5 ways to improve your internal selection process

Many companies invest considerably in enhancing and structuring external recruitment and selection activities. They:

• utilise placement firms
• purchase résumé tracking software
• administer psychometric tests
• conduct structured behavioural interviewing
• employ a third party to do background and reference checks.

Yet, when it comes to internal selection, they take a more casual approach, often short-cutting the process, despite the fact that the risk and rewards can be higher. Read more

A Journey, not a Course. Evolution, not Revolution.

Leaders evolve over time, they are not born, but they can suddenly appear. Some leaders appear ready-made, but this is as a result of the positive contribution their upbringing and background has made. Leadership ability is not achieved by attending a course, you cannot get a genuine degree in Leadership. Read more

Leadership step 3: Self-Achievement.

Self-Achievement is about taking control of your life and managing yourself to achieve your goals and objectives either on your own or through the willing support of others. A classic definition of a leader is that a leader has “willing” followers. The leader has developed the skills to manage a broad variety of relationship types and the flexibility to adapt to constantly changing demands and circumstances. Read more

Leadership step 2: Self-Knowledge.

Self knowledge builds on the foundation of awareness. It is knowing the impact you have on those around you when you express your normal desires and how to control those actions to achieve the optimal result. So while self awareness involves internal exploration, self knowledge is outward looking and involves learning how to observe, listen and evaluate. Read more

Leadership step 1: Self-Awareness

Understanding who and what you are, what are your natural likes and dislikes are. Understanding your core temperament and how you respond to others is a critical bedrock for the development of Emotional Intelligence. This process requires the use of suitable assessment tools to create objectivity, and feedback from those around you in order to clarify and validate this evolving self-image. Read more

The BIG numbers…

The ASTD published some startling numbers about leaders this month:

1. 84% don’t think their interviewers are given guidance to probe further into a candidate’s suitability

Candidates spend a lot of time practising for interviews these days. They have their rehearsed answer and their back-up answer ready. It’s only when you probe again that the good stuff is revealed. Read more

The bottom line for all businesses

By McQuaig Consultant, Dave Stent.

With the current economic climate affecting nearly every Business worldwide we all have to find ways of delivering even more for the clients ‘buck’, or in some painful cases for less.

To do this we focus on the areas where we can make operational savings typically through actions such as reducing overheads, reorganisation and given the biggest area of cost is the employee base this is always on the radar. Read more

Successful leaders require a few skills…

Cognisco surveyed 400 companies in the UK and US and on this basis estimated that employee misunderstandings cost companies at least £18.7 billion.

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Take me to your…

Leadership is a skill in short supply.  This has a number of implications:
• it leads to poor succession planning, a particular problem for UK industry, and may be wiping £2bn a year from the FTSE 350 according to Investors in People;

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What do psychometric tests measure and what are they used for?

If you are a parent, your children take them at school in between examinations to check their progress and predict their results. They sometimes highlight particular strengths and areas that need more teaching.

If you have entered work on a graduate recruitment scheme, you’ve probably taken one during the milk round. And you may well have sat one when you went for your first or subsequent jobs.

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