Auctus Search Partners, LLC

Is the water cooler a place to find value?

2019-05-21T14:54:00.001-07:00

Small Talk: Seeds of Value Creation

by Kenneth L. Greenberg

When leaders and managers are faced with small talk in the form criticism of either of an aromatherapy or other alternative healthcare organization or themselves, we find too frequently the impulsive reaction is to dismiss the negativity and the negative people.

We suggest, and others concur, that this dismissal may be a mistake. One of our white papers contains numerous sources on why critics both outside and inside a organization need a voice. These critics are often passionate about your Organization or you, but cannot artfully voice the desire for you or your Organization to improve. Worse, when you ignore them, they are denied an opportunity to contribute, collaborate and feel part of a Organization. Disengagement leads to unhappiness, which, in turn, leads to lowered productivity. As a result you lose an opportunity to keep your critics engaged in your success. Certain credible research suggests if a Organization disengages from both internal and external critics and they in turn disengage from you, their passion for your Organization can become destructive.

Properly harnessed criticism and complaints can be turned into constructive feedback that can be used to improve professional development programs, products, services and strategic planning.

Criticism directed toward management or leadership is where 360°surveys come in. Properly constructed, 360° tools can contain criticism and filter it into credible, valid and recognized leadership and management skill categories. Not only are critics given a voice, but also a platform to constructively and candidly engage with company management and leadership. This engagement can lead to meaningful behavior change by management and leadership. Research has proven that, if the correct behavior change is sustained, it will improve an Organization’s effectiveness.

Custom surveys can be used to capture qualitative data and feedback about products and services. Properly constructed with statistical validity, these surveys can help interpret changing consumer tastes, competitive threats and demographic trends. Also, this data can be used as leading-edge indicators that drive innovation efforts and strategic planning. We also believe risk identification and risk management can be aided by a properly constructed survey tool.

While criticism may be misdirected or downright mean-spirited, using survey tools can contain the criticism and engage the criticizer. Done right, survey tools will filter the feedback into useful and meaningful data that can be used to improve leaders, managers and thereby improve the productivity and profitability of your Organization.

Many experts in Organization development also believe the integration of qualitative data from internal stakeholders such as employees, managers, board members, etc. is a critical part of creating balanced scorecard tools that measure the performance and effectiveness of a Organization. When properly analyzed and integrated into the strategic planning process, these tools can help organizations learn and drive change initiatives that promote growth and profitability.

Kenneth L. Greenberg, has extensive experience as an Organizational Development Professional, Investment Banker and a Private Equity Professional. Ken has served as a facilitator for a number of public professional development programs including the Emerging Leaders Program, CEO Exchange Program, Mastering Management Program at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. He now serves as Leadership & Organizations Adjunct Faculty Member at University College-University of Denver. At Auctus, Ken recruits and helps with the selection of senior executives for all types of organizations including portfolio companies of private equity firms. Ken leads Auctus’s work with private equity firms in targeted acquisition search and recruiting platform executives to lead buyouts for new industry platforms. He also leads the company’s Virtual Board, a unique outsourced solution for temporary CFOs and COOs coupled with an executive advisor. He graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in World Political Economy and received an MBA from the University of Denver.

Ken also has a passion for veterans organizations including the Travis Manion Foundation, Marine Raider Foundation, The Green Beret Foundation and The USD Hero Club. He lives in Castle Rock, Colorado where he enjoys hiking and other outdoor activities with his wife and three adult children.

For more information: www.auctussearchpartners.com

Denver- Healthcare Executive Recruiting and Staffing

2018-01-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

2017-08-24T13:13:00.005-07:00

Check out our new website for executive recruiting Auctus Search Partners, LLC

Auctus Search Partners goes well beyond traditional executive #recruiting; offering companies a variety of talent management solutions that drive organizational performance.
With increasing demands on HR including labor law compliance, strategic initiatives and employee engagement, creating and managing talent pools for mission critical positions can become an afterthought.
Sometimes organizations do not have the time to create a large enough talent pool, let alone screen and assess candidates for job and culture fit. The result can be hires that do not live up to expectations and worse.
ASSESSMENTS, ONBOARDING AND SURVEYS
Our executive recruiting company uses a custom proprietary multi-step job fit assessment process that increases the probability of a great hire, each time.
Auctus Search Partners offers traditional contingent or retained executive recruiting solutions to solve critical hiring needs.
How it works:

We create your job post and distribute it across multiple platforms.
We create and manage the talent pool according to the criteria for success of your culture and the position.
After our multi-step analysis, we present the finalists to you for final interview with our assistance or after our interview coaching.

People are the lifeblood of your company. We believe the right person in the right position can do extraordinary things.
All executive recruiting companies in #Denver are not created equal. Call us today and see how we can help you professionally staff your company.

Colorado Office

8400 East Prentice Ave
Suite 1500
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Phone: (877) 873-9299

M&A Advisory Firm, Auctus Group, Inc. Acquires KLG Consultants, A Colorado Based Talent Acquisition and Professional Services Company- Acquisition Enhances Capabilities of Auctus Group and Auctus Search Partners beyond Financial Services Recruiting and Sell side M&A

2016-12-06T08:02:00.001-08:00

M&A Advisory Firm, Auctus Group, Inc. Acquires KLG Consultants, A Colorado Based Talent Acquisition and Professional Services Company- Acquisition Enhances Capabilities of Auctus Group and Auctus Search Partners beyond Financial Services Recruiting and Sell side M&A

Mastering Management In Denver-Kick Off 8/17 at 3PM

2016-08-11T13:54:00.002-07:00

Looking forward to kicking off #MasteringManagement with @KLGConsultants next week! https://t.co/jl7ZaF7xa6
— Denver Metro SBDC (@denversbdc) August 11, 2016

www.klgconsultants.com

People Challenges During an M&A or Succession Event

2016-08-05T14:29:00.003-07:00

Using Assessments in Hiring, Promoting and Team Integration during an M&A or Succession Event

Introduction - As a due diligence tool, pre hire, or for management
coaching and professional development post hire, the market is crowded
with professional assessment tools. These types of assessments can
engender fear, apathy or outright disdain depending upon one’s
perspective.

Some professional business owners use assessment technology while
building management teams for portfolio companies. Others feel they either are not applicable
because of the contractual obligations and agreements in the documents underlying the
acquisition or investment, or they believe assessments are not applicable given the prior success
of the target company. However, many consultants focused on team building and integration,
leadership development and strategic planning will not take on an engagement without
administering assessments to the participants in the program.

Whatever your perspective, understanding the two fundamental differences of the assessments
currently on the market, can go a long way to helping your firm deal with the risk inherent in
management acquisition, team integration and post event management performance.

“It looked good on paper.” - You may have heard these words before or even uttered them
yourself, post acquisition or investment. The numbers made sense; the projections were
validated by your best and brightest. The management team’s resumes and references all looked
great. You even interviewed the management team and the interviews went well. Why is the
management team now so dysfunctional post investment?

Change - Typically, people problems in these circumstances can be summed up in two words,
change and culture. Try as you might to make the acquisition process as seamless as possible,
subtle forms of change ripple throughout the organization and disrupt people’s effectiveness.
Whether certain leaders leave due to agreement or others change their roles, new reporting
requirements are implemented and a new configuration of the board is put in place; change
happens due to your involvement in a portfolio company. Change affects different people in
different ways.

