Recruiting and retaining labour in agricultural businesses

There is an increasing need for competent workforce in the agricultural sector, but a lack of potential candidates on the labour market. In June 2017, the Swedish state adopted a new national food strategy. This strategy points out the direction of the Swedish food policy until 2030. The overall goal of the strategy is to create a competitive food sector that increases food production in Sweden and contributes to sustainable development. With this goal, the strategy also aims to create more jobs and sustainable growth in the Swedish food supply chain. However, the Federation of Swedish Farmers presented a report in 2018 saying that there is a lack of labour in the Swedish agricultural industry. In fact, 8 out of 10 companies in the sector found it hard to attract and acquire competent labour, according to the report. The problem of not finding the right employees can inhibit the development opportunities for the companies. The companies in the agricultural sector needs to be associated with a positive employment experience and differentiate their identity as employers to become more attractive to potential employees. To create a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining employees, companies can invest time and resources in employer branding practices to become and remain a desired employer in the eyes of the employee. The aim of this study is to investigate employer branding practices to attract, recruit and retain employees in Swedish agricultural businesses. The goal of this aim is to understand how agricultural businesses work to attract and retain employees with the right competence by using employer branding practices. With a qualitative research approach this study investigates the employer branding practices of eight different cases consisting of farmers in the region of Mälardalen, Sweden. A theoretical framework consisting of theories within employer branding has been created in order to identify different components and give an understanding of how farmers work with employer branding practices in the processes of recruiting and retaining employees. Key findings are that farmers in Sweden invest in their employer brand and develop employer branding strategies and activities. The companies develop their employee value propositions, consisting of attributes and promises that makes them attractive to the targeted audience of potential employees. The proposition includes both tangible and intangible benefits such as accommodation, flexible working hours and good workplace culture. The companies also do their best to fulfil these promises throughout the employment to motivate and develop the staff, with a goal to increase retention and create value for the organization. The most important part of the employer brand, according to the respondents, were their reputation as an employer. Thus, to increase the employer attractiveness, there is a great opportunity for improvement by engaging further in employer branding practices that benefits the reputation as an employer.Det finns ett ökande behov av kompetent arbetskraft inom jordbrukssektorn, men brist på potentiella kandidater på arbetsmarknaden. I juni 2017 tog Sveriges riksdag ett beslut om en ny nationell livsmedelsstrategi. Denna strategi anger riktningen för den svenska livsmedelspolitiken fram till 2030. Strategins övergripande mål är att skapa en konkurrenskraftig livsmedelssektor som ökar livsmedelsproduktionen i Sverige och bidrar till hållbar utveckling. Med detta mål syftar strategin också till att skapa fler jobb och hållbar tillväxt i den svenska livsmedelskedjan. LRF presenterade år 2018 en rapport där de konstaterar att det saknas arbetskraft i den svenska livsmedelssektorn. Enligt rapporten så anser 8 av 10 företag i sektorn att det svårt att attrahera och rekrytera kompetent arbetskraft. Problemet med att inte hitta rätt anställda kan hämma utvecklingsmöjligheterna för företagen. Att vara anställd inom jordbrukssektorn måste associeras med något positivt och företagen behöver differentiera sin identitet som arbetsgivare för att bli mer attraktiva för potentiella anställda. För att skapa en konkurrensfördel i rekrytering och för att behålla anställda kan företag investera tid och resurser i att utveckla sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke. Employer branding involverar alla aktiviteter i att utveckla och marknadsföra arbetsgivarvarumärket för att bli och förbli en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur svenska lantbrukare utvecklar och marknadsför deras arbetsgivarvarumärke genom Employer branding för att attrahera, rekrytera och behålla anställda. Målet med detta syfte är att förstå hur jordbruksföretag arbetar för att attrahera och behålla anställda med rätt kompetens. Med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi undersöker denna studie arbetsgivarvarumärken i åtta olika fall. Fallen består av jordbrukare i regionen Mälardalen, Sverige. Studien använder sig utav ett teoretiskt ramverk uppbyggt av teorier om Employer branding och arbetsgivarvarumärken för att identifiera olika komponenter och ge en förståelse för hur jordbrukare arbetar med processerna för att rekrytera och behålla anställda. Resultatet av denna studie visar att jordbrukare i Sverige investerar i sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke och utvecklar strategier och aktiviteter vid rekrytering och behållandet av arbetskraft genom. Företagen utvecklar sina värdeerbjudanden (Employee value proposition), bestående av förmåner och löften som gör dem attraktiva för potentiella anställda. Värdeerbjudandet innehåller både konkreta och abstrakta fördelar som boende, flexibel arbetstid och god arbetsplatskultur. Företagen gör också sitt bästa för att uppfylla dessa löften under hela anställningen för att motivera och utveckla personalen, med ett mål att skapa lojalitet och behålla anställda samt skapa värde för organisationen. Den viktigaste delen av arbetsgivarmärket var enligt respondenterna deras rykte som arbetsgivare. För att öka arbetsgivarnas attraktivitet finns det därför en stor möjlighet till förbättring genom att ytterligare engagera sig i Employer branding och arbetsgivarvarumärket för att bygga ett positivt rykte som arbetsgivare

