Impact Today™

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 matriculate and leave for other pursuits. Before embarking on a strategic hiring program, however, their first-year failure rates for all hires ran a steady 33 percent, a number they deemed undesirably high and costly.

Partially through fiscal 2004, the laboratory initiated an assessment program, screening all new hires with the Step One Survey II™, and began developing ProfileXT™ success patterns for their most critical job categories. By FY 2005, the program was well-developed, and ProfileXT™ patterns were in use for a majority of their hires.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Have you ever hired a new sales team member who didn’t work out as you expected? It’s as if you tried to stick a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn’t fit. In the same way, the new sales employee might not be a good match for that position.

Not everyone has what it takes to succeed in sales. Sometimes people who excel in other areas just do not fit well in sales. The reason is simple: To thrive in sales, certain key attributes are necessary. These include competitiveness, reliance on self, persistence, energy level and sales drive. In addition, seven important behaviors affect sales performance: prospecting, closing, call reluctance, self-starting ability, teamwork, building and maintaining relationships and compensation preference.

The Profiles Sales Indicator™ measures all of these and produces easy-to-understand reports that show how closely the candidate matches the position. This assessment takes only minutes and can be customized by company, sales position, department, manager, geography or any combination of these. You receive the percentage of job match so you can determine the candidate’s potential to do well in the position.

The Sales Indicator™ also works well as a training guide for your current sales people.

Getting the right peg to fit in the right place the first time makes sense. Achieving a good job match means success for both the employee and your company.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales

James M.D. Maloney, president of United Freight Service, Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz., tells why his company has used Profiles' assessments since 1993.

Q. Do you have a story to relate about ProfileXT™?
A. ProfileXT gives me information about our people that is not just "on target," it hits the bull's eye every time. ProfileXT has helped us measurably improve productivity and the efficiency of every employee.

Q. What is the major benefit your company sees from Profiles' assessments?
A. We see a major help in the area of driver turnover. The American Trucking Association reported a national average of 109 percent turnover for medium-size carriers, with turnover for large carriers exceeding 130 percent. Our vice president recently attended a trucking symposium sponsored by our insurance carrier, and representatives shared their recent statistics on driver turnover. All were well above 60 percent and several were much higher. When we reported our 17 percent from 2005, we were met with looks of great disbelief.

To read more, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

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 average sales of marginal performers.

Ten top performers and eight marginal performers were identified in a current study. The 18 agents were instructed to complete the ProfileXT™ online during paid working hours. However, two of the marginal performers were terminated before completing the assessment, leaving six in their group providing data.

To read the rest of this success story, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales

Looking at our work with clients we have identified 25 success stories that looked at effects of assessment programs, and many that quantified these effects in similar ways. The studies occur across 10 widely different types of businesses and are geographically scattered from coast to coast. A summary of common findings follows.

Across all sectors and locations, for the 13 studies that reported return-on-investment figures, the average ROI was $26.30 returned for every dollar invested!

Click here to read the full results of the summary.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Facing predictions of a shortage of one million nurses by 2020, the health care profession is looking at solutions for recruiting, hiring, training and retaining these critical workers. With their numbers at almost two million, registered nurses comprise the largest number of health care professionals.

This case study provides an examination of how one hospital used 22 registered nurses and the ProfileXT™ to develop a Job Match Pattern to find nurses performing at the highest level. Experts conducted the study to investigate the use of the ProfileXT™ Job Match Pattern program to further refine their selection process and identify those with the potential to become top performers.

To read the rest of this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Customer_Service, Hiring

A new manager went to work in a department of a retail store that seemed to have lost its way. Sales were down and so were energy levels. Displays were stale, and several areas needed cleaning. Worse, several employees seemed to spend most of their time on cell phones — and the conversations were not about work.

The manager immediately recognized the problem. She had seen it before. About a third of her employees were new, and they were the only ones who accomplished anything. Their expectations were high, and so were their sales. They stayed busy doing worthwhile tasks even when they did not have customers. More than half of her employees stood around looking bored and tried to appear busy when the boss was nearby.

Finally, another group of employees came in late, left early, took long lunches, avoided helping customers and, as near as the manager could tell, did not make any sales or even try to do so. She wondered what had happened to make them so disenchanted.

Click here to continue reading this story and see the 10 ways to engage your employees.

Labels: Assessments, Attitude, Case_Study, Customer_Service

Getting the right person who fits 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 ProfileXT™ is a bit like a magic shoehorn.

Manzi brought the ProfileXT to Sava Senior Care last year, but she had also had experience with the assessment tool when she worked in the insurance industry. She has found that it is the key to finding sales associates who fit the positions she needs to fill.

To read the rest of this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Job_satisfaction

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™. Using study information, the company developed a “Job Match Pattern” to select more productive employees.

