Sales Apttitude Test

HR Focus in Start-ups to Succeed

Start-up companies can come in all forms and sizes. They seem to have high failure rates, but the minority who succeed can become large and influential.

It has been seen that most start-up founders more often have a casual or off-beat culture in their thinking, dress, office space, HR practices and Marketing, as compared to traditional corporations. Some of these casual approaches, such as the use of “flat” organizational structure, in which employees can directly communicate with the Founders or CEOs informally, are practiced to promote efficiency and to enthuse employees in the workplace.

Business Strategies for Finance, Marketing, Production, Product Development and Innovation are made without a robust HR and People strategy. The importance of this needs to be highlighted as this is one pillars of the foundation on which the businesses is built, and if this pillar is weak or not there the dangers will always loom. Having a HR and People plan is like a having Finance plan which is absolutely essential to a success of a start-up. If people are not the key focus area the start-up cannot succeed. The HRand People plan needs to be budgeted in the initial phase itself.

Hiring the right person is one of the biggest challenges for the start-up – it is not that getting people is a problem but getting the right-fit certainly is for most start-up organizations. Many a times compromises are likely to be made to get the organization moving quickly hoping that the incumbents will learn and adapt as we go along – something which a start-up needs to be careful about in my opinion.

All start-ups need people who are innovative, adaptable and flexible, analytical, emotionally intelligent, team players and have willingness to learn. They should be willing multi-taskers. Easily said than done – how do we find this out in an interview of an hour or two at the most? The founder’s or CEO’s experience or gut-feel may not be sufficient to make those judgements. There is a professional way of doing thisby putting the person through professional Competency Assessment or Personality (Psychological) Tests.

As the organization matures and grows retention of good people becomes the challenge.Attracting,developing and retaining an amazing team are the hallmarks of success for any start-ups success. If there are right people they will design and redesign success strategies and fight for the organization’s success.

What HR policies should be there? How shouldthe elements of legality, predictability, fairness, equity and control be built into them require in-depth thought and insight as does the business plan. What has succeeded in one organization may not in another as each organization have a unique character and personality. Having policies is not good enough it is their proper implementation which is the tougher part and leads to dissatisfaction in most organizations over a period of time.

Just like business strategies and plans change the HR policies need to be revised and re-engineered keeping in view the business needs.

Making sure that the there is adequate focus on people besides other areas is most important in my opinion.

More Visit :- http://www.cengrow.com/

Making Performance Management Work effectively

Managing Performance and keeping the workforce motivated is becoming increasingly complex and difficult particularly for the young brigade who is far more mobile and impulsive.
No system is perfect and permanent in any organisation. We need to continuously improve and adapt our processes to the changing environment.
Most organizations do have some form of Performance Management System as in recent times even Performance Appraisal is called the same. Firstly, let me clarify that Performance Appraisal is only one of the elements of the Performance Management System.
A robust Performance Management System (PMS) has 4 distinct sub-processes:
1. Formal Target Setting Process cascading down from the Annual Business Plan. It encompasses a participatory approach and is an open, transparent,data-based and an alignedprocess wherein the organization seeks to set challenging but realistic targets for all its employees.
2. Monitoring and Control involves an institutionalised and an on-going process for giving feedback, coaching and counselling to keepthe performance on track. This is the most important part of PMS and the organization needs to build the competence of its employees – it requires specialized training. This has invariably been a weakness in most organizations we have worked for in the last 30 years
3. The Performance Appraisal against the targets set in step 1 and any revisions thereafter. This requires the elements of subjectivity to be reduced and objectivity brought in. For this the appraisal form needs to be well designed. Self-appraisal often helps to bring acceptance and reasoning in the whole process. Appraiser and Reviewer both need to be data-based and objective to keep personal biases out.
4. A clearly defined Reward and Recognition Policy linked with thePerformance Appraisal contributes to building a motivated work-force. This needs constant review and updating year on year.
It is desirable to have the whole process fully documented with timelines with responsibilities clearly demarcated.
Other process such as Career and Succession Planning need to be in place for Performance Management to be more effective. Some Organizations do keep the two processes independent. However, the retention of talent has thrown a big challenge to many organizations as they grapple with balancing these processes.
More Visit :- http://www.cengrow.com/

What is a Sales Aptitude Test?

