Welcome to the August 25, 2004 issue of The Total View

Your resource for cutting-edge news, tips, and tools to help you hire, manage, and motivate top-performing employees.

If you are receiving this issue as a forward, and want your own subscription, visit
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282523_31117962

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In This Issue
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1. Get Rid of Negative Employees Once and For All.
2. Don't Let The Government Read This! How Pension Plans Got Started.
3. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #226 to #230.
4. Employee Motivation: It Takes Two to Tango...or Tangle.
5. Announcing The TotalView Self-Study Course.
6. You don't need a huge budget and staff to hire the best employees.
7. Do you know the most important number in your company?

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The Total View is written and published each Wednesday by Ira S. Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions. (Yes, Ira writes every article, every week!) and is distributed with permission by The Chrysalis Corporation.

Ira S. Wolfe 2004 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.

To learn more about The Chrysalis Corporation or to read back issues of The Total View, visit our web site at http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282524_31117962

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1. Get Rid of Negative Employees Once and For All.
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Question: Why is a negative employee's attitude like a dangerous hurricane?
Answer: Because where ever they land, devastation results.

While listening to the news about Hurricane Charley ripping through Florida, I was reminded of a recent consulting gig. I was called in to diffuse a bad workplace environment caused by one negative employee. Let's call her Meg.

You know Meg. Maybe she works for you. Meg and Hurricane Charley have this in common. Wherever and whenever they touch down, they leave a path of destruction. With Charley, it's a mass of battered homes, twisted wire and steel, shattered lives. With Meg, it is employee turnover, workplace disruptions, and one conflict after the other.

Many of you are surely asking, "Why would any employer tolerate Megs behavior?" Others might have that gnawing feeling everyone gets when a story hits a little too close to home. The reasons employers tolerate negative employees are too numerous to list here, but let me tell you one thing: A negative employee never helps a company be more productive and profitable.

Regardless of the reason why negative employee behavior is tolerated, there is a cure. It begins with the just-released, must-read book "How Full is Your Bucket", by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton and published by Gallup Press.

Go buy it, then turn to page thirty-seven and read this paragraph. It nearly jumped off the page and grabbed me:

"It is possible for just one or two people to poison an entire workplace. And managers who have tried moving negative people to other departments to alleviate the problem know that 'location, location, location' doesn'tt apply to these people; they bring their negativity along with them wherever they go. Negative employees can tear through a workplace like a hurricane racing through a coastal town."

I love this book. It fits so comfortably with the "bucket" analogy I use to describe Business Values and Motivators.

Rath and Clifton say each person carries an invisible bucket. Fill the bucket and an employee is motivated. Empty the bucket and motivation turns into negative behavior. Good managers fill the buckets of people they supervise. Bad managers drain them. It's that simple.

My book, "Understanding Business Values and Motivators" takes the bucket analogy a bit deeper. (You must buy this book,too -- to learn more and to read a sample chapter online, follow this link: http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282525_31117962)

When you read my book, you'll learn about the six personal values that drive behavior  either positively or negatively. Each bucket represents a personal value. When the appropriate buckets are full, people are motivated, energized and satisfied.

These six values, or "buckets", are based on the work of Dr. Eduard Spranger, an early 20th-century behaviorist. Spranger's six values are:

--Conceptual
--Aesthetic
--Economic
--Power and Authority
--Social
--Doctrine

Every employee carries two of these six values, or buckets, to work. When these two buckets get filled, an employee responds positively to other people and the job. If others attempt to fill the remaining four buckets first, little motivation or even negative behavior may result.

What fills your employees' buckets? You can learn what your employees value most and which buckets to fill with a 12-question assessment. The personalized Personal Interests, Attitudes, and Values(tm) assessment then describes each motivator and value in detail, including which "buckets" the employee wants to have filled.

Without an employee evaluation tool like Personal Interests, Attitudes, and Values, the solution is hit or miss. With the tool, you can identify an employee's potential motivators or irresolvable conflicts before you start meddling.

What if that doesn't work? Can an employee change? Yes, but values tend to be consistent over time and change occurs only after significant emotional triggers. It comes down to this. When the job and a company's culture and benefits don't fill an employee's buckets and motivating this employee requires a change in the employee's values and motivators, the best solution is to part ways.

Just like Hurricane Charley, the damage caused by a negative employee is swift and powerful, the pain long-lasting, the recovery expensive. Despite this enormous cost, managers continue to divert valuable resources and time to retain negative employees. Why? I certainly have no good answers.

What I do know is a negative employee's bad attitude tears through an organization disrupting productivity, uprooting employees and destroying morale just like Charley tore up Florida. How vulnerable is your organization to the effects of a negative employee and what are you doing about it?

The Chrysalis Corporation offers proven online personality tests for predictable hiring decisions and team building assessments, including the TotalView Assessment and the Personal Interests, Attitudes, and Values assessment. With these easy-to-administer tools, hiring managers can take advantage of the valuable diversity of the potential workforce, save money, and make the best hiring decisions.

To learn more about the Personal Interests, Attitudes, and Values (tm) Assessment, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282526_31117962

To learn more about the TotalView Assessment, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282527_31117962

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2. Don't Let The Government Read This! How Pension Plans Got Started.
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In the 1880s, Otto von Bismarck crafted Europes first pension plan. He had to pick an age at which people would be too feeble to work and therefore eligible for state support and entitlement. Bismarck picked 65.

