Por DAVID BENOIT, SERENA NG e JOANN S. LUBLIN

Warren Buffett voltou a disparar sua espingarda de caçar elefantes. Mas ele tem mais balas na agulha.

Dessa vez, ele acertou num alvo bem ao seu gosto, a H.J. Heinz Co.,

uma marca conhecida mundialmente e uma fiel geradora de lucros.

A Berkshire Hathaway,

holding do investidor americano, e a firma brasileira de investimento em participações 3G Capital fecharam a compra da Heinz por US$ 23 bilhões, numa das maiores aquisições do setor alimentício de todos os tempos. Embora os compradores terão partes iguais da empresa, a 3G é que vai comandar as operações.

A Heinz, que tem sede em Pittsburgh, gera dois terços de sua receita anual de US$ 11,6 bilhões fora dos Estados Unidos, sendo 25% nos mercados emergentes, o que faz dela uma plataforma a partir da qual a 3G Capital pode fazer mais aquisições na indústria de alimentos. O fluxo de caixa gordo da Heinz poderia ajudar nesse propósito.

“É uma marca genuinamente mundial”, disse o cofundador e sócio-gerente da 3G, Alex Behring, numa conferência telefônica com investidores e repórteres.

Buffett disse meses atrás que estava salivando para fazer um grande negócio, o que significava acima de US$ 20 bilhões, e com a Heinz ele com certeza satisfez boa parte deste desejo.

Não há marca de ketchup mais conhecida nos lares, restaurantes e lanchonetes dos EUA do que a da Heinz. Muitos americanos põem ketchup em quase tudo que comem e, assim, Buffett está obtendo um produto que é considerado à prova de recessão. A Heinz vende 650 milhões de garrafas de ketchup por ano, segundo o site da empresa, mais sopas e outros alimentos básicos.

As vendas da Heinz subiram em todo ano fiscal desde 2006, mesmo em plena recessão. No ano fiscal encerrado em abril de 2012, o crescimento foi de 8,8%, para US$ 11,6 bilhões. O lucro não cresceu tão linearmente, mas permaneceu relativamente estável.

“A Heinz tem um potencial de crescimento forte e sustentável, baseado em altos padrões de qualidade, inovação contínua, administração excelente e produtos muito saborosos. Seu sucesso global é uma prova de que compensa investir em ações de marcas fortes e na força de suas equipes de administração e processos”, disse Buffett num comunicado.

Numa participação em um programa da rede CNBC na manhã de ontem, Buffett disse que acompanha a Heinz desde os anos 80.

“A Heinz é o nosso tipo de empresa, com marcas fantásticas”, disse ele no programa.

Mas, mesmo assim, ele disse que estava entrando com apenas US$ 12 bilhões a US$ 13 bilhões em dinheiro no negócio, deixando ainda bastante espaço livre.

“Estou pronto para outro elefante”, disse ele. “Se vocês virem algum andando por aí, por favor me chamem.”

As ações da Heinz, que já vinham sendo negociadas nos níveis mais altos da sua história, saltaram 19,9% ontem diante do anúncio do negócio, fechando a US$ 72,50.

A grande aposta de Buffett no ketchup não deve sofrer muita concorrência. Num relatório para clientes, Eric Katzman, analista do Deutsche Bank,

prevê que é improvável que surja outra oferta pela Heinz.

Segundo o acordo, a 3G e a Berkshire Hathaway terão cada uma 50% da HJ Heinz. Dos mais de US$ 12 bilhões que a Berkshire está contribuindo, cerca de US$ 4 bilhões será em dinheiro e US$ 8 bilhões em financiamento sob a forma de ações preferenciais.

Com mais de US$ 47 bilhões em caixa no seu balanço ao fim de setembro, a Berkshire teria os meios financeiros necessários para comprar a HJ Heinz por conta própria. Mas Buffett tem a reputação de manter as empresas que compra, assim como sua gestão, intactas, e a expectativa é de que a 3G vá renovar em algum modo a empresa de alimentos.

Buffett também tem dito que a Berkshire manterá sempre pelo menos US$ 20 bilhões em caixa para proteger a empresa de eventos inesperados que podem ser um dreno de recursos. O negócio da Heinz não deixará o caixa da Berkshire abaixo desse valor, mas deixará perto.

