An Occupational Psychologist should play a key role in transitions of ownership and/or leadership in family owned or closely held enterprises. Yet most advisors who work with families on these sensitive transitions don’t realize that occupational psychologists should be part of the team of transition professionals. While these advisers often seek the participation of a clinical or counseling psychologist or a licensed clinical social worker to address the emotional issues that often emerge among family members during a transition, to optimize transition outcomes, an occupational psychologist should be engaged to work directly with the enterprise itself. The occupational psychologist guides the transition of roles, responsibilities and reporting structures that emerge during the typical three to five year transition period. The occupational psychologist uses assessments of individuals and job roles to assure that transition decisions are data- based decisions. Whenever possible, models of future leadership roles are created, and potential role occupiers are assessed for both current goodness of fit to the role and the need for development toward a better fit to the role. The occupational psychologist should not be the ultimate decision maker about whether a given family member or non-family member is best suited for the role; that […]

INTRODUCTION: Contract furniture dealerships face many talent management challenges, but conversations with several dealership leaders and principals indicate that the greatest talent management concerns center on the various stages of building the dealership talent pipeline. Although individual dealerships might differ in the priorities they place on each talent pipeline concern, all agree that four talent pipeline processes are critical for dealership success and sustainability. Those talent pipeline processes are: Selecting the strongest entry-level talent who will stay and grow Developing individual contributors into supervisors and managers Powering sales people to optimize their contribution to revenue Preparing leadership and dealer principal succession Let’s look at each of these critical talent pipeline processes and explore the systems and activities that would optimize its effectiveness. Many of these systems and activities until fairly recently were available only to organizations much larger than the typical dealership. Now with online communications, scalable talent management architectures and expert system databases, even the smallest dealership can afford to access these talent pipeline resources. SELECTING THE STRONGEST ENTRY LEVEL TALENT WHO WILL STAY AND GROW: Sourcing and selecting entry level talent may be the single most important talent pipeline process for a dealership, since the depth of entry […]

  This week members of the local OD (Organization Development) Network are meeting to talk about “Next Generation Leadership”.  But does anyone really know what next generation leadership is?  The OD Network members may find themselves the members of the Over Dose Network as they try to parse the ambiguity of this phrase.   Does it mean organizations should be led by those who currently are the followers, a situation where the inmates run the asylum?  Or could it mean that each generation requires its own leadership, a situation in which several age-linked cadres of leaders compete for ultimate control?  Hopefully neither of the above absurdities is the real intent of this phrase.  A look at some relevant research may be helpful.   In 1996 the founding event of ATG’s Futures Leaders capability was a gathering of educational leaders from all over the United States who were brought together to create a model of “The 21st Century Educational Leader”.  This model became the driver for the preparation, selection and development of community college leaders across the country.  Then, thirteen years later, these leaders were at the forefront of the reinvention of the community college and the evolution of many of […]

I became aware of Pelocity through an inter-office e-mail in the Florida National Guard. It sounded like a great deal and I immediately contacted [them] for a log-in code. I enjoy self-awareness exercises and self-assessments, and believe they are integral to our continued personal and professional development. Pelocity satisfies both of these ends. Even upon first impression, I felt Pelocity was going to be an accurate and richly-detailed assessment of my strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes in relation to future careers. I completed the four assessments quickly, and with ease. My goal was to remain as objective as possible and the results came out rather well. I believe Pelocity was the most effective self-assessment I have taken in years. While I was as objective as possible, Pelocity identified 5-6 careers in my top 25 that I am highly interested in pursuing. One of my goals has been to eventually use my master’s in fine arts to teach creative writing at the college level. Pelocity didn’t just list “various” teaching positions among my careers, it specifically listed graduate and postsecondary teaching positions. Not only did Pelocity offer career suggestions to focus me in a particular direction, it confirmed that I am already well […]

By: Greg Gutkowski, bestselling author and guest blogger The digital transformation has disrupted, and in some cases, degraded entire industries. Let’s examine the impact of this phenomenon on future jobs and discuss an approach to addressing this unprecedented development in the history of humankind. The price of technology decreased roughly 10,000-fold over the last 20 years. The computing power of our smartphones would have cost about $4 million as little as 20 years ago. Today, we carry in our pockets more computing power than it took the Apollo mission to go to the moon and back. As of 2016, more people around the world own smartphones than toothbrushes. Entire industries have been disrupted by the digital revolution, including music publishing by Apple iTunes, traditional print and TV advertising by Google, retail by Amazon, traditional media by social media, taxis by Uber, and hotels by Airbnb. Never have we experienced such a rapid increase in the power of technology with a simultaneous steep drop in pricing. These two drivers account for most of the progress and disruption, and the pace of technological change is not going to slow down anytime soon. Digital​ ​technologies​ ​are​ ​having​ ​a​ ​profound​ ​impact​ ​on​ ​all​ ​industries.​ […]

