Hiring: Hunch Based versus Computer Modeling

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal ( Sept. 20th, 2012 article link is below), talks about how algorithms and computer modeling are now used to hire personnel. It does not mention interviews and validation of assessment (or test) results which are critical components to a final job offer and/or promotion, and implies that resumes, education and experience are not considered or not weighted very heavily.

Algorithms Run the Workplace - Companies Trade In Hunch-Based Hiring for Computer Modeling

The companies that we worked with, many of them large BPO/Call Center companies, as well as the training we conducted, emphasized the importance of assessments in better defining "job fit" through Benchmarking, which has been proven over many years to significantly increase employee retention and heightened job performance. However, equally important is observing the distortion value (a measure of how consistently a candidate answers the questions during the assessment/test) and validating the results by asking Behavior Event Interview (BEI) questions and conducting background checks!

The reason for using assessments is to consistently evaluate candidates in a time-sensitive manner, and in an unbiased way. This is critical as it has been proven that people decide on a candidate within the first 4.3 minutes of an interview, which means that the interviewer is strictly going by "gut" instinct unless he/she is well trained to overlook first impressions.

Most of the large BPO/Call Center companies generally desire to test, interview and make a job offer within 8-10 hours. The reason, especially at the height of mass hiring and new client ramp-ups, is to quickly identify good candidates, make an offer, and get an acceptance within one day, so that these candidates are not lost to other companies. These methods are employed by many industries, large and small and who may not be needing to meet such strict time requirements.

Good assessments should take into account: Learning Index (IQ), Behavioral Index (EQ) and Areas of Interest that the candidate has. If there is good alignment with the position and the company, this good "job fit" will greatly enhance success, both for the candidate and the hiring company.

ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) are used to manage large numbers of applicants, help identify those who do not meet the minimum requirements and filter them out, while keeping track of those who move on through the hiring process, and also help prevent the same candidate from applying multiple times within a given time frame to the same company for multiple positions.

In the above article there is mention about commuting time being a criteria. However, especially for overseas operations, many times candidates learn of this "select-out" criteria, and merely list a relative's address that is nearby the facility. An interview and especially a background check will quickly help to identify if the candidate does indeed live within the prescribed radius of work.

A couple of scenarios which are used are:

So, while assessments are excellent in evaluating candidates, they should only be weighted at 1/3 of the total value in the hiring process, as validation of the results through a BEI interviews and good background checks, are critical.

Are you following these key principles?

Another Customer Service Issue for Samsung? Is it Endemic?

In my earlier blog, a recent experience with Samsung in the Philippines was highlighted. In fact, after several months in the Philippines, I never received an e-mail or text message from them about the status of the product of interest. To my knowledge the Galaxy Y Pro, Duo Sim has still not been launched there or in the US.

In a recent article in the New York Times, another poor to no Customer Service experience was high lighted (attached below as well as the link). Maybe, this is a more endemic problem going back to the culture of the company? It seems to go deeper than just to one or two people.

If you do a Google search, the two top sites to check out about Samsung customer service brings up:

Samsung Customer Service - Customer Service Score Board

In this survey (the above link) they ranked #344 out of 555 companies. Pretty poor to say the least.

The second site was Amazon's and it appears to be even worse. Many of these issues, at Amazon, were concerning Large Screen TV's and customer service related to them.

Amazon's Customer Service Discussions = HORRIBLE

Sadly, it seems that Samsung has a lot of work to address in the Customer Service area. This sure will not help their new product launches, or the recent court ruling between Apple and Samsung Jury Court Case in San Jose, CA where they were fined $ 1.05 Billion (Apple did not violate any Samsung patents). Apple Wins Big in Patent Case

It seems that they are lacking training, and core values that support a culture of good Customer Service.

While the stock price has doubled in a year and a half, the question is how much more growth could they have realized without these negative customer service (CS) reports. In the Amazon Discussions (link is above) there were a number of references to people not buying a Samsung product or being aware of the problems and "hoping" that they were "lucky" not to have problems that would necessitate the need to contact customer service. If this trend continues in CS, then the stock price and valuation, and their sales may have more than a few rough spots in the coming months and years.

The Haggler

A Printer Freezes Up, and the Maker Does, Too

By DAVID SEGAL

Published: August 18, 2012

Christoph Hitz

Q. In September 2010, I bought a Samsung all-in-one laser printer. It performed well until early 2012, when Samsung changed something in its toner cartridges. The cartridges have the same name and product number, but they no longer work with my printer. I realized this after buying and returning several Samsung-brand toner cartridges, all of which produced paper-feed and other problems.

