| | In This Issue: | | Wise Managers Enjoy the Season with No Letup TIP OF THE MONTH:
Eight Ways to Start'08 with a Bang....
CASE STUDY:
PXTTM Highlights Top-Performing Firefighters | | What's on at PROFILES | | Partner Training:
Tues 22nd Jan 2008,
2pm - 4pm Seminar:
No seminar scheduled for January | | Product of the Month: | | The CheckPoint 360 System is a powerful three-part solution for a manager's professional development: 1. Checkpoint 360 Degree Survey provides managers with multi-rater feedback from those who observe their performance: their bosses, subordinates, and peers. This is an important process because increased awareness motivates managers to change the way they do their jobs. 2. Organizational Management Analysis System that alerts top management to potential managerial problems that can develop when managers’ goals are not in alignment with the goals of the organisation. It can strengthen communication and builds stronger organisations. 3. Skill Builder Series rounds out the 360 degree feedback solution and is an organised management and professional development program that addresses specific managerial skills identified in the Checkpoint as needing improvement. Consisting of 18 modules, managers develop and complete a customised personal development plan using SkillBuilder modules which are available online self paced and are easily integrated into a manager’s schedule and tangibly accelerate effectiveness and efficiency. Until Jan 31st 2008, for every Checkpoint 360 Survey ordered we will provide a complimentary SkillBuilder module. | | Quotes of the Month: | | "To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth."- Pearl S. Buck, writer "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."– Winston Churchill
"The first rule of any technology used in business is that automation applied to an efficeint operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
-Bill Gates | | Contact Us: | | For Further Information Please Contact: Profiles International -Victoria 277 Moray St,
South Melbourne VIC 3205 T: (03) 9673 9888
F: (03) 9673 9898 . Email Us | | Welcome to 2008! Wise Managers Enjoy the Season with No Letup Ahhh, the holidays. A time for family, parties, good food, cricket, gifts…and oh, yes – work. It's not last by accident in this list; to the detriment of organisations everywhere, work often comes last this time of year. Not that I want to be Ebenezer and dampen anyone's holiday parade. I enjoy the holidays as much as the next person. But I've seen leaders let up on employee performance programs during this time of year only to face the same management problems in the new year. With neglect, they may even worsen. So a word to the wise men and women out there who are trying to do well by their employees: The right time to manage your employees is NOW, as well as the other 11 months of the year. You will do your best work if you keep employee performance on the front burner, where it belongs, all year long. The wheels are turning now. Some of you are wondering why you cannot relax for the last few weeks of the year and even through part of January. After all, you and your workers have toiled so hard. The answer is that you will toil even harder later if you put off important tasks today. Here are my Top Ten Reasons to Manage Performance Year Round: 1. Complacency is a disease that plagues business. And guess what? It's contagious. The people in one department see their colleagues in another department slacking off right before or right after the company party, and they decide to do the same. Someone meets his goal for November and decides he can tread water in December. His counterpart takes the cue, whether she met her goals last month or not. Believe me, this illness spreads -- and quickly! -- once it gets started. The only known cure is to wash your hands of it from the start to keep it out of your organisation.
2. Procrastination is complacency's cousin. The Big P sets in once people are already infected with complacency. Its symptoms include putting off the most difficult tasks from day to day, doing the easy things first, and busying yourself throughout the day with ONLY the easy things. Soon we forget the difficult tasks altogether. The cure? Control The Big C. If you keep that infection out of the workplace, The Big P is easier to manage too.
3. Habits are hard to break. That's why we want only good ones in the workplace. But if you let bad ones grab a toehold, even for a little while, they might just gain a foothold. Soon they have hoisted themselves all the way into your business, and the veteran hard worker who started coming late one Monday now makes a habit of it then and on Fridays too. Or the manager who "forgot" to use a key recruiting assessment tool once or twice now overlooks it all the time. One study suggests that given time, bad habits become learned behaviours, and we lapse back into them when we're under stress. Since stress is a normal part of the work environment, maintaining good work habits is a discipline we need to observe
4. Set a good example for new workers. Bringing in new staff is a regular event at many places, even during the holidays. Put yourself in the new hire's shoes: How will she view the office partying the last half of November and all of December? How do you want her to see YOU? 5. Set an example for everyone. Closely related to showing the new person how work is done in your office is showing everyone else – your colleagues, your boss, your direct reports. Adopt a professional demeanour and it's likely to be viral – in a good way. 6. Manage performance while other business is less "busy." Perhaps some of the companies you work with have slowed down production a bit. Turn this external hiatus into internal productivity. While you have the time, review the things you and your staff need to improve, then put in place a plan to do so. 7. Control the things you can. This is closely related to items 5 and 6. You might not be able to do anything about another department's departure from the day-to-day routine, but you don't have to join them or beat them. Control your own space by managing well. Maybe it will rub off on the other guys. 8. Your competitors are not snoozing, especially if you are in first place and they are in second or third. If you are not in first place, this could be a good time to redouble your efforts and get there. If you are in first place, remember that old adage, 'The bigger they are…' 9. Find ways to celebrate all year long. Really. Successful companies should reward their employees year-round, not just once a year. Yes, the end-of-year holidays are a special time for families and friends. But if you take the time to praise and recognise your workforce regularly, your business will reap the benefits year-round and expectations for unending special holiday treatment will lessen. 10. It's a kindness to your organization and to all of your employees to show off a well-managed workforce all of the time. Consider it a beautifully wrapped gift to everyone, including you. Happy holidays!
Jim Sirbasku, CEO
Profiles International
PROFILES TIP OF THE MONTH: Eight Ways to Start '08 with a Bang.... -
Bring in new workers by on-target recruiting and interviewing using assessments. -
Make sure every person fits his/her job. -
Find ways to engage workers. Tip: Job fit helps. -
Plan a training program for employees that continues until retirement.
Key departures looming? -
Start building a succession plan now. -
Employee feedback is essential. Learn how to give it the right way. -
Put in place methods of regularly rewarding good performance. -
Build relationships rather than contacts.
CASE STUDY: PXT TM 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™. 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. Participants
The department chose 24 firefighters to participate in the online assessment. Established performance evaluations showed that 14 operated at top levels. The other 10, while good employees, had not yet reached the top performance rating. Job Match Pattern
A Job Match Pattern came from examining assessment results for the 14 top-ranked firefighters. Next, the department applied this pattern to all 24 firefighters, and noted an overall percent match for each one. They selected 80 percent to represent a good match to the Job Match Pattern; this means that a score of 80 percent or greater should identify a top performer. Results
Of the 24 performers: - Eleven of the 14 top-ranked firefighters, or 79 percent of them, scored 80 percent or higher on the Job Match.
- Two of 10 not identified as top performers scored 80 percent or higher on the Job Match, for a selection rate of 20 percent. Looked at another way, eight of these 10 did NOT score at the Job Match percentage.
Summary With 79 percent of top performers and 20 percent of less-than-top performers meeting the Job Match score of 80 percent or higher, the department learned how PXT™ can fit hand-in-hand with the initial selection of firefighters. These ratios reflect the power of the pattern developed for this organisation to select top candidates, and demonstrate that the fire and rescue department would overlook few potential high performers when using the matching process properly.
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