How PXT Select Can Help Managers Close the Engagement Gap

As we pointed out in the post “How Managers Can Close the Engagement Gap with Employees,” there are five conditions to stronger employee experience.  In this post, we will discuss how PXT Select hiring and placement assessments can help management close the engagement gap with their employees.  This is done mainly with performance models  and PXT Select reports.

1. Meaningful work:  PXT Select measures 20 traits, its performance model pages help you to determine person-to-job fit using skills and talents not only for the current job, but for future career planning as well.   Matching the employee to the job assignment helps the employee be successful and makes them want to stay longer.  PXT Performance Models define the styles and traits necessary for each job so candidates can be better matched to functions where they will fit best.
2. Hands-on management: PXT Select provides information on employee-to-manager fit using management reports that provide summary data and trait scales for reflection, in order to leverage employee strengths.
3. Positive work environment: For team work environments, PXT Select can provide insights on employee-to-team fit with the Team report. Utilizing PXT Select helps organizations build teams that achieve results.
4. Growth opportunities: PXT Select indicates person-to-culture fit for the organization’s environment so succession planning and career growth are possible. The Coaching report is helpful in planning advancement and future roles, which will require more skills as well as a person-to-culture fit.
5. Trust in leadership: PXT Select allows organizations to support the development of leadership skills within teams and individuals by focusing on the development of 6 critical leadership skills. These skills are outlined in the PXT Leadership Report as:  create a vision, develop strategies, ensure results, inspire people, be approachable, and mentoring others.

Using PXT Select to close the gap between management and staff will build a stronger employee experience and increases employee engagement.  The result will be higher productivity that exceeds expectations.

If you are interested in finding out more about how PXT Select can help you, please contact us.  We also offer The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team and Everything DiSC behavioral assessments and training.

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Three Methods to Build a Job Performance Model

It is important for proper employee placement and as a tool for feedback to have performance models for the job titles within an organization.  Many organizations do this by staring with the job classifications they feel are most important to their organization or for their key functions at the management level.  Afterwards, they will continue down through all the job titles within the company.

There are many methods to build an organization’s performance model.  You can use a lot of time trying to find the best solution, which might include:  trial and error, pricey consultant.  or even create your own models with your Human Resource (HR) department.  You can go through several months and lots of dollars only to find out that your selected approach may not meet your expectations or fit your specific needs.

You may know PXT Select as a hiring and placement tool with a variety of useful HR and manager reports.   Did you know the tool is based on job performance models?  The advantage of PXT Select reports are how they show the candidates results against your performance model and provide potential questions for interviewers.  With PXT Select, you have three possible methods to build performance models for your organization.  PXT authorized partners can help you build a model by:

1. Replicating your top performers by using your existing job descriptions, tasks and skills lists
2. Helping you to create custom models built especially for you via PXT consulting
3. Utilizing their existing PXT Select performance model library of general job specific data

If you are interested in building or updating your job performance models, please contact us.  We are a PXT Select authorized partner.

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PXT Select and the Human Side of Selection

Below is a video explaining the what and why you may want to implement PXT Select assessment in your Human Resources selection process.  For more information on this assessment, read Use PXT Select for better hiring decisions and Manage Easy with PXT Select Reports.  Or contact Peak Performance Solutions, an authorized partner for PXT Select.

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Leadership Lessons Learned

We surveyed 77 random managers who went through our Executive Excellence Workshops (customized Leadership Academy to clients) in the same year.  We asked many questions about what they learned and found most useful. We were looking to see if they could take the learning from the classroom to the workplace. The results of two questions are below and we hope you find this of value as you plan your own leadership training.

For the question “Have you noticed a difference in your workplace since the training?”  88% of respondents said YES!

Then for the question “What key changes have you implemented since your leadership training sessions?”   Below are their replies:

• Try to listen better = 73%
• Compliment people = 68%
• Manage employees based on DiSC Style = 44%
• Solicit other opinions when solving problems = 42%
• Contact HR for advice or assistance = 40%
• Make decisions more cautiously = 38%
• Give people candid feedback = 34%
• Try to look at changes positively = 36%
• Use behavior based interviewing = 23%
• Think about the laws when making hiring, de-hiring or promotions = 22%

I believe some of the percentages listed above were low because many of the managers were already doing that key, so it was not a change for them.  However, it was gratifying to see the leadership lessons were learned and implemented by so many in the year after their training.

