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What’s Hot & What’s Not

Recent reports and happenings that could affect your world. Through our extensive research channels, Rocket-Hire keeps an ear to the ground to learn what’s changing.

HOT or NOT?: Let’s See if We Have this Right: No Job Boom for the Foreseeable Future?

Manpower Inc. has just released its earnings forecast and predictions for the 3rd Quarter employment and job growth situation, and prospects are mixed at best. Specifically, the predicted big growth spurt in hiring has not yet occurred – and probably won’t before the end of this year. Moreover, the best to be hoped for is a steady expansion as long as concerns over interest rates and the price of energy keep corporate hiring in the cautious zone.

As we’ve noted before in this column, it’s difficult to digest all of this news and apply it to one’s own personal employment situation or predict hiring trends for a specific company or industry. Both the overall economy and the labor market of the 21st century have been marked by a “wait and see” approach since the end of the late 90’s boom, and this looks to be our mantra at least as long as the hot weather continues.

If you still haven’t read enough news and statistics about job growth, click here.

HOT: ZERORISK HR, Inc. Announces Partnership with InfoLink Screening

Zerorisk HR, Inc has announced yet another partnership in a year of many agreements among assessment vendors. They have partnered with InfoLink Screening Services to marry background check and medical testing results to their behavioral assessment products.

Zerorisk HR features a line of web-based products that focus primarily on assessing a candidate’s emotional intelligence competencies via behavioral interviewing. InfoLink, on the other hand, features a Web-based service that allows users to request background information searches on job candidates and retrieve and archive background screening, drug testing, and physical exam reports.

More at http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/8/emw147207.htm

NOT HOT: Can hiring a superstar backfire? Most poor hiring decisions backfire.

Alison Stein Wellner has a unique take on the drawbacks of hiring “superstars” in August’s Inc. Magazine. Based on recent research by Harvard professors Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda, and Nitin Nohria, she details examples of highly-touted and high-priced professionals who ended up performing poorly and damaging their new company financially. The reason: most of these high performers couldn’t recreate their great job performance in a different organizational culture in a new job requiring a different skill set.Hiring superstars for the most important jobs probably has

greater financial implication than does hiring for entry-level positions; however, the key issue underlying Inc.’s superstar failures applies to any role. Even the most talented employee may be set up for failure when an organization has neither carefully detailed the requirements of a work role nor systematically compared job candidates to those requirements.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040801/managing.html

HOT in the UK: Job Growth in IT not just an American Trend

Job growth is a hot issue all over the world. In the United Kingdom, the Information Technology function has experienced dramatic job growth, with openings in both corporate and contract positions growing rapidly. Moreover, our friends across the Atlantic are seeing particularly brisk growth in the Electronics/Communications industry sector.

Read more, and increase your Global Awareness competency at the same time. Full details and complete data are available at: http://www.onrec.com/content2/news.asp?ID=4734

TOO HOT? More UK thoughts

Stagnating job growth is not just a concern here in the U.S. For a not-too-glowing perspective from across the sea: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3542238.stm

NOT HOT in History: The Chicago Police Hiring Scandal of 1897

It used to be that all hiring scandals were local. Few cities have lived up to that tradition like Chicago. Imagine firing police officers because of their political loyalty to the new Superintendent of Police. Then imagine what transpired after that. This occurred just a little over 100 years ago.

If you are a fan of US history, hiring, or both, check out http://www.alchemyofbones.com/stories/police.htm for an in-depth look at a scandal that exemplifies the long, infamous history of personnel tomfoolery in the Windy City.