Articles

The articles below form a library of useful information for business professionals. 

Return To Work Mandates May Be A Big Mistake

Recent surveys by Express Employment Professionals, Harris Polls, Fortune, FlexJobs, the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, Business Insider, and others, have all shown conclusively that the majority of employees who can do so prefer to...

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Critical Thinking Skills Predict Success

Finding employees with good cognition and critical thinking skills are one of the top challenges being faced by employers for the past decade.  As reported in the Financial Post, a 2021 report by RBC Economics found that, “There’s been a rise in postings targeting critical thinking (up 37 per cent), flexibility (up 20 per cent), teamwork (up 18 per cent), the ability to learn (up 15 per cent), continuous improvement (up 12 per cent), problem solving (up 9 per cent) and strategic thinking (up 8 per cent). According to a new survey from Harris Poll, commissioned by Express Employment Professionals, 59 per cent of Canadian businesses say they can’t find qualified employees to fill vacancies.  A third of those businesses say one big reason is because prospective hires don’t have soft skills such as dependability, flexibility and a willingness to learn.

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Everyone’s Busy. You’re Not Unique.

“I’m sorry for not getting back to you, I’ve been busy,” is a sentence that should be permanently excised from the lexicon of business.  That’s the default response that one often receives, and it’s nothing more than an excuse – and a poor excuse at that.  Few of us have enough hours available to complete our daily workloads, and many of us invest a great deal of our time in chasing others for replies to emails or calls that were placed days or weeks prior.  There’s also little excuse for it in the “be kind” era, and when practically everyone has an iPhone in their pocket. Being busy doesn’t make you special or unique. 
Everyone is ‘busy’.  Everyone’s time is limited.  We all resent having it wasted by other people who are time-sinks.  They are responsible for a great deal of lost productivity and wasted time.  It’s not only inconsiderate and somewhat arrogant but is also just garden-variety rude.  It’s also unprofessional.

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NEW – Therapy Assessments

We’re pleased to announce the recent addition of 17 assessments designed to help counsellors, therapists and other professionals investigate and diagnose a variety of mental health disorders and personality traits amongst their clientele.

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Not Using Assessments Is Your Biggest Mistake

Given the fact that there are thousands of reliable, accurate, validated, and legal assessment options available to employers, it’s more than just surprising that so many articles written to help employers improve their candidate screening processes don’t even mention tests.  Practically all of the ’best practices’ and tips listed in the articles are valid and helpful (see Endnotes).  Where they’ve missed the boat is by overlooking the incredible benefit offered by pre-employment screening tools.

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New Test Announcement – Work Styles Predictor

COD is pleased to announce the addition of the Work Styles Predictor. This custom-designed assessment will help organizations pre-screen applicants for entry-level and supervisory roles. The test is customized, with your direct input, and specialized for your...

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Over 1000 New Tests Recently Added

We are pleased to announce that we have added over 1000 new test titles to our catalogue! The IBM Kenexa tests have been widely used and highly regarded measures of job fit, personality, job skills and more.  The range of options available to employers is immense and...

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Hiring For Diversity and Equity vs Merit and Competence

“Increasing the percentage of females or racial minorities in corporate workforces are goals often pursued by firms devoted” to Diversity, equity, and inclusion (known as DEI) and it has gained great prominence in recent years.   More and more companies are trying to apply DEI to their hiring practices.  Opponents claim that this tends “to advance the mingling of racial or sexual identity with critical hiring decisions, leading to a decline in overall profitability and efficiency as efforts to hire the most qualified candidates are deprioritized.”

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A Common Sense Approach To Recruitment Challenges

Almost 75% of employers are, or will be, experiencing hiring challenges in 2023.  This isn’t news. Forbes[i], Benefits Canada[ii], LinkedIn[iii], The Guardian[iv] and others offer articles full of disturbing survey statistics and trends and itemize the problems that...

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What Do You Do About Time Theft?

Time Theft is when an employee is engaged in something other than the work they’re being paid to do during work hours.  It’s becoming a big problem for employers, particularly with the increase in remote workers.  Recently, an employee in British Columbia was ordered to return $2500 to her employer due to time theft.  

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The Cost of The Toxic Workplace

A toxic workplace is no fun for anyone. It contributes to higher turnover, increased expense, inefficiency, low morale and often, a damaged reputation. To do nothing only exacerbates the problem and telegraphs to employees that management either doesn’t care or simply isn’t minding the store.

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The Great Resignation and Your Company or Career

Some individuals would like to change jobs, or train for better ones, but can’t afford the time or expense of additional training or education while simultaneously supporting their families. They feel trapped, frustrated and maybe a little resentful too. Is it any wonder that people are jumping ship for a few dollars more, even if it doesn’t advance their actual careers?

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Aging Populations Are Going To Create New Problems For Employers

Employer concerns about the overall lack of applicants, the lack of suitable and qualified applicants and complaints about high turnover have increased steadily over the past 5 years.  It’s a conversation that I now have with clients on a weekly basis, and it’s occurring continent-wide, and across all industries.

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How Assessments Can Help You Navigate Workplace Trends Successfully

Three months ago, Emeritus, a global online education company, published its list of growing workplace trends to watch for in 2022.  All businesses are contending with changes brought about by the pandemic and everything is in flux all around us.  Many of the coming changes are unavoidable but they can be made more manageable.

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Soft Skills Are Critical So Ensure That Your Applicants Have Them!

Soft skills used to be considered nice-to-haves but now, they’re critical must-haves.  They’re the ‘grease’ that facilitates interpersonal interactions and are what people with hard skills use to succeed. Soft skills are things like critical thinking, flexibility, adaptability, team working, problem solving, time management, communication, attention to detail, dependability, emotional intelligence and etc.  They are equally as, if not more important than, hard skills. 

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Ethics & Character Are Critical Competencies That Employers Can’t Afford To Overlook

If ever there was a time to be talking about character and ethics then it’s now in the wake of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.  That event, and the entirety of Trump’s presidency, have illustrated why integrity and character are more than just nice-to-have’s.  Trustworthiness is critical to every level of human interaction whether be it in marriage, in business dealings or when you loan the family car to your teenager. 

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Who Is Replacing Your Aging Workforce?

Ten thousand Baby Boomers turn 65 every day—a trend that began in 2011 and will continue until 2030. [i]  This year almost 25% of workers in Canada will be 55 years or older and the same statistic will hold true for the USA by 2024. [ii]  In 2030 – only 11 years from...

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Does Personality Change Over Time Or Remain Constant From Birth?

Personality does change over time (a long time) and it’s a significant although small change over one’s lifetime. What the researchers found was that as we mature, so do our personalities. Specifically, people tend to ‘peak’ in middle age but at a level not high enough to infer a complete lack of change in personality traits. This means that personality has a stable component across the life span, both at the trait level and at the profile level, and that personality is also malleable, and people mature as they age.

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Self-Assess Your Emotional Resilience In The Face of Adversity With The FREE Pandemic Resilience Test

This is an uncertain time and it has put great deal of stress on everyone, particularly those who are without an income, and those who have friends or family who’ve contracted Covid-19. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and to become weighed down with worry about the future.

Some people cope well with adversity and others are less hardy. Even those who cope well sometimes need additional support or to be reminded that they do have some control over their lives and that there are things they can do to reduce their anxiety. For some, the Pandemic Resilience Test can help them clarify their need for outside or professional mental health support.

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Why ‘Know-It-All’s’ Are Missing Out

There are hundreds of skills, aptitude and personality assessments on the market for good reason – because they work! If you’re not using any when hiring or promoting people then you should probably be wondering if you’re missing out on something good (because you probably are).

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