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10/23/05
Workplace
The study, conducted by the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, found that 57 percent of American workers know someone who has dealt with domestic violence, and 44 percent have ''personally experienced'' the impact of domestic violence situations at work. The ways that domestic violence spills over into the workplace may vary, but responses to the survey showed that overall, it affects people fairly consistently at jobs requiring all levels of education. Workers with the greatest mount of education in the survey saw slightly more incidents of domestic violence situations than those with less education: 48 percent of college graduates surveyed reported direct knowledge of problems that affected co-workers, followed by 44 percent of those with some college education and 43 percent of those with a high school degree or less. Of those employees who had witnessed or experienced domestic violence in the workplace, a majority — 71 percent — believed victims they worked with lived ''in fear of discovery,'' the report said. Behavior by co-workers' partners in the workplace is often embarrassing for the victims, respondents said, and workplace friends and allies often offer support by helping out with workloads. About 31 percent of workers said they felt ''strongly'' or ''somewhat obliged'' to cover for a domestic violence victim by either performing their work or covering up their absences. Domestic violence in the workplace affects more than the victims. Of those surveyed, 38 percent said they were ''extremely'' or ''somewhat concerned'' for their own safety, often because the abusive partner would visit the workplace. In general, employers do not offer support programs for victims. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they did not know whether their company had a domestic violence policy or whether they offered support services for victims, while 31 percent said they knew none were available. Kim Wells, executive director for the alliance, said a hands-off policy by employers on domestic violence issues is unhealthy for employees who need help. ''Because domestic violence's impact does not end at the office front door, America's employers need to take action,'' she said in a statement released with the study.
Education Getting a degree online won't place you as far back in the resume pile as it used to, according to a survey by Vault Inc., a New York career media firm. The company's Online Degrees Survey took a look at how employers treat job candidates with online degrees in comparison with those who hold traditional degrees. The result: 85 percent of employers said they felt that online degrees are taken more seriously today than they were only five years ago. Yet, most employers still have not encountered an employee with an online degree — only 34 percent have — and only 20 percent have hired an applicant with a nontraditional degree. While online degrees, which are often but not always offered by colleges and universities with traditional campuses and programs, are gaining more clout on the American workplace landscape, just over half of the employers surveyed, or 54 percent, said they would still favor a job applicant with a traditional degree. One employer response to the survey indicated that online degrees were gaining somewhat wider acceptance, at least because of the intense amount of independent study required with Internet courses, where most students have limited interaction with professors. A smaller group of 45 percent said they would consider the two types of education equally for potential employees, while 14 percent said online degrees were unacceptable substitutes for traditional education.
On the job The study found that a majority of employers complained of recently hired young workers having ''fair'' or ''uneven'' skills, with 38 percent answering the former and 25 percent the latter. Only 22 percent of employers rated new workers as having ''excellent'' or ''good'' preparation for their job, which includes everything from college education to trade school and on-the-job training programs, although the survey was intended to focus on the ability of the state's high schools to prepare students for the workforce. Younger workers are outperforming their older counterparts in computer skills throughout a variety of industries. They also impressed employers with strong basic literacy and math skills. Older employees, however, please their superiors with better personal skills, including getting to work on time, taking responsibility for their actions, and keeping their work organized. The state's less seasoned workers also lack the critical thinking and problem-solving skills of their older counterparts. ''These findings indicate that for the substantial proportion of high school graduates who go straight into the world of work, preparation in strictly academic fields is less of an issue than their lack of soft skills,'' said Andre Mayer, a senior vice president at AIM. ''The good showing of these your workers, often from less advantaged backgrounds, on computer literacy points to the successful introduction of information technology into our schools in recent years.''
The survey looked at responses from a large number of managers and human resources specialists from around the globe and found what employees took issue with most often in their corporate leadership development programs. Employees were also unhappy with the content of leadership development courses, citing that it was inadequate. Employees in the survey also expressed displeasure with a lack of an appropriate reward system for lower-level workers within a number of corporations. Nathan Hurst can be reached at nhurst@globe.com
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