the game or
on the golf course. But wait. Why is the screen breaking up and
going dark? Somebody DO something – before we see only a test
pattern and a "technical difficulties" message!
Read More...
- Case Study-Gaining Confidence with ProfileXT™ Job Match-In
the highly competitive advertising sales arena, a productive
sales staff is crucial to growth. Although success in sales is
measurable, productivity is difficult to spot during the hiring
process. How do you gauge the energy and effectiveness of people
you do not know? Read
More...
- Product Focus-New CSP Report Shines Light on What
Customer Service Means-For years, Customer Service Profile™
has waged war against poor treatment of the people your company
needs to survive. Managers use CSP's placement, coaching and
individual reports to see which job candidates' attitudes best
match the organization's expectations for excellent customer
service. For employees already on the job, CSP reveals which
areas and/or individuals would benefit from more training.
Read More...
- Strategies for Winning-Of Course I Remember You!- Nothing is More Important to People than Their Names "Hey Bud,
let me introduce you to someone I've just met. That is…um…I'm
sorry, what did you say your name was again?" Embarrassing? No,
that's too small a word! Read More...
February 2008
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - Measuring Your Compatibility
Quotient - Here's a word of advice for managers who have ever had an
unpleasant meeting with a key employee and cannot fathom why
Give-and-Take turned into Tug-of-War.
Read More...
- Book Review - Mr. and Ms. Leader and their Eight IMPs -
Forget Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and think instead of
Super Manager and the Eight IMPs. IMPs in this case are not
elves or other magical creatures, although the creator of the
term likely won't argue about the magic they produce.
Read
More...
- Case Study - PXT™ Quiets Squeaky Wheel in Oilfield
Service Company -Employment is robust in the oilfield industry and the plants
of today require many hands. Workers generally command good
rates of pay, but the work can be physically and emotionally
difficult. Oilfield work depends on a sense of teamwork and
commitment. Read More...
- Product Focus - Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™: A
Smooth Path Between Manager, Worker - How many times have
you longed for a way to get inside an employee's head to find
out what he or she was really thinking? Often this desire occurs
after an unpleasant encounter or a meeting that was off-balance.
You would pay to know why a key worker suddenly clammed up and
another started babbling nervously. More importantly, you need
to know what to do differently the next time.
Read More...
- Strategies For Winning - Carrot, Stick or What? * To Push
or to Pull – That is the Question! - How would you like to
have all of your team chomping at the bit to do what you need
them to do to make your business successful? Everyone wants that
elusive ingredient – motivation – in the people to whom they
entrust the development of their business. Well, sorry to turn
the lights to dim so quickly, but here's the bad news: YOU
CANNOT MOTIVATE ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING –Read More...
January 2008
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk- Wise Managers Enjoy the Season with
No Letup - Ahhh, the holidays. A time for family, parties, good
food, football, gifts…and oh, yes – work. It's not last by accident
in this list; to the detriment of organizations everywhere, work
often comes last this time of year.
Read More...
- Case Study - PXT™ Highlights Top-Performing Firefighters -
Even a team already using a sophisticated and effective method
for choosing employees, such as a high-performing fire and rescue
unit, can benefit from ProfileXT™.
Read More...
- Product Focus - 12 Gifts with Staying Power - In keeping
with the popular "12 Days of Christmas" carol, here are 12 gifts to
leaders that will last throughout the year and beyond. Think of them
as presents with staying power.
Read More...
- Strategies For Winning - Look Into The Future* — Are You On
Track? - If you don't keep score in business and in sales, it
may be hard to tell whether you're winning or losing. A Personal
Story from Bud Haney...
Read More...
November 2007
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - Getting Our Teams in Gear -
One of the ways to understand how teams operate is to imagine gears
meshing. In gear theory, we have drivers, followers and idlers. We
“gear up” and “gear down.” Following this theory, we know that when
gears are not properly meshed, friction results. Work teams operate
the same way. Team players are like the followers; they do the
useful work. Team leaders are like the driver, the gear with applied
force. And, just as the meshing of followers and drivers can speed
up the gear train and increase torque, team players that mesh well
can accomplish great things.
Read More...
