IMPROVISING VIA VOCATIONAL ASSESSMENTS
Small businesses that earn less than three million can be the hardest hit in a recession and/or inflation, but if you’ve been paying close attention, they always seem to manage and eventually pull themselves back into the race, it just may take them a little longer. What makes them thrive so often in adverse times is because they have learned every intricate part of who their staffers are and what they can or cannot do. Remember those mom and pop stores which lasted 25+ and then passed it onto their children and grandchildren. What did they do right?
More often than not, the ones at the time of the food chain in big infostructures/corporations don’t know much about their workers. Their hiring practice may be through advertising with online job sites or having an HR Department do most of the hiring and you know how that goes: resumes are received and reviewed, they do a quick 30 minute interview and then a decision is made. You might even administer a couple of short tests just to make sure the applicant is familiar with certain applications/programs. Unfortunately, this method never entirely provides an employer with everything they should know about their new applicant including all of their unrevealed skills assets or liabilities. . I call this “assembly-line hiring”.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but anyone can exaggerate their capabilities or hide inadequacies. If they’re really good at selling, watch out because they can easily sell a tree to someone who lives in a forest, if you get my drift. The question is, do you have a complete picture of who you’ve hired, skills, talents, attributes, and all they have to offer? If not, it’s like having money in a vault, but you don’t know the combination.
When a company hits a downturn guess who’s the first ones to be let go? How do you know you’re not getting rid of a valuable commodity? If you don’t find out, it’s like “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”.
Here’s what Lack of knowledge can do to a Business
■ Pay out are more than necessary in wage/salary.
■ Become dependent on certain employee(s) and fail to see other staffer’s skills that can
produce faster and better for far less.
■Hire more than what’s need to get the work done, basically paying out double or triple.
■Job responsibilities overlap and/or one employee is compensating for another’s inadequacies.
■Cutting back too soon and eliminating position that you will have to rehire for, and this is costly/.
■In an attempt to save money your cut backs has caused one or more employees to be overworked and
the quality of goods and services suffers.
■Underutilizing qualified employees who have stronger skilled levels but are misplaced in other roles.
TRUE STORIES
♦How did this young man’s skills get overlook?
♦How did the other two employee’s shortcomings go unnoticed?
An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure
Know your staff inside and out. You just may have a “diamond in the rough”.
EXAMPLE OF IMPROVISING Vs. EXPENDING OR DOWNSIZING
Christine is quite personable, has strong people skills and is a high producer when it comes to making sales and building relationships with customers. They love her and she’s great at knowing how to get new commitments and repeat business. However, Christine had a lot of problems with record keeping, and reporting. Her spreadsheet had ripples of inconsistencies which always throws off the entire reporting system. Her supervisors where constantly having to pull away from what they’re doing to try and fix her problems. Yet she continued to make the same mistakes which was getting to be very costly. Management was at a crossroads as they anticipated terminating her employment, but she was a high producer and the best customer service representative on board. Letting her go could be disastrous and could mean losing primary accounts.
Assessment Review: I was hired to conduct individual and group assessment in Christine’s CS department and a couple others. After meeting with Christine and conducting a few assessments, it was determine she has certain deficits which affects her performance capabilities. Christine gets easily confused with numbers and with written communication. The assessments also revealed a learning disability, possibly dyslexia. Basically, it wouldn’t have mattered how many times her supervisors met with her to train and correct her mistakes. Christine will always experience problems with written communication and math composition because of her learning disability.
Recommended Solution: Since Christine is a high CS producer, she definitely needs to remain with the company and in that role, but be allowed to work closely with a clerical support person who will assist in recording and reporting her documentation. A clerical support person will devote 10 hours per week with Christine to upload data, edit and correct any reporting before it goes out, which is about the same amount of time it should normally take for a CS employee in that position. The clerical support person I suggested had strong utilizing skills with spreadsheets and knows how to get reporting done timely. The trade-off was that Christine be allowed to (improvise) substitute these 10 hours toward making sell calls for new and repeat customers. The extra time Christine devotes to customer service will allow her to bring in more business; thus, maximizing her skills where the company benefits the most.
Results: The company ended up with a much stronger customer base than before; increasing their monthly revenue by another 5% in less than two months by simply having Christine focus solely on her highest and best skills.
SUMMARY: Before you start spending more money or terminate to prevent losses, take an internal audit of your assets (staff).
ASSESSMENT & TESTING/TRAINING INSTRUMENTS
►Critical Thinking Assessment
An assessment of one’s ability to think critically in a known and important roles for various professional occupations, particularly those where careful, analytical thinking is required for the job.
►Problem Solving Appraisal
Evaluation of problem solving and decision making potential in and around executive/management roles and professional areas which these traits and skills are in demand.
►Logistical Processing Profile
Assessing the employee’s Interrelationships within the company and Customer/Client Relationships
►Motivation and Skill Assessment and Inventory
A collective assessment measuring competency levels as it relates to motivation and skills to meet crucial requirements in a wide range of occupational categories
►Personality Profile
Identifies dimensions of personalities to determine one’s personal career choice fits within the scope of their career choice, lifestyle, and relationship factors.
We help to build and maximize your staff for optimum growth. For more information about contracting services reach out to Amy Campbell on LinkedInor email Globalassesst@gmail.com
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