You are on candid camera! No more messing around and getting away with it. Gone are the days when employees dared to pass on a company’s vital data to a competing firm. Bosses have proof of who has done it and when it was done.

This is the 21st century and “snooping at workplace” has become a fact of life, more so if you are using a computer.

It is no wonder that bosses have gotten smarter. Looking around us, we can see youngsters with changing loyalties and increasing need for extra money, whatever their earning may be or even need for power.

The current “technology aware” employers have various options in surveillance software that monitors everything – as if a camera is watching the computers employees are working on. This software is said to work perfectly and hidden without being identified, even by an anti-virus program.

A survey revealed that about three out of four US companies keep track of the sites their employees visit. More than half of them use surveillance software to check office email and even look for hot-button keywords like “sex.” More than a third of the companies monitor the time their employees spend on the computer and log every keystroke or log the downloads. The survey also revealed that one in four companies report firing an employee for improper email use. (more…)

Verizon and AT&T, two of the largest cellphone service providers, won the Spectrum auction, leaving Google behind.

A Spectrum auction is a process where governments throughout the world sell the rights to transmit signals. Companies who are in the business of providing wireless communication services need to bid at these auctions and win the licenses provided by the government.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducts these auctions and assigns thousands of licenses to many firms. These auctions are sold for billions of dollars. This auction method for assigning Spectrum resources, which are scarce, is being used widely everywhere in the world.

Earlier, before these Spectrum auctions were started in the US, lotteries and administrative process were used. Later on, they were rejected because they were found not to be efficient enough.

These auctions are not awarded to everyone. The main thing that is looked into is efficiency – which means that the Spectrum has to be given to those that are best able to use it. The second consideration is maximization of revenue. Even with all the concern about efficiency, governments have to care about the revenues raised at these auctions as they are huge sums.

Armed with this knowledge about Spectrum, you would understand better the heavy competition there is, to win these auctions. In the auction that ended this week, both Verizon Wireless and AT&T won a greater part of radio Spectrum.

The winning of this auction is a great thing to happen to Verizon, as it will help Verizon in catching up with AT&T, which is currently the nation’s largest wireless carrier and also the largest portfolio holder of Spectrum.

Google also participated in bidding for C block frequencies for $4.7 billion, but lost the auction to Verizon. C block frequencies can be used for wireless voice and data service nationwide. (more…)

The recently imposed restriction on H-1B visas that prohibit employers from filing more than one petition for an employee in the fiscal year, did not go down too well with many people, as was expected.

In fact, there have been demands from various US employers to raise the cap on H-1B visas. A new study reveals that American businesses are finding it difficult to fill the skilled positions, even with the large number of foreign professionals coming to US on H-1B visas.

These quotas on H-1B visas have been a sore spot for a long time with companies like Microsoft and other high technology companies. Even heads of education are miffed with these visa rules that have become even more strict post 9/11. The Institute of International Education estimated that the number of foreign students coming into the US to study has dropped since 2003, for the first time in more than 30 years. It blamed the decline to stricter visa rules and increased competition from other foreign universities.

US businesses actually benefit from the issue of H-1B visas to employ foreign workers in various fields where practical and theoretical expertise in certain specialized occupations needs a Bachelors or a higher degree, including engineers, computer programmers and scientists.

The current cap on these visas is 65000 per fiscal year. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reveal that the first 20,000 H-1B petitions files by foreigners with US-earned masters degree or higher are exempt from this cap. (more…)

Gold has soared in recent times and has reached high proportions in the past year. It rose to $1000 an ounce for the very first time in futures trading and is a wonderful thing to happen to investors, but the worst thing for consumers and jewelers. The increasing gold prices may just force the jewelry industry to re-invent itself. Analysts say that the $65 billion jewelry industry in the US is at stake.

Increase in gold prices proves to be a deterrent to consumers and a major concern for jewelry shop owners. As a jeweler laments, a gold chain that was priced at $189 will now cost $346 and there is nothing they can do. Even brands like Rolex increase their prices and this increase has to be passed on to the customers. Consumers are reluctant to buy as much gold as they did earlier because of the price increase.

The price of gold has risen by about 32 percent in 2007 and jumped almost 20 percent since the beginning of this year. This is the result of a weak dollar and high crude oil prices. The dollar fell very low against the yen for the first time in 12 years and also hit a low against the euro.

Analysts say that the low interest rates do not help the dollar and that gold may go even higher, if the Federal Reserve cuts the interest rates again as is expected.

To make it easier to understand the above jargon, gold price rises when dollar falls. Soaring oil prices cause inflation and gold rises at least 90% of the time when oil price increases. Gold prices always correlate closely with oil prices and go in the opposite direction of the dollar.

Where jewelers are concerned, the amount of increase and the time of increase in gold is based on the size of the store selling gold. Top jewelry stores like Tiffany and others sell jewelry to big retailers, and order jewelry for a whole year in advance and have plenty of stock. Since their stock is bought much before the increase in rates, they will not need to raise prices immediately. Some of these large stores even elect to absorb part of the increased cost, just to remain competitive in the current market. (more…)

You must have heard the term, “Fortune 500” when talking about companies. Fortune Magazine, for the last 45 years has been publishing a list of the largest companies annually, meaning companies with the largest revenue for the previous year. Since Fortune calculates the revenue of companies using data available publicly, only companies having common stock that trades on a stock exchange are eligible. Even US subsidiaries of foreign companies are not included. The top 500 in the list are Fortune 500 companies.

Basically, Fortune 500 companies are among the most profitable and powerful companies in America. You would have heard of blue-chip companies like General Electric and Philip Morris, both are ranked very high on the Fortune 500 list.

Looking at the profits these companies make, the topmost company on the list made above $210 billion in revenue and even the lowest ranked in the list, Qualcomm made $3 billion.

The economic strength of a city is said to be quantified by the presence of Fortune 500 companies. The companies that fall into this category represent a variety of industries that have diversified with alliances from several business entities or partnerships. The cities that headquarter these companies also gain recognition globally and these companies contribute to the education, cultural and arts in the area.

We know what Fortune 500 companies are but do we know what gives them the edge over other businesses and puts them on this prestigious list?

There are several factors that go into making them the top few. The first one being their attitude. These companies are humane and understand that their power lies in their employees. If you look into the rise of each of the Fortune 500 companies, you will notice that they followed wonderful human resource practices like good pay, benefits and keeping the spirit of the employees high. (more…)