PARENTING: TALE OF THE GENTLE WHISTLE

BY VWEDE OVERAH

My two years old baby surprised me with her level of reasoning yesterday evening.

While other family members were busy with school homework and different chores, Vickie and I were in the sitting room. She sat on the rug watching cartoon while I, about three meters away from her, got myself busy browsing and responding to some social media messages.

I soon realize I needed to let out some air. I quickly took a quick glance around me. But for Vickie who was so glued to the TV, nobody was closed by. Besides the fluffy rug under my buttock would suppress any sound, I thought. With this assurance, I went ahead to do the thing. Still on my computer, I slightly bent my waist to the right and tried to release the air quietly. But something went wrong.

It was accompanied by a gentle whistle. I prayed she didn’t notice anything. I stole a look at her and discovered she was looking my direction with surprise written all over her face. The gentle whistle wasn’t gentle enough to keep Victoria glued to her cartoon. Ah! Crisis.

I had to manage this one well. I pretended nothing happened. My girl wouldn’t let it pass just like that.

Victoria: Daddy, did you fart?

Me: Did you hear anything?

Victoria: Yes! Bhuumm!!!

Me: Oh! Excuse me. I am sorry.

Victoria: Okay

She then returned to her cartoon.

I had mixed feelings. A bit embarrassed, naturally and somewhat happy because my girl could now express herself. I will not be the only one that will know about this. I quick went to the kitchen and narrated the incident to my wife. She laughed as she made me know that the baby has been on that level for a while now.

Victoria is my fourth child. She is doing well in pre-school.

Still excited by the experience, I narrated same to some colleagues. It provoked a lot of laughter and surprises about the contemporary toddlers and their ways. But one of them was astonished that I apologized to Vickie. I don’t regard the apology as too much or belittling, after all I was the offending party. Besides, we always teach our children to show remorse and tender apologies whenever they are in the wrong.

No matter the age, status, gender, race, religion, I believe every human being deserve respect.  As parents, we should teach our children respect and go a step farther by leading by example. This is one of the easiest and fastest ways they learn.

SEVEN NATURAL WAYS TO FIGHT DEPRESSION

BY Jesusegun Alagbe

At the height of his battling depression, Mr Olakunle Oladejo (not real name) said he could literally hear voices whispering to his ears to jump into the lagoon on the Third Mainland Bridge.

For months, Oladejo, a mechanical engineer at one of the engineering firms at Lekki, Lagos, said he battled to suppress the voices telling him that all was over and to commit suicide.

If he had not got support from family and friends, as well as church members, the 43-year-old father of two said he might have succumbed to the pressure weighing him down.

It all started sometime in 2016 when Oladejo was introduced into an oil and gas importation business by two friends. Obviously, the business initiative by his friends was captivating and the mechanical engineer could not resist investing in it. Together, they were to raise N150m for the new venture.

Oladejo said, “I practically emptied my bank account to get N10m. Then, I borrowed N40m from the bank, friends and family members to realise my own part of the capital, which was N50m.

“My friends were in Port Harcourt and they were quite familiar with the Niger Delta terrain; they were to raise the remaining N100m. When I got my N50m, I sent it to them.”

That day when he reached home in the Ogudu area of Lagos, Oladejo said he was already anticipating that within two weeks, they would have invested in the business and within six months, he would get a profit of at least 150 per cent from it.

“I was already showing my wife the new BMW car and a house I would buy from the profit. I was expecting her to be happy, but she struggled to be. She simply told me to let the profit be realised first,” he said.

As if his wife had a premonition that the business would flop, Oladejo said he waited endlessly in vain to get feedback from his friends two weeks after sending N50m.

To his amazement, the phone numbers of his friends no longer went through. Emails were not responded to. Also, contacts could not be made on social media. Oladejo was getting unsettled.

By the time he knew what was going on, the mechanical engineer realised he had been “scammed” by his friends. It was after involving the police in the matter that his friends said they invested the money in the business but it flopped.

“They explained they were swindled, too. I had to travel frequently to the state during the crisis, but all my efforts were to no avail,” Oladejo said.

Two years after the incident, the engineer said it got to a point he was driving to and fro work via the Third Mainland Bridge and would be contemplating suicide.

He said, “The voices telling me to jump into the lagoon became stronger towards the end of 2018. I would hear words like, ‘Dejo, you owe N40m, you can’t repay it. Jump into the lagoon and end it all. You can’t pay back when dead.’

“I used to cry every time this occurred. It was like I was losing myself. The thought of turning my wife to a widow and my children to fatherless kids probably helped. In addition, I later sought help from professional counsellors.

“Although I am still in debt, I am hopeful I will pay all. I have already pleaded with my lenders, including those who threatened to arrest me and seize some of my assets, to be patient with me. I am paying back gradually.”

From Oladejo’s conversation with our correspondent, it was evident he had been able to suppress the voices telling him to commit suicide.