- Case Study - Fine-Tuning a Financial Services Team with PXT™-
Employee teamwork is important in all industries, but the stakes
are among the highest in the competitive financial services sector,
where employees must be detail-oriented and mesh like a finely tuned
machine. The intricate mix of federal and state regulations that
employees must follow also heightens the importance of teamwork.
Read More...
- Product Focus - Playing Nice at Work Makes for Nice Work -
Producing Art with Profiles Team Analysis™
A team that works well together can produce a work of art. Think of
the Vienna Boys Choir, a group of individuals with perfectly tuned,
trained voices. Or envision a team of Clydesdale horses harnessed
together, each raising the correct hoof at precisely the right time,
as if following the lead of an imaginary conductor. Marching bands
and football players, surgeons and teachers – all are capable of
good things individually and potentially great accomplishments when
working together. Read
More...
- Strategies For Winning - Fire ’em Up! – 21 Days to a
Winning, Motivated Team*- Will you give 10 minutes each day for the
next 21 days to fire up your team like never before? The sooner you
can get a new employee into productivity, the better off you will
be. At Profiles, our managers have learned the following techniques
for managing and motivating people. These take the usual
new-employee orientation to a higher level. This program has been
successful in integrating our new team members into the Profiles
culture in just 21 days, or about one calendar month. Not only has
using this system accelerated the productivity of new team members,
but it has proved excellent in making them feel wanted, appreciated
and accepted. Based upon the positive results we have experienced,
we heartily recommend you implement a similar program in your
company. Read More...
October 2007
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - To Improve Corporate Performance,
Look Beyond the Process - Although many companies are focused on
improving corporate performance, they may be using the wrong
measurements to keep score of how they’re doing. The CFO, for
example, might be using the yardsticks of revenue growth, cost of
goods sold, days in inventory and DSO, or days sales outstanding.
His attention may be glued to hot new developments in business
process improvement and using software to automate processes.
Read More...
- Case Study - ProfileXT™ – A 10-Month Study, A Drop in
Turnover - An engaged workforce is a delight to employers and
customers alike, but in a hospital setting, the importance of
focused and productive workers takes on heightened significance. Now
add a layer to that: The difficult environment of a psychiatric
hospital, where continuity of care is crucial. This case study takes
us to just such an environment. Here, a medical hiring board
struggled frequently as it tried to fill open positions, most of
them forced by firings of unsuitable workers. With so much of its
time spent in hiring meetings, less attention went to patient care.
At one point, the hospital grappled with a turnover rate of almost
70 percent. Clearly, hiring managers needed to do something
differently. The medical board turned to the ProfileXT™ to help
identify top performers.
Read More...
- Product Focus - Paving the Way for a Happy Marriage - In
many ways, a work-to-worker relationship resembles a marriage. The
organization is attracted to the worker and/or vice versa. The two
connect, commit with an engagement, and decide to unite. With good
planning, hard work and a bit of luck, the relationship will be a
healthy one that grows and flourishes. Just like a marriage, the
work relationship will experience bumps along the way and the
“couple” may need professional help. Profiles International’s family
of products can help this union stick together instead of growing
apart, starting at the very beginning. So, from the
getting-to-know-you stage, or courtship, here goes:
Read More...
- Strategies For Winning - How to Become an Employer of
Choice*— Attracting and Retaining the Very Best People - While
many employers complain about the difficulty of attracting and
retaining quality people, other employers seem never to have this
problem. What’s their secret? It’s not really a secret. Employers of
Choice simply know what’s important to their employees. Before you
can consider the challenge of attracting and retaining people, you
must look at the dark side. What drives people from their jobs?
Profiles International recently completed a survey to explore this.
Here are the five main reasons people change jobs:
Read More...
- Success Story- Engaging Workers at Alternative Risk Services
Mary Ellen Price, office manager and director of human resources
for Alternative Risk Services, a risk management and third-party
administrator for worker’s compensation claims, uses Workforce
Analysis Profile™ as well as other assessments to help ensure
employee engagement. Read
More...
September 2007
- From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - How to Blend Science with the Art of Sales Excellence -
You are bursting with pride at your most recent hire in the sales department. You lured the guy with a high sales quota from his job at Giant Company to work with your small, entrepreneurial startup and told him you wanted him to work the same magic for you that he worked there. You believe he can do it or you wouldn’t have gone after him. He believes he can do it or he wouldn’t have left his job there to come to work for you.
