World religions free essay sample

Basic beliefs about human-divine relationship, class relations contributions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism Christianity. Touches on Judaism, Christianity 7th-Day Adventism, (more)

Important Read This Before Getting a Belly Button Piercing

Important Read This Before Getting a Belly Button Piercing SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Belly button piercings may appear totally cool and effortless from an outside perspective, but they actually require serious commitment if you want them to look good in the long run. They heal slower than many other types of body piercings, and they require a significant amount of aftercare. This guide will take you through the piercing process and show you how to avoid potential problems as you heal. If you follow this advice, you'll be showing off a piercing that is both stylish and healthy in no time! Feature image: Spookygonk/Flickr, used under CC 2.0 Can You Get a Belly Button Piercing? Some people are disqualified from getting a belly button piercing. Typically, belly button piercings go through the â€Å"lip† of skin above the belly button. Although most people can technically get these types of piercings, it's best to have a good flap of skin above the belly button for the piercer to put the jewelry through if you want it to heal properly. The piercing also needs room below and behind the flap so that the area doesn’t become irritated in the healing process. If you don’t have a solid flap of skin on the top of the belly button, sometimes piercers can go for the lower lip of the belly button instead (though this is a rare option). Here’s an example of what a typical belly button piercing looks like: She did it/used under CC by 2.0 Unfortunately, if you have an outie belly button, you most likely won’t be able to get it pierced. Some people believe that outie belly button piercings are the only "true" belly button piercings because they actually involve piercing the inner part of the navel. However, infections in outie belly button piercings can travel to your internal organs and become extremely dangerous. Most reputable piercers will not take this risk. In case you're unsure of which type of belly button you have going on, here's what an outie looks like: Belly Button-3/used under CC 2.0 The piercer will always examine your belly button carefully before starting the process to see if your anatomical setup will allow for the piercing to heal safely. What Are the Risks Associated With Belly Button Piercings? Even if you believe that your belly button is the ideal candidate for a snazzy new piece of jewelry, you should know that some health risks come hand-in-hand with getting this type of body piercing. These risks include: Allergic reactions to the jewelry Excessive bleeding Jewelry rejection or migration (migration is when the piercing moves internally to a slightly different spot, and rejection is when your body starts to push the jewelry out and you see more and more of the barbell) Bacterial infections Permanent scarring (this can happen if you don’t bother to remove the jewelry after your body has decided to reject it) You can minimize these risks by finding a reputable piercer and caring for your piercing appropriately during the healing process (discussed in the next couple of sections). Does a Belly Button Piercing Hurt a Lot? Good news: most people say that belly button piercings don’t hurt that much. They’re comparable to ear lobe piercings in terms of pain. If you’ve gotten your ear or nose cartilage pierced before, that type of piercing usually hurts more than a belly button piercing. You may experience some soreness and throbbing in the first few days, but it shouldn't interfere with your life significantly. One downside to belly button piercings is that they do take significantly longer than other piercings to heal. While ear piercings typically heal in 6 to 8 weeks, a belly button piercing is usually not fully healed for six months to a year (which is why many people suggest getting your piercing in the winter so you can show off the fully healed final product come beach season). If you've ever gotten this type of piercing on your upper ear, chances are that it hurt a lot more than most belly button piercings. (left ear, used under CC 2.0) How to Get Your Belly Button Pierced Here's a rundown of the steps you need to go through to ensure the best piercing experience. Taking the process seriously and finding a reputable piercer can make all the difference in the speed of your healing and satisfaction with your piercing overall. Step 1: Know the Laws and Regulations If you’re over 18, make sure you bring an official form of photo ID like a driver’s license or passport. If you’re under 18, you must have a parent or guardian present to sign off on your piercing. This article has a list of piercing regulations for all the different US states if you'd like to verify your state's specific policies. Piercing places sometimes take these rules further and say they won’t do certain types of piercings on minors or won’t pierce anyone under the age of 16 even with the consent of a parent or guardian. In addition to checking the laws in your state, research the regulations at the specific place where you plan on getting pierced to see if they have any special stipulations. Step 2: Find a Good Piercing Place The quality of the piercing place makes a huge difference in the likelihood that your piercing will heal properly. Look for places near you that have good Yelp reviews and appropriate credentials (check to see if the piercer is a member of the Association of Professional Piercers). Most piercing places also have websites where you can check out the portfolios of their piercers and read reviews from other customers. Avoid going to sketchy