Human Capital: Page
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Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Are Your Employees Ready for Retirement?
Most workers who don’t have access to a company-sponsored, defined-benefit pension plans probably won’t have enough money to support them in retirement, a new study concludes.That’s true even if their company has a 401(k) plan. Employees need to have enough in total retirement resources–including...
By Stephen Taub • June 30, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Part Time All the Time?
“There has been a fundamental shift over the past 10 years, where companies are now much more comfortable with the idea of using interim finance employees,” says Karen Ferguson, executive vice president of Costa Mesa, California-based Resources Connection. Only eight years old, the company now ha...
By Don Durfee • June 29, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
The Ephemeral Finance Executive
After several years of helping to manage the strong overseas growth of her employer, Sapient Corp., Susan Johnson had to make a choice. As CFO of the Cambridge, Massachusetts, consulting-services provider, Johnson recognized that her finance team could no longer handle all of the work associated ...
By Don Durfee • June 29, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Silicon Valley Workers Protest Expensing
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) last week took its case for expensing stock options into the hostile territory of Silicon Valley.The accounting-standards setter hosted a public hearing attended by executives, venture capitalists and other staunch opponents of FASB’s bid to require...
By Stephen Taub • June 28, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
What Goes Around, Comes Around
As you look out the window of Andrew Church’s office — a stately room in a renovated 200-year-old building on Boston’s Long Wharf, with a picturesque view of yachts and whale-watching boats floating serenely on the Atlantic — you might find it hard to imagine getting a lot of work done. But Churc...
By Lisa Yoon • June 25, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CFOs on the Move
Jeffrey Rohr was named CFO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and its U.S. member firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP. He has served as regional managing partner of the U.S. firm’s Midwest practice in Chicago since 1995. As CFO, Rohr will join the firm’s U.S. operating and executive committees and its globa...
By Stephen Taub • June 25, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Where’s My Raise?
Although the economy might be strengthening and the jobless rate coming down, many employers are still in cost-cutting mode or at least still watching their pennies, a new report by The Conference Board suggests.As a result, many employees who survived the recession and shouldered a heavier work ...
By Stephen Taub • June 24, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Senate Revives Patient-Rights Bill
One day after the Supreme Court struck down consumers’ ability to sue their health maintenance organizations in state courts for HMOs’ denial of coverage of doctor-approved care, the Senate reintroduced a patient-rights bill.“Yesterday was a sad day for patients,” Senator John Edwards, the North ...
By Stephen Taub • June 24, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Judge Certifies Wal-Mart Bias Suit
A federal judge in San Francisco has given the go-ahead for the largest civil-rights lawsuit ever confronted by a private employer when he included 1.6 million women in a sex-discrimination case against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to CBS MarketWatch.U.S. District Court Judge Martin Jenkins ce...
By Stephen Taub • June 23, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
HMOs Win Supreme Court Case
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that employees cannot sue their health maintenance organizations for malpractice damages under state law if the plans won’t pay for doctor-recommended medical care.In a unanimous decision, the justices wrote that a 1974 federal law, the Employee Retirement Income Se...
By Stephen Taub • June 22, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Prescription Change
In 2006, when the new prescription-drug benefits kick in, Americans over 65 should finally get a break on pharmaceutical costs, thanks to the Medicare Reform Act signed into law in December. But employers that supply pharmacy coverage to retirees could make out even better.That’s because the fram...
By David Katz • June 21, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
New Medicare Drug Benefit Falls Short
In 2006, when the new prescription-drug benefits kick in, Americans over 65 should finally get a break on pharmaceutical costs, thanks to the Medicare Reform Act signed into law in December. But employers that supply pharmacy coverage to retirees could make out even better.That’s because the fram...
By David Katz • June 21, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
Pension Underfunding Improves Slightly
Companies with underfunded pension plans reported a shortfall of $278.6 billion in 2003, down slightly from the $305.9 billion reported in 2002, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.Last year’s total, however, is still dramatically higher than the $18.4 billion reported in 1999.The 2003...
By Stephen Taub • June 18, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CFOs on the Move
iVillage Inc., which consists of several online and offline media-based properties geared toward females, named Steven Elkes chief financial officer. He has been with iVillage since 1996, the eve of the Internet bubble. He currently serves as executive vice president, operations and business affa...
By Stephen Taub • June 18, 2004 -
Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
CPA Ascendant
Not long ago, the degree of choice for an aspiring CFO was the master of business administration, with 61 percent of finance chiefs holding the degree, according to the Finance Leaders Association. But these days, with financial reporting under the microscope thanks to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2...
By Kate O'Sullivan • June 18, 2004 -
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.
”Pay for Performance” Underperforming
Tying the compensation of employees to their performance has been widely deemed as the best way to align the rank and file’s interests with the goals of top management.Most companies that apply performance-based policies to salaries and bonuses, however, have done little to ensure that this appro...
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.
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.
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.
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
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