Efficacy of baby-CIMT: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial on infants below age 12 months, with clinical signs of unilateral CP

BACKGROUND: Infants with unilateral brain lesions are at high risk of developing unilateral cerebral palsy (CP). Given the great plasticity of the young brain, possible interventions for infants at risk of unilateral CP deserve exploration. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is known to be effective for older children with unilateral CP but is not systematically used for infants. The development of CIMT for infants (baby-CIMT) is described here, as is the methodology of an RCT comparing the effects on manual ability development of baby-CIMT versus baby-massage. The main hypothesis is that infants receiving baby-CIMT will develop manual ability in the involved hand faster than will infants receiving baby-massage in the first year of life. METHOD AND DESIGN: The study will be a randomised, controlled, prospective parallel-group trial. Invited infants will be to be randomised to either the baby-CIMT or the baby-massage group if they: 1) are at risk of developing unilateral CP due to a known neonatal event affecting the brain or 2) have been referred to Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital due to asymmetric hand function. The inclusion criteria are age 3–8 months and established asymmetric hand use. Infants in both groups will receive two 6-weeks training periods separated by a 6-week pause, for 12 weeks in total of treatment. The primary outcome measure will be the new Hand Assessment for Infants (HAI) for evaluating manual ability. In addition, the Parenting Sense of Competence scale and Alberta Infant Motor Scale will be used. Clinical neuroimaging will be utilized to characterise the brain lesion type. To compare outcomes between treatment groups generalised linear models will be used. DISCUSSION: The model of early intensive intervention for hand function, baby-CIMT evaluated by the Hand Assessment for Infants (HAI) will have the potential to significantly increase our understanding of how early intervention of upper limb function in infants at risk of developing unilateral CP can be performed and measured. TRIAL REGISTRATION: SFO-V4072/2012, 05/22/201

Sewage sludge as a part of a circular economy : a case study on influencing factors in the decision process on using sludge as fertilizer

Sedan en tid tillbaka har människan levt över de ändliga tillgångar av resurser som jorden har att erbjuda. Många av människans aktiviteter utarmar sakta men säkert jordens naturresurser samtidigt som världens befolkning ökar kraftigt. Livsmedelsproduktionen måste öka i takt med att resursanvändningen måste bli mer hållbar. Ett växtnäringsämne som är nödvändigt för en effektiv växtodling är fosfor. Största delen av den fosfor som idag används i lantbruket utvinns från den begränsade naturresursen fosfatmalm och tillförs till åkermarken i form av mineralgödsel. Alternativa fosforkällor blir mer och mer aktuellt och en av dessa är avloppsslam. Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en bättre förståelse om hur användning av rötslam i jordbruket skulle kunna ökas för ett mer hållbart kretslopp och därmed inkludera jordbruket i den cirkulära ekonomin. För att på bästa sätt kunna besvara studiens forskningsfrågor analyseras den insamlade empirin med det teoretiska ramverket som utgångspunkt. Uppsatsens forskningsdesign är kvalitativ och studien antar en induktiv ansats. För att skapa en förståelse för beslutsprocessen vid val av rötslam som gödningsmedel på åkermark har en fallstudie genomförts av fem lantbruksföretag. Tre av dessa använder idag rötslam som gödningsmedel medan de andra två har beslutat sig för att undvika rötslam som gödningsmedel i dagsläget. Denna studie visar att alla faktorer i PESTEL-modellen påverkar lantbrukares beslut att sprida slam på åkermark. De faktorerna med störst påverkan på beslutet är ekonomiska, sociala och tekniska. Det kan konstateras att de drivande faktorerna för att sprida slam är liknande de faktorer som påverkar det motsatta beslutet. Empirin visar att detta beror på lantbrukarnas riskbedömning samt var de väljer att fokusera risken. Det kan även konstateras att slammets påstådda negativa miljöpåverkan inte är en av de mest bidragande faktorerna till att slam inte används i större utsträckning som gödningsmedel på åkermark.For some time, humans have overspent the limited resources the earth has to offer. Many of the human activities slowly but surely depletes the natural resources from the earth, while the population is increasing rapidly. As the food production increases, the use of natural resources has to become more sustainable. A plant nutrient necessary for successful grain production is phosphorus. Currently, most of the phosphorus used in agriculture are extracted from the limited natural resource - phosphate ore. This is in turn added to the arable land as a mineral fertilizer. Hence, alternative sources of phosphorus are becoming increasingly necessary. One of the alternative sources is sewage sludge. The purpose of this study is to create a better understanding of how the usage of sludge in agriculture can be increased for a more sustainable cycle and thereby include agriculture in the circular economy. In order to respond to the research questions, the collected empirical data is analysed with the theoretical framework as a starting point. This study relies on a qualitative method and an inductive research approach. To get a better understanding of the decision-making process of whether to select sewage sludge as a fertilizer on arable land, a case study was conducted with five firms within agriculture. Up to date, three of the case companies use sewage sludge as fertilizer, while the other two have decided to avoid sewage sludge as fertilizers. The findings show that all factors in the PESTEL-model affect the farmer's decision to spread sewage sludge on farmland. Further, the factors with the highest impact on the decision are economic, social and technical. However, an interesting finding was that the drivers for not spreading sludge where similar to the factors driving the decision of spreading sewage sludge on farmland. The empirical results further show that the decision is dependent on the farmers' risk assessment and where they choose to focus the risk. Furthermore, the alleged negative environmental impact of sludge is not a significantly important factor to why sludge is not being used more widely as fertilizer in arable land

