The Profiles Advantage Newsletter has current business news plus valuable information on topics such as:

• How to become the employer of choice.
• How to attract and retain great people.
• How to select the right people for your jobs.
• How to become a more effective manager/coach.
• How to positively terminate people.
• How to prevent executive meltdown.
• How to stop unwanted turnover.

Look for the Latest Advantage Newsletter at the first of every month.

• Knowing your workforce well enough to give people what they want leads to getting the performance your organization requires to grow, CEO Jim Sirbasku advises. That's a good deal all around. Read More...
• If you are ready, willing and able to coach but just need to see what it looks like, our 10 Ways to Coach by Example should spark even more ideas. With daily practice, you will soon be coaching like the most experienced team leader. Read More...
• Organizations that want to step out smartly in the hiring arena need to bookmark The New Art of Hiring Smart from the Bud Haney-Jim Sirbasku book, 40 STRATEGIES FOR WINNING IN BUSINESS. The chapter lists six tried-and-true practices for hiring smart that will put organizations in the comfortable seat of success. Read more...
• Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert's new book, THE BREAKTHROUGH IMPERATIVE, offers four simple principles that leaders need to follow to realize the fast performance growth so desired today. Read more...
• In our case study, the coaching report in ProfileXT® helps a travel agency on two fronts: increasing sales and reducing turnover. Read More...
• Expanding on the "envision coaching" theme, our Product Focus shows how the coaching report from the ProfileXT® helps supply coaching instruction when a worker needs an extra boost in a couple of areas. Read More...

BACK TO RESOURCES PAGE

May 2008 -

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - Coach Early And Often - Even employers with the best of intentions are guilty of assuming too much. As they see workers of different ages, genders and racial makeup working side-by-side, they might think that this one fits in a group that wants to multitask at a fast pace because she is young, while her counterpart from another generation is interested in slowing down. Read More...
• Top Advice - 18 Ways to Motivate Different People in Your Workplace - Research conducted in 2004 found six different segments in the American workplace. All workplaces, especially large ones, will likely employ some of each type of worker. Read More...
• Case Study - PXT Helps Financial Firm Match Bankers to Job - Companies suffering from low worker productivity need to investigate how well their employees match their job duties. One financial services organization in the Southeast, facing a productivity problem, conducted a study to examine the relationship between employee performance and job match to the ProfileXT®. What they learned has armed them to better select productive employees. Read More...
• Product Focus - Putting the Puzzle Pieces Where They Fit - If your workforce resembles that of most organizations, many different kinds of people are toiling under one roof. In one area, you have a person striving for better pay and benefits working next to someone for whom the pay is secondary to the job duties. Nearby, an employee struggles to balance work and home life. And yet another worker on the same team is looking for a new position because he thrives on change and is seeing the same old tasks every day. Read More...
• Strategies for Winning - What Goes Around * - See Your Managers' Strengths from Every Angle - A senior manager announces his decision to move to a competitor and the senior management team convenes a crisis-management meeting to figure how the organization will survive. Meanwhile, for the rest of the team, it's party time! The champagne is flowing; everyone's wearing funny hats, blowing noisemakers, and toasting their good fortune. The topic du jour is "With that clown gone, maybe now we can get on with business." Read More...
• Success Story - PXT Spotlights Team Leaders at JPS Health Network - EDITOR’S NOTE: Judith B. Redd, a 19-year employee with JPS Health Network, is executive director of JPS Institute for Learning in Fort Worth. The Institute is using the ProfileXT® to measure leadership bench strength and to help identify people who can lead organization-wide teams. Read More...

April 2008 - Performance Management

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk-Coach Early And Often- In our office, we like to encourage a variation on the electoral theme "Vote early and often." We substitute the word "coach" for "vote," and as opposed to the humor in the voting phrase, we are dead serious. We believe coaching is imperative to improved performance, and that the act of coaching offers a more robust work experience to both employees and managers.
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• Top Advice-10 Steps to Effective Coaching-Read More...
• Case Study-ProfileXT® Helps Healthcare Firm Gain Footing in Selecting Workers-To ensure high productivity and low turnover in the workplace, make sure your employees fit the requirements of their jobs. Sounds simple enough, right? Read More...
• Product Focus-Is Your Team Lacking a Coach?-Let's say your organization provides assessments that tell employees where they are and where they need to go. That's good; you have given them valuable, clear training. Now you wait for it to take hold. And wait. And wait some more. Read More...
• Strategies For Winning-Antelope and Chipmunks-Know Your Goals and Focus on Them- Goal setting is a subject to be emphasized early in the development of a business career, and we can't emphasize it enough. We have formed the habit of setting goals daily, weekly, monthly, annually and for the next 10 years! We think you should, too. Read More...

