Human Capital: Page 160
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Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Calpers HMO Premiums Climb 11.4 Percent
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced that its average rate increase for 2005 HMO plans is 11.4 percent, according to the Contra Costa Times.This is a big blow to the many employers for whom Calpers is a benchmark. The nation’s largest pension plan is also the third-largest...
By Stephen Taub • June 17, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Cash Balance Regulations Withdrawn
The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service withdrew proposed regulations on cash balance pension plans and cash balance conversions that many critics have asserted discriminate against older workers, who could be a potent voting force in the upcoming election.The agencies sai...
By Stephen Taub • June 17, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Avoiding Decision Traps
Can we be counted on to make sound decisions under uncertainty? Are our judgments always rational? Do we invariably make choices in our best interests, based on a full understanding of trade-offs and probabilities? Are we truly, in short, the homo economicus assumed by many economic models?Or are...
By Edward Teach • June 17, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Health-care Insurance in Fine Fettle
Health-care insurers are among the very few American companies willing to worry about their problems in public. Like hypochondriacs counting their ailments, they trot out a long list: higher costs for medical equipment; bigger payments for doctors; the rising price of drugs. Fail to treat these s...
By Economist Staff • June 15, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Employers Cut 401(k) Employee Costs
A large number of companies are working to help cut their employees’ 401(k)plan costs.Indeed, 60 percent of more than 140 employers reported said they have made or are planning to make reductions in investment management fees, which often make up 70 to 80 percent of a 401(k) plan’s cost, accordin...
By Stephen Taub • June 14, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Health-Care Inflation Slowing
By many accounts, the pace of health insurance premium hikes is slowing slightly. One likely reason? Medical-cost inflation is cooling down a bit.To be sure, medical costs climbed 7.4 percent in 2003, thanks to a steep rise in hospital prices. But that’s way off from the 9.6 percent increase rack...
By Stephen Taub • June 14, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CFOs on the Move
Kellogg Co. named CFO John Bryant as head of its international unit, which includes operations in Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. He had been finance chief for three years. Jeffrey Boromisa, who has served as the corporate controller and finance chief of Kellogg International ...
By Stephen Taub • June 11, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Keep Overseas Staff Focused on the Right Goals
Keeping track of what expatriates do while working in foreign countries can sometimes present big challenges to U.S.-based managers. Given the expense of sending employees overseas, the issue of expatriate accountability is being raised more frequently within U.S. companies.One way to address thi...
By Mary Kissel • June 11, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
HMO Rate Hikes Easing Up
On the face of it, the latest figures on HMOs from Hewitt Associates are not too encouraging. The human resources outsourcing and consulting firm indicated that in 2005, HMO rates will increase by an average of 13.7 percent — yet another year of double-digit rate hikes.That projected increase, ho...
By Stephen Taub • June 7, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
The New Belt Tightening
Companies have promoted healthy lifestyles for years, but now they’re going a step further to get workers to slim down. Some employers, concerned about the link between rising health costs and bulging waistlines, are offering cash incentives to employees who meet fitness targets or participate in...
By Joseph McCafferty • June 7, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CFOs on the Move
Cablevision Systems Corp. has promoted two finance executives in advance of the company’s planned spin-off of its satellite, national programming, and theatre businesses.Senior vice president John Bier has been named to the additional role of treasurer, and vice president Elizabeth Dolce has been...
By Stephen Taub • June 4, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
New Rules for Overtime Pay
Overtime pay is getting an overhaul. In April, the Department of Labor released the first significant revision of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in more than 50 years.The new rules are intended to reduce confusion — and litigation — over overtime exemptions, but instead they have fueled mor...
By Kate O'Sullivan • June 4, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
New Carrots, Old Yardsticks?
With stock options increasingly out of favor, cash bonuses are making a comeback. A recent survey of 350 companies by Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that the percentage of overall CEO pay coming from bonuses grew from 13 percent in 2001 to 19 percent last year. At the same time, the contr...
By Ronald Fink • June 4, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Health Insurance Premiums Easing Off
Health insurance premiums are expected to grow by 10 percent this year — and that’s good news.In each of the past few years, the average company has been shelling out an additional 14 to 18 percent for health-care premiums, according to The New York Times.The paper pointed out that three major in...
By Stephen Taub • June 1, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Duty Calls
With an estimated 100,000 executives active in the National Guard and Reserve, many companies are facing the departures of their top executives for long stints in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them are CFOs. What happens to their jobs?Legally, employers must keep an employee’s position open for u...
By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CFOs on the Move
The New York Stock Exchange appointed Michael Ferraro as senior vice president and controller, corporate finance. He will report to Amy Butte, chief financial officer and executive vice president, corporate finance. Ferraro, who was most recently vice president and controller for Lehman Brothers ...
By Stephen Taub • May 27, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Raiding the Returns
Although fallout from the mutual-fund trading scandals still dominates the headlines, some companies with 401(k) plans reserve their greatest ire for another issue: fees.Complaints focus mainly on the steep fund expenses that are passed on to plan participants — an average of 156 basis points for...
By Roy Harris • May 27, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Spitzer Sues Grasso, NYSE, and Former Director
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued former New York Stock Exchange chairman and chief executive officer Richard Grasso, a former NYSE director, and the exchange. By awarding Grasso an excessive compensation package, the parties violated the state’s not-for-profit corporate law, Spitzer c...
By Stephen Taub • May 25, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Sarbanes-Oxley Forces Options Exercise
A number executives at Dominion Resources Inc. have exercised stock options so they can repay bank loans that can’t be extended because of a Sarbanes-Oxley provision.Under Section 402 of the act, corporations are barred from making personal loans to officers or directors. The Richmond, Virginia-b...
By Stephen Taub • May 24, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Microsoft Cuts Health Benefits
Even Microsoft Corp. is cutting costs. The software giant, which has more than $65 billion in cash and short-term investments, is hoping to save $80 million per year by reducing prescription-drug benefits and employee stock discounts, according to the Associated Press.The cuts will “better align ...
By Stephen Taub • May 24, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Cisco and FASB: Options Showdown
On March 31, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued a proposed rule that would require companies to expense the value of employee stock options. As of last week, FASB had received 2,600 comment letters — more than two-thirds of them from employees of Cisco Systems.About 1,800 Cisco emplo...
By Craig Schneider • May 24, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CFOs on the Move
As part of a large management shakeup, Delta Air Lines named Mike Palumbo executive vice president and chief financial officer. He will be responsible for financial planning services, financial control, treasury, investor relations, tax, risk, supply chain, corporate real estate, profit improveme...
By Stephen Taub • May 21, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Apparel Maker CFO’s Background Unravels
The background of Mossimo Inc.’s new chief financial officer is being questioned by his former colleagues as well as investors, according to The Wall Street Journal.When he was hired by the apparel company, Mali Shrinivas was praised by Mossimo for his “broad financial experience, particularly in...
By Stephen Taub • May 21, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
But Can You Teach It?
Applications to business schools are down this year — at least in America, where management education was born and where business schools still award about 85% of the world’s business degrees. Kenneth Dunn, dean of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, says that applications for the full-...
By Economist Staff • May 21, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Worst Day Ever
In the fall of 2000, Janice DiPietro was feeling great. After reviewing her start-up company’s numbers with its lead private-equity investor, she was eagerly anticipating a new infusion of capital in two weeks. DiPietro planned to use the funds to help the software company add company expand a ne...
By Kate O'Sullivan • May 21, 2004
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