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Why You Should Hire For Potential, Not Experience

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Great Fastcompany article By Dinah Wisenberg Brin

When you’re hiring, look past the experience candidates come with, to the potential for them to grow into the perfect fit for your company.

An electronics retailer hires a CEO who seems to possess the ideal credentials and skills, only to find him ill-prepared to handle changing market dynamics.

A small brewery, in contrast, picks a project manager lacking in relevant industry experience, based on a hiring consultant’s feeling that the man will succeed. The new hire quickly ascends to a key role in a strong management team that turns the company into a conglomerate.

What’s the difference in the two hires?

Read article to continue

If you want to accelerate talent, contact John Inman at john@johninmandialogue.com or at 425-954-7256

A Data-driven Approach to Organizational Change in Healthcare

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A Data-driven Approach to Organizational Change in Healthcare is copied from the September 2014 issue of  PI Worldwide News and Insights.

Data-Driven

 

In a new era of healthcare technologies and policies, American Health Network (AHN) medical group recognized it needed more effective procedures and methodologies to help its employees navigate the nuances. The organization turned to workforce analytics to optimize its business structure and enable leaders to guide the change process effectively while reducing turnover, enhancing employee morale and strengthening clinical teams. AHN’s approach leveraged PI Worldwide’s 4 Pillars of Successful Change Initiatives.American Health Network

Pillar 1: Communication and retention: By leveraging the Predictive Index® (PI® ) behavioral assessment to understand employees’ motivating needs and behavioral drives, AHN was able to develop a targeted communications strategy in line with individual styles and needs. This helped increase employee engagement and minimize turnover. AHN’s Training and Development Manager Monica Wearren explains, “With nearly 2,000 employees and 75 offices, a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work. It is important that we can communicate to different people in different ways to ensure everyone gets the message.” AHN believes PI enables their leaders to communicate in ways that resonate with employees so they provide the very best patient experience.

Pillar 2: Managing culture shift Workforce analytics helped AHN create a culture of action plans and productive discussions around personality differences which led to noticeable changes. An employee survey conducted by AHN following the implementation of workforce analytics showed:

  • 80% of respondents cited increased self-awareness of personality and motivational style as the number one tool they incorporate into their daily jobs.
  • 75% feel they can use the increased self-awareness to adjust behavior/communication.
  • 75% feel they can share results of their own assessments with managers and peers.
  • 53% of respondents cited an improvement in satisfaction with their job and the company overall.

Pillar 3: Strategic Workforce Planning AHN turned to workforce analytics to assess current behavioral fits and gaps and inform future talent needs. Armed with this insight into their existing workforce, the organization was better able to set internal goals that would align with the changes happening in the industry. For instance, AHN used the PRO™ job analytic to reevaluate the behavioral requirements of several critical positions. This provided managers with stronger job targets that could be used for hiring, development and coaching. According to Wearren, the broader program incorporating workforce analytics has helped reduce turnover as AHN has been able to hire more strategically and successfully redirect employees into other positions or reshape their jobs as needed. P

illar 4: Conflict resolution With greater awareness of their own behavioral styles and those of their peers, employees are reporting increased confidence when communicating. Furthermore, managers cited (1) Communication (2) Resolving Conflict and (3) Team building as the top priorities for which they would like to further apply behavioral data. Wearren notes, “With the Predictive Index insight, we can better anticipate personality clashes and thus surround our clinicians with the appropriate personnel and resources that will not impede on efficiency or patient care.”

“The PI is and will continue to be helpful in smoothing some of the edginess that comes with change by enabling our leaders to communicate information more effectively and in ways that resonates with the employees. As new initiatives come down the pike in the market and in our company, the PI will be instrumental in making these processes much more manageable.”
-Monica Wearren Training & Development Manager American Health Network

If you would like to learn more about this process, workforce analytics, and people big data and how it can transform an organization, please contact John Inman at john@johninmandialogue.com or at 425-954-7256.