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What do Great Leaders Do? : Interview, Hire, Coach, and Dehire

In a zone post a few months ago, I shared a few tips from the book Monday Morning Leadership to help leaders improve.  This time I want to share a little on how to make sure the teams you lead are the best they can be.  Below are some paraphrased tips from that same author along with thoughts shared in our Leadership Excellence and Team-building workshops.  Three Things the Best Leaders Must Do For Their Teams

1. Hire good employees. Do not just fill open positions quickly the easy way, instead hire tough.  If you hire tough, you can manage easy.  If you hire easy, you are forced to manage tough.  Good employees will do their best for you.  Words of wisdom quoted from the book: “The most important thing you can do as a leader is to hire the right people.” And “The most important asset in your company is having the RIGHT PEOPLE on your team.  If you have the right people on your team you have a great chance to succeed.” Check out PXT Select to see if it can help your improve this process.
2. Coach every member of the team to become better. Everyone can improve, so give your team (as a group and individually) feedback on what they need to do.  Be open to ideas of training and mentoring inside and outside the team.  Continuous learning can eliminate holes when someone has to have time-off or be out-of-the-office for meetings, vacation, or illnesses. Check out The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team to see if it can help you improve the team-building, performance, and feedback processes.
3. Dehire the people who aren’t carrying their share of the load. Your other team members see their bad performance and wonder why you are not taking action. Others could begin to feel like they should do less too.  So get with HR on what you should do to begin tracking performance issues to begin the dehiring or internal transfer/placement process.   Words of wisdom quoted from the book:  “Never lower your standards just to fill a position!  You will pay for it later.” And “The greatest liability in your company could be having the WRONG PEOPLE on your team.”

To help with the first thing above, the author presented the interview tips below later in the book.

Three Rules of Three for Interviewing

1. For each position, interview at least 3 qualified candidates. Hold out for the best fit, whether it is a new hire position or a transfer within the organization.  If you are in a hurry and just take the first one that looks good, you could end up with a bad fit for the team.
2. Interview the most qualified candidates 3 times. Do this at different times of the day each time they come in.  Changing the time will help you and your team to evaluate how each candidate may be at different times during a work day.
3. Have 3 different people evaluate the candidates for best job fit. Hiring manager and/or HR representative could be first two people.  One or two other people to finish the three should be from the team the position is for.  Team members know the work the best and the team dynamics, so they can help determine if the candidate fits the need.

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Hiring the Best Players for Your Team

The Ideal Team Player Model

In other posts, I have talked about the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team based on the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.  This time I want to share three key characteristics to make sure you are hiring great team members from his book The Ideal Team Player.  You might ask “Why does Lencioni have two different books to deliver a full message on team building?”  It is fairly simple, if you want cohesive teams that have trust, show commitment, work through conflict, understand accountability, and deliver results – you need to hire and keep the right people.

To hire the right people for your teams, you need to look for people who are humble, hungry, and smart.  To keep the right people on your teams, you need to continually monitor existing employees against  those three team player characteristics to make sure they still fit into your team culture.  We need to take a closer look at what Lencioni means by humble, hungry, and smart to better understand why we need to hire for and monitor against these traits.

Humble should be a requirement of any team player!  These people like working in a team, sharing credit with others, and defining success as group accomplishment.  Self-centered, ego-driven, or politics-playing individuals will not fit into a team well.  So look for “we” instead of “I” when they talk.

Hungry people are always looking to do more, take on responsibilities, or learn more.  These people are self-motivated, diligent, and require little supervision.  Ask questions about projects they have been on and how they have handled problems,  you should be able to gauge hunger by the way they have handled situations in the past.

Smart is not mental intelligence or skill sets (IQ), it is about people (more along the lines of EQ) and social skills.   This is not touchy-feely stuff.  It is about using common sense when working with and talking to other people.  Ask questions about how they work with others and you should see enthusiasm in their responses.

