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The Total View
Facts, tips, and tools to help you hire, manage, and motivate top-performing employees.
April 21, 2004
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in this
issue
-- Applicant Processing System Cuts Your Hiring Time And
Saves Over $1000 Per Position
-- Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #136 to #140
-- How to ensure that you continue to receive The Total
View.
-- Does your company use Behavior-Based Interviewing? Is it
working?
-- Take the Age Test
-- Have you read about the problems with performance reviews?
-- Just the facts:You've all heard of Murphy's Law
-- SELECT Employees with A Positive Attitude.
Greetings:
While
serving as executive director of a non-profit social service
agency the last few years, I had many responsibilities. Certainly
one of the most challenging tasks was going through the motions
of hiring the right people. Like many managers, I made my
share of mistakes.
I wish
I knew then what I know now. Not only would I have made fewer
mistakes and better hires, but I would have save my agency
thousands of dollars. Experts have described this "a-ha" moment
as moving from the lowest stage of learning, unconscious incompetence
- not knowing what I don't know - to conscious incompetence
- I now know I don't know.
Continue
reading to learn how the SPS Director of Employee Assessments
can cut the time you spend on hiring worth over $1000 per
new hire.
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 website at www.chrys aliscor poration.com
Applicant Processing System Cuts Your
Hiring Time And Saves Over $1000 Per Position
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By
Marilyn Walker, Director of Employee Assessment Center
During
my three-year tenure at the agency, I hired fourteen employees.
One of the most remarkable was the last hire. In a job market
overflowing with qualified individuals, we received over 60
resumes during just the first week. They arrived by fax, e-mail,
snail mail and several candidates personally delivered them.
These resumes described high school graduates with decades
of experience, high school graduates with no experience, people
with associate and bachelor degrees, a few people with graduate
degrees, and even one person from Russia who was experienced
in computers and was certain we should have an interpreter
fluent in Russian.. Determination was definitely his strong
suit - he sent an electronic resume, faxed another, mailed
still a third, and called me three times.
Not unlike
most businesses, my hiring process started with reviewing
each resume and sorting them into three piles: "Definitely
Not," "Maybe," and "Definitely Call." >From the definitely-call
pile I identified about twenty people that I considered worthy
of an interview. With additional review, which I agree was
subjective at best, I narrowed down the list to ten candidates.
These ten were scheduled for face- to-face interviews.
During
this interview the candidate completed a behavioral profile
(DISC). Based on the results and my impression from the interview
I made a determination if he or she would be scheduled for
an interview with the entire staff.
By this
stage of the process, the field was narrowed down to no more
than five people. All ten of the staff interviewed each candidate
for an average of one hour and rated each candidate on pre-established
criteria. We then discussed our responses and observations
regarding his/her suitability for the position and whether
we thought he/she might fit into the office culture and work
well with our team and clients.
Prior
to my leaving the agency I completed a time- cost analysis
of our hiring process. A conservative estimate of the time
and assessment-related costs to hire an employee (excluding
my secretary's time to schedule interviews, open resumes,
check references, etc.) was as follows:
Ads -
$ 350.00
Review
resumes - $ 630.00 (average 20 minutes each)
Phone
interviews - $ 180.00 (average 20 minutes each)
Initial
interviews - $ 260.00 (average 60 minutes each)
Administration
/ review of DISC - $ 200.00 (average 45 minutes each)
Group
interview / de-briefing - $1300.00 (average 1.5 hours each)
From my calculations, I determined it was
costing the agency $2920.00 just to interview each new hire.
This of course did not include the highest cost - the cost
of lost opportunity. While interviewing these candidates,
I was deferring other responsibilities, including training
and coaching the staff and working on fund development.
Likewise my staff was taken away from working with their
clients.
Fortunately, several of the candidates who
passed through our hiring criteria went on to become good
employees. But this wasn't always the case. Among the fourteen
people hired, several didn't quite fit. This, of course,
put me digging back into the piles of resumes, weeding through
the "Definitely Call" pile and getting into the "Maybe"
pile.
On the average I spent approximately 37.5
hours per hire reviewing resumes, conducting phone interviews
and administering and reviewing the DISC behavior profiles
for each support staff position even before the "main interview
event". Looking at this one other way, almost an entire
week of my life was spent in this necessary screening function
but also a job that took me away from both revenue-producing
and client- supporting activities.
With the introduction of the Total APS (Applicant
Processing System), I took a look back at my old hiring
process. I wondered how much time and money I could have
saved my agency had I had a system like Total APS.
Total APS would have enabled me to screen
candidates electronically via a job board. Total APS would
have allowed me to create job specific filter questions
(such as "are you available to work weekends including Saturdays
and Sundays) allowing candidates to self- quality or disqualify
and avoiding many needless phone calls to unqualified, unmotivated
and uninterested candidates. Filters also could have disqualified
candidates based on their level of experience or education
alone.
Total APS automates the responses to candidates
who are disqualified (as our Russian applicant would have
been). My secretary would have loved this function. In this
case he would automatically have received an e-mail thanking
him for their interest but informing them they were not
eligible for this position.
For individuals who "pass" the initial screen,
they are automatically invited to complete one of three
screening or selection psychometric assessments. Total APS
would have qualified these candidates with little time investment
on my part.
Comparing my previous hiring process with
Total APS, I realize now that I could have saved the agency
over $1000 per hire on wages alone and well over $6000 during
my first year on the job when I hired five new employees.
