Dr. Michael Mercer
Articles by Dr. Michael Mercer
September 28, 2009
A pre-employment test I researched and created – "Dependability Forecaster(tm ) Test" – helped me learn a lot about people who are turnover risks, accident-prone, and rub co-workers and customers the wrong way. Specifically, such people are impulsive. So, you should avoid hiring impulsive people. ...
August 06, 2009
Managers using my pre-employment tests sometimes call me with a question that sounds something like the following:
"I gave your pre-employment tests to a job applicant, and the applicant´s five intelligence or mental ability tests´ scores are low. But, the applicant has a bachelor´s or master´...
July 29, 2009
Health care reform is a hot topic in Congress. Obama advocated a Responsibility Society begin in the U.S. Finally, a responsibility expert figured out how to combine health care reform with increasing personal responsibility to solve two huge, expensive problems.
July 14, 2009
So, why didn´t his entourage stop his self-destructive actions?
They did nothing due to the "Entourage Effect" – a term coined by Dr. Michael Mercer, an expert on the psychology of responsibility.
July 13, 2009
Companies using my pre-employment tests often ask how to decide which applicants should take the tests. I generally respond:
1. Do not give pre-employment tests to every applicant.
2. Most companies test the top 3 – 5 applicants for each job opening.
This article tells you about a quick, 1...
June 04, 2009
Opportunity knocks. You want a workforce of only productive, responsible, dependable employees. Right?
Problem = You have some (A) unproductive or underachieving employees, (B) irresponsible employees, plus (C) employees you cannot depend on.
YOU HAVE FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY = HOLD "PUBLIC EX...
April 28, 2009
Pre-employment tests plus other applicant evaluation methods help you select salesperson job applicants who will turn into highly productive, super-profitable sales reps. These applicant evaluation methods include pre-employment tests, intriguing bio-data, vague job interview questions, plus colorf...
March 30, 2009
Managers often talk trash about hiring young people – Millennials (18-28YO) and Generation X (29-42YO). However, pre-employment test research and other methods reveal the true message every manager needs to know.
Fact: Managers need to realize it does not make any difference how old or young ...
February 26, 2009
Pre-Employment Testing & Hiring Expert,Dr. Michael Mercer,
Partners with AgentsOfAmerica.ORG
"Dr. Michael Mercer is the most widely respected, national expert on pre-employment testing – so it is a huge benefit for our members to have his expertise," said Angelo Gioia, Executive Director of AgentsOfAmerica.ORG
February 05, 2009
One kind of pre-employment personality test gives hiring managers a quick, easy-to-use way to avoid hiring substance abusers – e.g., alcoholics and drug abusers – and other bad characters. Plus, you also have few more methods you can use in your quest to avoid hiring substance abusers.
FACTS: S...
January 13, 2009
Pre-employment tests plus two other techniques help reduce stealing and theft by your employees.
"Wall Street Journal" and Fox News reported (a) increases in employees stealing plus (b) employee theft´s financial drain on companies.
How financially draining is employee stealing and theft? (A...
October 22, 2008
Question = Do you want to hire productive and dependable people for your company´s "Blue-Collar" jobs?
Note: "Blue-Collar" jobs are
- Unskilled jobs
- Semi-Skilled jobs
- "Lower-Level" jobs
Examples of "Blue-Collar" jobs include laborers, warehouse workers, shipping and receivi...
September 16, 2008
Pre-employment tests plus corporate culture convulsions could have saved Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, according to industrial psychologist Dr. Michael Mercer.
August 14, 2008
You can use pre-employment tests, interview tricks and more to uncover if a job applicant is lying to you or embellishing the truth.
Question: Did you ever have a job applicant lie to you or, to be charitable, embellish the truth?
Answer: You probably answered, "Yes."
This is important....
August 11, 2008
"Pre-employment tests may have caught John Edwards as a person who may lie or not be fully honest," explained Michael Mercer, Ph.D., author of the book "Hire the Best & Avoid the Rest."
John Edwards denied "National Enquirer" magazine reports he had an affair and baby with a woman his president...
July 09, 2008
You can use pre-employment tests and other methods to help you hire obsessive-compulsive employees – when the job requires an organized perfectionist.
I read a hand-wringing article in a management magazine about obsessive-compulsive employees. The article gave a moaning account about how such p...
May 21, 2008
Research proves pre-employment tests are the most accurate method to predict or forecast how an applicant may perform on-the-job. Plus, this is borne out in my 20+ years of research in developing and helping companies hire the best using pre-employment tests. I also research and helping managers e...
April 30, 2008
DID YOU EVER HIRE A "SQUARE PEG FOR A ROUND HOLE?"
You can use pre-employment tests, certain astute insights, less laziness plus a shocking realization about betting to help you avoid a huge hiring mistake – avoid hiring ´a square peg for a round hole.´
March 18, 2008
Avoid hiring psychopaths using pre-employment tests, key job interview questions, background and reference checks, and even their aura.
November 06, 2007
Stress is a hot topic in the workplace. Some employees get bent out of shape by almost anything. Other people calmly take almost any sort of situation in stride.
Here are immediately useful tips for leaders and all employees. First are tips to help leaders avoid hiring people who will waste ti...
September 26, 2007
Leaders & Hiring Managers Profit From ‘Birds of a Feather Flock Together’
By Michael Mercer, Ph.D.
Hiring managers and leaders use pre-employment tests, job interviews, role modeling and strategic de-employment to increase profits based on the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” In b...
June 15, 2007
You can use pre-employment tests, specific interview questions, realistic job previews, and role-modeling to hire employees who crave to use teamwork and collaboration.
Warning: Many jobs do not need teamwork-oriented employees. Our society greatly values “teamwork.” Also, many leaders are tea...
May 08, 2007
Paris Hilton represents many things to many people. And now she inadvertently offers fantastic lessons in leadership skills, according to Michael Mercer, Ph.D., a management consultant with The Mercer Group, Inc., in Barrington, Illinois.
“Paris Hilton’s crimes and follow-up botches offers lesso...
April 18, 2007
A mass murderer at Virginia Tech has employers across America wondering: How do we avoid hiring a job applicant that ends up hurting or killing employees? After all, no one wants to have a Cho – the Virginia Tech murderer – on their payroll.
Solutions include pre-employment tests, key job inter...
December 12, 2006
In this holiday season, people love to receive gifts. Well, what gifts would your company’s CEO love to receive from you?
Here are seven “gifts” you really need to go all out to give your CEO, according to Michael Mercer, Ph.D., a consultant and book author in Barrington, IL.
As the saying ...
November 13, 2006
The Wall Street Journal (10/23/06, pages B1 & B8) reports on Google revamping its hiring methods. Google is on the right track, but is sorely missing crucial pre-employment tests plus other prediction methods.
Google needs a step-by-step hiring process in order to succeed to hire the best. Hi...