Read More...
- 10 Steps to Keeping Your Top - Performing Sellers -
1. Make sure they fit the job before you hire them. Don’t just hire a warm body to fill an open position.
2. Feed their confidence by encouraging them to take ownership and rely on their own decision-making skills; empower them to help their clients without having to clear every decision.
Read More...
- Case Study- A Decrease in Turnover Using Customer Service Profile™ -
What kind of workers does your organization hire for customer service? Do they like dealing with people? Are they tactful? Do they listen well? These behaviors are paramount in any organization that promotes good customer service, and the keys to this particular kingdom are hiring the right people and retaining the ones that meet your high standards.
Read More...
- Product Focus- PSI™, PXTS™: Turning the 80-20 Rule on its Ear -
Any sales leader weary of witnessing the old 80-20 rule at work – 20 percent of the salespeople are nabbing 80 percent of the sales – can put a stop to that fatigue with two key assessments. Think of them as a gentle one-two punch that doesn’t knock anyone down or out but effectively changes the hiring/training/coaching landscape.
Read More...
- Strategies For Winning - World-Class Salespeople * Spotting the 20% who Sell the 80% -
Who would have predicted that Vilfredo Pareto’s famous 80-20 rule, formulated more than 100 years ago, would still apply to sales organizations today?
Read More...
- Success Story - The Corban Group Finds Right Fit with PXTSales™
(Editor’s Note: Bill Peterson, vice president of executive search firm The Corban Group, details the successes his company has seen with PXTSales. )
Q.
Why did The Corban Group begin using ProfileXTSales™?
A. We wanted to give our clients additional insight into the candidates we present to them. Because we are an executive search firm and a partner in the hiring process, we want to provide objective information. We don’t sell candidates to our clients.
Read More..
August 2007 - Customer Service: A How-Not-To, And A How-To- The stories we hear and read about customer service these days should frighten any executive into making clandestine calls to her own office to check out what’s really going on at home. It’s an old trick, but if all CEOs made such calls on a regular basis, we might usher in a new age of enlightenment. Read More...
- 7 Steps to Superb Customer Service - Read More...
- A Decrease In Turnover Using Customer Service Profile™ - What kind of workers does your organization hire for customer service? Do they like dealing with people? Are they tactful? Do they listen well? These behaviors are paramount in any organization that promotes good customer service, and the keys to this particular kingdom are hiring the right people and retaining the ones that meet your high standards.
Read More... - Customer Service Profile™ Makes Your Wishes Come True - If you watch your best customer service employees work their magic, you’ve likely wished that you could clone them. In their bag of tricks are all the right words: empathy, tactfulness, intelligence, sensitivity, sense of humor. Not only that, they know how to show these behaviors. And they know your business inside-out. Read More...
- Talk ’em Down! - Make Customer Complaints Work for You - One day, we received a call from one of our Strategic Partners who said she was about to lose her biggest client because of a glitch in our e-mail system. How did this happen? Read More...
May 2007- Seven Deadly Sins of Leadership - While the self-help section of the library has numerous volumes on leadership and how to do the right thing, sometimes knowing what the wrong things are and how to avoid them can be just as valuable. Read More...
- Developing Leaders — Fast Track and Feedback - In a typical Fortune 500 company, most leaders spend an average of four years in a given position. That means that annually, at least one fourth of the managers will change jobs. Read More...
- Self-knowledge Provides the Opportunity for Leadership Development - It is estimated that in most organizations, 15 to 20 percent of employees are considered top performers. At any given time, 80 to 85 percent of an organization’s employees are not fully engaged and motivated. Read More...
- Book Review: “Workforce Crisis;” - Dychtwald, Erickson, Morrison; Harvard Business School Press. Read More...
- Best Sites for Workforce/HR Information. Read More...
April 2007- Client Highlight-Burning Tree Programs HR Manager Finds Insight in SOSIITM - The human resources manager for two Texas drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities offers her employees a different perspective on Profiles' Step One Survey IITM assessment. She has seen it from the other side of the desk, as a candidate being interviewed for her current position. Read More...