I called Samsung support, and a rep told me that I could not use the new cartridges, and that, because my printer was beyond the one-year warranty period, a technician would have to come to my office, at my expense, to update the printer’s firmware. The charge for that visit, I was told, would probably cost as much as a new printer. In other words, Samsung made a change, without telling me or other customers about the change, that instantly made a relatively new printer obsolete and basically unusable.

Just as a comparison, the printer that was replaced by the Samsung was a Hewlett-Packard laser printer that I bought in 1995 that finally gave up the ghost after 15 years of use and many, many toner cartridges.

This seems like a case of planned obsolescence designed to enrich Samsung, does it not? Jon Showstack

Kentfield, Calif.

A. Let us stipulate at the outset that this is a strange case. The strange part is that Mr. Showstack unquestionably has the problem he describes — as we will later see, Samsung sends out a technician and confirms as much. But if the company actually manufactured lots of cartridges that did not work with printers of such recent vintage, you would expect a lot of noise on the Internet’s many complaint Web sites.

Instead, there is a little bit of noise, on sites like CNet. Not exactly an outpouring of rage.

When the Haggler wrote to Samsung, a woman named Rachel Quinlan, who works for the public relations firm Weber Shandwick, sent an e-mail that she said should be attributed to a “spokesperson” for the company. She declined to name that person.

Really? A spokesperson — a person who speaks for a living — who wants to be anonymous? Not only does this sound ridiculous, it also makes Samsung seem tin-eared. Actually, that is unfair to tin, which is far more supple than Samsung is in this circumstance. What consumers and the Haggler want when products break is some sense that human beings are trying to fix them. (Note to corporations: the anonymous spokesman is a dreadful idea.)

“We are sorry to hear of the problem described by Mr. Showstack and have investigated his concerns,” the person wrote. “Samsung printers work with all cartridges except counterfeit or gray market cartridges. To the best of our knowledge, the problem described by Mr. Showstack is an anomaly; and we have received no similar complaints from other customers on the referenced model. We have since spoken to Mr. Showstack and offered a courtesy on-site repair, which he has accepted.”

The part about counterfeit and gray market cartridges strongly implies that the problem here might be Mr. Showstack’s reliance on non-Samsung cartridges. But Mr. Showstack sent photographs of the cartridges and the boxes they came in, and they sure look like Samsung’s own. The Haggler forwarded those photos to Ms. Quinlan. She did not comment. Nor did the anonymous spokesperson.

As promised, Samsung sent a technician to Mr. Showstack’s office. It did not go well. The printer did not work with a new cartridge brought by the technician.

Ms. Quinlan then sent another e-mail from the anonymous spokesperson repeating that Mr. Showstack’s issue appeared to be an anomaly. And further: “Nothing indicates that there is a general compatibility problem with this printer model and replacement cartridges. Mr. Showstack has accepted our offer of an exchange unit so that we can bring his printer and cartridge to our labs and conduct tests to investigate the problem.”

The Haggler detects a lawyerly quality to the wording here. By saying that there is no reason to think there is a compatibility problem with this printer model and new cartridges, an obvious question is raised: What about other models?

Further, in trying to look into the problem himself, Mr. Showstack says he heard that Samsung had printed an internal bulletin stating that there is indeed a compatibility problem with the printer and cartridges he’s been using.

So the Haggler wrote to Ms. Quinlan: What about other models of Samsung printers? Do they have a compatibility problem? And is it true that Samsung has published an internal bulletin on this subject, suggesting that this is a known problem?

Here is Ms. Quinlan’s response, in its entirety: “We have no further information to share.”

Signoffs don’t get more Nixonian, do they? A technician did return to Mr. Showstack’s office and traded his faulty printer for a new one. The Haggler applauds that move, but was confounded a few days later when Ms. Quinlan wrote to say that Samsung’s tests had found that the root of Mr. Showstack’s problem was a faulty cartridge. Huh? A bunch of different cartridges had failed, not just one. 

When the Haggler said how nonsensical this explanation was, Ms. Quinlan replied with this: “At this point we have nothing more to share.” 

Less than illuminating, to say the least. But a fitting end to Samsung’s ham-handed approach to public relations. 

