Don’t buy, hire online… High potential staff neglected… Blogzilla

Don’t buy, hire online

Here’s a cheap way to promote your goods for hire. New Zealand-based Hire Things is like an eBay for renting goods, reports Springwise.

The company is an enterprising mash-up of two major trends: minipreneurs (consumers turning into entrepreneurs) and transumers (consumers becoming less interested in owning).

Users register on the website, list and price items, and choose what to display publicly and what to make visible only to your “trust network”. Users receive an email when a prospective customer submits a booking request, with the estimated costs calculated automatically by Hire Things.

The service is currently free as traffic builds, but the site will soon start charging for successful bookings, beginning at 5% for bookings up to $NZ100. Hire Things plans to establish similar marketplaces in Australia, Britain and other countries.

Companies are failing to nurture high potential

Half of employers surveyed by recruitment group Hudson have a so-called high potential program that identifies and develops top performers on staff. Businesses report high levels of satisfaction with the programs: 99.8% of employers with such a program say it benefits their business, reports The Australian Financial Review.

The programs are thought to boost staff engagement and morale because they are proof that effort is rewarded. The programs can involve accelerated learning workshops, mentoring development and rotating people through different divisions. The general rule is to identify the top 2% to 3% of rising stars and develop them.

Who has the most blogs?

If more blogs means more international influence, of the fast-growing eastern economies China is winning. Salon.com reports that Foreign Policy magazine has earned the ire of the Indian blog the Acorn by unflatteringly comparing the purported total number of Chinese bloggers – 30 million – with Indian bloggers – 1.2 million.

The Acorn does some statistical analysis aimed at demonstrating that the real problem is the lack of internet and computer penetration in India, and a reasonably interesting discussion is taking place in the comments area, writes Salon.com. The question is important because many social scientists are using blog numbers as a measure of personal liberties, education, enlightenment, internet access and so on.

But as the author points out, what matters to most is whether you can read them, and many Indian blogs are in English – which means more people in the west can read them.