Do You Know The Three Qualifications Needed For A Job?

NeedJob4x3 Express Employment Professionals is the 5^th largest employment service in the US. Founded in 1983, Express had sales in 2012 of $2.3B and more than 600 franchises. Per their website: “Our mission is to help people find jobs and our client companies find good employees, and to help those clients make those jobs and those employees even better.”

When Express CEO, Bob Funk was interviewed by Stephen Moore for a WSJ article (9/21/13, Where the Jobs Are—and How to Get One), he pointed out that many people are unemployable for three reasons that have nothing to do with the economy, government, CEO pay, outsourcing to China, and so on. He says, “I guarantee I can find employers tomorrow who will hire you” if you can meet only three minimal qualifications.

Want to guess what the three are? College degree—no. Technical skill—no. Movie star looks—no. Here they are:

#1 Integrity—simple: don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal.

#2 A strong work ethic—show up on time and do your job, every day.

#3 Able to pass a drug test—stay clean (one out of four applicants fail the drug test).

Imagine that. For people who are honest, willing to work, and drug free, Funk guarantees he can find them a job tomorrow. Further, Funk says “most employers will gladly train them with skills to fill higher-paying jobs.”

Funk is not saying that getting skill training is not important: “Express has as many as 20,000 jobs the company can’t fill because the workers don’t have the skills required.”

Where are those 20,000 jobs? In accounting, IT, robotics, welding and engineering. A degree in the history of southwestern native pottery will get you a job in…retail (but only if you are honest, hard working and drug free).

Funk has a lot of other interesting things to say about employment issues in America. Read the entire interview at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324492604579087044033601178.html

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