IN THIS ISSUE...
HERMAN TREND ALERT: GRADUATES LACK LIFE SKILLS
[Excerpt from February 14, 2007] One of the refrains we often hear from employers is that graduates lack skills, particularly life skills. They tell us that many young people graduate from high school or college without knowing the basics: literacy, numeracy, what it takes to hold a job, or balance a checkbook.
In a study by the Pew Charitable Trust, 50 percent of college graduates were found to be lacking in simple life skills. These grads were tested for three types of literacy skills: analyzing news stories and other prose, understanding documents, and having math skills needed for balancing checkbooks or figuring restaurant tips. Read more...
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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.
This reliability factor is the fourth of 13 Department of Labor Guidelines for assessment instruments, and the one we will examine this month.
The Department of Labor expects a level of reliability that provides both accurate and consistent results, called a reliability coefficient. The higher the reliability coefficient, the more reliable the instrument. Profiles' research team analyzes our assessment scoring and other data to validate the reliability coefficient.
To be considered reliable, assessment instruments must fit within these four areas:
- The tools must measure what they say they measure. For example, if an instrument claims to assess mental ability, it should apply specifically to mental ability.
- Assessment instruments must be consistent in their measurement. This means consistently reliable results.
- The tools must be relevant to the jobs that applicants seek. For a job in which excellent customer service is important, an assessment might test how well the applicant relates to and empathizes with others.
- Finally, assessment tools must allow for more effective employment decisions in hiring the most qualified workers. For example, in a position in which accurate measurements are important, the test should focus on an applicant's aptitude for taking measurements and recording them accurately.
The most highly regarded assessments are regularly validated in the workplace. Often our research provides advances that lead to the creation of newer versions of assessments. We maintain reliability in each new version.
All Profiles assessments meet or exceed Department of Labor Guidelines, and we work diligently to help our clients understand our tools and how to use them correctly.
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SUCCESSION PLANNING: WHO IS 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. She had not appointed or trained anyone to make decisions in her stead.
People at the head of a small manufacturing company failed to anticipate the sudden, prolonged absence of the CEO due to illness. No one knew where he kept key data and information. Even the password to his computer was locked away for a time, putting the brakes on all business. After work slowly started up again, employees continued to operate in crisis mode for a lengthy period of time. The result was low production, high turnover and a serious threat to profits and survival.
Both situations could have been easily handled if the CEO or owner of the business had planned for a successor. In the best-run companies, planning for a future without the current CEO often begins years before the top decision-maker's retirement. Some experts say planning 15 years in advance is not too soon.
Succession planning does not have to be intimidating, but it must be intentional. This means every company, agency or institution should have a well-thought-out plan that lets the CEO-to-be learn the job before they actually have to perform on their own.
The key steps to a solid succession plan should be simple and logical. Top players in finding a successor are a company's executives and human resource specialists.
Common sense dictates a potential successor is knowledgeable and supportive of the company's business strategy and will reinforce corporate goals. That means a human resource executive should have the successor's credentials at their fingertips. They should know what education, experience and special skills and knowledge the successor possesses.
Here are some steps CEOs often follow when choosing a successor:
- Select the right person. This is often difficult because of the CEO's closeness to the job. The help of other executives, especially those who understand the job and will be affected by the change, should be enlisted. All employees with skill and knowledge should get consideration, and the future CEO should be considered alongside the future goals and needs of the business.
- While no one wants to hand over the job and scurry out the door, it's important to establish a schedule. This goes hand-in-hand with the training process. The successor should learn the job while doing, with a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities.
- After the training is complete, the departing CEO should turn the job over and go. Of course, this formerly busy executive will have prepared in advance for leaving - including what they are going to do with the rest of their life - so they will actually leave and not return unless it's for a visit.
While planning a successor for the top job is crucial, company executives must remember all key jobs need the right people. The way to retaining talented people at all levels is to make sure they are in the right jobs to begin with and to provide growth opportunities for them.
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PROFILE XT™ 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™. Using study information, the company developed a "Job Match Pattern" to select more productive employees.
Participants
The study went forward with 36 mortgage bankers. The evaluation of each participant's performance included a sales goal ratio and a supervisor's performance rating on a three-point scale, where 1 equaled a top performer, 2 an average performer and 3 a marginal performer. The company rated 11 participants top performers, nine participants as average performers and 16 as marginal performers. The average top performer met 97.2 percent of their sales goals, while the average marginal performer met 32.7 percent of their sales goals.
Job Match Pattern
Using the ProfileXT™, a pattern was developed in January 2006 for the mortgage banker position using the scores of top performers. The financial services organization now uses the pattern as the benchmark to predict the performance of mortgage bankers based on the ProfileXT™ pattern match.
Performance Grouping
The pattern, based on the information gathered, describes the attributes of the existing top performers. All 36 mortgage bankers were then matched to this pattern. A review of employee ProfileXT™ "Job Match" percents shows an overall "Job Match" of 87 percent best identified top performing employees. This is a breakpoint to represent a good match to the "Job Match Pattern," suggesting that 87 percent or greater should identify a top performer.
In the study:
- Seven of 11 top performers are correctly identified as top performers by the pattern.
- Four of 11 top performers are incorrectly identified as bottom performers by the pattern.
- Twelve of 16 bottom performers are correctly identified as bottom performers by the pattern.
- Four of 16 bottom performers are incorrectly identified as top performers by the pattern.
Of the 11 top performers, seven met or exceeded the 87 percent "Job Match" breakpoint. Of the combined 25 average performers and marginal performers, only five met or exceeded the 87 percent breakpoint.
Details
- The average sales goal ratio for those who met or exceeded the "Job Match" percent breakpoint is 76.1 percent.
- The average sales goal ratio for those who did not meet or exceed the "Job Match" percent benchmark is 48.9 percent.
Summary
Although this organization's top performers made up less than one-third of the total sample of Mortgage Bankers, more top performers that were matched met or exceeded the "Job Match" percent benchmark than both average performers and marginal performers combined. Thus, by selecting candidates based on the overall match of the ProfileXT™, organizations such as this one are better able to increase productivity by identifying those that are likely to succeed.
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NEW PRODUCT : 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. ProfilesEasy™, a new electronic application system from Profiles International, allows the employer to learn quickly which of the applicants for a job are qualified to do it without having to page through dozens of resumes.
How?
The online program allows human resources departments to customize the content of the application, asking 10 questions that are specific to the job opening. The simple process is time-efficient for both the human resources department and the applicant; offering the consistency that allows employers to meet EEOC reporting requirements; ensuring the privacy of applicants' information;
and allowing a busy executive to review applications when traveling on business or requiring flexibility to examine applications at a time and place of their choice.
Applicants will find the same flexibility as employers, and the system's ease of navigation becomes even more attractive to them when they discover they can apply for more than one job and quickly attach a resume. ProfilesEasy™ allows them to search an employer's site for openings, review the details of each position and learn more about the company.
For employers whose filing cabinets are overstuffed with paper, and for those seeking an organized way to save impressive applications, ProfilesEasy™ is the answer. It offers resume tracking and retains important information without overstuffing your filing cabinets.
Nothing could be Easier...
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