Tacos, Margaritas, and the Perfect Work Team?
What do tacos and margaritas have in common with the perfect work team, you might ask. It’s a fair question.
5 Revolutionary Personalities in Today’s Workplace: A Look at the Founding Fathers’ Personality Types
The founding fathers of the United States were some of the most influential figures in American history. They came from different backgrounds and had different views on politics and society, but they all shared this in common: they were fearless, rebellious, and bold. They were the kind of people who didn’t take no for an […]
Hiring for Your Agency? Here are 6 Easy Tips for a Successful Insurance Hire
You’re ready to conquer the market, but there’s a lot facing the industry right now. You have to be ready to overcome some big challenges, like the sophistication of insurance technology, cyber risk, consumer trust, the economy, advertising costs, climate change, and unskilled workers. And that’s on top of the everyday business needs, such as […]
From Caps and Gowns to Conference Rooms: Why Hiring New Grads is a Smart Bet for Your Business
June marks a significant moment for high school and college students across the country as they celebrate their academic achievements and receive their diplomas amidst cheers and applause from family and friends. While this is a time of excitement and pride, we all know it is only the first step in a long and winding […]
5 Ways to Hire Successfully for Your Car Dealership
In order to conquer your market, a lot has to happen — things like setting sales goals, advertising, understanding your customers, keeping them loyal, and knowing your makes and models inside and out, just to name a few. But it all starts with people. Your dealership team puts theory into action. That’s why your success […]
Addressing Conflict to Build Team Unity
One doesn’t often think of conflict and unity in the same breath. Workplace conflict is something most of us dread, especially when our days are stressful enough. But conflict, workplace and otherwise, is inevitable when interacting with other human beings. The good news is that conflict doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. In […]
Is There Trouble in the Air? 8 Things to do When Employee Engagement Declines
You know how it is. Things are good with your team; everything’s clicking, spirits are high, and productivity is higher… until suddenly it isn’t. Suddenly, things feel off. You’re not sure what’s wrong; you just know something is. Employee engagement is a measure of how committed and invested an employee is in their job and […]
Struggling to Get Along? 5 Strategies to Improve Work Relationships
It’s impossible not to think of great romances in February, the month dedicated to celebrating relationships. Jack and Rose…he made the ultimate sacrifice for true love (even though there was enough room on that enormous door); or Danny and Sandy…hopelessly devoted to one another before, quite literally, flying off in a 1948 Ford Deluxe convertible, […]
Want to be a Better Coach and Mentor? Here are 5 Tips You Need to Know
Did you know it’s National Mentoring Month? Me either. I didn’t even know it was a thing. But it got me thinking about the new year and the dreaded “R” word… resolutions. A worthwhile goal for all leaders is to be better at coaching and mentoring. Why? Because one of the most complicated assets of […]
5 Hot Talent Selection Trends for 2023
Season’s Greetings! Omnia’s second annual Talent Trends Survey closes on December 31st. We look forward to unraveling what’s happened in employee selection and development over the last 12 months. Moving on from 2022, I’m reflecting on the first stage of the employee lifecycle: the selection process. I’m eager to explore what’s new in recruitment and […]
Your Employees Don’t Want Another Paperweight: 8 Modern Ways to Recognize Your Employees
Business is constantly evolving. Sometimes that evolution is gradual and at other times it is faster than we can wrap our heads around. The pandemic catapulted many businesses into a new era; it created new challenges and new opportunities. Some companies took the opportunity to reduce rent overhead and embrace a new hybrid or even […]
The Cost of Nightmare Leadership
Jason, Freddy, Chucky… from horror movies to ghost stories around a campfire, some people like the thrill of a good fright. A few of us have paid real money to watch a psychopathic, knife-wielding doll terrorize full-sized adult people. I’m not saying who, cough cough, but some of us have. Still, we aren’t so thrilled […]
Is Your Management Style Driving People Away?
It’s tough out there. People are reprioritizing what they want at work and leaving jobs that aren’t meeting those needs. We’ve talked a lot about ways to increase engagement and improve retention, but none of that matters if you aren’t taking a close look at your own leadership strengths and weaknesses. We hear, more often […]
The Great Motivation: Are you doing these 6 things to engage your team in 2022?