Reaction to Change - Although the effect on people may manifest itself much like grief; where
people get stuck in the grieving process is the key question. Some experts describe the five
stages of grief as follows:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

A smooth transition is dependent upon knowing who might get “stuck” and where they may get
stuck. This is where a comparison of the ipsative and normative assessments is critical.
Ipsative Assessment Tools - Ipsative tools are by their nature, self reporting. When one takes
the assessment, one tells the assessment what he or she thinks of him or herself and the
assessment reports that input. It is not unlike going to the doctor and saying “I have a back ache
and believe I need surgery.” Most doctors would not act on that input, save ordering more
diagnostics assessments. Put another way, these types of assessments, “look good on paper” but
allow the assessment subject to tell the test what they think the end user wants to hear. The
output is not much more reliable than an interview or an internet quiz to determine what kind of tree you are. Most important an ipsative tool is not necessarily a useful tool for
predicting how that person will react to the change that results from a new owner's involvement in the
company.

It is also very difficult to use an ipsative assessment to coach a person for performance
improvement. Essentially the tool leaves it to the assessment subject to tell the user where he or
she needs improvement. Like the doctor with only patient input, one is left with very little
reliable diagnostics on which to act in order to affect a cure and make the patient better. When
coaching management members to accept change and thrive, behavior change is the cure, and
one needs to know underlying hard wired behavior.

Reliability - Many experts agree reliability is the key empirical measure of the efficacy of an
assessment tool. Reliability is measured by the percentage of similar results each time a subject
is administered an assessment. According to the United States Department of Labor, anything
less than 70% reliability may render a tool less than adequate. Because ipsative assessments are
self reporting, test subjects can simply change their answer each time they take the assessment,
depending on what they think is expected of them. It can be quite easy for the output to change
each time the subject takes the assessment. Because, the assessment is self reporting, it is not
feasible to test for “distortion” or inconsistency of answers in just one assessment.
Normative Assessment Tools - The other type of assessments, normative assessments,
measure the subject’s answers against sample populations. The scores generated from these
assessments are not unlike the percentile scores found in standardized tests. They can measure
core behaviors, learning styles and professional preferences as compared to the general working
population or against benchmarks of best performers in various occupations. The most cutting
edge of these assessments claim 82% reliability. Normative assessments can also report
distortion, or consistency of answers. As previously mentioned, ipsative assessments are by their
nature distorted by the subject. A measure of distortion is critical in order to know how candid a
subject has been while taking the assessment.

Because most normative tools report core natural behavioral tendencies, learning styles and
professional interests as compared to statistically viable sample populations, it is easier to
predict how a subject will react to change, and when and how coaching can best be used to help
that subject adjust and improve. Team interaction and integration can be facilitated using a
reliable tool that can help new owners understand their talent pool and how they will or won’t
work together.

Because of their reliability, normative assessments can also be used to benchmark the best
performers in a company. Benchmarking allows the creation of a continuity plan to facilitate
replacement of departing key people. Proper benchmarking can make the continuity plan more
predictable and less risky. Matching candidates to fill roles in a specific company or department
based on learning styles, behavior tendencies and professional likes, increases the probability
that there won’t be a performance drop off post departure of key individuals. This is frequently
referred to as analyzing candidates for “job fit”.

One other benefit of normative assessment tools is some meet or exceed regulatory guidelines
for non-biased hiring and promotion tools. As you develop the organization at any portfolio
company, very difficult decisions often need to be made. The risk of litigation can often hamper
optimum decision making for hiring, promotion and allocation of duties. Because the latest
normative assessments are often based on third party research, validated over periodic studies,
they are accepted as a third party analysis of a candidates fit for a position or role. Properly
utilized, use of the tools, have stood up in court. (We are not lawyers and this is a matter to
review with your employment counsel. The assessment landscape should be evaluated with
your advisors with these guidelines in mind.) Beyond risk mitigation, proper use of these
assessment tools can help owners advise portfolio management on where their teams “core
strengths” can best help the organization achieve its goals. Aligning management teams to tasks
and functions, based on individual core strengths can go a long way to deliver high performance
and the results that follow.

Some organizational experts believe that when tasks are aligned with those best equipped to
execute those tasks, overall organizational performance improves. Peter Drucker once said, "The
task of management is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths
effective and their weaknesses irrelevant." When change is occurring, the task is to handle the
change and minimize the disruption it causes the organization. Normative assessments can
allow owners better visibility as to who in a portfolio management team is best equipped for the
task of leading the company through the change and transition to new ownership and control.

Culture Clash - As mentioned before in this article, culture is also cited as reason for
disappointing outcomes post acquisition or merger. Corporate culture is described by W.P. Carey
as “the core values, ways and beliefs, business principles and traditions” of a corporation. The
missing piece in this description is people. More specifically, how the people of the corporation
operate in order to make it an effective and profitable organization.

Notwithstanding the organization chart one is shown pre-acquisition or merger, the informal
organizational chart of the actual organizational communication and decision flow, holds the
key to the culture of the corporation. Management typically fears changing that natural flow.
That fear manifests in various ways that are sometimes described as culture clash. This often
includes turf battles, sudden departures to competition, and worse. There is nothing nefarious
about the informal organization chart. Successful high performing organizations, either by
design or serendipity, allow their management teams to develop their role in the corporation to
their individual strengths, notwithstanding titles.

With normative assessments in hand, management team integration in spite of disparate
cultures is more easily facilitated as ongoing tasks can be aligned with individual strengths. New
owners can help facilitate the negotiation of roles, task assignment and the selection of go
forward practices that best fit the new integrated team. Once the ownership transition has been
executed, normative assessments can also allow owners to provide coaching to management
team members tailored to the particular person’s strengths and core characteristics. Because
quality normative assessments are empirical they can also be added to 360 and 180 assessments
and are not redundant to the self assessment portion of these tools. This allows a coach or
superior to temper the emotional response frequently encountered post 360 assessment, by
pointing to the empirical “x-ray” as confirmation of other people’s subjective concerns.
Conclusion - As a result, the best normative assessments can be confidently utilized much like a
doctor uses an x-ray, MRI, or other third party diagnostic tool. Ipsative tools on the other hand,
are subject to and require subjective interpretation and can be more easily distorted by the
subject. While useful in certain settings, ipsative tools are self assessments and therefore not
reliable tools for developing strength based integrated management teams.

If one is inclined to use assessment tools, and we encourage their use, we believe normative
assessment tools are best practice for developing high performing management teams post
merger or acquisition. When used properly along with other due diligence methods, these tools
are also very useful and valid tools for people due diligence pre merger or acquisition.

About the author-

Kenneth L. Greenberg, President and CEO of KLG Consultants, is a former investment banker,
and the founder of KLG Consultants. He heads the Corporate Consulting practice at KLG.

KLG Consultants, LLC is a Talent Acquisition and Talent Development firm based in Colorado. The firm offers custom professional development programs and skilled professionals on an outsourced and permanent hire basis to organizations of all types and size.

Selling A Small Business or Handing it off to The Children?

2016-07-23T06:43:00.003-07:00

Stop Calling Your Employees Introverts and/or Extroverts

2016-07-22T06:57:00.003-07:00

Introvert and Extrovert are the most common “personality” classifications we hear from prospective clients.

Here is why using those terms in the work place is a bad idea-

1. Unless you are a Psychologist or Psychiatrist, we suspect you, like us, are not qualified to make a diagnosis and label someone with either of those nouns.

2. People are much more complicated than those labels anyways. Many of us might exhibit behavioral tendencies at different times that might match either of those labels. It will typically depend on the environment or setting.

3. Team members and employees do not want to be labeled. They want to see they can grow in a job and also know their manager, boss or team leader believes in them. A limiting behavioral tendency can be coached; a label on the other hand pigeonholes the person who was labeled.

4. The complex matrix of behavioral tendencies that guides most of our actions, words and work styles, is very nuanced and granular.

We are not saying a manager, boss or team leaders shouldn’t know their people. We are saying the exact opposite. However, knowing your people does not mean giving them unsubstantiated labels. Not only is the label most likely inaccurate, it is demotivating to people.

People want to see a future of career growth in your organization. They want to work for and with people who truly understand them and their goals. They want to work with people who see their potential and want to cultivate that potential.