By KATHERINE ROSMAN

Katherine Rosman explains why elevators are getting much more sophisticated and can now choose who they carry and what floors they stop at based on an employee’s rank. Photo from Getty Images.

The “elevator pitch” is a staple of office lore: a go-getter’s well-prepared catchy idea that is ready for any chance meeting with the top boss. Well played, it impresses fast and sends an employee’s career rocketing. Fumbled, the elevator ride is an excruciating 90 seconds.

New elevator systems and technology are making the pitch harder than ever—and upending the delicate rules of elevator etiquette.

Elevators now route employees, sometimes according to rank. They can help corporations keep track of who is in the office and who isn’t. They can be programmed so that a germophobe can simply wave an ID card in front of a reader and be shuttled to the proper floor without actually touching a button. They can redirect an unsuspecting employee to a different floor at the request of the boss.

Behind the changes is an increasingly common dispatch system that the two companies that dominate the industry, Otis Elevator Co. and smaller rival Schindler Elevator Corp. have installed in about 200 mid-to-high-rise buildings around the country. Employees select their floor on a keypad in the lobby and are sent to board a specific elevator. The dispatch systems result in fewer people per car and fewer stops, and can be configured to suit a company’s particular needs.

A dispatch system leaves Rudy Loo, a New York financial industry employee, riding mostly with the people who sit near him, and with no reason to dream up elevator pitches. He can talk to fellow riders any time. “And most people are on their BlackBerry in the elevator anyway,” he says.

In downtown Denver at 1999 Broadway, a 43-story building, a law firm requested that the elevator have the capability to keep its attorneys away from employees of an office of the Internal Revenue Service with which it shares an elevator bank, says Jeff Blain, a Schindler sales manager who worked on the project.

At the 55-story Bank of America Building, at One Bryant Park in New York City, elevators can let bank VIPs ride separately from rank-and-file staff, says Michael Landis, Schindler vice president of marketing. Many of the bank’s senior executives work on the 50th floor and are typically directed to their own elevator anyway, making the technology unnecessary. “But it’s one of the features that they particularly liked and its one of the key features that won us the contract,” Mr. Landis says.

A Bank of America spokesman says the bank isn’t utilizing the feature. “There is an executive floor but there is no executive elevator. The ride up or down can be shared by company leaders and people making deliveries,” says T.J. Crawford, the spokesman.

—Otis research

The elevators at the 13-story Curtis Center in downtown Philadelphia, are built so the most senior executives can punch into the computer that they would like to see certain employees upon arrival. When employees swipe their ID cards to call the elevator in the lobby, they can be rerouted to the boss’s floor.

“We are able to group passenger so it’s more like a limousine,” Mr. Landis says.

That doesn’t help social anxiety: In the elevator, is it rude to fix your gaze on your BlackBerry? Will your colleagues smirk if you pitch the boss? Should you ride up extra floors to maximize face time?

Andy Dunn, chief executive of New York-based clothing company Bonobos.com, recently was chatting with a colleague on his office elevator. When he noticed other people were buried in their iPhones, he quieted down. “I felt like ‘Gosh, we’re distracting all these people who are looking at their phones,’ ” he says.

The centralized dispatch systems—which Schindler calls Destination Dispatch and Otis calls Compass Destination Management System—represent the most fundamental upgrade in commercial elevator travel since the late 1950s when automation began to replace manual elevators operated by men in brass-button uniforms. Building managers have been seeking more efficient ways of moving employees to help combat what are known as “underelevatored” buildings or buildings that have seen a sharp increase in the number of occupants. New buildings benefit from the efficiency of a dispatch system because in some cases it lets less space to be dedicated to elevators.

When new systems aren’t available, buildings can also try diversionary tactics to distract people waiting for the elevator. They put mirrors inside elevator cabs and around lobby elevator banks in the hope that people would be distracted by analyzing their appearance. In the past, they also mounted televisions on lobby walls.

In many elevators, the Door Close button works only when switched to a special mode used by firefighters during a rescue. “It’s only there to keep you occupied,” explained Schindler’s Mr. Blain, while walking through its elevator operations at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in midtown Manhattan earlier this week.

