In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next this week.
A study by the National Allicance for Caregiving, conducted for the coalition, Respect a Caregivers Time (ReACT), highlights successful elder care programs at 17 U.S. employers. The study, titled Best Practices in Workplace Eldercare, was released March 29, 2012, at the “Aging in America” conference in Washington, D.C., where Holzapfel was among the speakers.
Oregon has enacted a new law that prohibits overt unemployment discrimination in job advertisements, becoming only the second state—after New Jersey—to prohibit this practice. The new ban, signed into law by Gov. John Kitzhaber on March 27, 2012, is limited in scope. It prohibits employers from publishing job advertisements that include language indicating that unemployed individuals should not apply for the job or that they will not be considered for the position. But as long as unemployment remains high, state legislatures are likely to continue to revisit this issue.
A joint survey released April 9, 2012, by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and AARP shows that U.S. employers are ramping up training programs aimed at closing expected skills gaps left when Baby Boomers retire. In addition, companies are enhancing employee benefits that they hope will help with recruiting and retaining older workers, defined by the survey as workers 50 years old and older. But fast action is needed.
Less than a third of HR professionals believe that employees are satisfied with the level of recognition they receive for doing a good job, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)/Globoforce Employee Recognition Programs Survey released April 12, 2012. In addition, the SHRM/Globoforce survey found that organizations with an employee recognition program are more likely to indicate that employees are rewarded for performance, appreciated by managers and satisfied with the recognition they receive than those without such programs.
The overall median salary in the U.S. for Class of 2012 college graduates is up 4.5 percent over the median posted by the Class of 2011, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). NACE’s April 2012 Salary Survey report shows the overall median starting salary for a bachelor’s degree graduate has risen to $42,569 for the Class of 2012, up from the final median salary of $40,735 for the Class of 2011. Data contained in the report represent accepted starting salaries (not salary offers), produced through a compilation of data derived from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and a master set of data developed by the research firm Job Search Intelligence.
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