We do however, advocate using assessment tools that are predictive of behavioral tendencies in the work place. If they are evidenced based, they can be used for selection in hiring and coaching for performance improvement.

Here are some examples of behavioral tendencies in the work place that can be measured-

Empathy

Not Anxious

No Guilt

Calmness

Even tempered

Not moody or irritable

No Complaints

Trusting

Not paranoid or suspicious

Good Attachment

Good relations with authority figures

Notice, that in isolation some of these tendencies could be seen as introverted or extroverted. It will depend on the setting and circumstances.

There is an old saying, attributed to a number of people but most frequently to Adlai Stephenson. “Don’t just do something, stand there.” The point being, in a number of work situations, doing and saying nothing is preferable to an irrational impulsive reaction. This learned leadership behavior does not make one an introvert. It is a learned behavior, born out of the wisdom of the discerning to think quickly as to whether words and action can make a situation worse.

Get to know your people for sure. Know their tendencies. Then coach and train them to perform, grow and excel.

By-Kenneth l. Greenberg, CEO, KLG Consultants, LLC

KLG Consultants, LLC a Talent Acquisition and Talent Development firm based in Colorado. The firm offers custom professional development programs and skilled professionals on an outsourced and recruited for permanent hire basis, to organizations of all types and size.

Misconceptions about attitude, job fit and post hire performance

2016-07-20T09:50:00.003-07:00

It always surprises us how many prospective clients say they want only people with positive attitudes on their team.

When faced with this we have to ask,

1. What do you mean only?

2. And what do you mean by positive attitude?

Typically we hear the following answers in so many words-

1. We want people who follow instructions and do their job.

2. We want people who are resilient and can handle change and adversity.

3. We want people who look for solutions not problems.

4. We want people who can persevere.

5. We don’t like people who talk back.

6. We just don’t want any negative people in our company.

7. When I say jump, I want people who say “how high!”

8. I want “yes I can” people.

And we hear many other derivations of the above.

Here is the challenge-Many positions actually require critical people who are highly analytical with an eagle eye for detail and error. These aren’t people with a negative attitude. Lets consider the following positions-

1. QA Tech

2. Compliance Supervisor

3. Quality Control Manager

4. Electrical Inspector

5. Industrial Engineer

6. Safety Manager

7. Under ground wire and pipe locator

8. Auditor

And many other positions, do not need, or should we say, cannot have a delusional sycophant (another word for “always has a positive attitude”) in place, if your the goal is a high performer. Many hiring managers and business owners who adhere to the positive attitude test, if left to their own instinct, would hire people who are prone to sycophant behavioral tendencies.

This is the main point. When hiring, organizations need to know the behavioral tendencies required to perform well and those that may derail a candidate. This is much more nuanced than a simple gut feel if someone is negative or positive.

Jim Collins, in his Book, Good to Great, makes it clear that the best CEO’s advocate and promote debate and desire people who will stand up for how they see impact and potential outcomes from major decisions.

That being said, hiring managers and business owners need to know not only a candidate’s behavioral tendencies, but those behaviors that can lead to success or failure for each position. We call this benchmarking or profiling a position.

Lets look at a few of the more detailed behaviors we suggest benchmarking and then assessing candidates for the tendency, using normed evidence based tools.

Excitable, Skeptical, Cautious, Reserved, Leisurely

Bold, Mischievous, Colorful, Imaginative, Diligent, Dutiful

As you can see, each one of the tendencies may or may not be perceived as positive or negative. Each one also has sub behaviors.

And there a number of other behaviors and cognitive skills that are predictive of job fit and on the job performance. Every job and culture will have a different benchmark and profile that helps guide a decision about potential success or failure of a candidate.

As you might see now, assessing candidates, is not as easy as asking, “do they have a positive attitude”. A positive attitude may not even be needed and in fact depending on the job, may be an impediment to post hire job performance.

We believe, and research validates our belief, this cannot be left to gut or instinct feel of a hiring manger or business owner.

By-Kenneth l. Greenberg, CEO-KLG Consultants, LLC

KLG Consultants, LLC a Talent Acquisition and Talent Development firm based in Colorado. The firm offers custom professional development programs and skilled professionals on an outsourced and permanent hire basis to organizations of all types and size.

Succession and Exit Planning 101-June 8th, 2016

2016-05-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hiring Challenges Fixed!

2016-03-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

Recruiting

2016-03-30T19:29:00.002-07:00

Our Newest Video

Our Latest Article

2016-03-17T16:19:00.002-07:00

Our article in Colorado Biz Magazine

About Us

KLG Consultants, LLC is a Talent Acquisition and Talent Development firm based in Colorado. The firm offers custom professional development programs and skilled professionals on an outsourced and permanent hire basis to organizations of all types and size.

http://www.klgconsultants.com/

Hоw Behavioral Prоfilеѕ Improve Thе Recruiting Prосеѕѕ (Why an Assessments Practitioner is Essential for Employee Selection)

2016-01-12T13:20:00.004-08:00

It’s nо wоndеr thаt behavioral рrоfilеѕ hаvе bесоmе a standard assessment tool in thе hiring рrосеѕѕ for mаnу соmраniеѕ. Hiring mаnаgеrѕ аnd recruiters know full well thаt the use of rеѕumе ѕсrееning, interviews, and reference checks alone is not a vеrу rеliаblе оr оbjесtivе means fоr mаking hiring dесiѕiоnѕ. Recent ѕurvеуѕ оf HR executives ѕhоw that up tо 80% оf organizations аrе now uѕing behavioral рrоfilеѕ tо imрrоvе hiring decisions. Thе ѕаmе ѕurvеуѕ аlѕо liѕt реrfоrmаnсе mаnаgеmеnt and succession рlаnning аѕ tор priorities for these organizations. Thiѕ data indiсаtеѕ thаt behavioral рrоfilеѕ are being used fоr hiring dесiѕiоnѕ as well as еmрlоуее development.

All of this bеing ѕаid, some organizations соntinuе tо struggle with hiring decisions, even thоugh thеу are uѕing behavioral аѕѕеѕѕmеnt in their selection process. The likely reason fоr this problem iѕ ѕimрlе: аnу tооl, bе it аn assessment tооl оr a hаmmеr, nееdѕ tо bе in thе right hands tо gеt thе grеаt rеѕultѕ. Used imрrореrlу, bоth оf thеѕе tооlѕ can hurt you. The behavioral рrоfilеѕ are соmрlеx tооlѕ that provide in-depth information that is nоt always easy to intеrрrеt. Wе humаnѕ are deep, соmрlеx сrеаturеѕ оurѕеlvеѕ. To mаkе thеir tооlѕ easier fоr HR рrоfеѕѕiоnаlѕ tо uѕе, thе tооl рrоvidеrѕ have ѕimрlifiеd thе соmрutеr gеnеrаtеd reports tо imрrоvе readability. Thе downѕidе tо simplicity, however, is thаt simplicity diminiѕhеѕ thе dерth of infоrmаtiоn аnd the роwеr оf thе tооl. Lеѕѕ grаnulаr mеаnѕ lеѕѕ detail. Thiѕ lack of depth often сrеаtеѕ сhаllеngеѕ tо drаwing useful and accurate соnсluѕiоnѕ that are hеlрful in the workplace.

