by Jeannine Guerci on March 8, 2010
Several companies aiming at the enhancement of their corporate culture have leveraged organizational assessments. ‘Culture’ connotes behavior and values that tie several individual’s in a coherent group. Similarly, organizational culture comprises of behavioral elements keeping the employees united. Like other forms of culture, it evolves and develops as the team struggles to understand and adjust to their work culture (Trice and Beyer, 1993).
Periodic organizational assessments infuse positive elements in the corporate culture and also reinforce them. It simultaneously eradicates cultural chasm rising at both the individual and group level. The development of an effective work culture is usually achieved by implementing effective organizational assessment tools, such as creating a DISC profile. It is best suited for analysing and improving the building blocks of any corporate culture. By deploying DISC profiles, one can also identify the conflicting aspects of corporate culture and undertake remedial measures to eliminate them.
Organizational Assessments and Corporate Culture
The concept of an individual’s corporate character was first introduced by Wilkins in 1989. His studied highlighted this novel concept as a combination of ‘shared vision,’ ‘motivational faith’ and ‘distinctive skills.’ He further stated that to develop an employee’s corporate character, organizations must deploy programs dealing with each component individually. That’s precisely what organizational assessments are intended to achieve.
Regular organizational assessments sensitize employees towards a collective value system, beliefs and corporate culture. It also orients the new recruits towards established ways of coping with other members. In due course of time, issues related to the lack of motivation, commitment and job dissatisfaction are also reduced. Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has wide experience in assisting organizations in developing a positive corporate culture. It also helps in hiring employees whose values are aligned with an organization’s culture.
by Jeannine Guerci on March 1, 2010
Organizational assessments focused on the reinforcement of company culture boosts the social and political environment in which employees work. It also helps the key decision makers to identify the productive norms to be promoted. In due course, these norms are integrated in the workplace decisions and standard business policies.
Organizational Assessments and Work Culture
Organizational assessments also play a crucial role in improving a firm’s work culture. Behavioral assessments reinforce productive patterns prevalent in:
• Interpersonal behavior
• Attitudes and assumptions existing at the individual and group level
• Decision making at all levels of the organization
Moreover periodic behavioral assessments help in maintaining high levels of openness, transparency and honesty, essential for increasing the growth momentum.
Case Study of Intel Corporation
Several successful organizations, such as Intel, have been laying emphasis on including honesty and openness in their corporate culture. Even as early as the 1970s and 1980s, heated conversations could be heard in Intel’s conference room. At meetings, Intel employees would passionately express their viewpoints in order to encourage high-quality product development. Any friction arising between people attending the meetings were immediately resolved. The culture of absolute honesty continues to be a critical part of Intel’s work culture. Intel employees undergo formal training to learn the art of confronting another in a positive and straightforward manner.
Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has expertise in conducting strategic organizational assessments, which help companies reinforce culture and values.
by Jeannine Guerci on February 22, 2010
Powerful tools such as organizational assessments and behaviour assessment bring forth a variety of advantages.
Some of these advantages are:
• Enables an organization to understand its strengths
• Brings greater awareness about its challenges and growth areas
• Smarter decisions can be made to create a successful organizational change
• Becomes easier to solve problems by initiating corrective changes
Behavioral Assessments Reveal Top Performers
Believing that ‘every thing is all right’ sounds like a good excuse but a key factor to success is to implement behavioral assessment. It reveals exactly who the real performers are and what can be done to motivate the slow performers.
The SITE Foundation had sponsored a survey in 2002 known as Motivation for Excellence, which indicated that 85% of employees believed that motivation impacts their quality of work.
To boost a company’s overall performance, it is vital to usher in changes so as to:
• Differentiate the top performers from the low performers.
