DISC assessments are self evaluation tools. Tools which measure our natural behaviours, although they're simple. The resources are based on the DISC concept that classifies four styles. Their letters, D, i, S, and C.
Easily identify the four styles instrument might help us be aware of how we would rather go about daily. We've a natural style of doing things or a way. Second of all, but equally important, we will need to be able to recognize others manner. We make alterations to our style, after we have information about other preferences and natural tendencies. We might concentrate on how others prefer to be treated. The DISC evaluations provide ways identify the style of others to be more mindful of our style, and advice to alter our behaviors. The DISC assessment doesn't measure intelligence, attitude, values, or abilities. There are various DISC tools which are based on the DISC model.
Not all DISC tools quantify the same thing. While it may look so simple on the surface, all DISC instruments are not the same. Our Everything DiSC assessments provide such data that is strong and valid? Our DiSC ratings are built on years of continuous and research validation. Let's look at a brief history of DISC - During the 1920 there was a psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung that explained the four types of behavior. This simple model of human behavior laid the groundwork for DISC tools which are in use today. Soon after, William Moulton Marston generated a four quadrant model of DISC styles and constructed upon Jung's work. Marston was a psychologist, attorney, and inventor. He was also a comic book author and creator of exactly the comic super hero, Wonder Woman.
Marston wanted to increase self consciousness and how to better understand other individuals by measuring exactly the emotions of normal people. Nevertheless, he didn't actually develop the tools to evaluate people. In 1956, Walter Clarke, an industrial psychologist, developed exactly the first resources using Marston's DISC concept. These early DISC assessments were utilized in companies for support in job placement and hiring. Later a University of Minnesota Professor, John Grier, used self description and created Personal Profiles Systems. In the early 2000, Inscape Publishing, now known as Wiley and introduced the Everything DiSC profiles.
There is now a new generation of people who are not only workers, but also business owners with the rising popularity of entrepreneurship, technology, and globalization. Because of this, there has been a huge increase in demand for HR services in the last few years. Companies are also in an intense search for new talent as their numbers grow. Because of this, they are searching for an experienced and knowledgeable consultant that can help them in the recruitment and hiring process.
These days, many businesses are exploring the idea of integrating new technologies into their organizations to stay up to date with the competitive market and even innovative organizations like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. As companies start integrating new technologies, it has become more essential for the companies to understand and implement strategies that will meet their goals in implementing these innovations. In the past, this would have taken a lot of effort on the part of the business; however, today, such innovations are fast becoming an indispensable part of every company's business.
To keep up with the times, businesses are turning to specialists to help them better understand new methods of recruitment and hiring. Such consultants are able to identify potential employee behaviors and enhance employee engagement.
With regards to employee engagement, it is a pivotal issue that helps companies improve their performance and increase their bottom line. As business managers strive to create a productive and engaged workforce, they are looking for ways to build trust and improve performance. An effective workforce will help a company achieve its goals.
The same situation applies when it comes to employee motivation. One way to motivate an employee is to ensure that they feel valued and respected. In order to achieve this, companies need to hire highly skilled consultants to help them in developing both the goodwill and engagement levels of their employees.
It is important for companies to develop an engaged workforce as this will ultimately benefit them. Business owners need to look for ways to motivate their workforce as a way to maintain a high level of productivity.
Companies are constantly on the lookout for the latest trends and innovations. To stay competitive, it is important for companies to foster loyalty and retain loyal staff. To achieve this, many companies are turning to professional human resources consultants to help them find the best ways to foster a competitive workforce.
By engaging professionals like human resources consultants, companies are able to achieve the right combination of employer and employee that will contribute to a high level of engagement and loyalty. A good human resources consultant will help to create an environment that fosters loyalty and engagement within the company. They will work closely with the company to improve employee motivation and behaviors, build teamwork, and develop new ways to improve performance.
These consultants are able to come up with an innovative approach to developing new ways to get to the bottom of issues and challenges for their clients. To help them achieve their goals, they use a combination of professional development and consumer behavior analysis to develop new approaches to challenging situations.
By leveraging the latest trends and finding new ways to help employers and businesses grow, human resources consulting has become an integral part of every organization's strategy. Because of this, businesses are turning to a consultant that will help them identify trends and processes that will lead to a more engaged workforce and a successful business.
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How many of you have struggled with communicating effectively? I have.
For some, communication comes so easily and naturally. While for others, we struggle to communicate or get or message across to the receiver.
Most recently, I was at an event where I was interviewing with a panelist. I was prepping the speaker on what to expect. I advised the speaker that we will put the microphone on her, then she will meet with our moderator and asked that when on-screen she introduces herself on camera (name, company, role).
The speaker replied okay to everything, then said, “I will sit on the couch."
I then responded, "you can't sit on the couch yet as you will be in the scene for the current video that's shooting."
To help you visualize the environment, we had two sofas, one where the moderator was conducting the interview and one directly next to the moderator that would fall in the shot of the conversation.
So, my response totally confused the speaker.
How could this be?
We were in the same room, talking on the same subject, yet had two different perspectives on what would happen. The speaker's reference to the couch was that she would sit on the big couch for her interview. My reference to the couch was that the speaker wanted to sit down on the couch (tired) and couldn't do so yet as she would be in the shot we were currently shooting.
How often does this happen to you during the day where mixed messages and communication leads to a difference of perspectives?
In some cases, communication can be so flawed that it impacts the environment, collaboration, and culture in an organization.
Yet, if we learned some simple tricks, we can leverage our personal strengths to improve how we communicate with others leading to improved results.
When you are more in tune with your behavior and how you respond, it will help you learn how to engage with others better. Paying attention to how you engage with others, your spouse, your colleagues, your friends will help to identify your natural tendencies (habits).
Do you find that you prefer to engage with others on a one on one basis, or are you energized by being the life of the party?
Do you prefer large data sets or supporting information before deciding?
Do you struggle to make decisions because you require all the facts, or do you just do it and pivot your strategy as you move through your project or initiatives?
These characteristics and behavior define and shape who you are. It also shapes how you engage with others.
For example, I prefer doing and figuring things out as I go, while, in my relationship, my partner is slow to make decisions to the point where it has to be absolutely perfect before taking any action (decision paralysis).
These behaviors are on opposite ends of the spectrum and can naturally lead to conflict. However, if you are more aware of what drives and energizes you; and what depletes your energy, this will allow you to structure your engagement and communication with others for a more successful outcome.
Once you understand your natural tendencies, you can leverage these behaviors (personal strengths) to identify the impact you are having on others. Remember, we all look at a situation from a different perspective allowing for diverse decision making and approaches to solving problems. How we may go about an issue may be different from how someone else approaches that same issue.
What we need to understand is how we approach others with differing perspectives. If we don’t have the right approach when engaging with others with a differing perspective, it can lead to so many issues from low morale, conflict, poor relationships, and an impact on organizational performance.
Understanding your natural behaviors and tendencies allows you to pivot your approach to communicating with someone of a differing style for a more productive outcome.
