Most of us have seen or heard about hip tech companies installing huge flat-screen TVs and foosball tables in their offices. But what about a sliding board? Or a "cat from outer space" display? Yes, a pair of well-known digital darlings have done just that. These eye-catching offices reflect two of the following designs that Glassdoor.com has recognized in a recent posting about top "cool office spaces." While some of these designs may come across as frivolous, there's a serious organizational benefit at play here: Research shows that happy employees are proven to be better performers, leading to a notable competitive advantage for their companies. They are also less likely to leave a job, and are more likely to make better decisions and demonstrate superior interpersonal behaviors, according to ScienceDaily.com. And, given that we're talking about innovative technology enterprises here, you can bet that leadership at these offices are happy to go over the top in terms of coming up with creative office design.

Companies like Guess? and Ford Motor are finding that big data and business analytics are like love and marriage: You can't have one without the other.

As enterprises continue to expand globally, the significance of diversity hiring and promoting practices cannot be undervalued. Businesses that fail to grasp this will find themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage as they attempt to win over new international markets. With this in mind, DiversityInc has come out with its annual "Top 50 Companies for Diversity" list. More than 890 organizations took part in the survey, from which DiversityInc compiled its rankings. At the top of the list is Sodexo, the high-profile provider of integrated food and facilities management services. However, as an exclusive for Baseline, DiversityInc has also produced the following list of the top 10 technology companies for diverse hiring and leadership representation practices. (Important note: DiversityInc uses the term "black" in its reporting rather than "African American" because of the wealth of professionals from international nations who benefit from the included companies' diversity initiatives.)

Enabling geographically dispersed employees and partners to view the same document at the same time facilitates discussions, saves time and eliminates confusion.

Companies often talk a good game when it comes to clarifying and prioritizing IT's role with the business side of the house, but many organizations are falling short on actually delivering, according to the "2013 Cisco Global IT Impact Survey." Sure, business executives are happy to meet with IT leaders, but then they turn around and launch major apps without telling IT, or they bring the technology organization into the process far too late, survey findings reveal. The report also sheds light on the need for tech professionals to bring themselves up to speed on emerging trends. Despite the fact that nearly half of the survey respondents appreciate prospects of new business opportunities with the "Internet of Things," many confess that they don't have a firm grasp of what this term actually means. And while there are plans to deploy software defined networking (SDN) solutions this year, such deployments are pretty much nonexistent at the moment. As a bonus, you may find it interesting to learn how technology workers believe their role is viewed by business executives. An estimated 1,300 IT employees in 13 countries took part in the research.

Over the last few years, big data has emerged on enterprise radar screens. Everyone from President Obama to major corporations and government agencies are looking for ways to put the concept to work effectively. But somewhere between the buzz and achieving real-world results is the somewhat overwhelming task of transforming countless bits and bytes into actionable information. Humans now produce upward of 1,800 exabytes of data annually, and that figure is accelerating. This massive stream of unstructured data, along with conventional databases, presents enormous and mounting challenges for business and IT executives. A new MeriTalk report sponsored by NetApp, "Big Data, Big Brains," delves into this topic and offers a variety of insights and opinions from visionary big data leaders. Together, they discuss how government and private sector organizations can confront emerging big data challenges and opportunities. Here are 10 notable ideas that could help your organization frame an effective big data strategy.

Crisis management will get you through the initial impact of a disaster, but you need a comprehensive business continuity program to sustain you beyond 48 hours.

The line between marketing and IT continues to blur, according to a recent survey from Ifbyphone, which specializes in voice-based marketing automation solutions. Credit the very top of the corporate chain for this development: CEOs are asking for "more, more, more" when it comes to data that accurately captures marketing's impact on business. Given this, marketing departments are hiring more full-time tech positions, spurring the emergence of what's called a "growth hacker": a professional who brings to the table marketing, product and tech experience and skills. "This reflects the innovation that is taking place in marketing measurement and the rapid pace of evolving measurement strategies," says Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone. "It's clear that growth hackers are championing innovative ways to measure marketing. [As a result], marketing leaders can take credit directly for revenue and new customers, and confidently answer the CEO's tough ROI questions." More than 400 marketing executives took part in the research.

