When used properly, employee skill assessments are extremely beneficial to businesses. According to Aberdeen Group’s “Talent Assessment Strategies” published in March 2010, companies that use assessments are generally more successful.

Aberdeen group identifies five valuable uses of employee skill assessments:

#1 Employee skill assessments drive performance

When companies use assessments in the pre-hire stage, they are better able to identify employees who have the skills needed to positively impact the company. Knowing an employee’s natural skills allows for proper job placement, which drives performance, makes your new hire quickly productive and positively impacts work performance across the board.

#2 Employee skill assessments show readiness for a particular job

Evaluating an employee’s skill set reveals competency gaps and his/her readiness for a particular job. Knowing where your employee lacks allows you to target development of the weaker areas and maximize their work potential.

#3 Employee skill assessments show how an employee could add value to a team

During the pre-hire or promotional state, companies that assess an employee’s skills based on the value they will add to an existing team have a greater success rate.

#4 Employee skill assessments play a major role in promotional decisions

Although a top employee may seem to be the head runner for a promotion, assessments reveal an in depth picture of whether or not current performance skills will translate at a higher level.

#5 Employee skills assessments create better teams based on fit

The best teams are comprised of people with complementary skills. Assessing employees before adding or creating a team will ensure team equilibrium, which means a more productive, diverse team.

Using assessments to evaluate the skills of future or present employees is what pushes a company from simply running to running smoothly and efficiently. What type of emphasis does your company place on employee skill assessments?

The majority of organizations use teams of employees to complete objectives. The idea behind the team construction is that different people with different strengths, weaknesses and viewpoints are more likely to successfully complete a task. If multiple elements contribute to an organizations success, why use that method only with teams of employees?

You know that one assessment tool can provide you with a great advantage when managing the talent within your company, but have you ever considered how multiple assessments can work together as a comprehensive talent assessment program?

The image below is the Solutions Matrix. This graph demonstrates which assessments can be used together to solve business objectives.

For instance, you may have encountered some trouble with improving sales performance. Naturally you would assume that the Profiles Sales Assessment would be a great tool to start with, but you might not have realized that the Profiles Performance Indicator and the CheckPoint 360 could align with the Profiles Sales Assessment to give you an all-inclusive talent assessment program.

The Profiles Sales Assessment will give you insight into how well a person fits specific sales jobs, while the Profiles Performance Indicator can show whose personality will impact their job fit. Adding the CheckPoint 360 to this program ensures that you will also be able to pinpoint any issues there may be with management.

Using multiple assessments to solve one problem ensures that you are looking at the issue from every possible angle, and that you will be able to easily identify where the problem originates. The objective of Talent Assessment Programs is to accomplish a particular business goal. Focus on one of your biggest business objectives, and then create a program based on what you want to accomplish.

Phil Mickelson is now the proud owner of his third green jacket after winning the 2010 Masters. His win was exciting, amazing and even heart-warming. After Mickelson, the second-highest paid athlete in the world, won the tournament he greeted his cancer-stricken wife with open arms and a long embrace. It was like a scene from a heartfelt romance when they celebrated his victory.

Despite Phil’s golfing abilities and endearing family history, Tiger Woods still captured more headlines and sponsors after taking fourth at the Master’s. Why would an all-American golf champion be over-shadowed by the scandalous fourth runner up? Shouldn’t the wholesome family man, who actually won the Masters title, receive more coverage than a passé playboy?

Does this scenario sound familiar? One employee excels at his job. He is punctual, polite and an over-achiever. He finishes projects before deadlines and brings more to the table than is expected of him. He is clearly a superstar performer, but his work is eclipsed. His coworker is consistently late, loud and rude. She routinely has to extend her project deadlines and never exceeds expectations. Her coworkers simply tolerate her, and constantly discuss her disturbances with other people in the company, yet she mesmerizes the boss. She is arrogant, entitled and is constantly seeking attention.

As a manager, it is easy to assume that conflict resolution is a top priority. If a major conflict exists in an office setting, productivity is likely to diminish and employee morale will suffer. Although it is important to keep the peace, it is also just as important to remember to praise those employees who perform beyond their best.

Rewarding those employees who strive to give 110% of themselves will set a positive example for the rest of the team, and will diminish the attention given to the troublemaker in the office. When employees see that good behavior and exceptional work are rewarded, they will strive to achieve that recognition. On the flip side, managers should avoid paying too much attention to troublemakers in order to stifle manipulation and drama. Rewarding exemplary employees amidst chaos also sends a message that despite any “bad apples” the company still understands that other people are doing their jobs, and that not all of management’s attention has been focused on one problematic employee.

Phil Mickelson may not enjoy the limelight, but he deserves more credit for being an outstanding golfer and family man. No one ever said being a manager was easy, so it is important to remember to praise those exceeding expectations while simultaneously neutralizing problem employees.

In these economic times, it can be difficult to retain superstars. Superstar employees are often valuable enough that they can afford to leave one organization for another. How do you keep superstars in your organization while maintaining morale and productivity?

Enlighten yourself with “How to Keep Your Star Performers in Trying Times,” by the Harvard Business Review, and read “Five Lessons for Upgrading Talent with Outside Superstars,” to ensure that your organization retains productive employees.

