Behavioral psychology and recruitment. Click link and read the Financial Post article.

Salad Creations, a growing global healthy-food restaurant chain, doesn't just look at resumes when hiring staff. The company says hiring right is critical especially in this economic environment. They employ behavioral psychology to help with recruitment. "Very few companies have extra cash or resources to spend on staff who are not going to add value," says David King, executive vice-president of staffing services firm Robert Half International. HR costs and payroll costs are the biggest expenses for most organizations. We've surveyed CFOs about how they stay ahead of the competition in this challenging economy and 65% said it was by having the best team in place. For a small company with a small head count this is even more important."

Click and read more about behavioral psychology and hiring.

Canadian Pension Fund takes $9 billion hit in 2008. Click and read Vancouver Sun story.

In its annual report released July 23rd. 2009, the Canadian Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which invests the proceeds of contributions for the pension plans of the Canadian Public Service, the Canadian Forces, the RCMP and the Reserve Force Pension Plan, said its consolidated net assets dropped in fiscal 2009 to $33.8 billion from $38.9 billion.The loss of $9.5 billion was offset by about $4.4 billion more in contributions during the year, resulting in a net loss $5.1 billion.

This is the second year the board’s portfolio has taken a hit. Returns dropped 0.3 per cent for fiscal 2008.Board chief executive officer Gordon J. Fyfe acknowledged that performance lagged behind other large Canadian pension plans in 2009, but said the four-year average remains at the median.Board chairman Paul Cantor said the inflow of funds is expected to exceed pension obligations for the next 21 years.“Unlike many funds, we have no pressing short-term obligations to pensioners that will force us to sell assets today at a distressed prices,” he said.

Mark Boutet, vice-president of communications for the board, said managers changed their strategy in 2004 to go into private-market assets like real estate and infrastructure. These are long-term investments, he said.

Click link above and read full Vancouver Sun story

Personality more influence on job than education: Click and read about the Australian study

The study, by researchers at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, showed that in many cases, personality, rather than education or the occupation of a person's parents, played a bigger role in determining what job people ended up with. People in managerial roles tended to be more open to experience, more conscientious but less agreeable than others in different job roles. Clerical workers were the most conscientious, but least open to change, while salespeople were the most extroverted and agreeable. Office workers were among the least conscientious, but they had high levels of emotional stability.

Click link above and read the Vancouver Sun story.

Economic recovery is underway, says Bank of Canada. Click and read the full story.

The Canadian Central Bank says that "There are now increasing signs that economic activity has begun to expand in many countries in response to monetary and fiscal policy stimulus and measures to stabilize the global financial system".The rosier tone comes a week after the Bank released two key surveys indicating businesses were the most optimistic about their future sales prospects in almost a decade, and that obtaining new loans had become less difficult.

The Central Bank said in its statement that it now projects that the economy will contract 2.3% in 2009, which is less than the 3% drop it expected in its last economic update in April 2009. The economy is then expected to grow 3% in 2010, up from its previous 2.5% projection. In 2011, the economy is set to expand 3.5%, which is down from its earlier call for a 4.7% gain.

Click the link and read the full article from the Vancouver Sun

Democracy's dashboard light is blinking

NATUC’s President Michael Annisette would have banded with his government and business colleagues at the ILO Conference in Geneva a month ago to promote worker participation and democracy. Now, in an about turn, he and Independent Senator Gail Merhair, with roots in business, have joined the government in the Senate to defeat what must be the most sacred tenet of democracy, the holding of free and fair elections.

For a fourth time the government abused its simple majority for the postponement of local government elections. What’s more alarming is the fact that it did so, on the strength of the leader of the country’s free trade union movement. Equally alarming is the fact that in answer, not one elected Municipal Corporation representative from the parties opposed to the ruling party resigned in disgust.

Click link above and read the Newsday column.

What's delaying the crime plan?

It’s a horrible thought but another 291 persons will be murdered somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago before Old Year’s Day 2009. The murder toll and the Prime Minister’s now obsessive regional integration agenda became hot topics after the June 21, 2009 PNM Convention, not because they are related — but because they are a reasonable gauge of what the Government considers to be its priority.

The prospect of 600 or more murders in 2009 must be known to the country’s Prime Minister. His focus at the convention on regional integration and not the long awaited crime plan confirmed the view that there is much distance between the public’s fear of more death to come and the political reluctance to face the problems head on.

The divide between Whitehall and the rest of the country is widening and at least 600 bodies are going to fall in that gap in 2009.

Where is the crime plan? Click the link above and read the full Newsday article.