When human interaction is viewed through the lens of the economist, it is presupposed that
all individuals act in accordance with their self-interest. Moreover, individuals are assumed to
be cognizant of the self-interest motivations of others and can form unbiased expectations
about how these motivations will guide their behavior. Conflicts of interest naturally arise.
These conflicts are apparent when two individuals form an agency relationship, i.e. one
individual (principal) engages another individual (agent) to perform some service on his/her
behalf. A fundamental feature of this contract is the delegation of some decision-making
authority to the agent. Agency theory is an economic framework employed to analyze these
contracting relationships. Jensen and Meckling (1976) present the first unified treatment of
agency theory.
Unless incentives are provided to do otherwise or unless they are constrained in some other
manner, agents will take actions that are in their self-interest. These actions are not
necessarily consistent with the principal’s interests. Accordingly, a principal will expend
resources in two ways to limit the agent’s diverging behavior: (1) structure the contract so as
to give the agent appropriate incentives to take actions that are consistent with the principal’s
interests and (2) monitor the agent’s behavior over the contract’s life. Conversely, agents may
also find it optimal to expend resources to guarantee they will not take actions detrimental to
the principal’s interests (i.e. bonding costs). These expenditures by principal and/or agent may
be pecuniary/non-pecuniary and are the costs of the agency relationship.
Given costly contracting, it is infeasible to structure a contract so that the interests of both the
principal and agent are perfectly aligned. Both parties incur monitoring costs and bonding
costs up to the point where the marginal benefits equal the marginal costs. Even so, there will
be some divergence between the agent’s actions and the principal’s interests. The reduction in
the principal’s welfare arising from this divergence is an additional cost of an agency
relationship (i.e. ”residual loss”). Therefore, Jensen and Meckling (1976) define agency costs
as the sum of: (1) the principal’s monitoring expenditures; (2) the agent’s bonding
expenditures; and (3) the residual loss.
Barnea et al. (1985) divide agency theory into two parts according to the type of contractual
relationship examined – the economic theory of agency and the financial theory of agency.
The economic theory of agency examines the relationship between a single principal who
provides capital and an agent (manager) whose efforts are required to produce some good or
service. The principal receives a claim on the firm’s end-of-period value. Agents are
compensated for their efforts by a dollar wage, a claim on the end-of-period firm value, or
some combination of the two.
With the demand for talent so very strong you would think that niche skills would prioritise over bad interviews techniques? Wrong!
Employers are telling us that they would still rather have a shortfall on talent than hire the wrong person. Senior employees and experienced staff members have a follow on effect to junior and other team members. By hiring the wrong person you might find that you will be looking for more staff very soon indeed.
Key points for the employer to consider when hiring are:
• Why did this person leave? If you know this answer you must use this information, if it was the fault of the firm then make sure it doesn’t happen again. Do not brush things on under the carpet as history has a habit of repeating itself.
• If you do not know why the employee left, then you really should consider conducting a termination interview where you can have an informal talk with the employee before they leave. Many firms use a HR company to do this if they do not have sufficient resources themselves.
• Decide how you are going to hire this time; it may be better to be low key and use a specialise recruitment agency that can specifically find you a person with a valid motive and skills rather than try to decipher potential employees from the masses that could apply.
• Decide what you want as a firm wish list of skills and personality before you start interviewing. Make a mental note now to write this list down. You’d be surprised how many people interview without having a set skill list of particulars they need the candidate to possess. By not being prepared it’s a dangerous method of interviewing.
• Plan your time line of how you will interview and when you will reject candidates. Many candidates that work in your sector will hold memory of how they are treated if they are unsuccessful in their application; how you handle your recruitment and “declines” is extremely important if you want to keep a good personal and company reputation.
• If there is more than one decision maker involved in the decision making process of hiring don’t go ahead and book your job advert unless you are all agreed on the same preferred outcome.
• Lastly, look to see what other similar employers are offering in terms of pay and benefits before you start to advertise, interview or commit to your recruitment.
Find out the right information about the employment markets, pay rates and candidates at financejobs for accounts jobs and financial accountancy employment.
Finance and accounting skills are still in high demand and pressures from overseas employers are intensifying domestic skills shortages. Financejobs.co.nz is seeing high numbers of newly qualified accountants accepting positions overseas in Australia and this is leading to severe shortages of mid-level professionals.