For anyone who works in a building with dispatch systems but lives in a building with a conventional set-up, there is potential for embarrassment. “At home, oftentimes I get into the elevator and don’t push a button,” says Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst Organization Inc., which co-owns and manages the Bank of America

building.

The tech industry—built on the idea that anyone with a good idea can rise—is shy of elevator moments. Many venture capital firms are in low-rise areas such as Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif., and in Manhattan’s Union Square/Flatiron District—neighborhoods short on skyscrapers. Tim Chang, a partner at Norwest Venture Partners in Palo Alto, Calif., says he has never been pitched in an elevator. But he has been pitched in his dentist’s office. And in the restroom. “Awkward,” he says.

Harvard Business School has an “Elevator Pitch Builder” for alumni on its website. Christine Sullivan, the school’s director of alumni, career and professional development, says that in a “new 140-character world where everything is reduced to a sound bite it’s more important than ever to be able to deliver a clear and concise message.”

Next week, at a conference in Atlanta, Black Enterprise, a media company, will present the winner of its Elevator Pitch Competition. Finalists (including the maker of a martini-glass cover that prevents spillage while dancing and a creator of African-American-themed stationery) produced videos of less than two minutes explaining their business vision and why they deserve the $10,000 investment prize.

Not that an elevator is necessarily the best place to give your elevator pitch. Charlie O’Donnell, a principal with a seed stage venture capital fund, First Round Capital, says you never know who you’re riding with and have little time to waste.

So, he advises, “Stay in the lobby in front of the elevator door. That’s your optimal pitch place.”

Write to Katherine Rosman at katherine.rosman@wsj.com

Por BOB DAVIS y RICHARD SILK

BEIJING—Una pronunciada caída en los precios fabriles —por decimocuarto mes consecutivo— augura nuevos contratiempos para una economía china que ya enfrenta un aumento de la deuda y un enfriamiento de la economía en momentos en que industrias tradicionales son afectadas por un exceso de capacidad.

Los precios mayoristas—un indicador de los precios de bienes antes de que lleguen a los consumidores— cayeron 2,4% en abril, el mayor descenso desde octubre. El índice mostró declives particularmente marcados en los sectores de metales y químicos. Eso podría intensificar las preocupaciones sobre la desaceleración de la economía, afirman economistas, al agravar las dificultades de los productores de bienes y materias primas industriales para obtener ganancias, saldar sus deudas y pagarles a sus proveedores a tiempo.

Parte de un gran aumento en los préstamos en China se ha usado para refinanciar deuda o pagar intereses de empresas agobiadas por el exceso de capacidad, indicó el analista de Barclays

Jian Chang. “Eso está ayudando a impedir la quiebra de las empresas”, indicó.

China sigue siendo la economía de crecimiento más acelerado entre las grandes potencias, aunque su expansión ha perdido vigor desde los avances de dos dígitos que caracterizaron los últimos 30 años.

El Producto Interno Bruto registró un crecimiento interanual de 7,7% en el primer trimestre, después de un alza interanual de 7,9% en el cuarto trimestre de 2012. En este momento hay un debate sobre si la economía se recuperará para crecer al menos 8% este año o se seguirá debilitando. El Banco Popular de China, el banco central, indicó en un informe trimestral divulgado el jueves que los fundamentos para un crecimiento económico estable aún no son sólidos.

La deflación en el sector industrial refleja el exceso de capacidad que afecta a industrias como las de acero, carbón, vidrio, aluminio, paneles solares y cemento.

Las caídas de precios en China no son de la misma magnitud que la deflación generalizada que se ha instalado en Japón, donde los precios al consumidor han bajado casi todos los años desde 1999, reduciendo las ganancias, la inversión y el gasto de los consumidores, y arrastrando a la economía a un bajón que ya dura una década.

La caída en los precios mayoristas en China también tiene un aspecto positivo para los consumidores, al ayudar a mantener a raya la inflación. Los precios al consumidor alcanzaron un máximo de 6,5% en julio de 2011 y se han moderado desde entonces para alcanzar 2,4% interanual en abril.

Para las industrias, no obstante, el descenso de los precios mayoristas tiene efectos severos.

