The Secrets Behind Personality Testing – Improving Employee Performance and Communication by Understanding Personalities
Other Blogs... February 15, 2012 0

The Secrets Behind Personality Testing – Improving Employee Performance and Communication by Understanding Personalities

personalitiesWhat do companies that use personality testing know that you don’t? On March 28th, CRG emPerform and HCI.org are presenting a FREE Webinar that looks at personalities in the workforce. Participants will learn the basics behind personality assessments and how an understanding of employee’s personalities can lead to increased engagement, better performance and communication, and overall workplace satisfaction.

Employees are most effective at work when their strongest personal traits are engaged. Understanding the science behind personality traits is essential for companies and managers to properly engage and develop an optimized workforce.

**BONUS**: Participants will be given a coupon code for a free personality test to learn more about themselves and help them develop a ‘vocabulary’ for speaking about personality in the work place.

Webinar Details:

Date: Wednesday, March 28th
Time: 2PM EDT – 3PM EDT
Presenter: Bert Goos – CEO Online Talent Manager.

bert goosBert brings a unique combination of twenty five years’ experience in assessing and developing human potential and the performance of leaders and high potentials in public and private companies.

Bert designs and delivers Executive Assessment and High Impact Leadership program to assist organizational and business leaders to create and implement solutions to a growing complex and demanding environment. He is an entrepreneur and inspiring author and speaker who applies his knowledge about human potential to teaching businesses to develop and maintain long term relationships with stakeholders. He has worked with leaders in international companies in the Netherlands in a variety of industries. In 2002, Bert founded Online Talent Manager, a web application that delivers development tools and personality testing in order to better human capital management. Online Talent Manager boasts more than 30 psychological tests developed with Andre Tjoa and Richard Still, based on the competing values model of Robert Quinn, that is used by more than 100 clients.

Registration for this webinar is on the HCI.org website.If you are already a member of HCI.org, please log in to register for the webcast. If you are not a member, you will need to sign up for a FREE HCI.org membership, this will only take you a moment to fill in the required information. Once you have confirmation of your membership, you will be able to register for this complimentary webcast.

*This live webinar has passed and has been archived. Click here to download the video.

Following Through After the Review Cycle
Performance Reviews February 9, 2012 0

Following Through After the Review Cycle

footstepsNo matter the details of your data gathering process, the value of your employee review system can only be measured by its contributions to overall productivity. In other words, your reviews are only as good as your ability to follow through. Data doesn’t provide solutions. It only points the way. And data can only help us if it shapes actions that benefit the enterprise.

So what does this mean for those who make a living developing and refining HR protocols? How can masters of data collection make sure their skills are being put to optimal use? And how can HR professionals make sure that department managers are taking reviews to heart, following through on coaching plans, making performance improvement plans (PIP) work, and walking chronically under-performing employees toward the door?

If you know your review data is valuable and accurate, but you need to ensure follow-through, here are a few considerations to keep in mind after the review cycle ends.

1. Make sure managers are held accountable for employee performance. Under-performers are often kept on the payroll for a host of reasons; including their relationships with managers and the intangible benefits they bring to the office. But if managers can’t bring these employees up to speed or take coaching efforts seriously, it’s time for HR to intervene. Schedule regular meetings with managers who aren’t following through, and keep the pressure on. Don’t let measurable performance shortcomings slip through the cracks.

2. Make sure high performers receive every reward they have coming. Don’t allow managers to put off promises or conversations about promotion opportunities, and make sure the spirit of a reward matches the letter. Most important, make sure managers benefit when their employees shine. When coaching efforts succeed, the coach deserves some of the credit.

3. Make sure the pressures you apply and the PIPs you put into action after the review process are all backed up by measurable data. Talent Management Software systems like CRG emPerform can help to keep your performance records accurate, your facts straight, your criteria measurable, and your follow-through efforts on track.

How Is Your Company Tracking Its Biggest Expense – People?
Other Blogs... January 16, 2012 0

How Is Your Company Tracking Its Biggest Expense – People?

How is your Company tracking its biggest expense people

How are you tracking and optimizing your biggest expense? More than a third of organizational costs are associated with employee compensation and training – and yet few organizations are properly tracking the return on their largest investment. Now more than ever, executives are working with HR to build a stronger workforce and a healthier bottom line.

  • it is estimated that only 59% of employee work-time is productive due to lack of management and clear objectives
  • at a minimum, turnover costs an average of 25% of an employee’s salary – and this figure can be upwards of 400% of a senior executive’s salary
  • the average organization is forfeiting over $1 million per year in untapped potential

It’s time to get strategic about performance management, especially when technology exists that aligns, develops, rewards, and retains employees for increased performance, better decision making, and clear insight into the execution of organizational objectives.

