How Do You Know What Is Important?

We have reviewed a couple of examples and several aspects of values that must be embodied by every employee, if an organization truly desires to be successful.  We are entering a phase now that truly benefits from collaboration with professionals who have been trained in organizational behavior.  If you think about it long enough, almost anyone can come up with a list of values and behaviors that they feel are important to their operational activities; however, without the correct focus and analysis to determine which of them is truly the "big hitters", you may not maximize the benefit of this most important exercise. 

From your list, which two of them are the most important to your success?  From the experience I've had in this area, almost every client responds with, "They are all important!"  Although this is true to a degree, with aggressive collaboration and discussion, the interested parties soon realize that there are two that rise to the top as being paramount values or behaviors that every employee has to unconsciously perform in order for the organization to maximize perfection from their collective outputs.  The client almost always discovers, that after the operation was reviewed by an outside professional, there were important attributes that were not on "the list."  It is important to understand that certain behaviors bring more to the table than others.  The  most important question is, "Do you want a  mixed bag of behaviors or everyone on the same sheet of music?"  If it is the latter, then the "pain" of going through this extensive exercise with your entire management  staff cannot be short changed.

After everyone has agreed on the most important two, then we extend the exercise to the next three, and then the next five.  You now have the ten most important values and behaviors that predetermine your future success, quality of outputs, and continued relationship with your customer base.

The organizational behaviorist will then work in collaboration with an industrial psychologist to structure test instruments that will differentiate between candidates that "have it" versus those that "do not."  Obviously, you are only interested in employing folks that fit the mold of what you want your organization's performance to be at an end state.  You already know the frustration associated with who you currently have in your employee base and the problems resulting from that population.  It is now time to take control and reshape your future.

The test instruments identified by the professionals will satisfy all legal requirements for pre-employment testing.  They are all Level 1 test instruments, are void of disparate treatment and disparate impact concerns, are valid and reliable, and completely job related.  The administration of these test instruments will be tailored specifically to your organization, and can be administered on-line from the convenience of your office or the applicant's home; the results are clear, understandable, and easy to interpret concerning a candidate's viability for further consideration.

You now have the big picture, and a menu for success, for one of the most important decisions an employer makes.  If you are interested in hiring the best, training them once, retaining your employee base for decades, and running the best operation possible, then this is the only way to adequately achieve this goal.

I wish each of you the best as you lead your organizations to their greatest potential.