Aluminum Corp. de China, más conocida como Chinalco,

que reportó una pérdida de 975 millones de yuanes (US$158 millones) en el primer trimestre y un aumento de 1,9% en sus ingresos, dijo que más de 90% del aluminio producido en China arroja pérdidas. “La urbanización de China impulsará el consumo de aluminio a largo plazo”, indicó un vocero de la empresa, “pero digerir el inventario podría llevar cierto tiempo, así que un aumento importante de los precios es poco probable en un futuro cercano”.

La industria cementera enfrenta el mismo problema de sobrecapacidad.

El presidente de Huaxin Cement Co.,

Li Yeqing, sostuvo en una conferencia de prensa en línea la semana pasada que los fabricantes de cemento necesitan cerrar plantas antiguas para impedir una “catástrofe” para todo el sector. Analistas señalaron que los fabricantes con conexiones gubernamentales probablemente consigan apoyo financiero.

En algunos sectores, el declive en los precios globales de las materias primas ha contribuido a la caída de los precios mayoristas. Durante los últimos 12 meses, los precios del crudo se mantuvieron sin cambios y los del mineral de hierro cayeron alrededor de 7,3%. Los bajos costos de los insumos reflejan en parte la menor demanda de China, el mayor consumidor mundial de commodities, pero también debilitan los precios industriales de China.

“El menor costo de las materias primas se ha trasladado a menores precios de venta”, observó el analista de J.P. Morgan

Daniel Kang.

Por otra parte, los fabricantes de paneles solares enfrentan obstáculos como aranceles sobre las importaciones en EE.UU. y medidas similares que están por imponerse en Europa, lo que reduce su mercado global, exacerba el exceso de capacidad y socava los precios y las ganancias.

LDK Solar Co.

tiene una deuda del orden de los US$2.200 millones. Después de que fracasara un intento para vender una de sus plantas, la empresa fue rescatada por el gobierno de la ciudad de Hefei, que acordó comprar la instalación. La compañía prevé una pérdida neta récord de entre US$80 millones y US$90 millones por la venta de la fábrica.

En todo caso, los bajos niveles de inflación y deuda pública significan que el gobierno tiene herramientas a su disposición para estimular el crecimiento.

De hecho, el dinamismo de la economía ha resuelto episodios anteriores de deflación mayorista. Algunos economistas esperan que el gobierno anuncie grandes programas de crédito para fomentar la inversión y, de esta manera, alentar la demanda por productos industriales.

By TODDI GUTNER

Some recently laid-off employees are tapping an unexpected source for work: their former employer. Project work from your old company gives you the chance to earn income, and the company the opportunity to use your services without increasing its full-time headcount, often without having to pay benefits. But navigating the transition can be tricky. Here’s how to decide whether it’s a good idea, and how to succeed if you do it:

Weigh cash needs against the prospect of a permanent job. If you need an income right away, you may need to take a temporary position, and your former employer may be the easiest option. But the more time you spend on contract work, the less time you have for your search for a full-time job.

Gauge your emotions. Make sure your layoff didn’t leave you too emotionally scarred to be able to work well in your old office. If you’re bitter and can’t suppress it, consider forgoing the work. “Former employees who left on poor terms or who are not psychologically ready to return to their former employer should instead focus on future opportunities,” says Rabia de Lande Long, an executive coach and organizational consultant with Chartwell Advisors in New York.

Determine impact on severance. Ask how taking a contract job might affect your severance benefits, says Doug Matthews, president of Right Management, an outplacement consultancy based in Philadelphia. Some companies may make you take severance as a lump sum rather than in continuing payments if you work as a contractor. Other firms may require you to be fully off the books for a period of time. Consult with an employment lawyer, and have the company’s head of human resources “write a letter that specifically allows your return to work as acceptable under the agreement,” says Ms. de Lande Long. Also, check with your local unemployment office to see how contract income may affect your unemployment insurance benefits.

