What to Do When Your Assessments Aren't Working

Is your assessment program working?Are you utilizing it in the correct manner?This article will provide you with an assessment program checklist that will help you determine its true effects on your business.Whether you're an executive, a manager or a team leader, the following information will be beneficial to you.

Is your assessment program working?Are you utilizing it in the correct manner?This article will provide you with an assessment program checklist that will help you determine its true effects on your business.Whether you're an executive, a manager or a team leader, the following information will be beneficial to you.

Recent conversations with assessment users and providers have indicated it is probably worthwhile to visit this issue.If your assessment program appears to be having less effect than you anticipated or no effect - or worse, a negative effect, it is time for a thorough checkup!

Here is a list of questions for your assessment program checkup:

Do you actually have a program?

Examine the process your business is using to administer and apply assessments.Are the procedures written, consistent and used as designed?

Are you using the assessment results to affect your decisions?

Too often, close examination of the usage of assessment information exposes a simple fact: Results are simply being ignored, underweighted or "explained away" by the people on the front lines of the decision process.

A simple analysis of a prescreening program, for example, will often reveal there is simply no significant difference in the assessment results of those hired and those not hired after assessment.(It's not being used!) In these cases, the front-line decision makers may well believe they are using the information and will often passionately defend the reasons for not using the assessment information in specific decisions.

Is each assessment being used appropriately?
In the Department of Labor's (DOL) Testing and Assessment: An Employer's Guide To Good Practices, this is a cardinal principle.Use assessments as they were designed to be used and for purposes tested in the validation process.

Are your outcome measures job-related, specific, measurable and repeatable?
The selection of outcome measures is critical to the success of your program.The less subjective your outcome measures, the more likely you will be to properly implement, adjust and maximize your program.

Beware of "fuzzy" measurements such as managers' opinions of effectiveness, self-scoring of variables like happiness and satisfaction and correlations with other variables with low or no established reliability of their own.

Are you using a "whole person" approach?
Referring to the DOL once more, this is a crucial question.Assessment programs are, at the most basic level, simply intended to provide information.Information, from any source, is subject to error.It is important to have information from a variety of reliable sources, and any single assessment's information should be combined with information from other sources to minimize error and increase the probability that a good decision will result.

Complete this checkup now and repeat it at regular intervals.

Designing and implementing an assessment program is a process, not a single action.Constant review, continuing measurement and an open mind are the hallmarks of an assessment program that works!

Assessment programs can be used to match people with the work they do.By measuring the essential factors that mark the difference between success and failure in specific jobs, your organization put the right person into every position, allowing them to utilize their talents without limitations.This leads to greater job satisfaction and improved morale because your organization is staffed with a workforce of people who are highly productive, skilled and committed to doing their very best.

By uncovering clues as to why some employees perform at extraordinary levels and some at only average levels, your business will be able to solve many organizational challenges.Assessment programs give you the power to reduce turnover, effectively promote the best employees, increase productivity, identify essential skill sets, improve communication, eliminate stress, create successful managers and develop new leaders.

About the Author

Jim Sirbasku is co-founder and CEO of Profiles International, a leading provider of human resource management solutions and employment assessments for businesses worldwide.

Learn more about how assessments can help your organization - visit our website.

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The Benefits of a Work at Home Business

Over the past few years, a lot of things have changed and one of the most noticeable changes is the increase in number of people who work from their home. The development in technology has helped a number of people to find different ways for earning decent amount of money.

As a result of the development of technology and Internet, a number of people work from their home. Some people run their business from their home whereas some people offer some services from their home. Apart from the decent income while enjoying the comforts of the home, there are a number of benefits associated with home-based businesses.

Set your own prices: While working at home, youre your own boss and you decide on your own whether its profitable to work on a particular project or not. You enjoy the flexibility to set your own price in order to earn decent amount of money for the efforts you put in. You get to decide whether a particular job is profitable or not. When you run your business from home, you determine the cost of the project in the first place and this is done by analyzing the efforts, skills and the time required for completing the project.