For example, some people gravitate to others and build relationships with anyone (people-focused), while others are slower to build relationships as they are skeptical. Identifying behavioral queues can help you to pick up on an individual's style so that you can engage with them in a manner they are receptive of and can process.
One of the ways that you can become more self-aware is by completing an assessment such as DiSC Personality Profiles. These profiles help you to understand your behavior and natural tendencies, and leverage what you learn about you (through the results report) to offer solutions to engage with others more effectively.
With DiSC profiles, you can complete a paper version which is known as the DiSC Classic or an electronic version which is known as the Everything DiSC profiles. The Everything DiSC Workplace profiles are so simple to understand and provide tips on improving your impact in the workplace. Another popular DiSC profile is the Everything DiSC management profile, which looks at helping you understand your behaviors and natural tendencies and how your behavior impacts those that you manage (decision making, influencing, and development).
Finally, DiSC isn’t the only solution in the marketplace that provides you input on your natural behaviors and tendencies. Assessments such as Meyers Briggs (MBTI), Big Five, and Hogan are some of the popular ones. They all help you leverage the strengths of your personal behavior to improve how you engage with others.
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Read more here.
]]>The DiSC Classic Paper profile was the first DiSC profile created to help you identify your natural tendencies and behaviors and learn how to leverage your personal strengths in the workplace. This profile allows you to complete an assessment without the requirement of having access to a computer.
The DiSC Classic Profile comes in a little blue booklet with a graph of the four primary DiSC styles on the front; D, i, S and C. Then when you open the booklet, the first two pages provide an overview of the DiSC assessment and instructions on how to complete the DiSC assessment.
In this section, a chart is available for you to tear out and use the chart to tally their results while completing the assessments.
After reviewing the instructions, you can begin completing the assessment.
The DiSC Classic Paper profile is based on twenty-eight (28) questions. These questions use adjectives to describe your behavior. Each section will have four adjectives for you to select from where you identify behaviors that are most like you or least like you. Keep in mind that this is an assessment, not a test, therefore there is no right or wrong answer. The assessment provides you with insight into your behaviors and how you respond to a given situations in the workplace.
After responding to all twenty-eight (28) questions, participants tally their scores. Scoring the DiSC Classic Profile uses shapes and letters. So you will have to count how many stars, or triangles etc. did you get on your assessment. Each column tallied will equal to twenty-eight (28).
Next, you subtract Graph 1, most like you column, from Graph II, the least like you column. This provides the difference which is entered into Graph III.
Now that you have tallied your results, the numbers that you have on Graph I, Graph II, and Graph III are plotted on the chart for Graph I, Graph II, and Graph III. Plot each section of the D, i, S, and C on all the graphs, this then provides you with your segment numbers and your classical patterns results.
Your DiSC Classic pattern description is your final score and identifies where you are placed on the DiSC model. For example, if your segment result is 2167, you turn to page ten (10) in the report to find 2167 and the name of that classical pattern.
Finally, you should read the description of your DiSC classic pattern. Review it to see how closely the description aligns with your patterns and behaviors. Consider behaviors that are like you and assess how closely the feedback in the report aligns closely or differs from you. Then discuss your results with a trusted partner to see how they experience you in the workplace, and if the description provided aligns with how you behave.
The DiSC Classic profile was so successful that it led to the creation of the electronic version of the DiSC Classic Profile.
The DiSC Classic 2.0 Profile is the electronic version and it uses the original DiSC classic profile to provide participants with results of their DiSC personality style. Similar to the paper version, participants respond to twenty-eight questions using adjectives to describe their behaviors.
The system provides you with results instantly. You will learn about their DiSC dimensions, tendencies, needs, preferred environment and strategies for effectiveness. You will become more aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Finally, you will learn your DiSC classical pattern.
The DiSC Classic 2.0 plus profile incorporates everything from the DiSC Classic Profile and the DiSC Classic 2.0 profile.
The DiSC Classic 2.0 plus provides additional content to help managers discover their personal strengths and provides them with tips on management such as: strategies on managing, approach to managing others, strategies for sales management, and strategies on individual approach to selling.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Management Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
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When you are working with someone who possesses the, C, Conscientiousness DiSC personality style you will find that individuals who possess this style look at themselves as systemic and having a strong focus on accuracy. The C, Conscientiousness, DiSC personality type individuals are reserved and are likely to keep to themselves.
In their pursuit of accomplishing their goals, you may experience the C, Conscientiousness, DiSC personality type and find they are private, analytical, and precise.
The C, Conscientiousness, DiSC Personality type of individual puts a strong emphasis on logic and accuracy. As such, when they are working on projects, they are careful to ensure that they get things right. The conscientious DiSC personality style individual also value their privacy and can come across as impersonal if you don't know them well.
When we look at the DiSC assessment for someone with a C DiSC personality style, the priorities that surround the Conscientiousness DiSC personality style are stability, accuracy, and challenge.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Management Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
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Thank you for joining us on this journey.
We appreciate you as our client and know that you have many vendors to choose from, yet you went with us. For that, we are forever grateful.
This year we started small and gained an impressive client portfolio.
We partnered with a community-based hospital having an impact on the neediest patients in NYC.
We partnered with an organization that works to improve the experiences of kids by focusing on their needs first, ensuring that they receive equity in education and have access to resources.
We partnered with school-based leaders for the 2018 - 2019 school year to leverage the power of communication, create an equitable learning experience, and engage all stakeholders throughout the process.
We worked with for-profit and non-profits in industries ranging from manufacturing, emergency response vehicle production, education, electrical, engineering, government, financial service, and healthcare.
The year was full of exciting experiences. You are and will continue to be the key ingredient in these amazing experiences. I owe all the praises to you, and I am forever grateful. I can’t wait to see what exciting journey we take together in 2019.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Happy Holidays!
When you are working with someone who possesses the, S, Support DiSC personality style you will find that they will go out of their way to make others happy. An individual with an S style is patient with others and comes across an even-tempered. The, S, Support, DiSC personality type individuals are empathetic and trusting.
In their pursuit of maintaining harmony the S, Support, DiSC personality type would prefer to keep their opinions to themselves rather than to hurt someone’s feeling.
The S, Support, DiSC Personality type of individual values relationships and empathizes and listens to others. As such, they avoid tough decisions to spare feelings. As a result of the emphasis they place on harmony, they avoid giving constructive criticism and struggle with indecisiveness.
When we look at the DiSC assessment for someone with an S personality style, the priorities that surround the Support DiSC personality style are collaboration, support, and reliability.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
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Proactively manage your organization’s presence on Glassdoor. Review the site to learn about the candidate and employees’ experience with your organization. Respond to employees’ feedback on the site to demonstrate that you hear their message and are interested in working with them to find a viable solution to the concerns that they shared. Do not engage in negative debate on the platform. Demonstrate that your organization has an open-door policy and the company is happy to create a work environment that welcomes feedback from all.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Management Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
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When you are working with someone who possesses the, I, Influence DiSC personality style you will naturally gravitate to this individual as they are optimistic, extremely outgoing, and exudes high energy in the workplace. An individual with the I Influence DiSC personality type is highly sociable and lively.
