Employment briefs:

Companies should create "values" culture. Employers are advised to create a "values-driven" culture that speaks directly to employee needs. Today's employees want to grow as individuals, so companies must give skills for life, such as decision-making, conflict-management skills and communication skills. Companies that care for their employees challenge them to be the best they can be. Source: Morris Shechtman, employee retention and development specialist.

Flex scheduling on the rise. Employers are increasing their efforts to offer flexibility and other work/life-based benefits as tools to attract and retain employees. Seventy-seven percent of employers provide flexible scheduling arrangements, up from 17 percent in 1993. There also are significant increases in the number of employers offering child-care benefits and elder-care benefits. Source: Hewitt Associates.

Employees logging longer weeks. Nearly half of all workers said the time they commit to work has increased in the past five years. Only 8 percent said their time commitment at work had decreased. The average workweek for full-time employees in the survey was 49.2 hours. Employees say they have a larger workload due to business demands such as staff changes and business growth. Source: Personnel Decisions.

Money beats time off. Although most workers in a survey said they would like to make their personal lives more of a priority, when given the choice between more time at home and a higher salary, 83 percent took the money. Surprisingly, a greater percentage of people in higher income brackets said they would choose higher salaries over the time. Source: Fast Company magazine.

Raises getting bigger. Many Americans -- 36 percent -- say they are getting bigger raises this year than last. Nearly a third expect their next raise to be bigger still. In fact, the percentage who believe their income will go up more than prices will in the next year was the highest since Gallup began asking the question in 1980. Source: USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll.

Low-wage workers fight tight job market. A larger percentage of lower-wage earners are losing their jobs, and it's taking them longer to find new ones. Employers apparently are more confident they can restaff low-paying positions, which was not the prevailing attitude during severe labor shortages of the past few years. Job search times have increased to 3 1/2 months. Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas, outplacement and consulting firm.

Young left out of boom. Despite the lowest unemployment rate in nearly three decades, many young workers feel they're missing out on the nation's prosperity because their jobs fall short in pay, benefits and chances for advancement. Forty-two percent said the economic situation facing their own families is either "just fair," "not so good" or "poor." Source: AFL-CIO survey.

Bioinformatics grads in demand. The hot new job in agriculture is bioinformatics. The big push by chemical firms into crop biotechnology is igniting demand for college graduates trained in computer programming and biology, to mine the growing data about plant genes. Starting salary for a bioinformatics Ph.D. is $70,000 plus stock options and signing bonus. Source: Wall Street Journal.

Execs rate family-friendly policies. Companies report that they are doing only a fair job of offering family-friendly policies to employees. Fifty-four percent of executives said their firms are somewhat successful in helping their staffs juggle work and family commitments. Source: Office Team, temporary staffing service.

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