Once youve determined the price, you inform the other party about the cost of the project and you start with the project once the other party has accepted the price. By setting your own prices, you make sure that you dont get underpaid. As an employee working in some company, you dont enjoy the flexibility of determining the price of the project and at times, youre even asked to complete a task even if its not profitable. So, running home-based business offers an advantage of determining the cost to make sure you get the amount that you deserve.

Spend more time with family: Theres nothing better than spending time with family. While working as a salaried employee for an organization, youve to follow the office timings and when some important project comes up, youre even asked to do over-time. This decreases the amount of time spent with family. If you work from your home then you get to spend more time with your family as you dont need to follow the office timings.

You work as per your convenience and the flexible working hours allow you to spend more time with your family. While working from home, you enjoy the flexibility to adjust the working hours if your family needs attention whereas you dont enjoy the flexibility of adjusting the working hours while working as an employee for some organization.

Less stress: Another advantage of working at home is that an individual running home-based business faces less stress when compared to an individual working as a salaried employee for an organization. While working for an organization, youre asked to meet the strict deadlines, take on complex projects and to do so, you spend more hours in office without paying attention to food, entertainment, social life and this affects health. There have been a number of cases in the past in which the person was admitted to the hospital because of the burden of the office work. In home-based business, youre your own boss and you decide accordingly whether youve the time for a project or not.

Enjoy the profits: As an employee working for a company, youre asked to complete complex projects without any increase in the salary. Complex projects require advanced skills, experience and time and so, companies charge more for them. However, the incentive is usually not shared with the employees. In other words, individuals who complete the complex projects are usually not given any special incentive when compared to the individuals working on the simple projects.

So, usually you earn same amount of money whether you complete a complex project or a simple one. However, the situation is different in home-based business. As youre your own boss in the home-based business, you determine the price according to the complexity of the project and this way, you can make sure that you earn the amount of money that you deserve.


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If You Need to Get Something Done on Time, Ask a Busy Person to Help You

One of the first things that any business leader learns is that some people can accomplish a hundred times more than other people can. Assign a critical task to one of these highly productive people, and you will be most pleased with the timely results . . . no matter how busy the person is.

How do highly productive people do it They pay attention to the following principles of working with good discipline:

1. Structure work to make good use of the time available. That means if some of the required tasks take longer than others, they start those lengthy activities first. In addition, they schedule all tasks to be accomplished over the ideal length of time and completed in optimal order.

2. They only take on assignments for which they have enough time and resources to achieve good results and still meet the final deadline. Following this discipline usually means planning a project in some detail before agreeing to work on it.

3. They delegate whatever can be done acceptably by someone else so that the organization accomplishes more than it otherwise would. This means being aware of what other people in the organization are capable of doing and what they are working on.

4. They assign subtasks to outside specialists and organizations when such resources can add important value to the project results. This requires understanding the quality of work that can be done internally and externally within the necessary schedule.

5. They know which disciplines can add important benefits to an assignment. To choose the right disciplines requires a lot of continuing learning, experience with a variety of tasks, and an interest in making on-going improvements.

6. They keep asking if anything thats been started is no longer needed. They drop activities that are unimportant or which have proven to be inappropriate.

With so much to do before becoming highly effective, how do such busy people cram in all the efforts required to become so highly productive Its easy: They combine a never-ending thirst to learn with efficient resources for gathering new knowledge and insights while continually polishing and building on what they already know.

Dr. Oliver Hackl, a Doctor of Business Administration DBA graduate of Rushmore University, is a perfect example of this kind of superior orientation and ability. Lets look at his background and work history to help you see how he applied the six keys to success in becoming a world-class entrepreneur in his thirties who is equally comfortable doing business in Europe or New Zealand.

A native German, Dr. Hackls life took on a new seriousness at age nine when his father died. That untimely loss taught Dr. Hackl an important lesson: Live every day as though it might be your last. He acted on that insight by learning as much as he could and never leaving until tomorrow what could be done today.