In their pursuit of accomplishing their goals, you may experience the I, Influence, DiSC personality type, and find they are enthusiastic and high-spirited.
The I, Influence DiSC Personality type values relationships and is savvy at navigating their organizational network. As such, they fear social rejection and a loss of influence. As a result of the emphasis they place on relationships, it is imperative to keep an individual with an I, Influence DiSC Personality style on track as they can get sidetracked.
When we look at the DiSC assessment for someone with an I personality style, the priorities that surround the Influence DiSC personality style are action, encouragement, and collaboration.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
]]>Now that 2018 is quickly coming to close, managers must prepare for the performance management season and hold performance discussions with their employees.
The performance review season requires managers to assess the performance of their employees over the last year, provide feedback on goal achievement, identify opportunities for development, and provide a final rating.
While the process of performance management varies from company to company, with some companies holding annual feedback discussions, other companies building a robust process for performance discussions occurring quarterly, and other companies eliminating stacked ranking and ratings in general, one thing remains constant, performance discussions are not successful without a deep focus on communication.
Performance management does not work if the organization does not know how to provide feedback and how to communicate effectively.
Organizations must learn how to equip managers with the skills to provide feedback to employees within the organization. Feedback is critical to the success of any performance management program. It requires managers to be empathic and to ensure a process of two-way communication between the manager and employees. These conversations allow managers to share the organizational strategies, level set the manager's expectation of the employee, gather input from the employees, discuss the performance metrics, and determine how the manager expects the individual to achieve these goals.
While these conversations occur in some fashion in many organization’s, the performance management process still continues to be a struggle for most organizations. Both managers and employees equally hate the performance management process:
Performance management becomes a tangled web of weave by attempting to serve many purposes. The performance management process assesses for compensation increases, is the basis for talent decision, career development, and serves as documentation for labor relations.
With all the challenges of the performance management process, many organizations still utilize it and must find a way to make it work. There are a few key components that must be incorporated into your performance process:
References:
SHRM. (2017, December). Performance Management that Makes a Difference: An Evidenced-Based Approach. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert views/Documents/Performance%20Management.pdf
Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst
When you are working with someone who possesses the D (dominance) personality style, strap your seatbelt on and embrace the fast-paced style of the D individual. Individuals with the D personality type are bold, big-picture thinkers, they challenge themselves as well as others, and like to get things done.
In their pursuit of accomplishing their goals, you may experience the D personality type and find they are self-confident, risk-takers, and direct and forceful.
As much as the D personality type likes to win and achieve successful outcomes, they sometimes get in their own way. They tend to show a lack of concerns for others, are impatient, and can be insensitive at times. They have little patience for things that stand in the way of progress, including taking a long time to decide on how to move forward.
When we look at the DiSC assessment for D personality style, the priorities that surround the D style are results, action, and challenge.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Management Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
For example, a female employee who worked in the construction field, all-male environment, as an electrician was assaulted by a male co-worker on the job. The co-worker continuously made advances to take her out on dates, for them to get together, which she continuously declined.
This occurred over a period of months.
One day the co-worker became so brazen and upset with the employee's continuous declining of his offers that he became aggressive and assaulted her on the job. He grabbed her and pulled her close in a bear hug with his body touching hers. She had to fight her way out of the position and was traumatized. She never told HR about what happened. She was too afraid to go back to work. After taking some time away from the job she eventually quit and became so afraid of working in construction that she never stepped foot on another job site again. She gave up her electrician career entirely.
The additional impact of the confirmation hearing on your workplace that you should consider as HR leaders are the impact it has on men. In many organizations, the senior leadership team is comprised of men. For women to accelerate their careers they will need to work with and gain sponsorship from men. However, with all that has been occurring with sexual assault and the me-too movement, you will find that some men may shy away from working closely with women, especially if there isn’t another person around to witness what is occurring.
While I strongly believe in the rights of women and sexual assault victims, I do believe that in the long term, we could face a decline in advocacy and sponsorship with our male counterparts. We must take proactive actions to engage and support men as our allies. Communicate to men that they have our support and that they are valued partners in the development of future leaders in the organization. Find a way to create trust amongst the sexes and continue to operate as one organization.
Communicate your sexual harassment policy so that all employees are aware of what your policies are and ensure that employees know that their concerns will be considered and investigated.
In addition, make sure that employees understand that all complaints will be confidential and that bringing forward complaints will not result in retaliation. Many individuals who were assaulted and failed to bring forward a complaint felt that the organization would not do anything about their complaint and feared being fired or harassed further if they told anyone.
We can’t solve the problem of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace with only women. We need men to be included in the discussion and identification of a solution. In addition to your organization's diversity and inclusion training, develop training to help men in your organization understand their roles as ally’s. “[T]each people in positions of privilege—namely white men—to change their behavior instead of expecting marginalized employees to change theirs.”
Establish a level playing field for hiring and promotions in your organizations. Change the bias that exists influencing how women are viewed for a leadership position and how men are viewed for a leadership position.
Historically, men in the workplace can advance easily in their career given their technical expertise. Women with no children advance in their career at a higher rate than women with children and family commitments. Review your process of hiring and promotions. Identifying any inconsistencies in hiring and promotion is a step in the right direction.
Our expectations of how men should behave and women should behave in the workplace is inequitable. Women are expected to be considerate, kind, and collegial, while men can be belligerent, indignant, and blunt. Women can't equally demonstrate the same behaviors as men without it resulting in some type of punitive action.
Hold both women and men equally accountable for demonstrating values that are valued by your organization equally. Communicate those values to your existing employees and ensure that your employer branding shares your values with future candidates.
Don't allow sexual assault and harassment to divide your organization and impact the performance of your business. Implement these strategies to create a cohesive organization and align employees.
References:
Cohen, L. (2016, October). Sexual Harassment Survivors Talk About the Aftermath of Going Public. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/sexual-harrassment-victims-job-aftermath/
Nelson, A. (2018, September). The Humanization of Kavanaugh and The Undoing Of American Women. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/amynelson1/2018/09/17/the-humanization-of-kavanaugh-and-the-undoing-of-american-women/#433a9fe91fbf
Now that you have completed your DiSC Profile you are probably wondering how to interpret the results of your Everything DiSC personality report.
The DiSC personality report is straightforward to understand and doesn't require a licensed psychologist or interpreter to review the results with you. Our Everything DiSC assessments are written in the purest form to make it accessible to everyone who would like to understand their personality style and leverage their strengths to improve their productivity.
]]>The DiSC profile report is straightforward, easy to understand and doesn't require a licensed psychologist or interpreter to review the results with you. Our Everything DiSC assessments are written in the purest form to make it accessible to everyone who would like to understand their personality style and leverage their strengths to improve productivity.
The first part of your DiSC report introduces you to the DiSC model.
The DiSC profile is a two-dimensional model which then creates four main quadrants: Dominance (D), influence (i), Support (S), and Conscientiousness (C).
As you've seen by completing your assessment, the DiSC assessment is based on eighty (80) questions where you identified behaviors that were most like you or least like you. The DiSC assessment used adaptive testing to determine the specific questions for you to answer, thereby ensuring the assessment is personalized to your behaviors and providing you with accurate results that reflect your DiSC personality type.
