Validity is a pretty dry topic but it is consistently the subject of the most frequently asked questions about the use of Prevue Assessments. It has therefore earned feature article status. If you can persevere through to the final part of this article you will find the offer of a reward for your dedication.

Validity questions generally break down into the following three topics:

• What is validity?
• Why is it important?
• How is it measured?

What is Validity? (this is the easy part)

In the simplest terms validity confirms an assessment tool or process “measures what it purports to measure”, “is job relevant” and “does assist in making more effective decisions”.

Keep in mind that the reference to assessment tools or processes doesn’t just refer to Prevue Assessments. The need to confirm validity applies to any and all tools and procedures that are used in assessing individuals including the collection of information from job applicants, content of screening and interview questions, any kind of testing used in the hiring process and even background and reference checks.

Why is it Important?

There are two basic reasons why employers should be concerned about validity:

1. First you don’t want to be wasting your time and money using assessment tools or processes that are not effective.  Not only do you want to know they are effective, you should also want to determine their degree of effectiveness – in other words, your return on investment (ROI) on the time and money invested in those tool and processes. Proving validity and ROI are virtually the same process.
2. Second (first for some) the law requires that you be able to demonstrate the assessment tools or processes used in the hiring process are valid.  In the USA this is contained in the Civil Rights Act, EEOC Guidelines and host of other federal, state and local laws.  In Canada, Australia, the UK and other common law jurisdictions the requirement is contained in a wide range of human rights and employment legislation at all levels of government.

How is it Measured? (this is the heavy going part)

Evidence of Validity should be available from the following two sources:

• First, proof of validity should be provided by the supplier of any assessment tool or process you utilize.  For the Prevue Assessments this is comprised of the Prevue Technical Manual together with the Prevue Technical Bulletin, “Measures of Reliability and Validity”.  Copies are available from your authorized Prevue Distributor or by email request to support@prevueassessments.com
• Second is confirmation of validity through validation studies conducted by the user of any assessment tool or process, sometimes referred to as internal validity.  This is what the law expects the user to demonstrate in the course of responding to a complaint filed under any of the legislation noted above or in civil proceedings that involve employment issues.

The specific degree or level of validity is measured by validity coefficients reported as a number between 0 and 1.00. The US Dept. of Labor’s guide on Testing and Assessment confirms that validity coefficients of .21 to .35 are typical of most assessment tools with scores over .35 being very beneficial. You can see in the above-noted Technical Bulletin that the validity coefficients for the Prevue Assessments generally exceed .35.

Validity and ROI are confirmed by conducting one or more of the following types of validation studies:

• Criterion-related validation to demonstrate the relationship between assessment performance and job performance that confirms either concurrent validity or predictive validity;
• Content-related validation to confirm the assessment is relevant to and measures requirements or qualifications for the job; and
• Construct-related validation to exhibit the assessment does measure the constructs it purports to measure and those constructs are important to job performance.

You Can Do It – We Can Help (finally, the reward part – more work for all of us)

The Prevue Technical Manual confirms the Prevue Assessments have been validated with all three types of studies outlined above.  The obligation on employers to confirm Internal Validity we know can be both time consuming and expensive.  Prevue has therefore developed the “Prevue Internal Validation/ROI Program” to assist Prevue users to confirm the internal validity and/or the ROI of their use of Prevue Assessments.  You can obtain an outline of the Prevue Internal Validation/ROI Program from your authorized Prevue Distributor or by email request to support@prevueassessments.com .

For those of you masochists who may be interested in finding out more about this subject we would refer you to chapter 3 of the “Employers Guide to Testing and Assessment” published by the US department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, at www.onetcenter.org/dl_files/empTestAsse.pdf .

Written By: Ken Danderer July 10, 2010

A1: The Benchmark Suitability Score is determined by how often the candidate falls off the benchmark areas (green shaded area) of the graph.  You’ll note that the Benchmark Suitability Score will improve if the candidate has landed on the green shaded area more than on areas off the benchmark.  The graph below illustrates each area of the report and how it will affect Benchmark Suitability.

