Insight, NEOGOV’s online applicant tracking and career portal, is now fully integrated with the Biddle Consulting Group employment assessment and test validation suite including:

• OPAC Office Skills Testing
• CritiCall Dispatcher Testing (if your organization has an emergency service or dispatch environment)
• ENCOUNTER office and interpersonal competence video testing
• AutoGOJA job analysis software
• ExamIn skill and ability testing scales
• TVAP Online test validation and analysis program

Earlier this week Mike Callen, Vice President of Biddle’s Product Division, and Michelle Cline, NEOGOV’s Product Manager, presented an overview webinar introducing the NEOGOV- Biddle integration. If you missed it or would like a review, the video and presentation slides are  below.

As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions!

Download the webinar presentation slides (PDF)

Additional Resources:

Video: Working Together: Biddle Consulting Group & NEOGOV
In this video, Biddle CEO Dan Biddle and NEOGOV President Scott Letourneau discuss the benefits of our new partnership and specifically what it means to clients.

from Biography.com

Additional Martin Luther King, Jr. Resources:

• The King Center
• I Have a Dream
• Nobel Peace Prize 1964

Biddle Consulting Group will be closed on Monday, January 21, 2013
for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Victor and Mike leaving for Lagos, Nigeria

This week Mike Callen and Victor Muh are in Nigeria providing training and support to POISE Nigeria – a new OPAC and Encounter client. While we have many international clients, this is the first time we’ve visited Africa to provide on-site support. We’re excited about this opportunity and want to share it with you. We’ll be posting updates and photos from Mike and Victor here.

Note: Mike’s most recent updates are at the top. To see the earlier updates, please scroll to the bottom.

Updates from Mike:

Saturday, 10-22-12

Our Friends and Tour Guides

Saturday was a relaxing day and we were fortunate to spend the day with Sam and Niyi, our friends from Poise Nigeria. They, along with our driver (also named Sam), took us shopping at a local outdoor marketplace. It was not a tourist stop at all and we seemed to be as foreign to the marketplace as the items being sold were to us. Everyone was very kind and patient and allowed (sometimes even offered) us to take pictures of the goods that they were selling. Nearly everything in Nigeria is negotiable so it was good to have Sam and Niyi around to assist us with our purchases, as well as to describe the items that we could not identify.

After leaving the marketplace, we drove to Victoria Island, an island in the bay that is roughly in the center of Lagos. The west end of the island borders the Atlantic ocean. We had lunch outdoors at a hotel resort and then continued our journey as we drove to the Lekki Animal Conservation Centre. Victor and I had heard of this when we were researching our trip and hoped that, if time allowed, we could see some wild animals while in Africa. As it turns out, we did not see many. However, we did have an incredible walk through the jungle on a 2 kilometer-long boardwalk that passed straight through the wetlands and jungle.

It was amazingly beautiful, and at the back of the loop was the highlight of the visit. There was a large tree that had a wooden ladder attached to it. Visitors were encouraged to climb the ladder attached to the dawadawa tree, 25 meters up the trunk, into a tree house that is perched in the crook of the tree. There are two small benches and just enough room for four people to peer between the tree limbs and across the canopy of the forest. At eye-level, monkeys can be seen harvesting and eating fruits in the neighboring trees. It was truly an amazing sight and adventure, and one I doubt that we would ever see the likes of in the US.

In the park we took lots of pictures and greatly enjoyed the beauty. Leaving the hustle and bustle of Lagos behind was quite relaxing. Victor and I the chance to see the animals we did see during our brief visit (monkeys, birds, and monitor lizards) was a real treat.

From there we turned back and headed toward Ikeja (the part of Lagos where our hotel was located) but first stopped at the Nike (pronounced NEE-kay) Art Gallery. This gallery was a five or six story building and contained a wonderful mix of historical and modern art of many different modes. After leaving the gallery, we continued on home to our hotel. Saying “continued on home to our hotel” doesn’t accurately capture the entirety of the task and what it is like to cross through downtown Lagos in the early evening so I recorded the video below.

To see more photos, click on the image below:

Mike

Friday, 10-19-12

Mike & Victor with the Poise Nigeria Team

Wow! What a day! Today we had scheduled to roll out the brand new PSENSE certification (of which our OPAC and a localized version of our ENCOUNTER video situational judgment testing are a huge part) to business, education, industry, the Nigerian government, and the local press. The one thing we hoped for was good weather. As it turned out, it was pouring this morning – the roads were backed up and flooded everywhere. Though the traffic challenges were daunting, they did not seem to keep a single person from attending this morning’s presentation. I looked back just after the start of the presentation and was pleased to see that there were 80 seats occupied with another ten or so people standing at the rear of the room.