In your DiSC profile report, you will find the cornerstone principles. The cornerstone principles are vital principles for applying the DiSC model at work. The premise is that all personality styles are equally valuable, our experiences such as our life experiences (environment, culture, neighborhood, etc.) influence how you behave and reflected in your results. The report should be used as a guiding star to help improve you, while some of the feedback will not surprise you, other parts may come as a surprise, therefore, we ask you to be kind to yourself as you implement the DiSC model in the workplace since changing behavior takes work. Completing a DiSC profile is the first step of your journey.
The DiSC profile overview section identifies your dot placement. We mentioned above that the DiSC model is based on four quadrants. Those four quadrants break down further into the twelve styles of DiSC and provides twelve (12) regions identifying your DiSC personality dot placement.
Besides your DiSC personality dot placement, where your dot is located on the DiSC model chart matters. A dot that is located closer to the edge of the circle indicates that the individual has a strong inclination of that DiSC personality style. A dot placed towards the middle of the circle shows a moderate inclination for the personality style. Finally, a dot that is located close to the center of the circle has a slight inclination of that DiSC personality style.
This portion of the Everything DiSC personality report is my favorite. Some participants like to refer to this report section as the truth serum. In this section, the report takes all the behaviors identified from when you completed the assessment, creates a story so that you can better understand your behavior and highlights the impact of your behavior on others. We all know that storytelling is a much better way to get your message across, likewise, with the results from your DiSC profile report, the story is provided in such an impactful way that it is hard to believe that it could be so precise.
In your report, you will find that the DiSC model chart is shaded. The chart contains words around the circumference. Your shading identifies your priorities. The words which are located nearest to your shading identifies what you like to focus your energy on. Most people have at least three priorities. Some people can stretch to include four or five priorities.
This part of the DiSC report is really simple and helpful. It looks at what your motivators and stressors are. Different people have different triggers that motivate them and other triggers that will stress them out. Your Everything DiSC personality report will identify some of your key triggers so that you can quickly identify these behaviors in the workplace.
The rest of the Everything DiSC profile report provides you with an overview of the other personality styles which differ from your results. It helps you to understand how you react to different styles and provides strategies to increase your effectiveness with differing DiSC personality styles.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
]]>Organizations have been using fit as a metric to identify the best candidate for a role. Cultural fit assesses how well the potential candidates aligns to your existing culture and the likelihood that if the candidate is given the job, they will successfully acclimate to your culture.
Managers who are recruiting based on fit identify commonality of shared experiences, and likeability…how well I like this person and how well I think this person will fit in our organization. They make judgments based on their gut about the individual's ability to mesh well in their organization. Sometimes these snap-judgment and hiring for commonality to align with the existing culture fit of the team and the organization poses risks. We can look at numerous examples of a culture gone wrong, such as the Wells Fargo scandal where employees were creating fraudulent accounts.
Besides the risk of fit leading to snap judgment, fit can lead to unintentional bias (or the bias trap as described by Facebook) and exclusion of qualified candidates. Managers who hire for fit hire individuals with similar experiences and background that they connect with, yet, this individual may not be the most qualified based on skills and abilities for the role. Fit becomes a process of weeding out candidates whose experience are different than the majority of employees at your organization. With the risks that fit poses to an organization, fit continues to be used as a metric, and the deciding factor of who gets hired in 80% of the organization.
In organizations that are attempting to shift their business model and keep up with the pace of changes occurring in their industry, fit would prove to be challenging again, as it aligns back to the way we do things around here, while an organization in transformation is shifting the way they are doing things overall.
Hiring for fit against the roles in the future becomes much more difficult to do as the comparative baseline used to determine fit no longer exists. The jobs of the future are continuously evolving and will require candidates with unknown skills and the ability to execute during times of uncertainty and change. As jobs continue to evolve, the measure for fit using commonality disappears and becomes even harder to establish. Therefore, shifting your perspectives about fit is critical to the success of your business.
When interviewing for fit, align fit to your organizational value. Ensure that you have clearly define what your organizational values are and have communicated your organizational value throughout the company. For example, if your company values innovation, make sure that you embrace candidates who like to create new processes; or if you value collaboration, make sure that your candidate has a preference for working with others.
Additionally, ensure that your systems are set up to embrace the values that you hire for. Pay attention to your message. Don't communicate that you value collaboration and when a person takes the job your culture promotes individualism in its systems and rewards structure.
Ensure that Recruiters and Managers understand how the role aligns with your organizational values. If necessary, incorporate the values into your job description, and interviewing packets. Create a consistent framework that assesses how each candidate fits as determined by the values you measured them on.
Recruiters and Managers should participate in training on unconscious bias. The way our brain work is to make fast judgments, take mental shortcuts so that we can process more decisions. However, during the interview process, this results in the interviewer looking for queues to classify candidates as friend or foe, ingroup or outgroup, and good fit or poor fit. Researchers found that “Interviewers look for a sense of connection, often seeking potential friends and “playmates” rather than those with the best work experience or job-relevant skills”
Similar to living a healthy lifestyle, moving from culture fit to culture add will improve your organization tremendously. Culture add is dynamic and allows us embraces the differences of our prospective candidates. It demonstrates the organizations and candidate’s agility. Culture add allows Recruiters and Managers to embrace diverse perspectives and thinking, it eliminates groupthink, and embraces individuals with backgrounds different than their own. Assessing candidates for culture add builds on the existing capabilities of the organization by having the candidates add onto what’s already existing, rather than being the exact same clone of the existing workforce.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Management Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst]]>
A name is such a critical part of an individual's DNA. Parents have waited nine months to see their child and give them a name that they believe will define their character and mirror who they are.
Yet, in the workplace, a name is controversial and can lead to subtle bias in the recruiting process. A name can be used as an identifier that discloses an individual's socioeconomic background leading Recruiters and Managers to make assumptions about a candidate's ability to perform and fit the culture.
Learn strategies to improve your workplace hiring practices by implementing policies to improve the recruiting of diverse hires. Read more here.
]]>Are you looking for free DiSC profiles? Well, you came to the right place. At DiSC Bodhi, we offer you a wide variety of DiSC personality profiles so that you can enhance productivity, teamwork, and collaboration. In addition, DiSC allows you to build effective relationships with differing DiSC personality types, thereby increasing your ability to influence others.
Our free DiSC assessment includes Everything DiSC® Comparison Report, Everything DiSC Sales® Customer Interaction Map, Everything DiSC® Supplement for Facilitators, and Everything DiSC 363® for Leaders Coaching Supplement.
Learn more about how to complete a DiSC personality assessment.
The free DiSC assessment for the Everything DiSC® Comparison report compares two individuals and their DiSC personality style. The free discprofile, DiSC® Comparison report, is created from a report that already exists. Individuals must have already completed an Everything DiSC® profile. It then combines the results of person A and person B to provide a comparative analysis.
The first page of the report provides you with the Everything DiSC® map which highlights each DiSC® style and their behaviors.