- Technical Corner-Assessment Tools Must Be Valid-An assessment tool is valid if it measures specific characteristics required to do a job and if the measurements are accurate. Validity is the fifth of 13 Department of Labor guidelines used for assessment instruments, and the one we will be examining this month. Read More...
- Profiles Tip of the Month-Boast at Your Own Risk-Do not brag on yourself. Remain modest, even when you have cause to boast. Of all the advice your mother gave you, remembering this could help you in both your relationships and your career. Read More...
- HR Corner-How to Retain the Best Employees-As Baby Boomers retire and fewer workers are available to replace them, retaining the best employees becomes more important. Retention takes on more significance to HR professionals, who see most sharply the toll turnover takes on a business: loss of efficiency, higher production costs, long searches, loss of job knowledge and lack of security among remaining employees. Read More...
- Case Study-ProfileXTTM in a Psychiatric Hospital-Administrators at a mental health facility found they were devoting a great deal of time to a weekly hiring board established to determine the effectiveness of mental health workers and decide which workers to retain.
Read More... - Product Focus-Workforce Analysis ProfileTM-A company with engaged workers is likely to keep them longer with all the benefits of high retention appearing on the bottom line. Clients on the outside looking in might not know anything about that, but they recognize good customer service when they see it. And engaged employees give excellent customer service. Read More...
March 2007Client Highlight-Creating a ‘Strong Bench’ at Specialized Loan Servicing -When Lisa Rice sought an assessment tool for her financial services company, she put together a task force of eight to research the products. Read More... Profiles Tip of the Month - How to Reduce Stress
With 75 percent of employees believing that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago. Read More... Client Highlight-If the Shoe Fits: The Story of Sava Senior Care
Getting the right person who fits in a particular job can be like trying to find the right foot to fit the glass slipper. Read More... Tech Corner-Assessment Tools Must Be Reliable
When someone takes an assessment several times and receives the same or nearly the same score, this is a good indicator of the instrument’s reliability. Read More... Human Resource Corner-Who’s in Charge Here?
In a large financial services office, all work on a key project stopped when the top decision-maker was absent for reasons she had not anticipated — a death in her immediate family. Read More... - Case Study - ProfileXT™ Aids Financial Group in Matching Top Performers- Low employee productivity hampered the progress of a financial services organization located in the Southeast. An examination of the issue focused on the relationship between employee performance and “Job Match” to the ProfileXT™ . Read More...
- Product Focus -ProfilesEasy™
Finding qualified employees through an online application process just got easier for both your HR department and the qualified people interested in working for your company. Read More...
February 2007- Client Highlight - If the Shoe Fits: The Story of Sava Senior Care
Finding the right person to fit in a particular job can be like trying to find the right foot to fit the glass slipper. For Danette Manzi, senior vice president of Sava Senior Care Administrative Services, the ProfileXTTM is like a magic shoehorn. Read More... - Tech Corner - Assessment Tools Must Be Fair to All Groups
This month we examine the third Department of Labor guideline for occupational assessments. This rule says that assessment instruments should be unbiased and treat all groups with fairness. Read More... - Tip of Month - Two’s Company, Four’s a Crowd
Robin made an appointment with a valued client. They were going to talk about the new insurance plan Robin represented. As she prepared for the meeting, Robin decided to take her colleague Jason because he knew the plan better than she did. Jason agreed but wanted to bring along Tom and his excellent PowerPoint presentation. Read More... - Human Resource Corner - What Does Good Leadership Look Like? People who reflect on the subject of leadership do not always agree on what makes a good leader. Most of them focus on leadership instead. Here are 10 different traits used to describe effective leaders: Read More...
- Case Study - ProfileXT™ Helps Healthcare Organization Improve Selection Practices-Leaders of a healthcare organization faced with low employee productivity wanted to hire more employees who excelled in their jobs. The current study was conducted to examine the relationship between employee productivity and job match to ProfileXT™. Read More...
- Product Focus - Step One Survey IITM Saves Consulting Company from Costly Hiring Mistakes-Jean, human resources director for a large consulting company, stared at the resume on her desk. A few years ago, she would have wasted precious time trying to read between the lines. Read More...