When a candidate has a score that is next to the green shaded area, on either side of the benchmark, they are likely to still possess the qualities required by the benchmark for that particular scale.  If there is more than one white space between the candidate’s score and the benchmark area (whether above or below the benchmark), the candidate may not possess the desired skills represented by the scale and the benchmark.  If a candidate scores higher than the benchmark range, particularly in the abilities & interests scales, they may become bored in the position as they will not be challenged in their roles in those areas.

Q2: “The candidate’s report says it’s been invalidated due to a high number of ‘B’ responses in the Personality section?  What does this mean?  What should I do now?”

A2: In the Personality section, candidates are asked to respond to 110 questions or scenarios.  ‘B’ responses indicate uncertainty while ‘A’ or ‘C’ responses are more decisive as to how the candidate would behave in the situation described in each question.

It is important to note that the candidate is requested to respond with not more than “a dozen or so ‘B’ responses” on three (3) separate occasions while completing the Personality section, including one that pops up midway through the test.  Excessive ‘B’ responses will produce mid-range scores on the candidate’s test results.

Prevue actually accepts up to 34 ‘B’ responses for a valid assessment.  In the Prevue Selection report, if you look at the last page of the report and review the Validity Commentary, the report will indicate how many ‘B’ responses the candidate provided.  Note that leaving a question blank is counted as a ‘B’ response.

A candidate who responds with more than 34 ‘B’ responses has chosen either to ignore the instructions or is oblivious to the instructions. They will usually take an inordinate amount of time to complete the Personality section. They are likely someone who is not decisive and prefers middle of the road answers and solutions, which may or may not be a desirable attribute depending on the requirements of the job. All of this is valuable information for the interview.

You may choose to accept the assessment as invalid because the candidate has failed to follow clear instructions, or you may ask the candidate in the interview to explain why they selected so many “B” responses. If you wish to give the candidate another opportunity you may reset the Personality section and ask the candidate to complete it again, but with more decisive responses.

• Assessments are job suitability tests that are given to job applicants either online or in pencil and paper format before they are hired or promoted.  Assessments are also used for coaching, training and team building activities.
• To be most effective, the assessment should be designed to specifically test for qualities or attitudes that are important for the job by comparing the applicant to a benchmark of the knowledge, skills, abilities and behavior required in the job.
• Tests are based on valid principles of psychology and should be designed and developed by occupational psychologist with expertise in job profiling and test design. Such persons are referred to as Psychometrists.

Ipsative Scores & Normative Scores Explained:

Ipsative means “of the self, and is used in psychology as in the phrase “ipsative measure” to indicate a specific type of measure in which respondents compare two or more options and pick the one which is most preferred , or in other words make a forced choice.  This is contrasted with measures that use Likert-type scales, in which respondents choose the score (e.g. 1 to 5) which best represents the degree to which they agree with a given statement – also referred to in this article as Normative testing.

Ipsative scores may be found in any test where there are forced choices and where each choice is scored.  This means that at the end of the test the scores can represent only the relative strength of that characteristic in that individual.  There must be negative correlations between some of the scores simply as an artifact of the scoring system, in that if one chooses one response as the best that excludes the others.  This scoring system fails to measure the absolute strength of the characteristic.

Q&A

Q: Could you send me a comparison analysis of DiSC vs. Prevue?

A: Not all DiSC products are alike so you need to look at the DiSC product of interest to you.  As a general rule, most DiSC products are not suitable for hiring or other higher stakes decisions because they are Ipsative rather than Normative instruments – the technical manual for the better DiSC products will usually confirm this limitation.  Essentially most DiSC products are feel good assessments that will not offend anyone’s sensibilities when used for team building exercises where assessment results are shared.  Prevue is designed to life the iceberg out of the water so decision makers can really understand what they are dealing with in terms of human resource management.  Prevue is therefore more difficult to work with in Coaching or Training applications but provides reliable information for high stakes decisions.