March 2008

• From Jim Sirbasku's Desk-Crisp and Vivid High Def Customer Service-That's a great picture on your new HD television, isn't it? The images are sharp and crisp and the colors so vivid. It's grand to kick back and watch a sporting event when you feel as if you are in the middle of the game or on the golf course. But wait. Why is the screen breaking up and going dark? Somebody DO something – before we see only a test pattern and a "technical difficulties" message! Read More...
• Case Study-Gaining Confidence with ProfileXT™ Job Match-In the highly competitive advertising sales arena, a productive sales staff is crucial to growth. Although success in sales is measurable, productivity is difficult to spot during the hiring process. How do you gauge the energy and effectiveness of people you do not know?
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• Product Focus-New CSP Report Shines Light on What Customer Service Means-For years, Customer Service Profile™ has waged war against poor treatment of the people your company needs to survive. Managers use CSP's placement, coaching and individual reports to see which job candidates' attitudes best match the organization's expectations for excellent customer service. For employees already on the job, CSP reveals which areas and/or individuals would benefit from more training. Read More...
• Strategies for Winning-Of Course I Remember You!- Nothing is More Important to People than Their Names "Hey Bud, let me introduce you to someone I've just met. That is…um…I'm sorry, what did you say your name was again?" Embarrassing? No, that's too small a word! Read More...

February 2008

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - Measuring Your Compatibility Quotient - Here's a word of advice for managers who have ever had an unpleasant meeting with a key employee and cannot fathom why Give-and-Take turned into Tug-of-War. Read More...
• Book Review - Mr. and Ms. Leader and their Eight IMPs - Forget Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and think instead of Super Manager and the Eight IMPs. IMPs in this case are not elves or other magical creatures, although the creator of the term likely won't argue about the magic they produce. Read More...
• Case Study - PXT™ Quiets Squeaky Wheel in Oilfield Service Company -Employment is robust in the oilfield industry and the plants of today require many hands. Workers generally command good rates of pay, but the work can be physically and emotionally difficult. Oilfield work depends on a sense of teamwork and commitment. Read More...
• Product Focus - Profiles WorkForce Compatibility™: A Smooth Path Between Manager, Worker  - How many times have you longed for a way to get inside an employee's head to find out what he or she was really thinking? Often this desire occurs after an unpleasant encounter or a meeting that was off-balance. You would pay to know why a key worker suddenly clammed up and another started babbling nervously. More importantly, you need to know what to do differently the next time. Read More...
• Strategies For Winning - Carrot, Stick or What? * To Push or to Pull – That is the Question! - How would you like to have all of your team chomping at the bit to do what you need them to do to make your business successful? Everyone wants that elusive ingredient – motivation – in the people to whom they entrust the development of their business. Well, sorry to turn the lights to dim so quickly, but here's the bad news: YOU CANNOT MOTIVATE ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING –Read More...

January 2008

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk- Wise Managers Enjoy the Season with No Letup - Ahhh, the holidays. A time for family, parties, good food, football, gifts…and oh, yes – work. It's not last by accident in this list; to the detriment of organizations everywhere, work often comes last this time of year. Read More...
• Case Study - PXT™ Highlights Top-Performing Firefighters - Even a team already using a sophisticated and effective method for choosing employees, such as a high-performing fire and rescue unit, can benefit from ProfileXT™. Read More...
• Product Focus - 12 Gifts with Staying Power - In keeping with the popular "12 Days of Christmas" carol, here are 12 gifts to leaders that will last throughout the year and beyond. Think of them as presents with staying power. Read More...
• Strategies For Winning - Look Into The Future* — Are You On Track? - If you don't keep score in business and in sales, it may be hard to tell whether you're winning or losing. A Personal Story from Bud Haney... Read More...

November 2007

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - Getting Our Teams in Gear - One of the ways to understand how teams operate is to imagine gears meshing. In gear theory, we have drivers, followers and idlers. We “gear up” and “gear down.” Following this theory, we know that when gears are not properly meshed, friction results. Work teams operate the same way. Team players are like the followers; they do the useful work. Team leaders are like the driver, the gear with applied force. And, just as the meshing of followers and drivers can speed up the gear train and increase torque, team players that mesh well can accomplish great things. Read More...
• Case Study - Fine-Tuning a Financial Services Team with PXT™- Employee teamwork is important in all industries, but the stakes are among the highest in the competitive financial services sector, where employees must be detail-oriented and mesh like a finely tuned machine. The intricate mix of federal and state regulations that employees must follow also heightens the importance of teamwork. Read More...
• Product Focus - Playing Nice at Work Makes for Nice Work - Producing Art with Profiles Team Analysis™
  A team that works well together can produce a work of art. Think of the Vienna Boys Choir, a group of individuals with perfectly tuned, trained voices. Or envision a team of Clydesdale horses harnessed together, each raising the correct hoof at precisely the right time, as if following the lead of an imaginary conductor. Marching bands and football players, surgeons and teachers – all are capable of good things individually and potentially great accomplishments when working together. Read More...
• Strategies For Winning - Fire ’em Up! – 21 Days to a Winning, Motivated Team*- Will you give 10 minutes each day for the next 21 days to fire up your team like never before? The sooner you can get a new employee into productivity, the better off you will be. At Profiles, our managers have learned the following techniques for managing and motivating people. These take the usual new-employee orientation to a higher level. This program has been successful in integrating our new team members into the Profiles culture in just 21 days, or about one calendar month. Not only has using this system accelerated the productivity of new team members, but it has proved excellent in making them feel wanted, appreciated and accepted. Based upon the positive results we have experienced, we heartily recommend you implement a similar program in your company. Read More...

