Friday, November 28, 2008

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.

Relaited Links:

Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, October 13, 2008

How To Read And Understand A Credit Score Report

A standard credit score report is divided into four sections: identifying information, credit history, public records and inquiries. Identifying information is just the basics, such as name, address and social security number.

Look over this information to ensure its accurate because it is not unusual for there to be multiple spellings of your name or more than one Social Security Number. Your report may also include your date of birth, previous residences, drivers license number, your employer and your spouses name. Dont worry about this information too much, as its all covert and defender-protected.

The center section to glance at in your credit scores solutions is your "Credit History" or "Trade Words." Your accounts will fall into 1 of 5 classifications: Valid Estate primarily and moment mortgage, Installment car loan, ordinary payments, Revolving credit cards, Collection mortally history due and Variegated.

Each account will plan the creditor/lenders observe and the documentation measure. Sometimes, extra than one journal will be indicated on your explanations indulge in the same creditor, in particular if it gets sold off into collection, but cleanly one documentation should be evident "open" at a era.

You should be able to see when you originally started out the record, the type of memoir, the inclusive figure owed, how a lot of you moreover owe, the status of the log open, inactive, closed, settled and how anyhow youve expended the documentation. If its noted "charged off," that instrument the credit designed efforts to assemble but gave up.

If you see a set of rules akin to "R1," at that time this frequently indicates how nonetheless youve been at paying on a scale of 1 to 9. If you submit to had any not on time payments on your diary, after that youll see a little square in addition to 30, 60, 90 or 120 in the box, indicating how belatedly you were.

If you see a green OK and a 0, youre in suitable subsume and pricey scores. If you see "charged off," "bad debt" or "located in accumulations," after that your chronicle went 120 - 180 days times of yore due and was sold off to debt collectors. Payment-offs and Debt Accumulations are bad as these homeless credit scores remain on your explanations for seven days.

If you obtain a mysterious chronicle or an erroneous measure attributable on your credit score explanations, then you can fill out an online category to quarrel the grievance. The more or less current deduce indicates that as a few as 80 of all reports knowledge a few kind of misinformation.

Financial advisers advance that you hold up also your credit score and analysis up on it at least as a once a year to certify accuracy. Now that you know one or two of the sections and tongue, youll be superior all set.

Commission-offs on your credit score rejoinder will be the 1 alibi you are denied credit. Until the end of time, in request to qualify for new loans, youll be required to pay any unpaid payment-offs. As you pay the finish or fragmentary amount, it will be pointed out "expended charge-off." This will remain on your credit for seven days and 180 existence loves the date of your primarily nonpayment.

You can hire legal advisors who may be able to get charge-offs accepted off your accounts. A agency reminiscent of Lexington Law Agency "Lexington Law" specializes in legally disputing and setting apart paid payment-offs to assist you accelerate credit scores, which may well be a proper bet if youre arrangements to buy a house or style a big monetary investment.
Around the Architect

Mike Selvons portal will widen your savvy on the

Relaited Links:

Labels: , , ,