booths in the middle of the mall or really any place that doesn’t look like a doctor’s office when you get into the piercing room. The piercing should be done with sterile equipment in a squeaky clean environment to ensure the lowest risk of infection. Don’t ever let anyone pierce you with a piercing gun! They cause too much trauma to the area and can’t be properly sterilized. One Day We Will All Die, used under CC 2.0 Step 3: Prepare to Get Pierced First off, take a shower beforehand. It’s just polite not to be smelly when a stranger has to touch your belly button. Also, make sure you’re fully hydrated and have eaten at least a little something within the hour so you don’t feel woozy during the process. Above all, do NOT get drunk before you get your belly button pierced. Any piercing place worth its salt will turn away an intoxicated person, both because you don’t have the capacity to make good decisions after drinking and because drinking can cause excessive bleeding at the piercing site. Try to live a healthy, responsible lifestyle at least for the 24 hour period before your piercing. Step 4: Choose Your Jewelry The materials that are least likely to irritate the piercing site include surgical stainless steel, surgical titanium, Tygon plastic, and solid 14K gold. You should try to avoid jewelry made of nickel or sterling silver because these metals are the most likely to cause allergic reactions in people with sensitive skin. If you’ve gotten other piercings in the past, be mindful of how your body has reacted. Also, choose a piece of jewelry that you won’t get tired of seeing. Remember, you won't be able to take it out for another six months to a year. Go with a barbell rather than a ring because there’s less risk of the barbell getting caught on stuff in the healing process. Belly buttons are typically pierced with 12 gauge jewelry, which is around 2 mm in diameter. This is much larger than the jewelry used in a typical ear piercing, which is 1 mm or less in diameter. It’s better to have a thicker piece of jewelry because it will make the piercing sturdier and more resistant to tearing and migration. Triforce de Awesome!, used under CC 2.0 Step 5: Pay Your Piercer Navel piercings can range in cost, but they’re $40-$60 at most piercing places. This includes both the procedure and the cost of the jewelry. If you’re happy with the way things go, it’s considered good form to give your piercer a 10-20% tip on top of the regular price. That's it! You'll have a brand new navel piercing. Now comes the long and hard part - caring for your new piercing. Caring for Your Belly Button Piercing First off, DON’T ever touch or clean the piercing without washing your hands first! If you ignore this rule, you’re asking for an infection. Just leave it alone and let it heal except for when you need to move it around a little bit to clean it. Similarly, you should wear loose clothing that won’t irritate the piercing area in the healing process. Try to sleep on your back and avoid tanning beds at least for the first couple months of healing. The concentrated UV rays can set back your body's natural healing process. It’s also not a good idea to go in public pools or hot tubs because the piercing could get infected from whatever gross types of bacteria may be lurking in the water. If you really feel the need to go in a pool or hot tub while your piercing is still young, you should clean it immediately afterward. You can still do sit-ups and other exercises when your piercing is healing as long as you don’t experience too much discomfort from the movement. Like you, this cat is gonna get his beach body no matter what it takes. (sit-ups, used under CC 2.0) The best way to care for the piercing is to wash it with saline solution two times a day for at least the first month of healing. You can make your own saline solution by mixing a teaspoon of sea salt with five ounces of water, or you can buy the plain saline solution that is sold at pharmacies. Put the saline solution in a little cup. Then, press the rim of the cup against your stomach around the piercing, and lean back to completely submerge the piercing for two minutes. Afterward, take a q-tip, dip it in the solution, and gently rub it around the areas where the piercing goes through your skin. Be sure to use sea salt to make your solution, not table salt! (Salt-(sea)_B130623, used under CC 2.0) You may see your piercing oozing clear fluid that forms a crust around the hole. This is normal early in the healing process. There may also be some swelling, redness, and discoloration, but these issues should dissipate fairly soon after you get the piercing. Don’t clean your piercing more than the recommended two to three times a day. Excessive cleaning can cause skin irritation and dry out the area. If it's been at least a month since the piercing and everything looks good, you can stop doing these daily cleanings. You may clean the piercing sporadically after this point if you continue to see evidence that it isn't fully healed. You should still minimize the activities listed at the beginning of this section until you reach at least the six month mark. Potential Problems (and What to Do About Them) In this section, I'll talk about how to spot signs of trouble with your piercing. It's important to take action on these issues immediately so you can avoid serious health consequences and permanent scarring down the road. It's important to know what's normal and what's not. We'll cover the most important issues below. Allergic Reaction Sometimes, if you get the wrong type of jewelry, you can end up with a nasty allergic reaction around your piercing. Signs of an allergic reaction include: An itchy rash around the piercing area Intermittent tenderness around the piercing If you think you may have an allergic reaction, go back