How to Optimize Your Talent

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A common scenario:

You’ve probably seen this before: Jenny is a nice person who doesn’t make a lot of waves, but she just isn’t very good at her job. She’s been moved around and has been given many chances, but she just doesn’t have what it takes to be effective. What is the most effective way to handle this scenario?

Spring is here, and it’s a good time to clean house. First, identify your least-effective employees. Then determine if they are chronic low performers; if they are in jobs that don’t fit them; or if they have ineffective managers, insufficient training, or too few resources.

Why Smart Employees Underperform

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Identify Your Chronic Underperformers

A company is only as strong as its weakest link. You need to be honest with yourself. Though your employees may be nice people, they may not be adding sufficient value to your organization. The best solution for the company would be to make the tough decision to let them go. If you keep them, then your marginal-to-top performers no longer have an incentive to go above and beyond average job performance — they see that mediocrity is both tolerated and accepted.

Do You Have the Data to Support Your Decisions?

These difficult decisions are best made when supported by facts instead of opinions. There are many assessment tools that provide objective data for determining if an employee is a chronic underperformer or the victim of other circumstances that can be overcome.

Assess Job and Managerial Fit

Once you have identified who your underperformers are, it is important to understand the reasons behind their lack of output. Profiles International’s ProfileXT^® and Profiles Performance Indicator™ assessments can help you answer these common questions:

Does the employee have the required qualities for this job?
Can the employee work well with a team?
How does the employee respond to stress?
How can I best motivate the employee?

The ProfileXT^® assessment measures how well an individual fits specific jobs in your organization. The "job matching" feature of the ProfileXT^® is unique, and it enables you to evaluate an individual relative to the qualities required to successfully perform the specific job. It is used throughout the employee life cycle for selection, onboarding, managing, and strategic workforce planning. When optimizing your organization you can use the ProfileXT^® to generate results that can enhance your method of employee selection.

Another helpful tool is the Profiles Performance Indicator™, a DISC-type assessment that reveals aspects of an individual’s personality that could impact their fit with their manager, coworkers, and team as well as their job performance. It is used primarily for motivating and coaching employees, and resolving post-hire conflict and performance issues.

A powerful feature of the Profiles Performance Indicator™ is the Team Analysis Report, which is designed to help managers form new teams, reduce team conflict, improve team communication, improve their ability to anticipate problems, and enhance their team leadership skills.

Both of these assessments can help you understand more about your employees to place them in a job that better fits their respective skills and personalities, while at the same time increasing company productivity and output.