Negotiate your duties and fee. Consider getting an employment lawyer to help draft or review a contract. Or check out Nolo.com for online resources. The contract should detail what you are expected to deliver, by when and the project fee or hourly rate. Contact former colleagues, executive recruiters, or career coaches to determine an appropriate payment. Ms. de Lande Long recommends adding 30% to 40% to your old salary and then dividing by 100 to get a starting point for your day rate. If you have worked for a large consulting firm before, start with a rate equal to half your old billing rate, advises Ms. de Lande Long.

Understand the new office politics. The relationship with your former colleagues will likely change. Employees may resent that they aren’t getting raises but that the company is paying you for project work. You’ll want to make sure staffers see the value of your work, so you’ll probably have to work even harder than them to prove your worth.

Be reasonable about extra work—but only to a point. If the company occasionally asks you to do more work than what’s in your contract, it is a good idea to do it to show you are a team player. But don’t let this become routine. Let your manager know that you’ll need to reassess the agreement if he expects you to do more on a regular basis.

Por SUZANNE KAPNER

Até mesmo pensar em desmembrar uma empresa é algo difícil de fazer. Pergunte ao Citigroup Inc.

Michael E. O’Neill integrava um pequeno grupo de conselheiros que, após a crise financeira, encorajou a instituição a considerar uma cisão no terceiro maior banco dos Estados Unidos, disseram pessoas a par das deliberações.

O’Neill, agora presidente do conselho, supervisionou uma reforma administrativa no ano passado e agora apoia um plano de corte de custos. Mas explorar a possibilidade de uma cisão já não está mais entre as suas prioridades.

O’Neill concluiu que desmembrar o Citigroup não faz sentido agora, dado o clima de incerteza econômica e regulatória e diversas outras considerações financeiras, disseram essas pessoas.

A mudança é notável porque, no passado, O’Neill já se mostrou disposto a fazer reformas em empresas financeiras. Como diretor-presidente, comandou uma redução no tamanho do Bank of Hawaii Corp.

e defendeu uma simplificação no vasto Bank of America Corp.

em 2009, quando se candidatou à sucessão de Kenneth Lewis na presidência da instituição.

Em meados do ano passado, o argumento para desmembrar os bancos gigantes ganhou um surpreendente defensor quando Sanford Weill, ex-presidente do conselho e diretor-presidente do Citigroup, além de arquiteto da megafusão de 1998 que criou a empresa, exortou os grandes bancos a se subdividirem.

Mas muitos observadores continuam a ver uma cisão como uma possibilidade remota. Desde que Weill fez seus comentários, em julho, a ação do Citigroup subiu 70%. Essa alta e a reserva de O’Neill a respeito ressaltam os muitos obstáculos que existiriam para se reconfigurar o Citigroup, bem como outros bancos gigantes como o JP Morgan Chase

& Co. e o Bank of America.

Decidir quais entidades manteriam as licenças bancárias é uma das complicações. Outros impedimentos incluem as grandes somas de dinheiro que seriam necessárias para financiar divisões, tais como a dos bancos de investimento, como firmas independentes, e para desfazer estruturas legais que incluem milhares de entidades.

Essa imobilidade deixa frustrado um pequeno, porém ativo, grupo de analistas, reguladores e investidores que julgam que os grandes bancos deveriam considerar um desmembramento — seja para reduzir o risco de uma nova rodada de onerosos pacotes de resgate feitos com dinheiro do contribuinte, seja para melhorar o desempenho financeiro irregular das instituições.

Com a ação do Citigroup ainda 90% abaixo do seu pico anterior à crise, os executivos precisam identificar as divisões que estão com desempenho fraco e “fazer algo a respeito”, disse Mike Mayo, analista da CLSA Crédit Agricole

Securities.

Outros do time defensor da “divisão dos bancos” incluem autoridades como Thomas Hoenig, vice-presidente do conselho da Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., e Richard Fisher, presidente do Federal Reserve de Dallas, no Estado do Texas, uma das sedes regionais do banco central americano. Partidários da ideia também incluem gestores de fundos que afirmam buscar estratégias de investimento socialmente responsáveis, tais como a Trillium Asset Management LLC, de Boston, no Estado americano de Massachusetts.