Participants
The study went forward with 36 mortgage bankers. The evaluation of each participant’s performance included a sales goal ratio and a supervisor’s performance rating on a three-point scale, where 1 equaled a top performer, 2 an average performer and 3 a marginal performer. The company rated 11 participants’ top performers, nine participants as average performers and 16 as marginal performers. The average top performer met 97.2% of their sales goals, while the average marginal performer met 32.7% of their sales goals.

To continue reading this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

The human resources manager for two Texas drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities offers her employees a different perspective on Profiles’ Step One Survey II™ assessment. She has seen it from the other side of the desk, as a candidate being interviewed for her current position.

“I was grateful that I got to take it,” said Tabbitha Anderson, the HR manager for Burning Tree Programs, which has facilities in Kaufman and Elgin, Texas. Because she can talk about the assessment as a job applicant who completed it before she was hired, her support gives it more weight when she talks to managers about what the assessment will help them accomplish.

To read the rest of this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Hiring

Have you ever attended a management training workshop?

Look at your bookshelf, your credenza, that pile of three-ring binders in the corner, or the box in your basement. How many pages of training supplements, exercises, guides and follow up material are in those places? When was the last time you looked at one? How many hours have you spent in trying to reinforce, apply and utilize the things you learned in the training? How much real benefit have you received in the process?

Quit hanging your head: you are hardly alone. Despite our best intentions, we return from training excited, energized and full of things we intend to change — and then the world crashes in around us, and the books and binders go on the bookshelf, potential unrealized. If you are a trainer charged with the difficult task of improving managers, or if you are a manager dedicated to improvement: You must insure practice of changed behaviors following training or your efforts will be wasted.

Train, practice, reinforce, measure change, train…

If this mantra makes sense to you, manager or trainer, investigate the process involved in our Checkpoint 360™ and Skill Builder™ systems.

Labels: Assessments, Motivation

I’m always intrigued when a client decides to use the Step One Survey II™ to prescreen lower-level employees for Honesty-Integrity issues and then exempts management or executive candidates from the same screening. The rationale usually goes something like this: “Executive Candidates are already so thoroughly vetted, the assessment would be redundant.” Or, alternately, they may reason, “Executive candidates would be offended by the questions on this assessment.”

Assume, for a moment, you hire someone of questionable integrity. At what level in your business could they cause the most damage? Is hiring such a person as an executive or manager really that unlikely? Will the candidates be offended when they discover you are taking extra care in selecting the right people to run your business? As you consider these questions, consider these:

• The president of Chevron West Credit Union in Utah embezzled $168,000 over 8 years, never taking more than a few hundred dollars at a time.
  Another Credit Union president in the same Utah town took $132,000 during the same period.


• Indiana-based Travel Zone Inc. reported charging a former employee with fraud, after he allegedly used his (company provided) login to access their iBank accounts by computer, then deleted the entire records of 17 corporate travel clients.


• A former America Online executive pleaded guilty in federal court to defrauding the Dulles-based Internet company of $100,000 through a phony contract for an outside consultant who did no work for AOL.


• A former insurance executive was sentenced to six years in prison on a fraud conviction involving a $5.7 million mortgage fraud scheme.
  

Labels: Assessments, Ethics

St. Louis, Mo., native Tony Hartl, CEO and founder of Texas-based Planet Tan, describes his 120 employees as "talent." Strategic thinking keeps this forward-moving executive at the top of his game. Planet Tan's awards include Profiles International's 2007 Client of the Year, The Dallas Business Journal's Best Places to Work in Dallas-Fort Worth for 2006 and 2007, and INC Magazine's designation of an INC 500 Company for 2007.

Q. Besides that hard work, what makes Planet Tan successful?
A. There are two points of difference between Planet Tan and our competitors. We established our brand as fun, energetic and relevant. We sponsor three sports teams. We are the official tanning center of The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, The Dallas Mavericks Dancers and the NHL Dallas Stars Ice Girls. We are one of the few businesses to sponsor all three major sports franchises in Dallas and this makes people think we are larger than we are. The second thing is our size. Our average stores have 50 tanning beds, where others might have 10 or 12. We have the largest tanning facilities in the world and we are open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. We have so many beds that we gain market share very rapidly.

Q. Did you know the business would be successful from the outset?
A. Yes. I never thought I would do something that would not be successful. There is a certain level of optimism, enthusiasm and energy that entrepreneurs bring to the table. There is a real bias for action. It's like a 16-foot speedboat. You think at lightning speed. It's in the DNA – you've got it or you don't. It's not learnable or teachable

To read the complete interview, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Matt Riley, Director of Human Resources, believes in setting the example in using assessments. He reviews his own use of Step One Survey II™ and Profile XT™.

