SCANNER FREEMONT / Data Analyst
Freemont is responsible for the digital conversion of survey responses while adhering to strict quality standards set forth by its managers. Freemont began its career at TruScore in 1996 as a Data Analyst and quickly became pivotal to TruScore's success. As the years passed, Freemont has slowly matured into part-time Data Analyst while also holding many positions in the work environment including On The Floor, On The Empty Desk, and Hold The Door (AKA Hodor).
RON SACCHI / Master Coach
A former Operations Manager in the High Tech Industry, Ron Sacchi brings decades of leadership and management experience to the organizational development and the executive coaching arena. An energetic thought-leader with a track record of success in all areas of Human Capital development, he has consulted and coached managers in start-ups, joint-ventures, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media. Because of his business acumen and creative approaches to behavioral change, he is respected in the HR community specifically for the ability to direct, motivate, influence and inspire leaders to improve performance.
Holding an MBA from Saint Mary’s College, Mr. Sacchi is also licensed in various management, leadership and psychological profiling tools.
CARLANN FERGUSSON / Master Coach
Carlann inspires leaders to reconnect to their individual purpose and lead with contagious energy. She ensures leaders gain deep self-awareness and eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors. Her guidance is based on coaching, training and selecting hundreds of executives across diverse companies as well as her own journey into the executive ranks.
Carlann is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Insightful Leader: Find Your Superpowers, Crush Limiting Beliefs and Abolish Self-Sabotaging Behaviors (Praeger, June 2018). She holds a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her thirty years of experience include leadership roles in Fortune 500s, the private sector, and the U.S. Government. Carlann has been a featured guest on ABC News Radio, Wharton Business Radio and has been cited in CBS MoneyWatch, International Business Times, Newsday and Workday.
DR CHUCH MELTZER / Master Coach
Dr. Chuck Meltzer is a Master Coach and President of the SynTECGroup, an organizational development consulting firm. As an executive coach, he draws on his training at a doctoral level in psychology, direct senior management experience and management consulting with a wide cross section of industries. He has developed an extensive series of strategies to assist leaders in creating organizational wide and personal change. Dr. Meltzer has a decade of direct senior management experience and 20 years’ experience functioning within his consulting and coaching practice. His coaching approach is solution focused and time framed. Based on determined goals, a personally customized approach to the process has enabled his clients to realize sustainable change in a manner that allows them to enhance their effectiveness and success as leaders within their organization.
Dr. Meltzer is certified and a master trainer in several coaching assessment tools that he employs within his practice.
ERIN HIRSCHLAND / Master Coach
Erin is an organization development expert with nearly two decades experience serving organizations of all sizes across industries on a broad range of issues. Working with leadership teams, she helps articulate an actionable vision and corresponding values, connecting these to organizational strategy, execution and results. Her tools of choice include senior team retreats, one-on-one executive coaching and proven survey and related instruments.
Erin’s additional expertise includes designing employee selection systems, developing performance management tools that increase performance across the organization over time and employee and customer experience metrics. An effective facilitator and coach, Erin works with leaders and their teams to build trust, commitment and results.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado.
SONYA D HAMILTON / Senior Assessment Consultant
Sonya is a Senior Assessment Consultant at TruScore with over 24 years of experience designing and delivering 360 feedback solutions and providing 360-based coaching, training and interpretation.
Sonya has extensive experience working with Managers and Leaders, guiding them through the feedback and development journey and providing insights and direction to help maximize their impact within the organization. Sonya’s areas of expertise include 360-based coaching, 360 data analysis and interpretation, Train-the-Trainer certifications, facilitation, survey & questionnaire design, and the design and delivery of assessment programs.
Sonya has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial & Organization Psychology from Springfield College with a specialty in Counseling and Psychological Services. She is a Master Trainer for TruScore and the Clark Wilson Task Cycle surveys receiving a Certificate of Achievement in “How to Train a Trainer”. In addition, Sonya is certified to administer a variety of other psychometric instruments including employee engagement and organizational instruments as well as the line of Hogan Personality Assessments.