Sales Aptitude Test(SAT) are conducted to measure the personality traits that are grave to success in sales and similar related fields, primarily for the customer service, marketing, public relations and management and also, it assesses those traits also that aren’t apparent in an interview or resume. SAT is also known as customer service test, which measures the personality traits. It’s a boon for those who have the high level of patience, perseverance, cooperativeness and personal diplomacy and are kept on priority for customer service roles. Personality tests are conducted to select salespeople, because, according to the research conducted, to be a successful sales manager, you need to have certain personality traits. As a seller, you need to be more outgoing, aggressive, confident and of course, highly motivated.

Aptitude Test

Sales achievement predator or sales AP was introduced by Dr.Sander I. Marcus, Dr. Jotham G. Friedland, and Dr. Harvey P. Mandel. Sales AP helps the companies to groom salespeople. These people prepared a written test which contains 140 items and is written at a sixth-grade reading level. This scale contributes to adjust the score of those applicants who are at their extremes- either exceptionally brilliant or below average.

Cengrows is here to guide you and solve your queries about the salesmanship and help you to climb a step higher than yours. These days, personality tests contribute to select salespeople because many pieces of research have proved that certain personality traits are required to be successful in sales. According to the Sales Competency Assessment, aggressive people are quite competitive and highly motivated. Many times, low or negative correlations have been in highlight cooperation and patience because, to handle sales, you need to have both- patience and collaboration, which further leads to Sales skills assessment. The more accurate your Test score here, apparently, so will be your job performance.

In fact, various case studies have been conducted with the customers who state that the most successful salesperson is assertive, competitive, and impatient too- which is just the opposite of customer service personal.

The utmost thing to be taken care of or noted is that sales role varies from one organization to another; hence it will be an injustice to judge it as a larger picture. On the contrary, the basic building blocks remain consistent throughout the industry. You have to mold yourself according to your job profile and the requirement. Once you are in the seat, you are the boss who has to act accordingly.

How to Use Psychometric Testing in Hiring

According to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, approximately 18% of the companies these days are using personality tests in the recruitment procedure, and surprisingly, this number is growing at the rate of 10-15% on an annual basis- as per many industrial and organizational psychologists and the Association of Test Publishers.

Psychometric testing proves that there are certain cognitive and personality tests which help the new employees to succeed in their field and boost them for their future. Since the cost of a bad hire is extensively estimated to be a year’s salary; there are huge incentives for organizations to get hiring right. Due to lack of knowledge, unfortunately, many organizations use the wrong psychometric assessments in a wrong way and here are the followings they ought to know to minimize the potential risks and maximize their predictive accuracy, as Cengrows is helping you to achieve:

Know the law: the organization ought to keep in mind, the legal compliance when they want to add psychometric tests to their pre-employment screening system. The assessment tools, especially cognitive ability tests need to be job- relevant due to the presence of anti- discrimination laws. Competency mapping is included too for psychomotor testing.
Business needs should be known: these tests won’t help you unless you don’t have well- established measures of job performance. These days, organizations are focusing more on the predictors or independent variables rather than concentrating on dependent variables. It is important to know that if an industry doesn’t have quantitative measures of employee performance on the job, then there is no source for statistical correlations of how good these tests predict their performance. In such a case, you need to be dependent on the assessment center.
Risk of cheating is reduced: the tests like cognitive ability tests are conducted in order to safeguard the candidate; organizations should ‘proctor’ the assessment test, either by monitoring him via video conference, or noting their activities directly. But keep in mind that some candidates may be tempted to play a smart act with the result. You must compare the reference of the candidate and his interview ratings with their results to ensure whether the two are consistent or not. Such things are useful in the sales department where to need to have a smart candidate and you can be easily fooled by people by ‘impression management’. Using multiple psychometric tests can actually help the organizations to get a more consistent picture. You have to perform such tests in limit and never try to over-do it because sometimes, even a well-developed, predictive assessment battery and legally defensible won’t be of any worth if the candidate feels it being over time-consuming.
Must share the results with the candidates: every candidate has the right to see their effect these days- as per “informed consent” and few organizations also provide access to the reports based on the psychometric tests that the applicants take. Whether the candidate accepts the employment offer or not, there are both- the ethical as well as the pragmatic benefits of sharing the result.
Test the tests: job performance of an individual must be evaluated quantitatively, which give the company criteria for correctness. While hiring managers and HR, one must consume the right methodology to select and retain the authentic psychometric tests.

