~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Total View Facts, tips, and tools to help you hire, manage, and motivate top-performing employees. Welcome to the January 18, 2006 issue of The Total View. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ in this issue -- Personality Tests Detect What Makes Salespeople Tick. -- Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #486 to #488. -- "Testing the Tester" - Q & A About Employee Testing. -- Back by Popular Demand - Checklist for Setting Performance Objectives. -- Screen Entry-Level Candidates Easily Without Breaking The Bank. 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 2006 - 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 - www.chrysaliscorporation.com.

Personality Tests Detect What Makes Salespeople Tick. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is it that differentiates the top producing salespeople from the ones that go through life working very hard to eek out a paycheck? Is it sales knowledge? Is it experience? Or is it personality? With over 16 million people employed in sales and sales-related positions, there certainly is no shortage of salespeople with experience. Billions of dollars are spent each year on sales training so it seems unlikely that there is a lack of sales knowledge? And yet there is no single position that demands comparable attention and investment from executives, business owners, and managers than sales when it comes to recruiting and hiring. Given all the data and information and past experiences about how personalities affect sales performance, doesn't it make sense for hiring managers to understand what makes successful sales people tick? Recent validation studies and thousands of empirical experiences prove that personality traits give individuals a leg up in achieving what they want to achieve. In fact, scientists now believe that 50 percent of the differences in our personalities is inherited. But not everyone with the "right" personality becomes successful. Why? Because personality is not a case of you have it or you don't. Personality traits provide a recipe for success but other factors determine whether these traits will be turned on..or just lie dormant. What are these "other" factors? In addition to some genetic component, environment certainly influences how an individual uses these natural abilities. For example, growing up in a family of extroverts with parents who encourage a bit of risk-taking will turn on different traits than a conservative upbringing that values a subdued, private lifestyle and feels that a bird in hand is worth more than two in the bush. Personality traits also combine in unique ways. The number of possibilities is enormous which explains why two people who might look capable of selling (or doing any job for that matter) perform very differently in the workplace. That explains why understanding personality traits gives managers a new powerful tool in making hiring and training decisions and getting the most out of their employees. Personal values also determine how personality traits shine brightly in one situation yet lie in the shadows in another. Compare two people with turned-on competitive genes but one values life by how much wealth they've attained while the second treasures exploration and the knowledge that comes with it. The first measures his success in dollars while the latter invests his time and resources in books and continuing education..even if what he learns is not ever applied. The thrill of victory is not owning the most toys but having the right answers. Much of the scientific research for using personality tests (and not sales skills and sales knowledge tests) for hiring salespeople comes from the Big 5 or Five- factor model. This model has been studied since the mid-1950s and has gained enormous acceptance as a result of the need to hire highly productive employees, the increasing competition from a global marketplace, and the high cost of recruiting and training. The Big 5 Traits are easily remembered by the acronym OCEAN. The letters represent: Openness to Experience: Measures how open to innovation, change, and risk a person is. Openness to experience determines flexibility to explore new opportunities. Salespeople who are more open thrive in a more fluid, dynamic, and technology driven marketplace while the more conventional salesperson prefers a more predictable, traditional, and familiar routine. Conscientiousness: Measures how organized, punctual, disciplined and reliable a person is. Salespeople who prefer spontaneity over conscientiousness can be very effective at making sales but time management, follow up with customers, and completing sales reports will be an ongoing challenge. Extroversion: Measures the energy an individual derives from working with large groups of people and/or lots of continual activity. Salespeople are typically extroverted but like all the other traits, relying on natural strengths without understanding how they can affect others can be detrimental to a career. For instance, extroverts believe there are no strangers, just people they haven't met yet. They do however tend to dominate conversations, be overly optimistic, and do more talking than listening. Agreeableness: Measures how like trusting and accommodating a person is. Highly agreeable people will go out of their way to avoid conflict and therefore cold-calling, closing and holding profit margins can be a big problem if this individual chooses sales as a career. Neuroticism: Measures how an individual will cope with stress, anxiety, and rejection. While some degree of restlessness and excitability ignites urgency, too much of it triggers impulsive behavior and vulnerability. A reasonable level of neuroticism protects the individual from complacency and yet energizes them to respond when things aren't going as planned. Perseverance and resilience - two traits absolutely necessary when you're talking about commission-based sales - are linked to the neuroticism trait. Screening candidates and existing salespeople is easy with our online personality tests. Both our TotalView Assessment System and ASSESS Expert Personality Survey are based on the Big 5 personality model and validated by organizational psychologists for use in the workplace. These tools help managers and recruiters easily recognize which candidates have the personality traits that can drive, neutralize or sabotage success after they are on the payroll. Learn more about TotalView and ASSESS at Here.

Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #486 to #488. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fact #486: Spam will cost businesses more than $50 billion in 2005, according to Ferris Research. In the U.S. alone, the tab will run $17 billion in productivity losses and technology expenses to curb the effects of viruses brought by spam. This will increase to $198 billion by 2007 as spam messages will increase to 70 percent of all messages. When you factor in the cost of time that information technology staff spends fighting spam and viruses, Nucleus Research puts the cost at an average $1,934 per employee. Fact #487: In 1964, 47 percent of Americans and 31 percent of workers age 24 to 29 had not completed high school. Today the percentage has fallen to 13 for both groups. (Source: Yankelovich Partners, 2005) Fact #488: Two-thirds of employers said that public school students don't have the basic cognitive skill to succeed. One-third of the employers said the recent graduates had poor writing skills and 23 percent had poor match skills. One-third also said that young workers have problems with punctuality and attitude. (Source: Yankelovich Partners, 2005) Don't be caught in storm without all the facts. "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.

"Testing the Tester" - Q & A About Employee Testing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each week clients and prospects email or call me with questions about employee testing. Sometimes the questions cause me to stop and ask: "I wonder how many other people are asking the same thing?" Beginning with this issue, I'll include the most interesting questions in a new feature called, "Testing The Tester. If you have a question you'd like to ask, please email me directly by responding to this email. Do you want to keep the response anonymous? Just include your request in the email. Q: Can you tell me more detail about what the testing is about? What are we testing and how are the results determined and why are the results important to me in hiring? A: We primarily rely on testing personality traits based on the Big 5 Factors - five broad aspects of our personalities that have been scientifically linked to how receptive we are to new experiences and ideas, our work habits, how attracted we are to activity, pace and people, our ability to cooperate and avoid confrontation, and how we cope with stress and difficult circumstances. These same traits are the ones linked to Emotional Intelligence. We also test for cognitive skills which assess how quickly we think on our feet and learn new things. We test for personal values and motivation as well as work and communication style. All three assessments are completed online and reports are then delivered to you as pdf reports. All our assessments have been validated by psychometricians and are being used by all types of businesses from the micro-business to the Fortune 500. Combined, these three assessments tell hiring managers how well the candidate will do the job, fit on your team and share your values. Why are these important? First, the interview is proven to be only slightly more effective to flipping a coin at assessing a candidate's fit and skills. Second, the cost of a mistake is at least 1 to 2 X annual salary not counting the aggravation and frustration it causes. When the cost of customer and employee acquisition is high, just consider the ROI of pre-employment tests compared to the loss of a customer or turnover of an employee.

Back by Popular Demand - Checklist for Setting Performance Objectives. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Setting performance objectives can be a tricky endeavor. If objectives are incorrectly formulated, results will be minuscule at best. Follow the link below for a checklist to assist managers setting performance objectives. "Checklist for Setting Performance Objectives" is just one of hundreds of pages of reproducible facts, tips and sample evaluation forms included in Janus Performance Management System Volume 2. Additional information about the Janus Performance Management System, can be found here. Go Here to download "Checklist for Setting Performance Objectives", a one page excerpt from the Janus Performance Management System.

Screen Entry-Level Candidates Easily Without Breaking The Bank. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FirstView Job Fit Indicator is the newest generation of pre-employment personality tests which includes an optional cognitive section. FirstView requires only 15 minutes to complete and reports are available immediately. FirstView is the perfect solution to screen large candidate groups for 15 entry level positions in retail sales, hospitality, persuasive sales, administrative positions, drivers, IT positions, telemarketing, customer service, drivers, health care and more. Each report includes job specific interview questions. FirstView evaluates a candidate's preferences in the following areas: Rules - consistency, ability to deal with change, need for structure, ability to follow rules and policies Rules - consistency, ability to deal with change, need for structure, ability to follow rules and policies Assertiveness - decision making, selling and closing abilities, ability to handle confrontation, willingness to take direction from others Teaming - teamwork, collaboration with others, competitiveness Sensitivity - emotional stability, handling of criticism and feedback, dealing with stress Organization - planning, spontaneity, time management attitudes, ability to handle details Social Desirability - an internal validity scale to determine if the candidate is being frank with their answers Cognitive Ability - an overall aggregate measure of cognitive skills To learn more about FirstView and to view sample reports, go HERE.