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« Back to the July/August 2007 Explorer newsletter
What’s Hot & What’s Not
July/August 2007
Compiled by Mark C. Healy
Recent reports and happenings that affect your world. Rocket-Hire keeps an ear to the ground to learn what’s changing.
Hot
It’s getting hard to find good teenagers, as detailed in a report summarized in USA Today and published last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the BLS, about 49% of teens were working or looking for a job in June, down from nearly 52% last year. Why the small but tangible drop? Apparently, a rise in household net worth has taken some kids off the market due to simple lack of economic pressure, whereas others may be focusing more on school. This trend comes in the midst of a labor shortage in retail and the broader service sector in most areas of North America.
An interesting aside about young job seekers comes from a recent San Diego Union-Tribune article, regarding “helicopter parents” – well known from emotion-laden soccer games. A recent survey of parental involvement in hiring found that “31% of parents submitted a resume on behalf of their child” and 15% actually complained when their kid wasn’t hired. It’s a palpable clash of our own personal theories about “good parenting” and our work in recruitment and selection: Regardless of how much a devoted mom or dad can help in life, what are your impressions of this overt involvement by parents? Do you feel positive about an applicant with a strong support, or are your best future employees those that know when to “cut the cord?” Sounds like a research question to us…
Not
The recent FedEx employee discrimination settlement provides a few lessons about the legal defensibility of hiring tools. FedEx was forced to settle with a group of plaintiffs who alleged racial bias in the firm’s use of a “Basic Skills Test” to promote entry-level workers into better jobs. The test, a mix of job-related logic, reading comprehension, and math questions, appears to have what Industrial Psychologists call “content validity” (or “job relatedness”) with fairly sophisticated items that use actual, common job duties as the basis for much of the assessment. Still, the class counsel showed that 47% of African-Americans passed compared to a Latino rate of 62%, with 86% of Whites passing. So there was clear violation of the “4/5ths Rule” (which isn’t actually an enforceable regulation or law.) But couldn’t have FedEx shown a relationship between scores on the test and job performance, thereby buttressing their defense? No, because they apparently never performed a validity study linking scores to job performance. But who really won? The attorneys, who received $15 million of the $55 million kitty. Uber-Blogger George Lenard says it’s all about these legal specialists, who are leading an increase in hiring litigation.
Hot
Upcoming events of interest: For your pre-Halloween conferencing, check out the SIOP Fall Consortium—Enabling Innovation in Organizations: The Leading Edge on Oct 26–27, 2007 in Kansas City, MO...Rocket-Hire Founder Charles Handler and analyst Mark Healy will be presenting a workshop on using global competency models at the ERE Global Expo in Amsterdam in mid-November. So be prepared with a heavy coat and come learn about the deployment of standardized assessment worldwide.
Not
How has this year’s most notorious restructuring played out? The Circuit City hiring aftermath is becoming much clearer now that it has been three months since the big retailer decided to lay-off over 3,000 experienced sales professionals in favor of cheaper and less-experienced floor staff. For one, their stock is hovering around its 52-week low point of about $15. In fact, it’s trading at its lowest point in over two years. Also, they reported a large drop-off in sales of extended warranties, something directly affected by their employees’ sales ability and experience. Its larger competitors, including Best Buy, are doing better, so this isn’t an industry-wide trend. Whether their strategy was short- or long-term, it’s difficult to predict if the move toward warm bodies instead of skilled retail professionals will truly work for Circuit City’s new self-serve approach and more aggressive pricing strategy.
Briefly: Hot or Not?
The longtime corruption in hiring in the City of Chicago is being outsourced. About a dozen firms have expressed interest in a chance to handle pre-employment testing and assessment work for the City, though how much has not yet been determined. Already completed in Chicago’s quest to revise their questionable hiring practices is a renaming of “Personnel” to “Human Resources.” Insert your own cynical comment here. Do you work for an assessment firm that could help Chicago change its ways? Take some initiative and download the RFP here.
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