Q. Why did Bruegger’s Bagels begin using Profiles assessments?
A. We wanted to be different from our competition and reverse turnover. Many in our industry believe high turnover in the Quick Casual restaurant market is a part of doing business. But the financial burden of turning over our general and assistant managers inhibited both our financial and team-building goals. Area managers and market directors found they were spending a large amount of time recruiting for vacant positions as well as supporting each of the bakery locations they managed by filling in for missing managers. Turnover also affected teams in every bakery and gave us fewer opportunities to build consistency and teamwork. The turnover at management levels contributed to higher rates of turnover in hourly positions. Higher turnover means less confidence in teamwork and consistency. This inconsistency affects every aspect of our operation, from sandwich makers to regional trainers to our vice president of operations.

Q. How did the company try to solve the problem before turning to Profiles?
A. We tried to hire candidates that were better suited to our concept. We also developed materials that we still utilize today to assist hiring managers in the basic steps of recruiting and hiring. These materials work adequately for sharing hiring skills and work very well when managers have the context of a specific candidate’s behaviors and match to a position. We decided to look for assistance from external tools that could give us information about the candidates and what our business and its culture demanded in the face of growth and organizational improvement. Bruegger’s had worked briefly with Profiles in 2002. At the time, we did not have the capacity to integrate it into our business well, so we set it aside until we could implement it with success.

To continue reading this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

The focus of this case study is a gaming operation owned and operated by a Native American Tribe. The operation includes a large casino with restaurant and entertainment venues, a substantial hotel and an adjacent RV park and has expectations of future growth. Located on a major Interstate Highway, the development is in a rural environment with a very limited employment pool. For years, the area’s economy rested on the timber, mill, and mining industries; the collapse of those industries resulted in outmigration and further shrinking of the population of available workers. The challenge for the HR team includes recruiting an adequate supply of workers and finding workers with the qualities required to succeed in the 24-hour, seven day week environment of gaming. In addition, integrity of workers is essential in a cash-rich environment.

The baseline group for this case study consisted of the last 100 employees hired prior to the beginning of the assessment program. In this group, failure rates were compiled for 30, 60, and 90-day cumulative failure rates, as well as total failures over the study period. Failure was defined as leaving employment with the operation for any reason.

To continue reading this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Unless you can clone your top salespeople

A recreational vehicle dealer with a long history of steady growth and success had positioned itself to take advantage of the explosive growth of the RV market over the past three years. The dealer’s primary challenge: identifying salespeople likely to excel in their three stores. The company’s high visibility and reputation for excellence makes it an employer of choice in its markets. The company has a good applicant flow and it can afford to be selective.

An analysis of the company’s sales data, however, shows it suffers from the pervasive 80-20 rule of sales: their top producers are outselling their bottom producers by over 500 percent!

At the same time, turnover is unacceptably high in the sales force, with many new salespeople failing within six months of hire. In an industry where a dealer may spend over $1,000.00 just to provide the opportunity for a salesperson to spend time with a qualified buyer, the lost opportunity cost at this failure rate is enormous.

To read the rest of this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales

Retention increased from 27% to 58% with use of the strategic hiring system.


A major hotel management firm operates a reservations call center with a primary mission of customer service, and a secondary sales function. The call center experiences wide seasonal workload fluctuations, and has traditionally begun a major round of hiring each winter. Both performance and turnover have presented challenges in this environment. In 2003, reservations agents hired in the winter campaign had only a 27 percent chance of remaining on the job beyond June 30. This required additional and continued hiring efforts through the spring and summer seasons—times of year that present additional hiring challenges in their employment market.

In midwinter, by contrast, the company had an abundance of applicants for their open positions.

The challenge
The challenge was to design and implement a strategic hiring system, with the goal of increasing retention and reducing the necessity of additional hiring through the spring and summer.

The solution
Click here to continue reading this case study.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Hiring

Leaders of a financial services organization in the Southeast wanted to enhance the overall performance of their workers. With the help of Profile XT™, they conducted a study to examine the relationship between employee performance and the PXT’s job match. This portion of the Profile XT™ helps analyze a person’s job-related attributes and compares them to the qualities that person needs to perform well in a particular job.

The result of this study: A customized job match pattern to help the financial services organization in the selection process.

To read the details, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Did you know that more than 90% of all company thefts are perpetrated by employees?
Are you interested in solutions to recurring employee frustrations that keep you awake at night?

Interested in solutions to recurring employee frustrations that keep you awake at night? Please allow us to offer you a complimentary subscription to our e-newsletter, Impact Today. It is loaded with helpful ideas and solutions to those recurring employee frustrations that can keep you awake at night.

Proven methods to effectively:

• Reduce employee turnover
• Increase sales
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Reduce employee theft and fraud
• Improve employee morale

• 1 out of 3 businesses will be sued over an employment issue
• 2 out of 3 new hires will prove to be mistakes within the 1st year
• 2 out of 3 employees would rather work somewhere else
• 9 out of 10 employees will “exaggerate” during an interview
• 9 out of 10 thefts are committed by employees

Labels: Assessments, Ethics

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 Profile XT®.