To undergo all these points as mentioned earlier, one ought to know and understand the business needs and make sure that you find a test that evaluates the characteristics. Some laws prohibit the company from discriminating the privacy of the candidate, but no legislation prohibits the company from using strange assessment tools.

To know more visit: Cengrow

Projective tests: Have a keener eye for talent

COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW A projective test is a type of personality test in which the individual is made to respond to ambiguous scenes, words or riddles. This kind of analysis emerged from the psychology of thought, which suggests that people have their behavioral traits and urges which might leave an impact on the business organizations they work with. These projective tests were intended to uncover such unconscious desires that are hidden from a normal behavior of an individual.

The projective techniques require more time and skill to administer than more objective testing methods and hence are an efficient method in assessing an individual’s competencies on the organization. They are very useful to employers in helping them obtain a comprehensive picture of a person’s personality mark the traits that they foresee as valuable to their organization and channelize it for their own as well as individual’s benefit.

The projective techniques directly or indirectly imply to competency based interviews, which have a sole purpose in an organization: to test employee’s skill. So, as interviewers you may be more interested in candidate’s experience or previous qualifications, what you need to know is whether you have the right skills to take the position on in your firm as different companies compete with different goals. You can also practically test how candidates would react in given situations. So rather than concerning yourselves with candidate’s past achievements, place emphasis on predicting how he/she would behave in a certain scenario in a business is driven environment.

The tasks in a competency based interview would range from oral and written communication to planning, organization and problem-solving. So, it is time for you as an entrepreneur to match the right skills with the right candidate and see your business grow. Cengrow has achieved this mastery with time; it is equipped with all modern techniques in analyzing candidate’s profile and his behavior to make sure your he/she does justice to the role been given. It is all a growing corporate firm needs, a workforce not smartest in the room but brightest to do the job that is assigned. Cengrow will help organizations grow through these everyday situations in which most of the business leaders fail to identify the right talent for their needs of activities. Some key competencies that employers look for in a candidate include:

Teamwork
Responsibility
Communication skills
Decision making
Leadership
Problem-solving
Goal orientation

A consultation firm helps you have a plethora of all these in the working class you hire. But where do you find one reputable company? Cengrow has been the people’s choice since past 30 years. The applications designed here helps organizations make prudential decisions when it comes to recruiting the right talent, getting relevant data from past and current and optimally utilizing the talented workforce to encourage them to do better. Cengrow, to sum up, is not just a consultation firm, but a potential power you can trust for fulfilling your ambitious business goals.

Sales Skills Assessment With Unleash Employees Sales Potential

assessment-solutions-using-scintific-tools-cengrow

New trends in sales force selection and development have now made it easier for organisations to recruit the right talent for the right profile. There are now psychometric tests including a sales skills assessment and other methods that acts like a benchmark to allow employers to choose an employee with the personality traits that a company desires for its job positions.

Every organisation wants its employees to be self-driven, self-motivated and a go getter. For an organisation solely relying on its sales & marketing division, choosing an employee that has energy, innovative selling skills and resilience will prove to be an asset to the company.

Selecting candidates after an initial screening with a sales skills assessment makes the organisation employ better and increase its work efficiency and overall job performance.

A sales skills assessment or a sales aptitude test helps employers look beyond the candidate’s appearance and personalities and hire them on the basis of their mental abilities and talents. These tests are designed and developed in a series format that are easy to comprehend but are different from the usual interview questions that come up during hiring. It helps employers measure if the applicant is fit for the job position and will succeed in a sales profile.