A Printer Freezes Up And the Maker Does, Too 

BPO Attrition/Turnover 20-60%, Retention Initiatives and Recruiting Issues

A Behavioral Event Interviewing 2-Day Workshop which I held, conflicted with attending a CEO forum where the President of Asia Pacific, Mr. David Rizzo of TelePerformance, spoke. An article was written about the gist of his presentation which is at the end of this article.

It raises some troubling issues about the Outsourcing Industry and hiring in particular, and brings out a few questions about the industry and indirectly some of the same issues for other industries, assuming that the article accurately reflected his presentation.

He addresses the need to focus on retention initiatives while continuing to grow! Very commendable.

It is still surprising that he reports that retention rates range from 40-80 percent after at least 6-8 years of high growth in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines. This means that attrition/turnover is the reciprocal, amounting to: 20-60%. The period of time covered was not reported. But, in the past, about 3 years ago, BPA/P ( The Philippine association for BPO's) had reported turnover from 20-100 percent per year, and that many times half of these numbers were due to people leaving and the other half, people being "asked to leave." Therefore, there has been some improvement (dropping the 100% turnover down to 80%), but not great.

Mr. Rizzo mentions the reasons for the present turnover is due to several reasons:
1) Overnight hours which people are not used to working,
2) Stress caused by customers who may be too challenging to handle because they are angry,
3) Employees find the work too technical,
and
4)  the Company is unable to meet the employee's expectations.

This is amazing given today's technology and methods for Pre-hiring:

Issue #1) Overnight hours which people are not used to working: there are video introductions that can help to address this issue and can be used as "knockouts"  to prevent further interviewing and hiring these kinds of people. Granted, recent graduates and some people may not know if they handle the hours, but it is likely that most know their limitations or the candidates can talk with someone they know in the industry. Also hiring people who have already worked in the industry, these people will know if they can handle the hours.

Issue #2) Stress caused by the customers: many companies use videos to simulate real-life situations and also tests, both verbal reply and written, to find out how a candidate will handle this kind of angry customer. Again these are "knockout" issues before going any further in the pre-hire process and give the candidate a good view about what the position will entail, as well as, if the candidate will like or want to work there.

Issue #3) Employees find the work too technical: there are many skill tests to find out what the candidate may know or at the very least by using assessments, if they have technical capabilities and interests.

Issue #4) The Company is unable to meet the employee's expectations: It would be helpful to better understand exactly what kind of expectations are not being met, since this article is not specific. Once the expectations are known(as they probably vary by company), these can be covered up-front in the Pre-Hire process.

Most of these issues can be uncovered or addressed through good programs of: application and ATS(Applicant Tracking Systems), assessment and skill testing, Behavioral and Critical Incident Interviewing and good benchmarking around each job, based on top performers. These steps will help to "weed out" those that will not make it longer term, all of which should significantly help in reducing turnover, especially in the ranges mentioned as being 20-60 percent.

In past years, the BPO industry identified that one of the major problems they had was not identifying leadership in their pre-hiring process, as there was a gap between hiring good agents and their being able to handle the front-line position. Now, many times companies try to identify 10% of their incoming candidates who also have a good job fit with the front-line manager benchmark also. This process allows them to develop succession planning and training for the next level potential managers early on in the employees' career and development. [Benchmarking around top and bottom performers, can be done and takes a matter of minutes, with the right tool.]

Obviously, good "on-boarding programs" can also help to address these issues by providing a good introduction to the company and the specific requirements of the job, so that new hirees can "opt out" on their own early, saving the company training costs and more investments that will happen in the ensuing months.

Lastly, Mr. Rizzo made the statement: “We are not going to let price pressures get in the way of investing in our people. After all, happy employees translate to happy customers”. This is true to a point, especially in growing "employee engagement." But the reality also arises, in that incurring too many costs CAN affect your competitiveness globally! Hiring Right is probably be the best solution, while providing facilities and benefits, are more like the icing on the cake.

It is hoped that the industry can really address these unsupportable turnover/attrition rates, because these rates lead to extremely high costs. When you consider the rule of thumb that turnover costs run from 3 months to 2.5 years worth of a person's salary, is the company sustainable long-term?

Only time will tell!

Contact center firms urged to invest more
By Louella D. Desiderio (The Philippine Star) Updated March 17, 2012

MANILA, Philippines - Contact centers in the country will have to invest more in programs focused on their employees to encourage them to stay in the company and provide better service to customers, a top executive of a contact center service provider said.

