Windridge - Identify. Develop. Retain.

Manufacturing’s “Make or Break” Moment

This is an interesting article by Kaj Grichnik and Conrad Winkler

5/08/08
Reshaping global manufacturing.

Manufacturing is at a crossroads. In one sense, there have never been better prospects for the makers of products than there are right now. Innovation is rampant; capital is available; technological changes have enabled new materials and manufacturing processes; and the global standard of living is steadily improving, enabling billions of consumers to buy new and existing products.

Full Report

Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey Phone Call

Free CoveyLink Conference Call
with Stephen M. R. Covey on
Tuesday, May 13th at 11 a.m. MDT
(10a PDT/ 12p CDT/ 1p EDT/ 5p GMT)

When the going gets tough, projects, money, and jobs gravitate to the high, "go to" performers that are trusted. As Christ Anderson, author of The Long Tail and Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine, stated in his interview with Stephen M. R. Covey: "Money was the currency of the old economy; Trust is the currency of the new, global economy."

Ask Covey how high trust can recession-proof your team and
organizational execution.

To sign up click here: http://www.coveylink.com/events-and-resources/freeconference_call.php

Thought for the day.....

Hire the best people, trust them, and then get out of their way and let them do what you brought them onboard to do!

Candidate Selecton and Assessment Usage

Here's a very brief summary of the results from the 5th Annual Rocket-Hire Online Screening and Assessment Usage Survey - Article and research by Charles Handler and Mark C. Healy

Effectiveness of Screening and Assessment Tools
This year, 65% of prescreen users and 77% of assessment users felt their tools added value to their organization. In contrast, a full 21% of prescreen users and 10% of assessment users felt these tools did not add value. Users of metrics to evaluate their assessment results tend to report success with prescreening and assessment use.

This year's results let us know what's really going on, and it confirmed what most of our previous surveys have found:

• Having an ATS installed is now nothing particularly innovative, especially if you work in a medium or large organization. For some, it's hard to even imagine the old stacks of resumes and bulging file folders of applicant information.
• Prescreening and assessment are continuing their gradual penetration into the mainstream of recruitment and hiring.
• Qualifications screening, personality inventories, and skill and technical certifications continue to be the most popular online assessment tools. Assessments of cognitive abilities as well as fit with the company culture have expanded their footprint as well.
• Respondents report a lack of understanding, weak budgets, or a general lack of support for online tools as their primary obstacles to adoption or greater use of modern prescreening and assessment technology.
• Those organizations that formally evaluate their hiring practices tend to support the use of prescreening and assessment, but a large number of organizations are still failing to evaluate the effectiveness of their screening and assessment tools.

There clearly is a growing interest in scientifically derived hiring tools. This trend is encouraging but not particularly surprising; these numbers will continue to grow as more organizations understand the value in properly evaluating the impact of screening and assessment tools, seeing for themselves how quality hiring tools can improve a workforce.

*** As in all things communication is of the utmost importance. Make sure you communicate with your assessment provider specific organizational needs and that you receive adequate feedback on assessment results. This will enable you to more effectively use the information you are gathering.

For more information on Rocket-Hire's online screening and assessment usage survey, read the entire report at  http://www.ere.net/articles/db/150E39E8923D40A2948D5C88522DB068.asp

Trust is an Economic Driver

A great conference call this morning with Stephen M.R. Covey on the Speed of Trust ....

This is a powerful concept: Trust = Speed = Results. In other words trust is directly tied to the economics of an organization’s performance and desired outcomes. It is not simply a soft concept of personal development but a very real and validated fact that when trust is present in an organization, costs go down....it’s that simple.

Two key enablers/behaviors for building trust
(dependent on your personal strengths and/or weaknesses and the circumstances)

1) Create transparency – openness, honesty, letting people see, truth that can be validated

2) Keep commitments – number 1 builder of trust
(Example)
• This is what we talked about
• Here’s what I commit to do
• and following up with, Here’s what I have done

To find out about these calls put on by Covey Link and held randomly at no cost, send me an e-mail and I’ll notify you when and where to register....