to the piercer, and ask to switch your jewelry out for a different type of material. I list some suggestions for people with sensitive skin in the â€Å"choosing your jewelry† advice in the previous section. Bacterial Infection Infections are very common with belly button piercings because they’re in such a vulnerable area. Signs of infection include: Yellowish-green discharge with a foul odor Prolonged redness around the piercing, especially if it gets worse over time Skin around the piercing is hot to the touch You feel a burning sensation in the area Prolonged swelling around the piercing Abdominal pain (in really serious cases, the infection can become internal) Red lines radiating from the piercing Consistent acute pain (although slight bruising and occasional sharp pain from movement are normal) Here's what an infection can look like: See how the area around the piercing is red and swollen? This will probably also be hot and painful to the touch. It can even look worse than this, with leaking pus around the piercing. (Sorry, I know it's a little gross, but it's important to know what something bad looks like.) If you think you have an infection, first of all, contrary to what you might think, you should leave the jewelry in your belly button. Taking it out could cause further complications, including the formation of abscesses in the area. Use the same cleaning procedure detailed in the previous section, but soak the piercing for ten minutes in the saline solution. You may be able to rub a small bit of antibacterial cream around the piercing to soothe the infection, but use it sparingly. If the infection doesn’t go away within a week or two, go to a doctor to check if you need to take more drastic measures to prevent it from developing further (i.e. taking oral antibiotics). You may need to return to the piercer to get the jewelry taken out if the infection has become too severe. Lean on the side of cautious - it's always better to get something checked out and have nothing wrong, than to try to tough it out and make a problem worse. Migration and Rejection Another issue that is common with belly button piercings is migration and rejection of the jewelry. Signs of migration and rejection include: You can see way more of the barbell than you could when it was initially pierced (because it’s getting pushed out of your body) Noticeable movement of the holes of the piercing marked by a trail of redness Redness and scarring in the area Hole appears larger than it was initially The skin between the holes is translucent and thin If you notice this happening to your piercing, you will have to go to your piercer to get the jewelry removed, let everything heal, and eventually try piercing it again. There’s no way to fix the issue without taking out the piercing and starting over. Migration and rejection don’t mean the piercing is infected, so they aren’t overall health risks, but they come with more aesthetic problems when they’re not addressed. Piercings that the body rejects but that are not removed promptly often cause serious scarring. Rejection happens with a lot of body piercings. You can faintly see the rejection scar from my eyebrow piercing in this picture (I waited too long to take it out because I liked it so much). (Sam Lindsay/All rights reserved.) How Do You Know When You’re Done Healing? As mentioned above, it takes around six months to a year for a belly button piercing to heal to the point where you can take it out and change it. If you reach the six to nine month mark and aren’t experiencing any of the issues detailed in the previous section, you can check the piercing to see if it’s fully healed. Wash your hands, and try sliding it back and forth a bit to make sure it moves freely without pain. If everything feels and looks good, I’d recommend going back to your piercer so they can verify that you’re completely healed. They will be able to take out the piercing and replace the jewelry for you. If you change your piercing on your own, be sure to sanitize both the new jewelry and the piercing site before insertion. Infections are a risk even in piercings that are essentially completely healed, so don’t lose all respect for hygiene after months of vigilance. Summary: Key Tips for Getting a Belly Button Piercing Here's a quick rundown of most important things to remember when getting a belly button piercing. Before you get pierced, you should: Check to make sure your belly button is a good candidate for piercing Understand the risks involved and be willing to take on the responsibility of keeping the piercing clean Be aware of the laws for your state (may entail asking your mom or dad to go with you) Find a reputable piercer When you're at the piercing studio, you will need to: Choose jewelry that is least likely to irritate your skin Verify that everything appears sterile and professional in the piercing room Be prepared to endure a bit of pain (about the same as getting your ear lobe pierced) Pay (and tip) the piercer After you get your belly button pierced, you should: Never touch it without washing your hands first Clean it two to three times a day with saline solution for at least the first month Avoid tight clothing around your midsection, tanning beds, hot tubs, public pools, and sleeping on your stomach until the piercing is at least mostly healed Monitor the piercing site to make sure there are no issues with allergic reactions, infections, or rejection of the jewelry Don't change your jewelry until six to twelve months into the healing process when you can slide the jewelry back and forth without pain or resistance If you have more questions about any specific problems you're experiencing with your piercing, you should talk to your piercer to get an expert's opinion. Otherwise, just continue to enjoy your awesome new belly bling!