Equally if not more important by having all candidates screened
using the TotalView(tm) assessment, I would surely have avoided interviewing several
candidates and even hiring one employee who failed miserably
in the job after only three months.
What
is Total APS? Follow this link to find out more.
Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #136 to #140
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fact #136 Alzheimer's disease is
costing American businesses $61 billion a year, double the
amount just 4 years ago.
Fact #137 $36 billion per year is
lost productivity by caregivers needing to leave work or
being distracted on the job. Source: Training, October
2002
Fact #138 Half of all people who
suffer from carpal tunnel sundrome miss 30 or more days
of work per year.
Fact #139 The average cost per employee
with carpal tunnel syndrome is more than $13,000 per case.
Fact #140 More than half of carpal
tunnel syndrome cases are not work related. Source -
Workforce, September 2002.
"The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why
Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is here! Order your copy
today - $7.95 includes free shipping for limited time only.
Order
your copy of The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book today!
How
to ensure that you continue to receive The Total View.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each
week we receive many e-mails from our readers saying how
much they enjoy reading The Total View. Unfortunately,
we also get e-mails asking if we have stopped publishing
it.
What
appears to be happening is sometimes The Total View
is getting kicked out by over zealous spam filters and never
makes it to some of our reader's in-boxes. We are currently
exploring possible solutions to this problem, but in the
meantime, there are a couple of things that you can do ensure
that your weekly edition of The Total View arrives.
Place
our e-mail address on the "approved" list of any anti-spam
software that you may be using and/or add it the address
book of your e-mail program. This newsletter is mailed from
mike@chrysaliscorporation.com each week. If the address
has been added to your approved list, the chances of a spam
filter zapping it diminishes greatly.
If you
receive The Total View sporadically, you can always
check our web site each Wednesday and read the current issue
online. We also post all back back issues there for your
reference.
Rest
assured that our privacy policy remains unchanged. Your
e-mail address, and any other personal information that
you provide, is used for internal purposes only and is not
sold or shared with outside organizations -- period.
Thank
you for subscribing to The Total View.
Past
issues of The Total View can be viewed by following
this link.
Does
your company use Behavior-Based Interviewing? Is it working?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Behavior-based
interviewing has been around for 25 years, but the practice
has recently been gaining momentum with the increasing demand
for skilled and competent employees.
"Behavioral
interviewing" is defined as an analysis of a candidate's
potential abilities by examining skills that have been used
in past job performance. The main difference between this
type of interviewing and a regular interview is that candidates
are asked to give specific examples of how they acted in
the past, instead of being asked to share their opinions
or ideas.
To conduct
a behavioral interview, interviewers need to know what to
look for in a candidate's response. Online Interview Generator(r)
pairs specific "target behaviors" to over 60 competency
based interview questions.
Online
Interview Generator(r) (IG) allows users to create company
and job specific customized behavioral interview guides
in minutes. Satisfied IG users include hiring managers,
employers, human resources professionals, and consultants.
As an
IG user, you can choose an already- developed interview
guide from our Job Library of over 40 standard job titles
(from Administrative Assistant to COO), then quickly and
easily edit to fit your open job. Or, you can choose to
design your own interview guide from "scratch" using our
extensive database of 65 competencies, and over 1,500 different
target behaviors (interview "answers"), and corresponding
interview questions.
IG is
extremely versatile and flexible - it can be used for selection
in every industry, business and organizational environment.
IG is inexpensive and cost- effective; clients can purchase
interview units separately, or through a site license.
View
a sample Interview Guide created with Interview Generator.
Take the Age Test
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LI>1. Name the four Beatles.
2. Finish
the line: "lions and Tigers and Bears, ____ ____!"
3. Hey
Kids, what time is it?
4. What
do M & M's do?
5. What
helps build strong bodies 12 ways?
Follow
this link for more questions and to view the answers. See
what side of the generation gap you land on.
Have you read about the problems with
performance reviews?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you miss the article titled "21 Reasons Why Performance
Reviews Fail"? If your company conducts performance reviews
and they are not producing the results you desire, you need
to read this article.
Follow
this link to read 21 Reasons Why Performance Reviews Fail.
Just the facts:You've all heard of Murphy's Law
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But
who was Murphy?
The
term was coined in 1949. The Murphy in question is Captain
Ed Murphy, a development engineer assigned to Colonel J.P.
Stapp's research on the rocket sleds that tested the limits
of human endurance of high acceleration at Edwards Field,
Calfornia.
Murphy
was referring to a particular technician, whose name has
been lost to history, who had wired a piece of equipment
incorrectly when he remarked, "if there is any way to to
do things wrong, he will." A few weeks later in a press
conference, Stapp credited his program's safety record to
planning for Murphy's Law. The rest was history.
SELECT Employees with A Positive Attitude.
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The
SELECT Associate System is a pre-employment screening system
to identify work-related behaviors such as Positive Service
Attitude, Accountability, Frustration Tolerance,
Acceptance of Diversity, Multi-tasking and
more.... plus a Validity Check and Integrity Index.
Each
customized report includes a step by step interview guide
including recommended interview questions.
SELECT
is available on-line, paper, or fax.
The
following report versions are available:
P>
Customer
Service
Administrative
Support
Retail
Sales Associates
Entry
Level Retail Management
Call
Centers
Production
& Distribution
Healthcare
Personal
Service
Convenience
Store Associates
Hospitality
Office
Staffing
More
on SELECT - view sample reports here.
Contact Information
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email: mike@chrysaliscorporation.com
voice: 229-257-0665
web: http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com
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