Human Resources Management & Leadership Expert Blog - Dr. Mercer

7 GIFTS YOUR CEO WANTS FROM YOU

In this holiday season, people love to receive gifts.  In fact, people always love to receive gifts!  Well, what gifts would your CEO love to receive from you?  Here are seven you really need to go all out to give to your CEO.  Then, as the saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.”  So, give these gifts and your will have earned yourself the right to some magnificent gifts, also.

1^st Gift = You Improve Profits & Productivity

When I was writing my second book, “Turning Your HR Department into a Profit Center™, I interviewed about 20 CEOs to find out how they use HR to measurably improve profits.  One question I asked in my interview was “What is the most important thing for you to get employees to focus on in your company?”

Overwhelmingly, CEOs answered, “The most important thing for me, as CEO, to get employees to focus on is this:  Improving profits and productivity.”

That says it all for you.  Anything and everything you do to improve profits and productivity – what I call is highly valued.  In contrast, any work you do that does not improve “the 2 P’s” might be viewed as ‘nice but not necessary.’

Remember:  Everyone who is part of the profit-generating team in your company is ultra-important – a true VIP. 

2^nd Gift = You Hire Employees Who Improve Profits & Productivity

A key way to improve productivity and profits is to hire applicants who turn into productive and profitable employees.

In seminars based on my “Hire the Best – & Avoid the Rest™” book, I always conclude by asking the audience, “What’s the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to have employees who are productive, dependable, and honest?”

The answer:  Hire human beings who are productive, dependable and honest human beings!

That means you need to gift your CEO by only putting employees on the payroll who improve ‘the 2 P’s.”  And while you are at it, why don’t you give your CEO another sterling gift:  “De-employ” employees who either do not contribute to, or who detract from, your company’s bottom line. 

For example, many companies use three “Forecaster(tm) Tests” – pre-employment tests – that I created.  Their goal always is to use the tests to help hire productive employees.  Your CEO wants you to hire productive employees.

3^rd Gift = You Train Employees to Be More Profitable & Productive

CEOs – including your CEO – craves for you to transform the good employees you hired (see 2^nd Gift, above) into magnificent employees.

You do this by
a.  finding out what your magnificent employees do on-the-job
b.  get your good employees to do what your magnificent employees do

You can give this gift to your CEO in two steps.  First, you can do a “Benchmarking Study” of your magnificent or superstar employees.  Second, you make sure your employees do what your superstar employees do. 

The most objective method of employee development is to (1) test your employees, (2) compare your superstars’ test scores to your other employees’ test scores, and (3) help your non-superstar employees become more like your superstars.  For example, on the “Abilities & Behavior Forecaster™ Test,” you might find your superstar employees in a particular job score highly friendly, very teamwork-oriented, flexible-thinking, and ultra-optimistic.  Then, you would focus your employee development on helping – and insisting – your other employees become similarly friendly, teamwork-oriented, flexible-thinking, and optimistic.

4^th Gift = You Show Enthusiasm for Your CEO’s Vision for Your Company

A good CEO has an ultra-crucial vision for the company.  Note:  The vision is not a mushy “mission statement” adorning most company’s waiting rooms.  Instead, the CEO’s vision is the big, exciting, compelling vision the CEO aims for the company to achieve.

In my book entitled, “Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change™,” I exposed the strategies of executives who led $10-million - $1-billion dollars of profit improvement using my “3 Ingredient Method.”  Here are some big, exciting, compelling vision statements from some of America’s best-run companies:

Intuit’s Vision:  Our key goal is to revolutionize the way people do financial work.

Outback Steakhouse, Inc.:  Out key goal is to create a world-class casual diningcompany that endures.

Robert Mondavi Corp.:  Our key goal is to be the world’s preeminent fine wine producer.

Harley-Davidson:  Our key goal is to fulfill dreams through the experiences of motorcycling.

Your job is to (1) find out what your CEO’s big, exciting, compelling vision is – and then (2) go out there and do everything you can to help your CEO reach they key goal of the company.  Your CEO will cherish such a gift from you.

5^th Gift = You Ooze the Key Benefits of Your Corporate Culture

Each company operates successfully (or unsuccessfully) within its unique corporate culture.  From my consulting experience, I define it as follows:  Corporate culture is how every employee knows he or she must act – even when no one is watching.

I discovered a quick way to uncover a company’s culture:  Find out what stories every employee hears about the company within the first week on-the-job and also tells to new employees.  Actually, hearing the company’s signature story is a right-of-passage for new employees.  Hearing the story implicitly tells a new employee how to act on-the-job – even when no one is watching.

Here is the corporate culture story every Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company employee hears.  It is taken from my book, Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change™:  Strategies for Success from America’s Best-Run Companies.

“Ladies & Gentlemen Serving Ladies & Gentlemen”
When he was 14 years old, Horst Schulze -- president of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company -- worked in as an apprentice waiter in a very fine restaurant in his native Germany.  Initially, he saw himself as a “servant.”

Then, he realized the fine restaurant was staffed by highly skilled professionals.  For example, he looked in awe as he repeatedly saw the maître d' chat with and entertain the diners.  In fact, the maître d' spoke many languages.  So, he spoke German to the German diners, French to the French guests, and English to the English customers.  He also expertly helped diners with their food and wine choices.

From this experience, it dawned on Horst Schulze that a luxury establishment is composed of ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.  He instilled this insight into The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company where he now is president.

Company president Horst Schulze’s experience gives rise to The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s motto which beautifully expresses its corporate culture:  “We Are Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen.”

So, a gift your CEO want from you is for you to uncover your company’s culture, put it into action in your work, and make sure other employees do the same.

6^th Gift = You Use Fantastic Communications Skills

CEOs are like parents.  Parents feel proud if their children make a good impression.  CEOs feel proud when their employees make a good impression.