The rest of the report is geared towards each participant and how they can work with participant B (comparison). It highlights your DiSC personality style in contrast to the other comparative style and your priorities vs. the other priorities.
Another free DiSC assessment is the Everything DiSC Sales® Customer Interaction Map, which is a tool that you can use to help you improve engagement with your customers and to build more influential relationships. This tool looks at your DiSC sales profile and provides you with insight on how to effectively work with a customer. You provide your best guess on what that customer's DiSC personality type is (D, i, S, and C) and then report creates a tool that provides you with strategies for interaction. It assesses your style and the customers' style and offers a narrative of the customers' tendencies and behaviors.
The Everything DiSC® supplement for facilitators provides additional resources and insight into an individuals DiSC personality style. It highlights who the individual scored on the eight DiSC® scales D, Di/iD, iS/Si, S, SC/CS, C, and CD/DC and weighs and assigns the most appropriate score. Also, this DiSC free supplement report for facilitators highlight unexpected areas for the individual since their response is not typical for individuals with that style. The last item that is included in the Everything DiSC® supplement for facilitators is a map and graph of your priority subscale.
The Everything DiSC 363® for Leaders Coaching Supplement is a free DiSC assessment report that helps coaches to prepare for the coaching conversation with the participant. It provides the coach with additional information not available in the discprofile report. The Everything DiSC 363® for Leaders Coaching Supplement offers insight into the participants' DiSC personality style. It provides a summary analysis of the individuals' behavior and includes a DiSC profile map with the participants' placement of the dot on the map. Finally, the report provides an analysis of the participants' performance rating based on rater response. This information is useful in helping the participant to understand how they are perceived by raters vs. how they view themselves.
The Everything DiSC provides you with an overview of your team and their individual DiSC personality profile. For each individual that completed a DiSC profile report, the Everything DiSC personality profile team view report pulls in their dot on the DiSC circular map. You can identify the DiSC dot placement of the entire team. This data is powerful because it can help you structure conversations and engagements for a more successful outcome.
To access all of our free DiSC profiles you will need to have access to an EPIC account. The free DiSC profiles are available in the EPIC system.
Your EPIC account allows you to access all paid and free reports on your account.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Sales Facilitation Kit
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There are two types of DiSC personality assessments available. You can complete a DiSC assessment in a paper format commonly referred to as DiSC Classic, or you can complete the DiSC assessment in the electronic version known as Everything DiSC profiles. Completing the Everything DiSC assessment online allows you to download the results instantly.
When you take a DiSC Classic assessment you will respond to twenty-eight (28) sections that use four adjectives to describe your behavior on the DiSC Classic paper profile. You must respond to each section by using a coin to select an adjective that best describes behaviors that are most like you or least like you for each section.
Once all twenty-eight sections have a response, you will then tally each of the shaded sections. You will tally your scores for graph I, most like you, and graph II, least like you. Next, you will take the difference between graph I and graph II to complete graph III.
The graphs help you to identify your DiSC classical pattern and intensity index.
DiSC Classic offers individuals and organizations with limited to no access to a computer the ability to take the DiSC assessment. While DiSC assessments have gone through a series of advancements, the DiSC classic paper profile is still a great way to introduce employees to DiSC.
Another way that individuals can take the DiSC personality test is by purchasing an Everything DiSC profile. Our DiSC personality profiles that are available online allows you to complete the assessment and gain instant access to your results.
To access the assessment, simply add a profile to your cart and check-out. Once you go through the check-out process and pay for your DiSC profile, you will then receive an email with your access code.
Follow the steps to complete your DiSC assessment. Once you complete your DiSC profile, your computer will show a pop-up that allows you to download your report.
Another option to access the DiSC profile report is through an enterprise account for your organization. Our EPIC cloud-based platform allows you to manage your account for your organization. Through EPIC you can email profiles to participants, view their results, access free profiles, and personalize the platform with your company information.
Everything DiSC assessments provide a wide variety of DiSC profiles and supporting DiSC assessment reports to help enhance an individual’s self-awareness, helping them to build more effective relationships.
Some of our Everything DiSC profiles include Everything DiSC Workplace® Profile, Everything DiSC® Sales Profiles, Everything DiSC® Management Profile, Everything DiSC® Work of Leaders Profiles, Everything DiSC® Productive and Everything DiSC 363® for Leaders Profiles.
Each of these DiSC assessment reports also has a matching facilitator (sold separately) report that provides the facilitator with an overview of the team results. The facilitator will get an idea of where and how each individual scored so that they can provide tailored coaching and support.
Another useful DiSC assessment report offered is the Everything DiSC group culture report which looks at the demographics of the team's DiSC personality style and provides insight into how the team works, where the team might experience conflict, and how to enable the team to work effectively.
We also provide free DiSC assessment reports to EPIC account holders and accessed through the EPIC system. Our discprofile free reports include Everything DiSC® Comparison Report, Everything DiSC Sales® Customer Interaction Map, Everything DiSC® Supplement for Facilitators, and Everything DiSC 363® for Leaders Coaching Supplement.
Our recommendation when introducing DiSC to participants or an organization that has never used it before is to start with the DiSC Workplace® profile. The Everything DiSC Workplace® profile is the baseline product for Everything DiSC. It provides individuals with an overview of their discprofile, provides a storyline on their DiSC behavior, and provides context on how their DiSC personality profile can work with others of a differing DiSC personality style.
As you can see, our assessments offer a wide variety of solutions to meet your needs. If you still need help identifying which DiSC profile to use, please reach out to us at info@discbodhi.com .
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
Everything DiSC Work of Leaders Profile
Everything DiSC Workplace Facilitation Kit
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Most recently, Omarosa Manigault has made the headlines after she secretly taped conversations in the White House. While this makes for juicy daytime drama, what impact can an employee secretly recording in your workplace have on your business?
Secretly recording conversations that occur in the workplace, without permission, can expose proprietary and confidential information necessary to give you the extra edge against your competitors. Secret recordings can potentially expose your customer to negative publicity and impact your bottom line.
Since secret recordings can have such a profound impact on your business, how can you stop employees from recording?
Under the Federal Wiretapping Law, it is illegal to record a person without consent. (18 U.S.C. § 2511.). If that individual is overhearing the conversation and records, that recording is illegal and not allowed. However, if that individual is party to that conversation, and an active participant, then they can record the conversation without giving you notice. Twelve states offer an exception to this rule which makes secret recordings illegal and is not permitted unless all parties consent. These states are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington.”
In the age of digital technology, it may be hard to tell if you are being secretly recorded. Many employees have the capability to record on their digital phones. Then other high-end solutions are available to record a conversation unknowingly. Therefore, the questions shouldn’t be “Am I Being Secretly Recorded?” We should assume that all of our discussions can and will be recorded, at any time, without our prior consent.
We should live our lives in a manner where anything we say can be used against us, and our organization, and shared with the public at any time. Have you ever seen one of those silly videos where someone was recorded doing something silly, and recorded unbeknownst to them, and the secretly recorded video went viral. The person never even noticed that they were being recorded. Now that’s a demonstration of a light-hearted way in which secret recordings result in humor, but there are so many situations where secret recordings have impacted individuals negatively that plays out daily in the media. Live in a manner like a camera is always rolling, because it is, and you never know who might be watching and secretly recording you. Don’t do or say anything that you wouldn’t want to go viral or end up on the 5 PM news.
