CALCULATING RESULTS/GUESSTIMATING

To make the most out of your results you need to know how to quantify them. One reason we don’t see more statistics in resumes is that people don’t know how to calculate results, and then don’t know how to use or describe them to their best effect. Usually all it takes is simple arithmetic and a little logic. I’m going to show you the methods for calculating percentages. Try to follow along, but if it gets confusing don’t worry. There are people out there who can help you. If you are at least able to pull some estimates together, you can locate friends or relatives who can help you in this critical area. I work with statistics frequently, but I still have to think twice before I can remember how to do the calculations. So, let’s begin.

In the process of calculating results the first step is to identify all benefits, whether it was something improved, increased, or decreased. Start with the assumption that if you can identify it, you can quantify it. Quantifying results may require some guesstimating, but you can do it.

Review your job sketches to see what clues they might give you. Were there any functions that were left off the sketches that you now think might be valuable? Were there any projects that were not mentioned in your sketches? If a project achieved its goal, it almost assuredly had a result. That result can probably be quantified. Even if you think a particular result was too small to mention in the resume, still spend some time with it because it might be helpful in an interview. Since you are going to discuss a lot of things in interviews that are not included in your resume, you need lots of additional experiences to discuss. Being able to quantify them will enable you to score points.

Suppose you know that an action you took improved something—sales, profits, productivity, turnover—but you don’t have computer printouts to prove it. Let’s say that the matter is turnover. When you came into the department morale was down, and people were continually leaving out of frustration. When you joined the department there were 16 people. During the year you were assistant supervisor, you saw five people leave and one get fired, for a total of six. That represents 38% turnover.

With a turnover rate that high, productivity was bound to be low because people didn’t stay around long enough to really learn the job. In addition, the supervisor had to devote a lot of time to training new people and correcting their mistakes. Eventually your boss was fired and you were promoted into the position. According to your observation, your boss never adequately trained people, got angry at them when they made mistakes, and never supplied positive feedback. As a result, people quit out of frustration.

So when you became supervisor, you worked closely with the core group. This took a lot of overtime on your part, but you made sure they knew what they were doing. You gave them strokes and they appreciated that. During your first year on the job four people quit, the next year two people quit, and the following year two people quit. Your turnover rate for the first year was 25% (4 divided by 16). The second and third years it was 12% (2 divided by 16). It appears that things had definitely stabilized.

Now you need to determine the percentage by which you reduced turnover, and what other benefits accrued as a result. The turnover rate has been reduced from 38% to 12%. Just an approximation will tell you that the reduction is about two-thirds, or 67%. To get the actual figure you would subtract 12 from 38, to get 26, and divide 26 by 38 to get 68%. As valuable as reducing turnover is, that is still not the end result. Because your people are now better trained they make fewer mistakes, get more done in a day, and provide better customer service. So, next you would measure the quality, productivity, and customer service improvements. The resume might read, “Developed an effective training program, which reduced turnover from 38% to 12%. As a result of the program, productivity increased more than 14%, and customer complaints were reduced more than 75%.” Such a statement will have real impact on employers.

In the process of calculating results, the first step is to identify all the benefits of an action you took. Start with the assumption that if you can identify it, you can quantify it. Quantifying results may require some guesstimating, but you can do it.

EXAMPLES

Determining An Average Annual Increase

Often a person will bring about improvements over a period of several years. A good way to express this figure in a resume is to show the average annual increase. Selling something would be a typical example. The following example shows how one client used an increase in sales to its best effect.

Susan increased sales in her territory over a five-year period. Sales the year prior to her coming to the territory were $200,000. Her first year she increased sales to $240,000, then $275,000, then $300,000, then $310,000, and finally $350,000. Her first year increase was 20% since her increase of $40,000 is 20% of $200,000.

Mathematically it is figured this way:

$240,000 - 200,000 = $40,000

40,000 ÷ 200,000 = .20 or 20%

The second year her increase was 14%:

$275,000 - $240,000 = $35,000

35,000 ÷ 240,000 = 14%

The third year the increase was 9%, the fourth 3% (a recession year), and the fifth 13%.

Over the five years she increased sales 75%. To get the average annual increase add the increases from each year and total them (20+14+9+3+13 = 59). Then divide by the five years to get the figure (59 ÷ 5 years = 11.8%) of an 11.8% average annual increase. For a resume it would be rounded off to 12%, or in the resume it could be stated, “Increased sales an average of 12% per year.” Although she increased sales a total of 75% you cannot divide 75 by 5 to get the average annual increase.

