July 2010

In This Issue

  • New Blogs
  • Coping and Recovering from Burnout
  • Measuring Employee Engagement
  • Using Assessments in Pre-Employment Hiring

New Blogs

D&B Consulting, Inc. announces a new Executive Coaching Blog and a new HR Issues Blog.

To sign up to receive the feed from the Executive Coaching BlogClick here.

To sign  up to receive the feed for the HR Issues BlogClick here.


Coping and Recovering from Burnout

“In order to burn out, a person needs to have been
on fire at one time.”
Ayala Pines

What is burnout? And how do you know if you’re suffering from it?
Burnout is defined as the various physical, emotional and mental reactions caused by repeated stress.

Who is at Risk?

Corporate downsizing has placed increased responsibilities on those who survive, adding more pressure and longer hours. Small business owners are at risk since there are fewer people to do all the work.  Also at risk are executives and others who work long hours or get little fulfillment from their work. Single working parents are often stressed from the pressures of working the equivalent of two full-time jobs.

Certain personality characteristics often make some people more susceptible for burnout. These include perfectionism, idealism and workaholism. People with these characteristics sometimes have difficulty delegating and frequently feel that there is too much work for them to do. Service professionals can suffer from not setting limits with work hours and availability to clients, and from taking work home with them.

To read complete Blog articles on Burnout:  Click here.


Two Ways to Measure Employee Engagement

1. Five years ago the Gallup Organization developed a 12-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement.  Results from the survey show a strong correlation between high scores and superior job performance.  To read Blog article: Click here.

2. Another way to measure an employee’s engagement is to use CPP’s Work Engagement Profile.  CPP is the company that distributes the MBTI. This Work Engagement Profile  measures:

  • Employee’s sense of meaningfulness-the perceived opportunity   to pursue a worthy work purpose
  • Employee’s sense of choice-the perceived opportunity  to select activities that make sense  and to perform them in ways that seem appropriate
  • Employee’s sense of competence-the accomplishment  experienced in skillfully performing the activities you have chosen
  • Employee’s sense of progress-the accomplishment  experienced in advancing toward the work purpose.

To download a sample copy of this Interpretive ReportClick here.


Using Assessments for Pre-Employment Hiring

Assessments are an important tool for evaluating suitability for positions, used in conjunction with an applicant’s  knowledge, skills,  abilities, and other qualifications. Not all assessments are approved for pre-employment hiring.  For example, The MBTI is a great  tool for executive development and leadership, team building, career transitions and other objectives.  However, it is not approved for pre-employment hiring.

D&B Consulting recommends and uses the Competency  Report from IPAT. This 50 page report  measures 20  competencies  that are most commonly used across different organizations and includes a section that can be used as a guide to conducting interviews based on the competencies.

To download a sample copy of the 16PF Competency ReportClick here.

For more information about D&B Consulting, Inc.:  Click here.