It’s the year of the “greats” … the great resignation, the great reset, the great reshuffle, the great reprioritization, the great share, the great mental breakdown. I may have made that last one up. Change is constant, and sometimes it happens faster than we anticipate. Now more than ever, it feels hard to keep up. […]
How Chaos Theory and Personality Science Can Make You a Better Leader
Do you remember that scene in Jurassic Park, the original (and best) of course, when Dr. Ian Malcolm played by the talented Jeff Goldblum was explaining chaos theory using drops of water dripping down Dr. Sattler’s hand? Despite dropping the water in the same place each time, subtle, unseen variables shifted the way each drop […]
How to Use Personality Type to Avoid Stress Spirals
One of the many cool things about personality assessments is that they are a springboard for any human resource initiative, problem, or interaction. Filling an open position? Assess your top performers to build a job benchmark. Having conflict on a team? Use the Omnia assessment to understand the communication style of the parties involved. Getting […]
The Perfect Recipe for Sales Success
Which is better, chocolate or vanilla? It’s a question that sparks hearty debate. Just like, which is more important, sales or service? In truth, every department is vital to the running of an organization, but sales feed the organization (and everyone in it)! That’s why finding great salespeople is so important. But not everyone is […]
Leveraging Personality Type to Build Effective Teams
A coworker of mine, we’ll call her Tonya (because that’s her name) always says, “Teamwork makes the dream work,” a phrase originally coined by John C. Maxwell in his book by the same name. We all expect her to say it any time one member of our team helps out another. Nothing beats that feeling […]
Omnia CEO Spotlight: Heather Caswell on Building a Winning Team
It started around a dining room table. Three people, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and four other assessments. The trio wanted to make sure their instrument was different. And as a member of Omnia’s current team, I’m grateful they did. Without that first idea, that first meeting of the minds to make something unique, I wouldn’t […]
Benchmarking: All you need to know
Remember when you were a kid, and your little sister (or brother) decided it would be fun to spend the day doing everything you did with relentless commitment. All. Day. Long. “Mom! Deanna is copying me!” By the end of the day, you were beside yourself with rage, and there was lots of yelling and […]
Organization: 3 Simple Rules for Reaching Your Goals
I’ve tried it all… the home edit, the Marie Kondo method, Pinterest dollar store finds for organization. I’m addicted to anything related to organizing your home and life. My t-shirts are folded in thirds and stacked horizontally, socks are in Ikea drawer organizers, books are arranged by the colors of the rainbow (this one makes […]
The Power of Self-Reflection
As the year comes to a close, it’s common to start thinking about our New Year’s Resolutions. You know, that list we make then forget about 3 weeks later, or less if you’re like me. There are the obligatory health and fitness goals… I will go to the gym 3x a week, eat less, move […]
Holiday Gift Exchange: Sharing Knowledge Tops Our Wish List
The holidays are here… already. Is it just me or do they seem to come around faster and faster every year? While some people are asking for the latest Bluetooth gadgets, meal prep subscriptions, and trendy socks, knowledge sharing tops our wish list this holiday season. As 2021 ends and we look back on the […]
How to Get Past the Interview Costume to the Real Person
Is it a trick or a treat? With interviewing, you never know. But you can increase the reliability of a great hire by using some behavioral interviewing tactics throughout the selection process. Trick or Treat? Use Behavioral Interviewing to Avoid the Trick of a Bad Hire Behavioral assessments and well-thought-out interview questions partner with the […]
Exit Strategies When Coaching is Unsuccessful
The term “exit strategy” sounds so polite when we are talking about a failure to bring someone up from the depths of a performance problem, or problems (plural). Is it time to terminate the employer/employee relationship? Well, maybe, but maybe not. There are some questions to ask yourself before you do. First, is this a […]
The Employee Lifecycle: Why it pays to develop your people
Tony Curtachio and Omnia, a true story. It’s easy to tell when you have a great employee. They are hardworking, always pitch in to help others and go above and beyond each and every time. You know what you have and you don’t want to lose it. But what happens when things change, as things […]
Revolutionize Leadership by Understanding Your Personal Style
Every July, my family heads to the shore. We spend hours at the beach sunning, swimming, cooking out and just generally enjoying each other and a much-needed week or so off from work. It’s all topped off by a big Independence Day bash complete with cornhole competitions and a fishing contest. Whoever catches the biggest […]
How to Earn a Merit Badge in Employee Retention
