Consulting Services and Programs
For The Organization

OVERVIEW

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the process of hiring new people. Developing a personnel selection process to ensure the selection of individuals capable of competently and consistently fulfilling the mission of the job is a critical first step. This importance is reflected not only in the need to obtain qualified individuals, but also in the significant costs associated with advertising for a position, assessing resumes, interviewing applicants and training the new performer. Additionally, time is required for the new person to become productive. These costs are compounded when selection results cause an increase in turnover rates.

Research has shown the traditional or "unstructured" employment interview has little validity in promoting the quality of selection decisions. Reasons for this include: 1) different interviewers tend to ask different questions, 2) many questions are not job-related, 3) interviewers tend to evaluate information uniquely, and 4) many potential sources of error and bias are inherent in this subjective and non-systematic process. In contrast, research has demonstrated "structured" interviews can promote the validity of selection decisions.

Structured interviews possess eight characteristics:

1. The interview process is based on a job analysis, eliminating subjective irrelevant standards
2. All candidates are asked the same questions and therefore have an equal opportunity to respond
3. Rating scales for scoring interview responses are developed in advance
4. A panel of interviewers record and rate answers
5. The process is consistently administered to all candidates
6. Special attention is given to job-relatedness, fairness, objectivity, and documentation in accordance with governmental and professional testing guidelines
7. The interview can be validated using content validation procedures
8. The candidates can acquire a clear and accurate picture of the job before deciding to accept or reject an offer

The proposed structured interview to select employees consists of three components.

Patterned Interview Questions:

The patterned interview component measures a candidate's background, work history, experiences, and goals through the use of general, broad interview questions.

Situational Interview Questions:

The situational interview measures a candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and reactions to work situations through the use of specific types of interview questions.

Role Play:

The tailored role play will simulate the job in miniaturized form. An applicant will need to demonstrate key knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform the position's job functions.

OBJECTIVES

Participants learn how to develop and apply job-specific characteristics for recruiting highly qualified candidates and then selecting the best candidate using patterned interview questions, situational interview questions and a role play demonstration.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE

The customized selection system is developed using Subject Matter Experts (SME). The SME must be familiar with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for the job. Qualified individuals include managers and experienced performers who currently hold the position for which SELECTING FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE is being developed.

OVERVIEW

Success, and even survival, for companies today depends on more than just innovative products or favorable pricing. Many studies have revealed that, in today's competitive marketplace, customer service can have a dramatic impact on customer loyalty and business growth. Other studies also show customer satisfaction is very much affected by a variety of service-related factors. Thus, it is no surprise to find companies discovering how achieving their business objectives requires improving their customer service.

Many companies also now realize it takes more than a quick course on "Customer Relations", periodic pep-talks, inspirational tapes, or employee-of-the month programs to produce long-term, meaningful, improvements in service. Customer service is not just an attitude. It is a way of interacting with customers. To improve the quality of customer service interactions requires changing what employees do and say to customers — not just for a day or a week, but forever.

A 20-year program of university-based research, including observations of thousands of actual employee-customer interactions, identified the factors necessary to produce long-term improvements in customer service. This research revealed that long-term improvements in customer service can be produced by companies using a system consisting of:

• A public commitment from the highest levels of the organization to improve customer service
• A person assigned the task of organizing, coordinating, facilitating, and following up on the improvement efforts
• A definition of "good service" based on 10 key behaviors of what performers should say and do with customers
• A training program ensuring performers understand and can perform the key customer-service behaviors
• An ongoing method for tracking the occurrence of key service behaviors during interactions between performers and customers
• A training program for first-line managers designed to develop the skills needed to implement the tracking system, use the tracking results to provide objective feedback to performers about their service, then coaching and reinforcing them individually as needed to achieve and maintain desired levels of service
• Support systems for the first-line managers
• Methods to make the company's commitment to customer service a focal point of its organizational culture

All of the elements necessary to produce measurable and long-lasting improvements in service have been incorporated into a single system called THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM. This system incorporates the most effective instructional approaches combined with proven management procedures to ensure service skills are learned, used on the job, and maintained.

OBJECTIVE

Participants learn to use the 10 key behaviors of THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM in all of their customer interactions.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE

All individuals within the organization who have direct or indirect customer contact will benefit from participation in THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM.

SYSTEM DESIGN

All training components of THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM includes behaviorally stated learning objectives specific and relevant to their job. Completion of training requires demonstrating competence with each key skill. Each module has a "performance check" which requires learners to demonstrate achieving success criteria before proceeding to subsequent modules. To facilitate instruction and scheduling, courses are broken up into easily mastered modules. All training can be conducted in groups or individually.

The course is divided into five modules. The three hour training regimen concludes when participants demonstrate the use of each behavior presented in THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM. This training can be conducted by first-line managers, a system administrator or a PPI professional. An additional half-day course is available for first-line managers on how to keep THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM running smoothly day after day.