January 2007- Client Highlight- Blue Wave Ultrasonics Eliminates Hiring Errors with ProfileXT™ - A hiring snafu that occurred in the mid-’90s proved to be the turning point for a relationship between Profiles International of Waco, Texas, and Blue Wave Ultrasonics, Inc. of Davenport, Iowa. Blue Wave Ultrasonics’ manager Roger Stoneking was mentally kicking himself over the mistake when he saw a schedule for a nearby seminar about Profiles assessments. Read More...
- Technical Corner-The 'Whole-Person' Approach - Last month Technical Corner examined the first Department of Labor guideline on occupational assessment tools. This time we will look at guideline number two, which says that assessment tools must use the “whole-person” approach. This means that the tests employers use should measure more than limited aspects about a potential employee.
Read More... - Human Resource Corner -What is Performance Management?
One well-known company that throws its office doors open to the public every day has found a very public way to recognize employees for good performance: It puts photographs of the employees in its lobby display case. Each photograph is accompanied by a biography of the employee. Less public but just as important, the employee also receives an extra paid day off, a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant, and a convenient reserved parking place for a month. Read More... - Profiles Tip of the Month- Listen More, Talk Less - Good salespeople know what their clients need. This is not because they have the power to read minds. They know because when they ask a question, they pause for the answer and listen when the answer comes. If they can then figure out how to service the client’s needs, they have likely made a sale. Record your next sales call. Focus on keeping your client talking while you practice the refined art of listening. If the client stops talking, give him or her several seconds to continue. If the pause continues, ask a follow-up question, such as “Can you elaborate on that?” to get the client talking again. Above all, don’t interrupt. Once the call ends, check out the recording to see how many minutes you talked versus how many minutes you listened. Your own presentation need not be lengthy. You should listen more than you talk. Read More...
- Update: Changes Coming to EEO-1 - By Scott Haney - Employers who must submit the EEO-1 report, also called the Employer Information Report, need to know about upcoming changes in the survey that will take place in September 2007. The survey is a government form that requires many employers to supply an employee count by job category, ethnicity, race and gender. The report goes to several government agencies. Read More...
- Case Study - ProfileXT™ in use by a Healthcare Organization
Leaders of a healthcare organization faced with low employee productivity wanted to find a way to hire more employees that excelled in their positions. The current study was conducted to examine the relationship between employee productivity and Job Match to ProfileXT™. Read More... - Product Focus- Profiles Sales Indicator™ - If the new employee on the sales team is not doing as well as you expected, you should check the shape of the hole. You may have put the wrong peg in it. Put another way, your new sales employee might not be a match for the job. Read More...
December 2006- Client Highlight - 3M Trainer Finds Solutions with Profiles Tools
A bid for help from managers who wanted to coach their sales representatives more effectively led Gene Nichols, a 3M trainer in St. Paul, Minn., to take a closer look at the Profiles tools his company was using. He found assessments that could give managers specific information and that could be changed to fit his company’s needs.
Read More... - Technical Corner - A Purposeful Manner - Technical Corner, a new column this month, will examine Department of Labor guidelines on occupational assessment tools, starting with the first one. It states that assessment tools must be used in a purposeful manner. This means that managers using the tools need to understand how they work. Profiles’ assessments meet or exceed Department of Labor guidelines, and we work with our clients to help them understand our tools and use them correctly. Read More...
- HR Corner - To Reduce Turnover, Know What Causes It - In most ways, the top boss at a large manufacturing company, Robert, managed his people well. He told his managers what he expected and gave them freedom to do their jobs the way they saw fit. He kept his door open most of the time and willingly discussed issues with his assistants. Read More...
- Product Focus - Customer Service Profile™ - The Last Straw…
It is the last straw. You finally decided that you have made your last trip to the neighborhood pharmacy – even though it is convenient and the pharmacists are friendly and helpful. So what’s the problem?
Read More... - Profiles Tip of the Month - Make VoiceMail Your Pal - How often do you get to speak to the decision-maker in person? Some studies say up to 70 percent of business phone calls go to VoiceMail. Clearly, it’s time to make this time- and money-saving device your friend. Here’s how: Craft your 30-second elevator speech in writing. Use a friendly tone of voice and your client’s name. Practice your message, then read the speech as if you are saying it in person. Imagine grasping the client’s hand and looking him or her in the eye. Be sure to include your contact information – email and phone number -- speaking clearly and distinctly. Visualize your client writing the number from your message. Then say, “Please call me, and I will also follow up.” Then do it.