For many companies, hiring cools off as the temperature heats up. That’s because your potential new employees probably aren’t thinking about a career move. They’re too busy going on vacation, shuttling kids to camp, perfecting their landscaping, and spending time with loved ones. But, this recruiting slowdown is an ideal opportunity to focus on improving […]
Three Tools and Tactics You Need to Earn Your Selection Merit Badge
It’s summertime, finally! Long days, warm nights, the beach beckons. Mostly I’m eager for a break from the daily grind of packing lunches, checking homework and hounding my son every night to get ready for bed. It’s the little things. In major news, my son is heading off to Boy Scout camp next week. It’s […]
Personality Spotlight: The Analytic
The Omnia Assessment measures our most comfortable behaviors in 4 areas: Assertiveness, Sociability, Pace and Need for Structure. When I say most comfortable, I mean those behaviors that require the least amount of stretch, the least amount of, well, discomfort. We all like to move smoothly on our rails so to speak. That certainly doesn’t […]
Performance Improvement: Vital to Employee and Organizational Success
To thrive in an increasingly competitive market, your company needs every employee to contribute and carry out their responsibilities. When that doesn’t happen, it’s up to leadership to help that team member get back on track. Today’s blog explores performance improvement and why it’s vital to both employee and organizational success. Performance Improvement Defined Before […]
Rethink Career Growth
The True Value of Individual Contributors There is a belief that climbing your way to the top and becoming a manager of other people is the definition of success. Sometimes, we inadvertently extend that thinking to suggest that ambition means the same thing: the desire to work your way to the top in order to […]
Spring Cleaning and The Omnia Position Description Form
Like many people, I have a love/hate relationship with spring cleaning. On the one hand, it needs to happen. Truth be told, it needs to happen more than once a year; I tend to stuff things in various places and then forget where, to the chagrin of my ultra-organized husband. On the other hand, spring […]
A Ten-Step Employee Selection Process: Don’t Leave Hiring to Chance
Welcome to March! It seems like a great time to talk about luck. You know, because of St. Patrick’s Day. And who doesn’t love St. Patrick’s Day? Some cities dye entire rivers green just for fun. Not to mention the parades (well, maybe not this year), green beer, leprechauns, shamrocks, and pots of gold at […]
A Recipe for Recognition: How to Put Your Heart into Employee Motivation
Imagine. It’s Valentine’s Day. Cooking isn’t necessarily your strong suit. But, in the interest of romance, you decide to cook your significant other a beautiful gourmet dinner. You do your research, pull recipes from various sources, and nearly lose your nerve more than once given the amount of steps, potential for error, and mountain of […]
Help Your Employees Stay Accountable to Their Goals
Friday, January 1 Dear journal, this is the year! My resolutions are to jog every morning and cut ALL sugar from my diet. Monday, January 4 Dear journal, my big plan to get up early and go for my inaugural jog, followed by a complete ban on sugar, was better when I was picturing it […]
Lessons Learned, Resolutions Made
As I was riding through a neighborhood park recently, I fell off my bike. You know, to properly end 2020. To avoid a mom pushing a stroller, I swerved onto the grass. As I was stand-pedaling (this is probably not an official cycling term) to get through it and around her, feeling good about my […]
Boosting Morale After a Tough Year
If you haven’t heard, 2020 has been a tough, crazy, roller-coaster ride of a year. I know, I know, I realize that’s all a big… understatement. Unfortunately, there’s still so much uncertainty surrounding our personal and professional lives. COVID cases in the United States are surging once again, creating anxiety for many. As we end […]
What Leaders Have Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis
People likely feared it after watching movies about it – but deep down, never imagined it would truly happen. Even when it started to happen, a lot of people were saying “not us” or “not here.” Boy, were we wrong! COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and the world, as we knew […]
Five Steps to Building a Sales Talent Pipeline
Not everyone loves hiring. Does anyone love hiring? Does anyone like hiring? Some parts of it can be fun: the excitement of bringing in new people and new ideas, imagining the possibilities, the hilarious typos on the resumes. But it can be a slog. Especially right now, many job postings will lead to a flood […]
Ten Ways to Manage a Team of Introverts
I stole the following from a meme or maybe a T-shirt: Introverts. We’re here, we’re uncomfortable, and we want to go home. That about sums it up. I’m often uncomfortable around people, and even when I’m enjoying myself, I’m looking forward to being home. I like socializing, but it’s also exhausting. That’s really the crux […]
5 Tips to Make the Most of Your Virtual Meetings
Please tell me this has happened to you too. You go to Teams with thirty seconds to spare before the meeting starts to discover the meeting was set up in Zoom. Zoom says there’s a meeting already in progress (yes, and I’m supposed to be in it!), and it won’t let you in. Apparently, someone […]