Slavery in the American south Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Slavery in the American south - Essay Example   Fredrick Douglas a narrator describes how life as a slave denied him his rights and the remarkable contribution ha made in fighting for the freedom of fellow Blacks. He describes the lords and masters of Slavery in North America, how they acquired slaves from African states in the north like Mauritania and Lagos. Slaves bought in exchange of the American manufactured goods and transported along the Atlantic Ocean. African chiefs sold off their natives to earn wealth from the whites, and this triggered the activities by African to conquer the trading of their fellow blacks (Turner-Sadler, 2009). Africans sold off to the whites, forced to work in the American plantations and production industries. Douglas explains that the increased demand for labor resulted to the need to acquire more slaves from Africa, and hence they resulted to new tactics of forcefully raiding African villages and capturing the natives. They faced a lot of resistance, hence did not invade the interior of Afric a, and only attacked the areas close to the coast.In his article, he adds that slaves acquired accomplished domestic chores and professional jobs that required training. Young virgins captured to work as sex workers and hence such inhuman actions resulted to the eruption of human rights for protecting the most vulnerable especially women and children. Slaves who got any forms of training would go back to their countries and take part in developing the African Economy (Deyle, 2005).   

Barriers of Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Barriers of Communication - Essay Example In the time when every organization is trying hard to gain competitive advantage, appropriate use of time is one of the factors that makes a difference and provides an organization with an edge over the others (Grasso, Golen, and Burns, 2005, p. 37). Overcoming barriers to communication not only saves time, but it also makes it easier for the management to implement any kind of change any time, and saves the resources that are otherwise consumed in conveying information. The most detrimental barriers to the achievement of goals and objectives vary from one organization to another depending upon a range of factors. These factors include but are not limited to the location of organization, its culture, the size and nature of business, and the socio-economic circumstances prevailing in the region. To identify its most detrimental barriers, an organization should review its past performance and trace the roots of the problems that it has encountered. For some organizations, it might be barriers to communication, whereas for others, it might be barriers to change, lack of funds, or culture

Gay couples Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Gay couples - Essay Example in Cooke, para.2), that two men or women can raise kids better in terms of sexual growth, than a man or a woman in a traditional home setting. Kids of gay couples do not have to see one of their parents involved in extra-marital affairs. They do not have to see their moms and dads fighting with each other every day (Sharee). Kids pay little attention to what the relationship between their parents is, or whether or not their relationship relates to societal norms or not. All they want is love, of parents towards them and also towards each other. So, the relationship between parents has nothing to do with children becoming homo- or hetero-sexual. To conclude, children of same-sex couples are all the same as children of gay couples. They get full attention from their parents, and this is all that is needed for healthy sexual growth. Becoming a homosexual is a matter of abnormal sexual orientation by nature, and not by

Human Resource Strategy Of The NHS

Human Resource Strategy Of The NHS Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is located at the Tameside General Hospital in Ashton-Under-Lyne. The organisation was formally authorised as a Foundation Trust on 1 February 2008. The Trust was formerly known as Tameside Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust. Employing approximately 2,300 staff, the hospital provides the wide array of services one would associate with a general hospital, including Accident and Emergency services, general and specialist medicine, general and specialist surgery and full Consultant led obstetric and paediatric hospital services for women, children and babies. The Trusts clinical services are provided in a number of different specialties and departments. These are organised into four Divisions. Situated at the foot of the Pennines, eight miles to the east of Manchester the Trust services a population of over 250,000. The population is concentrated in the largely industrialised areas of the eight townships of Tameside, which comprises Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. The Trusts overarching purpose is to become the local Hospital of Choice for patients, the public and staff. The Trust will continue to play its part in the local community, and to seek to build strong and enduring partnership relations throughout 2010/11 and beyond. The Trust is committed to building on its achievements of 2009/10 and continuing to improve the care the hospital provides and the way we work. Tameside appears to have a very positive future ahead as we have recently undergone extensive building work under a PFI (private finance initiative) Project where we have had  £120 million investment. The Health Investment in Tameside (HIT) Project is the biggest investment and most extensive site improvement Tameside hospital has seen for decades. It will result in new Acute and Mental Health facilities with a construction programme which started in autumn 2006 and will be completed by the end of 2011. The organisations