Thе solution to this problem iѕ that HR muѕt wоrk with аn еxреrt аѕѕеѕѕmеntѕ рrасtitiоnеr whо hаѕ the necessary еxреriеnсе in the interpretation of behavioral profiles, аnd саn effectively imраrt thе valuable takeaways tо HR personnel. Thе practitioner who administers thе аѕѕеѕѕmеntѕ to саndidаtеѕ and employees can make аll thе diffеrеnсе in thе world when it comes to hiring decisions. This person should bе certified in thе use of the аѕѕеѕѕmеnt tооl, as well as еxреriеnсеd in imраrting insight and vаluе. Thе practitioner is able to create a rеliаblе рrоfilе of thе саndidаtе, оr аn еffесtivе асtiоn рlаn fоr employee dеvеlорmеnt. Sоmе аѕѕеѕѕmеntѕ рrоvidе too mаnу rаw scores, ѕоmе оf whiсh may or mау not соntrаdiсt other ѕсоrеѕ оn thе ѕаmе аѕѕеѕѕmеnt. A сеrtifiеd аѕѕеѕѕmеntѕ рrасtitiоnеr will knоw how tо address thе еxtrаnеоuѕ infоrmаtiоn оn thе соmрutеr gеnеrаtеd report. In addition, they are fаmiliаr with trеndѕ аnd patterns thаt indiсаtе сеrtаin ѕtrеngthѕ оr possible weak areas for thе individual. Mоѕt imроrtаntlу, two individuаlѕ with vеrу diffеrеnt behavioral рrоfilеѕ have the potential to bе ѕuссеѕѕful in thе ѕаmе role. Thе practitioner can idеntifу thеѕе situations ѕо that HR does nоt risk оvеrlооking аnd missing out оn grеаt talent.

Thеrе are countless different аѕѕеѕѕmеnt tооlѕ аvаilаblе оn the mаrkеt that vаrу ѕignifiсаntlу in the aspects and methods of the behavior thеу measure. Nоnе оf thеѕе tооlѕ, however, can mеаѕurе every part of the human dimеnѕiоn that is nесеѕѕаrу tо reflect a соmрlеtе рiсturе оf thе individual. The reality iѕ thаt it is not роѕѕiblе to do with a single tооl, bесаuѕе humаnѕ are just tоо complex. In utilizing behavioral рrоfilеѕ, the common goal is

tо assess the individuаl in thеir entirety. To do so, the results would have to inсludе еxресtеd bеhаviоrѕ, innаtе tаlеntѕ, cognitive abilities, dесiѕiоn-mаking biаѕеѕ, emotional intеlligеnсе, mоtivаtiоnаl drivеrѕ, and character. These results would also need to be verified for accuracy and reliability. Thаt iѕ a lot tо ask frоm a single tооl аnd a соmрutеr gеnеrаtеd rероrt. Thе оnlу wау of understanding the motivators behind a реrѕоn’s bеhаvior аѕ well аѕ whу thеse motivators аrе key drivers, iѕ bу utilizing mоrе thаn one tооl. In support of these findings, Thе United States Dераrtmеnt of Lаbоr аlѕо recommends a "whole реrѕоn" аррrоасh whеrеin companies nеvеr rеlу оn аnу ѕinglе inѕtrumеnt fоr dеvеlорmеntаl оr hiring dесiѕiоnѕ.

Behavioral profiles can bе саtеgоrizеd into thrее ѕераrаtе саtеgоriеѕ: The first category is Analysis оf Behavioral Styles. Theѕe tооls have proven to be especially popular fоr investigating internal conflicts within tеаmѕ. Hiring mаnаgеrѕ will use thеѕе rеѕultѕ tо judgе cultural fit without realizing that сultural fit iѕ too complex to be ascertained with only this type of test. Too оftеn these tools are uѕеd in thе rесruiting рrосеѕѕ аѕ thе оnlу factor in the саndidаtе’s behavioral аѕѕеѕѕmеnt. It'ѕ fаr mоrе imроrtаnt to mеаѕurе the соgnitivе skills, tаlеntѕ, аnd mоtivаtiоnѕ that are behind the bеhаviоrѕ. Thе other сhаllеngе with thеse tооlѕ is that the results саn bе ѕkеwеd by the саndidаtе giving the rеѕроnѕеѕ they think the employer wants to hear.

The second category is Anаlуѕiѕ оf Cоgnitivе Abilities аnd Tаlеntѕ. This type includes some оf thе mоѕt important aspects оf thе саndidаtе аѕѕеѕѕmеnt, аnd iѕ роwеrful fоr employee dеvеlорmеnt as wеll. Thеѕе assessments are capable of measuring tаlеnt аnd potential. Thе bеѕt tools can mеаѕurе hоw wеll an individual еvаluаtes thеir ѕurrоundingѕ, their judgmеnt сlаritу, аnd decision-making fосuѕ. The rеѕult iѕ a ѕtrоng рrоfilе of thе реrѕоn'ѕ соmmuniсаtiоnѕ ѕkillѕ, intеrреrѕоnаl ѕkillѕ, еmоtiоnаl intеlligеnсе, work ethic, engagement levels, аnd lеаdеrѕhiр роtеntiаl. Thеѕе tооlѕ аrе uѕеful for candidate assessment, but еvеn mоrе роwеrful fоr talent management аnd ѕuссеѕѕiоn рlаnning.

The third category is Anаlуѕiѕ оf Vаluеѕ аnd Mоtivаtiоnаl Drivers. Thеѕе assessments are proven to be invаluаblе fоr the pre-employment process. Sоmе оf the best tооlѕ identify аnd ԛuаntifу thе levels of mоtivаtiоn of аn individual across seven motivational dimеnѕiоnѕ. Thеу provide clarity оn whеrе thе drivе аnd раѕѕiоn iѕ for аn individual, and ѕо it hеlрѕ аѕсеrtаin hоw well of a fit ѕоmеоnе will be for thеir rоlе аnd саrееr dirесtiоn. These types of assessments are most important when ascertaining the likelihood fоr ѕuссеѕѕ оf any individuаl in a givеn rоlе. They are also uѕеful in thе midst оf the tаlеnt management lifecycle tо еnѕurе that thе individuаl iѕ оn the appropriate career раth within уоur organization.

Respectively, thеѕе categories саn bе rеfеrrеd tо аѕ the Hоw, the Whаt, and thе Why оf еmрlоуее реrfоrmаnсе. By measuring еасh оf thеѕе dоmаinѕ, оnе саn оbtаin a very clear аnd ассurаtе representation оf thе individuаl'ѕ bеhаviоrаl style, аѕ wеll аѕ a rеliаblе predictor оf thеir fit to a job role and how wеll they will perform. Best of аll, when uѕеd in the development/coaching context, thеѕе рrоfilеѕ сrеаtе a strong ѕеlf-аwаrеnеѕѕ fоr thе еmрlоуее that fасilitаtеѕ growth аnd dеvеlорmеnt. Also, it is vеrу important tо reiterate that it iѕ vеrу роѕѕiblе tо hаvе twо individuаlѕ with vеrу different assessment profiles that аrе bоth сараblе оf ѕuссееding in thе same rоlе. The аѕѕеѕѕmеntѕ рrасtitiоnеr will hаvе thе expertise аnd еxреriеnсе tо idеntifу those аnd ensure great hiring dесiѕiоnѕ.

www.klgconsultants.com

How to Find the Right People for the Job and Culture

2015-12-22T14:26:00.001-08:00

Optimal #Hiring Decisions in A Compliance Focused Employment Market -

2015-10-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

(How to increase the probability of a great hire while eliminating as much as possible, improper bias in the hiring decision.)

Frequently we are asked why resumes do not play a bigger role in our new hire selection process for clients. Let me say up front, it is not because we believe that resumes are embellished or false. We do not believe that at all. They are a necessary guide to the work history of a candidate. However, they can also create bias both good and bad, in hiring managers.

Anyone who has participated in a hiring decision has done it before..Looked at a resume seen a name, and formed some conclusions. It most likely didn’t stop there.. we have all probably looked at the education line and formed a conclusion. This is considered an assessment according to the DOL’s report on assessments. If the conclusions led to elimination of that candidate from consideration or even just to rank the candidate, your interpretation of the resume data requires reflection.

● What were your biases in your conclusions? Were they empirically based on evidence or just a hunch?

