The Human Capital Institute (HCI) and Performance Assessment Network, a leading provider of online assessment and talent management systems, announced  that pan will sponsor HCI's Assessment and Selection learning and research track. The track is one of several topics addressed in HCI's Talent Acquisition community of interest, a community HCI considers critical to organizations working to build competitive advantage.

Deck Chairs
HR Alloy adds industry veteran Carl Benscoter to lead their business development team......Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX) today announced that Shelly Begun, 49, has been promoted to vice president of worldwide human resources...John S. Tortarolo, director of human resources at Long Beach City College for the past four years, was appointed vice president of human resource services at Palomar College...



You Should Know
Global:

• Defining the RPO Hyperbole  By assigning numeric values to RPO deals, buyers can more accurately sync their needs to the capabilities of service providers.  Depending on who you ask, the acronym RPO can stand for everything from a classical music group in upstate New York to the offshore shipping of recyclable computer components (Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Rubbish Processing Outsourcing, respectively). Even in its most commonly used form (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), there isn't an agreed-upon definition for what constitutes RPO.  An online search for recruitment process outsourcing brings up hits for companies offering everything from multi-year, enterprise-wide, total recruitment outsourcing to those providing just executive search, online resume mining, contingent worker solutions, and more. With a broad range of companies describing their offering as RPO, the market is a confusing place for buyers. (HROToday)
   
• Indian BPO firms recruiting in Britain  A leading British recruiting company for professionals in the Indian call centre industry sees "a lot of activity" in the next one year as more Western companies decide to outsource work to India.  Launch Offshore, the market leader in Britain in the sector, recruits call centre professionals in Britain for clients in India. It has so far sent 70 Britons to work in Indian call centres, and expects to send another 50 in the first quarter of 2006. (HindustanTimes)
   
• UAE and Oman in tie-up with Kerala govt recruiting agency  Authorities from the United Arab Emirates and Sultanate of Oman are arriving here soon on a recruitment drive, in a tie-up with Kerala Government-owned Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants Ltd (ODEPC).  A Kuwait delegation had held already held talks with the ODEPC for recruiting staff nurses to the country. ODEPC was now focusing on Europe to tap into the growing market for medical and paramedics, Labour Minister Babu Divakaran told reporters here yesterday. (PeninsulaOnline)
   
• Company's Threat: Quit Smoking or Leave  Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is taking its campaign to stamp out smoking among its workers to an unusual length: It's threatening to fire smokers beginning next fall.  The threat represents the latest attempt by an employer to try to reduce health-care costs by targeting smokers. In January, four employees at Weyco Inc., a small medical-benefits administrator in Okemos, Mich., lost their jobs after they refused to be tested for tobacco use. Scotts, which has 5,300 U.S. workers, is one of the largest companies to have put an outright ban on smoking even off the job. (CareerJournal)
   
• What Firms Score High  In Reputation Rankings  It takes most companies decades to build a great reputation. Google Inc. did it in seven years.  The creator of the premier Internet search engine made a striking debut this year in the annual Reputation Quotient ranking, placing third among 60 of the most prominent companies in the world. Google, which took root in a Stanford University dorm room and was founded in 1998, ranked behind No. 1 Johnson & Johnson and No. 2 Coca-Cola Co., American icons that are both more than a century old. (CareerJournal)
   
• Three Out of Five Workers Feel Trapped in Their Jobs  Employees as a whole are feeling slightly more loyal and positive about their companies' ethics, but nearly three out of five of them either feel trapped in their jobs or say they will leave them within the next two years, according to a survey released Nov. 21 by an Indianapolis-based consulting firm.  Walker Information, a customer- and employee-loyalty management company, has since 1999 conducted a biennial survey of worker attitudes. The results of the 2005 survey show a small increase in employee loyalty and employee perceptions of company ethics. The bulk of the results, however, contain less welcome news for companies: Only about one-third of workers are "truly loyal," and only four out of 10 say their companies treat them as their most important assets. (CareerJournal)
   
• Longtime friends combine skills, take recruiting into a new era Diane Smith and Jayne Kettles, longtime friends, were out socializing downtown one night in 1997 when Smith bemoaned the frustrating lack of technology in her job as a professional recruiter, or "headhunter."  "Jayne said, 'You know, Diane, there's this really great thing called the Internet. You really ought to use it, to empower the software and take it to the next generation," Smith now recalls. "I said could you build it? She said, 'Sure.'"  Now eight years later, the two friends have translated that casual conversation into a multimillion-dollar business, with customers in 80 countries. The company, VirtualEdge Corp., won't release its exact revenue, but CEO Smith said it has grown at an average of 120 percent since 1998. (Bizjournals.com)
   
