Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Talent Acquisition

We know Talent Acquisition. We can help create strategic talent acquisition plans and processes to market, source, recruit, hire, and retain top talent.

How Personality Assessment Can Help You Be A Better Leader

“This is why I’m not married anymore,” said a participant in a recent leadership training class.   She was partly kidding, but it was obvious that the results of her personality assessment, which were being used to launch the leadership training series we were conducting for her company, had struck a cord.

Her personality assessment showed that she was a highly dominant, take charge, get it done kind of person. These characteristics had served her well in her role in finance with the organization, but she realized that maybe her personality had impacted the success of her marriage.

In another conversation with the director of a college career center, concerns were expressed about students’ ability to know themselves- their strengths and areas for development- and take this knowledge into the workplace in order to succeed. In designing a leadership workshop for them, our first approach was to implement a personality assessment to help these student leaders with the self-awareness they seem to so desperately need.

As we’ve often said, self-awareness is the first step in establishing yourself as a leader.   Although it isn’t the only way, personality assessment can help with this self-awareness and then provide a framework for building interpersonal relationships, providing feedback, delegating and a host of other leadership issues.

Here are some assessment tools/vendors we use based on client needs (Note: It’s important to know which personality assessment is right to use based on your organization’s needs.   You should define the needs first- are you wanting to facilitate teambuilding, leadership coaching or training, make better hiring decisions, etc.- then pick the best assessment, not the other way around.):

Hogan Assessments

DiSC Assessments

Tools from Assessment Associates International

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

How as a personality assessment helped you at work or in your personal life?

September 26, 2014
2 Ways to Get What You’re Worth

Out looking for a job or considering a discussion with your boss about a raise? If you are, you need to do your research to consider what the knowledge, skills and abilities you have are worth in the marketplace and to the company in which you work or are negotiating with. (Note: The best time to negotiate your worth is before you accept a job. Once you get locked in a job and a salary range, usually the only way to get a substantial raise is to switch jobs either through a promotion or a move to another organization.)

Get the facts about what you’re worth in the market.

The first thing to do is compare what you do with salary data that is free out there. Some places to look review salary data:

Career One Stop

Salary.com

Salary Expert

BLS

Take all these sources and compile them to average out what an overall market range is for your role. Having the facts about what the market will pay for your skills will help you create a case for your value.

Know what you’re worth to the organization and suggest that worth be tied to your compensation package.

Next, you need to consider how you will or are currently adding value to the organization that may be outside the scope of the traditional job description tied to published salary data. If you are, we suggest instead of trying to get that value quantified through a salary, really prove this worth by suggesting that part of your compensation be tied to that extra value you add. You don’t get that extra unless you create a win-win for the company.

For example, if you are awesome at looking at company processes, realizing where there are inefficiencies and cutting costs which leads to increased profitability and margins, gather your numbers and facts and present a case to get a share as a part of your compensation of that increase profitability you created or know you can create.

If, through your efforts, you are able to bring in more clients or business, quantify this and request part of your compensation be tied to a cut of the increased revenue that comes from your efforts.

Most employers will be impressed with the initiative you take to tie your results to company results. Yeah, its riskier to not have it all in guaranteed in salary, but the alternative is more than likely a 2-3% increase a year and no one gets rich off this.

How do you make a case for your value?

Want more? You may also like:

Know Your Value

Why you should STOP being afraid of negotiating salary

August 14, 2014
Now don’t go changing your compensation structure without….

You’re worried you’re not attracting the right talent or that you aren’t able to keep good talent around for long and you think it might be because of your salary structure. Before you launch into a compensation structure overhaul (we’ll tell you how to do this next week on the blog), you need to:

Know for sure that the reason you are having the problems you are having is in fact compensation related. It may be that all your supervisors are jerks and people may leave even if you paid them twice as much. Surveying employees, especially through exit interviews is a good way to do this. Also, getting a quick snapshot to see if you are externally competitive in compensation in your area is also advisable.

Some sites to spot check your wage rates with the market (Make sure you search based on your market. If you are just competing for talent locally, then search by your metropolitan area, not the entire nation):

Career One Stop

Salary.com

Salary Expert

BLS

Do a job analysis and write job descriptions. You can’t accurately design a compensation structure without defining what jobs require. This helps you compare jobs both internally and externally.