“I just want to be strong for my family’s sake. It’s not the end of life,” he added.

Depression in Nigeria

According to an April 2018 study by the Mind, Behaviour and Development Unit of the World Bank, about 22 per cent of Nigerians, amounting to 40 million people, are chronically depressed.

The study looked at the first nationally representative estimates of chronic depression in the country to shed light on how it might be linked to economic outcomes.

The Washington, DC, United States-based institution said depression was associated with factors such as conflict and socioeconomic factors.

It added that depression, especially at the chronic stage, could have negative consequences.

Battling depression naturally

According to the Harvard Medical School, depression is not only hard to endure, it is also a risk factor for heart disease and dementia – which is why persons going through it should seek help to come out of it.

“Depressive symptoms can occur in adults for many reasons. If you are experiencing mood or cognitive changes that last more than a few weeks, it’s a good idea to bring this up with your doctor or consult a mental health specialist to help sort out possible causes,” an instructor in psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, Dr Nancy Donovan, said.

Speaking to Saturday PUNCH, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Mr Oladotun Adeyemo, identified some natural ways of coping with depression.

1.      Try to have fun

Adeyemo said, “Depression is characterised by sadness and makes people lose interest in what gives them pleasure. Still, one of the things a depressed person can do is to schedule pleasurable activities for themselves.

“If they love going to the movies, watching live bands, visiting people, attending religious programmes and so on, they should try to still go for such pleasurable activities. This is a way out of depression when it is at a mild stage.”

Also, in an article posted on healthline.com, a psychiatrist and director of the Depression Research and Clinic Programme at the University of California, Los Angeles, US, Dr Ian Cook, said depressed people should make time for things they enjoy.

“When you’re depressed, you can lose the knack for enjoying life. You have to relearn how to do it. In time, fun things really will feel fun again,” he said.

2.      Move your body

Adeyemo said, “Physical activities like exercise can also help a depressed person feel good. This can be termed ‘feel-good’ therapy. It is important.”

Cook also said, “Exercise temporarily boosts feel-good chemicals called endorphins. Regular exercise seems to encourage the brain to rewire itself in positive ways. You don’t need to run marathons to get a benefit. Just walking a few times a week can help.”

3.      Meditate

American psychiatrist who researches into natural treatments for depression, Dr Lissa Rankin, advised depressed people to engage in meditation, saying it could help shift the mood from negativity to positivity.

“Meditation’s effects on mood are well-documented. Settling your mind can lift your mood, in addition to a whole host of other health benefits,” she wrote in Psychology Today.

Also, Adeyemo said, “There are mind relaxation techniques for depressed persons like just closing their eyes and having a deep breath. This can bring a whole lot of relief.”

4.      Set daily routine and goals

According to Cook, setting a daily routine and goals can help depressed people have their lives back.

He said, “Setting a daily schedule can help you get back on track.

“When you’re depressed, you may feel like you can’t accomplish anything. That makes you feel worse about yourself. To push back, set daily goals for yourself.”

5.      Don’t skip meals

Losing appetite and skipping meals are all the results of depression, but experts said skipping meals could reduce blood sugar level which could have serious health implications.

Cook and Rankin advised people with depression to eat healthy foods, especially serotonin-enhancing foods because they act as anti-depressants.

“Although it’s not definitive, there’s evidence that foods with omega-3 fatty acids (such as salmon, herring, mackerel and tuna) and folic acid (such as spinach and avocado) could help ease depression,” Cook said.

Meanwhile, Rankin cautioned depressed people against taking caffeine because “it reduces serotonin levels.”

6.      Challenge negative thoughts

Cook said, “In your fight against depression, a lot of the work is mental – changing how you think. When you’re depressed, you leap to the worst possible conclusions.

“The next time you’re feeling terrible about yourself, use logic as a natural depression treatment. It takes practice, but in time you can beat back those negative thoughts before they get out of control.”

7.      Seek counsel

Rankin advised depressed people to see a therapist, psychiatrist or life coach to express how they feel.

“Sometimes, just finding someone you trust who will help you work through your feelings can make all the difference in the world,” she said.

Buttressing the point, Adeyemo said when it got to a level when a depressed person was losing sleep and not interacting with people as they used to, they should seek professional help.

He also cautioned against stigmatisation of people in depression.

He said, “Imagine people asking someone in depression, ‘Are you the only one facing problems?’ Of course, the person can be the only one because their coping mechanism might be different from others.”

Also, Adeyemo said people in depression should seek help from professionals and not just from anyone.

He said, “There is a difference between what a professional will do and what a pastor or imam will do. A cleric will probably counsel and pray while a professional will employ scientific techniques.

“We as a people should also understand depression symptoms so as to assist depressed people. People are battling with depression and we can help by reaching out to them before they totally break down.”

