"Growing Your People Monthly" Newsletter

April 2010

Whether you are making decisions about adding to your team, realigning, planning for succession or reducing your workforce, these decisions are not made quickly. Do you know there are great tools available to help you make these critical business decisions? This is where personality and behavioral assessments really prove their value. As Jim Collins notes in Good to Great, "In determining 'the right people', the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience." Read on to learn about how the right roadmap can make the your human resource outcomes as successful as possible!

Be well,

Yvonne Kinney-Hockert
National Speaker, Business Consultant & Coach
Consulting Solutions, LLC.

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What's Your Roadmap to get the Right People in the Right Seats?

To build a top quality team around you, it is essential ...to assess whether you have the people in place who can enable the organization to reach its long-term goals. Bill George - Authentic Leadership

In the current business climate, many companies have been looking for ways to reduce expenses and cut costs. One of the greatest business costs comes from the hiring process, as it has been estimated that it costs about 1.5 times the annual salary to replace an employee. You want to make sure that the people you are hiring will not only stay, but, more importantly, bring value to your business - whether it's institutional knowledge, industry-specific talent, outstanding customer service, or adding client relationships.

In last month's newsletter we talked about the importance of proactively building and protecting reputation: "Character and values play into the making of a personal brand and ultimately the company brand, so do your homework and ensure that you know what your organization's values are and stay true to them in all aspects of your work." This is key in the hiring process because the employees you have and the people you want to bring into your company can add or detract from your brand, culture and values.

So you know hiring the right person is important - but how do you know what qualities to seek in order to complete your team? How do you define the "ideal" candidate? What characteristics make your star employees shine? What do you need to round out your team? (It's not about matching the personality or interests of the current leader, but balancing the need to add someone with varied skills that also fits into the culture of the organization and dynamics of the team.)

As a leader, you have the opportunity to ensure that these decisions are made in the best possible way. This is where personality and behavioral assessments prove their worth. The Jim Collins quote in the beginning reinforces this. When you are considering the various tools out there to make your hiring decisions, the Winslow Assessment Tool is an excellent choice.

The Winslow helps to identify both the factors that make your outstanding employees stand out, and whether job applicants have these key character attributes which will lead to higher probability of success in a given position within a given organization. Here's what our clients are saying: "It's the added confidence I need in the hiring process;" "In some cases it brings to light what we might not have picked up on in the interview as a critical component for the position;" It validates the resume, references and interview experience;" "It's detailed enough to add value."

Keep in mind that using a tool like the Winslow Assessment is not the "be-all, end-all," but it adds another dimension to your hiring process. By using an assessment tool along with the resume, interviews and references, you can shed light into key traits that provide a deeper understanding of how well the candidate will fit with your culture and needs. Tools like the Winslow Assessment are great for hiring, but next month we'll also explore their usefulness in setting up successful business partnerships.

Your Call To Action. . .