In Lencioni’s model, you can see that it is easy to be fooled when looking at any one characteristic too strongly.  Lencioni examples are Humble=Pawn, Hungry=Bulldozer, or Smart=Charmer.  Even settling for a combination of two characteristics can be bad.  Lencioni examples are Humble+Hungry=Accidental Mess-maker,  Hungry+Smart=Skillful Politician, or Smart +Humble=Lovable Slacker.  You want is someone that falls in the middle of the model.  This way they truly will have all three characteristics: humble, hungry, and smart.

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Hire Tough, Manage Easy with PXT Select Reports

What are the ways companies try to predict success in their hiring?  From an applicant’s resume they may learn: career history, job experience, technical knowledge, and potential references.  From the interview process, they hope to understand the applicant’s: thinking style, extent of technical skills, true job knowledge, problem solving skills, and typical behavior traits.  Following this, they hope for a good selection process to match the right candidate to the correct job.

What is the company had a better way of doing interviews that could insure a better selection process?  In a previous post, you learned that PXT Select assessment could be required by each candidate for the job position.  Once multiple candidate assessments are complete, management and human resources gain access to a range of reports that can used for the selection process, as well as other purposes after the hiring is complete.  Below is a list of the PXT Select reports and what is contained in each.

PXT Select Position and Single Candidate Reports

Report Name	Results Summary or Definition	Performance Model	Interview Questions or Ideal Candidate
Comprehensive Selection	Candidate’s Results from the assessment compared to the Performance Model	Range of scores typical for success in the position, with scale and job fit interpretations	Series of personalized Questions based on the candidate’s fit to the Performance Model
Sales Comprehensive Selection	Candidate’s Results from the assessment compared to the deeper-dive into sales related practices and the Performance Model	Range of scores typical for success in the position, with scale and job fit interpretations	Series of personalized Questions based on the candidate’s fit to the Performance Model
Performance Model (for position)	Definition of each of the styles and traits	Range of scores typical for success in the position	Statement describing the Ideal Candidate for this position will appear for each style and trait

 PXT Select Single Employee Reports

 

Report Name	Definitions	Feedback or Results
Individual’s Feedback	Each of the styles, traits, and interests that were measured by the assessment will be defined	Personalized Feedback based on results and how they should be interpreted
Individual’s Graph	Each of the styles, traits, and interests that were measured by the assessment will be defined after Results	Results will be summarized on scales for Thinking Style, continua for Behavioral Traits, and a ranked-order list for Interests

PXT Select – Multiple Placement Comparison Reports

Report Name	Performance Models	Candidate Fit	Comparison or %Fit
Multiple Positions (1 Candidate to Many)	Range of scores typical for success in each position	Candidate’s results from the assessment compared to the Performance Models	The candidate’s Overall Fit for each of the positions
Multiple Candidates (Many to 1 Position)	Range of scores on each scale typical for success in the position	Each candidate’s results from the assessment compared to the Performance Models	Candidates  results for each scale are placed together for easy Comparison

PXT Select – Misc. Management Reports

 

Report Name	Results	Feedback	Definitions, Reflection, or Action
Coaching (1 to 1)	Assessment results are compared to the Performance Model, which show the range of score typical for success in the position	Feedback personalized for the individual based on the results and how they should be interpreted	Thinking Style and Behavioral Traits will be Defined following the results summary
Manager-Employee (1 to 1)	Manager’s assessment results are compared to the employee’s on 9 different scales	Personalized feedback based on how manager‘s results compare to employee’s	Reflection includes quick review, questions to answer, and an action plan
Team	Each team member’s assessment results placed together on 9 behavioral scales	Feedback for each scale based on personal and team’s responses	Team averages and personalized tips for Action planning
Leadership	Six essential Leadership Capabilities are illustrated, along with scales, traits, and interests that drive each.	Results for each Leadership Skill based on personal  responses	How the individual leads will be summarized on scales for Thinking Style, continua for Behavioral Traits, and a ranked-order list for Interests for selection and/or coaching

 

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Hire Tough, Manage Easy: Use PXT Select for better hiring decisions

Did you know that companies report that 1 in 5 of their hires was a bad hire?   That means 20% of the people hired were not a good fit for the job where they were placed.  Another survey showed that just one bad hire in a position can cost a company $17K and another says for the 6-digit annual income level, a bad hire can lose a company as much as $250K.

