Human Resources and Personnel In the 1970s and 1980s, loyalty to the company was an important aspect in careers. Sometimes referred to as the “psychological contract,” it meant “if I do my job the company will take care of me.” After the downsizings of the early 1990s, loyalty to companies disappeared. Now companies are beginning to understand the importance of loyalty. In The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, & Lasting Value by Reichheld and Teal, published by the Harvard Business School in 2001, Reichheld contends that employees who understand their contribution and value to the whole of the organization's processes are far happier and more productive than the disenfranchised employee. The role of human resources managers in recruiting, screening, interviewing, hiring and retaining employees is a critical success factor today. The cost of hiring and training can easily be in excess of $25,000 per person, an expense that impacts bottom-line profits. Creative approaches to finding, selecting, and keeping the right employees are part of being a successful human resources manager. Personnel recruiting has changed dramatically within the last 10 years. Today, the Internet plays a much larger role in finding qualified applicants. The Internet speeds the process, provides more detailed job descriptions and requirements, and interfaces with databases easily. Personnel agencies who once only provided clerical support, now offer doctors, lawyers, and CEOs on an interim basis. Some companies have decided on the strategy of only hiring nonprofessional staff on a temporary basis. This gives the company 6 months of experience with a potential employee before needing to decide whether to offer them a position as an employee. This has two advantages: it is quicker and less expensive. The much publicized “downsizing” of the 1980s and early 1990s has obscured the fact that the challenge facing American companies in the late 1990s and beyond will be to cope with an increasingly short supply of skilled workers. Successful companies have embraced valuing diversity, and recruit accordingly. The term diversity includes race, gender, culture, age, religion, education, physical condition, sexual orientation, and other distinguishing characteristics. Changes in the United States workforce are largest in the age and race of workers. Workers are working longer hours, and that will continue as social security has begun raising the benefit qualification age. The white, non-Hispanic, segment of the population has been declining, and by 2020 will comprise only 64% of the total United States population (Shaping Texas, 1995). As part of employee testing and selection, drug testing is a much larger issue than most realize. The importance of drug testing cannot be overlooked. A recent government report indicates that 70% of drug users hold full-time jobs (as cited in American Psych.