Source: https://punchng.com/seven-natural-ways-to-fight-depression/

WHAT’S YOUR VITALITY PLAN?

By Kay Van Norman 

Building financial security and maintaining health are consistently listed as top aging concerns for adults over 55. Most of us know creating a financial portfolio (make a plan, balance assets, make regular deposits) is important to ensure lifelong financial security. But what about your vitality?  Do you have a plan? Have you considered what “assets” you need to support lifelong vitality?

Using the familiar structure of a financial portfolio, the Vitality Portfolio® strategy encourages you to create a practical roadmap for lifelong health:

Make a Vitality Plan

Balance Vitality Assets (function, core and wellness)

Make Regular Deposits

               vitality

Making a Plan

How long do you expect to live?  I ask this question during keynote speeches and people always seem to have a number in their head. In future blog posts (Aging – It’s a Family Affair) we’ll explore how people come up with it, but for now consider your number -- and more important, consider what you want to be able to do through your 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 100’s! Making a vitality plan helps you set, track, and reach your goals.

Functional Assets

Strength, mobility and endurance are “mission critical” assets for maintaining independence; yet optimizing function through physical activity is the most underused healthy aging strategy available today! It’s easy to disregard functional changes that happen gradually, so here’s some food for thought.

Statistics don’t motivate action unless they’re personally relevant. For example: Strength declines approximately 1-1 ½% per year after about age 30. That doesn’t sound like a lot until you do the math.  If you’re not regularly challenging your strength – you’re losing it – on average about 60% by age 70 and 75% by age 80. Imagine going about your daily life carrying a backpack filled with your body weight (i.e. ½ the strength requires double the effort). Consider how difficult daily tasks would become and how many activities you would have to give up.  

Physical frailty IS common and predictable with age, but it’s NOT due to age or inevitable! Studies show even 90+ year olds can prevent and reverse loss of muscle mass and strength with resistance training.

Take charge! If you get fatigued while walking – walk more! If you’re having trouble rising from a chair, do it more; every time you sit down, stand up and sit down 3 more times. See how many knee lifts you can do during TV commercial breaks or commit to standing up and sitting down 5-10 times during each commercial break.  

To maintain the gift of mobility gently stretch and move your muscles and joints through every range of motion. Embrace cardiovascular exercise to help your heart, lungs, and blood vessels deliver oxygenated blood throughout the body. Endurance activities bathe your brain in oxygenated blood so are also closely linked to brain health! Get out and move briskly every day; walk, swim, dance, or even do seated exercises that elevate your heart rate – toe touches, heel presses, knee lifts, low kicks, marching in place all with arm swings. 

Age is not a diagnosis so confront functional challenges with physical therapy intervention.  Consciously invest in lifelong functional independence.

Core Assets: Ageless Thinking and Resilience

Attitudes and expectations directly impact aging. Engage Ageless Thinking by consciously rejecting negative expectations of aging. Activate Resilience by embracing adaptive strategies to overcome challenges - regardless of age.

Thirty years ago people with disabilities were often institutionalized with no expectations or opportunities; and outcomes were bleak. The disability movement changed attitudes and expectations and literally transformed lives. Now young people with profound disabilities are given resources, tools, and encouragement to overcome and live fully in spite of challenges, and they accomplish astonishing things!  

Unfortunately, attitudes haven’t changed much for adults who face physical or cognitive disabilities later in life. They most often receive resources, tools, and support to cope with disabilities.  There’s a profound difference in mindset between coping and overcoming – resulting in profoundly different outcomes. If you’re facing a challenge take age out of the equation, embrace adaptive strategies, and insist on pursuing the fullest recovery possible.    

Wellness Assets

Visualize the six dimensions of health: physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and vocational as spokes on a wagon wheel. Consider how many deposits you regularly make into each dimension (spoke) and then draw your Wellness Wheel. Are some “spokes” large (carrying most of the load) while others barely exist? Are you missing an entire “spoke”?  It takes conscious effort to balance wellness assets across the body, mind, and spirit.   

Don’t leave your vitality to chance!  Make a plan, balance your assets, and make regular deposits into lifelong vitality.

Source: https://blog.silvernest.com/whats-vitality-plan

HOW TO DESIGN AN INTERVIEW PROCESS THAT PREDICTS PERFORMANCE

By Omer Molad

First, let’s get one thing out of the way. Traditional interviews  don't actually predict performance. Rather, the best way to predict performance is to test job-related skills in context. Nevertheless, there is a place for interviews in the hiring process. Interviews are a useful tool to build rapport, and even start a relationship, with candidates after their skills have been validated. They can, and should, also be used to answer unanswered questions from the hiring process. 

Interviewing is often used as a synonym for candidate selection, but it shouldn’t. Interviews should only comprise a small part of the candidate selection process. In fact, if an “interview process”, a.k.a. a selection process, is designed properly then traditional interviews only need to play a minor role.