● Were they in compliance with the myriad of rules covering bias in hiring? Did they limit your organization's ability to create a diverse and inclusive workforce?

● Did your hunch eliminate a future star performer from consideration?

● Did your conclusions advance a candidate for the wrong reasons in spite of no real evidence as to their potential on the job performance?

Now think about the interview. We all form first impressions in a first interview of a candidate. Many professionals do not know how to ask questions that are truly predictive of on the job performance and/or professional growth potential. As a result, they make assessments about a candidate's potential based on how they “liked” them in the interview. These interview conclusions also require the same reflection found above.

Therefore, we believe resumes and interviews alone cannot lead to optimum choices in hiring decisions both in terms of the right fit and in terms of eliminating unconscious bias that may lead to a reduction in a diverse and inclusive workforce.

At KLG, we believe in bringing large companies selection tools to small and medium sized organizations. We are committed to helping organizations make their hiring and promotion decisions based on evidence and not just their gut feel and eliminating as much as possible their unsubstantiated biases.

We do this for two reasons that we sincerely believe make a significant difference in our clients’ teams.

1. With people, as with other things, past performance is not necessarily a guarantee of future success especially with new hires or promotions.

2. We all have biases subconscious or otherwise. Some of those biases violate certain employment rules and others have no reasonable basis for predicting on the job performance.

We believe the key to making a great hire is to use evidenced based tools to assess if candidates are a fit for the position and your culture. We do not just look at what they know but how they learn and adapt to see if a candidate might be a fit for a particular position. This is key, because the same position in different organizations may require a different set of workflows, systems and institutional knowledge to perform well. That benchmark of performance must be understood and the adaptability of candidates’ cognitive capacity in the context of the skills to do that job well, should be measured to closely match the benchmark. The key is to measure specific job skill aptitude, not general cognitive ability. We use custom built cognitive assessments for each job for this reason.

However, that is only one type of fit. The other is culture fit. Some Human Capital consultants think this is the more important element of job fit. A skilled professional who does not fit culturally, or who cannot adapt culturally, either will not stay long or will become disruptive. While we can measure current behavioral tendencies and we do, we also want to look at “coachability.” Can the candidate be assimilated and add value into the culture and modify their behavior and become a high performer and team player?

"Can They Become One of Us, While Being Themselves?"

Part of this is dependent upon your onboarding and training program but it is also incumbent upon hiring managers and HR, to use a tool to measure job skill, cultural fit and adaptability, pre-hire, while trying as best as possible to ensure compliance with anti-bias rules in the selection process. There are many tools to do this, some say over 5,000 are on the market in the USA. At KLG we use custom cognitive assessments and the Hogan suite of behavioral tools.

Keep in mind that in becoming one of us doesn’t mean hiring someone just like the hiring leader; it also means bringing diversity to the team to balance the culture as a whole. The Hogan tool can help identify the potential right fit for your company culture while eliminating personal assumptions based on looks, gender, and socio economic background. The key is to assess hardwired behavioral tendencies balanced against potential and the ability of a candidate to grow through coaching and other professional development programs.

What is potential and how do you measure it? That depends on the position, the industry and the size of the company. All of those factors and more, need to be taken into consideration to set a benchmark for growth potential and adaptability in new hires. This takes skill and a methodical interview process of the hiring manager, HR and/or the board of directors for c-level positions. The position's requirement for an ability to adapt, create and inspire vision in others, analyze complex problems and/or handle a quickly changing macro environment, needs to be assessed.

The last factor that should be considered is the candidate's desire to succeed. Some people call this motivation and that may be a more accurate term. We prefer to find out what the candidate really desires to achieve in their career and through their career. Any assessment process should answer this question, "is the candidate's desire aligned with what the position and culture delivers?" This can be measured in many ways and financial success is only one determinant and in some cultures and organizational structures, not the most important one.

If a position and culture only deliver extrinsic rewards such as financial incentives, hiring managers need to be honest about that while looking at cultural fit of candidates. Conversely, if a culture is based on the intrinsic rewards of purpose and cause for example, candidates must be assessed for this type of desire or motivation.

In summary, we believe hiring managers and organizational leaders need to know their people and that includes their candidates for open positions and/or promotion. For many reasons, some legal, some evidenced based best practices in hiring decisions, this can not be left to gut feel, personal biases and/or luck. If you want great employees and a diverse workforce, you will need state of the art tools and methods to get you where you want to go.

Kenneth L. Greenberg is the CEO of KLG Consultants, LLC, a Talent Acquisition and Management firm based in Colorado. The firm offers large company, C-Level talent on an outsourced and permanent hire basis to Organizations of all sizes. Visit www.klgconsultants.com for more information.

Sell your Business Now?

2015-08-04T04:13:00.002-07:00

Embrace the Pain!

2015-07-31T21:18:00.001-07:00

Feedback, the key to growth..

Custom Organizational 360˚ Surveys

Are you looking to create a committed and motivated workforce?

Would you like to measure employee satisfaction and find ways to improve it?

Do you want an organizational 360˚ review, not just 360˚ reviews of specific members of leadership?

In addition to offering you best in class “off the shelf” leadership assessments and surveys, KLG Consultants, LLC can help customize employee and other stakeholder surveys. Whether you're looking to measure employee productivity, customer satisfaction, or address ethics or diversity issues, we can help you create and deliver tailor-made surveys that meet your organization’s needs.

KLG believes the integration of qualitative data from stakeholders such as employees, customers, and vendors, is a critical part of creating balanced scorecard tools that measure the performance and effectiveness of an organization. When properly analyzed and integrated into the strategic planning process, these tools can help organizations learn and drive change initiatives that promote growth and profitability.

At KLG, we ensure that all the survey data is anonymous, confidential and secure. We administer and host the survey so your stakeholders are insured of their privacy. The result is increased response rates and more candid feedback. We offer custom data analysis options based on your specific needs. To ensure accuracy, our analysis is reviewed and validated by a third-party PhD in Applied Statistics and Research Methods from the University of Northern Colorado.

Test Drive Our Custom Survey Tool Here!

Director of Research & Quality

2015-07-24T06:25:00.003-07:00

We are looking for an entrepreneurial Director of Research and Quality who understands an agile manufacturing environment run by an owner operator. The right candidate is expected to bring innovative, analytical and commercialization skills to the Company, working collaboratively with Operations, Supply Chain, and Sales and Marketing to ensure the Company offers best in class and cost competitive variety with the highest quality standards. Skills required include: highly developed food product development and quality assurance experience within the food industry; food science, food safety, nutrition, food processing, shelf-life and sensory analysis; financial acumen and strong vendor-supplier relationships; and a commitment to our natural food and growth driven culture.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

An excellent representative of our Company’s food, culture, and values.
Spearhead the development and implementation of food policy and procedures.
Quality assurance, verification or validation testing of inbound raw materials, in-process product, and outbound finished products.
A key influencer in senior management meetings and Company’s strategic planning, exhibiting solid understanding of issues relevant to the business.
Development of new food items including leading flavor trends, responsible for changes to existing foods for quality improvement or cost efficiencies, which support our brand.
Responsible for scale-up of new food items and creation of product specifications, including ingredient statements and nutrition facts panels, so that the highest level of quality can be achieved under high volume production conditions.
Provides Operations team with initial process procedures for new item commercialization.
Responsible for all new item samples.
Develops gold standards on new items to be used during commercial scale-up. Uses scientific methods to establish product parameters on gold standards. Tests and establishes acceptable variability around gold standards in order to create product specifications.
Prepares Quality Assurance to ensure standards are met during commercial expansion.
Reviews critical data involving product quality and ingredient concerns and resolves issues.
Develops project background and objectives, preparation methods, measurements, calibrations, tastings, samples, and gold standards for R&D projects.
Utilizes scientific methods to improve aspects of food items, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutrition, and cost, ensuring maximum customer satisfaction.
Performs yield and shelf-life analysis for all new items and changes to existing foods.
Maintains data and records in an organized manner.
Establishes and maintains the highest possible standards of scientific excellence and professionalism.
Demonstrates leadership qualities and professional maturity consistent with our values.
Builds relationships with multiple functions (Operations, Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing, etc) with open channels of communication and collaboration.
Develops and maintains effective and professional relationships with a network of purveyors and vendor-suppliers.
Engages direct reports in developmental and leadership opportunities.

