Hiring Is Good Business During Downturns

For More Information Contact:John C. Glenn, (402) 280-1786[email protected]

STUDY SAYS HIRING IS GOOD BUSINESS DURING DOWNTURNS

For Immediate Release:

OMAHA, Neb. -- Wall Street has practiced the idea for decades. You simply buy good quality stocks at low prices when everyone else in the market is in a selling frenzy. That same principle applied to hiring is good business, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Business Research.

John R. Wingender, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Finance and Economics and professor of finance at Creighton University's College of Business Administration, is one of the authors of "Contrarian Human Resource Investments and Financial Performance After Economic Downturns."

The study says companies can gain a business advantage by hiring key managers and professionals during economic slides, when there is a greater supply of qualified personnel compared to demand. Companies can invest in human resources during downturns in a less competitive labor market by attracting high quality, key personnel, who are critical to the company's strategic projects. Superior planning is one key to countercyclical hiring (CCH). It distinguishes companies that have a real and demonstrated vision from those who are less financially successful. The study states CCH is directly related to the financial performance of a company after the strategy has been in effect for two years.

The results of the study indicated that companies that engage in CCH to avoid personnel shortages and actively pursue a policy of affirmative action improve their financial performance in two years. The study suggests that CCH shows a direct relationship between greater diversity and increased creativity, often with less litigation and noncompliance costs associated with equal employment opportunity legislation.

The authors of the study in addition to Dr. Wingender are Charles R. Greer, Ph.D., associate dean and professor of management at Texas Christian University; and Timothy C. Ireland, Ph.D., professor of management at Oklahoma State University.

Creighton University is an independent, Catholic, comprehensive university operated by the Jesuits, who have a 500 year tradition of excellence in education. Creighton has been ranked No. 1 for the past five years among Midwestern universities in the U.S. News & World Report magazine's "America's Best Colleges" edition.

Creighton enrolls more than 6,200 students of diverse faiths and races from across the United States and 65 countries. The student body is taught by 700 full-time faculty members in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Business Administration, the Graduate School, University College, and schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, Law, Medicine, Nursing and Summer Sessions.

The University is located in Omaha, Nebraska (pop. 800,000 metro area) on a 92-acre campus adjacent to the downtown business district.

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