@Risk

You check email when you’re on vacation. You bring a company laptop on your trips. Taking “the office” on the road has become so commonplace that these days, we generally don’t think twice about it.

But, a new study from Credant Technologies offers some interesting insights and more than a few words of caution. After all, in some cases, accessing company data from mobile devices can seriously impact corporate security.

Consider these findings. Credant polled 1,000 office workers in London and found that: (more…)

Ever since 2002, the US Department of Labor has issued a list of products, by country of origin, that it has determined may be mined, produced or manufactured by forced or indentured child labor. By law, federal contractors who supply products on this “Executive Order 13126” list must certify that they have made a good faith effort to determine whether child labor was used to produce the items.

The current list, updated last month, is available here. It includes a variety of items, such as bamboo, beans and bricks from Burma, toys and cotton from China and cocoa from Nigeria (to name just a few) –many of which have been on the list repeatedly. This year’s list also names India as a country that uses child labor in garment manufacturing, and that has confirmed Indian apparel exporters’ “worst fears,” according to The Economic Times.

The US accounts for 30 percent of India’s apparel exports, estimated at some $10 billion, and as the article reports, appearing on the list poses huge reputation risk to a country that supplies garments to retail giants such as Walmart, GAP, H&M, Diesel, M&S and Levi’s, all of which say their working to abolish child labor. (more…)

Confirming results of an earlier study, a new survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that employee morale and loyalty are still quite vulnerable as companies with tight budgets continue to ask over-stretched workers to do more with less.

PwC conducted the survey in early 2010, and a total of 5,746 employees from 113 countries participated. The survey results –compiled in a report titled Managing Tomorrow’s People: Where will you be in 2020? –suggest that employees’ attitudes may be changing to reflect a growing concern for work-life balance and business ethics. For example, the data showed that: (more…)

Microsoft’s supplier network is back in the spotlight once again after The National Labor Committee published a report last week detailing deplorable working conditions at one of the company’s manufacturing plants in southern China.

Specifically, the report describes long working hours, low pay, insufficient food and limited freedoms for workers at the KYE Systems Corp. factory in Dongguan. (KYE makes Microsoft’s Basic Optical Mouse, as well as an assortment of products for other companies, including Hewlett Packard, Best Buy, Samsung, Foxconn, Acer, Wi/IFC/Logitech and Asus-Rd.)

The conditions described in the report are appalling –particularly because the workers profiled are young teens, some only 14 years old. For example, according to The National Labor Committee: (more…)

For the first time since Grant Thornton began researching employment issues in its International Business Report (IBR) back in 2003, the number of businesses cutting headcount has exceeded those increasing it. In fact, Grant Thornton’s new data shows a global balance of -8 percent compared to +21 percent in 2009 – that’s a dramatic drop of 29 percentage points.

The survey, which polled more than 7,400 privately held businesses (PHBs) across 36 economies, also showed that: (more…)