| OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES DECLINE — DO WE KNOW
WHY? |
Correlation vs. Causation
The age-old confusion between correlation and
causation is alive and well throughout our daily
living. For example, everyone knows that higher
speed limits cause more highway deaths, right?
Actually, today’s higher speed limits, combined with
better vehicle design, have resulted in a traffic
fatality rate that is less than half what we had
under the national 55-mph limit! Which part is
correlation, which causation?The same kind of
question, and confusion, may lead us to false
conclusions about the success or failure of our
attempts to make positive change in work-related
outcomes. |
 Recently,
we hosted a seminar on work-related risk reduction. The
participants, all professionals in the area, were asked
two questions: What has happened to on-the-job injury
rates over the past three years? The answer, a group
consensus: They have declined, by nearly 33%.
The second question: What has caused the decline?
Again, with a high degree of agreement: The improvements
in safety programs, including training, inspection,
enforcement, and systems design.
I can't tell you this answer is wrong. I can agree
there is a correlation between the increased emphasis on
these things and the decline. But, what if it is not the
cause?
Over the past three years, there has been a national
decline in rates of turnover, and the graph shows how
closely that parallels the decline in injury rate. What
if all or most of the decline can be explained as an
effect of lower turnover? It is widely believed that the
turnover decline reflects the tougher job market in a
down economy, and the rate is expected to rebound to
historically higher levels when the economy itself
rebounds, and the job market improves.
If this proves to be the true causal agent, we will
discover that we rapidly return to the high occupational
injury rates of the turn of the millennium, and we may
be called to account for the billions of dollars spent
in safety, training, inspection, etc.
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for the
Manufacturing sector show that, in 2002, a worker with
less than three months on the job was more than
twenty-seven times as likely to suffer a lost-time
injury, when compared to a worker with over five years
on the job.
Studies of programs designed to reduce turnover have
often shown, as a side effect of success, reductions in
occupational injury rates. In one manufacturing study
reported in Vol 1 #2 of this publication, a 33%
reduction in injuries accompanied a 30% reduction in
six-month hiring failures—and both were accomplished
with a 40:1 return on investment!
As your business concentrates on improving safety and
reducing risk, consider adding a strategic
hiring/turnover reduction program to the mix.
Assessments, properly used, can help you meet your risk
management goals. |
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LOSING YOUR BEST—A REAL RISK
“ESCAPING” WORKERS—SUBJECT OF NATIONAL CONCERN |
| A growing chorus of concern has occupied
the attention of business news writers for the past
several months—workers, pinned in place by the depressed
job market over the past few years, seem poised to run
from their employers at the first light of an improving
job market! A recent study by Florida-based Spherion,
indicates the scope of the problem: Their study found
that 51% of the 3,000 workers in their sample wanted to
leave their jobs, and 75% of those indicated that they
were likely to leave in a year or less.
If your company were to lose even 25% of its workers
in the next year, how would it affect you? How would you
replace them? Deepening the concern is long-standing
research that shows that your best employees are usually
among the first to leave—they have more options! |
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While you are working to retain your
best, consider these options: Measure their
characteristics—if worst-case scenarios turn into
reality, at least you will know what you are looking for
in a replacement. Use the results of this program for
career planning—good people are less likely to leave, if
they can see a clear plan to move upward in your
business. Use this knowledge to help you offer internal
promotions when positions do come open. The more your
employees see that you are committed to keeping and
improving existing staff, the better your chances for
improving retention. Finally, invest in improving your
managers—most studies show that people don’t leave
jobs—they leave managers! |
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| PREPARING FOR CHALLENGES:
BANKING INFORMATION |
| The prudent business owner routinely
maintains reserves of cash and credit in some banking
arrangement, against the possibilities of unforeseen
crises and business challenges.
Most of us would also agree that our people are at
least as important to our business as our cash flow, and
that excellent people are more difficult to acquire and
maintain than cash or credit...yet, we rarely see a
business that has carefully maintained a reserve of
people, or systems to efficiently replace a key person
in a crisis. |
|
Just as saving and preparing is critical
to the financial side of the business, saving
information and preparing for its use is critical to the
people side. When times are good, or when you know you
have a good person in a critical job, the time is ripe
to collect information, and bank it against a time when
you might need to fill that position with someone new.
