Be a “Best Place to Work” by hiring “Best Place to Work” People!

“And the #5 Best Place to Work in the micro category is… Revolution Group!” Woohoo! Applause I was so honored to accept this award at last month’s Business First award ceremony. See all finalists here

Throughout the next few weeks we have received many congratulations. And, many people have asked what makes us such a great place to work.

Without a doubt it is the incredible group of people we have on our team and the way they work together. But, how have we built that kind of “culture”?

First, we understand our unique culture – the good and the bad. Secondly, we work hard to hire people that we know will thrive in that unique culture.

Anyone who’s been involved in hiring knows how tricky that last statement can be. We at Revolution Group have a fairly rigid hiring process for a company our size. And we religiously use some simple, but powerful tools. One of our most helpful tools is the ProfileXT assessment by Profiles International. Many people I talk to are intrigued by how enthusiastic I am about this tool and how we use it in our hiring process.

The ProfileXT is an assessment that measures how well an individual fits specific jobs and organizations. On a scale of 1 to 10, it measures 14 personality preferences such as independence, assertiveness, sociability, etc., and 3 interest preferences, like people service, technical, mechanical, etc. This particular tool works well for us, but there are many other options. It’s not the particular tool, but rather the way we use the tool that makes it so valuable for us.

We started using ProfileXT many years ago at the recommendation of our HR consultant, Lynda Malster. Lynda initially helped us establish realistic benchmarks using results from our then current employees. Over the years we’ve refined our benchmarks by comparing ProfileXT results to actual job performance for candidates who eventually became employees. This constant refining process is why we get so much value from this tool and how we are able to hire “Best Places to Work” team members.

How about some concrete examples?

“Independence” is one of the 14 personality preferences measured by ProfileXT. The definition of Independence is “the tendency to be self-reliant, self-directed, to take independent action, and make one’s own decisions”. Our consultants frequently lead client projects and work off-site at client locations. You definitely won’t consider RevGroup a best place to work if you like working in a large, consistent team environment every day. So, on a scale of 1 to 10 we have established our ideal range of Independence scores as 5-8. In fact, some of our most successful project managers have Independence scores as high as 8 or 9.

“People Service” is one of six interests identified by ProfileXT. A People Service interest indicates a person who is “motivated by a position that offers the opportunity to help others or provide some facilitative service”. Our consultants spend all day every day trying to help customers improve their businesses. We get “All Rev’d Up” about helping our clients! So, over the years we have learned that our happiest and most successful employees often have a strong People Service Interest on their ProfileXT.

Although the ProfileXT gives us important data to be used in our hiring decisions, it is only one of several tools we use. My hiring toolbox contains the ProfileXT assessment, interview questions tailored specifically for our culture and positions, a reputable background check vendor, and a big bottle of “gut feeling”.

My advice to anyone who wants to be a “Best Place to Work”? Implement some tools like ProfileXT that will help you hire “Best Place to Work” team members. I do believe RevGroup IS one of the best places to work and I believe everyone should find or create their own “Best Place to Work”!

If you’d like to know more about our culture here at Revolution Group or about how we use the ProfileXT tool in our hiring process, contact me via our website.