- This job is not currently available.
- This job is not currently available.
As the talent shortage in the US looms, more older workers are bypassing retirement to remain in the workforce, retirees are coming out of retirement and rejoining the workforce, and many of the over 50 crowd are changing jobs. But what many older job seekers find out the hard way is that the job search has changed dramatically since the last time they put themselves on the job market, which in some cases may have been decades ago.
links inline
According to figures released the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2007 was a record year for racial harassment cases, racking up nearly 7,000 claims by year’s end. And if the recent news about Conectiv Energy’s recent $1.65 million discrimination settlement is any indication, the upward trend in racial harassment claims doesn’t seem likely to die down anytime soon.
links inline
It is well known that many companies are challenged in their diversity recruiting efforts, but it can be even more challenging for companies to retain their valued diversity employees. As we slide further towards what seems to be an inevitable recession, more companies may have to cut back on benefits and perks, many of which are used as incentives to attract and retain diversity employees.
links inline
Although demographic trends are clearly indicating an increased presence of older workers in the US workforce as workers return to work from retirement or remain at their jobs past retirement age, ageist language is apparently still prevalent in many workplaces.
According to a recent analysis of age-discrimination conducted by Bob McCann of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Howard Giles of the University of California Santa Barbara, the use of ageist language has damaging effects for both companies and their employees.
links inline
According to a new online survey of more than 2,500 senior HR and training executives in the U.S. and Canada by Boston-based consulting firm Novations Group, more employers have broadened their diversity efforts because of the impact of globalization. Forty one percent of executives surveyed said their organization had either broadened the scope of its diversity and inclusion programs because of increasing globalization or planned to do so in the near future.
This is great news, especially considering the widespread fear of a coming recession, which many companies and employees already believe that the nation has entered. In such seemingly difficult economic times, one might expect companies to do the opposite and contract their diversity efforts to save money.
links inline
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling in the Roommates.com housing discrimination case, finding that a website may be found liable for violating fair housing laws by matching roommates according to gender, sexual orientation and parenthood. The 8-3 ruling by the San Francisco based appeals court said that Federal law protecting websites "was not meant to create a lawless, no-man's land on the Internet."
Barring an appeal to the US Supreme Court, an option which the owners of the site have said they would consider, Roommates.com can now be brought to trial for allegedly violating anti-discrimination laws.
links inline
According to a recent study on workplace ridicule, sexually inappropriate comments were heard almost twice as much in 2007 as they were in 2006. Novations Group, a business performance consulting group, and International Communications Research Media conducted a telephone survey of 546 employed Americans and found that 38 percent of women respondents to the survey heard sexually inappropriate remarks at work in 2007, an increase of 16 percent over 2006.
links inline
Even though workplace diversity has been on a constant rise, in many US offices, diversity employees are few and far between. This may cause some diversity employees to feel out of place, they may find it difficult to mesh with others in the workplace, and find it difficult to adjust to the corporate culture.
Diversity employees, particularly in an office where they are underrepresented, need to find ways to fit in because fitting in within any organization is usually detrimental to an employee’s success or failure.
links inline
The Society for Human Resource Management has found that most organizations believe workplace diversity is important, but only 30 percent have an official definition of it, and most respondents said there is no common language to guide companies in managing their diversity efforts. The survey asked more than 1,400 HR professionals and diversity practitioners to rate how well their company's diversity practices accomplished their specific business objectives.
links inline
On March 17, 2008, New York will have its first African American governor, one of only two currently serving (the other is Deval Patrick of Massachusetts), and one of only four Black governors in US history. While I can’t say much for the seedy circumstances which brought down his predecessor and opened up the path for David A. Patterson to take the helm in the Empire State, the fact that New York is set to have not only an African American governor, but also a disabled governor (Patterson is legally blind) is noteworthy.
links inline