Speaking at the Asia CEO Forum held on Thursday, David Rizzo, president for Asia Pacific of Teleperformance said that investing in retention activities need to be done by contact center firms that intend to continue to grow their business given the number of employees choosing to leave the industry and the high competition among firms in finding workers.

 “It is very critical to focus on retention initiatives to ensure not having to replace the employment pool while growing at the same time,” he said.

He said that employees in contact centers leave for reasons often related to the job.
He cited that some employees opt to leave the business due to the overnight work hours which they may not be used to or the stress caused by customers who may be challenging to handle.
He said that customers who receive an incorrect bill, for instance, may be hard to deal with particularly when they start complaining and taking their anger on the call center agent.
Some employees, he also said, leave the job because they find the work too technical or unable to meet their expectations.

He noted that in the industry, the employee retention rate ranges from 40 to 80 percent.

Given the limited supply of talent available in the market and the high competition among contact center firms for supply of workers, he said, investing in programs that keep employees satisfied with their job becomes even more important.

He said that contact center firms can for instance, provide spaces for recreation in the workplace such as gym, sports facilities and karaoke rooms, which their employees can use.
Contact center firms, he also said, can offer employees who cannot work overnight a daytime shift.
Career management programs, he said, may also be developed by contact centers for their employees.
He said that while investing more in employee-engagement programs may mean additional costs for the company, it is expected to yield results favorable to the company since its workforce is its main asset.

 “We are not going to let price pressures get in the way of investing in our people. After all, happy employees translate to happy customers,” he said.

Contact Center Firms Urged to Invest More - by Louella Desiderio 

CEO Survey Says that in the Next 3-5 Years, Talent Shortages, Limited Skilled Candidates are Major Impediments to Growth in Asia Pacific

In a recent Summit held for CEO's, specifically concerning Asia Pacific Economies (APEC), the results from 320 Industry Leaders who participated in the PwC survey, were revealing and in many ways consistent with earlier postings.

"Talent Shortages" was ranked 2nd in barriers to growth, however it is THE one area that can be tackled by corporations compared to the number 1 barrier(s) identified. The number 1 barriers to growth were: "Corruption" and "Inconsistent Regulations across the Region"(these barriers are beyond the ability of a corporation to effectively address).

The 2 major identified challenges to having the right talent in place are: "Competitors recruiting our best people" AND "Limited supply of skilled candidates." These were followed by: "Difficulty in deploying experienced talent globally" AND "Difficulty recruiting and retaining employees under the age of 30." "High Staff Turnover" in Fast Growing Economies will also be a major challenge that will need to be addressed.

In Mature Economies in Asia, a very major issue is: "Retirement of a significant portion
of the workforce." While not addressed in this survey, this also applies to North America (US and Canada) and Europe, with our aging and low growth populations.

So from this survey, it seems apparent that hiring those with good "job fit" to reduce turnover and increase retention, while also providing training to upgrade Leadership/Management skills in preparation for growth, will be critical. Long these lines, succession planning and strategic planning need to be exercised, expertly.

So how is your company positioned in addressing these issues? Have you planned for them and are contingencies developed?

A link to the entire study is: The 21st century workforce. Re-envisioned. Key findings from the APEC CEO Survey

Talent and Skills Shortages Number One Risk in Asia Pacific and 4 Other Risks

In the earlier post about Corporate Risks ( Global Risks to Consider and Recent Analysis by Lloyd's- Has Your Company Considered These? ) that need to be considered. It was identified that Lloyd's had ranked these Global Risks, but they also identified Regional Risks. The  image below came from the report that they assembled for 2011. It is very interesting that Talent and Skills is the Number One Risk for Asia Pacific, given the unemployment rate and educational levels in the region and the flood of youth coming up.

So, CEOs and Senior Managers need to seriously consider this, not only if they are planning to expand in the region, but also if new entries (start-ups) are being planned. It will require expert Succession Planning and Strategic Planning efforts to address this risk issue and the others identified, as well as Coaching, Mentoring, Training and Team Development for key corporate members to help fill this gap.

The BPO industry in the Philippines, identified several years ago, that while the industry could do a good job of hiring and filling entry level positions, when they promoted effective call agents, for example, these people did not have the managerial skills to handle a "Front-Line Manager" position. In many instances they were promoted to their level of "incompetence." So the bottle-neck to growth was not having identified and trained potential new managers soon enough to handle the high influx of new candidates for entry level positions.