October 2007

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - To Improve Corporate Performance, Look Beyond the Process - Although many companies are focused on improving corporate performance, they may be using the wrong measurements to keep score of how they’re doing. The CFO, for example, might be using the yardsticks of revenue growth, cost of goods sold, days in inventory and DSO, or days sales outstanding. His attention may be glued to hot new developments in business process improvement and using software to automate processes. Read More...
• Case Study - ProfileXT™ – A 10-Month Study, A Drop in Turnover - An engaged workforce is a delight to employers and customers alike, but in a hospital setting, the importance of focused and productive workers takes on heightened significance. Now add a layer to that: The difficult environment of a psychiatric hospital, where continuity of care is crucial. This case study takes us to just such an environment. Here, a medical hiring board struggled frequently as it tried to fill open positions, most of them forced by firings of unsuitable workers. With so much of its time spent in hiring meetings, less attention went to patient care. At one point, the hospital grappled with a turnover rate of almost 70 percent. Clearly, hiring managers needed to do something differently. The medical board turned to the ProfileXT™ to help identify top performers.
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• Product Focus - Paving the Way for a Happy Marriage - In many ways, a work-to-worker relationship resembles a marriage. The organization is attracted to the worker and/or vice versa. The two connect, commit with an engagement, and decide to unite. With good planning, hard work and a bit of luck, the relationship will be a healthy one that grows and flourishes. Just like a marriage, the work relationship will experience bumps along the way and the “couple” may need professional help. Profiles International’s family of products can help this union stick together instead of growing apart, starting at the very beginning. So, from the getting-to-know-you stage, or courtship, here goes: Read More...
• Strategies For Winning - How to Become an Employer of Choice*— Attracting and Retaining the Very Best People - While many employers complain about the difficulty of attracting and retaining quality people, other employers seem never to have this problem. What’s their secret? It’s not really a secret. Employers of Choice simply know what’s important to their employees. Before you can consider the challenge of attracting and retaining people, you must look at the dark side. What drives people from their jobs? Profiles International recently completed a survey to explore this. Here are the five main reasons people change jobs: Read More...
• Success Story- Engaging Workers at Alternative Risk Services
  Mary Ellen Price, office manager and director of human resources for Alternative Risk Services, a risk management and third-party administrator for worker’s compensation claims, uses Workforce Analysis Profile™ as well as other assessments to help ensure employee engagement. Read More...

September 2007

• From Jim Sirbasku’s Desk - How to Blend Science with the Art of Sales Excellence - You are bursting with pride at your most recent hire in the sales department. You lured the guy with a high sales quota from his job at Giant Company to work with your small, entrepreneurial startup and told him you wanted him to work the same magic for you that he worked there. You believe he can do it or you wouldn’t have gone after him. He believes he can do it or he wouldn’t have left his job there to come to work for you. Read More...
• 10 Steps to Keeping Your Top - Performing Sellers -
  1. Make sure they fit the job before you hire them. Don’t just hire a warm body to fill an open position.
  2. Feed their confidence by encouraging them to take ownership and rely on their own decision-making skills; empower them to help their clients without having to clear every decision. Read More...
• Case Study- A Decrease in Turnover Using Customer Service Profile™ - What kind of workers does your organization hire for customer service? Do they like dealing with people? Are they tactful? Do they listen well? These behaviors are paramount in any organization that promotes good customer service, and the keys to this particular kingdom are hiring the right people and retaining the ones that meet your high standards. Read More...
• Product Focus- PSI™, PXTS™: Turning the 80-20 Rule on its Ear - Any sales leader weary of witnessing the old 80-20 rule at work – 20 percent of the salespeople are nabbing 80 percent of the sales – can put a stop to that fatigue with two key assessments. Think of them as a gentle one-two punch that doesn’t knock anyone down or out but effectively changes the hiring/training/coaching landscape. Read More...
• Strategies For Winning - World-Class Salespeople * Spotting the 20% who Sell the 80% - Who would have predicted that Vilfredo Pareto’s famous 80-20 rule, formulated more than 100 years ago, would still apply to sales organizations today? Read More...
• Success Story - The Corban Group Finds Right Fit with PXTSales™ (Editor’s Note: Bill Peterson, vice president of executive search firm The Corban Group, details the successes his company has seen with PXTSales. )
  Q. Why did The Corban Group begin using ProfileXTSales™?
  A. We wanted to give our clients additional insight into the candidates we present to them. Because we are an executive search firm and a partner in the hiring process, we want to provide objective information. We don’t sell candidates to our clients. Read More..

