Business Up Front

Higher Co-Pays Lead Insurance Changes More than 58 percent of consumers cite higher co-payments for prescription drugs and physician visits as the most significant change to their health insurance coverage during the past year, according to a recent online survey conducted by Weiss Ratings, Inc., an independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services companies, … [Read more...] about May 2005: Business Up Front

"Stop Paying Me So Much!" Unique Reasons for Quitting A better job opportunity isn’t the only reason employees head for the door, a new survey of advertising and marketing executives shows. The survey was conducted by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service providing marketing, advertising, creative and Web professionals on a project basis. Those surveyed were … [Read more...] about April 2005: Business Up Front

The Art of Winning a Contract When it comes to U.S. firms awarding $1 million-plus contracts, price doesn’t make the top 10 most important reasons for choosing a supplier or provider, according to a recent survey conducted by global consultancy firm Rogen International and Goldhaber and Associates, New York. The top 10 reasons U.S. survey respondents give for awarding business … [Read more...] about March 2005: Business Up Front

Don’t Let the Good Ones Get Away: Tips to Strengthen Staff Retention OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in highly skilled administrative professionals, offers the following suggestions for keeping valued employees who may have other job opportunities to consider: Reinforce your mission at every opportunity. Reminding employees of the bigger picture may provide … [Read more...] about February 2005: Business Up Front

Survey Indicates Shift to "Helping Careers" The desire to help others is causing working adults to reassess their personal and professional goals and, more specifically, their career potential, according to a nationwide online survey conducted by University of Phoenix. Nearly one quarter of the 6,000 working adults surveyed reported being dissatisfied with their current … [Read more...] about January 2005: Business Up Front

Avast, Maties! Beware Modern Pirates Piracy on the high seas may be a thing of the past, but piracy remains big business for the millions of counterfeiters and smugglers worldwide who deal in knock-offs of all types of goods, from Gucci watches to pharmaceuticals. For manufacturers, counterfeit goods mean $500 billion a year in lost revenue, according to Secure Risks Ltd., a … [Read more...] about December 2004: Business Up Front

Give It to Me Straight Employees and their managers agree on one thing: A lack of open, honest communication takes a heavy toll on morale. Fifty-two percent of executives and 30 percent of workers gave this response when surveyed recently about factors that negatively affect the workplace mood. Failing to recognize employee achievements was the second most common answer among … [Read more...] about November 2004: Business Up Front

Shopping for Facts About Shopping Centers? The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) recently released the following statistics about America’s retail marketplaces: The United States now has 46,990 shopping centers, 95 percent of which are open-air centers. Shopping centers accounted for $1.98 trillion in sales in 2003, 76 percent of all non-automotive retail … [Read more...] about October 2004: Business Up Front

Nevada Ranked No. 2 Wealth-Friendly State Nevada ranked second to Wyoming in the list of America’s most "wealth-friendly" states, according to an annual ranking released this spring by Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine. The publication serves financial planners and investment advisers who counsel the affluent. In its seventh year atop the wealth-friendly chart, Wyoming reigns … [Read more...] about September 2004: Business Up Front

Stand By Your Man? Mike Mitchell of Fisher & Phillips, a law firm representing employers in labor issues, presents the following example of union job security taken a little too far. The city of Moncton, in Canada, fired a man who had been working as a tree cutter. He later turned up drunk at City Hall, carrying a shotgun and a handgun, looking for two senior managers who … [Read more...] about August 2004: Business Up Front

Rural Job Creation Outpaces Big Cities Of all the jobs created in the United States between 2001 and 2004, one-third were created in the nation’s 397 agurbs – rural areas outside major metropolitan areas – according to Boomtown USA, The 7 ½ Keys to Big Success in Small Towns, published by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). These small towns … [Read more...] about July 2004: Business Up Front

2020 Vision Experts at Battelle, a technology organization that annually conducts $3 billion in research, have compiled a list of the 10 most strategic technological trends that will shape business and our world over the next 20 years: 1. Genetic-based medical and healthcare. A wide range of new pharmaceuticals originating from genetic research will come onto the market, … [Read more...] about June 2004: Business Up Front

CEOs Express Confidence in Economy TEC International, an international organization for CEO development, recently released the results of its latest quarterly survey, which polled nearly 1,100 middle-market chief executives about current economic trends and issues affecting business. The TEC Confidence Index, which measures economic confidence quarter over quarter, slipped by … [Read more...] about May 2004: Business Up Front

Baby Boomers Growing Up at Last? In the past 10 years, as affluent baby boomers have come closer to retirement age, they have begun to think more about their financial futures, according to a national study commissioned by AXA Financial, Inc. In 2003, 43 percent of boomers cited having adequate resources in retirement as their greatest economic concern, up from 26 percent in … [Read more...] about April 2004: Business Up Front

Prevailing-Wage Laws Boost Construction Costs A working paper published in September by the University of California, Berkeley’s Program on Housing and Urban Policy contains statistics indicating the cost of building subsidized housing increased substantially after California expanded its prevailing-wage laws to include these projects. The data show that prevailing wages … [Read more...] about March 2004: Business Up Front