One of the most important activities for HR is Who to put Where in what Role and with what Responsibilities. And whether you are recruiting, appraising, shuffling or promoting, an insightful and powerful online tool that you might wish to call upon is Profiling. But at this point, a challenge can arise!
And the challenge is that business tools – including Profiling – are often hugely expensive either in Certification fees or in the costs of implementing them. The alternative of a bespoke tool is an equally serious investment that can easily cost thousands! And yet, so many people have great ideas for tools that would benefit their managers and staff.
But technology has moved on and we started to wonder… was there a way of making Profiling and other really useful tools more economical and more accessible? To get to the answer, we looked at four distinct areas:
AREA 1: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Profiling was a perfect place to start, because profiling tools classify people according to responses to questions and deliver insights into specific aspects of the personality. This is a perfect formula that lends itself to the implementation of many business tools, but profiling is of particular interest because the BIg Question is:
WHO OWNS THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)?
Well, for the roots of profiling we need to go back 5,000 years to the I-Ching and the four elements Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. In the 4th Century BC the Greek philosopher Empedocles (me neither!) echoed this with his cosmological theory which said the universe was made of four elements – Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Hippocrates, the Father of Western Medicine, built on this by characterising four personality types and Aristotle added a fifth element, Aether; which the Chinese already had and called Spirit.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the philosopher Carl Jung became aware of these ancient teachings. In 1921 he published his book, ‘Psychological Types’ which is the basis of modern profiling tools.
Many well-known systems have been created. Some, such as Myers-Briggs, are Jung based and define, amongst other things, whether a person is introvert or extrovert and the career roles that suit them best. Other systems – DISC, Talent and Wealth Dynamics and even NLP – look at different things.
The Big Question is critical for anyone considering building their own tool because whilst the specific set of questions, algorithms and the report generated are unquestionably the Intellectual Property of the organisation or person that created them (i.e. DISC) the essence and concept of Profiling itself is an Ancient Wisdom that has been handed down and used for thousands of years – i.e. out of copyright.
AREA 2: PRODUCTION
Not that long ago, Programming was a highly valued occupation. Programmers worked in-house for large organisations or expensive consultancies and the work they did was full of mystique [to me it’s still full of mystique]. Everything had to be individually coded for a specific project and programmers were renowned for not needing much sleep!
But nowadays youngsters seem to arrive on the Planet with inbuilt expertise. They are producing all sorts of things with their Micro Bit at school and – you heard it here first – will soon be building APPS before they can walk!
In the early 90’s I was fortunate enough to connect with a brilliant programmer who shared a mutual curiosity and conviction about IT and personal development. Over the years we built many online tools both for ourselves and to client specification. But things have changed and – in my layman’s language – blocks of code can now be re-used. This means we don’t have to keep starting from scratch – which means it takes less time to create a tool. And it has also allowed us to build a platform with selected features that can be reused time and time again.
AREA 3: THE PRICE OF INFORMATION
I don’t’ know about you but in my quest to serve clients well, I have somehow embraced an ever expanding range of practices. Starting with NLP, Time-line Therapy and Hypnotherapy, I paid huge amounts of money to become a Trainer of all three, then on to Master Coach and Business Performance Consultant. I paid the fees and invested the time willingly, because that was the only way to get access to exclusive information. But all that has changed.
Only a relatively few companies now successfully charge for NLP Training – in fact it’s hard to give it away. Wikipedia will give you a run-down of all the NLP techniques you will ever need and Youtube delivers free recordings of live training sessions.
The old paradigm of charging a huge amount for the results of people answering a few questions must also now be under review. Increasingly, businesses deliver information for free [i.e. free webinars or videos] and rely on upselling membership of ‘Exclusive’ Mastermind Groups for a remarkably low price..!
Actually nothing is ‘Free’ – it’s just that you pay with money or with your email address. Free events are held around the country to teach entrepreneurs and consultants the secrets of parting people from their money. It’s really scary seeing the techniques in action! (Perhaps I should run a ‘Free’ event on protecting yourself from the deep and overwhelming desire to purchase immediately before they all go.)
But you will be aware that Software is also sold differently now and instead of paying hundreds of pounds for a physical copy of a product [i.e. Office] people can pay a subscription to have access to the software or the IPR online.
AREA 4: ACCESSIBILITY
All this started us thinking, and we set ourselves a challenge.
Could we find a way to:
- open up access to our own portfolio of tools for HR to use freely in their organisations;
- build a Wizard of templates for members to create their own simple tools;
- compile a library of really good, short, training modules; and
- do it all for a monthly subscription starting at £10?
And the answer to all of these is YES! Took a while but we’ve done it and it’s called CLEVER PLATFORMS.
£10 A MONTH – YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!
I have worked within the Public Sector for over 25 years and have a deep respect for HR and L&D Professionals who work tirelessly to support, develop and empower managers and staff but who have been hampered by deep cuts in their budgets. And we practice what we preach.
£10 a month is the membership fee for an individual with up to 10 active clients on the system and you can add more. You can also join as a Team which means that members can share each other’s tools and results, and we have a whole organisation option.
The first tools to be uploaded to the platform are Profiling, Resilience, Work-life Balance and Stress. I’m just finishing a new tool to help HR identify whether an employee is presenting with stress, anxiety, low mood or possibly something more serious, including clinical depression; and you can build your own tools too.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO HR?
- People ‘Trust’ what they see on a screen: to be able to offer Profiling and other tools in your organisation is a great way of positioning yourself and HR as experts in your field.
- Tools are about opening a dialogue: it’s not about labelling people or putting them in boxes it’s about having insightful conversations with your managers and staff.
- Tools work at all levels: from the most junior to the most senior in your organisation, you and I both know that no matter what issue they are presenting, there’s always more going on under the surface! The understandings you glean from the right tools can ensure you’re fully in the loop and in the very best position to help the person find a resolution.
We had a team debate recently and decided that if we were in the Care sector, CLEVER PLATFORMS would count as Assisted Living. Our aim is to deliver a platform for people to use independently but developing a tool can be tricky at first. So, the first thing we do is take you through a series of steps to design and produce your first one.
And – dare I say it – all this happens in a FREE 10-DAY TRIAL . . .
TIME TO REGISTER
HR is the lynch pin that keeps the Public Sector wheels turning, and anything that can make life easier has to be worth investigating. It’s said there’s a tool in everyone and we have seen some fantastic ones being created. During your trial, not only will you have unlimited access to the platform but we’ll help you to build your very own first tool.
If you are even a little bit intrigued, why not give us a go. There’s no obligation and you have 10 days to try everything out.
If that sounds like a plan, CLICK HERE to register for your FREE 10-DAY TRIAL.