expenditure consists of around two thirds on its workforce. The approach in the way the hospital manages staff is crucial and is key to delivering the best possible care to patients. Staff have the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and attitudes and engaging staff in this way will the lead the organisation through a very difficult economic climate. Tameside Hospital like other hospitals is dominated by a mainly female workforce and this is impacting on a previously male management culture and there is a competitive edge now between the existing male workforces in similar organisations. The financial and economic outlook for the coming three years is very challenging and the demands on healthcare services are likely to rise at the same time as available funding becomes more constrained. Improving productivity will be a key focus of the Trusts work over this period, but this will not be allowed to come at the expense of the quality of healthcare services. The Trust Board recognises the challenge of maintaining an accessible and comprehensive range of clinical services for the population of Tameside and Glossop in the current economic climate, and acknowledges that this may be more readily achieved through both innovation and scale. The potential to work collaboratively with another organisation in the development of a hospital group to ensure the continued delivery of quality and productivity is being actively explored. The key aim of such collaboration would be to achieve additional efficiency and quality gains, without the need for major structural change (merger). The Trust already has an active programme for the involvement of patients, the public and staff in its work. Website http://www.tamesidehospital.nhs.uk/Documents/AnnualPlan201011.pdf Accessed 30.03.11. However, it remains the view of the Trust that there are additional benefits to be gained from developing wider and deeper involvement. The Trusts staff also will need to feel empowered to seek out ways to achieve quality gains whilst also delivering productivity improvements, such that the Trust can secure financial and service stability going forwards. As stated above, the Trusts Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Strategies will set out the Trusts plans to enhance the involvement and engagement of key stakeholders. Staff involvement plays a major part in delivering the high quality services expected by such a large community like Tameside and as such the organisation invests heavily in staff development. There is a direct link to the performance of staff and the organisations HR strategy. Unfortunately in the current economic climate this couldnt be further from the truth as staff morale and motivation is certainly not what it was as job cuts is the focus of every member of staff at the Trust. Current Challenges in Strategic Priorities The HR function at Tameside Hospital has become the forefront of driving change within the organisation. The workforce strategy (see Appendix 1) links back to the Trusts Mission Statement (See Appendix 2) for being the hospital of choice for the people of Tameside and Glossop. The Trust wants to use this to underpin the strategy and link it to its business performance. To define human resources and human resourcing strategy Human Resources Human Resourcing Strategy The efforts, skills or capabilities that people contribute to an employing organisation to enable it to continue in existence The general direction followed by an organisation in how it secures, develops and, from time to time, dispenses with human resources to help it continue in the long term Leopold et al (1999) Since the recent change in government and the plans reform the NHS, HRM has become more prevalent to everyone working at the Hospital and what the unknown aims and objectives will be in the coming years. The much criticised Nick Clegg at the Liberal Democrats conference in Sheffield recently has been humiliated by his own party after passing a motion that our family GPs will be in control of commissioning services. Paul Burstow the Health Minister was quoted saying There will be no US-style privatisation of the health service on our watch. Sunday Times 13.03.11. The truth is that nobody really knows what the future holds for the NHS and whether the future reforms will be successful. Mr Burstow also told delegates stripping out layers of needless management and capping administrative costs (means) well be able to make  £5bn of savings over the next four years all of which we will plough straight back into patient care. www.bbc.co.uk. The strategic HR priorities of the NHS as a whol e will be on how these cuts will affect staff and the services they deliver and also how with a significant number of job losses the business is expected to continue with delivering the adequate patient care required. The Independent predicts that union leaders have also indicated that a loss of 50,000 jobs could be lost to due to efficiency savings. www.independent.co.uk. Inevitably this type of reform is going to lead to failures on the frontline with the loss of nursing staff delivering the patient care which is so widely criticised. The focus in our organisation currently is efficiency and effectiveness as there is a significant hole in the purse which funds the whole organisation. We are currently nearly  £2 million in deficit and this is predominantly the case for many public sector organisations where cuts are being made within the existing workforce to combat the financial deficit which hospitals, police and local councils are declaring at the current financial year end. The role of Human Resources is also changing not only as a result of a coalition government but also as a result of globalisation and the expectations of stakeholders and how the rapid development of technology impacts on HRM. Within a change in environment, the