We know the daily work grind can wear us down, but many of us don't know that office life is causing significant physical hardships for many professionals, according to recent research from the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). There's a perception that this is all just part of the job and that we must simply tough it out, but chronic pain is a serious health issue that affects an estimated 100 million Americans, the AOA reports. With this in mind, the organization is promoting its "Break Through Your Pain" campaign to raise awareness about this problem with the following survey findings and some best-practices recommendations. "Sitting at a desk all day can take a serious toll on your body," says Rob Danoff, an AOA board-certified family physician, doctor of osteopathic medicine and co-spokesperson for the campaign. "Many office workers don't seek help to prevent or treat it until it reaches the point where it interferes with their ability to do their job. I want to encourage everyone to get up, stretch and move. Making small changes now will have a great impact on your overall health." More than 1,000 American office workers took part in the research, which was conducted by Kelton Global.

An effective executive risk council can help reduce the impact of a potentially devastating cyber-attack, and maintain that ever-important bond of trust.

Do you find yourself going to one professional networking event after another, only to get very little out of your efforts? Sure, your e-rolodex now contains dozens or even hundreds of contacts that you'd never have otherwise. But if you fail to keep these connections active and productive, you'll reap few rewards from them. With this in mind, we present the following 10 classic mistakes of professional networking that focus on the quantity of your relationships, rather than the quality. In fact, recent research from Robert Half Technology reveals that IT professionals place far greater value on quality relationships. "Knowing someone professionally and being willing to go to bat for that person are two different things," says John Reed, senior executive director of Robert Half Technology. "You may have hundreds of connections, but if the relationships are superficial, your contacts may not be very helpful when you're seeking advice or assistance with a job search." More than 7,500 IT workers took part in this research. The networking mistakes were gathered from Robert Half Technology and TheWisdomJournal.com.

FocusVision leverages the power of Web conference technology to engage hard-to-reach respondents recruited from anywhere in the world, at any time.

"What's better than working for a tech company? Working for a happy tech company!" So says CareerBliss.com, which has come out with this top 10 list of technology businesses in America with the most contented employees. Across the board, organizations that made the cut are praised for their compensation, benefits and overall culture. Employee satisfaction ratings were also driven by factors such as career advancement and the quality of innovation-focused opportunities, as well as how the company fares in terms of competitive advantage. To find out why having a happy workforce matters, check out recent research from Gallup: Departments that fall within the top half of their organization in terms of employee engagement nearly double their odds of success. Those in the top quarter of engagement experience 37 percent less absenteeism, 25 percent less turnover and 21 percent higher productivity than their counterparts in the lowest quarter. CareerBliss also includes average-salary information, along with each organization's overall "BlissScore" (on a scale of 1 to 5), both compiled from user reviews. CareerBliss is an online job posting/company review/professional advice site.

Customer experience management is among the most challenging aspects of operating a business, but it's the best way to build stronger relationships.

Here's a not-so-well-kept secret about bosses that every worker should know: They suffer from the same human failings that everyone else does. Sometimes, these flaws emerge because there is so much about department success or failure that they can't control, and they feel helpless. At other times, there are inner impulses that lead them away from core qualities that respected leaders exhibit. Either way, these traits will drag down your team's performance. The book, HeadTrash: Cleaning Out the Junk that Stands Between You and Success (Emerald Book Company/Available in May), examines the following six "sins" of managers—specifically, how bosses convey them to the staff and the resulting damage they cause. Every action triggers a reaction, after all. In this case, co-authors Tish Squillaro and Tim Thomas illustrate how these sins hurt employee performance, which may eventually derail the career of the boss. Squillaro is an executive coach and CEO of Candor Consulting. Thomas is a leadership coach and founding partner at Makarios Consulting.