Behavioral Style Strategist and President of Data Dome, Inc. Art Schoeck shared his expertise with executives at a recent seminar given as part of a week-long program at the Scarlett Leadership Institute. Participants received advanced training in leadership applications and strategies using the insights of DISC behavioral style analysis.

The Scarlett Leadership Institute, located at Belmont University in Nashville Tennessee, brings together world-class business minds from Fortune 500 companies and successful leading-edge organizations to interact with a selected class of participants. The “for-leaders by-leaders” Center for Executive Professional Development was designed to develop the people and talent that leading executives most need to support the continued success of their organizations. Participants in the Signature Executive program must be high-potential individuals nominated by senior leadership in their organizations.

Evaluations of the participants indicated that Art Schoeck’s seminar was their favorite piece in a special week-long leadership program.

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One of our fellow bloggers from the Blog Catalog community has included us in his Link Love to 365 Random Blogcatalog Members.

The post is set up as a calendar, with a blog url for every day of the year.

Cute idea, Part Time Blogger. Thanks for including Data Dome!

In 2008 U.S. employers still find themselves struggling with a shortage of qualified candidates, despite signs of a slowing economy and even fears of recession.

According to a hiring trends forecast by CareerBuilder.com, nearly 20 percent of employers say they will offer more comprehensive benefits in the year ahead in an effort to attract and retain skilled employees. 56 percent of employers expect to increase salaries on initial offers (up from 49 percent in 2007), and they also intend to offer alternate work arrangements such as compressed workweeks, job sharing and telecommuting, according to CareerBuilder. The survey was conducted in November 2007 among 3,016 U.S. hiring managers and HR professionals, and 6,704 U.S. employees, in private-sector companies. (SHRM)

But what if the reward system isn’t the problem?

Carrots across the board may not be enough.

80% of hiring decisions are made on the basis of hard skills, but 85% of turnover is a result of behavioral incompatibility.

• Do you know the best ways to attract and retain talent at your company, for your team?
• Do you have any idea why your current talent would leave?
• Do you know how to hire and retain the “right people” – from defining job competencies to understanding the roles of personal values and motivations?

Data Dome has helped organizations at all levels actually increase compensation and benefits while at the same time reducing overall labor costs.

Free B2B Consultation

To cope with employee and customer theft, many retailers are upping their investment in surveillance systems and technology. Digital security systems, remote and live viewing, and point of sale monitoring of trends and patterns may help to deter and prosecute individual and organized retail theft by consumers.

However, there is a much simpler solution for employee theft. Don’t hire thieves.

Too many retailers have an “any warm body will do” approach to hiring. When you look at how much employee theft can cost (particularly when it is organized), it becomes obvious that a different hiring procedure for retail is needed:

According to an annual survey conducted by the University of Florida with a funding grant from ADT Security Services, U.S. retailers lost $40.5 billion to theft last year.

The survey measures retail shrinkage defined as a combination of employee theft, shoplifting, vendor fraud and administrative error and found that employee and internal theft account for the largest portions of retail theft followed by loses from shoplifting.

“The dollar loss to retailers from theft is staggering,” said Jeffrey Bean, vice president ADT retail sales and operations. “Retailers are looking for more sophisticated and integrated security technology solutions to help limit losses, lower costs and keep prices down.”

Conducted annually since 1991, the survey included responses from 150 corporate retail chains and shows that employee theft accounted for $19 billion in losses or 47 percent of the total.

Shoplifting accounted for about $13 billion or 32 percent of the total this year.

Opinion surveys and integrity assessments for retail positions are relatively inexpensive and are used as part of the hiring process.

Here are some of the assessments that we recommend to address theft and safety issues for hourly retail, as well as for store managers and assistant managers.

• Select Associate Pre-Employment System – Identifies candidates with vital integrity characteristics, stable work-related personality characteristics, and productive work behaviors.


• Orion – Comprehensive opinion survey provide accurate, valid and illuminating insight, free from adverse impact, into the job related attitudes your applicants will bring with them to the workplace – from work ethic to theft and safety.


• E-Net Hire Workplace Attitudes – Analyzes up to 16 positive (dependability, attention to detail, customer service etc.) and negative behaviors (theft/honesty, substance abuse, violence, diversity, etc.).

Why hire a thief in the first place?