REQUIREMENTS.

Education in Food Science & Technology or equivalent.
Minimum of 8 years experience working in R&D and QA within the food industry. Ability to source and utilize quality tools and analytical equipment.
Demonstrated ability to identify and implement creative solutions.
Ability to taste flavors and describe sensory characteristics.
Knowledge of manufacturing processes and ability to communicate with a diverse group of people; ability to apply Lean Six Sigma 5S principles with team.
Ability to interpret data and use resources to troubleshoot and resolve issues.
Qualifications in Food safety, HACCP, and SQF.
Excellent computer skills including ESHA Genesis and Microsoft Products – Excel, Word, Outlook.
Excellent leadership, organization, and communication skills, interacting with customers both internal and external in both verbal and written form.
High level of integrity and highly developed work ethic.
Clear understanding of logistics of supplies/needs and timing.
Denver based position.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

Directly supervises and participates in the Quality Assurance Manager and operations.

WORKING CONDITIONS & ENVIRONMENT

Standard office equipment, including PC, copier, fax machine, printer.
Typical office environment adequately heated and cooled.
Exposure to manufacturing environment and possible extremes in temperature and working knowledge of laboratory and kitchen equipment.
Some travel required to vendor-suppliers, trade-shows or conferences. Typical manufacturing environment during travel to vendor-suppliers.
Collaborative work culture with C-Level Team
Fast moving, customer focused with high growth culture.
Owner operator environment with the excitement, upside and challenges of rapid growth.

NOTE: This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities or qualifications associated with the job.

Click here to apply

Sales & Marketing: Account Executive I

2015-06-18T14:00:00.001-07:00

Sales & Marketing: Account Executive I

REPORTS TO: Director of Sales & Marketing

Are you a proven Hunter?
Do you want to work for a cutting edge company that is disrupting a b2b market fro corporate promotions and advertising?
Do you love to win?
Have you taken a well-known sales training course?
Do you love phone work and networking?

If yes to all, this position might be for you-

MINIMUM POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES:

Prospecting, networking, setting appointments, and aggressively selling a full menu of product offerings to meet client needs
Handles a high level of sales activity, including meeting goals of 150 cold calls and setting 2-3 appointments per week
Meeting defined sales goals
Target and close new business opportunities with first-time customers
Maintaining and improve relationships with established customers
Other assigned duties as needed

MINIMUM POSITION QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s Degree in a related field
1 to 3 years of sales experience and completion of a sales training course
A proven track record of sales success
Must live or be willing to relocate within reasonable distance of the Denver Metro area
Works independently and has effective time management skills
Possess memorable and dynamic relationship building skills
Goal-oriented, with a high level of integrity and a history of a strong work ethic
Ability to travel as necessary, which includes overnight, out-of-state travel

PREFERRED POSITION QUALIFICATIONS:

Previous experience in inside and outside sales
Knowledge of platforms such as SalesForce, EMMA, etc.

About KLG Consultants, LLC:

KLG Consultants, LLC provides outsourced talent acquisition, talent management and recruiting services to organizations of all sizes and types.

ABOUT OUR CLIENT:

Our Client is a small company with big ideas and the vision of taking their products mainstream as new, different and innovative promotional tools for their customers. While developing a new product line over the last 2 years, Our Client has assisted small companies purchase appropriate quantities, provided superior product and on time delivery with its full line of other products of domed decals, magnets, lanyards, party hats and safety helmets.
Our team and company are not right for everyone but for the select few. We have high expectations, yet have a fun office space and great location with great people. If you are up for the challenge, please submit your resume and we will follow up with you regarding the next step in our hiring process.

Apply Here

Senior HR Compliance and Employee Relations Consultant

2015-06-16T17:22:00.001-07:00

Are you an #SPHR or experienced PHR?
Are you entrepreneurial?
Do you want to help build an HR Outsourcing firm?
Are you tried of working for one company and like to help business owners build their companies?
Are you passionate about networking and business development?

If you answered yes to all the above this might be the opportunity for you.

KLG Consultants, LLC is a growing #Talent Acquisition and Talent Management consulting and outsourcing firm located in The Denver, Colorado Area. We are looking to add HR Compliance and Employee/Labor Relations to our suite of services to win more clients and service existing ones.
We are looking for someone who wants to help build our company, receive a share of revenues based on client acquisition and clients served. There is a possibility to also earn equity or a profit share in the entire practice.
Our current team consists of professionals from a variety of industries and experiences who possess exceptional skills in the critical business areas of business coaching, recruiting, onboarding and orientation, performance management, leadership development and training, Lean facilitation and the CFO function.
At KLG Consultants, LLC, we work very hard for our clients and work very hard to become the go to resource for our clients. Our culture is based on excellence, developing innovative solutions; teamwork, building long-term relationships based off a mutual respect for each other, our clients, and all business partners; and integrity, the understanding that all our services are evidence based and validated by research to be effective.
We are currently seeking a Part or Full Time Senior HR Consultant (SPHR/PHR) to assist with business development, creation of our HR Compliance and Employee relations service offering and networking projects. Additional responsibilities and growth opportunities available to the ideal candidate.
The position will be responsible for the development, revision and implementation of human resource policies and procedures for external clients. The position will also help clients with employee and labor relations. Ultimately, we envision the position will manage a team of HR business partners and consultants who deliver HR compliance and Employee relations to a variety of clients.
The ideal candidate will be client-focused, with a flexible work schedule, have a home office, extensive knowledge of various facets of HR, be willing to work in a small business environment and able to effectively interact with a team of consultants. In addition to these responsibilities other job duties will include, but are not limited to:

Help develop new and existing clients, to win HR Consulting, Employee Relations, Talent Acquisition and Management engagements.
Identify opportunities to deploy the company’s outsourced CFO solution with new and existing clients.
Assist in the planning and organizing of outsourced and/or on-site human resource programs for assigned clients.
Conduct routine client meetings remotely or onsite nationwide.
Prepare and maintain internal and external reports as requested by clients
Accurately interpret and respond to questions pertaining to client HR policies and procedures.
Conduct periodic audits of HR activities to ensure compliance with policies and procedures.
May plan, assign, and/or supervise the work of others.
Participate in professional development sessions, trainings or seminars.
Lead special and cross-functional project teams and training sessions.
Attend meetings, both on and off site with clients and prospective clients.

Education and Experience:

SPHR or PHR Certification
Bachelor’s degree, preferably in business administration or a related field
7 - 10 years of professional level experience in Human Resources
MBA preferred but not necessary

Required experience:

Human Resources: 10 years
HR in an M&A environment: 5 years
Employee and Labor relations: 5 years
Use of assessments for selection and coaching: 10 years
HRIS/LMS/TMS system experience: 5 years

Compensation:
Candidate must be willing and able to work for a percentage of revenues created from assigned clients and new business attributable to their business development work.
Growth into an override position on direct report consultants is possible with execution of the company’s growth goals.
Profit share or ownership grants will be possible based upon performance criteria.

