• Why companies can't ignore elder-care demands
  Employers are losing $17 billion a year from employees missing work because of elder-care issues, yet companies don't seem to be worried about addressing caregiver demands, Rex Huppke writes. Part of the problem is that society isn't inclined to discuss issues such as aging and death, but communicating can help workers establish better schedules to handle elder-care issues and miss less work, Huppke writes. Chicago Tribune (6/17)      

• 5 reasons the candidate experience matters
  The first impression that many professionals get of your company may come from your job board, so make sure it's not "clunky," Meghan Biro writes. Also, poor recruitment processes can damage relationships with current talent, as employees who deliver referrals may become frustrated if the people they recommend slip through the cracks. Forbes (6/18)      

• Why you don't want workaholics at your company
  Employees should be encouraged to turn off their work sometimes, because trying to labor 24/7 can damage their productivity, health and well-being in the long term, Josh Tolan writes. He writes that a workaholic’s priority list will "quickly become disheveled as their work-related items drive the disappearance of previously meaningful tasks." TLNT.com (6/15)      

• Midsized employers offer community-focused perks
  Some midsized employers are using perks to make employees feel involved in their community. For example, employees at State Bank & Trust, based in North Dakota, are given $1,000 annually to donate to a charity of their choice. Employees of Right at Home, based in Minnesota, are offered a night out at a dinner theater. Star Tribune (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) (6/17)      

• GM retirees group raises outcry over pension switch to annuity
  Salaried retirees from General Motors have sent a letter to GM CEO Dan Akerson blasting the company's move to swap their pension for monthly annuity payments. The retirees who turn down a lump-sum pension buyout would get annuity checks from Prudential. The move would get the pension obligations off GM's books, but salaried workers say it puts their retirement benefits at risk. Detroit Free Press (6/16)      

• Editorial: Congress should outlaw workplace bias based on sexual orientation
  More than half of the U.S. population lives in regions where there are no laws to protect gays, lesbians and transgender individuals from workplace discrimination, but this could change if Congress passes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Los Angeles Times argues. Congress has outlawed bias based on race and gender, but not sexual orientation, even though there is "strong evidence that gay and lesbian workers are treated unfairly," the board writes. Los Angeles Times (tiered subscription model) (6/17)      

Featured Content

• Why your office should be a "no-spin zone"
  "Servant leadership" means making sure your staff has what they need to be successful, because otherwise you're setting them up to fail, says Shawn Wilson, president of Usher's New Look Foundation. Wilson, whose first experience as a manager was at a Milwaukee YMCA, discusses the importance of leading by example, balancing passion with business acumen and asking employees to treat his office as a "no-spin zone." The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (6/16)      

• Are we hardwired to be warmongers?
  The course of human evolution has left us hardwired to wage war upon one another, biologist E.O. Wilson writes. Tribal conflict and battles for territory have marked the human experience for many millennia, Wilson argues, leaving us with the genes for teamwork, social networking and alliance building, but also with a genetic predisposition toward acts of terrible group-on-group violence. Discover magazine (6/2012)      

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Workforce readers in the past week.

• Study: Employees who exercise have higher salaries (Forbes)

• Shoes suggest personality traits, study finds (Yahoo!)

• Survey: Many workers would feel successful making less than $70,000 (American City Business Journals)

• Do cover letters still have a place in recruiting? (CNNMoney/Fortune)

• Employers look to prevent older workers from delaying retirement (InvestmentNews)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

It is necessary to relax your muscles when you can. Relaxing your brain is fatal." --Stirling Moss, British racing driver