KAYLEY MOTZ / Assessment Advisor
Kayley draws on her extensive customer service background to provide clients with prompt, quality support. In her role as Assessment Advisor, Kayley works to ensure clients’ needs are being met. She assists in project set up and management, as well as processing and quality checking feedback reports. Kayley also aids in the execution of the day-to-day responsibilities of the production team, such as coaching session scheduling and tech support.
CRYSTAL HUGHES / Assessment Advisor
Crystal leverages her extensive background in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology as she manages the day-to-day operational and tactical aspects of multiple and large scale projects for TruScore.
Crystal assists clients with setting up and managing feedback projects, and serves as the point of contact throughout the entire process. She quality checks feedback reports, and provides tech support when needed.
ELLIE SOLOMON / Assessment Advisor
Ellie manages project implementation for the entire 360 assessment feedback process and ensures that each client’s unique needs are met on time and in an efficient manner. Ellie consults with clients who use TruScore’s off-the-shelf Task Cycle® instruments as well as providing hosting solutions for clients using their own survey content, including custom processes and reports. She helps clients navigate through the TruScore® survey hosting software, having literally written the handbook that several clients are using.
She coordinates and implements all translation efforts, including soliciting bids, managing timelines, providing files to the translation companies, implementing translations for the web pages, and testing.
ULLA WESTERMANN / Software Engineer
Ulla uses her years of experience as a software engineer to maintain and add new features to TruScore's applications. She also helps with customizing feedback reports based on client needs.
HANK CURTIS / Business Development Manager
Hank manages and assists in the analyzing, planning, research, and development of TruScore’s objectives and strategic plans in order to achieve business opportunities, growth, and financial profitability.
Hank drives the expansion of TruScore’s direct sales, establishes relationships with TruScore’s clients, identifies clients, and keeps up-to-date on industry trends and client developments.
TAYLOR BRANTON / Bookkeeper
Taylor is responsible for managing payroll and employee fringe benefits programs, in addition to organizing company gatherings and outings. Taylor oversees day to day accounting needs as it relates to client invoicing, accounts payable, and general compliance requirements. She also has a hand in month, quarter, and year end reports and works closely with the CEO and CTO to furnish details necessary to make accurate business projections and decisions.
KURT BLAZEK / Design Director
Kurt uses a unique blend of strategic thinking with dynamic executions to create TruScore’s visual and interactive design. He is responsible for creating, evolving, and sustaining the company’s brand to internal and external stakeholders through multiple mediums. He oversees all of TruScore’s digital strategies, along with the implementation of social media tools and techniques.
Kurt leverages TruScore’s marketing and messaging information to identify, evaluate, and apply methods to maximize the effectiveness of the search campaigns across all of the major search engines. He tracks and measures the ROI of search engine rankings, direct print, and marketing websites.
JOSH SHEETS / Chief Operations Officer
Josh is responsible for all day-to-day aspects of managing the operations and various functional areas including business development, sales and marketing, client delivery, vendor relations, human resources, and IT.
Josh helps to ensure outstanding customer service, and the administration of long-term and day-to-day business processes that complement the delivery of high quality, innovative customer-focused survey tools, assessments and hosted survey offerings.
TOM KUHNE / Managing Partner and CTO
Tom joined TruScore in 1995 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, IS Manager, and VP & CIO. In his current role as Managing Partner and CTO, Tom is the driving force behind TruScore's technology vision for the present and the future. He manages all aspects of TruScore’s information systems, ensuring all systems meet the highest functionality and security standards.
Tom enjoys working hand in hand with clients and partners to make sure TruScore® delivers the technology and advancement that has become expected of it as a leader in the online assessment marketplace.
DEREK MURPHY / Chief Executive Officer
Derek joined TruScore in 1996 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, Operations Manager, and President & COO. In his current role as CEO, he is responsible for planning and implementing the strategic direction of the company. In addition, Derek is involved in product development and overseeing the day-to-day business operations for TruScore.
TruScore founder Dr. Daniel Booth, a pioneer in the field of assessment of leadership and management skills, served as a mentor to Derek for more than a decade. During this time, Derek became certified on TruScore’s full line of management and leadership assessments. He currently uses these skills to lead content debriefings with customers and partners on a regular basis.