It is clear that normative tests are far superior to ipsative tests as precise measures of psychological characteristics.  Ipsative scores are only suitable as a basis of discussion.   Since however, it is perfectly possible to use normative tests as a basis for discussion and have, in addition, scores suitable for statistical analysis, there seems no reason to use ipsatively scored tests and they are not recommended.

Adecco recently published the results of a workplace survey that indicated that more than half (54%) of employed Americans indicate that they are likely to look for new jobs once the economy turns around. Among the younger employees (18 to 29), that number jumps to 71%.

Whether or not a high percentage of these actually make job changes, these are chilling figures that describe the outcome of poor job fit and employee dissatisfaction in clear terms. Of interest to us as recruiting professionals, when you look at the number of younger workers in particular, is the opportunity to implement a number of initiatives that can address the selection of employees in their early career choices and have a compelling impact upon future retention.

It starts with selection. Employee retention has many facets that impact upon the human resource practices of an organization. But, without an effective selection process, you aren’t starting with enough of the “right stuff”. It starts at the beginning and it starts with the most basic positions within an organization.

Those employers who have invested heavily in refining the recruitment process for entry level positions with very clearly spelled out criteria for both the skill potential as well as the behavioural fit for their successful employees have reaped huge rewards. A prime example is a well known firm in the chemical manufacturing industry who has achieved significant success with both employee retention and performance. Employee turnover is rare in this organization and almost completely driven by lifestyle choices that change as an employee’s family circumstances change. The business result is spectacular and the best indicator of success is shown in the simple fact that they are the only manufacturer of their products who continues to manufacture in North America. They can compete with off shore suppliers because of the quality and efficiency of their work force. Their training costs are associated with building new skills on an existing base; not training new employees on basic skills. Their human resource support focuses on coaching and mentoring not recruiting and conflict resolution. Their workers focus on productivity, safety and team cohesiveness.

Today, as employers suffer the consequences of less rigorous selection practices for entry level employees, the opportunity is there to hone their tool kit and apply modern practices such as psychological assessment to those hires. The days of bringing them onboard and seeing how they work out is a hit and miss process that is way too expensive. As we saw in feature article last month, the true cost of replacing a stock clerk in grocery is $1,300. If that is the case, then what is it for the professional positions when employers hire new graduates to form the foundation for their future?

So – think about it – why don’t more employers use effective selection tools at the front end of the hiring process – for all jobs. Screening job seekers through a valid and reliable assessment as part of a diligent hiring process will dramatically improve the quality of applicants that they invest their valuable time with

Good selection tools can no longer be viewed as an expensive luxury but rather as a cost effective necessity.

Written by:  Lynne Wallace, QuikApps Inc. June 11, 2010

Some test candidates encounter difficulties in accessing or completing the Prevue Assessments online.  Generally the problems originate from the user or the computer environment being used to access the site.  Following are some common reasons & resolutions:

Pop-Up Blockers:

• The Prevue Assessments open in a pop-up window and pop-ups must be allowed in the browser to gain access.  Candidates often do not realize that the assessment opens in a pop-up window and that they must allow pop-ups to open, or in other words, disable pop-up blockers.  Frequently, candidates have multiple pop-up blockers installed in their browser as part of a tool-bar which was included with programs they installed and are unaware of these; therefore, they do not know that these pop-up blockers must be turned off.  Prevue provides a trouble-shooting guide directly on the testing website and a link to a more comprehensive guide.  Ideally candidates should complete the assessment using Mozilla Firefox.
• If pop-up blockers are not disabled, the candidate will receive a message that the assessment is open in another window, although this is untrue.

Internet Connection:

• Wireless internet connections tend to be unstable and may pose difficulties in downloading the screens in full.  It is recommended that computers are connected to a hardwired internet connection.