August 2007

• Customer Service: A How-Not-To, And A How-To- The stories we hear and read about customer service these days should frighten any executive into making clandestine calls to her own office to check out what’s really going on at home. It’s an old trick, but if all CEOs made such calls on a regular basis, we might usher in a new age of enlightenment. Read More...
• 7 Steps to Superb Customer Service - Read More...
• A Decrease In Turnover Using Customer Service Profile™ - What kind of workers does your organization hire for customer service? Do they like dealing with people? Are they tactful? Do they listen well? These behaviors are paramount in any organization that promotes good customer service, and the keys to this particular kingdom are hiring the right people and retaining the ones that meet your high standards.
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• Customer Service Profile™ Makes Your Wishes Come True - If you watch your best customer service employees work their magic, you’ve likely wished that you could clone them. In their bag of tricks are all the right words: empathy, tactfulness, intelligence, sensitivity, sense of humor. Not only that, they know how to show these behaviors. And they know your business inside-out. Read More...
• Talk ’em Down! - Make Customer Complaints Work for You - One day, we received a call from one of our Strategic Partners who said she was about to lose her biggest client because of a glitch in our e-mail system. How did this happen? Read More...

May 2007

• Seven Deadly Sins of Leadership - While the self-help section of the library has numerous volumes on leadership and how to do the right thing, sometimes knowing what the wrong things are and how to avoid them can be just as valuable. Read More...
• Developing Leaders — Fast Track and Feedback - In a typical Fortune 500 company, most leaders spend an average of four years in a given position. That means that annually, at least one fourth of the managers will change jobs. Read More...
• Self-knowledge Provides the Opportunity for Leadership Development - It is estimated that in most organizations, 15 to 20 percent of employees are considered top performers. At any given time, 80 to 85 percent of an organization’s employees are not fully engaged and motivated. Read More...
• Book Review: “Workforce Crisis;” - Dychtwald, Erickson, Morrison; Harvard Business School Press. Read More...
• Best Sites for Workforce/HR Information. Read More...

April 2007

• Client Highlight-Burning Tree Programs HR Manager Finds Insight in SOSIITM - The human resources manager for two Texas drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities offers her employees a different perspective on Profiles' Step One Survey IITM assessment. She has seen it from the other side of the desk, as a candidate being interviewed for her current position. Read More...
• Technical Corner-Assessment Tools Must Be Valid-An assessment tool is valid if it measures specific characteristics required to do a job and if the measurements are accurate. Validity is the fifth of 13 Department of Labor guidelines used for assessment instruments, and the one we will be examining this month. Read More...
• Profiles Tip of the Month-Boast at Your Own Risk-Do not brag on yourself. Remain modest, even when you have cause to boast. Of all the advice your mother gave you, remembering this could help you in both your relationships and your career. Read More...
• HR Corner-How to Retain the Best Employees-As Baby Boomers retire and fewer workers are available to replace them, retaining the best employees becomes more important. Retention takes on more significance to HR professionals, who see most sharply the toll turnover takes on a business: loss of efficiency, higher production costs, long searches, loss of job knowledge and lack of security among remaining employees. Read More...
• Case Study-ProfileXTTM in a Psychiatric Hospital-Administrators at a mental health facility found they were devoting a great deal of time to a weekly hiring board established to determine the effectiveness of mental health workers and decide which workers to retain.
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• Product Focus-Workforce Analysis ProfileTM-A company with engaged workers is likely to keep them longer with all the benefits of high retention appearing on the bottom line. Clients on the outside looking in might not know anything about that, but they recognize good customer service when they see it. And engaged employees give excellent customer service. Read More...

March 2007

• Client Highlight-Creating a ‘Strong Bench’ at Specialized Loan Servicing -When Lisa Rice sought an assessment tool for her financial services company, she put together a task force of eight to research the products. Read More...

• Profiles Tip of the Month - How to Reduce Stress
  With 75 percent of employees believing that workers have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago. Read More...