This AU exodus is a serious concern because the number of people choosing to study accounting has remained flat over the last decade and there are no known immediate changes to mediate this. There has not been an increase in the supply of qualified labour at a time when demand for finance skills has escalated.
The flow-on effect is intense competition for available candidates and this is putting upwards pressure on salary levels. Shortages are most prevalent at the junior and mid-levels, although the broader skills crisis extends across the entire finance industry.
From a New Zealand viewpoint, the highest levels of finance employment growth have occurred in Auckland and Christchurch.
Companies undertaking exploration projects and expansion plans are hiring finance and accounting staff to support growth. This is driving demand for financial accountants, management accountants and business analysts
Our Marketplace information
• Highest demand is for contractors with skills with financial analysis skills, business analysis skills in audit & tax.
• Chartered accountants from the Big 4 accounting firms with 3-5 years’ experience
are at a premium.
• At the senior end of the market, candidates with Asia Pacific experience are attractive to employers, specifically in the areas of change management, strategic review and internal control.
• High demand for mid-level financial accountants, management accountants,
business analysts and systems accountants which is reflective of similar shortages in the permanent jobs market.
Find Accounts jobs and financial management work via financejobs.co.nz the jobboard for NZ and AU
How do some professionals seem to get ahead with their career? Is it luck, good fortune or who they know? Well to some extent it is to do with who you know, but for most it’s because they know that you have to let people be able to offer you your next job rather than have to go and find it yourself.
If you are sought after, instead of a job seeker you can command so much more in terms of salary and remuneration package.
If you are a student for example and looking to start your career in finance or accountancy for example then you need to tell people, organizations, recruiters who you are and why they should hire you. These days it’s not enough to go through the “milk round” the best and key positions have already been snapped up.
To succeed you need to register with some key job boards. Remember though you don’t want to plaster your cv details wide and far but be careful in how you choose to distribute your CV details. So if you have been studying finance and accounts for example make sure you choose a recruiter or job board that specializes in accountancy and financial markets. A good example of a specialist jobboard is Financejobs.co.nz they specialize in NZ and AU finance and accounts jobs and have a wide range of recruiters and employers that use them to fill their job vacancies. If I was a student looking for finance work i’d register free straight away and make sure that my best CV was uploaded so employers could find me rather than wait for ad response.
The other key advice to take on board is that when you are applying for positions, to make sure that your CV is relevant to the position that you are applying for. I would highly recommend that you “design” several CV’s for the specific positions that you are interested in, use the keywords for the type of work that you “want” to do rather than leaving them out. Many recruiters will base their searches on the skills they need, by doing this you are likely to get shortlisted even if you don’t have the experience! After all if you don’t get interviews how will you get the job!
For experienced and key employee’s it may have been sometime since you were actively job seeking, I’d highly recommend keeping your options open especially if you are working in finance or accounts sectors; you can quickly find that companies are going bust, merging, or making redundancies. So get your CV updated and keep all your options open.
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An in-depth study by me proved that online dating websites are not always worth their outrageous monthly fees. Many members sign up for online dating website not just for one month but for a longer period of 3 to 6 months – which would nearly cost you anywhere between $50 to $200, but its not always possible to find the suitable match irrespective of much you spend money on a date you met at an online dating website. Many people have also reported paid Online Dating website, creates fake profile with beautiful girls, so as to make all members pay for the services and later when they try to contact the person – They never receive any replies from them. And I feel pity for the guys who paid lot of money just to talk to the women in the fake profile. Yet many believe, online dating is much appropriate for seniors as it is very easy for them meet people hundreds of other local person (And you don’t have to be a senior for that to be true—few people enjoy trying to find dates in dark, loud bars.). You must be really smart to make Online Dating work for you.
The Better Business Bureau reported a sharp increase in complaints about online dating websites earlier this year, and recommends being wary of advertisements that claim “exclusive” communities or other potential exaggerations. A massive slowdown in the US market due to many banks filing for bankruptcy, website showing Website usage statistics is showing all the major paid online dating sites have big declines. It looks like during a depression people don’t flood to free online dating sites. People aren’t going to use a free dating site or spend $20.00 on a paid one when they have to worry about spending $100+ on dates or dating someone. And many paid dating sites to cope with the decline has started displaying Ads on their website too.