Imagine being able to see the performance health of your entire organization by simply clicking a button. Imagine being able to execute a proper pay-for-performance program. Imagine knowing who your future leaders are today so that you can plan for the future. Imagine being able to develop and retain a workforce of top-performers that will give your company an edge – emPerform does that and so much more!

emPerform’s online talent management suite includes the tools needed to go beyond appraisals to automate and streamline performance management; including:

Start measuring today – click here to request a free, no obligation demo of emPerform or contact us for pricing.

Reviewing New Employees: Giving Valuable Feedback Using Minimal Data
Uncategorised January 6, 2012 0

Reviewing New Employees: Giving Valuable Feedback Using Minimal Data

Annual review season is in full swing, and most of the experienced managers and long term employees on your staff have been through the process before and know exactly what’s expected of them. Self-evaluations are being typed up and edited as we speak. And managers are looking out over their flocks of direct reports, assessing the progress of each individual, choosing coaching strategies, and coming up with ways to reward top performers.

But what about those mysterious entities, those blank slates with no clear record of accomplishment or struggle and no documented performance issues of any kind?

New employees who have been on board for fewer than six months can be challenging to evaluate, but managers dismiss these challenges at their peril. The first review can have a defining impact on an employee’s relationship with a company, and even if your managers have nothing to say, they’d better come up with something fast, and they’d better recognize that the stakes may be higher this year than they’ll ever be in the future.

Tact and foresight will play key roles during a new employee evaluation. Remember that the company may see the new hire as probationary, but the employee likely views the company in the same light. If she’s criticized more harshly than she expects, or confronted with drummed up negatives as well as positives because the protocol requires a balance, this may sow seeds of demotivation that can be hard to weed out later. By the same token, praising her wildly for showing up every morning may give her a false sense of her manager’s expectations.

Most of the time, employee reviews are based on a set of relatively objective truths, and the truth can free a manager from some of the human emperformuncertainty involved in effective coaching, discipline and motivation. But new employees come with very few objective truths. So you’ll need to make the most of every performance metric you’re able to gather.  Your review software can help. Choose a system, like CRG emPerform, that can help you collect and analyze data points across a wide variety of objective criteria. Start the analytic and record keeping process the day the employee joins the firm, and a few weeks or months down the road, you’ll be ready for a review that’s data-rich, productive, and meaningful.

Are Your Managers Naughty or Nice? Using 360 Reviews to Assess Management.
360º Feedback December 13, 2011 0

Are Your Managers Naughty or Nice? Using 360 Reviews to Assess Management.

santa‘Tis the season for appraisals and assessments. It’s a magical time of year when all of the company’s elves are formally evaluated for their performance over the past year (or past few months – depending on the frequency of evaluations) and the jingle jangle of SMART goal setting can be heard for miles.

It is the perfect time of year for employees on the ‘Nice’ list to be rewarded for their talent and contribution to company success. It is also a time for corrective action to be taken to address any ‘Naughty’ elves who have fallen short of performance expectations. But as the elves busy to engage in a fair and consistent review process – what about the managers, the “Santas”, who are completing your assessments and reviews? What do they get to find in their stockings? And how are they graded, not just as employees, but as bosses?

It is no Holiday fable that a strong management team is the backbone of any company. “Nice” managers (the ones who are effective, productive, trustworthy, and diplomatic) should know how they’re coming off as coaches and leaders. And they should be rewarded and acknowledged for the skill sets that only their employees have a daily opportunity to see. Some of the most vital talents a manager can bring to a company aren’t always visible from the top down. Likewise, in a purely top-down review process, managerial shortcomings are often overlooked, leaving abused, confused or otherwise unsatisfied underlings with their voices unheard and these shortcomings uncorrected.

Don’t let bad Santas place a drain on year-round company productivity. This year, consider a 360 review process that Read More

Self-Assessments: Useful or Not?
Performance Reviews November 21, 2011 0

Self-Assessments: Useful or Not?

The annual employee evaluation process is a universal aspect of the modern workplace. Almost every industry has developed a relevant employee evaluation model, and individual firms have further refined the practice in an ongoing effort to measure employee performance, maximize productivity and foster professional growth.

In order to achieve these ends, and to increase the objectivity and accuracy of performance reviews, many companies require employees to complete self-assessments (a.k.a. self-evaluations) before the formal review process takes place. Employee self-assessment models have been praised and widely embraced, since they offer employees a sense of control over the process and a structured opportunity to list accomplishments that may have been overlooked by managers and supervisors during the year under consideration. Some argue that self-assessments also serve to re-engage employees in the review process prior to the actual review.