- Case Study - Profile Sales Indicator™ at a Midwest Staffing Agency - Background- Facing low employee productivity, a staffing organization in the Midwest conducted a study using the Profiles Sales Indicator™ to see how employee productivity, in the form of sales totals, related to job match. Read More...
November 2006- A Challenging Future: Retention, Productivity And Education:
As you've read in this publication and probably others, we face an accelerating worker shortage over the next 30 years as Baby Boomers leave the labor market and are replaced (at a much slower rate) by young recruits. Recently, noted economist Jeff Thredgold pointed out to an audience of business leaders in Utah...Read More... - Recruiting in a Job-Seeker's Market: How to Compete and Win! Sell Your Job, Your Business! Hiring guru Lou Adler, in an article written for ERE Network, points out: "...the big issue about job boards is that they are relevant only if you post compelling jobs that capture the candidate's attention. If you post traditional job descriptions...
Read More... - Measurements, ROI Common Effects Across Assessment Programs In the 3+ years of this publication's life, we have published case studies of various kinds and descriptions, all taken from our base of clients using assessments to improve their business. A review of these studies identified 25 that looked at effects of assessment programs, and many that quantified these effects in similar ways. The studies occur...Read More...
October 2006- Quick to Hire? Getting it Right is Just Not that Easy - Opinion
In an opinion piece published in his online newsletter, "Just my E-pinion," Bob Brady discusses the observation that we often "hire in haste, regret at leisure." As the founder of Business & Legal Reports, Inc., and its online site... Read More... - Tracking Turnover and Better Alternatives: In last month's issue of this publication, we mentioned in passing, "As far back as most of us care to remember, HR has tracked 'turnover' as one of our few consistent metrics. As commonly used, however, turnover is at best a hodgepodge statistic..." Reader reaction to this broad statement was fairly strong... Read More...
- Medical Lab/Strategic Hiring: Like many such operations, a mid-sized medical laboratory that employs over 400 people relies heavily on students to fill skilled entry level positions (phlebotomist, specimen processor, etc.) As a result, they expect a higher turnover in these positions, as students... Read More...
September 2006- Changing Role of HR: Forget 'Warm and Fuzzy' - Know Costs of Lost Talent- Jack and Suzy Welch, in the July 17 edition of Business Week, took on the issue of what HR must do to retain the line-item overhead category on most business balance sheets. Any HR professional who has experienced cuts in HR budgets, reductions in staff... Read More...
- 'Execution' - the new buzz word - Opinion, by John W. Howard, PH.D. "Business Execution" has become the latest catch word of the book-and-seminar meeting industry. Google the words, you'll get 122,000,000 hits! Ralph Welborn, in his new book... Read More...
- Trim the Time Wasters - Karen Susman's NextLevel Tools-Summer is still with us, and the heat is on. It can be hard to get things done when you are wishing you were running through the sprinkler or playing in the kiddy pool. If you are spending time with your face pressed against the water cooler, here's a cool way to manage your time... Read More...
- Call Center Working to Improve Sales Force with the Profile XT™ An inbound call center for a neutraceutical and supplement manufacturer was experiencing turnover as high as 500 percent a year. Sales performance among its 60 agents varied widely, with top performers producing as much as six times the... Read More...
August 2006- Desperately Seeking Added Value-The Key To Beating Your Competition - As the balance of the North American economy has shifted from manufacturing to services, the delivery of services has become increasingly commoditized. If your business is insurance, for example, you are faced with competition selling insurance that...
Read More... - Avoid 'Warm Body' Hiring - Legal Risk - In an economy with full employment, the demand for workers can lead to legal challenges. Hiring managers, under pressure to fill openings, may... Read More...
- Sales Force Of Top Producers - A Manager's (And Owner's) Dream -Opinion By John W. Howard, Ph.D. - Imagine that you have a sales force consisting entirely of people who produced like your top two performers. Do the math. What would it mean to you in sales volume and... Read More...