Consequently, they changed their processes in Pre-Hire to identify 5-10% of the people considered for the entry level position(s), who had the right IQ and EQ to fit into their organizations, and who had good "job fit" with the Benchmarks/Job Pattern /Performance Modeling for not only the entry level position (significantly reducing turnover), but also for the Front-Line Manager position. They would "mark/follow" these people by observation and possible early training to assume the higher level position. This experience was possibly the early warning signs that Lloyd's seems to be now reflecting in their study, now.

For the Asia Pacific Region, Lloyd's identified the following 5 areas of major risks to be considered or addressed:
    1) Talent and Skills shortages
    2) Currency fluctuations
    3) Inflation
    4) Loss of Customers/Cancelled Orders
    5) Company Reputation Risk

As also highlighted in the area: CEO, Senior Manager, Leadership, Strategic Planning and Charisma , it is essential that CEOs, Senior Managers, and Corporate HR Managers identify at least 3-5% potential Leaders within each level of the organization (bench strength) in order to help address sustainability for the corporation. Without bench strength, just like for a sports team, while the top players are available and not injured, the team does well; but without the organizational depth and strength, it can result in high fluctuations in corporate performance over time.

The question remains: How Well Positioned Is Your Company for the Upcoming Forecasted Risks within the Region - Presently and for the ensuing 5-10 years? The future and investments are yours to make to position the company for growth and profitability! To ignore these risks could be at the peril of the corporation and organization.


Risks - Then and now: what has changed?

"Gamification" - Mixing Work and Play?

A recent article in the WSJ talks about introducing "gamification" into the workplace. This could be interesting and effective, but like anything in the corporate world, it needs to be applied properly and uniformly. Otherwise, it can be misused and communicate the wrong message into the company, create friction internally, or deliver the wrong result(s).

In the early years of KPA/KRA's many times the metrics used resulted in a counter-productive results. It is suspected that they are still being misapplied.

So it is suggested that care be used in this possibly interesting process. On the surface, this technique should help to gain "engagement", and build stronger and more cohesive Teams. It might be used more with Front Line and entry level positions. It doubtful if this will significantly affect long-term motivation and retention. Training in it's proper use and establishment of standards might be needed.

It's beginning to seem that people need to be constantly entertained to be engaged, both in our education systems and now at work. While it may be that this is the case, what happens to those companies and people who can't marshal the skills and techniques? It is doubtful that everyone will want "gamification" applied to everything in their lives.

This technique can possibly lead to "burnout", as many sports professionals, in particular, find out. Being on too high a "charge," for too long, may not be life healthy. There is a need for work/life balance. A time to refresh/recharge and have some "downtime."

In order to speed the reader's time, the article is pasted below for your review with a link at the end. It is up to the reader, CEO or senior manager, HR department and company, whether to pilot or employ this method or not.

Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play

By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN

Companies are trying to bring more play to the workday.
Striving to make everyday business tasks more engaging, a growing number of firms, including International Business Machines Corp. and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., are incorporating elements of videogames into the workplace.
They're deploying reward and competitive tactics commonly found in the gaming world to make tasks such as management training, data entry and brainstorming seem less like work. Employees receive points or badges for completing jobs or meeting time limits for assignments, for example. Companies also may use leaderboards, which let players view one another's scores, to encourage friendly competition and motivate performance, experts say.
This "gamification" of the workplace, or "enterprise gamification" in tech-industry parlance, is a fast-growing business. Companies have used digital games for a number of years to help market products to consumers and build brand loyalty. What's emerging is using games to motivate their own employees.

All Work and All Play

Examples of videogames in workplace management.