Look at the example of just such a unit operating in a large city. The department operated from a foundation of hiring strength by selecting applicants who had already passed a written exam, a test of physical abilities, and an evaluation that an industrial psychologist performed.

But leaders decided to see if they could refine their selection process even more. They chose the PXT™ Job Match to help identify those with the potential to become top performers.

To read the details, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

With increasing employment regulations, the lawsuit industry is exploding. Who can blame an employer for being afraid to hire, and even more afraid to fire?

Interested in solutions to recurring employee frustrations that keep you awake at night? Please allow us to offer you a complimentary subscription to our e-newsletter, Impact Today. It is loaded with helpful ideas and solutions to those recurring employee frustrations that can keep you awake at night.

Proven methods to effectively:

• Reduce employee turnover
• Increase sales
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Reduce employee theft and fraud
• Improve employee morale

Defy Bureau of Labor statistics:

• 1 out of 3 businesses will be sued over an employment issue
• 2 out of 3 new hires will prove to be mistakes within the 1st year
• 2 out of 3 employees would rather work somewhere else
• 9 out of 10 employees will “exaggerate” during an interview
• 9 out of 10 thefts are committed by employees

To register for your complimentary weekly e-newsletter, click here.

Labels: Assessments

It's easy to blame the HR Manager.
Ever feel like the corporate scapegoat?
Only HR and Management people understand the challenges that go along with your job.

Interested in solutions to recurring employee frustrations that keep you awake at night? Please allow us to offer you a complimentary subscription to our e-newsletter, Impact Today. It is loaded with helpful ideas and solutions to those recurring employee frustrations that can keep you awake at night.

Proven methods to effectively:

• Reduce employee turnover
• Increase sales
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Reduce employee theft and fraud
• Improve employee morale

• 1 out of 3 businesses will be sued over an employment issue
• 2 out of 3 new hires will prove to be mistakes within the 1st year
• 2 out of 3 employees would rather work somewhere else
• 9 out of 10 employees will “exaggerate” during an interview
• 9 out of 10 thefts are committed by employees
  

Labels: Assessments, Hiring

This is the story of the Chief Financial Officer of a farming co-op. From a spreadsheet point of view she was outstanding.

She understood future forecasting, money at present and future value, and fiduciary responsibilities.

For the most part she was excellent at her job. Yet there was one little thing that aggravated her boss -- she gave away a lot of money.

To continue reading this case study, click here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Squandering leads is detrimental for any sales organization. But how embarrassing could it be to a staffing agency to have lack-luster salespeople. After all, if they cannot hire great people for their own company, how could they find the best people for others?

One staffing agency found a way to duplicate their best salespeople. Click here to read the case study.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales

Coaching employees is a challenge for any leader. Gene Nichols at 3M Medical in St. Paul wanted to find a way to initiate a successful coaching program using existing tools.

A case study is now available (click here) to show how Gene successfully did it.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Coaching

• Unethical behavior 28%


• Work ethic 18%


• Inappropriate use of technology 14%


• Failure to follow instructions 9%


• Lateness 8%


• Missing deadlines 7%

Labels: Assessments, Hiring, Survey

Company achieves a 22 Return on Investment

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Teamwork

Turnover reduced from 69% to 16%

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.

During these weekly meetings, the attendees concluded that the facility let a large number of workers go on a consistent basis. The hospital was facing an overwhelming 68.7 percent turnover rate, and administrators realized they had to take steps to control this issue.

Read the full case study by clicking here.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Employee_Retention

Success is only possible when employees are connected to a common vision of the future of theorganization. Management typically develops incentive programs they feel will drive employeebehaviors to achieve their organizational goals. Typically these incentive programs are based onmanagement's perception of their employee's desires. However, research shows that managementhas historically been out-of-touch with employee desires.Managers mistakenly believe their employees have monetary motives and designed their incentive programs for attaining goals and hitting company benchmarks to raises and bonuses. However, surveys dating back to 1946 have consistently shown employees to be most motivated by shows of appreciation for their work (see chart).

Labels: Assessments, Job_satisfaction, Motivation, Rewards, Survey

To be in high demand as an executive, it is important to understand exactly whatit is that adds the most value to an organization. Many studies have been done todetermine exactly what traits are most sought after, most recently by Right Management Consultants of Philadelphia. They discovered that 47% or more of the organizations surveyed look for five qualities from their top management.

• Motivate others and connect them to the organization's vision.
• Communicate strategically and interpersonally.
• Think strategically.
• Lead change.
• Create a performance organization.

Labels: Assessments, Leadership, Traits