Equifax: Lessons From an Avoidable Cyber Security Breach Disaster What Happened to Equifax? Equifax recently revealed that highly sensitive personal and financial information for around 145 million U.S. consumers was compromised in a cybersecurity breach that began in late spring due to an IT vulnerability. There are only around 125 million households in the U.S. The breach included sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. What was the Equifax IT Vulnerability? The reported vulnerability that attackers exploited to access Equifax’s system was in the Apache Struts web-application software, a widely used enterprise platform. But as subsequent coverage of the incident has unfolded, it has become clear that Equifax had institutional problems maintaining systems in a secure state. To top it off, the attackers had access to the network for a long period of time and left plenty of clues that they were there, none of which were detected until much later. How to Avoid an Equifax Disaster? Anti-virus and Firewalls are no longer enough to keep the bad guys out. Companies must now take the proactive measure of locating and remediating their IT vulnerabilities within their networks, devices, proprietary applications and […]

What’s the lowdown? According to the U.S. Labor Department, the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.3 percent, its lowest point since 2001. Some analysts believe the 138,000 U.S. jobs added in May will even be enough to encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates later in June. But it’s not all good news. The rate of job growth has actually been slowing down in recent months – and that could mean trouble for both employers and job seekers. Why the slowdown? The economy has been steadily recovering from the Great Recession. At the current hiring pace, unemployment could soon drop to a level that some analysts would claim indicates a healthy economy. Others believe this slowdown is necessary to maintain balance. Either way, the job market waters are murky. Many people that were considered unemployed were not necessarily hired but had actually stopped looking for work in recent weeks. While this had a positive impact on the unemployment rate, the fact remains that fewer new job opportunities are being posted. The showdown Fewer new jobs are going up yet job openings are still at an all-time high, meaning companies are not actually filling as many positions. With more job […]

By Leslie H. Krieger, Ph.D., SPHR Does hiring smart pay off in higher profits? You bet it does! In fact, hiring smart typically brings a much greater return on investment than does spending on process improvements or capital equipment. Let’s look at actual ROI data from hiring smart initiatives we created for three very different businesses: debt collection, product distribution, and fast food. CASE STUDY #1: A FINANCIAL RECOVERY AGENCY Hiring Smart Investment: $30,000 Details: ATG helped the agency select debt collectors who quickly surpassed the national average of debt collected per month, enabling its 100 collectors to collect an additional $2.5 million per year. ROI : 8,300%. CASE STUDY #2: A PRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION COMPANY Hiring Smart Investment: $80,000 Details: ATG helped the company select field sales associates whose first year turnover rate dropped from 54% to 28%, resulting in reduced annual turnover costs of $16.3 million per year ROI: 20,300%. CASE STUDY #3: A FAST FOOD RESTAURANT COMPANY Hiring Smart Investment: $150,000 Details: ATG helped the company identify better-fit store managers and team members, resulting in reduced turnover, faster customer service response and greater customer spending. This produced an overall bottom line improvement of $17 million per year. ROI: […]

Injured veterans are finding new career paths with the help of Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP). Recently, WWP connected warriors with detailed career assessments. The online questionnaire determined abilities and identified 25 potential opportunities for each veteran. “We use technology to advance the way talent and companies connect,” Stephen Pollan said. Stephen is the founder and CEO of Pelocity, a Jacksonville-based company WWP is working with to identify careers for warriors. The technology goes beyond a simple question-and-answer format. It creates a database of prospective jobs and spells out, in detail, what is necessary to apply. “This means a warrior knows if they can start that career right away, or if they need to expand their skills,” said Kevin Rasch, WWP Warriors to Work® manager. “This allows Wounded Warrior Project to steer veterans toward additional education, if needed, or networking opportunities for jobs they are already qualified for.” “The assessment pinpointed what I wanted my career to be,” Navy veteran Gabriel Perez said. “The survey came back with network administrator and computer technician as my top careers.” Gabriel already targeted those fields in his career search. He has been working with WWP career counseling on his resume and interview coaching. “Wounded […]