Rather than dealing with hypotheticals, I’m going to share a real blow-by-blow story about a recent hire we made. The process included a recruitment agency, marketing, online skills assessment using our own platform, interviews and reference checks. I’ll explain how each step worked and why we did things in a very deliberate order.

Role Definition

This is arguably the most important step. If you don’t define the role correctly the entire process will be flawed because nobody will have clarity about the kind of person you’re looking for.

A helpful starting place is thinking about the purpose of the role. Why does it exist? We wanted to hire someone who could help our largest customers get maximum value from their investment in Vervoe. That was our “why” for this role.

We wanted someone who had expertise in assessment and I/O psychology, was a natural with enterprise customers and would thrive in a startup. 

Recruitment Agency Appointment

We don’t usually use agencies and I’m not advocating for, or against, the use of agencies. It depends on the situation. In this case we were looking for a candidate with a very specific skill set and we were almost certain that we needed to attract passive candidates. The people who met our criteria weren’t necessarily looking and, more importantly, they were probably working with a big company and therefore not looking for roles with startups.  

So we wanted an agency to help with candidate sourcing, particularly market mapping ad outreach. In other words, we wanted the agency to find people and convince them it was an exciting opportunity.

First Contact

This fact we were tapping passive candidates on the shoulder influenced the rest of the process. We had to convince candidates to talk to us rather than the other way around. So throwing them into an assessment wasn’t going to work. We had to sell to them. 

So the agency approached them and had an informal conversation. After that the hiring manager met the candidates. Is this the most efficient use of time? No. But it was necessary given the calibre of people we were trying to attract. This wasn’t a high volume situation.  

The purpose of the conversation with the hiring manager wasn’t to determine whether candidates can do the job. It was to sell to the candidate, get a feel for their motivation and give them visibility over the remainder of the process. It was about buy-in. 

Skills Assessment

After speaking to the hiring manager candidates were invited to complete an online skills assessment, known as a Talent Trial. They had to opt into this stage.

We positioned the skills assessment stage as a two-way street. An opportunity for us to see how they perform job-related tasks, and an opportunity for them to get a realistic feel for the role and the product they’ll be working on.

It made sense. Every single candidate we invited to this stage successfully completed their skills assessment.

The Interview

Then came the interview. It was a discussion with me and I only interviewed one person, whom we ultimately hired.

I didn’t focus on skills because I already had evidence the preferred candidate could do the job. She performed very well in the skills assessment, which was carefully crafted to reflect the role.

We discussed how we’d work together, including her preferred working style, how we can invest in her, some of the quirks of our team and what she can expect if she joins. It was lighthearted and fun, at least for me.

Reference Checks

I’m a big believer in reference checking, but not for the reasons you might expect. References are almost always positive. It’s a rigged game. But, if done correctly, reference checks can be very effective in setting candidates up for success. They help understand what it would be like to work with the candidate, how we can support them and how we can get the best out of them. 

They’re an employee onboarding tool of sorts.

We asked the recruitment agency to conduct two reference checks and send us detailed notes.

Meeting the Team

We wanted one more conversation with the hiring manager and the team. At a startup it’s really important to bring existing team members into the process. In fact, I believe it’s important in any company. It increases the chance that existing team members will welcome the new hire, and gives the preferred candidate an opportunity to see who they’ll be working with. It reduces the risk for everybody. 

The Offer

A quick offer is a good offer. We didn’t make the offer after the final discussion with the hiring manager and team. We made it during that discussion. After meeting the team, and after everyone gave the thumbs up, the candidate spoke to the hiring manager privately and got the good news. She accepted.

Source: vervoe.com/blog/how-to-design-an-interview-process-that-predicts-performance/

HIRING: COMPETENCE IS CONTEXT-DEPENDENT

By Omer Molad

The same, but different

Is a graphic designer at a major accounting firm the same job as a graphic designer at an early-stage startup? There is an obvious overlap is functional skills, but that’s where the similarity ends. 

A designer at startup will have limited resources and even less time. They’ll be required to “ship fast” because the clock is ticking and everything is an experiment. Management will have a relatively high tolerance for mistakes, and decisions will be made on the spot. 

Conversely, a large accounting firm will be far less tolerant of risk, decisions are made by committee, perfection will be prioritized over speed and autonomy will likely be low. 

How similar do these roles sound now?

While the fundamental craft is essentially the same, the context is entirely different. Success is measured differently, and the respective operating environments have very little in common.

Context is everything

It follows that the best person to do the job at the accounting firm is probably not the best person to do the job at the startup. In come cases the same person might be able to excel at both roles, but they’ll need to apply themselves and behave quite differently. 

This means that competence is dependent on context, something James Clear emphasizes in his book  Atomic Habits. 