• Client Highlight-If the Shoe Fits: The Story of Sava Senior Care
  Getting the right person who fits in a particular job can be like trying to find the right foot to fit the glass slipper. Read More...

• Tech Corner-Assessment Tools Must Be Reliable
  When someone takes an assessment several times and receives the same or nearly the same score, this is a good indicator of the instrument’s reliability. Read More...

• Human Resource Corner-Who’s in Charge Here?
  In a large financial services office, all work on a key project stopped when the top decision-maker was absent for reasons she had not anticipated — a death in her immediate family. Read More...

• Case Study - ProfileXT™ Aids Financial Group in Matching Top Performers- Low employee productivity hampered the progress of a financial services organization located in the Southeast. An examination of the issue focused on the relationship between employee performance and “Job Match” to the ProfileXT™ . Read More...
• Product Focus -ProfilesEasy™
  Finding qualified employees through an online application process just got easier for both your HR department and the qualified people interested in working for your company. Read More...

February 2007

• Client Highlight - If the Shoe Fits: The Story of Sava Senior Care
  Finding the right person to fit in a particular job can be like trying to find the right foot to fit the glass slipper. For Danette Manzi, senior vice president of Sava Senior Care Administrative Services, the ProfileXTTM is like a magic shoehorn. Read More...
• Tech Corner - Assessment Tools Must Be Fair to All Groups
  This month we examine the third Department of Labor guideline for occupational assessments. This rule says that assessment instruments should be unbiased and treat all groups with fairness. Read More...
• Tip of Month - Two’s Company, Four’s a Crowd
  Robin made an appointment with a valued client. They were going to talk about the new insurance plan Robin represented. As she prepared for the meeting, Robin decided to take her colleague Jason because he knew the plan better than she did. Jason agreed but wanted to bring along Tom and his excellent PowerPoint presentation. Read More...
• Human Resource Corner - What Does Good Leadership Look Like? People who reflect on the subject of leadership do not always agree on what makes a good leader. Most of them focus on leadership instead. Here are 10 different traits used to describe effective leaders: Read More...
• Case Study - ProfileXT™ Helps Healthcare Organization Improve Selection Practices-Leaders of a healthcare organization faced with low employee productivity wanted to hire more employees who excelled in their jobs. The current study was conducted to examine the relationship between employee productivity and job match to ProfileXT™. Read More...
• Product Focus - Step One Survey IITM Saves Consulting Company from Costly Hiring Mistakes-Jean, human resources director for a large consulting company, stared at the resume on her desk. A few years ago, she would have wasted precious time trying to read between the lines. Read More...

January 2007

• Client Highlight- Blue Wave Ultrasonics Eliminates Hiring Errors with ProfileXT™ - A hiring snafu that occurred in the mid-’90s proved to be the turning point for a relationship between Profiles International of Waco, Texas, and Blue Wave Ultrasonics, Inc. of Davenport, Iowa. Blue Wave Ultrasonics’ manager Roger Stoneking was mentally kicking himself over the mistake when he saw a schedule for a nearby seminar about Profiles assessments. Read More...
• Technical Corner-The 'Whole-Person' Approach - Last month Technical Corner examined the first Department of Labor guideline on occupational assessment tools. This time we will look at guideline number two, which says that assessment tools must use the “whole-person” approach. This means that the tests employers use should measure more than limited aspects about a potential employee.
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• Human Resource Corner -What is Performance Management?
  One well-known company that throws its office doors open to the public every day has found a very public way to recognize employees for good performance: It puts photographs of the employees in its lobby display case. Each photograph is accompanied by a biography of the employee. Less public but just as important, the employee also receives an extra paid day off, a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant, and a convenient reserved parking place for a month. Read More...
• Profiles Tip of the Month- Listen More, Talk Less - Good salespeople know what their clients need. This is not because they have the power to read minds. They know because when they ask a question, they pause for the answer and listen when the answer comes. If they can then figure out how to service the client’s needs, they have likely made a sale. Record your next sales call. Focus on keeping your client talking while you practice the refined art of listening. If the client stops talking, give him or her several seconds to continue. If the pause continues, ask a follow-up question, such as “Can you elaborate on that?” to get the client talking again. Above all, don’t interrupt. Once the call ends, check out the recording to see how many minutes you talked versus how many minutes you listened. Your own presentation need not be lengthy. You should listen more than you talk. Read More...
• Update: Changes Coming to EEO-1 - By Scott Haney - Employers who must submit the EEO-1 report, also called the Employer Information Report, need to know about upcoming changes in the survey that will take place in September 2007. The survey is a government form that requires many employers to supply an employee count by job category, ethnicity, race and gender. The report goes to several government agencies. Read More...
• Case Study - ProfileXT™ in use by a Healthcare Organization
  Leaders of a healthcare organization faced with low employee productivity wanted to find a way to hire more employees that excelled in their positions. The current study was conducted to examine the relationship between employee productivity and Job Match to ProfileXT™. Read More...
• Product Focus- Profiles Sales Indicator™ - If the new employee on the sales team is not doing as well as you expected, you should check the shape of the hole. You may have put the wrong peg in it. Put another way, your new sales employee might not be a match for the job. Read More...