New Seminar: Winning with Natural Talent

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New Seminar Roll Out

Winning with Natural Talent: Developing High Performance through Selection, Development, and Leadership of Natural Talent

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Ski jump

 

Length: 60 minutes. Capable of expanding with experiential exercises to meet the needs of longer format

Setting: In person instructor led or virtual instructor led

Audience: Any group of organization leaders: Association meetings, peer to peer groups, community meetings, or in house management meetings

Audience size: 15 people or more (if in the Puget Sound region or virtual, 5 or more). Available to sit down one on one with those who are serious about learning more without participating in a seminar

Investment: This is a free session. I can also deliver as a paid breakout for an association event.

Value to participants: Learn how to address one of the most intractable problems faced by organizations of all sizes, getting the right people into the right positions. We will address:

  • Learn what forward thinking organizations are doing to hire talent, not resumes
  • Learn easy and cost effective talent selection processes and tools
  • Learn how to eliminate the 70-90% of failed hires, external and incumbent
  • Learn how to generate a substantial ROI on invested solutions, rather than incur a cost
  • Learn how to use predictive talent analytics for evidence based people decisions
  • Learn how to accelerate the performance of your top performers
  • Learn why organizations are selecting on potential rather than on past performance
  • Learn how to eliminate the discrimination against early talent inherent in resume screening
  • Learn what to ask for when selecting a solution for your organization
  • Learn how to be an effective leader in a VUCA world (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity)
  • Like to add 40% to EBITA? Easily within the range of validated results
  • Those individuals who become certified in Predictive Index (PI) receive 16 hours of credit towards their PHR, SPHR, or GPHR certification.

Background: Organization leaders are frustrated with the high cost of putting people into positions and having those people fail or underperform. Organization leaders are asking that their investment in training and development show quantifiable financial results. Organization leaders are seeking to learn how to lead in a VUCA world. Organization leaders have assumed that these issues are pervasive and are just part of doing business yet they continue to spend (not invest) to try to address these issues. But the problems continue. There are efficient and cost effective solutions available, leaders just have not been introduced to them. John Inman Dialogue provides these solutions.

Current research points to the need for selection based on talent, not resumes, as the first step in this process. At the center of the conversation are predictive talent analytics and cognitive assessments. These solution sets are designed to actively solve people problems in the organization with a focus on strong ROI for the organization. If current spending on products and services does not actively solve business problems, they are a cost to the organization.

Recent research:

Customer quotes:

  • PI is used extensively in Inside Sales during the recruiting phase to ensure the candidates have the DNA to be successful in their roles at SAP.
    —Shawn Robertson, Global Vice President, Global Inside Sales — Optimization and Innovation, SAP AG, Inc.
  • There is no question about it, we are better today because of our people. The Predictive Index system is a big part of that. PI gives you the insight to make a good hire.
    —Howard Tenenbaum
  • …the Predictive Index system is quick and easy to administer and it will give you 100 times the return on your investment.
    —Donald McConnell, Regional Developer, Massage Envy
  • With the Predictive Index system, I was able to build a strong team that would push the business forward. Today, I can’t imagine running my business without it.
    —Jill Berg, President/Owner, Spherion
  • The Predictive Index system can be used for far more than just a hiring tool. It identifies individual traits, but also gives you the entire scope of people’s behavior, and a deeper understanding of how to motivate and impact their performances.
    —Bruce Wade, Director of Human Resources, Bloomington Hospital
  • PI results are used to support sales managers and their teams, to increase collaboration and understanding among the team, provide highly targeted and more effective coaching and support, and to enable more data-driven succession planning.
    —Rebecca Sherrill, Vice President, GCO University North America, SAP America, Inc.

Brief Biography: John Inman, Ed.M., M.A., PHR, DDPE; John Inman Dialogue, Founder/Talent Accelerator. Excels in:

  • Developing leaders that thrive in volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity
  • Workforce analytics focused on performance
  • Organization processes that rapidly respond to continuous change
  • Adult learning, growth and progress

20 years of sales and marketing leadership. 14 years of internal and external organization and leadership development consulting and coaching. Major industries include medical, bio-technology, software, telecommunications, financial, and gaming entertainment.