Employee Reboarding: 7 Tips for Success
I went back to the office for about a week in June; I needed to get out of the house, and I had a temporary childcare solution. Needless to say, I ran with that opportunity. Currently, we have one employee going into the office daily. Really, he never left (thanks, Steve). And from time to […]
Improve Your Interview Process with Behavioral Assessments
The most successful organizations periodically audit and amend their business procedures for both compliance and effectiveness. By doing so, firms continuously improve their operations and retain a competitive edge. However, these audits often overlook one critical area: the interview and hiring process. You might be thinking that your company’s interview and hiring process is perfectly […]
Best Practices for Conducting Employee Assessments Remotely
As more employers shift to a remote workforce, managers look for ways to manage their teams more effectively. Whether a company is hiring new employees or transitioning workers into a remote context, having easy-to-interpret, actionable data about behavioral tendencies and cognitive traits provides leaders with an invaluable resource for developing a remote management strategy. When […]
7 Tips for Addressing Employee Performance Problems
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to force more employers to shift to remote working arrangements, it’s more important than ever for managers to monitor employee performance. While a remote workplace can certainly be quite effective, the lack of direct supervision can sometimes cause accountability to fall by the wayside. This is especially true if employees […]
How Pre-Employment Testing Expedites Your Hiring Process
Filling an open position is often a much more complicated process than organizations expect. Even if the hiring manager has a good description of the job, its responsibilities, and a picture of what an ideal candidate would look like, they must still sort through applicants and find the candidates who seem best suited for the […]
6 Employee Retention Strategies to Try
Replacing skilled employees is a major challenge for any organization. In addition to the time and expense required to conduct a new search and hiring process to replace a departed employee, there’s also the lost productivity when remaining employees have to pick up the slack until a replacement is selected. That’s why having strong employee […]
How to Motivate People Through Employee Assessments
Do you know what motivates your employees to come to work every day? If you don’t have an answer to that question, there’s a good chance that you don’t have the workplace strategies in place to ensure that your workforce remains engaged in their tasks. Without using employee assessments of some kind, it can be […]
Five Surefire Ways to Accurately Assess Your Organizational Culture
Companies that actively manage their cultures tend to be more successful than companies that don’t. In fact, Deloitte’s research has found that organizations that develop and promote a strong sense of purpose among employees have 30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher retention rates. They also rank among the top one or […]
10 Great Interview Questions to Identify Candidates’ Soft Skills
An employee’s soft skills can make or break their job performance, especially in leadership positions. Technical or “hard” skills are certainly important, but having good soft skills—those personal characteristics like agreeableness, empathy, the ability to influence and listen, likeability, and the ability to resolve conflict—will determine whether an employee can enlist the necessary cooperation and […]
6 Tips for Building a Team That Works
Would you like to know how to build a strong team that collaborates more effectively and consistently performs at a high level? Of course, you would! Teams that perform poorly and struggle with accountability are incredibly bad for business. Whether the reason for the poor performance is conflicting personalities, mismatched skillsets, appreciable gaps in knowledge, […]
The DOs and DON’Ts of Surprisingly Good Customer Service
We can all think of a time when we have received horrible customer service, right? Unfortunately, poor customer service experiences are usually easier to recall than good examples. For instance, I once had a waiter spill water on me four times…during the same meal. My mother, a teacher, once had to retake an entire series […]
Employee Development in Today’s Landscape: What Employees Want!
Providing employee development opportunities is one of the most important moves an organization can make to improve employee retention. A 2018 LinkedIn Learning report found that a shocking 94 percent of employees said they would remain with a company longer if it did more to invest in their career development. Considering that more employees quit […]
How Employment Assessments Fit Into the Hiring Process
As a hiring manager, you’ve probably seen it all… the no-shows, the ones who walk in late as if they are on time (no explanation, no apology), the ones who can’t answer a single question thoroughly, to the ones who spend a very, very long time answering your first question. I once started an interview […]