Instructions for responding to the questions:

• The assessment is completed by using the mouse to select the desired responses.  If candidates attempt to use the keyboard instead of the mouse, the responses will not register in their assessment and the candidate may in fact prematurely exit the assessment.  Where candidates are using a laptop it is recommended that they use a mouse rather than the touch pad on the laptop.

Firewalls, Anti-Virus/Anti-Adware/Spyware software:

• Firewalls and anti-virus software can pose communication or connection issues between the candidate’s computer and the Prevue servers.  This is typically the case when the candidate is using a work computer or laptop to access the assessment.  The security settings on the computers may not permit candidates to access unknown websites or permit the receiving of data from such sites.  Taking the assessment from a non-work related computer can be the difference between being able to access the assessment and not gaining access.

Computer Compatibility:

• The Prevue Assessments are not Mac compatible, therefore it is recommended that candidates use a PC based computer.  Some newer Mac computers have the ability to open in a Windows environment and use Windows based browsers.  Many candidates have reported that they are able to successfully complete the Prevue Assessments on the new Mac computers that have Windows-like capabilities.

Browser Compatibility:

• Not all browsers are compatible for opening the Prevue Assessments.  Mozilla Firefox is the recommended site for easiest access, however, candidates may also use Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, Netscape Navigator 6 or above, Opera 6.0 or above.

Prevue Online User Issues: Invitation Emails (Candidate Invitations, JDS or Concurrent Study):

Some of the more common questions we receive from Prevue Online Administrators are related to sending invitations to candidates for the Prevue Assessments or Benchmark studies.  Below we address the various items to check in your account to ensure invitations are being sent out.

• Candidates will have access to the site www.assessmentstation.com only if they are associated to an activity in PrevueOnline.com.  Activities are designed to communicate with www.assessmentstation.com in order to open access for various Prevue assessment sections.  If candidates are added from the Candidate Menu’s New Candidate page, the Administrator must select an Activity so that the candidate will have access to the necessary assessments.
• The best, most effective way to add candidates to the appropriate Assessment is to use the Prevue Wizard and select one of the Activities in the drop down menu.  For your convenience, you’ll have access to 5 default activities with access to various Prevue Assessment sections.
• Invitations sent out from Prevue Online are server generated and may be treated as spam, either because the site uses the Activity Owner’s email address to attempt to bypass spam filters or because info@prevueonline.com is not a recognized email address.
• The server address info@prevueonline.com should be safe listed or white listed by the recipients in the event that they have not received an invitation.
• Invitations may be sent out using either the Activity Owner’s email address (The main login on the account who adds candidates/participants to the site) OR using Prevue’s email address info@prevueonline.com.  Firewalls on the recipient’s mail server may prevent invitations from being delivered directly to the candidate/participant’s Inbox and the emails may be blocked or delivered to the Junk/Spam Folder.
• The Activity Owner’s email address does not match the IP address of Prevue Online and therefore may be rejected as spam.  In this case, amend the Email Defaults and/or Activity Emails to send from “System Standard Email” or in other words, using info@prevueonline.com.
• If sending from info@prevueonline.com, the recipient may face a similar problem as outlined above, so you will need to amend the Email Defaults and/or Activity Emails to send from the Activity Owner’s email address.
• Trouble-shooting can be done in the Administration column, under the Email’s Email Message History page.  You may also look in the Candidate List to see if the candidate has a Last Invite date listed.  If no date appears, then the candidate was not sent an invitation.
• Administrators may also check that the Activities are set up correctly to automatically send invitations.  If not, you will need to amend the activity or speak to your Prevue Representative for further instructions.

For assistance, you may email support@prevueassessments.com.  Please provide your full company name and your Prevue Distributor’s details in your email.

With estimates for the true cost of turnover ranging from 25% for entry level jobs to 250% of annual salary for senior management, it’s not rocket science to realize that this can’t continue.