• Most Job-Seekers Choose Newspapers Over the Web to Find Employment Planning on making some new hires in 2006? According to a new survey from The Conference Board, a combination of traditional newspaper advertising and online job postings may draw the most applicants. Despite the proliferation of online job boards, three out of four job-seekers still use newspapers to look for employment, according to a report released today by The Conference Board, the global research and business membership organization. The Internet, however, was not far behind, with 60 percent job-seekers using the electronic medium as part of their job search.  (Lawn and Landscape)
   
• Steady Hiring Outlook for 2006  Twenty-three percent of employers anticipate an increase in hiring activity for the first quarter of 2006, while 10 percent expect to decrease staff levels, according to a quaterly survey of 16,000 employers by Manpower, Inc.  The survey found that 61 percent of employers surveyed foresee no change in hiring plans, while 6 percent are unsure of their staffing needs. The firm says that the seasonally adjusted net employment outlook for the first three months of the year is 20 percent, identical to the fourth quarter of 2005 and nearly the same as a year ago. (BLR)
   
• 2006 Predictions for HRO: The Year of the Global Deal  As the industry matures, a cornucopia of positive developments will further span HRO growth. Expect the provider landscape to shift in the new year.  Next year will be a watershed year for human resources outsourcing. Whereas 2005 saw the customer, supplier, and consultant battle with complexity, compliance, security, and cost issues, the outcome in 2006 will see a realization of the hard work, evaluation, and investment with a succession of ground-breaking multinational contracts. Bottom-line, HRO has proved more complex than even the most cynical of us believed, but the industry has held fast to the reality that huge business benefits can be had for organizations moving towards an HRO model: focusing core people-management areas of HR, accessing better technology, and reducing unnecessary transactional and administrative overhead. (HROToday)

Ireland:

• Many primary schools ‘having trouble recruiting Principles' The Irish Primary Principles Network has claimed many primary schools are having trouble recruiting Principles because of salary problems and excessive workloads.  The organisation says 12 vacancies had to be re-advertised this year, despite offering salaries of between €70,000 and €90,000.  For teachers already in promotional posts, this amounts to a pay increase of just €100-a-week before tax.(IOL)

US:

• WOMEN AND LABOR TRENDS  After decades of the growth of women in the workforce, the trend is shifting, says the Dallas Morning News. More women are opting out of the workforce, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  Since the 1950s, demographic changes, including women marrying later and having fewer children, and time-saving household inventions, such as the dishwasher, have propelled women into the workforce.
  • In 1999, 76.8 percent of women between 25 and 54 were in the workforce, up 50 percent from about 50 years prior.
  • By 2004, the percentage had dropped to 75.3 percent, but was up slightly to 75.4 percent in the third quarter of 2005.
  • The current downward trend is mainly among married, educated women with children in higher-income families
  
  
  Economist Pia Orrenius of the Dallas Fed notes that the economic boom of the 1990s probably caused the peak in women participation to occur earlier than it otherwise would have. But some economists worry that the decline in women's participation could weaken the economy, since economic growth relies on raising productivity or adding workers. However, older workers are remaining in the workforce in greater numbers due in response to longer life spans, increasing health care costs and shrinking pension plans. (National Center for Policy Analysis)

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Survey Sez:

Manpower Employment Outlook Survey Shows Soft Hiring Outlook For Europe,  Particularly in Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Sweden

U.S. Job Prospects Remain Steady With Construction Sector Employers Reporting  Most Optimistic Outlook in 27 Years


The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today revealed that first-quarter employment prospects are expected to be strongest in India, New Zealand, Taiwan, United States and Australia. On the other hand, employers in Germany, Italy and Austria are forecasting negative hiring expectations for the quarter ahead, with their counterparts in Sweden and France reporting their weakest hiring outlooks since the survey began in these countries in the third quarter of 2003.

While 19 of 23 countries surveyed reported positive hiring outlooks for the quarter ahead, 11 of 23 were weaker compared to last year at this time and most of the lower outlooks are from European employers. The quarterly report from Manpower Inc. (MAN) is the most extensive, forward-looking employment survey in the world, gathering data from more than 45,000 employers across the globe each quarter.