Full Biography: John Inman, Ed.M., M.A., PHR, is the founder and principle of John Inman Dialogue, a Seattle based consultancy focused on designing containers, convening, and hosting conversations for organizations and communities of all types. His passion is for developing healthy and productive social systems where individuals are treated with respect and are able to thrive and grow, accelerating the delivery of value to stakeholders. Areas of expertise include leadership and organization development, coaching, adult education, and workforce analytics. His work is founded on the emerging field of Dialogic OD.

John is a long standing organization leader and developer of leaders in technology, financial, non-profit, government, education, scientific, and service firms. He focuses on the local conversations that create organization and community cultures, which provide his clients with the mindset shifts necessary to lead in these challenging times. John invested 20 years in business development and marketing starting in critical care medicine field sales and progressing to senior leadership in small to medium sized bio-technology and technology enterprises. Has worked for the last 14 years as an internal and external leadership and organization consultant in finance, secondary education, service, technology, and gaming entertainment.

John has a bachelor degree in business management, a master of education degree in adult education and organization development, and a master of arts degree in human and organization systems. He is a doctoral candidate in education leadership and change. John published “Using dialogue then deliberation to transform a warring leadership team” in the Spring 2013 edition of the OD Practitioner, the international publication of the OD Network. John recently added a suite of workforce analytics solutions and is bringing predictive talent analytics to executive teams to help pinpoint opportunities for accelerating performance.

John lives with his wife, son and daughter near Seattle, Washington and enjoys walking, road biking, researching, and time with his family.

He has worked with several early phase start up enterprises in industries including: Retail, Bio-technology, Consulting, Software, Restaurant, Education and Pre-IPO Internet.

John can be reached at john@johninmandialogue.com or at 425-954-7256. His business site is www.johninmandialogue.com. Specific to workforce analytics www.johninmandialogue.com/people-analytics and blog on talent acceleration is at www.johninmandialogue.com/blog

Decision Science: Predictive talent analytics – Questions to ask if seeking a solution

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Decision Science: Predictive talent analytics tell us whom to hire and how we should manage them. This is the title of the cover article in the July 2014 T&D Magazine.

Decision Science

 

The author states “If baseball teams can use player statistics to predict performance, thereby gaining a huge competitive advantage, why can’t companies do the same with their employees?” I could not have said it better. In fact, I am amazed that there seems to be so little interest in creating a conversation about predictive talent analytics. I ask myself if it is because HR teams are so vested in not delivering powerful people analytics to the organization because they have not done so in the past or is it just fear of change. Or maybe it is simply a lack of curiosity. If I were presented with a people analytics solution that would help place people that have the talent to do the work required into positions that fit their talent, I would jump at it.  Yet even with a powerful solution like Predictive Index available in the marketplace, there is no rush to learn more, no one beating down the doors to explore how to accelerate performance, not even a whimper. With that said, 100 of the Fortune 500 use Predictive Index to do exactly this, so it is not fair to say that no one is interested.

Of course there are always concerns about compliance and legal issues. These concerns are justified. If you decide to explore a solution or if you are using a solution within your organization, there are a couple of questions that you should ask yourself to make sure you are getting the best solution for your investment.

  • Does the solution help keep you out of legal entanglements by being EEOC, ADA, and European Union compliant? The bottom line, a solution that is free of bias and approved for the full employee life cycle.
  • Does the solution provide built in robust job modeling so that you can screen applicants against a job model for every position? You should be screening all applicants, incumbent and external first with the solution.
  • Does the solution allow you to efficiently and effectively screen for early talent?
  • Does the solution provide coaching and interview guides that are based on the gap between the employee profile and the job model?
  • Does the solution train and certify you to be a licensed analyst so that you can implement the solution where ever you go?
  • Does the solution provide executive dashboards to highlight team talents and compare with team performance so that you can improve the performance of teams?
  • Does the solution provide unlimited use of the complete solution based on a site license?
  • Does the solution come with coaching and consulting at no additional cost from your associate?
  • Is the solution based on a knowledge transfer model to insure complete implementation?
  • Does the solution deliver the big data that your executive team is demanding of you on people analytics?
  • Does the solution provide ongoing continuing education both in the form of self directed e-learning and webinars?