Two years later his mother married a New Zealander. Dr. Hackl moved with her to the opposite side of the globe and began learning English from scratch. He enjoyed New Zealand and did well in school despite an initial language barrier.

Five years later his mother returned to Germany, and Dr. Hackl made another difficult adjustment. But he vowed to return to his newly beloved New Zealand.

After finishing secondary school in Germany, Dr. Hackl faced compulsory military training in the German Army. For financial reasons, he chose to spend 24 months in the military rather than the required 18 months. This decision meant learning a lot more, but Dr. Hackl likes to learn and was not concerned. He received valuable education in personnel administration and training and eventually served as a non-commissioned officer in roles where he was allowed a lot of latitude.

After the two-year army stint, he studied mechanical engineering while also spending some time learning about business administration, a field he enjoyed. Dr. Hackl next enlisted through a 14-year contract to become an officer in the German Air Force. Four rigorous years of study helped him complete officers training and earn a degree Diplom-Betriebswirt FH thats the German equivalent of an MBA from the University of the German Armed Forces, majoring in information and communication technology and business organization.

Having been fascinated by computers since he was 14, Dr. Hackl also took every possible course and accepted every voluntary assignment he could to develop his knowledge of computer languages and how to apply computer technology. In addition, he took special training in how to lead a platoon of 100 men. Still wishing to learn more, Dr. Hackl took additional courses in English and IT while in the Air Force.

Loving the military, he was disappointed when a broken ankle ended his Air Force career. However, this unexpected change opened up new opportunities to learn through more studying and applying what he had already studied.

While Dr. Hackl was in the Air Force, his mother and older brother started a major company trading wooden components for the timber and furniture industries. Dr. Hackl joined them after the accident, starting in a sales role for the company. Within three years at the company, he had worked in many different functions and roles, becoming quite expert in the furniture industry.

When he was 34, Dr. Hackl was pleased to realize that he had achieved a high level of knowledge in many business management disciplines. He decided it was time to become his own boss to test how well his management lessons had been learned. He purchased a wooden parts production company out of a bankruptcy proceeding in Austria and soon directed the company into healthy profitability.

While many people would have been happy to settle back and enjoy the business success, Dr. Hackl decided to earn a DBA degree and hoped to gain skill in delegating daily tasks to his colleagues while learning more about advanced management practices for international businesses. Already working a 75-hour week, he knew that a studying to earn a DBA degree would challenge him to accomplish more as a leader in less time. During his DBA studies, Dr. Hackl often turned to himself as that busy person who can get everything done on time.

Through fitting DBA studies into spare moments during his long and hectic work week, Dr. Hackl improved his already impressive time management skills. The company continued to prosper. Graduation brought new opportunities: After earning his doctorate, Dr. Hackl found that business people treated him with more respect and it was easier to work with others to accomplish important tasks.

When a fire destroyed the companys production facilities in 2008, Dr. Hackl was able to turn that potentially negative event into an advantage. He quickly re-started the companys production while more than doubling capacity to permit increased sales while lowering costs. As a next step, he will add a power plant fueled by wood chips and shavings. When those operations are running smoothly, his production manager will take over the company. At that point, Dr. Hackl intends to accomplish his long-held dream by relocating to his beloved New Zealand, starting another company there, and enjoying the home, boat, and lifestyle of his dreams.

When asked what might be next on the horizon, Dr. Hackl responded that he might start on a Ph.D. With his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and accomplishment, I wonder if one Ph.D. will be enough to keep him stimulated for a lifetime.

As you can see, a lot of preparation went into Dr. Hackls quick climb to business success after leaving the German Air Force. After having gained the right knowledge and discipline, he quickly surpassed what most people accomplish in a lifetime.

How can you apply these six success keys to become your most effective employee, the one who always gets key tasks done on time

What do you need to learn

What are you waiting for


About the Author

Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school. For more information about

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