Welcome to the July 21, 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.

=============================
In This Issue
=============================
1. Three Hiring Secrets Turn Gut Instinct into Hiring Success.
2. Special Announcement - Submit your Best Small Business Solutions today.
3. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #186 to #190.
4. This e-mail message is perfectly clear: Think Before You Send!
5. CriteriaOne. Train-the-Trainer: Competency I.D. and Performance Management.
6. Question of the week: Is it legal to create our own pre-hire test?
7. Are we there yet?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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=1123723_31118432

=============================
1. Three Hiring Secrets Turn Gut Instinct into Hiring Success.
=============================

Just like his movie namesake, Harry thought the woman sitting across from him had it all. Sally, the job applicant, was articulate, bright and showed real commitment. "This decision is a real no-brainer," he thought. And that's when Harry hired Sally.

Sally had good feelings, too. As she listened, she grew more excited. "This is perfect," ran though her mind as she accepted Harry's job offer. Flushed with excitement, Harry and Sally looked forward to a lasting working relationship.

Six months later, Harry is second guessing his decision. What happened? Harry wondered how his instincts could be so off-base.

Well, maybe Harry followed this advice taken from Forbes.com columnist Scott Reeves: "When hiring workers for your small business, compatibility is often harder to find than competence." There are no secrets to hiring. Make a list of needed attributes, stick to it--and trust your gut... Competence is assumed before the interview, because you don't waste time talking to people who don't meet the minimum qualifications."

It's good advice, up to a point. It might be harder to pinpoint compatibility than competence. That's what evidence suggests when an employee is hired because of skills and later fired because of attitude and behaviors. However, simplifying reasons why hiring decisions go bad may be counterproductive. Actually, it is hard to sort out both compatibility and competence.

Reeves also suggests there are no secrets to hiring. "Trust your gut," as he suggests can lead to costly hiring mistakes for managers like Harry, or you. Predictability studies consistently show the reliability of decisions made from gut instinct is just slightly better than flipping a coin.

Consider the cost when you lose the toss and hire the wrong employee. The U.S. Department of Labor places the cost at one-third or more of a new employee's annual salary for the hourly worker and many times that amount for management, sales, and executive employees. The real cost of terminating the employment of an under-performing or troublesome employee escalates when you factor in lost opportunity, lost productivity, training costs, additional recruiting costs, severance packages, and litigation. This hefty sum ranges from more than the annual salary for an hourly worker to nearly twenty times the annual salary of a key senior executive.

Finally, Reeves states "competence is assumed before the interview, because you don't waste time talking to people who don't meet the minimum qualifications." That means you base that assumption on information provided by job applicants in resumes. Let's check out the accuracy of a job applicant's memory by looking at research findings. One study shows that fully 53 percent of resumes reviewed contained falsified information. When human resources staff verify salaries they found 51 percent of job candidates provided misinformation at least some of the time.

There's more: the Korn/Ferry International Executive Recruiter Index (Part IV) released earlier this year, show that among job applicants 68.7 percent fabricate reasons for leaving prior jobs, 68.2 percent exaggerate results and accomplishments, and 45.2 percent enhance previous job responsibilities.

Is it any wonder that so many managers feel like Harry? Maybe you are among that group. With so much dependence on guesswork and subjective opinion, what can a manager do to get more favorable odds for making a sound hiring decision? I recommend three steps, which are:

1. Identify the skills (core competencies) that are absolutely required for the position. Core competencies are not part of a job description, which identify areas of responsibilities. An entry level and hourly employee generally requires three to five basic skills, supervisory staff five to seven basic skills, and a manager between seven and 10 core skills to do a job.

2. Develop two to four behavioral interview questions for each core competency or skill to learn what an applicant does effectively, how he or she achieves goals, and meets or exceeds expectations. Managers using a structured behavioral interview can improve hiring success rates by nearly 50 percent.

3. Complement the behavioral interview with online personality testing. Regardless of interviewer skills and the job-relatedness of the interview questions, the interview process is still fraught with personal bias. Job-specific personality tests bring scientific objectivity and reliability to an inherently subjective system. Web-enabled technology means business owners and manages can evaluate candidates night or day, quickly, fairly and accurately, no matter the size or location of your business.

