Titanic vs. Icebreaker or Where Would You Rather Be When Hitting the Iceberg.

“The iceberg concept” has been quite common probably due to it’s visual simplicity:  something harmless that is visible on the surface vs. something hidden under the water that can cause serious damage and lead to a disaster. Iceberg is a deception, false belief and/or a well hidden unwanted surprise.

I often use “the iceberg concept” in conversation with business owners when we discussing hiring new people. Do you want to be “surprised” when investing thousands of dollars in someone who will be in charge of your business success?

No matter if you hiring a Starbucks employee who gets paid few dollars over minimum wage and who serves your customers or if you are hiring a branch manager who’s salary is enough to buy a brand new BMW and who is in charge of moral and productivity of your employees, the amount if risk is the same.

Perhaps I am a bit too careful and perhaps I like to form my own opinion rather that relying entirely on someone else’s when making a big money decision. I probably never spend money on the car based on the opinion of the previous owner and a walk around (ok, make it 2 walk arounds and one look under the hood). It just never happened with me because I didn’t want that to happen. I also never bought a house without proper inspection, engendering a report and information about the building company. I don’t like to create more work for myself, but what I like even less is losing my investment and time.

In a workplace, a wrong hire can create enormous negative impact. I am not going to list every possible scenario of how things can go wrong. I am simply saying that as an employer I would rather be in the Icebreaker if I am going to hit the iceberg, because we all know what happened to Titanic. I do enjoy going for a swim but I don’t really care for drowning all that much.

So how can employee assessments put you in the Icebreaker and prevent you from hitting the iceberg? The answer is one simple but wonderful word, that word is information. When you have the proper system in place for analyzing and understanding what is “underneath the water” you will be able to form educated opinion based on research rather than gut feeling.

Can someone tell me what gut feeling really is? It’s hunch, guess, roll of the dice, flip of a coin. I do agree that you should hear your intuition but listen to the information derived from the source rather than emotional swings.

Our employee assessment system has been created to help employers in  eliminating hiring mistakes, increasing performance and overall improving organization’s moral and productivity. Information that an employer is able to see using sophisticated assessment system is that bottom part of the iceberg that is not visible and often purposely hidden.

Job Match assessments have never been free but so as the good dinner. However it’s always been affordable but not always by small businesses. Good thing we changed that at Canada Human Resources Centre. Due to the purchasing power and new technological inventions we are now able to help many small businesses implement employee assessment platform and skills testing as part of their normal hiring and selection process at a low monthly price.

People are going to make their own decisions in life and in business, some are smart and some  they are still paying for. It’s all a matter of choice. Decision to either know or to ignore. Decision to assume or decision to do due diligence.

If you know that you might be  hitting the iceberg what ship would you rather be on?