December 2006

• Client Highlight - 3M Trainer Finds Solutions with Profiles Tools
  A bid for help from managers who wanted to coach their sales representatives more effectively led Gene Nichols, a 3M trainer in St. Paul, Minn., to take a closer look at the Profiles tools his company was using. He found assessments that could give managers specific information and that could be changed to fit his company’s needs.
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• Technical Corner - A Purposeful Manner - Technical Corner, a new column this month, will examine Department of Labor guidelines on occupational assessment tools, starting with the first one. It states that assessment tools must be used in a purposeful manner. This means that managers using the tools need to understand how they work. Profiles’ assessments meet or exceed Department of Labor guidelines, and we work with our clients to help them understand our tools and use them correctly. Read More...
• HR Corner - To Reduce Turnover, Know What Causes It - In most ways, the top boss at a large manufacturing company, Robert, managed his people well. He told his managers what he expected and gave them freedom to do their jobs the way they saw fit. He kept his door open most of the time and willingly discussed issues with his assistants. Read More...
• Product Focus - Customer Service Profile™ - The Last Straw…
  It is the last straw. You finally decided that you have made your last trip to the neighborhood pharmacy – even though it is convenient and the pharmacists are friendly and helpful. So what’s the problem?
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• Profiles Tip of the Month - Make VoiceMail Your Pal - How often do you get to speak to the decision-maker in person? Some studies say up to 70 percent of business phone calls go to VoiceMail. Clearly, it’s time to make this time- and money-saving device your friend. Here’s how: Craft your 30-second elevator speech in writing. Use a friendly tone of voice and your client’s name. Practice your message, then read the speech as if you are saying it in person. Imagine grasping the client’s hand and looking him or her in the eye. Be sure to include your contact information – email and phone number -- speaking clearly and distinctly. Visualize your client writing the number from your message. Then say, “Please call me, and I will also follow up.” Then do it.
• Case Study - Profile Sales Indicator™ at a Midwest Staffing Agency - Background- Facing low employee productivity, a staffing organization in the Midwest conducted a study using the Profiles Sales Indicator™ to see how employee productivity, in the form of sales totals, related to job match. Read More...

November 2006

• A Challenging Future: Retention, Productivity And Education:
  As you've read in this publication and probably others, we face an accelerating worker shortage over the next 30 years as Baby Boomers leave the labor market and are replaced (at a much slower rate) by young recruits. Recently, noted economist Jeff Thredgold pointed out to an audience of business leaders in Utah...Read More...
• Recruiting in a Job-Seeker's Market: How to Compete and Win! Sell Your Job, Your Business! Hiring guru Lou Adler, in an article written for ERE Network, points out: "...the big issue about job boards is that they are relevant only if you post compelling jobs that capture the candidate's attention. If you post traditional job descriptions...
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• Measurements, ROI Common Effects Across Assessment Programs In the 3+ years of this publication's life, we have published case studies of various kinds and descriptions, all taken from our base of clients using assessments to improve their business. A review of these studies identified 25 that looked at effects of assessment programs, and many that quantified these effects in similar ways. The studies occur...Read More...

October 2006

• Quick to Hire? Getting it Right is Just Not that Easy - Opinion
  In an opinion piece published in his online newsletter, "Just my E-pinion," Bob Brady discusses the observation that we often "hire in haste, regret at leisure." As the founder of Business & Legal Reports, Inc., and its online site... Read More...
• Tracking Turnover and Better Alternatives:  In last month's issue of this publication, we mentioned in passing, "As far back as most of us care to remember, HR has tracked 'turnover' as one of our few consistent metrics. As commonly used, however, turnover is at best a hodgepodge statistic..." Reader reaction to this broad statement was fairly strong... Read More...
• Medical Lab/Strategic Hiring: Like many such operations, a mid-sized medical laboratory that employs over 400 people relies heavily on students to fill skilled entry level positions (phlebotomist, specimen processor, etc.) As a result, they expect a higher turnover in these positions, as students... Read More...

