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BBC Capital Maybe nice guys really do finish last. Is it possible that being too agreeable or too nice in your dealings with customers, colleagues, subordinates or supervisors is more negative than positive?  Could kindness be holding you back in your career, or be stunting your ability to get a better deal? Several LinkedIn Influencers… Continue reading The downside of being nice at work

Busy schedules and expectations from clients, candidates and society in general that interactions and processes are conducted online have had a much debated effect on how psychometric and other assessments are conducted. In just the past two years, we have seen and led that change to the point where we have conducted traditional in-person supervised… Continue reading Online Candidate Testing & Assessment. Balancing benefits against risks

As most of our clients know, we run highly effective outplacement/redundancy support programs in the Hawke’s Bay region, with an 80% success rate of getting displaced staff into similar jobs within 2 months of them completing the program, which is an impressive track record in current economic conditions. Up until now, whilst almost every employer… Continue reading 100% Subsidised Support for Redundancies in Hawke’s Bay

Adaptive testing has been around for a few years now, but many HR professionals and business owners remain unaware of their existence or application, so here is a quick introduction to the concept and its application in your business: Adaptive tests are the next level in the evolution of testing people’s abilities and skills, and… Continue reading Introduction to Adaptive Testing

The General Reasoning Test (GRT2) battery of Numerical, Verbal and Abstract reasoning is one of the most widely used ability test batteries, with over 40,000 administered in New Zealand. This is the test chosen by New Zealand Police to sharpen up police recruitment practices after criticisms in 2006/7.  The test is particularly useful for identifying… Continue reading New Zealand’s Most Popular Ability Test Battery Available Unsupervised & Online

Our extensive range of almost 2,000 IT and Software Skills Test Titles has just taken another step forward with the release of the Microsoft Office 2010 suite, providing simulated testing at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. Where jobs require a level of knowledge and competency in specific software, these tests take the guesswork out of… Continue reading Microsoft Office 2010 Skills Tests Launched

INVITATION HRINZ Members and Guests Leadership Pathways Presented by Sandra Lyall Head of HR, ANZ HRINZ Hawke’s Bay is pleased to announce its next event on 6 September, with Sandra Lyall – Leadership Pathways. Senior HR Manager at ANZ National, Sandra is part of a strategy to engage and inspire their people to execute the… Continue reading HRINZ Leadership Pathways Event – 6th September, Hastings

With ACC levies being calculated against organisations compliance and focus on safe workplaces, an even greater number of organisations are aiming to reduce the incidence of health and safety incidents and workplace accidents.  Strange how the threat of financial reward or penalty adds impetus to doing the right thing for your staff! While the environment… Continue reading The Health & Safety Indicator (HSI) for assessing safe workplaces

A few months ago I was asked to join the team of judges for this year’s Unison Fibre Hastings City Business Excellence Awards and interview sixteen large national chain Hastings retailers on their current and planned approaches to marketing, customer service, staff development and retention, and how they expected to perform in the next twelve… Continue reading Managing the Risk of Hiring Staff in Retail

High level recruitment decisions that fall apart as swiftly and spectacularly as the recently highly publicised departure of the newly appointed Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO, are a sobering reminder to us all of the need to apply the same diligence to testing and assessing candidates at the top end of the organisation as… Continue reading CEO and Director Selection and Assessment