How is Human Capital Management Defined and Managed in Large Companies?

[Excerpt] The employer — employee relationship is in disarray: 59% of workers feel their company favors profits over people, 58% believe there are limited growth opportunities in their organization, and 69% would be more satisfied if their employer better utilized their skills and abilities. Thus, a company must consider how to reinvent people strategy to improve engagement. This summary will illustrate the value of strategic human capital management, outline how organizations have adopted a human capital mindset, and provide recommendations for the future workplace

How are Companies Modifying Benefits in Total Rewards Programs to Address the Varying Needs of their Employee Population?

[Excerpt] A strategic total rewards program can be used to attract, motivate, and retain employees and generate superior business results. However, while organizations spend an estimated 31.7% of total compensation on benefits, some 60% of firms report having low engagement. Therefore, there is pressure to invest strategically to drive the employee experience. With the increasing diversity of employee populations, as well as the demand for tailored, cafeteria-style benefits, many companies have discovered that a one-size-fits-all approach to rewards is inadequate. This summary will outline how innovative rewards address the needs of these populations

What are the Predictors of a Successful People Manager?

[Excerpt] Managers, who account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement and are the reason for 75% of voluntary turnover, have significant fiscal impact. Therefore, an organization’s ability to identify, develop, and retain leaders is a critical competitive advantage. It is estimated that companies with capable leaders achieve, on average, 147% higher earnings per share than competitors, and, that negative employee-supervisor relationships cost some $360 billion per year in lost productivity. This summary will outline the characteristics of successful people managers, and will provide recommendations for identification processes that better predict performance

Social Movements and HR: The Impact of #MeToo

[Excerpt] Considering the increased societal attention given to sexual harassment and assault, and the wide range of reactions to #MeToo, we wanted to know how companies are reacting, whether they are changing their policies and practices, and whether the societal movement is impacting company culture. The highlights of our study show opportunities in culture, leadership, policy and reporting formulation, and training practices. During our study, we also found innovative practices that could be replicated across companies. Lastly, we have included a self-assessment tool to measure progress in addressing sexual harassment and assault within an organizatio

A Comprehensive Analysis of Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Data. I. Spectral Components and Their Possible Physical Origins of LAT/GBM GRBs

We present a systematic analysis of the spectral and temporal properties of 17 GRBs co-detected by GBM and LAT on board the Fermi satellite by May 2010. We performed a time-resolved spectral analysis of all the bursts with the finest temporal resolution allowed by statistics, in order to avoid temporal smearing of different spectral components. We found that the time-resolved spectra of 14 out of 17 GRBs are best modeled with the Band function over the entire Fermi spectral range, which may suggest a common origin for emissions detected by LAT and GBM. GRB 090902B and GRB 090510 require the superposition between an MeV component and an extra power law component, with the former having a sharp cutoff above E_p. For GRB 090902B, this MeV component becomes progressively narrower as the time bin gets smaller, and can be fit with a Planck function as the time bin becomes small enough. In general, we speculate that phenomenologically there may be three elemental spectral components : (I) a Band-function component (e.g. in GRB 080916C) that extends in a wide energy range and does not narrow with reducing time bins, which may be of the non-thermal origin; (II) a quasi-thermal component (e.g. in GRB 090902B) with the spectra progressively narrowing with reducing time bins; and (III) another non-thermal power law component extending to high energies. The spectra of different bursts may be decomposed into one or more of these elemental components. We compare this sample with the BATSE sample and investigate some correlations among spectral parameters. We discuss the physical implications of the data analysis results for GRB prompt emission, including jet compositions (matter-dominated vs. Poynting-flux-dominated outflow), emission sites (internal shock, external shock or photosphere), as well as radiation mechanisms (synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton, or thermal Compton upscattering).Comment: 61 pages, 25 figures, 3 tables. 2011 ApJ in pres

How is Human Capital Management Defined and Managed in Large Companies?

[Excerpt] The employer — employee relationship is in disarray: 59% of workers feel their company favors profits over people, 58% believe there are limited growth opportunities in their organization, and 69% would be more satisfied if their employer better utilized their skills and abilities. Thus, a company must consider how to reinvent people strategy to improve engagement. This summary will illustrate the value of strategic human capital management, outline how organizations have adopted a human capital mindset, and provide recommendations for the future workplace.Human_Capital_Management_Defined_and_Managed_in_Large_Companies.pdf: 253 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Current pharmacological management of gastro-esophageal reflux in children: an evidence-based systematic review

Gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) is a common phenomenon, characterized by the regurgitation of the gastric contents into the esophagus. Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the term applied when GER is associated with sequelae or faltering growth.The main aims of treatment are to alleviate symptoms, promote normal growth, and prevent complications. Medical treatments for children include (i) altering the viscosity of the feeds with alginates; (ii) altering the gastric pH with antacids, histamine H2 receptor antagonists, and proton pump inhibitors; and (iii) altering the motility of the gut with prokinetics, such as metoclopramide and domperidone.Our aim was to systematically review the evidence base for the medical treatment of gastro-oesophageal reflux in children. We searched PubMed, AdisOnline, MEDLINE, and EMBASE, and then manually searched reviews from the past 5 years using the key words ‘gastro-esophageal’ (or ‘gastroesophageal’), ‘reflux’, ‘esophagitis’, and ‘child$’ (or ‘infant’) and ‘drug$’ or ‘therapy’. Articles included were in English and had an abstract. We used the levels of evidence adopted by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine in Oxford to assess the studies for all reported outcomes that were meaningful to clinicians making decisions about treatment. This included the impact of clinical symptoms, pH study profile, and esophageal appearance at endoscopy.Five hundred and eight articles were reviewed, of which 56 papers were original, relevant clinical trials. These were assessed further. Many of the studies considered had significant methodological flaws, although based on available evidence the following statements can be made. For infant GERD, ranitidine and omeprazole and probably lansoprazole are safe and effective medications, which promote symptomatic relief, and endoscopic and histological healing of esophagitis. Gaviscon® Infant sachets are safe and can improve symptoms of reflux. There is less evidence to support the use of domperidone or metoclopramide. More evidence is needed before other anti-reflux medications can be recommended. For older children, acid suppression is the mainstay of treatment. The largest evidence base supports the early use of H2 receptor antagonists or proton pump inhibitors