Clearly outlining your policy will protect you from secret recordings and hold employees accountable for failing to adhere to the procedures established. Include your recording policy in your employee handbook. Failing to include your view on recordings in your employee handbook will give implied consent that the organization was okay with being recorded. Outlining specifically, what can and can’t be done in your organization provides a roadmap for employees to follow.
We have all seen organizations that spend time developing an in-depth employee handbook, yet it is poorly communicated and shared with employees. Ensure that you develop a process a process where your employee handbook is shared with employees, the policies are reviewed, and any questions employees may have about the policies are answered.
Finally, have a point of contact where employees can reach out for additional questions or concerns on applying the policies in their workplace. Reviewing the policies can be very different when it comes to using it in your day-to-day job, whether in the corporate office or out in the field.
Employees tend to record conversations when there is an element of distrust in the work environment. Employees may struggle with the organizational culture, and they may believe what management say vs. what they do conflicts, and therefore, utilize recording as a way to protect themselves. In other cases, employees may have a lack of trust in their management, and therefore, feel the need to record their conversations. Or the organization may be exhibiting bad behaviors and the employee may record the behaviors as proof of what is going on internally.
So, our recommendation is simple. Instead of putting all these policies in place, pay attention to your organizational culture to keep a pulse on your employees. If we can tap into the employees' motivation, their drive for getting up every day and coming to work, their experience with their team and with their manager, we can create an environment where employees feel valued and do the right thing.
It takes two. It takes the employees to create the right workplace environment, and the managers as well. We have to ensure that our policies, our goals that we are striving to achieve, are not in conflict with each other and promote behaviors which we are trying to prevent.
For example, if you look at Finance, which has a vast compliance culture, you may find individuals who violate the various financial policies do so in the spirit of the achieving their financial results and business performance. Look at the system with a microscope to understand how the impact of your process and strategies impact your culture.
Our final recommendation is simple, communicate. Employees who are left to perceive what is happening can become distrustful of the organization, and of you as their manager. Therefore, as much as you can, share information, be transparent, and engage your employees. Being inclusive, along with other strategies, will help you build trust. Communicate to your employee in a manner that they can comprehend. Using our DiSC® Workplace assessment can help you develop a tailored approach to communicating in your organization. DiSC® profiles help you to enhance the communication within your organization, across teams and directly with individuals.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
Everything DiSC Management Profile
Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Profile
Photo by Samantha Hurley from Burst
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You’ve just landed your new management position. You worked extremely hard to achieve this accomplishment. Finally, you are a manager.
As a new manager, you will be responsible for your staff, motivating employees, managing their performance, and developing employees. Each employee brings to the workplace their different technical experience and life experience. Some employees are social butterflies, and others are introverted and prefer to work alone. The composition of your team structure, their identity, the way the work gets done, create your work environment. Each employee brings something unique to your work environment.
]]>As a new manager, you will be responsible for other people, previously you were only accountable for yourself and obtaining your goals. In this new role, you will have to learn how to motivate employees, manage their performance, and provide develop opportunities.
Each employee brings to the workplace their unique identities based on schooling, technical expertise, culture, and life experiences. Some employees are social butterflies, while others are introverted and prefer to work alone. The composition of your team structure, the teams' identity, the way the work gets done, and the environment you shape will require you to engage and embrace all employees.
Within your work environment, you will find that you have star employees, the one that you find reliable and can call on for anything. They are your go-to employees' for achieving your organizational goals. Then you may have other employees who work well and can get the job done, but are not classified as your star employee.
While your intent is not to separate employees into these categories, it just happens based on how they show up, their drive to do more volunteering for different projects, and their excitement about the organizational work and challenges that various projects present them with an opportunity to learn.
However, while you have identified employees who you identify as your go to get work done, you have created an environment where employees who feel upset they are not be provided with similar opportunities and may view your decision making on delegating work unfairly.
What is fairness? How does someone know when they are treated less fairly than another person?
The are two ways that you can look at what is fair versus what is unfair. This is by understanding if things are things equal or equitable.
Equality is providing everyone with the same exact support. For example, equality is providing support to individuals across the board in the same manner, regardless of the personalized support they need to be successful.
An individual who requires a different approach, or a different level of support, would have a problem with your management approach.
Let's say you are an electrical manager and showed the team how to wire a new building development. If one person is struggling with the training you provided, then to be fair you should spend more time coaching and developing that employee, so they better understand the new process. Although you took a balanced approach to the problem by providing training and development to everyone on how to wire a building, each individual may require a different level of support.
Equity is when you customize your solutions to suit the individual, recognizing the person's skills and abilities, and their weaknesses. Utilizing a personalized approach, meeting individuals where they are at, can help the individual perceive the process as fair.
Looking at the image above you can see under equality each person was provided a crate to view the game. While that may have been the right thing to do, it still it didn't provide a level playing field for all. Each individuals challenges and needs were not considered. So, in the cases of the shortest person, that individual needed a personalized approach to have access to an equitable opportunity because of their disadvantage.
How does this show up at work?
Consider a female in a male-dominated role who notifies you that she is pregnant. While you may want to treat all employees as equals, the more equitable solution would be to adjust the type of work for the female employee who notified you of her medical condition, maybe providing the employee with a light duty role, or temporarily transitioning the employee to a desk job.
Decision making is a crucial part of your new role as the manager. Thereby requiring you to understand the team, what they need from you to support their performance and development, and where and when equal vs. equitable should be applied. Embedding a more fair process of how you hire and bring individuals into the organization, developing a consistent practice of hiring and promotions, are all key tools that you can leverage as a fair manager.
Another strategy to utilize to ensure that your employees view you as a fair manager is to establish trust and credibility with the team early. When employees trust you and know that they can count on you, they will believe in your process and how you make decisions. Our DiSC® profile assessments can help you understand yourself better so that you connect with your employees. DiSC® profiles help you to understand the behaviors of others, their motivators, and stressors and provide behavioral queues on their personality style. Completing a DiSC® personality test will bring you a step closer to understanding the team and allowing you to build trust.
Finally, communicate with employees regarding your process for making decisions. Your level of transparency will help employees to understand the process better and be more accepting that the process was fair.
If you are assessing performance, communicate early in the year what your performance standards are and what the employees will be measured on. Ensure that the metrics are consistent across the roles, and where there is a change in the process, communicate your reason for making changes and exceptions to the rules.
Communicate often with employees on their performance, what they are doing well, and if they are meeting their targets. If some employees are falling behind, partner with the employee to discuss and identify what is needed to help get them back on track, and how you can support them.
Adapted from Davey, L. (2018, August). How to Earn a Reputation as a Fair Manager. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/08/how-to-earn-a-reputation-as-a-fair-manager)
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In most organizations, teamwork and collaboration are required to face the most pressing business issues. However, how does a manager promote collaboration and teamwork on a team to drive performance?