Once the figures have been determined, a decision has to be made as to the strongest way to present the information. Sometimes the best way is simply to present the raw figures. In this case it would be, “In five years took sales in the territory from $200,000 to $350,000.” If those figures did not have the impact she wanted she could say, “Took over a mature territory and increased sales 75% in five years,” or “During a serious economic downturn in the region, increased sales an average of 12% per year.”

Simple Increases

Simple increases might be figured according to the following method: In 1990 advertising revenue for a magazine had been $2,560,000. By the end of 1992 it had increased to $3,180,000. The percent of increase is 24% (3,180,000 - 2,560,000 = 620,000; 620,000 ÷ 2,560,000 = .242 or rounded off to 24%).

The formula for calculating increases is: where a is the original number and b is the new number after the increase.

Simple Decreases

Simple decreases can be figured and expressed similar to the example below: A manufacturing supervisor reduced rejects (parts which did not meet specifications and were therefore rejected by quality control) from a rate of 6% to 2%. On resumes people often miscalculate such figures and might report that they reduced rejects by 4%, simply subtracting 2 from 6 and getting 4. Going from 6% to 2% actually represents a 67% reduction in rejects, however. The proper way to calculate this is 6 - 2 = 4; 4 ÷ 6 = .6666 or 67%.

The formula for decreases is: where a is the original number and b is the new number after the decrease.

Another common problem occurs if something was reduced from, say, 15 to 7. We’ll say that the average daily absenteeism in a department has been reduced from 15 people per day to 7. Some will subtract 7 from 15 getting 8; then dividing 8 by 7 getting 1.14, which they translate into 114%. On the resume it might read, “Reduced absenteeism 114%.” But nothing can ever be reduced by more than 100%, or to be more accurate, 99.9999%. Reducing something from 15 to 7 equals 53% (15 - 7 = 8; 8 ÷ 15 = .53) Logic tells you that absenteeism was cut by a little more than half so you know it will be slightly above a 50% decrease.

Large Increases

With large increases you must be careful when calculating percentages. Let’s say production in a plant went from 10,000 units per year to 30,000 over a five-year period. It is easy to see that units tripled, so one would tend to say that production increased 300%. The problem is that it actually represents a 200% increase. Going from 10,000 to 20,000 was a 100% increase, and going from 20,000 to 30,000 was another 100%, for a total of 200%.

The formula for increases works just as well for large increases as it does for small ones. Remember, the formula is _. So 30,000-10,000 = 20,000; 20,000 ÷ by 10,000 = 2, or 200%.

If calculating numbers is still difficult, don’t simply decide not to include your results—get help. Those who know how to calculate such things will enjoy helping you.

Provide Proof Of Results When Possible

The value of including results, especially quantified results, has already been established. In addition to including a quantified result, it is very helpful to provide proof. The proof might include figures produced by your company, numbers that you produced but which were approved or acknowledged by your boss, or figures produced by some outside agency. Large companies in particular will often have research firms provide information for them. Companies, for example, often want to know their market share and they will use these research firms to provide it. If you were a sales manager or a regional manager and you had information indicating that on your watch market share went up significantly, you would want to mention that. Such proof can be indicated in several ways. Listing awards is one excellent way to show that your employer recognized the quality and value of your work. Below you’ll see a couple of examples.

Mechanical Engineer—For this $45 million manufacturer of latex surgical gloves, designed a total quality management program that has saved $1.5 million in the first year as documented by an internal management audit.

Operations Manager—Designed a cost saving program in the areas of shipping, warehousing, material flow, and just-in-time purchasing. Received the Corporate Gold Medal award for one of the top-five cost saving programs among the 25 plants nationwide.

ASSISTED IN/TEAM RESULTS

In most cases, if you were the key person, or one of two people heading up a taskforce, you would simply make a statement that you accomplished something: Planned, organized, and implemented a cost-saving program that reduced production costs 6.5%. If you want to share credit in your resume you might say, “As part of a cross-functional team, played a key role in reducing productions costs 6.5%.” If you feel uncomfortable taking primary responsibility for a project, you can use the phrases, instrumental in, key person in, played a key role in, or played an important role in. It might read, “Played a key role in implementing a management-by-objectives program, which increased productivity 14%.” Other terms that can work include co-authored, collaborated with, or co-led.

In resumes I often see the phrase assisted in. I rarely use it because it tends to dilute the person’s actual contribution. For example, Fred wrote “Assisted in developing a quality control program which reduced rejected circuit boards 24%.” In this case, the other person working on the program was a peer who contributed less to the success of the program than Fred. A more appropriate description would be, “Developed a quality control program which reduced rejected circuit boards by 24%.” During an interview Fred could explain that he was the primary but not the sole developer of the program.