These are just some of the questions that you should be asking of yourself and your solution provider. To me this is a must have conversation. We can transform employees lives, hire the best people for the jobs, and improve organization performance by using predictive talent analytics.

Call or email me for more information on predictive talent analytics. It may not come as a surprise to you that our Predictive Index solutions absolutely deliver on every question above. John Inman 425-954-7256 or john@johninmandialogue.com.  

 

4 Guidelines to Building a Business Case for Workforce Analytics

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This blog post is a repost of a PI Worldwide newsletter article that I felt should be shared.

Today’s leadership teams recognize the value of data to solve business challenges and gain a competitive advantage. However, creating the necessary support and sponsorship can be an obstacle to establishing a data-driven culture. As more business leaders look to secure funding for their workforce analytics initiatives, success hinges on their ability to make an effective business case. A May 2014 MIT Sloan Management research study1 reports that investments in analytics have steadily increased since 2009 by an annual average growth rate of 8.5%. Further industry research suggests that organizations making these investments are two times more likely to improve their recruiting efforts and leadership pipelines, and are three times more likely to realize cost reductions and efficiency gains2.

Here are four guidelines to follow when building a business case for talent analytics3:

Define the business issue and determine your key stakeholders. In addition to understanding (and prioritizing) specific problem(s) that need to be solved, you must determine the individuals who will be impacted and involved in the process. Ask questions like: Who owns the issue we need to solve? Who would help champion this program? Who might challenge this program? Start by speaking with internal business leaders, line managers and other executives as you also conduct industry and market research.

Build a compelling solution. Detail the key components of your chosen solution and how it will be implemented. Consider dependencies like time, people and other projects. Key questions to pose include: Where will the solution be used? How will we roll out a multi-phase process? Should we combine the solution with another related initiative?

Quantify solution costs. Detail the hard and opportunity cost drivers of the solution—from the people expenses (e.g. headcount, training, hiring) to process costs (e.g. assessment costs, technology, overhead, etc.). Partner with key stakeholders to guide and validate cost assumptions.

Determine key metrics and define what success looks like. To make a concept meaningful, you need to make it measurable. Determine how you will quantify the benefits of the program/solution in terms of bottom line impact or other drivers that will resonate with your key audiences.

1 Kiron, Kirk Prentice, Boucher Ferguson. “The Analytics Mandate,” MIT Sloan Management Review. May 2014
2 Bersin by Deloitte. WhatWorks Brief. September 2013
3 Bersin by Deloitte. 2014

Download the PI Worldwide case study to learn how a National Healthcare Company Leverages Workforce Analytics to Build Strong Teams 

For more information contact John Inman at john@johninmandialogue.com and at 425-954-7256

Getting the right people in the right positions transforms organizations

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There is so much time and energy invested trying to get people to perform in jobs for which they are not suited. There is a better way. And that better way is to do a better job in the selection process. This cannot be done by simply screening resumes better, as resume screening is ineffective 80% of the time. Doing better on this is not yielding results. We need predictable performance improvement and resume screening is not the way to get it. Genetic predisposition is what creates over 50% of the success of a person in an organization. This is where the focus must be, understanding the genetic behaviors and cognition that a person brings to the organization. As well, if an employee is failing, rather than removing them from the organization, a much better and more respectful approach is finding a job that suits their genetics. So whether it is initial screening of applicants, repositioning of struggling employees, screening for advancement, or accelerating high performance, effectively assessing genetics is the best solution. Visit my people analytics page to learn more about a potential solution.