InnerActive Consulting – Insights » Hiring, Selection and Retention

Managing Employee Retention with On-Boarding and Training

How Assessment Results Boost Retention and Increase Performance

Managing employee retention is one of the biggest challenges many companies face. With so many employee retention strategies out there, it is often difficult to determine which one will work for you, your company and more importantly, your employee. The good news is, improving employee retention doesn’t have to bee as hard as you might think, but it must be something that is a concern from day one, not when you start to feel an employee slipping away.

When you consider the employment cycle from beginning to end, it is apparent that training and on-boarding is the most crucial aspect of retention. A company can hire the best candidate who is destined for success, but it is up to the employer to give them the training, attention and motivation it takes to build a dedicated superior performer. Without it, the employee is not likely to build a strong connection with their new employer and will quickly feel under-appreciated, unimportant and simply lost in the shadows of the organization. Continue reading ‘Managing Employee Retention with On-Boarding and Training’ »

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Posted by J Block on February 9, 2009 at 5:17 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention.
Tags: assessments, employee retention
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Retaining the Right Talent to Reach the Next Level

In today’s economy, every business executive, owner, CEO and president should be asking themselves one important question:

“Do I have the talent to take this business to the next level?”

If the answer is no, you probably want to begin looking, but if the answer is yes, then employee retention should be at the top of your list. With employee retention statistics that prove your best employees may be sitting on your payroll while patiently waiting for the “right” job, you need to be sure that you are managing employee retention with specific individuals in mind and long-term goals in place.

Employees Are Not All A Like. A good manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of their employees, but do they know what motivates them? In employee retention studies, TTI has found that money is NOT the reason most employees leave a job, which seems contrary to popular belief. In our latest study of over 19,000 job seekers, only 19% said money was the reason they were looking for a new job. Instead, more popular reasons included stress, mismanagement, lack of room for advancement and lack of employee development. Continue reading ‘Retaining the Right Talent to Reach the Next Level’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on December 29, 2008 at 12:45 pm under Hiring, Selection and Retention.
Tags: high performance sales teams, hiring, Selection and Retention
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Is Your Sales Team an “A” Team?

During these economic times, revenue generation and growth have become the number one topic in corporate offices. A better question to be asking now is – Do We Have an “A” Level Sales Team? Assuming that you have an “A” team, then sales growth and sustainable revenue levels should be a given. A Sales Team loaded with “A” players knows how to win.

So how do Sales Executives know that they have “A” players on the team? Well, first they can sell during good and bad times. They are students of selling and are at the front of the line for sales training – product and technique based learning. And, they have an inner drive – sometimes referred to as a winner’s edge – that gives them the persistence and ability to pursue business in the face of adversity. Also, adversity does not slow these winners – it challenges them to become more creative and find new advantages to use to secure business. Continue reading ‘Is Your Sales Team an “A” Team?’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on December 11, 2008 at 6:35 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention, Sales.
Tags: high performance sales teams, Hiring sales winners, selection tips
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Let the Job Talk in the Hiring Process

How offer are you hiring people without truly understanding the REQUIREMENTS for SUCCESS of job? The most common tool used in the hiring process is the job description followed closely by the Behavioral Interview Question sheet. Yet, do both of these tools have a direct connection to the actual job position?

My experience assisting clients in the hiring and selection process shows a lack of direct connection between the tools and the job. How can this be? Simple. The job description is based upon activities and task to be done according to some formula used by human resources and a department manager. Usually, outcomes and specific performance traits needed in the job are overlooked. Even the behavioral interview questions are based upon some universal “good” or common value system for the organization that again misses the target of the specific traits needed for a job to perform at high levels.

So how can this function be improved? Let the job talk using a “Job Performance Benchmark.” This type of benchmark will identify the traits necessary for success and pinpoints the priorities needed for high levels of performance. It even provides a list of behavioral based questions to ask candidates relative to these performance based elements of the job.

How simple can that be? Continue reading ‘Let the Job Talk in the Hiring Process’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on December 10, 2008 at 6:03 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention.
Tags: high performance, hiring and selection, hiring people, hiring systems and processes, job benchmarking
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What is Human Potential?