Two distinguished speakers started off the presentation and gave a rousing address as to the state of the local employment situation, the applicants, and what they are missing. It was universally agreed that soft-skills testing and training were going to be key in facilitating transformation in Nigeria. Nigeria is an oil-rich country with a huge window of opportunity in terms of growth. With high unemployment and infrastructure lacking in Lagos (home to at least 10 million – 15 million people), there is a pressing need to strike while the iron is hot. Transforming the Nigerian workforce will take time, for sure, but doing so will allow Nigeria to maximize their share of the markets in Africa and Asia. In the next ten years, it is estimated that 55% of the world’s GDP will come from Africa and Asia. The nations (and the markets) that move now can really benefit themselves as well as being better-suited to handle any economic downturns that the future may hold.

Uki and our Victor Muh managed most of the PSENSE presentation and it went really well. The distinguished audience showed their support throughout; most notably during the open Q&A session the comments were entirely positive and many in attendance wanted to know the cost to participate. In Lagos, when a blue chip employer posts a position as available, it is not uncommon to receive over 150,000 applications. The process of sifting through applicants, even electronically, is inconceivable, and yet it is done. Companies are willing to take a risk on an applicant who appears to have the soft skills necessary for success and train their hard skills – even for an entire year – in the hopes of making a good hire. It was clear to all in attendance that the PSENSE certification will be an excellent way to identify both hard skills and soft skills super-performers and so taking the risk and onboarding time out of the hiring process. Doing so will allow Nigerian companies to hire more people, more quickly, and more successfully. This will be necessary in order to maximize their position while this incredible window of opportunity is open.

We’re quite pleased to be a part of this process and look forward to aiding Poise Nigeria in shaping and promoting this certification for many years to come.

Uki is front and center. Damola is on the right. Folake is to the left of UKi and then Victor.

Thursday afternoon, 10-18-12

View from the Hotel

Today we held our first SME (subject matter expert) workshop with over a dozen in attendance.  It was a great group of professionals representing local and international business, industry, and workforce development.  A couple of the professionals were from large companies, notable by any standards, namely representatives from Ernst & Young and Deloitte Consulting –  both from the Lagos, Nigeria offices.

Last night it rained in Lagos…poured actually.  The streets were soaked and the gutters flooded, and the normally wicked traffic was even worse.  Everyone seems to put up with it just fine and instead go by “Africa Time” – a phrase that means that time will just have to go with the flow, flexing here and there.  It works out because everyone, like the traffic, seems to just go with it.

I continue to be amazed by the Nigerian people.  Every day I meet more people and I find that they are so kind, intelligent, hard-working and helpful.  While the environment is quite rough by California standards, you certainly wouldn’t know it from meeting the people.  They are some of the most self-sufficient folks I’ve ever heard of.  Each basically supplies their own utilities.  There is power supplied by the grid, but it is non-functioning or not reliable much of the time.  So each has a generator that runs on diesel fuel.  There is city water, but it, too, is not reliable.  So, each drills a well in their backyard, installs a pump, and runs water up to a personal water tower installed on a scaffolding frame in their backyard.  They treat the water with chlorine and it runs down a pipe and pressurizes the water in the house.

Tomorrow night I hope to interview Ukinebo Dare (Uki) – our contact at Poise Nigeria – and capture it on video.  I’d like you to meet her and get a sense of her passion for training and empowering the emerging workforce in Nigeria.  She is an amazing person.

Thursday morning, 10-18-12

Breakfast in Nigeria

Today will be the first of two workshops. We will be reviewing the scripts for our Nigerian version of our ENCOUNTER video situational judgment tests with Nigerian subject matter experts. Poise Nigeria plans to use this localized version of our office and interpersonal competence testas a keystone in their PSENSE certification that will designate preparedness for employment in the region. Ukinebo Dare of Poise Nigeria believes that this certification can be the catalyst to overcome stifling unemployment during a time of unprecedented economic growth opportunity in Nigeria.

I’ll report later on how the day goes and the progress of the workshop. It is raining here in Lagos for the first time since our arrival. It should make for an interesting commute into the office today.

