Hiring Top Performing Teams on a Limited Budget

Unfortunately, the economic cut backs within the various organizations have created the need for downsizing to a smaller number of employees.  This means, the smaller number of employees would be in charge of their own job duties, and also doing the job of the previous employee(s). However, in order to be able to obtain the same effectiveness from the workforce, those employees are now increasingly encouraged to work in teams to collaborate and creatively share resources.  The question is, do these employees have the team player attitude and/or qualifications to be in teams? At Innovent Consulting, we recommend employers to assess for the Team Player dimension using our state of the art assessment tools during the pre-employment phase. According to a recent study conducted by the Gallup Corporation, within the thousands of teams studied, it was found that certain job applicants, once hired, had the ability to raise the engagement levels of their teams members, once dispatched to do team work at their positions.

There are four traits which are believed to be important factors in assessing employees in relationship to increasing team engagement among other employees:

v Mobilization:The ability to mobilize people with decisiveness and genuine inclusiveness.

v Clarity: They reduce team members uncertainty byhelping make clear the goal of the team and of each team member.

v Relationship: They are more likely to help teammembers get things done, because their relationship with them is important.

v Affirmation: These are people who have an optimismand enthusiasm that give others positive attitude.

By studying the individua lemployee engagement scores of each team member and the team as a whole,Innovent Consulting can help your organization assess for the right talent which will dramatically affect your ROI in the employees you hire in the long run. Our assessment tools aredesigned by corporate psychologists, who are specially trained in not only designing employment assessment tools, but also guiding and empowering thehired talent throughout their work-cycle, while employed at your organizations. This tool, not only creates efficiency in the selection process, but also provides the employee a great reason to feel optimistic and engaged in their position and their organization.

When it comes to handling behavioral health at the workplace,, employers have a lot more at stake, than they plan for. According to a recent study by Medco Health Solutions Inc., a New Jersey based Pharmaceutical research company, in 2007 and 2008 U.S. adults spent more money on antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs than any drug category. Another study showed that over 53% of U.S. adults suffered from at least one behavioral health issue, which led to 32 days of disability during the year.

What is of concern is that the healthcare provided by the employer automatically refers the employee to a general practitioner who is not properly qualified to diagnose and treat mental health issues, and hence a prescription could be completely unnecessary and harmful in fact.

If a patient goes to a general practitioner and is misdiagnosed, no one would know. In fact most health insurance plans by law are not obligated to keep that information confidential, and reporting of such information could not only affect future health insurance rates, and lead to unemployment, it could also leave the employee completely uninsured in the near future. The answer then is not to automatically send our employees to receive care from a physician. It is highly likely that through proper analysis and diagnosis at the HR level in connection to an employee coach, common work issues, such as low productivity, tardiness, absenteeism, etc. could be properly diagnosed at the employee level. A good coach can analytically, and in a private arena, diagnose different areas of an employee’s work, such as work-life balance, relationship 360, job design, etc. and provide a much higher ROI to both the employee and the employer. After all an organization is as good as its employees, and medicated employees don’t necessarily equate productive, happy employees.