• Discover the talents and hidden abilities of both types of performers
• Identify and develop employees who have the potential to grow
• Link employee performance to the value that it is added
• Evolve a culture of personal commitment and accountability
• Foster high levels of creative and professional satisfaction among employees
Navigating changes smoothly requires expertise in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of employees in an organization. Identifying top performers is easy but growing the slow performers requires considerable focus and attention to detail. At Your Ultimate Success Inc, successful changes are continuously formulated to align human resources more effectively and find ways to maximize their productivity.
by Jeannine Guerci on February 15, 2010
Organizational assessments are a must-have for any organization that expects commitment from its employees. Salary and benefits are important to employees but sincerity and commitment is what really counts in the context of employee engagement.
Lynn Taylor’s recent study about employees reveals that an average employee worries for about three hours per day about the fate of their job. In big organizations, convert that to a month or a year and think of how many unproductive hours that will amount to.
Typically, employee engagement involves the following:
• Commitment to the organization that goes beyond salary or job satisfaction
• The desire to contribute to the organization’s overall success
• Becoming the company’s ambassador to friends, customers, and co workers.
• A psychological attachment between the employee and the employers.
Through organizational assessments, it becomes possible to:
• Motivate and engage employees
• Build trust between the employers and employees
• Measure the attitude of an employee to the organization
• Incorporate relevant feedback from employees
How DISC Assessments Fortify Employee Commitment
To delve into the inherent strengths and weaknesses of employees, DISC assessment is a structured profiling tool. The information an organization receives from such assessments helps in:
• identifying the problem areas
• formulating a plan and taking action towards improvement.
• encouraging engaged employees to do better at work
This way, employees will be able to
• Formulate methods to increase their productivity
• Aim for higher levels of performance
• Feel more valued about their contribution to the organization
• Be more prepared to go the extra mile for the company’s success
Your Ultimate Success Inc. uses effective profiling tools to engage employees, make them feel more valued and strive for higher levels of performance to ensure the
company’s success.
by Jeannine Guerci on February 8, 2010
A DISC profile is widely used for identifying behavioral styles such as steadiness and compliance in prospective employees. Behavior assessment through a DISC profile is an effective method of grouping the personality styles.
DISC Profile to Identify Steadiness
The importance of steadiness in employees is widely chronicled in studies. In his book High Maintenance Employees, Katherine Graham Leviss has highlighted that individuals with falling in the steadiness category are methodical and focused.
People who belong to this segment of the DISC profile are team players and predictable. Their weakness is manifested in their resistance to change and sensitivity to criticism.
DISC Profile to Identify Compliance
People falling in the compliance category of the DISC profile are analytical, accurate and systematic. While working in a team, they are even-tempered and are inclined towards defining situations. Their weakness lies in their tendency towards needing clear-cut boundaries for relationships and actions.
Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has experience in effectively creating DISC profiles to identify steadiness and compliance in prospective employees.
by Jeannine Guerci on February 1, 2010
The role of leadership is extremely important in defining organizational growth. A DISC profile plays a crucial role in identifying potential leaders. Leadership is considered as a personality trait – a skill to show the way – at any level of the hierarchy.
DISC Profile and the Importance of Identifying Potential Leaders
A report published by the Review of General Psychology says that the performance of any organization depends on the attitudes of the team. The team’s performance depends on the leadership style, which in turn is dependent on the personality of the leader.
Particular styles and personality traits of present and future leaders can be identified using a DISC profile. Leadership is considered to be multi-dimensional, involving the interchanging of roles. With the help of a DISC profile, organizations can nurture people with high D’s as leaders. A high D denotes the characteristic of Dominance, relating to control, assertiveness and power.
Your Ultimate Success (YUS) can help you identify potential leaders through organizational assessments.
by Jeannine Guerci on January 25, 2010
Companies face the inevitable problem of attrition if the hiring is not done properly. By using DISC assessment such problems can be prevented. An organization can hire the right candidate every time by understanding his/her psychology and personal behavior through a DISC profile.
Matching the candidate’s skills and qualifications with the required job is an important determining factor during the hiring process. However, this is not sufficient, since the candidate may leave the organization soon after employment if his behavioral style is not matched with the organizational culture. According to leading business magazine Harvard Business Review, 80% of employee turnover can be attributed to mistakes during the hiring process.