Now, here's where a simple solution can solve a complicated problem. CriteriaOne, developed by Success Performance Solutions, makes it easy for you to gauge competency and conduct behavioral interviews. It's the reason why so many of our clients, including hundreds of small businesses in the US and Canada, are hiring the best employees and replacing them less often.

Our consultants, who can help you avoid hiring mishaps, are an email or phone call away.
To learn more about CriteriaOne(tm) follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1123724_31118432

=============================
2. Special Announcement - Submit your Best Small Business Solutions today.
=============================

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=1123725_31118432

=============================
3. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #186 to #190.
=============================

Fact #186: Businesses spend $36.5 billion on costs related to workers who are Alzheimer's caregivers.

Fact #187: $18 billion is lost on productivity due to absenteeism.

Fact #188: Recruitment, training and productivity loss when caregivers quit exceeds $6.3 billion.

Fact #189: Insurance benefits paid out to caregiver workers who are on leave - $1.2 billion.

Fact #1900: By 2030, it is estimated there will be 7.7 million people with Alzheimer's disease.

Source: Alzheimer's Association - Alzheimer's Disease
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alzheimer's Disease is just one drain on worker productivity that will likely get worse. "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.

Visit http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1123726_31118432

=============================
4. This e-mail message is perfectly clear: Think Before You Send!
=============================

Twenty-five percent of companies terminated a worker for violating e-mail policies according to a poll conducted by American Management Association and The ePolicy Institute. This is up from 22 percent last year.

Twenty percent of employers, up from 14 percent last year, had e-mail records subpoenaed for lawsuits or regulatory investigations and 13 percent of companies have faced lawsuits based on employee e-mail messages.

"It's very, very common," said Nancy Flynn, executive director of The ePolicy Institute, a training and consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Flynn often testifies as an expert witness in court cases involving e-mail. "If a workplace lawsuit is filed, you can pretty much count on the fact that e-mail is going to be subpoenaed, and now instant messages are starting to be subpoenaed."

About 0.5 percent of companies said instant messages have been subpoenaed.Most workplace lawsuits involving e-mail messages involve sexual harassment, racial discrimination or hostile work environment.

Looking for a place to start writing an e-mail policy, Internet usage protocol, and more? We recommend the Manager's Pocket Guide to eCommuncation. To read more or order:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1123727_31118432

=============================
5. CriteriaOne Train-the-Trainer: Competency Identification and Performance Management.
=============================

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 CriteriaOne training outline visit
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1123728_31118432 or call 229.257.0665 with questions.

=============================
6. Question of the week: If a test is valid, is it legal to use?
=============================

There is a lot of confusion about validity. Validity is actually a technical term that determines if a test measures what it is supposed to measure. Let's say you hop on the scale to weigh yourself. The scale measures your weight. The scale is a valid instrument to measure your weight.

But oh my. The scale says you weigh 5 more pounds that the scale at the gym. So you set the scale back 5 pounds. Is the scale accurate? You don't know - one of the scales is off. The scale may be valid but the accuracy, or reliability, of one of them is off.

For a test to be legal, the test must be valid and reliable. But validity and reliability is not enough to be legally defensible. A psychologically constructed test like the MMPI is highly respected and very valid and reliable. However, the courts have already ruled that a psychologically constructed test may ask questions that unnecessarily invades an individual's privacy or at least asks questions that lack job relevancy. In a landmark case, the courts ruled against Dayton-Hudson to the tune of $2 million for using a valid and reliable test that unfortunately was constructed to diagnose clinical pathology not business related performance.

In order to be legally defensible, any assessment used in the workplace must be (1) constructed in such a way that it assesses job relevant personality traits, (2) valid, and (3) reliable.

TotalView Assessment System was built exclusively for business and meets the validity and reliability benchmark standards of leading edge workplace tests like the Hogan Personality and 16PF.

To learn more about the TotalView assessment and view sample reports online, follow this link:
http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1123730_31118432

=============================
7. Are we there yet?
=============================

Parents were surveyed by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. on how many times children ask "are we there yet" during road trips. Nineteen percent asked more than 10 times. Other responses were:

6 to 10 times - 14%
2 to 5 times - 36%
1 time - 11%
Never - 20% (Must be short trips or great DVDs!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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=1123723_31118432

To send this message to a friend, please go here: http://www.chrysaliscorporation.com/remote.html?ltk=1123733_31118432