Profiles International has been featured in the January edition of American Executive Magazine. Eric Slack writes, “One challenge shared by every company on the planet, irrespective of industry, is making sure that the right people are in the right seats. It is a daunting task that many companies don’t get right, limiting their success. Founded in 1991, Profiles International is one company helping other businesses in the US and abroad make better decisions when it comes to personnel.”

To read more about what Profiles can do for your company read the full article “Profiles International: Help Wanted.”

Companies also need to research if they are to find a truly original employee.

Originality is a third element to consider when giving gifts this holiday season, which might require some research on your part. Companies also need to research if they are to find a truly original employee. Balance is the key to creating effective teams, and businesses should look for team players that complement their teammates. In the same way that parents want to buy their children the latest and greatest toys, businesses want to hire the best talent for their industry. Assessments can enable you to find an employee with unique attributes that will provide an opportunity for innovation within your company. Diversity enhances team experiences, and assessments can help you determine who will be both diverse and productive.

Fighting holiday crowds to find the perfect gift is stressful, but finding the best employees does not have to be. Assessments help you find people who fit the job, the team and the company’s work culture. Smart shoppers utilize gift guides to enhance the search process. Smart businesses should implement assessments to enhance and improve their talent placement process.

This concludes our three part series about job fit. Review Part 1 and Part 2 to learn how you can fit your employees to their jobs.

Assessments can help you understand the deepest levels of a person in order to put them in the best position.

When buying gifts, you should always consider the recipient’s tastes. Favorite colors, hobbies and interests add weight to the decision-making process. Companies can look at a person’s preferences and personality traits to determine if they would be an appropriate fit for the existing work culture. It would be in poor taste to buy a ceramic dog for a person who loves cats, and it would be even worse to hire someone who opposes the majority of the standards set by the work environment. Assessments can help you understand the deepest levels of a person in order to put them in the best position.

You should also consider the recipient’s needs when choosing a gift. You would never give someone something that she already owned. This is uncomfortable for all parties involved and is a waste of time and money—the same is true for businesses. If a person requires development but the company won’t provide development opportunities, everyone will be disappointed, and time and money will be lost on something that could have been prevented. Assessments prevent businesses from re-gifting people, and they allow for proactive steps after the initial hiring phase.

This is Part 2 in our three part series about the importance of job fit. Review Part 1 and read Part 3 for the full article.

No one likes packages full of underwear and socks for Christmas because holiday gifts are supposed to reflect the individual’s preferences and personality, not her shoe size.

Picking the perfect holiday gifts for family and friends can be stressful. With so many stores, sales and selections it can be difficult to narrow down your search. When the search becomes too difficult, you might decide on a practical gift, but it’s more likely that you won’t. No one likes packages full of underwear and socks for Christmas because holiday gifts are supposed to reflect the individual’s preferences and personality, not her shoe size.

People want gifts that fit their personality just like companies want people who fit their work culture. When choosing a gift, you consider several elements, including the recipient’s personality, his needs, his wants, and the things that might be useful or interesting to him. Companies should consider each employee they hire as a gift to the business.

When hiring someone, it is important to consider:

• how their personality matches the work culture
• what they need in order to develop professionally
• what unique contributions they can make to the company

Tech-savvy companies have developed gift-finders that help online customers narrow down their gift searches. Users provide information about the recipient in order to find the perfect gift. Employee assessments are the ultimate gift-finder for businesses. They quantify a person’s attributes as they relate to a specific job within the company. Assessments can be used in any stage of a person’s career, but they are especially helpful when hiring or relocating employees.

This is Part 1 in our three part series about job fit. Read Part 2 and Part 3 to better understand how to select your employees.

In this clip from The Office, Michael is jealous that Phyllis has taken the role of Santa Claus at the Christmas party. In order to fill his need for attention and importance, Michael haphazardly decides to play the role of Jesus instead. Not only does he create tension and discomfort in the office, but he also positions himself as an irrational leader with no concern for the consequences.

Hopefully this is not how your office operates. Diversity creates strength and innovation within groups of people, but with diversity comes a need for respect. The holiday season represents a time of giving and sharing and it is important that diverse groups be able to accept each other’s differences in order to maximize their productivity.

Employee assessments can calculate how unique groups can effectively work together while making the most of their differences. They can also provide information necessary to coach employees on how to share and cooperate with their team mates in a way that preserves everyone’s identity and benefits the greater good. The Profiles Performance Indicator ™ Features a Team Analysis Report that is designed to help managers form new teams, reduce team conflict, improve team communication, and improve ability to anticipate problems and better team leadership.

“Hiring someone who is opposed to your ideas is not the same as hiring someone who is opposed to you.”

Managers often forget that diversity is the key to success. It is typical for a manager to want to hire someone whose personality traits are similar to her own. But managers need to understand the difference between hiring someone who has a different viewpoint and someone who does not fit with the group. As John Baldoni writes, “Hiring someone who is opposed to your ideas is not the same as hiring someone who is opposed to you.”

Different viewpoints are anti-groupthink and bring new objectives into perspective, while different personalities can lead to unnecessary conflict. Pre-hire assessments can help managers determine who will bring conflict and who will bring diversity to an existing group. Assessments can reveal those who can bring different sets of skills and opinions without disrupting the balance of the group. This information can help managers hire the best fit for the job, team and company.

For further reading about hiring people who can eliminate groupthink, read John Baldoni’s post “Hire People Who Disagree with You.”