View Slideshow

Global consulting firm Deloitte employs digital games for its Deloitte Leadership Academy

Tech-industry research firm Gartner estimates that by 2014, some 70% of large companies will use the techniques for at least one business process. Market researcher M2 Research estimates revenue from gamification software, consulting and marketing will reach $938 million by 2014 from less than $100 million this year.
Some companies build their own games in-house. Others rely on outside firms such as San Jose, Calif.-based Bunchball Inc. and Menlo Park, Calif.-based Badgeville Inc. to "gamify" various business processes including employee training.
Business software company SAP AG employs a variety of games, including one modeled after a golf game that assigns sales leads and environmental challenges that award points for tasks like carpooling, says Mario Herger, senior innovation strategist, at SAP in Palo Alto, Calif.
SAP even turned its gamification efforts into a game, holding a series of "Gamification Cups" to generate ideas for turning various business processes into games. One recent winner turned the traditionally boring process of invoicing into a competition.
IBM uses a variety of game-like strategies throughout much of the company including video games in which users can help make a virtual city more efficient or simulate various business scenarios, says Chuck Hamilton, IBM's virtual learning leader.
With some 400,000 employees, roughly 40% of whom work from home or on the road, gaming is a way to help colleagues connect and stay engaged, explains Mr. Hamilton.
And global consulting firm Deloitte employs digital games for its Deloitte Leadership Academy, an executive education program it uses to train clients and its own consultants.
Users receive virtual badges after completing training courses and "unlock" more complex training courses when basic levels are completed, says Frank Farrall, a partner with Deloitte in Melbourne, Australia, where its gamification initiative began last year. He says that the tools are still too new to gauge their effectiveness, but that they seem to be catching on among consultants.
"The reason why gamification is so hot is that most people's jobs are really freaking boring," says Gabe Zichermann, organizer of the "Gamification Summit" conference held last month in New York.
So far, the tactic has proved effective. A study last year by Traci Sitzmann, an assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School found that employees trained on video games learned more factual information, attained a higher skill level and retained information longer than workers who learned in less interactive environments.
LiveOps Inc., which runs virtual call centers, uses gaming to help improve the performance of its 20,000 call agents—independent contractors located all over the U.S. Starting last year, the company began awarding agents with virtual badges and points for tasks such as keeping calls brief and closing sales. Leaderboards allow the agents to compare their achievements to others.
Since the gamification system was implemented, some agents have reduced call time by 15%, and sales have improved by between 8% and 12% among certain sales agents, says Sanjay Mathur, vice president of product management at LiveOps, Santa Clara, Calif.
Still, gaming experts say there are some pitfalls for companies when implementing games internally. Companies need to make sure that the games are designed to actually reward desired behaviors and are not just doling out meaningless awards or badges.
Firms also need to make sure that friendly competition doesn't get out of hand, fostering animosity among employees, says Byron Reeves, a professor of communication at Stanford University and a co-founder of Seriosity Inc., a firm that helps companies develop gaming strategies.
"Adding gamification to the workplace drives performance but it doesn't make up for bad management. If you are a bad manager, gamification won't help you," says Kris Duggan, chief executive of game-maker Badgeville.

Latest Game Theory: Mixing Work and Play - WSJ Oct. 10, 2011 

Sales Characteristics for Success that are innate?

A recent article by Dr. Croner, indicates that most high performance sales people possess the following 3 innate personality traits which only about 20% of Sales people have. They are:

Need for Achievement
Competitiveness
Optimism

Personally, from experience, most people possess these, so it is doubtful that they are innate!

In an earlier blog article that was written based on Harvard Research, it was identified that "Challengers" created the most effective sales people, and these techniques can be learned. Obviously, some people may be more comfortable with these techniques than others, but if a person is committed, they can "flex" into the needs of the position, and over time they become engrained in the individual and drives success.

Existing Sales People in your organization present the greatest challenge because you have already employed them and the question then remains how do you, or can you, elevate them to be more effective? But the advantage is you have more information about them based around Thinking, and Behavioral traits and Interests, than you may have for people you may be looking to recruit or hire.

For an existing sales force, can you identify what generates a passion or a significant need which can drive the Need for Achievement within a person? It may take some effort, but from experience, most of the time it can be found. Then the objective is tapping into this internal "need" that this person has and structuring a compensation/benefit plan around this (these) needs.

Competitiveness can be created on some level. However, it is critical that this is created in a supportive manner and environment. Humans naturally are competitive, just look at the world problems which seem to revolved around the need to be heard or recognized.

Optimism, can also be addressed or taught. There are many methods which can be employed to change how a person views change and challenges, from meditation to structured courses.

So the objective is with existing Sales people, how to motivate the engage them to the point of wanting to grow and become more effective and professional. It may take effort, coaching/mentoring and involves some training costs, but it can be achieved. It favorably impacts company morale.