Using DISC Profile during Pre-Employment Testing
For determining the personality traits of the candidates, DISC assessment should be used during the pre-employment testing. DISC assessment involves a series of questions which are asked to the employees. Based on the answers, the candidate could be categorized in one of the four quadrant of DISC.
Normally, candidates do research on the prospective employer company and wear a mask during the interview. DISC profile effectively removes that mask and brings forth the real personality of the candidates.
For matching the candidates with the desired skills and work culture of the organization, DISC assessment is a useful model. Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has helped many hiring managers in knowing the real personality of the candidate during the interview and ensuring the right hire every time.
by Jeannine Guerci on January 18, 2010
A DISC profile can be used to improve communication skills with amazing results. By categorizing people in four behavioral dimensions, a DISC profile helps in applying the most appropriate method to align communication styles.
The importance of communication skills has been emphasized in the biannual survey of the Association of Graduate Recruiters. The report says that job seeking candidates are mostly lacking in soft skills such as verbal ability and communication skills. These problems can be resolved with the help of a DISC profile.
Tips on Improving Communication Skills with a DISC Profile
By categorizing people in four behavioral dimensions including Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance, a DISC profile offers the solutions to communication problems:
• High D’s: They are talkative, bossy and authoritative. They usually speak very fast. They can learn listening skills and ask more questions.
• High I’s: They use stories and anecdotes in their speeches and sometimes exaggerate. They can improve by controlling time in their speech.
• High S’s: They listen more and do little talking. They are patient, tolerant and are normally embarrassed by recognition. They can improve their communication skills by learning to adjust with self-affirmation.
• High C’s: They have slow speech and do not react much during communication. They are precise while talking. By learning to accept other’s ideas and participating in groups they can improve their communication.
Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has helped several managers to smooth out communication channels using a DISC profile.
by Jeannine Guerci on January 11, 2010
DISC assessment provides an effective method of judging the behavior of prospective employees. It is a behavior assessment model that offers profiling techniques of determining a person’s traits that has implications on his/her professional life. DISC assessment covers four areas of a person’s behavior – Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance.
According to a Michigan State University study, traditional hiring techniques (including resume reviews, interviews and reference checks) result in only a 14% likelihood of successful hiring. With the help of DISC assessment, an employer finds out if the person that is being hired has a motivating or de-motivating personality. A person’s strengths and weaknesses could be easily found out with the help of this method.
DISC Assessment: How it Works
DISC assessment is carried out in the form of an online questionnaire. Based on a person’s responses, a report is generated. The main focus of this behavior assessment is to determine the preferences of the person. By matching such reports with the required role in the organization, employers can find out the person’s suitability for the job. In this way, behavior assessment contributes to the hiring process by identifying the candidate who best suits a particular job.
Due to a host of benefits provided by this method, DISC assessment is used very commonly by HR professionals for effective hiring. Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has expertise and experience in DISC assessment and has assisted companies in successful hires.
by Jeannine Guerci on January 4, 2010
DISC assessment is an effective tool to improve the organizational environment. Organizational assessments help companies in determining the personal and professional behavior of prospective and current employees. The key parameters of DISC assessment include dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance. These traits of an employee are profiled with the help of a questionnaire.
Once the behavioral strengths and weaknesses of employees are understood, this insight is used for reducing conflict and enhancing cooperation. The development of such an organizational environment helps in increasing employee performance.
Role of DISC Assessment
According to a study published by the American Psychological Association (Washington) in the Journal of Applied Psychology, job involvement and work environment are interrelated. Therefore, a cooperative organizational environment would ensure higher employee productivity. DISC assessment lays the foundation for effectively dealing with conflict.
Still another benefit of organizational assessments is that they impart a community feeling. Once employees feel like a team, they are more committed to the work and the organization.
With the help of DISC assessment, Your Ultimate Success (YUS) has helped several organizations in developing strategies to deal with conflict and to inculcate a cooperative environment.