A job analysis can be done in several ways:

Job observation

Job questionnaire to the people in the roles and their managers

Review of job logs or reports

Structured panels

A combination on any of these

Reviewing occupational information can help you frame any of the above or help you check the data you’ve gathered against standard responsibilities based on job title

A job analysis needs to gather what is required to perform the job. (This is a really short way of saying this; there are many purposes of job analysis because it is the basis of any talent management intervention. Read more about the things needed in job analysis based on what you are trying to accomplish here.)

A job description needs to include:

Date description was written

Job status (exempt, non-exempt; full or part time)

Title

Purpose of the role

Reports to

Job summary (outline of responsibilities of the role)

Knowledge, skills and abilities required as well as education and experience required

Essential Functions for ADA purposes

Tasks and Responsibilities of the job

Physical factors of the job (environment where the job is performed) and working conditions (overtime requirements, shift)

The disclaimer that the description is not designed to cover a comprehensive listed of everything the job entails (the other duties as assigned statement)

Once you have gone through these two steps, you are ready to start with a compensation redesign if you have determined through Step 1 that is what you need. Check back on the blog soon to see how to do this.

Do you need a compensation overall or something entirely different?

August 11, 2014
4 Criteria for Creativity: Women Working or Drones?
What’s more creative: 1) drones delivering a Kindle to your door in 30 minutes or less or 2) women working?

According to Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, women in the workplace, in Saudi Arabia at least, is more creative. Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al-Saud topped the list of most creative people in business by inviting Saudi women to work.

Quoted as saying, “You cannot have half your population not working,” the princess emphasizes why an “innovation” with people is more important than technology that allows all kinds of things to be delivered to your door as quickly as a pizza. Not only more important, but also more of a challenge.

But is extending the invitation to work to half the population creative, or something entirely different? This example illustrates that in order for something to be truly creative, the following has to be present:
1. Conventional thinking has to be challenged. In a country where it is illegal for women to drive, women working challenges conventional thinking.
2. Risks have to be involved. Again, in a country where it is illegal for women to drive, risks are involved in inviting women to work.
3. Impact extends beyond the original intent. Might it be made legal for women to drive because women are working? It may necessitate a legislative change eventually.
4. Positive gains are made and results are achieved. As reported in the article, “The Riyadh department store-which opened in 2000 as Harvey Nichols’s first location outside the U.K. – weathered a 42% drop in profit last year, partly because of opposition to the female sales force and partly because of loyalty to the far-more-seasoned salesmen it replaced.” Time will tell if this creative intervention will lead to business results. But maybe, just maybe, this example goes to show that you get more points for creativity if societal results are achieved at the possible short-term detriment to business results. See #2 above. As the princess said, “The second a woman is responsible for her own finances, she’ll want to explore more of the world for herself and become less dependent.”
What’s the most creative people intervention or idea have you ever witnessed?

You may also like: What Employers Want: Creativity
June 2, 2014
Looking for a Magic Wand in 2014?

Are you a leader with a talent management problem like turnover, absenteeism, employee engagement, etc.? What if I gave you a magic wand in 2014 and it could wipe your problem out?

One way to do this is to see yourself as a key driver of organizational strategy and results and then use this mindset to drive talent management process improvements that connect back to bottom line results. This mindset is your magic wand.

Wait a minute you say! It can’t be that easy. Just thinking strategically can’t eliminate (insert your problem here). Recently, I described a process to a group of HR professionals that I think can help you connect corporate strategy and values to solve problems through talent management interventions.

This process led one company to a $4000.00 direct cost savings each year just by connecting their corporate values to their selection process. Not to mention, they have made three new hires with this new process. Each of these hires are performing at the optimal level per their performance standards, saving the company an estimated $210.00 a day in absenteeism costs and approximately $54,000 a year per hire in turnover costs. These changes may not have been easy as waving a magic wand, but they weren’t rocket science either.

You can download the handout from this presentation here to help you walk through the steps of waving your magic wand.

What is one of your talent management processes that in its current state, needs a good dose of the magic wand?

January 13, 2014