Shareholder groups are championing health care as a sustainability issue of top concern as this proxy season heats up -- and the SEC says those shareholders are well within their rights to press companies for a vote on universal health coverage, reports The New York Times.

Are referral programs the best way to get the correct talent? Major surveys suggest the answer is often "no."

Gas prices are soaring and employees are feeling the pinch. Companies that offer some kind of relief may be helping themselves as much as their workers.

If you work in the finance function of a global company and aspire to climb to the top rung of the career ladder, take the first half of the old axiom, "think globally, act locally," very seriously -- even at the "30,000-foot" level.

Hewlett Packard Co.'s acquisition of global technology services company Electronic Data Systems Corp., say analysts, will challenge IBM's position as market leader -- if HP successfully integrates the two companies.

The silver lining in the mortgage mess is that it may speed up the separation of the CEO and Chairman role at financial companies. But whether that's a good thing or not remains a subject for debate in some quarters.

The SEC's executive compensation disclosure requirements have been confusing at best to the boards that grapple with them. Soon companies will have another challenging disclosure hurdle: transparency in 401(k) fees.

Enron wasn't the first company to abuse workers' pension plans but the heartbreaking losses suffered by that company's employees shined a spotlight on the issue. Since then, employees with concerns about how their defined benefit plans and 401(k)s are managed have been going to court more readily than in pre-Enron days.

Medical ethicists will be debating the social and economic ramifications of genetic information for a long time to come, but legislators have stepped up to the plate in deciding employers right to use individuals' genetic information in hiring and firing decisions and in providing health coverage.