A new study from the Canadian Grocery Human Resource Council (CGHRC) takes the analysis a little further. In this study, conducted across the grocery industry in 2008,  and released in April 2010, they found that:

• Participants reported an overall employee turnover rate of 38.7%, with an average voluntary turnover rate of 31.7%.
• The reported turnover rate was highest for part-time non-management staff (64.9%).
• Facilities located in urban areas experienced a higher rate of overall turnover (40.2%) than those in rural locations (28.1%).
• Turnover varied with the type of ownership structure: the rate was highest for chain facilities (40.9%), followed by independent facilities (31.8%) and franchises (27.2%).
• The size of operation did not appear to influence the rate of turnover

They went further in their study to take a look at the cost of turnover for one of the most basic positions in a grocery store – front line, part time grocery clerk. Their findings. across a statistically significant sample, was an average cost of $1,300.

Now $1300 doesn’t really sound like a lot of money but it does become significant when you are facing a turnover rate of 31.7% to 38.7%. Further, to put that $1300 figure into perspective they performed an impact analysis of store sales to recover that cost – what they found should give us all pause for thought.

• If a store’s net margin is between 2% and 4%, the store has to sell between $32,500 and $65,000 in groceries to recover that cost.

The study concluded that turnover should be defined as “an expense without an invoice”.

If you would like a copy of the CGHRC Cost of Turnover Study please contact www.support@prevueassessments.com.

Written by:  Lynne Wallace, QuikApps Inc., May 11, 2010

• Assessments are job suitability tests that are given to job applicants either online or in pencil and paper format before they are hired or promoted.  Assessments are also used for coaching, training and team building activities.
• To be most effective, the assessment should be designed to specifically test for qualities or attitudes that are important for the job by comparing the applicant to a benchmark of the knowledge, skills, abilities and behavior required in the job.
• Tests are based on valid principles of psychology and should be designed and developed by occupational psychologist with expertise in job profiling and test design. Such persons are referred to as Psychometrists.

Q&A

1. What kinds of small businesses find these assessments most helpful? (e.g. size of company, industries)

A: The heaviest use of testing is for the following types of jobs;

• Managerial/supervisory at the entry and mid levels of management
• Technical professionals like programmers
• Sales
• Customer Service
• Call Centres

2. What is the average cost of a new hire for a small business?  This would be based on research you might have done in support of your service.

A:  Cost to hire data is generally only collected by larger companies that have a recruiting department or by recruiting firms. Smaller companies tend to focus more on cost of turnover. In other words, what is the cost of a bad hire? I’ve commented on this subject in question # 5.

3. What problems or challenges do assessments resolve for small business?

A:  Testing is generally focused on two aspects of job performance. The first and most simple is “Skills testing” to measure knowledge on subjects like software programs. The second and somewhat more mysterious is “Job Fit testing” to match applicants to the demands or preferred behaviours of specific positions, usually measured by abilities, interests and personality tests (the Prevue Assessments are Job Fit Assessments).

There is an old saying that “people are hired on skills and fired on fit”. Skills testing assure the candidate actually has the knowledge required for a position while Job Fit testing provides information on whether the candidate will be comfortable addressing the demands of the position in terms of things like ability to assimilate new information quickly, conscientiousness, interest in working with people, capacity to deal with stress, etc.

4. How expensive and time-consuming is it to get an assessment prepared?

A:  With the advent of online testing in the 1990’s the time required to administer a test to job applicants has been reduced to minutes. The cost of testing is usually dependent on the volume of tests used by an employer, and depending on the types of tests that are used and the amount of support required or requested by the employer.  Prevue Distributors may also charge a consulting fee.

5. How many hires or how long do you expect it would take for the assessments to pay for themselves in saved HR costs?

A:  We expect our Prevue Assessments will more than pay for themselves from the first hire made with the use of assessments. Most turnover is caused by lack of job fit – things such as the inability to close sales, reluctance to make sales calls, failure to make timely decisions, failure to complete and deliver reports, failure to show up to work on time. Information from valid and reliable job fit assessments can provide insight into the characteristics that cause these behaviours.