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In the world of leadership development and organizational effectiveness the 360-degree assessment has long been viewed as one of the most popular tools in the HR arsenal. At the individual level, they provide insights about your managers and leaders that can drive change and improvement. At the aggregate level, you’ll have the opportunity to identify key areas that might be dragging down a department, division, or the entire company. Leveraging this data, you can begin a course correction that ultimately allows both the individual and the organization to be more competitive. One assessment, two benefits.
When it comes to finding the right 360 for your organization, it’s important to consider a few fundamental choices, one of which is whether you should use an off-the-shelf assessment or go the custom route.
That is the question. In fact, this is the most common question we hear. And the short answer is, it depends, as both have legitimate advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s quickly touch on a few benefits for off-the-shelf:
That said, in this article we’re going to focus on the key benefits of customization.
Every organization is unique, in that it exists within a given industry and has its own mission, culture, values, history, and of course, its own challenges. As such, each company has a core set of competencies and expectations that are deemed essential for success.
Customized 360 assessments are a highly focused and efficient method for measuring the specific skills that leaders need within their organization. It also has the benefit of cutting out any excess, or “noisy”, content that may be interesting, but not critical. Ultimately, this allows for a shorter, more concise assessment. The end-result is feedback that is not only insightful, but also focused on what is more meaningful and impactful to each leader.
And by tailoring the survey content and output within the context of a broader L&D approach, you can implement a cohesive assessment strategy that is not only consistent with corporate values and culture but also syncs within your over-arching talent development program.
If you look at the truly successful 360 programs (and we’ve seen many) they all have one thing in common: they place a strong focus on what happens after the feedback is delivered. To be more specific, they hold leaders accountable for creating and implementing a development plan.
If you start with a customized assessment that measures skills relevant to your organization, and to your role, then not only will the feedback itself be more relevant, but the development plan will be curated and actionable. After all, receiving feedback can be interesting and insightful, but if your leaders aren’t effectively making improvements that matter, then you’re not realizing the full potential of your 360 investment.
We often hear that leaders and their teams feel “surveyed to death,” and that going through an assessment can feel like a chore, something to quickly check the box and move on to the more immediate demands of their role. While introducing a variety of assessments and trainings has good intentions, it can result in lower engagement in the process itself.
However, when individuals perceive that the assessment is tailored to their roles and aligns with the organization’s culture and vision, it feels less like a generic chore, and more like something that is part of the overall mission. They are more likely to take the process seriously, actively engage, and provide honest and thoughtful feedback. This high level of engagement results in a more effective and successful program overall.
Companies tend to evolve over time, especially companies that are experiencing rapid growth or market disruptions. As they grow and adapt, so do their goals, challenges, and strategies. These changes often result in an evolution of the skills required to effectively lead their team to success. In addition to internal change, larger trends outside the corporate walls can impact the actual workplace dynamic itself. Nothing has illustrated this more clearly in recent times than the rapid shift to a more remote workforce. This has required leaders to evolve their approach, which not only impacts which skills are becoming more critical, but also how those skills are applied.
Customized assessments offer the flexibility to adapt and evolve alongside the organization. As the reality on the ground changes, leadership expectations and skills change as well. As such, the goal isn’t necessarily a customized 360 assessment, but rather one that is customizable, so that it can evolve and remain relevant over time.
Look, most medium to large organizations are utilizing 360s to some degree or another. So, this really isn’t a question of should you, or shouldn’t you, but rather how can you leverage this powerful tool most effectively.
As we mentioned earlier, off-the-shelf assessments can serve a valuable role in certain scenarios. But in terms of overall adaptability, efficiency, and long-term utility, customized 360 assessments offer key benefits that are tough to beat. They provide you with a focused and concise tool that engages its participants and produces results that are more relevant and impactful within the context of your unique environment.
The trick, however, is to accomplish all of this without sacrificing survey validity and reliability. That is achieved by working with a library of validated, research-based, content that is modular at the competency level, while still offering up normative data to benchmark against. The end result is the best of both worlds assessment, one that measures only what matters most, while producing reliable, accurate data you know you can trust.