There is no such thing is a “good graphic designer”. Rather, there is a good graphic designer in your particular context. That context might be unique to your company, or it might be broadly applicable to companies in your industry or of a similar size, for example.   

This is a departure from the way many companies, and indeed many talent acquisition professionals, think about competency frameworks. It’s easy to associate competence with job titles in a generic sense. However, given people’s performance will depend on the context in which they operate, all notions of competence should take context into account.

How to Build Context into your Recruitment Process

When filling a role, it’s important to think of what it takes to be successful in that role at your company. It’s helpful to divide the requirements into two components. The first is the skills that are specific to the role itself and would likely be required in any context. In other words, what does the person in the role need to achieve? The second component is the skills that are unique to your context. In other words, how do you expect the person to approach their role? This can include cultural aspects, attitude, behavior and so on.

The next step is to come up with a way to test candidates for those skills. Following this logic, a generic “graphic designer test” doesn’t make much sense because it only addresses the first component. In order to  identify someone who will excel in a role in your context, the test must take into account both components. It must be context-dependent because competence is dependent on context. 

Thinking about candidate selection in this way will help you identify people who are more likely to be successful in your environment. This makes sense because it’s also unlikely that the people who want to work at a startup will also want to work at major accounting firms, and visa versa.

Source: vervoe.com/blog/competence-is-context-dependent/ 

SILAS ADEKUNLE: THE SMARTEST GAMING GURU IN THE WORLD

By Njideka Agbo

At a time when Nigeria is trying to catch up with the technological advancement of developed nations, one of her own, 26-year-old Silas Adekunle, is taking over the robotics world with his ingenuity and innovation.

Adekunle was born and had some of his education in Nigeria before relocating to the UK when he was a teenager. Having completed his secondary school education, he proceeded to the University of the West of England where he graduated with a first class graduate in Robotics.

In 2013, he founded Reach Robotics, a company with an aim to infuse gaming and augmented reality to perform functions. Ever ready to learn, he gained experience on robotics within a space of 4 years and also became a team leader of Robotics In Schools programme, a programme which encourages and pays attention to students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It was during his involvement in the programme that he thought of developing robotics to make education more entertaining for STEM students.

In 2017, Mekamon, the world’s first gaming robot was born. A part of its unique feature is the ability to customise the gaming bot to perform personalised functions. Despite being hit by disbelief when he was seeking funds, his initial launch of Mekamon sold 500 bots, generating $7.5 million.

Owing to this milestone success, Adekunle has received support from various organisations including London Venture Partners $10 million (N360 million). In the same year, Reach Robotics signed a deal with Apple securing exclusive sales in Apple stores.

Not only have his works gained recognition, but he was also listed in the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe: Technology.

He notes that the secrets to his success are balance, shared ideas, time management and being oneself.

Update: Adekunle has now become the highest paid robotics engineer in the world and has also been described as the smartest robotics engineer in the world.

This article was originally published on the 13th of June, 2018.

Sources: guardian.ng/life/silas-adekunle-the-smartest-gaming-guru-in-the-world/

4 HEALTH BENEFITS OF EGG YOLK

By Akinwale Akinyoade

Eggs have three separate sections — the shell, the white and the yolk. Egg yolks used to have a bad reputation because of their high-cholesterol content with doctors and health authorities once recommending that people limit egg yolk consumption. However, research has shown that cholesterol level in the blood is affected by other factors.

While the health benefits of egg whites are widely known, egg yolks have health benefits, too. Like egg whites, egg yolks have a high protein content and contain many essential vitamin, minerals, fats, and healthy calorie. Below are health benefits of egg yolks that you should know before you toss the egg yolk away.

Eye Health

According to research, egg yolk contains carotenoids which help to lower the risk of age-related macular degeneration and cataracts. Carotenoids act as antioxidants in the eye, protecting it from free radicals that can damage different parts of the retina, impacting its ability to correctly focus light.

Benefits of Choline

A study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found women with the highest level of choline intake were 24 percent less likely than women who got the least choline in their diets to develop breast cancer. Egg yolks also help promote heart and to regulate cardiovascular function.

More Vitamins

If you are going to toss any part of your egg away, you should toss the egg white and not your egg yolk because egg yolks contain more vitamins (and larger quantities of those vitamins) than egg whites. Each egg yolk contains seven vitamins: B6, folate, a B vitamin, B-12, A, D, E and K. interestingly, egg yolks are one of only a handful of foods in which vitamin D is naturally found.

More Minerals

Egg yolks and egg whites each have 13 varieties of minerals. Although both the egg white and egg yolk contain these minerals, the yolk has larger amounts of most. The egg yolk boasts of 90 percent of an egg’s calcium, 93 percent of its iron content with just 7 percent in the white.

