The most important asset of your firm is not listed on the financial balance sheet. Rather success is contingent on those self-reliant, organized and creative people you have on your staff who are geared for high performance. These sought-after employees are never satisfied with mediocrity. Some inner drive keeps pushing him and doesn?EUR??,,????'???t stop until excellence is achieved.

But how do you find such a person? Hiring a high achiever can be a lot like running an obstacle course. You dodge the disorganized and poorly motivated. You slip past the indecisive, side step the noncreative and steer clear of the ill-tempered. But if you do get snagged, it can be a costly mistake in terms of having to re-recruit, re-screen and retrain.

Therefore, your hiring procedures of today will play a big part in your professional future and competitive edge. Can you really afford not to take some of the same steps as other leading companies in removing the guesswork from the selection process?

What really counts as far as job performance is the relationship between the person and the job he or she holds. Achieving quality performance and top potential comes from this fit between job and person. The first step in fitting a person is to analyze and evaluate the job itself. What skills and personality traits does a person need to perform these functions? Try finding this answer by conducting a job analysis using a sample of successful people currently holding similar positions. Norms are compiled and a ?EUR??,,????'??picture?EUR??,,????'?? of the top performer can be used to spot other candidates.

Hiring personnel on the basis of an interview is a screening device most often used. However, recent studies have shown this process to have limited value. First, interviewing and reference checking are based on the assumption that performance in the future can be predicted by performance in the past. The Peter Principal of promotions is proof that this method all too frequently fails. Often, a new position is different and more challenging than the applicant?EUR??,,????'???s previous experience and once competent employees end up in positions where they are less effective.

The interview will fall short of uncovering those needed traits that you have outlined in your job analysis. The problem here is the subjectivity of the traditional interview. While an applicant may have a polished presentation, he may lack what really counts. And visa versa. Employers going by their ?EUR??,,????'??gut instincts?EUR??,,????'?? may be making hunches based on inadequate information.

Psychological and intelligence testing is another form of screening which gained a bad reputation in the 50s and 60s. Many of these tests were either unfair, considered an invasion of privacy or were graded subjectively and easily faked by the candidate. These tests are often prohibited by law unless it can be shown conclusively that they relate to job performance.

However, now available are a new generation of tests believed to have solved some of the problems of inaccuracy of past psychological tests. After more than 20 years of research, Dr. Melany Baehr and. her colleagues at the University of Chicago?EUR??,,????'???s Human Resources Center have developed the System for Testing and Evaluation of Potential (STEP).

In order to meet legal guidelines regarding accuracy, the needs of each company are first analyzed through a questionnaire with 140 items that measure the relative importance of certain job components. This will ?EUR??,,????'??fit?EUR??,,????'?? the job and the employee as mentioned above. Once this is evaluated, a battery of tests, are supplied which will evaluate the candidates motivation, intellectual ability, behavior and special aptitudes.

Depending on the volume of testing, costs range from $125 to $225. ?EUR??,,????'??An employer may be leery about spending this amount of money on STEP,?EUR??,,????'?? said Dr. Don Moretti, an industrial psychologist in the research department of London House Publishing, which prints these tests. ?EUR??,,????'??But it has been estimated that it can cost two to three times an employee?EUR??,,????'???s annual salary just to spend the time to recruit and retrain.?EUR??,,????'?? The validity of the tests have been verified by more than 60 studies comparing the predictions of the tests with actual observations. Employees were evaluated again over a period of months or years to determine the accuracy of the tests?EUR??,,????'??? predictions.

For more information regarding STEP, you can contact The Landscape Architect and Specifier News at (714) 953-6763. This is just one more avenue available to you as an employer to help you find the high performance employee and keep a competitive edge about your business.