Some organizations are even moving pass the traditional ‘past and present’ self-assessment model and adopting ‘future-focused’ self-assessments. Instead of assessing skills against current job requirements, employees have the opportunity to proactively manage their career progression by Read More

Onboarding for Success: A vital 90 day transition
Other Blogs... November 7, 2011 0

Onboarding for Success: A vital 90 day transition

It isn’t news that having a proper onboarding program is vital for retaining and developing talent and yet a surprisingly large proportion of organizations either have no formal practices in place or are using outdated, administrative-based onboarding procedures.

Onboarding goes far beyond handing out key passes and activating voice-mail – it is the difference between an employee starting a new job and an employee becoming part of an organization. If done correctly, onboarding can serve to make new employees feel welcome and comfortable in their new surroundings and to minimize the time before new employees are productive members of their new workgroup.

Some eye-opening facts to consider:

  • Retention surveys show that 89% of new hires will determine if they are going to stay with the company within the first 6 months of employment.
  • The estimated costs to replace a mid-level employee can be upward of 80% of their salary and this figure does not include soft costs like loss of knowledge, intellectual property and time and cost to train.

Onboarding does not have to be complicated or time-consuming; it all comes down to creating and enforcing a proven onboarding strategy and then monitoring the outcomes.

Join us Wednesday, December 7th for a complimentary HCI webinar hosted by CRG emPerform. Host Dawn Kohler, CEO of The Inside Coach, will share the insights needed to bring good people on-board and what crucial elements need to coincide within the first 90 days.

All Aboard! Onboarding for Success: A vital 90 day transition is designed to help you build an effective strategy that goes beyond form management to the retention and performance of your new hire; including:

  • Onboarding best practices
  • The 6 elements of the process
  • Mistakes to avoid
  • Onboarding results from 600 companies
  • 7 keys to a good onboarding strategy

Host: Dawn Kohler is the founder and CEO of The Inside Coach, a training and development company that offers innovative solutions to enhance workforce excellence.  She is also the founder and former owner of Icon Computer Corporation, where she was awarded finalist for Orange County Woman Entrepreneur of the Year.

Dawn’s clients have included DreamWorks, Comcast, Time Warner, NBC Universal, Spectrum Pharmaceutical, Cameron Health, Kawasaki Motors and more. She holds advanced degrees in business, computer science, and is a Hudson Institute graduate and Certified Executive Coach.

*the live webinar has passed. To download the free archived webinar and slides, click here.

Building your A-Team: Assessing Employee Performance vs. Potential
Uncategorised October 26, 2011 0

Building your A-Team: Assessing Employee Performance vs. Potential

Building your A-TeamBy: Natalie Trudel

Even if your company is not currently in the market for a team of entertaining mercenaries, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be focusing on actively identifying and developing all-star employees and giving management the tools needed to form their own A-Teams.

Technically, organizations should strive to have nothing but all-stars on their talent roster; however, chances are that most companies are lucky if 10%-20% of their workforce is labeled as ‘high-performing’ (there are many process-related reasons that account for this but that is a whole other discussion). Unless you are willing to settle for an organization filled with B and C Teams, you need to get tactical about the way you identify and develop top talent.

The first thing to consider is employee performance vs. employee potential. Historically, employee performance was the main driver in determining succession, rewards, and recognition; however, recent years have shed light on the importance of considering employee potential when creating development plans and performance strategies. Think of it this way – a seed doesn’t look like much next to a plant but invests a little time and energy into it, and it has the potential to become a flower or one of those neat plants that kill flies. You should think of identifying your all-stars along the same dimensions – who is great now and who can be even greater sooner?

The difference between high-performers and high-potentials:

High-performers give an immediate return on investment, with estimates averaging from more than 50% additional value to as much as a 100% increase in productivity over average performers.

High-potentials are typically defined as those demonstrating high-level contributions, organizational values, the potential to move up to an identified position within a given timeframe, and the potential to assume greater responsibility. i For example, some organizations operationally define high-potential employees as those who are able to assume greater responsibilities within the next two years and who exhibit a history of high-performance and leadership potentials; also may be defined as employees who are able to advance two leadership levels within 4-8 years and who score well on various assessment criteria.iv

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Who is Responsible for Talent Management?
Other Blogs... October 11, 2011 0

Who is Responsible for Talent Management?

Who is Responsible for Talent ManagementBy: Natalie Trudel

As a talent management solution vendor, we are constantly asked ‘who in the organization is responsible for talent management?’ The broad answer to this is ‘everyone’. The best processes that we have seen for developing and monitoring organizational talent includes a role for HR, managers, executives, and employees. In most cases, it is a fair statement to say that HR is responsible for leading the charge; however, without active involvement and support from managers and business heads, an ideal talent management system or strategy will never realize its full potential (Gina Abudi, Developing Organizational Talent).