A few years a good client and friend posed an interesting question to me – What is Human Potential? He stated that he had been hearing this term for years and was truly troubled by his lack of a good answer. We began a dialogue and more questions than answers about the concept of human potential – What does it mean? How do you measure it? How do you know if someone has potential? How can you tell if someone has used up all their potential? What is Maximum Potential? These questions opened our minds to real issues facing managers concerning both hiring/selection of talent and how to develop your existing talent.

So back to the original question – What is Human Potential? I believe that the answer lies within the total capabilities a person possesses and how easy is it for a person to tap into this “reservoir of talent” within. This is both the answer and the problem. How do we know that someone possesses capabilities? And how do we know if they are capable of tapping into their talent potential?

To uncover human talent potential, assessments become a primary tool for tool for showing this information. There are several tools or assessments on the market that show a person’s behavior, personality and motivators. There is only one to my knowledge that uncovers potential. We use this assessment to uncover the both the potential a person possesses and how well they are using it today.

This tool gives us an accurate idea of the cognitive potential and where the individual places emphasis regarding thought and decisions. It tells us things about an individuals approach to People, Processes and Systems. It farther separate the outward or external thoughts from the inward or internal thoughts.

Using this information we can determine how well a person developed balance of thought – the ultimate good thing regarding leadership. It also covers the source of how an individual receives mental value and what it means to their performance. It has also uncovered situations where a person could be unstable in their thoughts and actions. A disaster waiting to happen if you please! The key is not have the disaster happen on your watch.

Most importantly, this assessment tool uncovers the truly high performer. The one that will take the organization to the next level of performance. When the high performer is identified, you have the ability to insure an environment that releases this energy into the organization. The only limiting factor for these people is an environment that refuses to allow high performers to excel. Micro management or restrictions (usually due to fear) placed upon high performers does not work – unless your goal is to run the high performer away from the organization. True high performers look for organizations that allow them to excel and use their strengths to win the competitive advantages that excellent talent begins to the table.

If you have a question or comment about this article, write a comment for this post. Just click on the Make a Comment button and let us know your thoughts. Also, if you want to learn more about this assessment, call us at 901-757-4434.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 3, 2008 at 11:52 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention, Using Assessments.
Tags: assessments, hiring and selection, Leadership, Personal Development, Using Assessments
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Getting Smart with Performance Appraisals

The process of performance appraisals appears to be one of the most hated (strong term I know) processes used in corporate cicles today. Executives and Managers do not like the results or the time taken to actually do a performance evaluation. Employees feel that most of the time the system used is short changing their value to the organization. In some cases employees feel that the appraisal is just plain wrong!

So what happened to this process that made it such a negative discussion point? I believe there are three points that have created this negative influence.

First, the performance evaluation process was linked to the pay system and has become a tool for managers to justify raises or no raises. This element combined with the infamous “bell curve” that forces a certain percentage of “poor” performers – even if a manager or department has learned the fine art of hiring high performers. This combination of factors alone create the most significant negative influence for the process. Continue reading ‘Getting Smart with Performance Appraisals’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on October 15, 2008 at 7:29 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention, Leadership, Personal Development.
Tags: performance appraisals, standards of performance
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Using Assessments in the Hiring and Selection Process

Many people ask me why they should use assessments – primarily in their hiring process. Many believe that the only tool necessary is the behavioral question model and hiring will be great. My response to these people is that the behavioral question model is an excellent tool and I encourage its use in the selection process.

However, just as assessments are not the only tool you should or can use in the selection process, behavioral questions are not the only tool to use either. Why? Because one tool will only give you one part of the result – not necessarily the right result.

Okay, let me explain why only using the behavioral questioning model is a possible mistake. There are three primary reasons for caution if only using behavioral questions. Continue reading ‘Using Assessments in the Hiring and Selection Process’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on October 9, 2008 at 8:28 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention, Using Assessments.
Tags: assessment process, assessments, behavioral questions, hiring, hiring people, selection process
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Archive for the ‘Hiring, Selection and Retention’ Category

Managing Employee Retention with On-Boarding and Training

Retaining the Right Talent to Reach the Next Level

Is Your Sales Team an “A” Team?

Let the Job Talk in the Hiring Process

What is Human Potential?

Getting Smart with Performance Appraisals

Using Assessments in the Hiring and Selection Process

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