How Tests Can Predict Two Kinds of Performance
There’s a stereotype that extremely productive people don’t deliver the highest level of service and that people who pay extra attention to customers don’t produce the highest numbers. While this isn’t entirely true, we do know from our work with clients, especially in contact centers, that high quality is unrelated to productivity. You probably hire for jobs as well where there are more several important criteria, not all of which are correlated with each other. This becomes problematic when designing hiring processes for these jobs. Do you focus on one or the other in hiring and the other(s) during training? What are the impacts of this decision?
In some cases, employers will try to hire for one set of skills and try to train on another. The biggest problem with this approach is that pre-employment selection programs are generally less expensive and more effective than training, particularly if you are selecting based on traits, such as problem solving or personality. However, if one of the sets of skills is trainable (equipment or software operation), then it makes sense to hire for aptitude/personality and train for skills.
Hiring for multiple criteria can put extra strain on recruiting. Adding additional hurdles, especially when they are for unrelated attributes, will increase the number of people you need to recruit to fill positions. However, this saves the greater expense of trying to train something you can’t. After all of that, you will sometimes still need to go and fill the position if the hire is bad one. So, using the multiple hiring criteria is the best approach if you’re hiring for aptitude/personality.
If you’d like to learn more about using validated selection procedures, please contact Warren Bobrow.
Three Simple Tips for Reducing Information Overload
There is certainly no argument that we are bombarded with information at an alarming rate. Whether it’s 200 emails a day, TV, Radio, I-Pods, blogs, magazines, newspapers…we are inundated with data and ideas. It’s difficult to manage all of that data (and make the best use of it) unless you have some sort of system.
Otherwise, you are likely to suffer from information overload. Symptoms include: overflowing file folders, locked up email accounts, mile-long to-do-lists, and analysis paralysis (because you have too many good ideas to consider and don’t know where to start or are waiting for one more piece of data to help you decide which way to go) which prevents you from taking action.
Here are three simple tips to reduce information overload:
- Go on a data diet – unsubscribe and unplug for awhile (even for a few minutes every day)
- Focus on just-in-time information that you can use right now rather than accumulating data (just-in-case)
- Make a decision and then make course corrections as needed. Don’t spend too long pondering the options.
If you’d like to learn more about other productivity traps that sabotage your performance and profits, you can request a free recording of Kammy’s upcoming tele-seminar at Kammy@allaboutperformance.biz.