 

What role do Managers play?

While HR usually provides the processes, workflows, and systems to enable talent management, it is ultimately managers who are responsible for nurturing, guiding, developing, and identifying talent. Managers work directly with employees and as such have top-of-mind indications of performance issues, development requirements, possible successors, and overall output. For an effective talent management strategy to take effect, it is important that managers are given the tools, time, and training to effectively communicate, document, assess, identify, develop, and align talent. HR can provide the knowledge and platforms for evaluating and engaging employees, but management must properly USE those tools and processes.

 

What role do executives play?

Executives and business heads are usually the defining force of the effectiveness of an organization’s talent management strategy. HR does serve as consultants, shepherds and owners of tactical execution of talent management processes; however, without commitment from the top, these processes are likely to be underestimated by managers and thus poorly executed. Talent management should be at the heart of business strategy. It is vital that executives show their commitment to talent management systems and processes in order to ensure user adoption and foster management’s engagement in the process. Executives often times approve the framework and systems that will be used for company talent management. HR can do its best to educate and lobby for ideal workflows and systems but decision makers must ultimately approve them in order for them to be implemented.

 

What role do employees play?

Fortunately, employee roles in building a solid talent management strategy also have direct benefits to the organization. Employees are responsible for developing and executing performance goals that are aligned with company objectives, are expected to participate in performance and development plans and discussions, and are often times asked to provide insightful feedback about processes, peers, and management. The good news is that studies show that employees who are aware and involved in performance management processes are more likely to be engaged in their roles. High employee engagement has a direct correlation to organizational success – and that’s just good news for everyone.

 

What role doesn’t HR play?

It is clear from the above mentioned points that HR seems to be involved in almost every aspect of talent management. In a  sense this is true – a company’s HR department has the mindset and expertise to identify bottlenecks in talent management, and propose, execute, lead, and maintain any remedies. HR’s role is challenging and sometimes underestimated. HR should be leaders and experts of their organization’s talent management strategies and yet possess the skills and patience necessary to convey instructions and processes to every level within the organization. Recent years have shed light on the strategic importance of HR’s contribution to a company’s bottom line. This, coupled with the availability of cost effective solutions for automating systems, has led to HR being expected to add performance accountability to their laundry list of duties. The good news is that technology is freeing up more and more time for HR to focus on talent management strategy and optimization instead of talent management administration.

 

Quick Tip

One of the most effective strategies that we have seen organizations deploy is the creation of ‘Talent Management Tactical Teams’ that consist of a relevant mix of management, HR, I.T., decision makers, and in some cases, top performers. The Tactical Team is responsible for reviewing, evaluating, and executing an organization’s talent management strategy and systems. This approach is very effective as it exploits the strengths and weaknesses of current practices and produces a talent management strategy that works for every level and department. We have also found that solution purchases made to simplify and streamline talent management processes are more likely to be considered and approved in a timely manner if decision makers are reassured that solutions have been analyzed and given the go-ahead from multiple departments.

Resources:
Gina Abudi. Who Is Responsible for Developing Talent? Accessed September 19, 2011.  https://www.ginaabudi.com/who-is-responsible-for-developing-talent/
https://developingpeopleuk.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-is-responsible-for-talent.html

Meet our Newest Partner: The Management Education Group
Other Blogs... September 15, 2011 0

Meet our Newest Partner: The Management Education Group

CRG emPerform and the Management Education Group recently announced a very exciting partnership. We caught up with their principal consultant, Marnie Green, at the ASHHRA Conference in Phoenix to see what she has to say about aligning with emPerform.

emPerform offers web-based, all-inclusive talent management software for automating employee performance management processes such as appraisals, succession, 360 reviews, compensation management, reporting, and goal alignment. The Management Education Group, Inc., is an Arizona-based provider of consulting, training, and facilitation services that develop high-performing public sector leaders. Government agencies, special districts, and educational institutions rely on the Management Education Group, Inc. to provide innovative leadership strategies that support their leaders.

Marnie Green is the author of Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day-to-Day Employee Performance, published by Pearson/Prentice Hall. The book has been honored with a Glyph Award for Best Business/Career Book and was a finalist in the management category of the Best Books USA Awards.

emPerform and Marnie Green have collaborated on several very successful best-practice webinars including: ‘Conducting Painless Performance Evaluation Meetings’ and recently, ‘Using SMAART Goals to Manage Employee Performance’. These resources have been archived and are available here.

For more information about this partnership, click here.