Your gift to your CEO is for you to make a fantastic impression on everyone who can make-or-break your company.  This includes customers and other employees.  It also includes people you run into outside of work who know where you work.  (Beware:  Few things make a CEO’s heart ache more than finding out you did or said something outside of work that reflected badly on your company!)

In my book and seminars on “How Winners Do It:  High Impact People Skills for Your Career Success,” I explain the six people skills exuded by high-achievers:

            1.  Quickly Make a Great Impression

            2.  Expertly Persuade, Influence, & Negotiate

            3.  Act Diplomatic, Tactful, & Enthusiastic

            4.  Conduct Highly Productive Meetings

            5.  Deliver impressive presentations

            6.  Write clear, easy-to-use memos, letters, & reports 

7^th Gift = You Impress Your Boss & Your Boss’ Boss

It is important to impress your boss.  It is even more important to impress your boss’ boss – and anyone else who has direct contact to the CEO. 

You may ask, “Well, how do I impress those big-shots?”  The answer is for your to give the six gifts listed above.  By doing this, you implicitly give your CEO this seventh of the seven gifts your CEO wants from you.

When You Give Gifts, You Get Gifts

By giving your CEO these seven gifts, you put into action the age-old truism of ‘First you sow and then you reap.”  The more your help your company increase profits and productivity, the more valuable you are to the company.  And the more needed you are to your CEO. 

By giving these seven gifts to your CEO you open doors to opportunities for your company – and, importantly, for yourself.

© Copyright 2010 Michael Mercer, http://www.DrMercer.com

PRE-EMPLOYMENT TESTS versus CREDIT CHECKS: WHICH METHOD HELPS YOU HIRE RESPONSIBLE EMPLOYEES?

Pre-employment tests should do better at predicting irresponsible behavior than credit checks.  So, take pre-employment test scores into account when you want to evaluate if a job applicant potentially could be a responsible person for your organization. 

CREDIT CHECKS – PROS & CONS

Credit checks in employment applications are under a lot of scrutiny.  The argument for doing credit checks is if an applicant has a lousy credit history, that applicant may (a) steal from their employer to ‘raise funds’ or (b) be an irresponsible employee.  In fact, some localities require credit checks of applicants for jobs requiring ‘public trust,’ e.g., healthcare professionals, day care workers, teachers, sports coaches, police officers, and firefighters. 

However, many factors resulting in credit problems may not correlate with the person acting irresponsibly on-the-job, if hired.  Also, not all credit problems are created equal.  For instance, a person who has credit problems due to a major illness may be different than a person with credit problems due to gambling.  

At a recent Washington, D.C. hearing about credit checks, Michael Aamodt of DCI Consulting Group, Inc., commented, “This lack of research [on credit checks] is especially important to note, because there have only been five studies that investigated actual credit history, rather than self-reported levels of financial stress . . . When these studies are combined using meta-analysis . . . financial problems seem to be correlated most highly with absenteeism, and least highly with performance ratings.”

PRE-EMPLOYMENT TESTS FORECAST RESPONSIBILITY BETTER THAN CREDIT CHECKS  

Pre-employment personality tests zoom in on the underlying issue.  Specifically, the desire to use credit checks is fueled by employers wanting to hire responsible employees who will (A) do a good job and (B) not steal.  

Fortunately, pre-employment personality tests get at this ‘responsibility’ concern a number of ways.  

First, pre-employment tests for “white-collar” and skilled jobs should forecast how much the applicant follows rules, policies, and procedures.  That assesses key concerns companies hope credit checks address.  The issue is whether an applicant will follow rules, such as handling duties and company property in a responsible way.  

Since pre-employment personality tests that are properly created require years of research, the personality test give an employer reliable and valid forecasts of each applicant’s rule-following or rule-breaking.  So, the company would not need to hope a credit check would uncover such problems.  Instead, the company could feel confident the personality test found out what the applicant really would be like on-the-job. 

Second, pre-employment personality tests for “blue-collar” or lower-level jobs also should include forecasts of whether a job applicant might be a troublemaker.  For instance, one dependability pre-employment test evaluates applicants for honesty on the test, work ethic, impulsiveness, stealing, and substance abuse.  

That pre-employment test of key personality traits quickly and easily directly tells employers more about crucial work behaviors better than an indirect evaluation by a credit check.  For instance, let’s say stealing by employees is a problem a company wants to eliminate.  To do this, the company could get credit checks, but then must make the ‘leap of faith’ that a good credit rating means an applicant would not steal and a bad credit rating means the person might steal.  That is a lot of conjecturing with little or no research to back it up.  

Instead, a pre-employment personality test is designed and researched to assess such risky, irresponsible behavior.  

FOCUS YOUR HIRING DECISIONS MORE ON SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH & LESS
ON WISHFUL THINKING 

So, it appears credit checks of job applicants rely on wishful thinking:  Maybe-possibly-perhaps a good or bad credit rating predicts a job applicant will do good or bad actions on-the-job.  

But, wouldn’t you and your company be better off using scientific, research-based prediction methods, rather than wishful thinking? 

Pre-employment personality tests offer you a research-based tool to forecast how responsible or irresponsible a job applicant might be. 
Use
*  behavior tests for “white-collar” or professional jobs
* dependability tests for “blue-collar” or lower-level jobs 

Pre-employment tests help you directly predict important job-related factors.  In contrast, credit checks do not have research to help you make good hiring decisions. 
As such, you may want to quit using questionable credit checks.  

Instead, use pre-employment personality tests to help you hire good, productive, responsible employees – the type of employees who help you grow your business.  

© Copyright 2010 Mercer Systems, Inc.
TAGS:  Pre-employment tests, Pre-Employment Testing, Pre-hire Tests