Apply Here

Job Opportunity in Food Science

2015-06-16T08:08:00.003-07:00

We are looking for an entrepreneurial Director of Research and Quality who understands an agile manufacturing environment run by an owner operator. The right candidate is expected to bring innovative, analytical and commercialization skills to the Company, working collaboratively with Operations, Supply Chain, and Sales and Marketing to ensure the Company offers best in class and cost competitive variety with the highest quality standards. Skills required include: highly developed food product development and quality assurance experience within the food industry; food science, food safety, nutrition, food processing, shelf-life and sensory analysis; financial acumen and strong vendor-supplier relationships; and a commitment to our natural #food and growth driven culture.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

An excellent representative of our Company’s food, culture, and values.
Spearhead the development and implementation of food policy and procedures.
Quality assurance, verification or validation testing of inbound raw materials, in-process product, and outbound finished products.
A key influencer in senior management meetings and Company’s strategic planning, exhibiting solid understanding of issues relevant to the business.
Development of new food items including leading flavor trends, responsible for changes to existing foods for quality improvement or cost efficiencies, which support our brand.
Responsible for scale-up of new food items and creation of product specifications, including ingredient statements and nutrition facts panels, so that the highest level of quality can be achieved under high volume production conditions.
Provides Operations team with initial process procedures for new item commercialization.
Responsible for all new item samples.
Develops gold standards on new items to be used during commercial scale-up. Uses scientific methods to establish product parameters on gold standards. Tests and establishes acceptable variability around gold standards in order to create product specifications.
Prepares Quality Assurance to ensure standards are met during commercial expansion.
Reviews critical data involving product quality and ingredient concerns and resolves issues.
Develops project background and objectives, preparation methods, measurements, calibrations, tastings, samples, and gold standards for R&D projects.
Utilizes scientific methods to improve aspects of food items, such as chemical composition, flavor, color, texture, nutrition, and cost, ensuring maximum customer satisfaction.
Performs yield and shelf-life analysis for all new items and changes to existing foods.
Maintains data and records in an organized manner.
Establishes and maintains the highest possible standards of scientific excellence and professionalism.
Demonstrates leadership qualities and professional maturity consistent with our values.
Builds relationships with multiple functions (Operations, Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing, etc) with open channels of communication and collaboration.
Develops and maintains effective and professional relationships with a network of purveyors and vendor-suppliers.
Engages direct reports in developmental and leadership opportunities.

REQUIREMENTS.

Education in Food Science & Technology or equivalent.
Minimum of 8 years experience working in R&D and QA within the food industry. Ability to source and utilize quality tools and analytical equipment.
Demonstrated ability to identify and implement creative solutions.
Ability to taste flavors and describe sensory characteristics.
Knowledge of manufacturing processes and ability to communicate with a diverse group of people; ability to apply Lean Six Sigma 5S principles with team.
Ability to interpret data and use resources to troubleshoot and resolve issues.
Qualifications in Food safety, HACCP, and SQF.
Excellent computer skills including ESHA Genesis and Microsoft Products – Excel, Word, Outlook.
Excellent leadership, organization, and communication skills, interacting with customers both internal and external in both verbal and written form.
High level of integrity and highly developed work ethic.
Clear understanding of logistics of supplies/needs and timing.
Denver based position.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

Directly supervises and participates in the Quality Assurance Manager and operations.

WORKING CONDITIONS & ENVIRONMENT

Standard office equipment, including PC, copier, fax machine, printer.
Typical office environment adequately heated and cooled.
Exposure to manufacturing environment and possible extremes in temperature and working knowledge of laboratory and kitchen equipment.
Some travel required to vendor-suppliers, trade-shows or conferences. Typical manufacturing environment during travel to vendor-suppliers.
Collaborative work culture with C-Level Team
Fast moving, customer focused with high growth culture.
Owner operator environment with the excitement, upside and challenges of rapid growth.

NOTE: This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities or qualifications associated with the job.

click here to learn more and apply

Outsource your talent acquisition, talent management and executive recruiting to KLG Consultants, LLC.

2015-05-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

Learn More

Denver Executive Recruiter

Best Practices for using Assessments in Hiring, Promoting and Team Integration

2015-05-14T06:48:00.002-07:00

The Ipsative vs. Normative Debate

By Kenneth L. Greenberg, CEO - KLG Consultants, LLC

Introduction - As a due diligence tool, pre hire, or for management
coaching and professional development post hire, the market is crowded
with professional assessment tools. These types of assessments can
engender fear, apathy or outright disdain depending upon one’s
perspective.

Some professional business owners use assessment technology while
building management teams for portfolio companies. Others feel they either are not applicable
because of the contractual obligations and agreements in the documents underlying the
acquisition or investment, or they believe assessments are not applicable given the prior success
of the target company. However, many consultants focused on team building and integration,
leadership development and strategic planning will not take on an engagement without
administering assessments to the participants in the program.

Whatever your perspective, understanding the two fundamental differences of the assessments
currently on the market, can go a long way to helping your firm deal with the risk inherent in
management acquisition, team integration and post investment management performance.
“It looked good on paper.” - You may have heard these words before or even uttered them
yourself, post acquisition or investment. The numbers made sense; the projections were
validated by your best and brightest. The management team’s resumes and references all looked
great. You even interviewed the management team and the interviews went well. Why is the
management team now so dysfunctional post investment?

Change - Typically, people problems in these circumstances can be summed up in two words,
change and culture. Try as you might to make the acquisition process as seamless as possible,
subtle forms of change ripple throughout the organization and disrupt people’s effectiveness.
Whether certain leaders leave due to agreement or others change their roles, new reporting
requirements are implemented and a new configuration of the board is put in place; change
happens due to your involvement in a portfolio company. Change affects different people in
different ways.

Reaction to Change - Although the effect on people may manifest itself much like grief; where
people get stuck in the grieving process is the key question. Some experts describe the five
stages of grief as follows:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

A smooth transition is dependent upon knowing who might get “stuck” and where they may get
stuck. This is where a comparison of the ipsative and normative assessments is critical.
Ipsative Assessment Tools - Ipsative tools are by their nature, self reporting. When one takes
the assessment, one tells the assessment what he or she thinks of him or herself and the
assessment reports that input. It is not unlike going to the doctor and saying “I have a back ache
and believe I need surgery.” Most doctors would not act on that input, save ordering more
diagnostics assessments. Put another way, these types of assessments, “look good on paper” but
allow the assessment subject to tell the test what they think the end user wants to hear. The
output is not much more reliable than an interview and it is not necessarily a useful tool for
predicting how that person will react to the change that results from your involvement in the
company.
It is also very difficult to use an ipsative assessment to coach a person for performance
improvement. Essentially the tool leaves it to the assessment subject to tell the user where he or
she needs improvement. Like the doctor with only patient input, one is left with very little
reliable diagnostics on which to act in order to affect a cure and make the patient better. When
coaching management members to accept change and thrive, behavior change is the cure, and
one needs to know underlying hard wired behavior.
Reliability - Many experts agree reliability is the key empirical measure of the efficacy of an
assessment tool. Reliability is measured by the percentage of similar results each time a subject
is administered an assessment. According to the United States Department of Labor, anything
less than 70% reliability may render a tool less than adequate. Because ipsative assessments are
self reporting, test subjects can simply change their answer each time they take the assessment,
depending on what they think is expected of them. It can be quite easy for the output to change
each time the subject takes the assessment. Because, the assessment is self reporting, it is not
feasible to test for “distortion” or inconsistency of answers in just one assessment.
Normative Assessment Tools - The other type of assessments, normative assessments,
measure the subject’s answers against sample populations. The scores generated from these
assessments are not unlike the percentile scores found in standardized tests. They can measure
core behaviors, learning styles and professional preferences as compared to the general workingpopulation or against benchmarks of best performers in various occupations. The most cuttingedge of these assessments claim 82% reliability. Normative assessments can also report
distortion, or consistency of answers. As previously mentioned, ipsative assessments are by their
nature distorted by the subject. A measure of distortion is critical in order to know how candid a
subject has been while taking the assessment.

