Welcome to the July 28, 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.

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In This Issue
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1. U.S. losing $105 billion a year to poor hiring and management practices.
2. A Google Search for Interview Questions Provides More Answers than Questions.
3. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #186 to #190.
4. Why Are We Giving Away up to $10,100?
5. CriteriaOne. Train-the-Trainer: Competency I.D. and Performance Management.
6. How Much Time Are You Wasting Sorting Through Unqualified Resumes?
7. What Is DISC?

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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=1154354_31117962

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1. U.S. losing $105 billion a year to poor hiring and management practices.
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Companies talk about people being their biggest asset yet they fail to match the right people to the right jobs.

Failure to match the right people to the right jobs is widespread. Currently, one out of eight US employees leaves their job before becoming competent. With an average 8 months necessary to attain the required performance level, a mismatch proves costly for the employee as well as the company.

Just a few weeks ago The 2004 Recruiting Metrics and Performance Benchmark Report, published by Staffing.org, reported that cost-per-hire in 2004 was $4,262, an increase of over $260 since 2001. On a broader scale, the cost to hire employees in 2003 ranged from 14 to 29 percent of total employee compensation, a 2.5 increase over the two previous years. And this occurred during a period supposedly where the competition for employees was down!

Add to this cost-to-hire, training costs, lost opportunities, mistakes, morale problems and hiring the wrong people is costing companies a big chunk of change.

Yet these figures are only the tip of the iceberg. According to the report, nearly a quarter (23 percent) of US workers believe their colleagues are incompetent. More worrying still, while they may be critical of their co-worker's performance, US employees also admit that 68 percent of the mistakes they personally make never come to their managers attention.

Looking for a way to ensure that you get the right fit between an applicant and job? The TotalView Assessment System allows you to take the guesswork out of predicting if a person will successful in a position. To learn more about TotalView, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154355_31117962

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2. A Google Search for Interview Questions Provides More Answers than Questions.
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"How can I ace my job interview?" I keyed that very question into a search engine and, in under a minute, I had a sixteen-page list of web sites. The advice ranged from A-anticipating the interview questions-to Z, zooming in on the right answers.

How times have changed. The secrets of job interviewing are uncloaked. The mystery is gone. A resourceful job applicant can learn, fairly quickly, what to expect during an interview. While the hiring manager is busy putting out the daily fires, the job candidate is surfing the Net preparing for the interview. Match a mediocre interviewer with savvy job applicants and the chance of hiring the right person can be as low as one in fourteen.

Even skilled interviewers, those who ask the good questions and carefully listen to the interview questions answers, rely on applicants to be honest and forthright. Most hiring managers base hiring decisions on the interview and information that can be confirmed - education, experience, salary history. Add a healthy dose of gut instinct, and a job offer is made.

This long-used formula comes with the comfort level common to anything that is familiar and accepted. Maybe it's time to shake things up. Although interviewing, fact confirmation, and reference checks are useful, that sequence of events has no predictive value when it comes to making the correct hiring decision.

Name one other process in business so fraught with poor reliability that continues to be used over and over gain. Yet traditional interviews remain the tool of choice to screen job applicants and to promote staff.

Okay, so now you know you've got to do something different. The tough question is, "What?"

You can improve your hiring success rate by 50% by following these tips:

1. Know the difference between what you need and what you want. Make sure you understand the skills - hard and soft - necessary to do the job.

2. Prioritize the skills according to absolutely required, important, and nice-to-have.

3. Don't just "wing" the interview. Write a structured interview question guide. The guide should include a minimum of two to four behavioral interview questions for each core skill. An automated online program like Interview Generator is easy to use and cost-effective.

4. Ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered with "yes" or "no." Open-ended questions allow the interviewer to probe how an applicant thinks and solves problems.

5. Stay away from leading statements and follow-up questions. For instance, let's say you are evaluating the applicant's ability to cold call. Don't ask: "Do you like cold calling" or "This job requires a lot of cold calling. Do you mind doing that"?

6. Do ask probing questions that dig deeper. Then dig some more. Follow the The Rule of 3's - You need to ask 3 questions to get to "truth". Begin with "If we hire you, describe how you will bring in new business." Whatever he or she answers, follow with: "How has that worked for you in the past?". But don't stop now. Then ask "Tell me about another way you plan to bring in new business" or "What did you do when your marketing efforts didn't work?"

7. Make sure applicants give job relevant information. A job applicant has access to an endless stream of on-line interview tips.

Most applicants are well rehearsed for the interview and will anticipate standard questions. Don't accept a standard response. The interview is not a true-false test but an evaluation to see if the candidate can actually do the job for you.

A successful interview depends on more than the skill and experience of the interviewer. To choose the right person from a pool of applicants, you must be clear about the technical and interpersonal skill set required, translate that knowledge into behavior-based questions, and probe the answers.

