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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) collects information on union status for workers fatally injured on the job. Understanding how unions and collective bargaining [...]

This article uses administrative data on all active employees of the Federal Reserve (FR) System to examine participation in and contributions to the Thrift Saving Plan, the System's defined contribution (DC)plan. We link to administrative records a unique employee survey of economic/demo graphic factors including a set of financial literacy questions. Not surprisingly, FR employees are substantially more financially literate than the population at large. Most importantly, financially savvy employees are also most likely to participate in their DC plan. Sophisticated workers contribute three percentage points more of their earnings to the DC plan than do the less knowledgeable, and they hold more equity in their pension accounts. We examine changes in employee plan behavior 1 year after employees completed a Learning Module about retirement planning, and we compare it to baseline patterns. We find that those employees who completed the Learning Module were more likely to start contributing and less likely to have stopped contributing to the DC plan postsurvey. In sum, employerprovided learning programs are shown to significantly impact employee retirement saving decisions and consistent with a lot of other research, higher levels of financial literacy are found to have a beneficial impact on retirement saving patterns. (JEL J3, H7), I. INTRODUCTION Employers offer pension plans in the workplace to attract, retain, motivate, and ultimately retire their employees. Nevertheless, many workers are quite uninformed about financial matters, both in the [...]

In the Malaysian context, the designers of many office buildings are largely unaware of the effect of colour in the working environment. The choice of colours is made without further study of the problems that might arise from unsuitable colour choices. Employers should therefore be advised to improve the surroundings of the office in order to meet the needs and comfort of the employees. This study was conducted to enhance the awareness of both the building users and the facility managers on the importance of colour schemes in productivity. Three case study buildings were chosen, consisting of three office buildings in the capital city of Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed in each case study and feedback from the respondents was gathered. This data was then analyzed and the findings are presented. In Malaysia nowadays, there is a lack of awareness about the preference of colour schemes for office buildings. Many are unaware of the effect of the colour scheme on the employees' productivity. It is anticipated that this study will enhance the awareness and encourage the correlation between the working environment and colour matters amongst building users and management. Keywords: Awareness, Colour scheme, Productivity and Office buildings, 1. Introduction Colour is a visual phenomenon triggered by the response to the stimulation of light. It pervades every aspect of our lives, embellishes the ordinary and gives beauty and [...]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2010.00665.x Byline: ZHANG WEI (1), SUE RICHARDSON (1) Keywords: D24; J14; J24 Abstract: Employers are reluctant to employ older workers. Is this because they are less productive than equivalent younger workers? This paper uses data from a 2007 census of residential aged care homes in Australia to examine the productivity differentials of workers at different ages. We estimate production functions that take into account the age profile of the workforce in each aged care residential facility. We find that for the facilities having high care residents only, the productivity of nurses, whose work is more demanding of specialist knowledge, keeps increasing with age while the rate of increase declines after age 50. In contrast, the productivity of carers, whose work is more demanding of physical capacity, is highest in middle age. The facilities with low care residents only provide a much lower level of services because their residents are less frail and more independent. In this case, none of the coefficients regarding the impacts of age on productivity is statistically significant - suggesting that older workers are good substitutes for younger ones. Author Affiliation: (1)National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Article note: Zhang Wei, Room 3111, Social Science North Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. Email: zhang.wei@flinders.edu.au