Is there a better way to hire the right people for the position you have open?  According to a Fast Company article it primarily comes down to pre-hire assessments and proper onboarding.  So let us start to help you with hiring by introducing a new assessment tool called PXT Select by Wiley (the company that brought us DiSC and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team). Wiley assessment solutions empower organizations by providing them with actionable data about the people they employ now and in the future.

What is PXT Select? PXT Select™ is an online hiring assessment designed to help you select the best candidates for your organization.  It contains selection and employee assessment tools to help organizations make smarter hiring decisions.  Simply put, PXT Select can make selecting the right candidate for a job both simpler and smarter. Having the right people in the right jobs fosters a culture of happier, more engaged, and more productive employees.

PXT Select allows your organization to:

• Fill in the gaps between a resume and interview with actionable objective data
• Identify the most suitable candidates, streamlining an effective hiring process
• Match candidates with jobs that fit their inherent capabilities
• Identify opportunities to enhance performance and maximize an individual’s contribution to an organization
• Produce several reports for management and HR use, powered by the latest in assessment technology

PXT Select will help your organization:

• Dramatically streamline your hiring process
• Minimize the risk of bad hires
• Reduce turnover
• Lower your hiring and training costs
• Add objective, data-driven metrics to your hiring process
• Drive noticeable improvements in your hiring results
• Boost employee engagement

Get the most out of this hiring solution with the custom, interactive online learning platform that will provide you with fun, essential learning. If you want to experience PXT Select, you will need to contact an Authorized Partner who can help you fit the assessment power to your unique needs.

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The Secret Formula to Sales Success

Before uncovering the secret formula, ask yourself these 3 questions and consider your answers:

• Competency – Are your Sales Representatives experienced amateurs or true sales professionals?
• Attitude – Why is it selling is the most rewarding profession in the world, yet we still bring up our kids to be Doctors, Lawyers and Indian Chiefs?
• Skills – Non-verbal communication represents 55% of communication, therefore, why is it most Sales Reps do not recognize buying or non-buying language?

At Peak Performance Solutions, we believe 3 factors are the formula for success.  These factors must be aligned to create a successful sales force that have a sales process that guarantees success.  The 3 factors for success were somewhat revealed in the questions above, these are: competency, attitude, and skills.

Sales success begins with Competency.  Do you have the right person in the right seat? Our competency based assessments allow you to peel the onion, and look at the layers behind the “handshake” and see if the person is fit to adapt to your particular sales process.   To do this well, leverage the power of the Self-Management Group’s hiring and coaching assessment.

If they have the competency, do they have the Attitude to do what it takes to form the habits of success? In other words, you can have someone with talent who chooses not to develop it.  Our in-depth planning model helps a sales rep focus on the key result areas and “keep the main thing, the main thing”. We proactively help sales reps forecast their sales and identify to the dollar what they have to do to meet their goals as well as adjust and adapt along the way.

Skills are where the good sales rep becomes a great one. Our sales training focuses on the tactical skills of communication that can be used in any aspect of life. There are no gimmicks in selling.  We teach fundamental, basic laws of communication and build it around the 5 steps to the sales cycle.

Our 5 step process that works for most sales includes:

1. Attention:  Get the prospect to like you, so they will listen to you.
2. Interest:  Identify prospects interest, while being interesting, so they will say, “Tell me more”.
3. Conviction: or Presentation and be prepared to answer the 4 questions every prospect asks in the buying process.
4. Desire:   A simple summary wrapping up all your facts and benefits eliminating confusion and the “I want to think about it” objection.
5. Close:  Asking for a decision only when they are ready to buy.

Prospecting, Time Management, DiSC buying and selling styles, and managing objections are part of each step and these must be mastered as well.

Sales Success Secret Formula = Competency + Attitude + Skills

If all three are present, then a master can coach their sales staff to success.    Although a manager can manage the habits, it takes a true master of selling and communication to be an effective coach. Someone who can read the story the activity numbers tell and then improve performance by practicing drill for skill and allowing the rep to form good habits that fit their style.

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