A sales aptitude test is ideally divided into three categories, namely –

Cognitive: Relating to brain function, it is a unique and personalised analysis based on our natural personality traits and instincts including human relations, challenge, adaptability, persuasiveness, intuitive decision, self-control, availability, analysis/evaluation and anticipation.
Behavioural: This includes our approach towards taking initiative, social behaviour, strong mental & emotional state, being assertive and how disciplined an individual is.
Interest based: This relates to the professional dimensions including Sociability, Assertiveness, Composure, and the Ability to analyse.

These tests are aligned with other sales force development programmes and help employers employ better and also help identify and dramatically improve the already hired employees to perform better. So whether it is identifying yours or your employer’s key personality traits related to sales or discovering where your sales potential lies, it is recommended to take the sales aptitude test for a successful career in sales and marketing.

Cengrow, a reputed and experience management and business consulting firm located in Gurgaon design and develop unique, customised and interactive sales aptitude tests and sales competency assessment reports that cater to your organisation needs. Their strength comes from well-researched models and accredited consultants with a vast experience in international organizations, industries, NGOs and management consulting.

Consider what a difference can be made if the sales force is chosen with the right mindset and the right aptitude tests. Companies that like to outperform their competitors and strive to become a better place to work. The aptitude tests may differ depending on the kind of work environment the company has and the roles being applied for, but most psychometric tests will focus on personality or situational judgement tests. This method helps organisation see increased sales and also find performance dynamically increasing with genuine market value and proven results.

Critical Reasoning Tests – Helping Organizations Recruit Better

we-make-sure-that-your-people-contribute-to-your-organizations-strategic-goals-cengrow

With increasing demands on recruiting people with intellectual skills, a flexible skill set and diverse sources of knowledge, organisations are now adapting methods and tools that involve the employees taking a critical reasoning test.

How Critical Thinkers Thinks

Remember a critical thinker will raise relevant questions, gather & access information, interpret everything with a well-reasoned conclusion, thinks open-mindedly and communicates effectively to figure out even the most complex of issues. It is an important skill that can be learn and applied to life situations that calls for reflection, needs thorough analysis and planning. This trait helps you make the right choice, decide better and solve problems in a very effective manner.

Critical thinkers are an Asset to the Company

Critical thinkers examine their actions and see why they make the decisions they do. And that is what makes them an asset to the company. This person can think well and solve problems systematically. They have an open mind that is flexible to change with changing environment and can change their views based on new acquired knowledge. Most of all they can figure the difference between facts and opinions.

Critical thinking helps form better communication as it helps the person understand other’s views, thoughts and experiences clearly. In a fast changing workplace this helps enhance work relations and benefits in working with different people belonging to diverse backgrounds.

Critical thinking refers to being able to make out judgements with reasons that are logical in nature and are well-thought out. It helps employees and managers to look at a situation from all view points and weigh down possible solutions before concluding or coming up with a final answer.

Critical reasoning tests are held to understand the mental activity of the person rather than just his emotional sense. Undergoing this test helps activates flow of ideas, symbols and associations and involves a complex process of reflection and analysis that bring forth concepts and reasons. This way, an individual does not simply accept all arguments but also questions such arguments or questions and helps in concluding the right answer.

How to Improve Your Critical Reasoning Scores:

There are numerous ways to master critical reasoning but the top three tips that help improve a critical reasoning test performance involves giving the simplest of answers that the test makers can understand, expressing the answers in clear concise manner that uses easy to understand language and most importantly to understand what is being asked. Once you can adopt these tips, you can crack your scores perfectly!

An experienced company like Cengrow (Centre for Growth Alternatives) is one among global leaders in management consulting firms and has transformed businesses in all sectors and regions in India and across the planet. They offers a range of capability enhancement solutions that are designed and conducted to meet an organisations objective on improving competencies of people on behavioural sciences and objective-based skill training in technical, functional and cross-functional areas.