When personal GPS navigation systems were first invented it was common for people to hear the statement “recalculating.” This happened when a person took a new direction to a destination not programmed in the GPS. For example, if you didn’t want to wait for a traffic jam  to lear up, you would go down the nearest exit ramp and as you turned off the highway the female voice on the Garmin said, “Recalculating.” Ignoring the voice, because knowing where you’re going you make another turn and the Garmin says again, “Recalculating.” Again, another turn is met with another, “Recalculating.” This exchanging of turns are met with protests from the Garmin happens multiple times, until it actually says in its female voice, “There is a better way” and then stops talking. The Garmin gives you lip and then the silent treatment!

This story, comes to mind as we approach the New Year. The NEW YEAR! What happened to the OLD year? But, ready or not, here she comes… the New Year.

 Even though the past year may have flown by, the best part about the New Year is this: it is NEW… a new chance at a fresh start… a new opportunity to ask ourselves if we are set for the right destination…with the right people…in the right chairs… a new calendar to reshape the rhythms and habits of our organization and the people within. In short, this week, more than any other week in the entire year is a time for us to hear the statement, “Recalculating.” As we look back on the worst, better and best of the past year we are instinctively “recalculating”; redirecting our course; renewing our resolve. Why? Because mediocrity is the enemy of success. This is especially true in hiring. This is why, at a certain point in the next week the voice of success, whose voice should be directing us, will whisper within, “There is a better way.”

In what way will you better your organization this New Year? And, more importantly, what voice are you going to listen to as you “recalculate” your hiring and retention? Will it be the voice of ‘same ole-same ole’ or will it be the voice of quick, cheap and easy? Or will it be the voice of success, confidence and right? Let us show you the voice of successful hire and how to adjust your hiring to the “recalculations” so that this voice will say, “You found the better way.”

The Right Fit Hiring way.
Happy New Year!

Write a Note.
Take the time to write a note to employees who you feel have stood out this year. List specific actions and achievements that those employees have accomplished and how they have made things better for someone else or the company in general. Also, take the time to express appreciation for any personal-related help in your note. If an employee has helped you out with a personal emergency or covered work for you while you were out, express your thankfulness for his or her help.

Throw a Thanksgiving Party
Company holiday parties are common but they are typically geared towards Christmas. Consider hosting a smaller Thanksgiving party. The purpose of this party is to show your employees you appreciate them so try to avoid making your employees responsible for cooking or bringing dishes. Consider cooking yourself or catering to emphasize the fact that the party is for the employees to show them that they are valued. Find some time to speak during the event and express your thanks and gratitude to your employees for their work this year.

Give your Employees a a Thanksgiving Treat
Employees always appreciate rewards and gifts, no matter how small. Think about presenting movie tickets or a Team Donation to a Non-Profit. Remember to share your branded, corporate merchandise like T-shirts and coffee mugs. But gifts don’t always need to be monetary.

Provide a New Training and Development Opportunity
External training and development sessions are a benefit to both the employee and the company. Most employees enjoy getting out of the office for a day and breaking up their normal routine to attend a training session. The employer benefits by the improved skills of its employees. Find a training session that you feel is appropriate and announce the opportunity to your employees around Thanksgiving.

From the Entire National Screening BureauTeam: Happy Thanksgiving!

Without job fit, how can employees ever experience happiness and success in their work? Everyone deserves the opportunity to work to achieve their full and highest potential.

What is Job Fit?                                    

It’s the degree of congruence between an individual’s strengths, needs, and wants in a particular job, and work environment. When interests align, the employee and the organization experience a good job fit. Based on identifying innate personality traits, abilities, and behaviors, assessing for job fit determines if a person CAN do a job, HOW they will do a job, and if they will ENJOY the position. Every individual is motivated and driven by different influences. Job fit outlines the unique job-related qualities that make a person productive.

Why You Should Establish Job Fit

Did you know that employees who are well matched to their jobs are 2.5 times more productive on the job? Studies show that proper job fit improves engagement and job satisfaction, resulting in increased productivity, while negative factors such as job-related stress, tension, workplace conflict, and costly employee turnover diminish.

Organizations with a philosophy of matching people to jobs have a competitive advantage over their competition. Having followed 360,000 people through their careers during a period of 20 years, a major study published by Harvard Business Review demonstrated that key ingredient in retaining people is ensuring that they are matched to their jobs in terms of their abilities, interests, and personalities.

The study found that when you put people in jobs where the demands of the job matched their own abilities, where the stimulation offered by the job matched their particular interests, and where the cultural demands of the position matched their personalities, staff turnover decreased dramatically, and productivity increased drastically.

NATSB specialists have over 20 years’ experience in working with organizations implement Job Fit into their hiring and retention practices with favorable results.
Want to learn more? Placing the right people in the right positions will make a positive impact within any organization. Right Fit is an advanced, state-of-the-art solution available for measuring human potential and predicting job performance. To learn more, contact National Screening Bureau: 877-263-4405 or will@natsb.com.
Will Stricker
Assessment Specialist

The following is an excerpt from article by Jared Bernstein that appeared in the Washington Post on 1//27/2015

The Paths to Full Employment, Path 1: Fair-hiring practices for those with criminal records

One way to help these people get a fair shake in the job market is to “ban the box.”

The “box” is a checkbox on job applications that asks about an applicant’s criminal record. Banning it does not — I repeat, does not — demand that background information be kept from employers; surely there are jobs and occupations where such information is relevant. But the idea behind “fair chance” hiring practices like ban-the-box is that applicants with criminal records should not be disadvantaged on the initial application.

In later stages, employers should of course be free to ask potential hires about their records and conduct background checks. But ban-the-box provisions move that activity to a later stage of the interview process, after employers have developed impressions of candidates from meeting them and learning about their qualifications and skills.

NELP recommends, and I agree, that the background check come late in the game, ideally after a conditional offer of employment (which, to be clear, is the way it’s often been in my own experience, even at the White House — the background check is a formality after the job offer).

It’s a simple ask. Say an employer looks at two initial applications and sees that box checked in one of them. Most of us would toss that application and pursue the other. The goal of banning the box is thus to “ensure that employers take into account other important factors when considering an applicant’s conviction history, including the age of the offense, the relationship of the individual’s record to the job duties and responsibilities, and evidence of rehabilitation.”

This fair-hiring work is relatively new, but the available data suggest the policies are helping. In Minneapolis, postponing the background check until after a conditional offer of employment “resulted in more than half of applicants with a conviction being hired.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/27/the-paths-to-full-employment-path-1-fair-hiring-practices-for-those-with-criminal-records/