Wednesday morning, 10-17-12

As I wake up the first morning here, I’m a bit less tired and thinking slightly more clearly. Horns continued to honk all night long, but only less frequently. The prominent thought, however, is about the people here.  We have yet to meet a person who is not nice. Not everyone understands us correctly and we don’t understand everyone so well here, but the dozens of Nigerian people that we have met are simply very kind folks. It has been a real joy to meet these wonderful people.

Training the Poise Nigeria team

Uki was telling us on the way to the hotel yesterday, as we were so often stopped in traffic and surrounded by street vendors, that there is a saying that says “you can outfit your entire home on the drive home from work without ever stopping at stores.” (see the video below)

Last night I had shrimp “Lagosian style” for dinner. There were only two shrimp (they were spot prawns, I believe) and they were enormous. They looked like tiny lobsters laying across the entire plate served ‘head on’ with their tails flayed open after being sauteed in lemon and red chili. They were delicious and two ‘shrimp’ made up plenty of food.

I slept really well until 1:00 .am.  and then woke up.  I was awake   until 4:00 a.m. when I fell back asleep pretty soundly until 7:00 a.m. I should be fairly well adjusted to the time by tomorrow morning.

Today we’re at the Poise Nigeria offices installing the OPAC Office Skills Testing software and training administrators to use the program.

More to come…

Tuesday afternoon, 10-16-12

Poise, Nigeria Office

Victor and I arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, at just after 1:00 PM local time.  Lagos is on the same time zone as London, so we’re eight hours ahead of Folsom.

Lagos is very tropical in that it is hot and humid. It’s only 85F or so – 85F is hot enough. It is very green here with lots of grass, trees and shrubbery.  Police almost all have AK-47s (Victor told me that they are AK-74-somethings… ) so there is a real intimidation factor, but it makes you feel pretty safe at the same time.

Our main contact at Poise Nigeria and one of her coworkers picked us up and actually arrived as we were walking out to the front of the airport.  The traffic that they fought to get us was insane and we were fortunate that they arrived when they did. Everyone honks here while driving, but no one seems to hear the honking… except Victor and I! There are people

and buildings and construction everywhere. The streets are pretty rough in terms of the pavement and everyone seems to drive by the same rules, though you’d swear there were none at all. They just keep moving and merging with motorcycles zipping in and out of traffic everywhere and horns a blazing.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading to the offices of Poise Nigeria, installing OPAC, training administrators, and preparing for our Thursday presentation to the HR community. Thursday and Friday we’ll be hosting SME (subject matter expert) panels to go through the ENCOUNTER Situational Testing videos in preparation for re-filming them in Sacramento in January.

All for now…

For Immediate Release

 Aug. 29, 2012

Ray Weikal, Communications Specialist
International Association of Administrative Professionals
(816) 891-6600 ext: 2222
e-mail: ray.weikal@iaap-hq.org

World’s largest organization of office professionals joins forces office skills testing firm

 As part of its ongoing mission to enhance the success of career-minded administrative professionals, the International Association of Administrative Professionals is pleased to announce a new partnership with Office Proficiency and Assessment Certification Office Skills Testing Software, a Biddle Consulting Group product. With this collaboration, IAAP and OPAC are committed to establishing the top professional standards for the modern office and helping career office workers meet those marks.

Almost two decades ago, IAAP developed the OPAC testing program based on our knowledge of office professionals. We later sold it to Biddle and Associates. We kept supporting the program and continue to provide input for professional assessments and development. We have developed a secondary and post-secondary curriculum and advise educators, leaders and organizations on professional standards.

OPAC verifies the skills and proficiencies needed by individuals for entry-level administrative positions, which makes it a natural complement to the programs and services offered by IAAP. Our members can use this partnership to work with secondary and post-secondary institutions to share their expertise and participate in educational advisory groups. We have experienced leaders who are eager to serve as a resource for their younger colleagues. Our partnership with Biddle Consulting Group will help foster those types of professional networks.

It also makes sense that IAAP, the world’s largest and most important organization dedicated to administrative professionals, should work with OPAC, which is used by human resource and hiring professionals across the globe. It’s to everyone’s advantage that new admins are entering the profession with a firm foundation constructed with the help of the organization that has the most experience serving career-minded administrative professionals. This is a true “win-win” partnership that will only improve both organizations and benefit their stakeholders.

