Benefit strategies

U.S. companies hired more workers than expected in July, but continued weakness in the manufacturing sector pointed to sluggish economic growth.

Ask a roomful of HR leaders to name their biggest stressors and some interesting answers float up – sometimes literally. A new social experiment by Impact Group suggests that, as the economy recovers, these practitioners are engaging in some big-picture thinking, and their worries may only be ballooning.

Traditional job titles are soon to be a thing of the past at Noblis, a nonprofit research organization based in Falls Church, Va. The company - named to the Great Place to Work Institute's 2011 Best Medium Workplaces list - employs about 800 scientists, engineers, researchers and technology experts who work with public and private sector clients in the areas of health care, national security, transportation, energy, and environmental sustainability and telecommunications.

United Continental Holdings Inc’s quarterly profit slid 37%, hit by higher fuel bills and labor costs from its messy and long merger of United and Continental airlines.

Detroit’s mayor recently imposed 10% pay cuts on city workers and found other savings from benefits in a bid to save the city’s cash-strapped coffers $102 million a year.

Public pension funds are expected to report poor annual returns in the coming weeks, results that are likely to increase calls for more realistic retirement promises for teachers, police officers and other public workers.

Although most multinationals anticipate major global mobility challenges over the next two to three years, a new survey from Towers Watson and Worldwide ERC found that nearly half of them expect to increase traditional international assignments over the same period.

Pennsylvania is joining a growing movement across U.S. states to overhaul public pensions, but even while the state’s governor says the need for reform is urgent, he advocates action only after great deliberation.

The aggregate deficit in pension plans sponsored by S&P 1500 companies grew $59 billion in the first half of 2012 to $543 billion, according to new figures from Mercer Investment Consulting, Inc. This deficit corresponds to an aggregate funded ratio of 74% as of June 30, 2012 compared to a funded ratio of 75% as of December 31, 2011, at which point the aggregate deficit was $484 billion.

Recognizing an employee for a job well done can be a big morale booster and doesn’t have to cost a lot.

Education and health care retirement plans are using more target date funds and Roth features in their plans, according to the latest 403(b) plan sponsor survey from the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA).

If the latest jobs data could sing, the song would be “Summertime Blues.”

Unlike summer blockbusters “The Amazing Spider-Man,” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” benefits practitioners won’t find any superheroes featured in “Murder by Proxy: How America Went Postal.” Unfortunately, though, there still are plenty of literal and figurative villains in the documentary, which aims to give HR/benefit professionals meaningful insight into workplace violence.

The growing trend among employers to enforce companywide social media policies has sparked the birth of the Password Protection Act of 2012. The new legislation prevents companies from requiring employees to provide access to their personal social networking accounts. While many companies may create a social media policy to protect their corporate reputation, a new Workplace Options and Public Policy Polling survey of American workers shows that companies who scrutinize their employees' personal accounts and social media activity may be doing more harm than good.

With the movement from traditional paid leave plans to paid time-off banks, many employers may wonder if the switch is effective in managing employee absences. Nearly one in five employees in the United States receive leave in the form of a PTO bank, but the contours of such policies are often little understood - especially outside of the human resources community, according to a new study out by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and CLASP, a nonprofit that works to improve the economic security of low-income families.

Nearly 60% of HR and recruiting executives, directors and managers in a nationwide survey consider social media networks like LinkedIn and Facebook the next big wave in reaching a greater number of qualified candidates.

“The current generation has stumbled on an incredibly powerful and important model for changing the world and the workplace: the network.”

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brought the crowd to its feet in a standing ovation at the opening keynote session of this year’s Society for Human Resource Management conference being held in Atlanta this week.

New compensation regulations adopted in the U.S., U.K. and other countries following the financial crisis are causing global financial services companies to focus on talent management and rewards beyond pay to help them attract, retain and engage top talent in today’s environment, according to a poll of financial services executives conducted by Towers Watson. The poll also finds that companies are evenly divided on the impact that the current regulatory environment is having on risk taking in the industry.

Companies that measure corporate culture have more engaged and committed employees, according to the results of a study from Critical Metrics, LLC. The findings also revealed that although most employees and senior leaders think that measuring corporate culture is important, few companies measure it, and even fewer do it well.