Source: https://guardian.ng/life/four-interesting-health-benefits-of-egg-yolk/

"THE SINGING DOCTOR" WHO SERENADED OVER 8,000 BABIES HONORED AFTER 40-YEAR CAREER

By Caitlin O'Kane

Over his 40-year career, Dr. Carey Andrew-Jaja has delivered 8,000 babies and received the special nickname of "The Singing Doctor." That's because he sang to every single one of the babies he delivered — and then some. 

Dr. Andrew-Jaja, who worked at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, loves to sing "Happy Birthday" and Louis Armstrong's hit, "What A Wonderful World," to the newborns. 

He explained his song choice in a video for UPMC. "To me, it's a wonderful thing in my hand, the miracle of life," he said. "And the rest of is that it's a beautiful world we live in. We forget about all the crisis going on everywhere for a moment when you see that miracle of life in front of you."

The OB/GYN said he took up singing to the babies when he was just starting his career. "I like to sing. But this particular part of singing to babies started when I was a resident," Dr. Andrew-Jaja said in the video.

"There was a gentleman, an older obstetrician-gynecologist on staff and he loved to sing. And later on when he was about to retire, he asked me, 'Andy, do you sing to your babies?' And I said, 'Well, no. It's your stuff,'" Dr. Andrew-Jaja said.

"And he said, 'Go ahead, do it.' So, I took it over. He passed on the baton to me," he continued. "And I took it over and I started to sing to my babies ever since then and I do it every time."

Now, four decades later, Dr. Andrew-Jaja has sung his last lullaby at the hospital. At the end of June he officially retired, UPMC told CBS News.

He actually stopped delivering babies a few years ago, but kept seeing OB patients, UPMC said. It isn't uncommon for doctors to do this and although he wasn't at their deliveries, Dr. Andrew-Jaja would visit patients in the postpartum wing after their babies were born — and he would still sing. 

He'd check on the moms and babies and give them the gift of song. Lindsay Grimes was one of the last moms to receive that gift.

"We're so excited to have a new addition to our family," Grimes told UPMC ahead of Dr. Andrew-Jaja's visit. "So, to have him sing to one of our babies would be awesome." 

The doctor visited Grimes and her newborn, Luella, and sung his signature: "What a Wonderful World." 

Dr. Andrew-Jaya said that the last baby he sang to was just as important as his first. "Each of them is an individual. You know, I've delivered thousands and thousands of babies," he said in the UPMC video. "When I'm singing to those babies, I think I'm singing to a future important person. That's the credit I give to all of them."

While he's officially retired from both delivering babies and visiting patients, Dr. Andrew-Jaja's legacy as "The Singing Doctor" will continue in Pittsburgh. Councilman Corey O'Connor declared May 16 "Dr. Carey Andrew-Jaja Day" this year. 

Source: www.cbsnews.com/news/the-singing-doctor-who-sang-to-over-8000-babies-gets-honor-to-mark-the-end-of-his-40-year-career/

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SKILLS TESTING

BY EMILY HEASLIP

Skill testing can give recruiters a competitive advantage in today’s ultra-competitive job market. Not only that, but candidates who are hired on merit, rather than background, tend to stay longer and perform better over the long term. Here’s how to use skills assessments to fill your open positions and to keep your pipeline full of happy, engaged candidates.

What is a Skill Test?

A skills test is an assessment used to provide an unbiased, validated evaluation of a candidate’s ability to perform the duties listed in the job description.

Typically, a skills test asks a variety of questions in different formats to see how candidates perform on-the-job tasks. A good skills test includes questions that are capable of being answered by someone already doing the job and can accurately measure key performance metrics. Questions should also be specifically tailored to relate to the responsibilities of an open position. Many skills tests include immersive experiences, like coding challenges or job simulations, to mimic how a candidate performs when faced with a real-life scenario.

Other types of job-readiness evaluations deploy validated psychometric assessments to identify those in-demand soft skills: things like motivation, conscientiousness, resilience, and emotional intelligence. A personality assessment varies from a skills test in that it predicts how a person will behave in a specific scenario, rather than their ability to complete a task.

While skills test cover task-related abilities, like coding, copywriting, or sales, some pre-employment assessments integrate the less tangible capabilities – things like teamwork and leadership. These qualities are sought after by executives at more than 900 companies, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of executives. Yet, 89% of those surveyed said they have a “very or somewhat difficult time finding people with the requisite attributes.” Where traditional hiring methods fall short, a skills test can easily clarify a candidate’s true talent.

Overall, skills tests can play a critical role in predicting on-the-job success. More so than resumes or job interviews, a skills test can assess the true potential of a new hire to go the distance with the company. Here’s how skill testing works, and why more companies than ever are starting to integrate skill testing into the recruitment and hiring process.

How Skill Testing Works

Skill testing works best when the questions being asked are specifically crafted to the role and needs of the team hiring the new candidate. In designing a skills test, combine different types of questions to get a 360-degree view of how a candidate will perform in different scenarios.