IAAP, headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., is the world’s leading association for administrative professionals, with over 500 chapters and more than 21,000 members worldwide. IAAP sponsors Administrative Professionals Week®, held the last full week in April and Administrative Professionals Day® on Wednesday of APW. Further information about IAAP is available at www.iaap-hq.org.

Learn more about the OPAC office skills testing and certification software and Biddle Consulting Group by visiting www.opac.com and www.biddle.com.

Download:

IAAP-OPAC Partnership Press Release (PDF)

We are pleased to announce the strategic partnership of OPAC Office Skills Testing Software (developed by Biddle Consulting Group) and the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP). The goal of the alliance is to advance the value of professional standards for administrative and office career students, professionals, and employers. Since we understand how vital the administrative professional is to an organization, both OPAC and IAAP are fully committed to working together to enhance and support the administrative profession.

Gerald J. “Jay” Donohue, Jr, IAAP Executive Director, and Mike Callen, Products Division Director at Biddle Consulting Group, were interviewed about the partnership and what it means to the administrative professional community.

Q. How will IAAP members and OPAC Office Skill Software clients benefit from the partnership?

Gerald J. “Jay” Donohue, Jr., IAAP:
“OPAC verifies the skills and proficiencies needed by individuals for entry-level administrative positions, which makes it a natural complement to the programs and services offered by IAAP. Our members can use this partnership to work with secondary and post-secondary institutions to share their expertise and participate in educational advisory groups. We have experienced leaders who are eager to serve as a resource for their younger colleagues. Our partnership with Biddle Consulting Group will help foster those types of professional networks. It also makes sense that IAAP, the world’s largest and most important organization dedicated to administrative professionals, should work with OPAC, which is used by human resource and hiring professionals across the globe. It’s to everyone’s advantage that new admins are entering the profession with a firm foundation constructed with the help of the organization that has the most experience serving career-minded administrative professionals. This is a true ‘win-win’ partnership that will only improve both organizations.”

Mike Callen, Biddle Consulting Group:
“First of all, partnering with IAAP brings us back to our roots. In 1993, when IAAP was known as PSI, they created the OPAC software and we participated in the validation of it. Later, we acquired the program from them. But when you seek to partner with an association, this is the very best one because IAAP actually gave birth to the program. Secondly, IAAP always has been and always will be all about the professional in office professional. No group knows more about identifying, shaping, educating, and developing an office professional than IAAP. Employers, students, and job-seekers need to know that they are getting the right kind of guidance and the best quality products and programs. The phrase ‘it takes one to know one’ really applies in this situation.”

Q. Jay, what are your impressions of the OPAC Office Skills Certification Program? In what ways do you think it benefits employers, students and job-seekers?

“OPAC guides educators and human resource professionals as they develop curriculum and identify the skills required by employers for entry-level support positions. It also defines success for training programs and their students. Employers need to know that their entry-level candidates can actually do the job, and not just say they can do it. That’s the real value of OPAC. It efficiently evaluates potential candidates and can be used to compare candidates across a number of defined categories. OPAC also helps students and job seekers map out what they need to know before taking an entry-level support position and helps them track their progress towards mastering those skills.

OPAC helps school districts and colleges measure actual skills demonstrated by students as they exit administrative programs. That’s important information for any school as they evaluate their effectiveness and efficiency.” Gerald J. “Jay” Donohue, Jr., IAAP

Q. Mike, why partner with the IAAP? In what ways do you think it benefits employers, students and job-seekers?

“I can’t say it enough – no one knows more about the office administrative profession than the IAAP. Their 70-year history attests to that. We encourage students and job-seekers with the hope of a rewarding administrative professional career, to join IAAP now. Their guidance, training and resources will be invaluable. To business educators, we suggest that they not only tell their students about IAAP but also take advantage of the resources themselves, as instructors. Employers need to know that hiring an active IAAP member means hiring a professional that has been exposed to the best training, collaboration, and resources in the office administrative profession. At the very least, everyone should be reading IAAP’s OfficePro magazine.

OPAC is often a first step for office skills certification, particularly if a student has graduated from a school business skills program that uses OPAC in the classroom. After OPAC, IAAP continues to lead and develop that student in their professional career.” Mike Callen, Biddle Consulting Group

About the IAAP:
IAAP’s mission is: “enhancing the success of career-minded administrative professionals by providing opportunities for growth through education, community building and leadership development.” This year IAAP celebrated its 70th birthday and has approximately 22,000 members in 500 chapters (mostly in North America).

