About us:
the people behind the outcomes
It takes more than a portfolio of employment tests and a pinch of HR experience to produce the outcomes Hiring & Development Systems clients commonly experience:
- The development of a high performance culture
- Objectively validated success in recruiting and selection
- Documented improvement in organizational performance
- Industry-leading employee retention
- Continual strengthening of organizational leadership
The difference lies in the use of best-in-class assessment tools, supported with the depth of insight that can only be gained through decades of human resource and management experience. This leadership is typified in the two industry experts who founded and currently guide Hiring & Development Systems.
Katherine Dean, SPHR
A certified Senior Professional of Human Resources with 18 years of consulting and human resource background, Katherine offers market sector expertise in industries ranging from financial services and manufacturing to telecommunications, retail, and contact centers. She is recognized as an exceptional seminar presenter, sharing the insight gained from a track record of notable accomplishments:
- Developing and launching the Integrated Recruiting and Selection System, a web-based product for the call center industry recognized as the 2005 Product of the Year by Call Center Magazine
- Re-engineering recruiting, screening and selection for an international travel client, creating a system to continuously fill positions across 600 travel agencies within the UK.
- Delivering customized staffing solutions that substantially increased the pool of qualified applicants for 200 branch banks in Puerto Rico.
- Cutting employee attrition from 52% to 23% in one year for a financial services call center
- Assessing the leadership attributes of over 1000 managers and professionals, within Fortune 500, medium sized and small organizations
Tom O’Brien
Tom brings extensive C-level operational expertise to his engagements with Hiring & Development Systems clients. His background includes extensive experience hiring, developing and retaining talent in a full spectrum of industries, including banking, technology, public utilities, manufacturing, cable and contact centers. He provides strategic human capital consulting to organizations that want to grow their business. Major accomplishments:
- Growing an organization from eight employees to 3000 within eight years, while expanding revenue from $1 million to $65 million
- Creating a leadership development program for supervisors in the cable and utility industries that resulted in multi-million dollar savings and major improvements in customer satisfaction
- Increasing the sales conversion rate in a contact center by 60%, and average order size by 10%
- Developing a proprietary coaching model that improves customer service and inspires employee performance and loyalty
- Positions as COO for a 3000 employee contact center company, COO for a publicly held software development company, CIO for a large bank and CEO for a consulting firm
Testimonials
"Kathy Dean's extensive HR knowledge and financial services industry expertise, combined with her ability to match the best hiring tools with our unique needs, makes her an important partner to our firm. We selected the Professional Pro as our assessment tool because it provides us with the information we need to make effective decisions about our candidates for hire."
Jill K. Whitfield-Wooley,
Vice President
Professional Development Manager | Baird University
Robert W. Baird & Co.
Baird – Nationally recognized as a great place to work
five consecutive years 2004-2008
Employee Assessment
We’ve been using the ManagementPro (MPP) and Professional Pro online assessments over the last six years. It’s been a great tool to benchmark model performers and build a team with a variety of skills and talent. These tools have also been effective beyond the selection process. We’ve gotten value by using it as a coaching and development tool when trying to achieve specific results with individual performers. Candidates find the personal feedback helpful and are left with a positive impression. They actually get a report back for the time they spend completing the assessment. It is online , easy to access, simple and efficient.
Jennifer Wolf,
Manager of Staffing / HR
FISERV
Team development
Let me express my personal and profound appreciation for meeting with our senior management team to coach us on team building here at Catholic Knights. The two sessions that you conducted were most informative, outstanding and will be highly beneficial to the future of Catholic Knights.
I might point out that in my 35 years of corporate life at the executive level, your program is one of the most focused and finest that I have seen. Congratulations and thank you for being with us. The fruits of your labor will become a reality at Catholic Knights very soon. I am seeing the results already.
Michael Stivoric,
Senior Vice President, Fraternal and Marketing
Catholic Knights
Hiring workshops
Participants’ comments from hiring workshops:
“Great interaction with group to share ideas”
“Kathy is one of the better presenters at this conference. She’s focused and tied material to day-to-day operations in a meaningful way."
“This is one of the sessions that I received the most out of. Great materials, great examples, great speaker.”
“Best of workshops”.
“This was very helpful. I have a better idea of how to hire, and I am in the middle of hiring now and this has given me some valuable tools to use. Thanks!”
Leadership workshops
Participants’ comments from leadership workshops:
“I really think it was the most valuable part of the conference for me”
“I consider both of your sessions to be of extreme value, and well presented”
Emotional Intelligence workshops
Participants’ comments from Emotional Intelligence Workshops:
“The presenter was excellent and group interaction was excellent as well”
“Dynamic speaker with strong presence”
“I definitely will be able to take the knowledge of emotional intelligence and leadership and apply it to my job, especially the skills of better listening and empathy”
“Ms. Dean is an outstanding instructor. She provides real world conversation and great facilitation. Highly recommend!”