A Trillium faz parte de uma coalizão de investidores que deseja que o Citigroup permita que os investidores votem acerca de medidas que obrigariam os gestores a estudar um cenário de desmembramento e informar suas conclusões aos acionistas. Os sindicatos, liderados pela AFL-CIO, federação que os representa, estão apoiando uma medida semelhante no JP Morgan. Ambos os bancos pediram permissão à Comissão de Valores Mobiliários dos EUA, a SEC, para excluir as propostas. As decisões da SEC são esperadas para breve.

Representantes do J.P. Morgan e da SEC não quiseram comentar.

Como outra preocupação, os que apoiam o desmembramento dos bancos afirmam que as maiores instituições obtêm uma vantagem desleal de bilhões de dólares em subsídios, através de depósitos segurados pelo governo e acesso a empréstimos baratos por meio da “janela de desconto” do Fed. “Se nós forçássemos atividades de risco fora da rede de segurança, os mercados exigiriam muito mais capital dessas entidades”, disse Hoenig.

Andrew Haldane, diretor-executivo de estabilidade financeira do Banco da Inglaterra, estimou em 2009 que os maiores bancos do mundo receberam, coletivamente, mais de US$ 700 bilhões por ano desses subsídios. Os senadores americanos Sherrod Brown (democrata de Ohio) e David Vitter (republicano de Louisiana) já pediram à Controladoria do Governo para elaborar uma estimativa do montante dos subsídios e seu impacto em um punhado de grandes bancos

“O que mantém esses bancos juntos é, em boa parte, o ego e o poder ao invés da economia”, disse Sheila Bair, ex-presidente do conselho da FDIC.

O Citigroup já considerou uma cisão em 2008, quando ainda sentia muito o efeito da crise financeira; mas, em vez disso, depositou ativos no valor de centenas de bilhões de dólares em uma divisão separada, onde eles estão sendo vendidos ou reduzidos.

O’Neill quis voltar ao debate sobre a cisão depois que entrou no conselho do Citigroup, em 2009, mas foi impedido por Vikram Pandit, o diretor-presidente, até sua renúncia forçada, em outubro. Pandit não queria considerar mais um desmembramento, segundo pessoas familiarizadas com a sua opinião. Por meio de um porta-voz, ele preferiu não comentar.

Michael Corbat, que sucedeu Pandit como diretor-presidente do banco, embarcou em um plano para cortar custos e reanimar as divisões mais fracas, mas uma reestruturação mais ampla não está nos planos, disseram pessoas a par da empresa.

By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN

A few years ago when Bank of America Corp.

wanted to study whether face time mattered among its call-center teams, the big bank asked about 90 workers to wear badges for a few weeks with tiny sensors to record their movements and the tone of their conversations.

As Big Data becomes a fixture of office life, companies are turning to tracking devices to gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact. Rachel Emma Silverman reports on Markets Hub.

The data showed that the most productive workers belonged to close-knit teams and spoke frequently with their colleagues. So, to get more employees mingling, the bank scheduled workers for group breaks, rather than solo ones.

Productivity rose by at least 10%, says former Bank of America human-resources executive Michael Arena, who helped conduct its study.

Alison Seiffer

As Big Data becomes a fixture of office life, companies are turning to tracking devices to gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact. Sensors, worn on lanyards or placed on office furniture, record how often staffers get up from their desks, consult other teams and hold meetings.

Businesses say the data offer otherwise hard-to-glean insights about how workers do their jobs, and are using the information to make changes large and small, ranging from the timing of coffee breaks to how work groups are composed, to spur collaboration and productivity.

“Surveys measure a point in time—what’s happening right now with my emotions. [Sensors] measure actual behavior in an objective way,” says Mr. Arena.

But there’s a fine line between Big Data and Big Brother, at least in the eyes of some employees, who might shudder at the idea of the boss tracking their every move. Sensor proponents, however, argue that smartphones and corporate ID badges already can transmit their owner’s location. In many cases, workers can opt out of participating in the sensor studies.

“Gathering big data about human behaviors can be a sensitive topic,” says Dave Lathrop, director of workspace futures and strategy at Steelcase Inc

., which has used sensor data with its own employees and is developing sensor products for businesses.

Along with addressing privacy concerns, companies must also be ready to make sense of the data, managers say.

Last year, Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.

did a sensor study of 30 sales and marketing employees at its Lexington, Mass., offices to learn about interactions between team members and various departments, says Eric Kimble, a Cubist executive.