An ongoing program of assessment, measuring both your
people in place and your flow of applicants, will
position your business to respond quickly and
effectively, when you lose an employee for any reason. A
great replacement may already work for you, or may
reside in your stack of applications—but unless you have
collected the information, and know where to find it,
it’s of no more use in crisis than a coffee can of cash,
lost somewhere in your back yard! |
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| NOW, DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS—BUCKINGHAM &
CLIFTON |
| Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton describe
the program that they created to help readers
identify their talents, build them into strengths,
and enjoy better performance. In their book “Now,
Discover Your Strengths,” Buckingham and Clifton
introduce thirty-four dominant "themes" with
thousands of possible combinations, and reveals how
they can best be translated into personal and career
success. In developing this program, Gallup has
conducted psychological profiles with more than two
million individuals to help readers learn how to
focus and perfect these themes. While critics have
faulted their reliance on only five “strengths” per
person, there is much to learn from the approach. |
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JOB PATTERNS MUST CHANGE,IF YOUR BUSINESS
HAS CHANGED! CASE STUDY
BY STEVE WOODS OF WORKFORCE METRICS |
| Assessing your top performers, and
using their data to create job patterns, are
processes well-known among users of the Profile XT
and Profiles Sales Indicator. If you can go beyond
the standard procedures, and if you know your
business well enough to reach for change, you may be
able to analyze your job patterns in relation to
shifting demands of your market and position your
company for even greater profitability!
Here’s how one company leveraged their data into
the largest increase in sales they have seen since
the end of the boom economy of the late 90’s.
This company manufactures and distributes
industrial trade show displays, from simple table
top props to those spectacular two-story monsters we
see at major conventions. They survived the
recession of 2001 the way many businesses had: they
laid off employees, reduced overhead and held onto
only their top performing sales staff. With the
economy warming up, the CEO and General Manager saw
the need for additional sales reps, but recognized
that they could not afford the rate of turnover they
had been comfortable with in their halcyon days.
Our task: help them reduce the probability of
turnover of new sales reps by creating a job pattern
using the Sales Indicator and Profile XT. With
precise criteria in place for selection of “top
performers”, five of their nine sales reps took both
assessments. We then created the Job Analysis
Reports (pattern studies) and met to present them to
our client.
“Well, this pretty much explains everything” said
the CEO to the GM at the end of our presentation.
“Yeah,” quipped the GM, “no wonder sales are flat!”
All of the benchmarks of the Sales Indicator were at
the lower end of the five scales, and the
personality picture that emerged from the Profile XT
had a relatively laid-back theme as well. In the
discussion that followed, an important issue
emerged: While every sales rep in the pattern study
was indeed a clear-cut top performer from the
standpoint of sales volume, a careful analysis of
their activities revealed a critical fact: the vast
majority of their sales were simply re-orders from
(long lists of) old clients. These ‘veterans’ as we
came to refer to them (all had been employed from
seven to thirteen years) were making money for the
company, but the business wasn’t adding new clients,
even with the economy presenting new opportunities! |
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We asked more questions, and the CEO
and GM agreed that their market had shifted in the
last two years: More competition, less budget for
trade shows, and higher expectations. In short, the
successful sales rep of today needed more hustle,
more drive and more smarts to close a sale. They
needed a ‘new breed’ of people if they were to see
the company grow once again. Through a careful and
time consuming process, we helped them modify their
success patterns, to reflect their new needs. Seven
new sales people were hired, using the revised job
patterns. The results of this effort were dramatic:
First, after three months, all seven new sales
people were still on board. In the past, sales
turnover was nearly 50% per year, 75% of that within
the first forty days of employment. Second, the new
sales reps were closing their first sale in less
than half the time of previous years. In the past,
it had taken an average of four months to “first
close.” All seven of the “new breed” closed a sale
before their seventieth day on the job. Finally, the
GM reported quarterly sales were higher than any
quarter since 1999!
Job Patterns are powerful tools for selecting
people who fit your jobs. If you have a clear idea
of how jobs have changed, they can help you select
people to meet those changed needs.
Developing a set of job patterns to profitably
lead you through changes in business conditions is
not an easy task, and not for the faint of heart—but
the alternatives (clinging to the status quo or
blindly making changes on “gut feel”) are no less
daunting, and a lot less likely to bring you to new
levels of success! Consult with your Profiles
Representative to discover what has changed in your
business, and how can you identify people who will
help you succeed in the changed competitive arena? |
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Because of Overwhelming Demand...
We have received several requests for 40 Strategies for
Winning in Business, the new book by Bud Haney and Jim
Sirbasku, from many. This great collaboration can be
purchased online at
amazon.com.
The authors have captured the best ideas from a variety
of sources and presented the materials in a concise form for
easy reading. Each strategy can be read and applied on its
own—one short read for one great idea. The exciting
four-color layout throughout makes the book eye catching and
the entertaining illustrations provide a reminder of the
lesson learned in each strategy.
In 40 Strategies for Winning in Business, Bud and Jim
have distilled the wisdom of hundreds of authors, business
leaders, lecturers and personal acquaintances into a format
for business owners, managers and salespeople to achieve
maximum benefit. This book captures the best ideas from a
variety of sources to give you a handbook for business
success. |
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Remember that the six most expensive words in
business are: “We've always done it that way."
~ Catherine DeVrye
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