"First-quarter hiring across the European labor markets we survey is typically soft, but this year it appears more pervasive, with only UK employers looking to accelerate hiring from the fourth quarter," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, chairman and CEO of Manpower Inc. "A number of labor markets in this region are currently experiencing challenging political, social and economic conditions and this is clearly having an impact on businesses' willingness and/or ability to add to their workforces. For now, at least, companies are going to continue to be cautious."

Of the 12 countries surveyed across Europe, employment prospects are strongest in the UK, Ireland, Norway, Belgium and Spain.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, hiring in Asia Pacific remains strong. Indian employers continue their solid hiring pace, albeit at a considerably reduced rate from the previous quarter, and employers in New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong, China and Japan all expect to increase hiring activity slightly from the fourth quarter of 2005. However, year-over-year decreases in hiring expectations were reported in both Hong Kong and New Zealand.

"Hiring expectations in India continue to be strongest in the finance/insurance/real estate and services industry sectors," said Joerres. "However, Indian employers are decidedly more uncertain about hiring as the data shows a 14 percent increase from fourth quarter in the number employers who don't know whether they'll add employees during the next three months. This corresponds to a slowdown from the fourth quarter across all sectors of the Indian labor market. Notably, Japanese employers reported their strongest first quarter outlook since our survey began and they anticipate hiring at the same steady pace seen over the past two quarters."

In the Americas, seasonally adjusted data indicates that slightly slower hiring is expected in six of 10 U.S. industry sectors in the first quarter, but the overall outlook for the U.S. is strong. Canadian employers, too, expect a healthy hiring pace but just slightly below the rate reported in the previous year. In Mexico, employer hiring expectations improved moderately from first quarter of 2005.

"Seasonally adjusted data indicates that U.S. job seekers can expect the same solid hiring pace that employers exhibited throughout 2005," said Joerres. "Employers are most upbeat about hiring in the construction sector where the adjusted data shows the strongest outlook in 27 years. Slightly weaker but solid hiring expectations are also expected in the U.S. manufacturing and services sectors. Both Canadian and Mexican employers have healthy hiring intentions in the services sector, with Canada's result being the most optimistic in 16 years. In addition, demand for fossil fuels is contributing to extremely vigorous hiring in the Canadian mining sector where employers reported their most optimistic outlook in the 43-year history of the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey."

The next Manpower Employment Outlook Survey will be released on the 14th of March 2006 to report hiring expectations for the second quarter of 2006.

Coming Soon

Jupiter Webinar Automated Bid Management: Tools for Search Marketers January 10, 2006 2:00pm EST, 11:00am PST Free More Info	The HR Directors Summit 2006 30-31 January 2006 Radisson Edwardian Heathrow
OnRec presents: Digital Content Forum Feb 02, 2006 Cafe Royal, London More Info £175 plus VAT Register	HR Metrics - 2006 Summit Dallas, TX February 23, 2006 $475 Register
OnRec Awards 2006 March 8, 2006 Cafe Royal, Picadilly, London £95 pounds + V.A.T Nominate A Firm or A Person More Info	ER Expo 2006 Spring San Diego, CA March 14-16, 2006 $1395 More Info Register
Staffing Industry Executive Forum March 13 - 16 The Beverly Hilton Beverly Hills, CA Brochure (516K) $1,695 Register	37th Annual Employment Management Conference March 30-April 1, 2006 Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, California $1,205 Register
Human Capital Summit Conference April 5-7, 2006, Chicago Marriott Downtown Hotel Register $1195	IHRIM: HRM Strategies 2006 April 9-12, 2006 Washington, DC $1,265 More Info Register
SHRM's 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition June 25-28 Washington, D.C. $1,350 Read more Register	2006 EREC 21-22 June 2006 ExCel London, UK Register
2006 Strategic HR Conference October 4-6, 2006 Westin Kierland Resort Phoenix, Arizona	Human Resource Executive's 9th Annual HR Technology® Conference & Exposition Oct. 4-6, 2006 Navy Pier in Chicago, IL Call For Proposals
2006 SHRM Workplace Diversity Conference October 16-18, 2006 Century Plaza Hotel and Spa Los Angeles, California	HR.com's Employers of Excellence Conference 2006 October 25 - 27, 2006 Red Rock Resort Las Vegas, Nevada Register

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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