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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
2007
-
Client 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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