Cost of turnover has been proven to be at least 30% of an employee’s annual salary and anywhere up to 100% of that annual salary, depending on the extent of recruiting and training costs that are related to the position. So if you can reduce turnover by even as little as 5 to 10%, the cost of testing the best 2 or 3 applicants for a position is pretty cheap relative to the return – and that ignores the cost and interruption to the performance of the manager and fellow workers.

6. How do you think the assessments would help an immigrant business owner (or someone whose first language is not English) to improve their business?

A: This is tough one. Although the concept of typing people based on intelligence, personality and interests goes back almost as far as recorded history, modern business testing was only borne in WW II through the efforts of the English and the British to place people in military positions where they would be most effective. Thus most test development has, until recently, been based upon a white English speaking population. That situation and the use of assessments have however undergone significant change over the last 25 years with the introduction of testing in virtually every corner of the globe. Thus, we at Prevue Assessments have developed and validated versions of our Prevue Assessments in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic and are scheduled to complete translations to German, Russian, Mandarin, Polish and Japanese.

Testing is definitely finding a market in all cultures and languages so there is no reason why immigrant business owners should not take advantage of these tools in whatever language they or their job applicants prefer.

WHY ORGANIZATONS ARE USING ASSESSMENTS

Over 80% of study participants use assessments in the hiring process. The following graph identifies the top 5 business outcomes or improvements that are sought by companies from the use of pre-hire assessments:

While almost all companies use assessments during the hiring process, only 50% of survey participants use assessments for current workforce management.  Nonetheless, the interest in using assessments for internal human resource management is increasing and particularly for the following applications:

WHAT ASSESSMENTS ORGANIZATIONS ARE USING

The most common types of assessments used by business continue to be personality, skills and cognitive abilities assessments.  New developments in testing such as simulations and bio data analysis are getting a lot of press but seem to be limited in the uptake.

The hiring process used by most organizations also continues to be following the classic steps of resume review, reference checks, prescreening questions, testing, interviews and background investigations. Although 70% + of respondents use or plan to use social media sites for sourcing job applicants, only 20% or so believe such sites are effective tools for determining candidate fit or will have a major impact on how talent is recruited, measured and managed.

ASSESSMENT USAGE BY JOB TYPE

Although assessments are used for virtually all types of jobs, organizations are using assessments more commonly in hiring for the following positions:

• Managerial/supervisor positions at the entry and mid level
• Technical/professional (particularly for knowledge and skills testing)
• Sales
• Customer service
• Administrative

ASSESSMENT EVALUATION BY ORGANIZATIONS

Despite the fact that most organizations (over 70%) pay lip service to proving the return on investment (“ ROI”) or effectiveness of the hiring tools and processes they use, only 50% of organizations actually do anything about it.

Those companies that do evaluate their use of assessments primarily focus on turnover/retention metrics and supervisor ratings to measure the effectiveness. Although companies can measure all of the desired business outcomes or improvements outlined above (as well as training effectiveness, legal compliance and financial metrics like sales revenue per hire), few companies actually do so.

So why is there such a gap between good intentions and practice?  Both the surveys reviewed in this article and our experience at Prevue Assessments suggest the primary cause is the unwillingness of organizations to commit the time and personnel required to gather and analyze data necessary to prove ROI.  Prevue Assessments will be endeavoring to bridge this gap in the future by creating new online data gathering facilities to simplify both the collection and analysis of ROI data to prove the effectiveness of using Prevue products. If you have interest in this subject we would appreciate your observations and suggestions.

The surveys reviewed in this article cover a wide range of subjects beyond those highlighted in this article.  Complete copies of the surveys can be obtained by email request to support@prevueassessments.com.