Because most normative tools report core natural behavioral tendencies, learning styles and
professional interests as compared to statistically viable sample populations, it is easier to
predict how a subject will react to change, and when and how coaching can best be used to help
that subject adjust and improve. Team interaction and integration can be facilitated using a
reliable tool that can help new owners understand their talent pool and how they will or won’t
work together.

Because of their reliability, normative assessments can also be used to benchmark the best
performers in a company. Benchmarking allows the creation of a continuity plan to facilitate
replacement of departing key people. Proper benchmarking can make the continuity plan more
predictable and less risky. Matching candidates to fill roles in a specific company or department
based on learning styles, behavior tendencies and professional likes, increases the probability
that there won’t be a performance drop off post departure of key individuals. This is frequently
referred to as analyzing candidates for “job fit”.

One other benefit of normative assessment tools is some meet or exceed regulatory guidelines
for non-biased hiring and promotion tools. As you develop the organization at any portfolio
company, very difficult decisions often need to be made. The risk of litigation can often hamper
optimum decision making for hiring, promotion and allocation of duties. Because the latest
normative assessments are often based on third party research, validated over periodic studies,
they are accepted as a third party analysis of a candidates fit for a position or role. Properly
utilized, use of the tools, have stood up in court. (We are not lawyers and this is a matter to
review with your employment counsel. The assessment landscape should be evaluated with
your advisors with these guidelines in mind.) Beyond risk mitigation, proper use of these
assessment tools can help owners advise portfolio management on where their teams “core
strengths” can best help the organization achieve its goals. Aligning management teams to tasks
and functions, based on individual core strengths can go a long way to deliver high performance
and the results that follow.

Some organizational experts believe that when tasks are aligned with those best equipped to
execute those tasks, overall organizational performance improves. Peter Drucker once said, "The
task of management is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths
effective and their weaknesses irrelevant." When change is occurring, the task is to handle the
change and minimize the disruption it causes the organization. Normative assessments can
allow owners better visibility as to who in a portfolio management team is best equipped for the
task of leading the company through the change and transition to new ownership and control.

Culture Clash - As mentioned before in this article, culture is also cited as reason for
disappointing outcomes post acquisition or merger. Corporate culture is described by W.P. Carey
as “the core values, ways and beliefs, business principles and traditions” of a corporation. The
missing piece in this description is people. More specifically, how the people of the corporation
operate in order to make it a successful organization.

Notwithstanding the organization chart one is shown pre-acquisition or merger, the informal
organizational chart of the actual organizational communication and decision flow, holds the
key to the culture of the corporation. Management typically fears changing that natural flow.
That fear manifests in various ways that are sometimes described as culture clash. This often
includes turf battles, sudden departures to competition, and worse. There is nothing nefarious
about the informal organization chart. Successful high performing organizations, either by
design or serendipity, allow their management teams to develop their role in the corporation to
their individual strengths, notwithstanding titles.

With normative assessments in hand, management team integration in spite of disparate
cultures is more easily facilitated as ongoing tasks can be aligned with individual strengths. New
owners can help facilitate the negotiation of roles, task assignment and the selection of go
forward practices that best fit the new integrated team. Once the ownership transition has been
executed, normative assessments can also allow owners to provide coaching to management
team members tailored to the particular person’s strengths and core characteristics. Because
quality normative assessments are empirical they can also be added to 360˚ assessments
and are not redundant to the self assessment portion of these tools. This allows a coach or
superior to temper the emotional response frequently encountered post 360̊ assessment, by
pointing to the empirical “x-ray” as confirmation of other people’s subjective concerns.
Conclusion - As a result, the best normative assessments can be confidently utilized much like a
doctor uses an x-ray, MRI, or other third party diagnostic tool. Ipsative tools on the other hand,
are subject to and require subjective interpretation and can be more easily distorted by the
subject. While useful in certain settings, ipsative tools are self assessments and therefore not
reliable tools for developing strength based integrated management teams.

If one is inclined to use assessment tools, and we encourage their use, we believe normative
assessment tools are best practice for developing high performing management teams post
merger or acquisition. When used properly along with other due diligence methods, these tools
are also very useful and valid tools for people due diligence tools pre merger or acquisition.

About the author

Kenneth L. Greenberg, President and CEO of KLG Consultants, is a former investment banker,
and the founder of KLG Consultants. He heads the Corporate Consulting practice at KLG.
KLG uses cutting edge assessments for talent acquisition, facilitative training, and coaching to help all types of organizations remove impediments to success and increase performance.

Ken is also a private equity investor. Prior to starting KLG Consultants, he participated as an
investor and principal in the purchase and ongoing management of a number of private
companies through a Phoenix based private leveraged buyout firm.

Learn more-

KLG Outsourced Recruiting Process

2015-05-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

People are the lifeblood of most organizations.

We go beyond traditional recruiting and offer companies a variety of talent management solutions that drive organizational performance.

Problem- With increasing demands on HR including labor law compliance, strategic initiatives and employee engagement, creating and managing talent pools for mission critical positions can become an afterthought.

The Result- Sometimes organizations do not have the time to create a large enough talent pool, let alone screen and assess candidates for job and culture fit. The result can be hires that do not live up to expectations and worse.

Our Solution-

We use a custom proprietary two-step job fit assessment process that increases the probability of a great hire, each time.

We believe the right people can do extraordinary things for an organization.

KLG Consultants offers organizations traditional contingent or retained recruiting solutions to solve critical hiring needs.

We will create the job post and distribute it across multiple platforms. We create and manage the talent pool and present only those candidates we believe fit the criteria for success for your culture and any particular position.

After our two-step analysis, we present the finalists to you for final interview with our assistance or after our behavioral interview coaching.

We will help in the final selection decision if requested. Post hire, we can also bring to bear our onboarding and professional development solutions to accelerate new hire integration into your distinct culture and inspire higher levels of performance by the new hire and their team.

Hit the mark on new hires and drive higher levels of business performance.

Auctus Search Partners, LLC

Is the water cooler a place to find value?

For more information: www.auctussearchpartners.com

Denver- Healthcare Executive Recruiting and Staffing

Colorado Office

M&A Advisory Firm, Auctus Group, Inc. Acquires KLG Consultants, A Colorado Based Talent Acquisition and Professional Services Company- Acquisition Enhances Capabilities of Auctus Group and Auctus Search Partners beyond Financial Services Recruiting and Sell side M&A

Mastering Management In Denver-Kick Off 8/17 at 3PM

People Challenges During an M&A or Succession Event

Selling A Small Business or Handing it off to The Children?

Stop Calling Your Employees Introverts and/or Extroverts

Misconceptions about attitude, job fit and post hire performance

Succession and Exit Planning 101-June 8th, 2016

Hiring Challenges Fixed!

Recruiting

Our Latest Article

About Us

Hоw Behavioral Prоfilеѕ Improve Thе Recruiting Prосеѕѕ (Why an Assessments Practitioner is Essential for Employee Selection)

How to Find the Right People for the Job and Culture

Optimal #Hiring Decisions in A Compliance Focused Employment Market -

Sell your Business Now?

Embrace the Pain!

Custom Organizational 360˚ Surveys

Director of Research & Quality

Click here to apply

Sales & Marketing: Account Executive I

Apply Here

Senior HR Compliance and Employee Relations Consultant

Job Opportunity in Food Science

click here to learn more and apply

Outsource your talent acquisition, talent management and executive recruiting to KLG Consultants, LLC.﻿

Best Practices for using Assessments in Hiring, Promoting and Team Integration

KLG Outsourced Recruiting Process

People are the lifeblood of most organizations.

We go beyond traditional recruiting and offer companies a variety of talent management solutions that drive organizational﻿ performance.

Outsource your talent acquisition, talent management and executive recruiting to KLG Consultants, LLC.

We go beyond traditional recruiting and offer companies a variety of talent management solutions that drive organizational performance.