September 2006

• Changing Role of HR: Forget 'Warm and Fuzzy' - Know Costs of Lost Talent- Jack and Suzy Welch, in the July 17 edition of Business Week, took on the issue of what HR must do to retain the line-item overhead category on most business balance sheets. Any HR professional who has experienced cuts in HR budgets, reductions in staff... Read More...
• 'Execution' - the new buzz word - Opinion, by John W. Howard, PH.D. "Business Execution" has become the latest catch word of the book-and-seminar meeting industry. Google the words, you'll get 122,000,000 hits! Ralph Welborn, in his new book... Read More...
• Trim the Time Wasters - Karen Susman's NextLevel Tools-Summer is still with us, and the heat is on. It can be hard to get things done when you are wishing you were running through the sprinkler or playing in the kiddy pool. If you are spending time with your face pressed against the water cooler, here's a cool way to manage your time... Read More...
• Call Center Working to Improve Sales Force with the Profile XT™ An inbound call center for a neutraceutical and supplement manufacturer was experiencing turnover as high as 500 percent a year. Sales performance among its 60 agents varied widely, with top performers producing as much as six times the... Read More...

August 2006

• Desperately Seeking Added Value-The Key To Beating Your Competition - As the balance of the North American economy has shifted from manufacturing to services, the delivery of services has become increasingly commoditized. If your business is insurance, for example, you are faced with competition selling insurance that...
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• Avoid 'Warm Body' Hiring - Legal Risk - In an economy with full employment, the demand for workers can lead to legal challenges. Hiring managers, under pressure to fill openings, may... Read More...
• Sales Force Of Top Producers - A Manager's (And Owner's) Dream -Opinion By John W. Howard, Ph.D. - Imagine that you have a sales force consisting entirely of people who produced like your top two performers. Do the math. What would it mean to you in sales volume and... Read More...
• Missed Opportunities In Systematic Use Of Pre-hire Assessments - Seven managers selected for a demonstration program in early January were obviously excited as the training... Read More...

July 2006

• Building A Referral-Based Business-Opinion
• What Can We Do About Low Performers?
• Opportunities for Reducing Hire Failure -Applying Assessment Selection Criterion

June 2006

• Basic Behaviors in Short Supply: Showing Up, Working Hard... Opinion by John W. Howard
• More Employers are Checking Backgrounds
• "Our Assessment Program Isn't Working... "
• When You Don't Use The Information...

May 2006

• New DOL Rule
  Risk Of Employee Defection Up
  Will You Be Sued Next?
  Applicant Tracking
• HR Professionals Try To Keep Up With Field
• New Recertification Opportunities For Hr Professionals - Bill Foster, SPHR
• Effects Of Hiring Underproducers In Sales - Mike Hopkins & Mark Wathen

April 2006

• As The Labor Pool Shrinks: We Keep Making Jobs... How Long?
• As The Labor Pool Shrinks: Manufacturing Suffers Shortages
• So, You Don't Screen Executives For Integrity?
• Utah Embezzlements Hit Credit Unions And Banks
• Indiana Data Trashed
• Lay & Skilling Trial
• More News About Questionable Integrity...
• Simple Prescreening Program Reduces Early Hire Failure - Mike Pacholek
• Assessments Consistently Reduce Failures

March 2006

• Hiring In North America: Why Are We So Often Wrong?
• Business Integrity And Ethics - "Walk The Talk" Leading And Managing With Integrity - Jeannette Seibly
• Account Managers In Insurance: Differentiating Top Performers - John Hauber

February 2006

• Aging Workforce Impacts Recruiting, Hiring, Succession Planning Efforts
• Driving Complex Change-An E-Book by Peter Pazmany, Michael Vigil and Warren White
• Buc$ Federal Bank: Profiles Assessment User Wins Shrm Award as Maryland Employer of Distinction, 2005!
• "Does Our Assessment Program Work?"-Providing Evidence

January 2006

• "Lean Solutions" Require People — People Who Match Their Jobs Well!
• Understanding the People You Manage... Assessment Tools Can Help!
• Setting Cutoff Scores in Hiring —Job-Relatedness is Critical

December 2005

• Music Teacher Was Right! - Opinion by Tim Brennan
• Managers/Trainers Could Learn from the Music Teacher
• "Interrupted Process" Studies Provide Opportunity for Natural Experiments
• Abandoning an Assessment Criterion Proves Costly for Manufacturer

November 2005

• Appeals Court Ruling is a Wake-Up Call: Review Your Assessment & Hiring Practices!
• Which Assessment, and How — Jeff Schroer
• On The Road from Good to Great: Leadership Development Paves that Road - Steve Woods, Workforce Metrics

October 2005

• Economy Continues to Heat Up - That's Good and Bad!
• The Radical Leap, A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership by Steve Farber
• Life Balance: Opinion By Karen Susman
  How To Wear Many Hats And Keep Your Head On Straight
• Award-Winning Hospitality Property Cuts New Hire Failures - Mike Pacholek

September 2005

• Developing Your Future Leaders: Without A Plan, How Will You Find Them?
• Two Job Fit Measures Distinguish “top” And “bottom” In Credit Union Tellers
• Coaching Tip from Jeannette Seibly: Re-read Your Email Carefully Before Sending - It Can Save Your Bacon!

