Improving Performance using Psychometric Testing
30/10/2008
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How to improve the performance of your existing staff and set the benchmark for new employees
The easiest way to improve performance is to identify your best people and replicate them*. Too many businesses do not really know who their best people are. Use measurable criteria to identify your top performers. The old adage about not being able to manage what you don't measure applies – in spades.
Learn what makes them the best. Characteristics of top performers can be measured and recorded. How many times have you heard “if I could find more people like him (or her) then we could make a fortune”? If you know these characteristics then new people with the same can be found, but more importantly you can focus on keeping your best. You can then look at ways to compensate them so they feel good about what they do. A lot of these people do not want promotion or other jobs that pay better, they want to be recognised for doing a good job where they are.
In addition those people with the right abilities can then be trained**. Those applicants/employees without traditional qualifications (degrees, years of experience) but have the right abilities can be trained. Conversely those without the right abilities will never be top performers whatever the amount of training.
The notion of training anyone to do anything does not work. “We know pigs don’t have wings but we still send pigs to flying school every day”. Select employees with the right characteristics and abilities. The Profile XT can do this for you. This measures whether a person can do the job, whether they want to do the job and ultimately whether they will stay in the job. These factors are then compared to those same elements required for the job in question. Your top performers will have a high percentage fit. This is called job fit or job matching.
By the way pigs may never be good fliers but they can run quite well. Train your pigs to run and send your eagles to flying school. In both cases you can produce top performers, and your profits will be reflected in your good business practices!
*If you don’t have top performers you can still define those abilities and characteristics that you want embodied in your staff to achieve top performance. We can help you do this. For a free job analysis survey email us or call +44 (0)1491 636300 or click the need help? box in the right hand column.
**Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business. F. Leigh Branham
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