In that year, the life expectancy in Europe and the United States was only 45. Life expectancy at birth today is 79 for women and 73 for men.

Call a 65 year-old "old" today and he will likely out-work you, out-golf you and maybe even out-run you. Ok, old isn't what it used to be. Ask a Generation Xer or Millenial how old is old and yes, they might say age 60 or 70. But ask a 60 year old the same question and they proudly consider themselves middle-age.

If you were to use Bismarck's formula to craft a retirement age today, the age we would be retiring people would be 115.

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3. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #226 to #230.
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Have you ever heard of The Whizzinator, Klear, Clear Choice, Mary Jane's Super Clean 13? No? Well if you are using or considering employee drug testing, then you better get familiar and fast. The Whizzinator isn't the geeky adversary to the Terminator and Mary Jane's Super Clean 13 isn't the mother of all stain removers. But these are just a few of the products available on the Internet used regularly by employees who use illegal drugs to fool the drug tests. How prevalent is drug use in the workplace and what impact is it having on employers?

Fact #226: Nearly 67% of people entering the workplace have used drugs, 44% have used them in the past year(N.I.D.A.)

Fact #227: 35% of all cocaine users sell drugs to co-workers to support their own drug habit (D.E.A.)

Fact #228: More than 75 percent of all drug users are employed somewhere. (SAMHSA, a division of the Health and Human Services Department (HHS)).

Fact #229: About 9% of Americans abuse alcohol. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

Fact #230: Sixty-five percent of all work related accidents are the direct result of substance abuse(O.S.H.A.)

Don't be caught surprised by worker shortages. "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends for decades to come. Order your copy today - $7.95 includes no shipping costs for limited time only.
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282528_31117962

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4. Employee Motivation: It Takes Two to Tango...or Tangle.
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Sustained productivity and profitability doesn't just happen. Employees have varied needs. Managers have preferred leadership styles. These needs and styles don't always match.

But managers and leaders can now get the results they want with a revolutionary new approach to leadership. It's called Strategic Leadership.

Strategic leadership gives leaders the knowledge and insights to adjust their approach to match the varied capabilities and commitment of employees.

To schedule Strategic Leadership training in your company for the Fall 04/Winter 05, contact us today.

New! Strategic Leadership Type Indicator.(SLTi) Help leaders understand their own leadership habits and learn how they can respond more effectively in the future. The first part of the SLTi is a self-assessment that gives leaders feedback about their use of multiple leadership strategies. The second part guides them in selecting the best strategic leadership style to use, and the third part illustrates how leaders can develop their direct reports using these strategies.

Email info@chrysaliscorporation.com for details.

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5. Announcing The TotalView Self-Study Course.
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It is finally here. After three years and hundreds of hours, The How to Hire The High Motivation Employee audio series is complete. Six 30-minute CDs - more than three hours of interviews - guide a manager through each section of the TotalView(tm) Assessment System, complete with examples and stories you can use to hire the right employee and build the best teams. Why TotalView? It is simply the best job matching and employee evaluation system on the market today.

The first CD begins with an overview of the TotalView(tm) Assessment System and explanations of each of the Abilities scales. The second CD focuses on Motivations and Interests. And CDs three through six discuss the four major personality traits and eight sub-scales in detail.

As a thank you for reading The Total View newsletter, we're offering the complete audio series for only $159 through August 31, 2004.

Order How to Hire The High Motivation Employee here:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282529_31117962

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6. You don't need a huge budget and staff to hire the best employees.
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Eliminate The Hassles and Headaches Associated With Screening Candidate with Total APS.

The Total Applicant Processing System enables the small and medium sized employer to do online recruiting and screen applicants with customizable and scorable filtering questions with a click of the mouse.

Use Total APS to recruit and screen applicants for your next job opening. To learn more, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282530_31117962

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7. Do you know the most important number in your company?
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That number is, how much does it cost you every time an employee quits or is fired? The facts may surprise, or worse yet, scare you.

A conservative estimate of the cost of turnover for hourly employees is 25 percent of the annual salary. Personally, our experience places the actual cost closer to 50 and higher when you consider lost opportunity costs, lost productivity and even theft, absenteeism, and other counter-productive and disruptive behaviors.

The costs for salaried employees has ranged from 1.5 times annual salary to upwards of 14 times annual salary.

But high turnover costs are not isolated to big business. A small business paying an employee an hourly wage as low as $5.25 per hour incurs the minimum cost of $3,528.58 (25% x $14,114.10) every time an employee turns.

Other examples of turnover costs are:

$7.00 per hour = $4,704.70 in turnover costs $10.00 = $6,721.00 $15.00 = $10, 081.50 $20.00 = $13,442.00

Follow this link to anonymously calculate your company's cost of turnover:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282531_31117962

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Contact Information:

The Chrysalis Corporation
2001 Hammock Drive
Valdosta, GA 31602
229-257-0665

e-mail: mike@chrysaliscorporation.com

To learn more about The Chrysalis Corporation, visit:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1282524_31117962
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