1. Date.com is displaying banner ads now for other dating sites.
2. Singlesnet.com is now displaying banner ads for other dating sites.
Top US Dating Search Terms in June according to hitwise are as follows.
1. match.com 4.67%
2. plentyoffish 3.40%
3. plenty of fish 2.63%
4. singlesnet.com 2.48%
5. singlesnet 2.18%
6. adam4adam 1.79%
7. eharmony 1.41%
8. plentyoffish.com 1.37%
9. www.plentyoffish.com 1.21%
10. datehookup 1.09%
Google Trends for Websites…
Finally a site that measures traffic globally for free…
Plentyoffish comes in as the second largest free online dating site globally in terms of unique visitors. POF is english speaking world only, but Match.com sure has a huge following in spanish speaking countries.
Okcupid got 3 million signups off one $15,000 ad buy. Wow the rest of the dating industry needs to spend $15 Million for those kind of results. Match.com only has 20 million members, if OKcupid spends ONLY $90,000 on marketing they will have more members.
About : Quest Minerals & Mining acquires and operates energy and mineral related properties in the southeastern part of the United States. Quest is a holding company for Quest Energy, Ltd., and Gwenco, Inc. Gwenco leases over 700 acres of coal mines, with approximately 12,999,000 tons of coal in place. In 2007 Gwenco had reopened Gwenco’s deep mine at Pond Creek and has begun production at the Pond Creek seam.
I played this stock for in month of September for a very quick profit flip. My hands are eager to click on that buy button one more time, as In a couple of weeks QMNM will be filing their 3Q 10Q.
Here is some more DD, which makes me holdback before I jump into a blunder again.
Reverse stock splits aren’t pretty. They are admissions of failure. They are public declarations that certain companies can’t dig their way out of the pocket change muck on their own. Keeping this in mind, QMNM did 2 R/S’s the second half of last year. The latest one was just days before Christmas. If you ask me, that was an outright slap in the face of the shareholders. This should gives you a very good idea what type of guy Eugene is.
On the other hand, for decades, studies have shown that companies that repurchase 5%-10% of their shares outperform the market. Value investors consider buybacks one of the most reliable signals of an undervalued stock. HOWEVER, there are four reasons companies buy back their stock, and only one that helps shareholders…
1) When executives are paid with stock options instead of cash, the company dilutes shareholder value. So management can initiate a buyback to avoid shareholder complaints. But it’s really just a roundabout way to pay themselves bonuses.
2) When those executives redeem their options for shares, management can buy the shares back at better prices than they would have received otherwise. This is called a “very nefarious conduct.”
3) Rather than get locked into a raised dividend, the company wants a one-time share repurchase to return value to shareholders. But, if a stock yields 2%, buying back a share costs 50 years of dividends! This type of buyback accounts for the vast majority of today’s repurchases.
4) If management determines shares are undervalued, it can start a buyback program to remove shares from the market… and long-term investors are rewarded with leveraged returns. (When a company reduces the number of shares, each remaining share represents a greater percentage of the company and a greater percentage of future earnings.)
The above host is In my humble opinion only.
I have decided to take a 3-month course at Edinburgh University in Scotland which will round my studies off so that I can eventually get a decent, well-paid job.
During that time I will have to work to keep up payments for school and I have been speaking to a couple of companies in the area that are linked to the University. One is a company that provides office space in Edinburgh and the other is a research lab, concentrating on fiscal studies.
Edinburgh has such a great financial background that it would be silly for me to turn the research position down, as I am sure that it would make me some great contacts for the future.
With all of the financial studies that I will be doing, I think it may be overkill for me to take a financial part time job, so I am going to do something different and take up the position with the company that will teach me about the wonderful world of office space.
It’s different, I suppose!
I came across a site yesterday that looked like a clone of gumtree, but was just for office space classifieds.
I thought that this was a bit strange, as I didn’t think that it was a good enough subject to have a whole classified ads-style site on its own.
It seems to be pretty well used though - there are plenty of advertisements on there, and there are always niches in almost any subject matter that you can think of, but this seemed to be extremely niche.
Here is an example Manchester office space classified ad from the site. The ad itself even doesn’t have that much to say for itself, but someone, somewhere, must be interested!
Each to their own, I say.