HR Professional - August/September 2008 - (Page 16)

UPFRONT PENSIONS | PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT | TESTING COMPENSATION CHALLENGING START FOR 2008 PENSION FUNDS THIS YEAR’S BEEN A ROUGH RIDE FOR CANADIAN PENSION PLANS, WITH DECLINES NOT SEEN SINCE THE MIDDLE OF 2005, REPORTS THE MERCER PENSION HEALTH INDEX. EQUITY RETURNS WERE NEGATIVE IN CANADIAN DOLLAR TERMS IN ALMOST ALL REGIONS FOR THE SECOND QUARTER IN A ROW. A TYPICAL BALANCED PORTFOLIO WOULD HAVE RETURNED -1.0 PER CENT FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2008. CANADIAN BONDS WERE THE BEST PERFORMING ASSET CLASS IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2008, WITH THE DEX UNIVERSE BOND INDEX RETURNING 3.0 PER CENT. THIS INDEX COMPRISES SHORT-TERM, MID-TERM AND LONG-TERM BONDS, WHICH RETURNED 3.3 PER CENT, 4.0 PER CENT AND 1.7 PER CENT RESPECTIVELY. THE REPRESENTATIVE INDICES FOR ALL THE OTHER MAIN ASSET CLASSES HAD NEGATIVE RETURNS LAST QUARTER. Source: Mercer Consulting Training D O - I T-Y O U R S E L F P D The Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) recently unveiled PD in a Box, a do-it-yourself professional development HR training resource on core HR topics. Each module focuses on one HR topic, and includes PD materials for 10 participants and one instructor. The materials include a facilitator’s guide, PowerPoint presentation, participant handouts and workbooks. Users supply their own facilitator (typically someone in the organization with some background on the topic) and classroom. PD in a Box topics include diversity, employee engagement, employment branding, HR leadership, onboarding and orientation, recruitment and selection and succession planning. For more information, go to www. hrthoughtleader.com/HRTL/eLearning/ pdinabox. HIRING P S YC H O L O GY A N D E M P L OY E E P O T E N T I A L In psychological investigations into criminal behaviour, one trait is relatively constant— impulsivity. It seems criminals have a harder time with self-control than the rest of the population. Nor do the impulsive make good employees. “We ﬁnd that individuals with a higher tendency for low self-control and impulsivity may work faster, but their productivity is lower,” says Josh Isaacson, a PhD candidate at the Florida Institute of Technology. Jacobson studied correlations between background checks and personality test results of 2,500 workers who applied for jobs at an auto plant to ﬁnd if there was a cheaper alternative to background checks in snifﬁng out the criminally inclined. And it turns out there is—personality tests measuring impulsivity can usually determine who’s likely to fail a background check. Using such statements as “I am often told I do wild and somewhat unsafe things,” and “Many of my decisions are made at the very last minute,” proﬁlers found those who scored high on statements involving risk-taking and impulsivity also failed background checks 70 per cent of the time. –with files from The Globe and Mail 16 A u g u s t / S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 8 HR P R OF E S S I ON A L http://hrthoughtleader.com/HRTL/eLearning/pdinabox http://hrthoughtleader.com/HRTL/eLearning/pdinabox

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Professional - August/September 2008

HR Professional - August/September 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Contributors Leadership Matters Upfront Legal Compensation Human Capital The New Frontier On Message Strategy HR 101 Interview with Annette Veschuren Talent Management Training Work/Life Balance Off the Shelf The Last Word

HR Professional - August/September 2008

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