Would Your Sales Team Come in First Place?

Revolutionize your talent pool with job benchmarking

Have you ever hired sales person who didn’t meet your expectations?

Are you short on resources, money and time to spend identifying qualified candidates?

Would it positively affect your bottom line if your recruitment process consistently delivered qualified candidates that have been strategically matched to the job?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, you will benefit from a job matching approach that benchmarks a specific job, not the person, in an interactive process. A recent case study revealed that by using a DISC job benchmarking process, two different sales teams were positively transformed:

Company A

Company A’s sales manager was having a major problem with his sales force -- 74% turnover. That high rate of turnover came at a great cost to the company’s bottom line. In fact, it’s estimated that it can cost upwards of twice an employee’s salary to find and train a replacement, not to mention the damage to morale in remaining employees. To address Company A’s sales force issue, the job itself was benchmarked using Vantage's, job-related process. The sales manager was then able to compare all current and new salespeople against the benchmark. Each and every salesperson was put on a personalized development and management plan based on the job benchmark. The results? Company A’s sales team experienced 0% turnover for the next 24 months.

Company B

At Company B, a new sales manager inherited a sales team that ranked No. 22 out of 22, or dead last. The new manager immediately benchmarked the sales position using Vantage's process, and he compared his current salespeople to that benchmark. He quickly discovered that a massive 75% of his sales force did not match the sales position benchmark. By replacing that 75% with superior salespeople who did, in fact, match the benchmark, his team skyrocketed to No. 1 out of the 22 sales teams.

For both Company A and Company B, job benchmarking revolutionized their sales teams, increasing the profitability of each company. When you have the right people in the right jobs, you will create more dynamic teams with higher engagement, retention and development.

To learn how job benchmarking can revolutionize your hiring practices, contact Vantage at 616-676-3330 or email us at info@vantagegroupinc.com.

What's Keeping You Awake At Night

As business owners and managers, it’s not uncommon to be awakened in the night with questions of “Where are we going?” “How are we going to get there?” “Do we have the right talent?” Though the tried and true approach can be satisfactory for the time being, businesses cannot continue to operate as they’ve always done or hire as they always have and expect to see growth. Meanwhile, institutional change should never be capricious. The tool every organization should use to ensure success in the marketplace is a strategic plan. But you already know this, and chances are you have some form of one in place. So we must ask, why the cold sweats?

The answer is simple. If everything went according to plan, there would be no reason to worry, no reason for on-the-spot decisions and no reason not to see growth year after year.

The question becomes, “Do you have a strategic plan that is fluid and flexible enough to stay the course, while overcoming foreseen and unforeseen obstacles and making way for new opportunities?” And “Do you have the talent to execute?”

To determine if your plan will get you to the next level, you first must answer these five questions.

1. Where are you now?
2. Where are you going?
3. How will you get there?
4. How will you handle changes that arise?
5. How will you accept new opportunities?

One question remains, “Do you have the talent to execute your strategic plan?”

Most business leaders have read Jim Collins’ Good to Great. The concept of having the right seat on the bus is one that must be applied in order to achieve the objectives of your strategic plan. But let’s take that a step further. Do you know what your bus looks like? Do you know what purpose each seat plays in making your plan come to fruition?

If you are unsure or answered no to either question, or if it simply made you stop and think, then you need our two day workshop, Strategic Fast Track. In our two day corporate planning retreat, we will identify five steps to understanding your “Bus,” designing your seats and hiring the right people for each. Contact us today to find out more.

If the Job Could Talk, What Would it Say?

When job benchmarking is implemented properly, it will have a direct effect on your business’ bottom line. You’ll not only attract the best candidates, but you’ll save time and money by hiring the right people the first time and reducing the learning curve with new employees who are strategically matched to fit your company.

Job benchmarking can be broken into four key phases: Setup, Key Accountabilities, Assessment, and Results. Each phase is contingent on the one prior, and the entire benchmarking process can be duplicated across all positions within your company.

Setup

During this initial phase, a Vantage Associate will meet with you to identify the job to be benchmarked and your “Subject Matter Experts,” or stakeholders, in this process. Depending on whether the job is new or established, this can take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour. The Subject Matter Experts (also called SMEs) are people who know how the job should be done. Some examples of appropriate SMEs may include managers who have been in the job and top performers who are currently in the same position.