For four weeks, company employees wore iPhone-size badges, supplied by Boston startup Sociometric Solutions Inc., that collected data on their motions, whereabouts, voice levels and conversational patterns.

The information was merged with email-traffic data, along with the results of weekly surveys in which employees rated how energetic and productive they felt.

Like Bank of America, Cubist discovered a correlation between higher productivity and face-to-face interactions. It found that social activity dropped off significantly during lunch time, as many employees retreated to their desks to check emails, rather than chatting with one another.

In response, the company decided to make its once-dingy cafeteria more inviting, improving the lighting and offering better food, to encourage workers to lunch together, instead of at their desks.

Cubist also scaled back to a lone coffee station and water cooler for the sales and marketing group, forcing employees to huddle and mix. It set a 3 p.m. daily coffee break, both to prop up sagging energy levels and to boost social interactions.

In such studies, Sociometric Solutions and its clients say, workers typically get a report on their group’s overall interactions, with no names attached, though individuals get to see their own data.

Ben Waber, chief executive of Sociometric Solutions, which he based on his doctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says a handful of managers have wanted to see the data on an individual employee, but that his clients must sign contracts and consent forms prohibiting them from doing so.

Individual data can be revealing, however: Dr. Waber says he can divine from a worker’s patterns of movement whether that employee is likely to leave the company, or score a promotion.

Ben Lin, an analyst at Cubist, says he didn’t find the badges creepy once his bosses explained how the data would be used. His own report showed he changed his tone and gestures based on his conversation partner. “Subconsciously, you mirror who you are talking to,” he says.

Rather than radical changes, sensor studies often show that simple tweaks can improve operations.

Dr. Waber says his work with one client, a tech company, revealed that the size of a lunch table matters. Workers who ate at 12-person tables were more productive and collaborative than those who dined at tables with four seats. Data collected from sensors showed the larger lunch groups had more social interactions with teams across the company.

About 90% of workers at the 50 large and medium-size organizations that have done sensor studies with Dr. Waber’s firm agree to don the badges, which are intended to be worn the entire workday. (Bathroom breaks are optional.) Those who opt out can wear a dummy badge, which appears identical but doesn’t record or transmit data, he says.

Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, an employee advocacy group, says current sensing technologies don’t seem to violate employment laws. “It’s not illegal to track your own employees inside your own building,” he says, adding that the data could be helpful in improving firm and worker performance.

But he cautions that employers are likely to want data on individual workers. “Not many service providers are going to refuse to give information to an employer that’s paying the bill,” says Mr. Maltby. “It would be very surprising if some provider doesn’t start giving employers data about individual employees when they ask for it. That’s not illegal. But do you really want your employers following around what you are doing? It’s a creepy way to work.”

Sensors also can reveal how workers use office space. Kimberly-Clark Corp.

employees frequently griped that the consumer-product company’s Neenah, Wis., offices were short on meeting space. Kimberly-Clark placed space-usage sensors offered by furniture maker Herman Miller Inc.

beneath chairs and in conference rooms. It found that groups of three to four employees were gathering in meeting rooms designed for much larger numbers, says Mike Dietzen, a facilities planner.

As a result, the company carved out more and smaller conference spaces designed for small groups. Space-availability complaints have gone down significantly since, Mr. Dietzen says.

Putting badges on workers is just the beginning of a broader trend, researchers say. As companies rethink their offices, many are looking into “smart buildings,” wired with technologies that show workers’ location in real time and suggest meetings with colleagues nearby.

Philip Ross, CEO of workplace consulting firm UnWork.com, says these features will encourage “engineered serendipity.”

To be sure, companies lured by the promise of fine-grained data on their workforces must figure out what to do with it.

Chuck Kelly, a senior vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle,

relied on space-use sensors this past fall to see how workers used the property-management firm’s downtown Chicago workspace.

“We wanted to see if the perception of how they were using their space matched up to the reality of how they are using their space,” he says.

The project generated a slew of graphs and spreadsheets, but about three months later, Mr. Kelly is still trying to extract relevant insights from the noise. It’s been a challenge, he says, “getting your head around all that data and what it means.”

Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com