- Missed Opportunities In Systematic Use Of Pre-hire Assessments - Seven managers selected for a demonstration program in early January were obviously excited as the training... Read More...
July 2006- Building A Referral-Based Business-Opinion
- What Can We Do About Low Performers?
- Opportunities for Reducing Hire Failure -Applying Assessment Selection Criterion
June 2006- Basic Behaviors in Short Supply: Showing Up, Working Hard... Opinion by John W. Howard
- More Employers are Checking Backgrounds
- "Our Assessment Program Isn't Working... "
- When You Don't Use The Information...
May 2006- New DOL Rule
Risk Of Employee Defection Up
Will You Be Sued Next?
Applicant Tracking - HR Professionals Try To Keep Up With Field
- New Recertification Opportunities For Hr Professionals - Bill Foster, SPHR
- Effects Of Hiring Underproducers In Sales - Mike Hopkins & Mark Wathen
April 2006- As The Labor Pool Shrinks: We Keep Making Jobs... How Long?
- As The Labor Pool Shrinks: Manufacturing Suffers Shortages
- So, You Don't Screen Executives For Integrity?
- Utah Embezzlements Hit Credit Unions And Banks
- Indiana Data Trashed
- Lay & Skilling Trial
- More News About Questionable Integrity...
- Simple Prescreening Program Reduces Early Hire Failure - Mike Pacholek
- Assessments Consistently Reduce Failures
March 2006- Hiring In North America: Why Are We So Often Wrong?
- Business Integrity And Ethics - "Walk The Talk" Leading And Managing With Integrity - Jeannette Seibly
- Account Managers In Insurance: Differentiating Top Performers - John Hauber
February 2006- Aging Workforce Impacts Recruiting, Hiring, Succession Planning Efforts
- Driving Complex Change-An E-Book by Peter Pazmany, Michael Vigil and Warren White
- Buc$ Federal Bank: Profiles Assessment User Wins Shrm Award as Maryland Employer of Distinction, 2005!
- "Does Our Assessment Program Work?"-Providing Evidence
January 2006- "Lean Solutions" Require People — People Who Match Their Jobs Well!
- Understanding the People You Manage... Assessment Tools Can Help!
- Setting Cutoff Scores in Hiring —Job-Relatedness is Critical
December 2005- Music Teacher Was Right! - Opinion by Tim Brennan
- Managers/Trainers Could Learn from the Music Teacher
- "Interrupted Process" Studies Provide Opportunity for Natural Experiments
- Abandoning an Assessment Criterion Proves Costly for Manufacturer
November 2005- Appeals Court Ruling is a Wake-Up Call: Review Your Assessment & Hiring Practices!
- Which Assessment, and How — Jeff Schroer
- On The Road from Good to Great: Leadership Development Paves that Road - Steve Woods, Workforce Metrics
October 2005- Economy Continues to Heat Up - That's Good and Bad!
- The Radical Leap, A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership by Steve Farber
- Life Balance: Opinion By Karen Susman
How To Wear Many Hats And Keep Your Head On Straight - Award-Winning Hospitality Property Cuts New Hire Failures - Mike Pacholek
September 2005- Developing Your Future Leaders: Without A Plan, How Will You Find Them?
- Two Job Fit Measures Distinguish “top” And “bottom” In Credit Union Tellers
- Coaching Tip from Jeannette Seibly: Re-read Your Email Carefully Before Sending - It Can Save Your Bacon!
August 2005- Top Employees...Or Top Candidates? Which Do You Select?
- Workplace Absences Hit Five-Year High
- Recruiting in a Competitive Market – Get Ahead Of The Game
- Cutting Time-To-Hire—Like Getting Extra Employees!
- Getting It Right—the Importance Of Local Success Patterns
July 2005- Triage and the Evolving Business—First, Stop the Bleeding
- What Lies Ahead Economically? Opinion, by A.J. Skurdal,Ph.D.
- Improving Operations and Bottom Line of a Private Security Firm
June 2005 - Expanding Your Pool—the Key To Being Selective!
- Why Job Interviews Are Often Misleading
Greg Maciolek, Integrated Management Resources, Inc. - Customer Service “blitz” Improves Service, Provides Ongoing Training
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