There are a variety of ways to set up a skills test – and we’ll get into the mechanics of how to actually run the assessment in the next section. But, designing a thoughtful aptitude test takes some initial foresight on behalf of the hiring manager and team. Research by Deloitte suggests this sample process for selecting and implementing skill testing questions:

Define the “human elements” needed to perform the job

Compile questions that will measure and predict these human elements

Use the data gathered by the skills assessments to empower the next round of the screening process

Post-hiring, evaluate the efficacy of the hiring assessment to ensure the questions delivered the best result.

Ultimately, the best use for an aptitude test is to help recruiters move away from the resume and allow candidates to prove they are the real deal. Crafting the right series of questions should be a collaborative process between the recruiting team and the team hiring the new employee. Here’s how these teams can set up and run a skills test.

How to Set Up and Run a Skill Test

In designing a skills test or pre-employment assessment, there are a few specific steps to take in order to thoughtfully structure your questions. Vervoe recommends following these best practices in setting up and running your skills test. These tips can help with candidate engagement and lead to high rates of completion.

Your skills test should include a minimum of six questions; somewhere in the eight to ten range is best.

At least a few questions should require text answers; start with a text-based response in the first question, rather than a video or immersive question.

At least one question should be multiple choice.

Include an “immersive” style question, in which the candidate edits a document, spreadsheet, or presentation.

To retain a candidate over the entire experience, start with easier questions and build up to more difficult ones later in the assessment.

Try to minimize use of timers to account for technical difficulties and give the candidate the best chance of success.

We also suggest that video responses not be timed; there are too many technical issues that can result from a candidate trying to film a one-way video interview. If you do wish to set a time limit, make sure it’s at a minimum of five minutes.

Running a skills test through Vervoe, or any other platform, is relatively straightforward. Vervoe’s Talent Trials let you select questions from a library of assessment tools, or design your own questions based on the specific needs of your company. The Talent Trial library offers questions and trials created by experts in their fields, meaning they have at least 3+ years of experience in their specific area of expertise. You can preview questions from any of the Talent Trial areas and add them seamlessly through the Vervoe platform.

Now that you know how to set up an aptitude test, when should you deploy this tool during the hiring process?

Using Skill Tests During Hiring

Timing is everything when it comes to adding a skill assessment to your hiring process. Research by Harvard Business Review revealed that skills tests should come early in the hiring process. According to their study, “Many service companies, including retailers, call centers, and security firms, can reduce costs and make better hires by using short, web-based psychometric tests as the first screening step. Such tests efficiently weed out the least-suitable applicants, leaving a smaller, better-qualified pool to undergo the more costly personalized aspects of the process.”

Skill tests should be used to screen candidates in, not out. The issue many recruiters face is that the volume of candidates makes it impossible to carefully consider each person’s ability. Smart algorithms and AI tools can turbo-charge candidate assessments by scoring results quickly and removing human bias from the equation. Vervoe’s algorithm scores candidates using a multi-layered approach. Candidates are ranked based on how well they performed, rather than filtered out if they didn’t achieve a certain benchmark. The top candidates easily rise to the top; but no one misses out on being considered for the next round. When used early in the hiring process, Talent Trials can select a more diverse pool of applicants to continue onto the next phase.

Skill Test Examples and Templates

There are many ways to set up a skills test, depending on the position for which you are hiring. Pre-employment skills tests can cover a range of positions: administrative assistant, finance and accounting, and call center reps are just a few roles that companies hire for using Talent Trials.

Excel skill tests, coding skill tests, typing skill tests, and other computer skill tests are the most common forms of pre-employment assessments. Some companies focus on questions that are task-related, e.g. “Create a Powerpoint Slide that has a video embedded in the presentation.” Questions can get hyper specific to test a niche skill, like a coding language, or be posed more broadly to test the general requirements for success at a certain level.

Some companies choose to focus on verifying the skills that will help a candidate succeed beyond the immediate position. This approach skews closer to a pre-employment assessment, with questions designed to reveal if a candidate can climb the corporate ladder, adapt in a challenging work environment, or respond under pressure. For example, one call center rep test included questions such as, “You have an elderly customer on the phone who is having trouble understanding your instructions. A colleague is also trying to transfer a call from a customer you served before, and you have a scheduled follow-up call happening in 5 minutes. How would you handle and prioritize in this situation?”

Multiple choice, open-ended questions, and pre-recorded video responses are all great ways to see if a candidate has what it takes to do the job well. But, do candidates enjoy answering these types of questions?

Do new hires like doing skill tests?

By most accounts, candidates appreciate the opportunity to showcase what makes them great at their job. Orica, the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives, integrated skill testing into their interview process to the delight of their job candidates. In revamping the interview process for graduate students looking to join the Orica team, recruiters consolidated their online evaluation components into one platform, Vervoe. The Talent Trial test combined questions focusing on skills, logic, and values.