Bibliography

1. 2009 Rocket-Hire Pre-Employment Assessment usage Survey, Mark C. Healey and Charles A Handler Ph.D.
2. 2010 Global Assessment Trends Report, Sarah S. Fallaw, Ph.D., Andrew L. Solomonson, Ph.D., Previsor Talent Measurement.

Throughout 2010 we intend to develop Prevue online training modules to help users learn about our products when it’s convenient for them.  We welcome your feed back as the modules are released and in the meantime we would like to share with you what we discovered about the field of e-Learning.

There is a vast body of literature that confirms e-learning has not only seen a phenomenal growth in the past few years, but will continue to transform training and development for today’s profit and non-profit organizations in all sectors.  It isn’t just the promise of impressive technology that is driving people to e-learning.  Rather, organizations have urgent needs to convey rapidly changing information to large numbers of widely dispersed individuals faster, better and more cost effectively than ever before.

What is e-Learning?

E-learning is an innovative approach to distance education in which computer based training (CBT) is transformed by the technologies and methodologies of the World Wide Web, the Internet, and Intranets.  E-Learning presents live content, which can be modified at will, in a structure allowing the self-directed, self-paced instruction in any topic.

What is driving e-Learning?

Learning is a continual process which can take place anywhere and anytime and does not necessarily take place in a scheduled event.  There is a demand for just-in-time training that can be used to train globally distributed workforces.  There is also a growing population of Generation Nexters who are independent, mobile, multi-taskers who engage in self-learning using mediums such as Google and You Tube or other programs of edu-tainment.

Internet is becoming a standard at work and at home.  There is a growing selection of e-learning products and services available to develop media-rich content that can be delivered off better delivery platforms than were previously available.

e-Learning in the Workplace

The article “Building a Case for eLearning” by geo Learning (http://www.e-learningguru.com/wpapers/building_case.pdf ), highlights the key benefits of e-learning:

• The convenience of availability
• Just-in-time training opportunities and accessibility to refresher training
• Cost savings
• Reduced time away from the job
• Centralized knowledge management
• Built in student enrollment and course management through the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Prevue Training Modules:

Training modules will be developed on the following topics:

1. Prevue Online training videos and help materials
2. Psychometric Testing:
   1. Validity
   2. Reliability
   3. Fairness/Discrimination
   4. Personality Tests
3. Understanding Prevue:
   1. Scales
   2. Report Families
   3. Benchmarks
4. Prevue Distributor Training

If you would like to provide feedback on the list above or offer suggestions, please write to info@prevueonline.com.  Please provide your company name, contact details and your authorized Prevue Distributor’s name and email address in your correspondence.

Sharing knowledge is a powerful thing, but making it easily accessible is even more powerful!

So here are seven simple suggestions for better meeting management:

1. Reduce the number of meetings by finding other ways to address business. If it’s simply information-sharing or reviewing project status, for example, consider email.
2. If you’re undecided whether or not you need a meeting, ask yourself: do I need the input of other people. If not, you are probably just looking for an audience. If so, then invite the right people. If participants aren’t key to achieving a goal, they shouldn’t be there.
3. If you allow people to be systematically late or arrive unprepared, you are sending out a message that your meetings are unimportant.
4. Send out an agenda in advance so that participants can be fully prepared. Be sure it is action-oriented. Request that somebody take notes and highlight the decisions and follow up actions.
5. If you hold a meeting to solve a problem, start with a brainstorming session first to stimulate creativity; write ideas somewhere visible in the room.
6. Give participants brief summaries of more complex topics where necessary. DO NOT hand out lengthy documents. If people are flipping through a document, they’re not listening.
7. Close with a plan of action and circulate it at the end of the meeting. Ensure everyone leaves knowing what is expected of them.

I gleaned these seven suggestions from a longer list that appeared in the BDC newsletter of 2/16/2010. You can obtain a copy on request to support@prevueassessments.com.