Developing collaboration and teamwork requires managers' to help employees to connect their work to the broader organizational goals. Many employees struggle to understand how the job that they do, whether in accounting, sales, operations and marketing, connects to the broader organizational goals and how they directly make an impact on the success of the organization. To help drive more effective teamwork and collaboration on your team, it is imperative that you help employees' to understand how their work directly connects to the organizational goals. Failing to do so, will make employees feel like they are not a valued member of the team, that they do not add to the success of the company, and may allow employees to become disgruntled.
We often find that employees operate in silos, and disassociate themselves from the company's common vision and mission. For example, in human resources, you may see that employees are working in silos. When a problem occurs they may refer to the problem as a payroll problem, "oh that's a payroll issue, I can't help you with that." You should immediately discourage us versus them behavior that erodes collaboration and teamwork on the team. Your employees are not aware of the difference between payroll, compensation, or talent management, nor do they necessarily care if you view these functions as separate, all they care about is that they are experiencing an issue and need help from human resources. Connect employees to a shared vision allowing them to identify problems as a human resources issue, and recognize that they are members of a broader human resources community.
Schedule meetings with your team to share the organizational goals of the company and your departmental goals. Show how your corporate goals directly connect and support the goals of the organization. Help employees to understand how their specific job, furthers the organization's deliverables and the department goals. Help employees' to make the connection to the broader organization and the broader team.
Another solution that you can utilize to help promote collaboration and teamwork among teams is to provide really clear directions and define the priorities of the team. Nothing is more frustrating to the team than being unsure of what their marching orders are. Consistently providing clear instructions to the team will help them understand how to do their jobs, identify if their strategy or approach needs to change, and develop the right solutions to help them achieve their goals.
Normally goal setting is announced to the organization early in the year, first quarter, yet the pace and scale of business changes occur rapidly, thereby requiring businesses to revisit their goals to ensure continued alignment and to provide updates to employees on any changes and shift required to align with the new strategy. Failure to communicate and update employees, clarify roles and responsibilities, will result in a wasted effort by the employees and drain on organizational performance.
Utilizing an Everything DiSC® profiles will help you to effectively communicate with your team about the organizational goals and any changes in your strategy. Each employee will require a different level of support from you as their manager. Some employees, such as those with a D Everything DiSC personality type, will only require for you to provide them with an update on the goals and will devise their own strategy on how to move forward. Employees with an Everything DiSC® profile of a C Everything DiSC personality type will require a lot more context and data to understand the changes, the business rationale, and weigh the pros and cons before moving forward. While an employee with the Everything DiSC® profile I style will welcome any changes and be enthusiastic in their approach to accomplishing the changes, this employee may require your support as they haven't fully assessed all the details required in how to move forward on achieving their goals. Finally, an employee with an S Everything DiSC personality type will approach the changes in a supportive way. This individual will work with all parties to ensure that the organizational goals are achieved but may require your support along the way.
In addition, have employees learn how to value the contributions of all team members. Create a psychologically safe work environment where all employees feel safe to contribute their ideas, no matter how silly, and have peers build on ideas rather than tear them down. In organizations that are psychological, safe employees are encouraged to think outside of the box and brainstorm the opportunities without fear of judgment and persecution. Employees are encouraged to have the real talk openly rather than leaving a meeting and then sharing how they feel about what was discussed. In discussions where employees do not agree with an idea, rather than say that won't work, they help the employee to figure out how it can work, how it can be improved. Instead of statements like, no ...but; they use, yes that's a great idea, and to add to your great idea what if. The possibilities are endless in an organization that is psychologically safe, free from persecution and all employees contribution are valued.
Our final recommendation to promote collaboration and teamwork is simple yet an underutilized tool. Acknowledgment. Recognize the hard work of your team. Give credit where credit is due and praise employees for a job well done. The trick for acknowledgment and praise is to give credit in a way that is meaningful to the employee. Each Everything DiSC personality type likes to be recognized differently. Some employees like private recognition, while others enjoy public recognition. For example, an individual with an I style who likes people and works hard to be liked by his peers and others would like to be recognized publically. While individuals with the C style who are more introverted and private may prefer quiet recognition, a one-on-one conversation where a manager congratulates the employee for a job well done or rewards the employee with enhanced responsibilities. Structuring your approach to the celebration of the teams' success will require a tailored approach based on each team members style.
Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
]]>Workers of the future will require an extremely different work model than what exists today. Employees still want to work and earn a salary, however, they want to do so on their terms, allowing them the freedom to live a fulfilling life, without the commitment of being stuck in an office from 9 to 5 and having the flexibility to travel the world.
How then can you structure your employer brand proposition to attract key talent to your organization while still meeting the employees' personal demands?
Most digital nomads working are doing so with no insurance. Insurance for nomads either is extremely expensive to afford or not available at all.
While finding a gig that offers you the flexibility to live your life on your own terms, it proves challenging to get insurance covering medical expenses. To manage the cost of insurance when living with fluctuating income, nomads typically choose to live without insurance. Gig workers are aware of the significant risks to their health when they don't have insurance, yet, many gig workers believe because they are young or relatively healthy, and going without insurance is worth the risk.
In other cases, gig workers only visit doctors and hospitals for the most critical services. For these services, they pay out of pocket.
As the war on talent heats up, an organization will need to consider insurance as a strategy to attract gig workers to their organization. Alternative solutions such as partnering with organizations to provide a discounted medical insurance package or benefits such as gym and flexible workspaces to nomads will accelerate identifying and hiring the right talent for your organization. Providing a suite of benefits to gig economy workers will demonstrate that you value the expertise and skills they bring to your organization.
Embrace gig economy workers into your organization as one of your own. While many of these employees work on a W-9, and for tax purposes not considered your employee, they operate and work, sometimes daily, as part of your regular staff. Treat these employees as a regular member of the team. Employees can feel when they are not considered part of the ingroup. For example, a colleague worked in an organization where her consultant was a critical member of the organization. The consultant came in at least three (3) days per week to the corporate office. The consultant's input into the organizational strategies was valued and had a significant impact on the employees and organizational performance. However, the organization could have demonstrated more effectively how much they valued the consultant by simplifying the process of securing a location for her to work. It's no surprise that she was coming to work, however, each time the consultant appeared it was almost as they the organization wasn't prepared for her. Something as simple as having a dedicated workspace for your consultants can show your gig workers that you care and are including them in your culture.
Offer your employees and gig workers the flexibility to work in a manner that fits your business and their personal needs. This can vary from allowing gig workers to work from home and ensuring that your organization has the capability and technological tools to allow them access to your network. Make it easy for gig workers to work from where suits them best. If you have satellite offices that can accommodate gig workers then allow them to work from a location that works for them. Finally, trust your gig workers that they are responsible to do their jobs while not having to be physically down the hall from you. This demonstrates that you understand the value you bring to the organization, demonstrates trust, and allows gig workers the freedom to be productive.