The most accurate and final probe of a candidate's fit comes through the use of personality testing. Combining targeted behavioral interview questions with personality testing raises your hiring success rates as high as 90%. With many online personality tests, you get the best of both words - personality and pre-employment screening tools like SELECT, FirstView, and TotalView to name just a few include job-specific interview questions with each report. These newest generation personality inventories bring balance and reliability to an otherwise inherently subjective system of gut instinct.

To learn more about the different types of personality tests available and what different tests measure, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154356_31117962

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3. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #191 to #195.
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Given the right timing, these facts, figures and trends can create The Perfect Labor Storm, a severe shortage of skilled and dependable workers.

Fact #191: Employers are spending an average of $280 per employee equating to $38 billion a year for injuries suffered at home.

Fact #192: A non-work related, home injury that results in a hospital stay costs nearly $20,000 and a fatal injury costs an employer nearly $30,000.

Fact #193: Health care (medical) spending associated with home injuries cost employers $15.8 billion in a single year.

Fact #194: Employers spend $11.8 billion on sick leave and disability insurance caused by home-based injuries.

Fact #195: $9.6 billion was spent on costs related to workplace disruption plus the costs for training/retraining or hiring new employees.

SOURCE: The State of Home Safety in America(TM)(2004)
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Warning! Severe worker shortages ahead.
"The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a 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.

To order The Perfect Labor Storm, follow this link: http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154357_31117962

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4. Why Are We Giving Away up to $10,100?
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The Chrysalis Corporation, in a partnership with Success Performance Solutions, is giving away up to $10,100. What are we crazy? (Don't answer that!) In celebration of our new solution - Best-Small-Business-Solutions.com, a new web site exclusively for small business owners and hiring managers, we are giving away $101 in products and services to each owner, manager, consultant, HR professional or supplier who shares a Best Small Business Solution and your selection is selected for inclusion in our new e-book, 101 Best Small Business Solutions.

Submit as many entries as you like. You can have more than one winning solution. And everyones a winner. EVERYONE who submits a solution will receive a complimentary copy of the finished e-book. 101 Best Small Business Solutions winners will receive a certificate valued at $101 for products and services from The Chrysalis Corporation.

Your Best Small Business Solutions should include a brief case study of the problem, what you did to solve the problem, approximate costs and time and any other information you can provide about you, yourself, your company and how others might find the same or similar solution.

Here are just few areas might have discovered a solution for:

--Marketing (online and off)
--Technology
--Purchasing
--Recruiting and Hiring
--Selling
--Web Site Creation
--Employee Training
--Publicity

The above list is just the tip of the iceberg and is provided to get you thinking. If you have a solution related to any area of your business, we want to hear about it.

The 101 Best Small Business Solutions will be published in a e-Book - hopefully in September 2004 - and each person who submits a solution will receive a complementary copy PLUS a free copy of our Secrets to Hiring High Motivation Employees (mid-September 2004). Remember, if your solution is selected to be included in the e-book, you will receive a certificate valued at $101 for products and services from us.

The deadline for submissions is August 15, 2004. Submit your solution now, while it's fresh in your mind. - our email line are open!

To submit your Best Small Business Solutions, go to http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154358_31117962

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5. CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer: Competency Identification and Performance Management.
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Special Fee for The Total View readers - save an $500 off our registration fee of $1595. Your fee only $1095.

Become a certified CriteriaOne consultant. Learn to identify competencies, complete a job analysis and interpret behavioral, values and personality assessments. The next Train-the-Trainer will be held from August 18-20, 2004 in Lancaster PA. Register early and save $500.

Register a 2nd person from your company at no additional cost.

To view a training online visit http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154359_31117962 or call 229.257.0665 with questions.

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6. How Much Time Are You Wasting Sorting Through Unqualified Resumes?
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Time is money -- and you may be wasting too much of both if you are having to manually deal with stacks of resumes from unqualified applicants.

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.

Several pre-employment assessments are built right into to the system, which helps to streamline your recruiting and selection process. Total APS was designed for small to medium size business and has pricing options to meet any budget.

Use Total APS to recruit and screen applicants for your next job opening. View more information at: http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154360_31117962

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7. What is DISC?
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--DISC is an acronym for Dominance, Influencing, Steady and Compliant behaviors.
--DISC identifies how people respond to problems, people, pace and procedures.
--DISC is a Universal Language - behavioral styles show no preferences by gender, race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.
--DISC is observable - you don't need a "test" to learn to recognize DISC styles, however DISC assessments can accelerate the learning process.
--There are no right or wrong DISC styles - just different styles.
--DISC is the first step in understanding yourself. DISC has been used successfully to train sales, customer service, team building, time management, stress management, communication skills as well as developing and coaching managers and leaders.

To learn more about The Managing For Success(r) collection of DISC assessments and to view sample reports online, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1154361_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=1154354_31117962
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