Key Accountabilities

The purpose of this phase is to ensure your job benchmark results will be accurate, and having all SMEs in the same room together will allow for engaging, productive work. By focusing on the main contributions the holder of the position makes to the organization, you’ll avoid a laundry list of tasks and assignments, instead focusing on the crucial elements of the role. By the time this part of the process is complete, you’ll be left with a comprehensive yet succinct group of three to five final key accountabilities that can and will be prioritized, weighed and ultimately measured.

Assessment

This crucial part of the job benchmarking process is where the science of DISC meets the experience and expertise of the benchmarking team. Through a multifaceted job report (your Associate will help you identify the particular job report best suited for your business needs), all SMEs will participate by individually completing the assessment with the previously identified key accountabilities in mind. Once all of the reports are reviewed and combined, the final outcome will result in a clear picture of the job – and now you’re ready to find the talent to match!

Results

At this point, you can now compare anyone you wish against the benchmark, whether it is someone who is applying for the job or someone who is already in the job. As personal assessments are administered, results will be compared against the job in a Gap Report that identifies the critical success factors and the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, as pertaining to the job.

By investing in job benchmarking, you’ll secure the talent necessary for success while eliminating common biases often associated with the hiring process. The factual data you receive (based on the job requirements themselves) will provide you with a solid foundation for hiring and development success!

Do you know the key accountabilities for the central roles in your organization? If not, contact Vantage for help.

Assessment Use and the Law

The ever-changing landscape of employment law is complex enough when working within your area of expertise. The scary thing is what you don’t know. How can you trust an assessment provider to help you stay compliant when the laws, and sometimes more importantly case laws, are changing so rapidly?

Many lawsuits have very little to do with the use of assessments within an organization. Typically there is another cause for the lawsuit, and then assessments as well as all other employment practices come under scrutiny. This is why it is so important to be partnered with an assessment provider that is compliant and has dedicated resources to maintaining its compliance.

In a world where employees are feeling empowered to bring about litigation and “bad press” through social media and other avenues, how do organizations protect themselves? Decisions are being forced to be made based on financial and brand impact versus principles and what’s right. The question becomes how can an organization make principle-based decisions without negatively impacting their brand or spending endless legal dollars fighting for what’s right?

Here are five tips for effectively managing your legal risk when utilizing assessments.

1. Job-related – All employment practices, including assessments, must be job-related.
2. Free of Adverse Impact – Documented proof that the assessment tools do not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, disability status or veteran status.
3. Consistency in Use – Assessments must be used in a consistent way. This isn’t to say “all or nothing”, just consistent within each hiring or development situation.
4. Internal, Company Specific Validation – An assessment provider should be willing to run an internal predictability and adverse impact study based on the use of their assessments within a specific organization.
5. Constant Review – Government agencies require “periodic” monitoring of assessment and employment practices. Proof of the ongoing concentration on compliance from an assessment provider is required.

For more information on how to implement these five tips contact Vantage at 616-676-3330.

Five Steps to Hiring Success

Over 51% of organizations expect to increase in size over the next 12 months, according to a recent survey through Talent Technology. Meanwhile, experts estimate that 1% of the resumes received for an average job represent qualified applicants.

So what can you do to get results, reduce hiring stress and keep compliant? Here are five simple steps to get you started.

1. Let the Job Talk - Spend more time determining what the ideal candidate looks like from not only a hard skills and experience perspective, but also from a behavioral, motivational and personal skills point of view.
2. Protect Yourself Against EEOC and OFCCP - Verify how all of the screening requirements are job-related and predictable in determining superior performance for your organization.
3. Plan for Hiring Success - Create a plan for consistency without over-exposing your opinions and viewpoints. Document the process and completion of steps without documenting every thought or interaction.
4. Structured Screening Process - Create a phone or online interview and assessment process to help lower-performing applicants decide this job isn’t for them.
5. Keep Your Biases Out of the Process - Conduct consistent and objective face-to-face interviews that are structured and cover the same questions for each applicant.

Once you have fought your way through the hiring puzzle, be sure to on-board quickly and effectively, as superior performers want to be productive as soon as possible. Remember, if a new hire is not properly on-boarded, your chances of repeating your hiring nightmare will increase dramatically.