For Pre-Hire/Recruiting, there are effective assessments/tests and interview techniques to evaluate candidates by helping to minimize hiring the wrong people initially.  Obviously, the benchmarks need to be created around your Top Performers. Once these are set-up, then an in-depth interview(s) can help enormously in identifying people who should be successful.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) can help in the process by "self-selecting" out people that will not have a good "job fit" based around initial knockout questions, and then around benchmarks/performance models. These ATS systems also need to be used to help identify effective marketing programs in attracting the best candidates not only initially, but those who will remain with your company(retention). These ATS systems can greatly save time and effort for your recruiting staff and generally can be easily cost justified around ROI's. This "tracking" information is critical for future hiring programs to attract the best talent.

The more tools and methodologies you use, the greater your success can be. Hire around "job fit" and you gain the slight edge in being a successful and sustainable organization!

Charisma can be Taught and Learned

In an earlier posting concerning a presentation I gave at the HR Training Congress in August, entitled:


Linking People, Strategy and Performance to Engagement and Training: "Revolutionary Research from Global Corporations"

Profiles International (PI) identified in new research in January 2011, and published in a book found on Amazon.com, entitled "Leadership Charisma", that Charisma, and Leadership Charisma in particular, is behavior based. Thus it is learn-able, can be coached, developed, and it can be trained. This is also supported and discussed by a recent article by Jessica Stillman entitled: "Charm 101: Charisma can be Taught". (The article can be found below).


PI's research was based on over 40,000 Managers and 400,000 employees world-wide, and it seems that more people and companies are becoming convinced of this fact, which before had only been debated without hard facts and research.

Why is Charisma important? Because Charismatic Leaders have been documented in numerous studies in the past, to have companies and teams that deliver even higher profitability and even more extraordinary products, than those with just good Leadership. This is accomplished through heightened "engagement".

Therefore, there is a cost benefit to hiring, or even more so now, developing and/or training managers to not only be good Leaders, but to become Charismatic Leaders. The ROI will easily justify training costs to develop Leadership Charisma in Managers!

So what are you and your HR team waiting for? Isn't it best to start now in developing even more effective Leaders especially grooming potential CEOs and Senior Executives? The choice is yours, but it is no longer a point to debate, but only a point to implement.

Charm 101: Charisma Can Be Taught

By Jessica Stillman

.

• Del.icio.us
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon

• Newsvine
• Yahoo bookmarks
• Mixx

• Digg
• Reddit
• Google Bookmarks

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

(MoneyWatch)  With the death of Steve Jobs, the media's attention has turned to his legacy as a business leader and his ability to inspire teams to create extraordinary products. The man, in short, may have been prickly but he was also extremely charismatic.

Where does that ability to spellbind others to your cause come from? His biographer plumbed Jobs' past for answers, but recently psychologists took a more hands-on approach to the origins of charisma, testing whether this elusive and valuable quality can be explicitly taught.

Turns out, the answer appears to be yes. Researchers out of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland decided to see if charisma boot camp would be effective, conducting 360-degree evaluations of 34 managers and then sending them to a three-month charisma training course where they learned what the researchers dubbed CLTs or charismatic leader tactics. These include verbal techniques such as:

• Framing through metaphor
• Stories and anecdotes
• Demonstrating moral conviction
• Sharing the sentiments of the collective
• Setting high expectations
• Communicating confidence
• Using rhetorical devices such as contrasts, lists, and rhetorical questions

Body language, facial expression and using an animated tone of voice were also covered. The results, recently published in The Academy of Management Learning and Education, show that these charisma classes worked. "Managers who underwent training saw their charisma ratings significantly grow, relative to those who didn't," according to reports in BPS Occupational Digest.

To double check the results, the researchers also asked 41 MBA students to give the same speech before and after undergoing charisma training. After learning to master their CLTs, the MBA candidates were rated more trustworthy, competent, influential, and moving when they gave their speech.

There are caveats for potential student of charisma. The researchers warn that a significant time commitment is need to improve charisma -- remember their course lasted three months, not a matter of hours. And it's also likely that when a student starts actively attempting to become more charismatic, their performance may get worse before it gets better as their attempts to appear charismatic often come off as stilted and stereotypical at first, leading to more laughs than loyalty.

Still, for the charisma challenged, the research shows that more traits that we think of as inborn are actually teachable. That's good news for those who need to be more charismatic to advance in their careers and perhaps also a call to action for others who have given up on gaining leadership skills because they thought they simply lacked the knack.