IAAP developed the Certified Professional Secretary® (CPS®) exam and designation in 1952 and later created and now administers the Certified Administrative Professional® (CAP®) certification program, with specialty areas in Organizational Management (OM) and Technology Applications (TA). It also publishes OfficePro magazine and Connections newsletter and hosts several web communities for IAAP members on www.iaap-hq.org. In addition, IAAP offers professional 1:1 global networking. As the premier voice in the administrative profession, IAAP provides vital research and input into the industry’s professional standards.

Learn more about IAAP, including information about its membership and professional certification, at www.iaap-hq.org.

About OPAC Office Skills Testing:
OPAC (an acronym for Office Proficiency and Assessment Certification) was originally developed by IAAP based on their knowledge of office professions. Biddle Consulting Group later purchased OPAC and continued to develop the software and conduct extensive validation studies showing OPAC to be a trustworthy measure of the knowledge, skills and abilities needed in the professional office environment. Over the last several years, in keeping with the current industry trends, the OPAC software has received several upgrades. It is currently used internationally (with its highest user base in North America) as part of the curriculum at business schools and vocational institutions with thousands of students receiving office skills certifications. Additionally, it is used extensively by HR Directors and Managers as a validated, trustworthy office skills pre-employment testing solution and in employee development programs. Employers can be confident that, by using OPAC and its built-in validation tool in their hiring process, they are hiring the best person for the job.

Learn more about the OPAC office skills testing and certification software and Biddle Consulting Group by visiting www.opac.com and www.biddle.com.

[Download this announcement]

With Biddle Consulting Group and NEOGOV working together, public and private organizations are offered a fully integrated HR solution. Our partnership integrates Insight –  NEOGOV’s recruiting, selection & applicant tracking tool –  and the Biddle Consulting Group pre-employment testing products consisting of  OPAC Office Skills Testing, CritiCall 911 Dispatcher Testing,  and ExamIn online pre-employment assessments. Also included in the integration is the AutoGOJA job analysis software by Biddle.

For more information on how this could benefit your organization, please contact us at (800)999-0438.
Also visit www.opac.com/NEOGOVpartner/

Online Pre-Employment Testing

Biddle Consulting Group, the developers of the OPAC Office Skills Testing Software, has just released ExamIn – our new online pre-employment testing solution.

Job applicants can take their pre-employment tests before you bring them into your office.

As organizations are pressed to cut costs and find ways to do more with less, many are looking towards the practice of allowing applicants to test from home, via the web. ExamIn is an innovative new online test suite developed by Biddle Consulting Group, Inc., a leader in employment testing and test validation for the public and private sectors. Organizations can administer the tests from their office via an online administrative interface and applicants can take their test(s) from virtually anywhere in the world.

Responsible, Reliable Test Results

How do you know that the person who took the test is the same person as the job applicant?

Here’s how it works. The applicant takes the test remotely via the web. Then, your test administrator reviews the online pre-employment test scores to determine the applicants who are qualified to make it to the next step in your hiring process. In that next step,  you can give them an optional confirmatory test that has statistically similar, but not identical, test content as the online forms. If they scored well on the online pre-employment test, they will score well on the in-office confirmatory test.

ExamIn pre-employment online assessments include:

[Download the ExamIn Test Descriptions]

What Does It Cost?

OPAC^® is offering, for a limited time, FREE use of the online assessments to qualified organizations that are testing a certain volume of applicants. The free testing will not last forever, so contact us now for details.

Start using ExamIn today!

www.OPAC.com/ExamIn | (800) 999-0438 | staff@opac.com

“Administrative Professionals Day will mark its 60th anniversary on April 25, 2012. Over those decades, the job of an administrative professional has changed dramatically thanks to new tools, techniques and seismic shifts in the economy and culture itself. But admins have remained the steady center of efficiency through it all, helping ensure that jobs get done right, on time and under budget. Admins are one of the engines of business, particularly in a complex economy. In a world that demands the accurate and speedy movement of digital information, admins are masters of data. And they do this while maintaining their more traditional role as the gatekeepers for many customers, clients and employees. Quite simply, admins are the pulse of the office.”

(from the International Association of Administrative Professionals site: http://www.iaap-hq.org/events/apw)

Have you said, “Thank you!”, yet?

• Visit http://www.iaap-hq.org/events/apw to learn more about Administrative Professionals Week and the International Association of Administrative Professionals.