Abstract There are good reasons to periodically review the meaning of your work. The way you see what you do, achieve, work towards and experience as part of primary care [...]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01325.x Byline: MATTHEW J. MUIR (*), MARK W. SCHWARTZ ([dagger][double dagger]) Keywords: conservation education; graduate training; university programs; workplace skills Abstract: Abstract: Graduate education in conservation biology has been assailed as ineffective and inadequate to train the professionals needed to solve conservation problems. To identify how graduate education might better fit the needs of the conservation workplace, we surveyed practitioners and academics about the importance of particular skills on the job and the perceived importance of teaching those same skills in graduate school. All survey participants (n = 189) were alumni from the University of California Davis Graduate Group in Ecology and received thesis-based degrees from 1973 to 2008. Academic and practitioner respondents clearly differed in workplace skills, although there was considerably more agreement in training recommendations. On the basis of participant responses, skill sets particularly at risk of underemphasis in graduate programs are decision making and implementation of policy, whereas research skills may be overemphasized. Practitioners in different job positions, however, require a variety of skill sets, and we suggest that ever-increasing calls to broaden training to fit this multitude of jobs will lead to a trade-off in the teaching of other skills. Some skills, such as program management, may be best developed in on-the-job training or collaborative projects. We argue that the problem of graduate education in conservation will not be solved by restructuring academia alone. Conservation employers need to communicate their specific needs to educators, universities need to be more flexible with their opportunities, and students need to be better consumers of the skills offered by universities and other institutions. Abstract (Spanish): Formacion en Investigacion Academica para un Lugar de Trabajo No Academico: un Estudio de Caso Graduados que Trabajan en Conservacion Resumen: La educacion en biologia de la conservacion a nivel licenciatura ha sido calificada como ineficaz e inadecuada para formar a los profesionales que se requieren para resolver problemas de conservacion. Para identificar como la educacion a nivel licenciatura puede satisfacer las necesidades del ambito laboral en conservacion, sondeamos a profesionales y academicos sobre la importancia de habilidades particulares del trabajo y la percepcion de la importancia de esas mismas habilidades en la universidad. Todos los participantes en el sondeo (n = 189) fueron alumnos del Grupo de Graduados en Ecologia de la Universidad de California en Davis y obtuvieron el grado basado en tesis entre 1973 y 2008. Los academicos y profesionales encuestados difirieron claramente en sus habilidades, aunque hubo considerablemente mayor acuerdo en las recomendaciones de capacitacion. Con base en las respuestas de los participantes, los conjuntos de habilidades en riesgo de no ser consideradas en los programas educativos son la toma de decisiones y la implementacion de politicas, mientras que las habilidades de investigacion tienden a ser sobre enfatizadas. Sin embargo, los profesionales en diferentes puestos de trabajo requieren una variedad de conjuntos de habilidades, y sugerimos que los constantes llamados a ampliar la capacitacion para responder a esta multitud de labores conduciran a un desbalance en la ensenanza de otras habilidades. Algunas habilidades, como el manejo de programas, pueden desarrollarse en proyectos colaborativos o de capacitacion en el trabajo. Argumentamos que el problema de la educacion en biologia de la conservacion a nivel licenciatura no se resolvera solo con la reestructuracion de la academia. Los empleadores deben comunicar sus requerimientos especificos a los educadores, las universidades deben ser mas flexibles con sus oportunidades y los estudiantes necesitan ser mejores consumidores de las habilidades ofrecidas por las universidades y otras instituciones. Author Affiliation: (*)Graduate Group in Ecology, 1 Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A. ([dagger])Department of Environmental Science & Policy, 1 Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A., emailmwschwartz@ucdavis.edu Article History: Paper submitted December 18, 2008; revised manuscript accepted May 19, 2009. Article note: ([double dagger]) Address correspondence to Mark W. Schwartz

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00459.x Byline: SIAN POOLEY (1) Abstract: It has been argued that domestic service heightened divisions of class and gender, and supported the private nuclear family in late nineteenth-century England. This case study of one urban locality (Lancaster) between 1880 and 1914 uses qualitative and quantitative techniques, particularly longitudinal record linkage, to explore relationships between live-in domestic servants and their employers. It is argued that there were considerable similarities between the backgrounds and life-cycle-related motivations of both servants and employers. Relationships were highly diverse, but service simultaneously depended upon and played a crucial role in sustaining complex, localized networks that extended far beyond the servant-employing household. Author Affiliation: (1)St John's College, Cambridge Article History: Date submitted 26 October 2005Revised version submitted 4 October 2006, 5 June 2008Accepted 8 July 2008

Abstract In spite of the enshrining anti-poverty programs and objectives of the poverty eradication programs contained in India's five year plans, women's poverty in India, even after 58 years of [...]

Many employers continue to ignore the proficiency gap in the American workforce. Other employers, however, are taking proactive approaches by investing in their human capital to combat skills deficiencies in the workforce. This article describes the results of a study comparing how large and small businesses are responding to basic skills deficiencies in the workforce., INTRODUCTION Numerous 'eye-opening' publications have focused attention on the basic skills, or lack thereof, of the American workforce. Jonathan Kozol's Illiterate America (1985), the Hudson Institute's Workforce 2000 (1987), and [...]