Approximate Particle Number Projection for Rotating Nuclei

Pairing correlations in rotating nuclei are discussed within the Lipkin-Nogami method. The accuracy of the method is tested for the Krumlinde-Szyma\'nski R(5) model. The results of calculations are compared with those obtained from the standard mean field theory and particle-number projection method, and with exact solutions.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures available on request, REVTEX3.

Half-lives of rp-process waiting point nuclei

We give results of microscopic calculations for the half-lives of various proton-rich nuclei in the mass region A=60-90, which are involved in the astrophysical rp-process, and which are needed as input parameters of numerical simulations in Nuclear Astrophysics. The microscopic formalism consists of a deformed QRPA approach that involves a selfconsistent quasiparticle deformed Skyrme Hartree-Fock basis and residual spin-isospin separable forces in both the particle-hole and particle-particle channels. The strength of the particle-hole residual interaction is chosen to be consistent with the Skyrme effective force and mean field basis, while that of the particle-particle is globally fixed to 0.07 MeV after a judicious choice from comparison to experimental half-lives. We study and discuss the sensitivity of the half-lives to deformation and residual interactions.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Eur. Phys. J.

The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) – Differences between the US and the Norwegian Normative Samples

Summary: The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) is a standardized procedure for assessing childrens’ abilities, developed in the USA. It is widely used in child rehabilitation, also in Norway. A representative sample of Norwegian children in ten age groups is compared to the original American standardizing sample. On a large number of points, Norwegian and American children were shown to be different. In the assessment of Norwegian children, therefore, they should be compared to the Norwegian sample, not to the American norms for the PEDI test

Validity and reliability of the VOAA-DDD to assess spontaneous hand use with a video observation tool in children with spastic unilateral cerebral palsy

Contains fulltext : 80999.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: In 2003 new computer software, the VOAA (Video Observations Aarts and Aarts), was designed to score and evaluate two important aspects of spontaneous upper limb use, i.e. overall duration and frequency of specific behaviours. The aim of this study was to investigate the test-retest, interrater and intrarater reliability and the construct validity of a new module, the VOAA-DDD, to determine developmental disregard in children with spastic unilateral cerebral palsy (CP). METHODS: A test-retest design with three raters for reliability and a two-group design for construct validity were used. Subjects were a total of 20 children with spastic unilateral CP equally divided in two age groups (2.5-5 and 5-8 years), and 56 healthy children of the same age groups. Overall duration and frequency of specific behaviours of the affected arm and hand were assessed during a task demanding ('stringing beads') and a task stimulating ('decorating a muffin') the use of both hands. Reliability was estimated by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Construct validity was assessed by comparing children with CP to healthy children. RESULTS: All ICCs exceeded 0.87. In contrast with healthy children, children with CP used their affected hand less during the 'muffin' task compared to the 'beads' task. Of the children with CP, 90% in the age group of 2.5-5 years and 50% in the age group of 5-8 years showed values exceeding the extreme values of healthy controls, respectively, indicating developmental disregard. CONCLUSION: The VOAA-DDD is a reliable and valid instrument to assess spontaneous use of the affected arm and hand in order to determine developmental disregard in children with spastic unilateral CP

Beta decay and shape isomerism in 74Kr

We study the properties of $^{74}$Kr, and particularly the Gamow Teller strength distribution, using a deformed selfconsistent HF+RPA method with Skyrme type interactions. Results are presented for two density-dependent effective two-body interactions, including the dependence on deformation of the HF energy that exhibits two minima at close energies and distant deformations, one prolate and one oblate. We study the role of deformation, residual interaction, pairing and RPA correlations on the Gamow Teller strength distribution. Results on moments of inertia and gyromagnetic factors, as well as on $E0$ and $M1$ transitions are also presented.Comment: 20 pages, RevTeX. 12 PS figures. To appear in Nucl. Phys.