An average of 86% of candidates completed the online process, and the reviews were mostly positive. Here’s what the candidates had to say about the skills test:

“The tests required total engagement and thought, and were a clear demonstration of what makes Orica different from any other company.”

“I think the questions were very diverse and it allowed me to showcase myself, my skills and abilities in different ways.”

“It gave me an opportunity to showcase who I am as well as challenge my skills”

This is just one example of how a skill test can change the entire interview process for a potential new hire. In a job market where people spend an average of 11 hours a week looking for a new job, it’s easy to get burned out, fast. Every job description starts to look the same; every interview begins to feel stale.

When given the opportunity to showcase their talent through real-world tasks, job candidates will jump at the chance to be engaged with the job description, rise above their resume, and challenge themselves. Companies that use Vervoe’s Talent Trials experience a 97% candidate completion rate, which is among the highest engagement rates in the industry. Candidates love the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Even if they aren’t hired, skills testing offers a break from the repetition of the stale interview experience.

What are the benefits of a skill test?

The benefits of a skills test aren’t limited to the candidate experience.

Recruiters looking to hire diverse, high-performing teams with better efficiency and consistency can use pre-employment tests to their advantage. Skills tests are a better predictor of performance than resume screenings or traditional interviews alone. Resume screenings are bad for three reasons. First, studies suggest that it’s common for candidates to lie on their CV. The person you think you’re hiring may not actually possess the qualifications you think they do.

Second, resumes only provide a high-level view of a candidate’s credentials and work experience. These items don’t offer qualitative insight into actual on-the-job performance. Coupled with recruiting biases that are built into the process, the third threat is that recruiters are privileging candidates based on background and demographics, rather than talent. Perhaps this is why new hires crash out as often as they do. According to one study, 46% of new hires “fail” within the first 18 months of being hired.

Skill tests can help take some of the bias out of the interview process, give recruiters a new evaluation metric to consider, and lead to happier, long-term hires. There’s ample evidence to suggest they really do work better than many of the other traditional hiring methods recruiters have relied on in the past.

Do skill tests work?

In our experience, skill testing works better than traditional hiring methods – with some caveats.

Without a doubt, aptitude tests can be used to replace resume screening. This style of sorting through candidates increases the chance that the best candidates will be unfairly eliminated. Good people get screened out, rather than screened in. So-called “pedigree proxies” – resumes and cover letters – are not indicative of job performance, yet they are often the quickest way a recruiter or algorithm can think of to cut down on their stack of candidate resumes.

Skills tests improve time to hire while allowing the hiring manager to see how someone will do the job, before they get the offer. This reduces turnover costs, which add up quickly: the cost of making the wrong hire can be up to 2.5x salary, easily over $100,000. Working with Vervoe’s Talent Trials, on the other hand, can help a recruiter identify the best people at under $100 per hire.

The best skills tests, however, need the right formula to help the candidates succeed. Some recruiters focus narrowly on the skills that will help a new hire succeed in the immediate position for which they are hiring. Yet, many CEOs emphasize the importance of soft skills – things like leadership and teamwork. New hires may end up being disappointed and leaving because they lacked the soft skills needed to adapt to their new team, not necessarily the skills to perform the job. Recruiters must integrate questions into their skill assessment that focus on critical soft skills that predict long-term success. These validated psychometric assessments are key to assessing “culture fit” without defaulting to recruiter bias.

Skill tests vs. interviewing

In conclusion, we’ll leave you with few thoughts on skill tests compared to interviews.

First, interviews, in general, need a total overhaul. Recruiters have been asking the same, outdated interview questions for decades. Many candidates get overwhelmed by the performance anxiety inherent in the interview and may make (forgivable) mistakes. Nevertheless, many recruiters like the security of meeting someone before making an offer.

Many recruiters seek the same insight from a group interview or case study that they would get from an individual skill test. Unfortunately, using these methods can’t give you the same valuable information as a straightforward aptitude assessment. Case studies can be too conceptual; rather than seeing how a candidate will approach the work listed in the job description, case studies ask abstract questions. The goal of asking “how many tennis balls can fit on a Boeing 757” is not to see if the candidate can guess the right answer, but to see how they approach the question and reason through their response. But this knowledge doesn’t always serve a recruiter with the best predictor of on-the-job success.

Group interviews provide more insight – into a candidate’s teamwork, leadership, and communication, for example. Yet, in a group scenario, extroverts tend to dominate. It can be difficult to see how each candidate performs as an individual while trying to consider the group at once.

In summary, skill testing is all about understanding whether a candidate can do something or knows something. It’s about verifying their ability to go the distance with your company. Pre-employment assessments differ slightly in that they focus on predicting how a candidate will behave in certain scenarios, not what they can do. By combining questions from skills testing and pre-employment assessments, recruiters can get a more accurate picture of the candidate’s ability.

Source: www.vervoe.com