Most organizations who offer development to employees only do so for their fulltime staff. However, with the future growth of the gig economy, organizations must rethink how they will develop their staff, all staff, including full-time, part-time, freelancers, consultants, and temps. Providing development opportunities to all your staff will ensure that all workers adhere to your operating guidelines and your way of doing business. In addition, you build the strategic capabilities needed for your organization to achieve your goals and have a plethora of trained resources to ramp up when needed. When onboarding your employees into your organization it is recommended that you conduct a DiSC® profile assessment so that you understand your employees and how they will engage in the workplace, help them understand their DiSC® personality style, adapt to your organizational culture, and develop effective relationships in the organizations to work across their team, other functions and departments.
Creating an effective workforce strategy to attract digitally savvy workers is the first step to addressing your talent shortage. The workforce of the future will be open-source and allow employees to work freely. The people will be the driver of the employee experience. Organizations will have to consider that all employees' needs, inclusive of gig workers, and design experiences that are fluid and align to the needs of the employee. That will require a different approach on how we attract, develop and retain employees which require our organizational policies and benefits services to align with the future and provide services for all.
]]>This week in review looks at cultural faux pas and ways that we can be more culturally sensitive. In addition, we tackle the issue of Talent Reviews and how to simplify the process. Finally, focusing on diversity is not a nice to have; it should be embedded deeply in your business and has an impact on your bottom line.
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We have seen countless solutions such as nine box and many other solutions utilized to discuss talent. We reviewed definitions such as potential versus performance when assessing our employees. Managers have been burdened by the administrative process of the documenting goals, managing performance and evaluating talent. Employees are discussed in calibration sessions and many hours are spent analyzing placement and advocating for employees.
But what if all of this could be simplified?
What if we could make assessing talent simpler, have Managers fully understand, embrace and own the process of assessing talent?
What if managers embraced a process so simple and easy to utilize without the burdensome paperwork and documentation required by Human Resources?
Well, it is possible to improve your assessment of talent.
Talent assessment and reviews are integrated and incorporate additional processes as a feeder into the assessment and review process as follows:
In addition to these three parts of the process, Managers must also work on developing employees which is an ongoing process and occurs across all three stages.
Establish clear goals on an annual basis that employees work to achieve. Ensure that these goals are assessed and reviewed on a quarterly or monthly business to ensure alignment with business objectives.
Most businesses are operating in a very fast, high paced, constantly changing environment. Therefore, employees’ goals must adapt to ensure alignment with the overall business objectives. Communicate with your employees and keep them updated on the organization's performance.
Develop a coaching process with your employees. Determine a process that works best for your organization to clearly understand the challenges the employee is facing, provide support on how to help the employee achieve their goals or course correct, and provide updates on organizational and departmental accomplishments or realignment.
These coaching conversations provide regular opportunities for you to assess your employees' work. Also, it provides insight into the type of initiatives that your employees are working on so that you can better understand their capabilities.
It is critical during these conversations to provide your employees with real-time input on their performance so that they can improve on the areas that are necessary or continue the things that they are doing well.
So many models exist for talent assessments and reviews, but Managers still struggle with how to assess talent.
A simple four-box process will allow managers to understand their talent pipeline and determine the necessary actions required to get the team to full performance.
This four-box model consists of:
Employees classified in the soar box are your top performers. They are reliable and consistently deliver on performance objectives. They are driven and have the potential to do more.
With these employees, it is best to provide stretch opportunities, such as managing a team, managing a line of business, working across functions and leading project initiatives, and partnering on project initiatives with external organizations and universities to improve a product.
Stay updated on the soar employees workload to ensure that you do not stretch them across too many projects.
Employees identified in stay the course is precious to the organization but are already doing the work that they love and adds value to the organization. These employees can be key knowledge experts and used to train other employees, they are also beneficial as mentors to help develop others in the organization, they are known as the go-to employee or product expert, and they are widely respected and influential.
In some cases, these employees are pleased with the role that they are in and have no desire to advance further but can still add value to the organization in other ways.
The employees in the up our out category should be actively managed by the Manager. The Manager needs to work with this group of employees closely. These employees’ performance will need to improve, or the Manager will have to performance manage these employees out of the organization.
During this process, the Manager must determine if the employee's performance issue is a will or skill issue. In doing so, the Manager must assess if the employee is still a suitable fit for their existing role and determine what action must be taken next.
If the role has evolved, does the individual have capabilities to perform in this role? If so, then move the employee to build up and provide the right development resources (training, mentoring and shadowing, etc.) to develop that employee’s skill quickly.
If the employee in the up or out category lacks the will to make the necessary performance improvement, you may need to separate the employee from the organization. Before separating the employee from the organization, clearly, articulate what the performance criteria are so that the employee is aware of the standards and understands how they are not actively meeting these standards. Actively manage the employee's performance over a 30 to 90 day period to determine if the employee has demonstrated significant improvement. If the employee lacks the will to improve over the agreed upon timeframe, then you can separate the employee from the organization.
In the build-up, Managers work proactively to develop the capabilities of these employees. Managers may provide employees with Everything DiSC® personality profiles so that employees are aware of the impact and influence they have in their organization and learn how to develop more effective relations. Managers can work with other Senior Leaders to identify mentors who currently have the skillset that needs to be improved in their employees. Managers can identify cross-functional projects or project initiatives to volunteer their employees on so that the employees can develop new skills.
The department or organization can put in place a secondment which allows employees to develop new skills that help the employee become qualified for a unique opportunity. Secondment enables an individual to keep their existing job while working in an entirely different function for about six months to a year. Secondment allows the employee to gain the critical experience required to get to the next level.
There are many different opportunities that Managers, HR Leaders and Senior Leaders in the organization can help to build up the skills of their organization. Ongoing discussions with employees, managers, and HR to understand the organizational needs, and an employees’ career aspiration can develop customized approaches to help build up employees.
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Managers were highlighting their preference for some employees since these employees were reliable and will get the job done. If they had a high priority issue, such as a customer had an installation of cable and numerous callbacks were made about the initial installation and attempted the repair, these managers will then send their best employees to ensure that the job was done accurately. They believed, whether accurate or not, that these high performing employees will complete the job accurately, and the customer will not have to call back on the service request, thereby making their lives easier.
However, when you consistently utilize your high performing employees for every project what is the expense to the employee? What unnecessary burden do you put on your high performing employee when you use them all the time?
Some of the challenges to your high performing employees can result in these employees becoming disgruntled since they are picking up the slack for the rest of the team, or they may feel that you treat then unfairly by giving them the toughest job, or experience anxiety from having to live up to your expectations on the many projects you volunteer them on.
Given the pressures that are bestowed on your high performing employees, wouldn't be easier to develop all team members to their full capacity thereby resulting in a team that performs exceptional and providing you with the ability to staff all jobs with exceptional employees.
Harvard’s latest article highlights the harm that is done to your high performing employees when you consistently utilize the same employee for projects. These employees are at a high risk for burnout. “A five-year study in the UK found that the mental health of 20% of the top-performing leaders of UK businesses is affected by corporate burnout.”
When staffing your next critical project or position, consider all employees and the skillset available on the team, review your high performing employees project load to ensure that you do not overburden them, and finally provide development using the Everything DiSC Workplace Profiles and stretch opportunities to enhance their skill set.
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