August 2005

• Top Employees...Or Top Candidates? Which Do You Select?
• Workplace Absences Hit Five-Year High
• Recruiting in a Competitive Market – Get Ahead Of The Game
• Cutting Time-To-Hire—Like Getting Extra Employees!
• Getting It Right—the Importance Of Local Success Patterns

July 2005

• Triage and the Evolving Business—First, Stop the Bleeding
• What Lies Ahead Economically? Opinion, by A.J. Skurdal,Ph.D.
• Improving Operations and Bottom Line of a Private Security Firm

June 2005

• Expanding Your Pool—the Key To Being Selective!
• Why Job Interviews Are Often Misleading
  Greg Maciolek, Integrated Management Resources, Inc.
• Customer Service “blitz” Improves Service, Provides Ongoing Training

May 2005

• Job Satisfaction and the Risk of Increased Turnover
• Call Centers—a Plethora of Special Challenges
• Call Centers Proliferate Across North America
• Call Center Improves Retention with Strategic Hiring System

April 2005

• Selecting Top Performers—Be Careful What You Wish For
• Credit Union Cuts Turnover With Assessment Program
• Simple Candidate Prescreening Cuts Hire Failures In Gaming Operation

March 2005
(This is a .pdf file, either click on the link or right click on the link and "save target as" to download the file)

• Turnover costs eldercare providers over $4 billion per year
• The Sport of Business-Tim Brennan
• Bank hikes employee retention and customer satisfaction in tough market

February 2005

• Do you use temporary employees?
  What do you know about them?
• Complacency in employee risks-Why we don’t do more?
• Effects of changes in hiring practices—Assessment and Human
• The elements of greatness

January 2005-Topics include:

• What Is Your Capacity? Planning & Growth
  —Guest Article by Jeannette Seibly
• Getting The Right People On The Bus, Right Seats...
  Will We Know Them When We Find Them?
• Selecting Leadership Candidates— What About The Outlier?

December 2004-Topics include:

• Checking In With The Economy - Does Anyone Know Anything?
• Small Business Proprietors Remain Optimistic
• Case Study Of The Month—identifying Great Salespeople!

November 2004-Topics include:

• Keeping Your Best — How To Improve Your Odds
• When Good Applicants Are Scarce, Reach Further Select For Fit, Train For Skills-
• Opinion, By John W. Howard, Ph.D.
• Build Your Retention Library—A Wealth Of Ideas
• Strategic Hiring System Pays Off In Reservations Call Center

October 2004-Topics include:

• Profiles International, Inc. Breaks Ground On New Sales And Training Facility
• Stop Losing Your “Memory”
• Credit Unions - Making Sales An Organizational Priority
• Is There A Flaw In Your Hiring Process?
• Plug The Biggest Hidden Financial Drain In Your Business!

September 2004 -Topics include:

• Performance Appraisals — The Horns Of A Dilemma
• Fishing For Better Applicants — Deepen Your Pool
  Expanding Job Markets Increase Recruiting Challenges
• In Search Of “common Sense”
  By John W. Howard & John Hauber
• Early Measurement Of Effects Of A Strategic Hiring System

August 2004 -Topics include:

• Customer Service Issues
• Call Center Scams: Warning
• The HR Dilemma: How Can I be Strategic If I Need to Process
• Reducing the Interview Workload
• Progressive Improvement in Hiring Success-
  Learning to Do It Better

July 2004 -Topics include:

• The Slight Edge in Business
• Retention and Accountability-Where are the Numbers?
  Are You Holding Your Managers accountable
• Performance Reviews-Who are Your Top Performers?
• "Up the Organization"-A Reminder Review
• Let the Data Determine the Career Path-
  A Case Study in Title and Escrow

June 2004-Topics include:

• Who Manages Change?
• Poisoning Your Own Well-Overpromotion
• Mirror, Mirror on the Wall-
  A 360 Degree View
• Improving Management Skills-What Kind of Effect

May 2004-Topics include:

• Occupational Injuries decline-Do We Know why?
• Losing Your Best-A Real Risk
  "Escaping Workers"-Subject of National Concern
• Preparing for Challenges: Banking Information
  Buckingham&Clifton
• Job Patterns Must Change, If Your Business Has Changed-
  Case Study by Steve Woods of Workforce Metrics

A Management Development Company

Telephone: [281] 463-9111   Facsimile: [281] 861-6695    Email

Headquartered in Houston Texas

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