HR professional has to evolve to become more strategic and a change mentor within the organisation. People Management (January 2011) suggests that in many Asian companies the positioning of HR is best placed as a business function with a leadership role and operating at a very transactional level and they tend to think less about HR strategy but focus directly on growth. This indicates that the UK can learn from the way their HR leaders operate. They have: Faster implementation cycles Asian leaders have a much more fluid interpretation of HR structures and that a rigid definition of business partner, specialist and HR services can create silos and slow response times. Putting insight at the heart of the function HR leaders are savvy and they use this to drive business growth strategy. Pull the purpose lever they create a sense of purpose by harnessing the press, the project and the organisation behind a big idea. True Engagement they use the three As accountability, authenticity and adaptability. It could soon mean that the UK is struggling to keep up with the way HR is responding to competition and change. In order to succeed in the UK, HR must be a business driven function with a thorough understanding of the organisations bigger picture and be able to influence key decisions and policies. In general, the focus of todays HR Manager has to be on strategic personnel retention and talents development. HR professionals will be coaches, mentors and succession planners to help motivate organisations members and their loyalty. The HR manager will also promote and fight for values, ethics and beliefs within their organisations, especially in the management of workplace diversity. Leopold et al (1999) states that strategy makers are seeking to achieve a fit between HR Strategy and the broader business strategy and ultimately this should contribute fully to the achievement of business objectives. Whittingtons (1993) fourfold typology shown below is extremely useful and helps to understand the complexity and the multidimensional ways in which strategy might be conceived. It is based upon outcomes and how they are perceived purely between either profit-maximising or pluralistic and whether the strategy is either deliberate or emergent. Processes Deliberate Classical Systemic Outcomes Profit-Maximising Pluralistic Evolutionary Processual Emergent Whittingtons typology of strategy Marchington et al (2008) Mabey et al (1999) suggests that the National Health Service has been exposed to decentralization and division into profit-responsible divisions. The organisations workforce strategy is also expected to deliver the employer of choice and the domains for this method are as follows: Employee Resourcing The focus for Tameside is workforce planning and contingency staffing, managing change, modern recruitment and selection practices, new roles and job redesign and developing shared services. Workforce/HR Planning This is essential to any organisation in ensuring we get the right caliber of staff, with the right skills. As an integral part of the business planning process it involves recruitment, retention, development strategies and the provision of workforce information to managers. Effective workforce planning ensures you will have a workforce of the right size, with the right skills, organised in the right way within the budget that you can afford, delivering services to provide the best possible care. www.healthcareworkforce.nhs.uk There are four categories of staff that are important in human resources planning: Exisiting staff New recruits Potential staff Leavers Marchington et al (2008) suggests when the world markets were much more stable and predictable, HR planning was prominent in HRM, personnel management and labour economics. HRM texts have discussed whether HR planning is still worthwhile. In some new organisations HR planning conveys images of bureaucracy, rigidity and a failure to comprehend the limitations of planning in an uncertain environment. Tamesides Workforce Strategy focuses on tactical adjustments to address unknown forces in relation to high demand of services from our commissioners and also the public. Tamesides workforce planning is flexible in nature which allows the organisation to respond effectively to the peaks and troughs of activity. This is through the use of agency and temporary staff which relieves some of the pressure associated with peak times of the year like winter. Skill mix is another focus for the organisation to ensure staff can work across all divisions which gives increased flexibility to the staff we have and which departments they can work. Changes over the next 5 years are projected in our Workforce Strategy. The reductions in staff are significant and this will be managed through effective strategic planning and the deployment of HR interventions such as stringent vacancy controls, allowing for natural wastage, effective redeployment and a planned approach to contingency staffing. Beardwell et al suggests that the Markov model is something which should be used by manpower planners in addressing internal factors that need to be considered in the development of a manpower plan. Recruitment Retention Staff are the most valuable asset in an organisation. Their performance determines whether the organisation achieves its goals and expected results. As a manager you need to create and maintain an environment in which your staff are motivated to perform well. The Trust is developing Recruitment Retention strategies locally, nationally and internationally to help fill vacant positions and hard to fill posts across the Trust. We are seeking to recruit returners back into nursing, midwifery, professions allied to health and medicine. In addition we monitor the reasons for staff leaving and have developed an exit questionnaire to ascertain the main reasons why staff leave. The NHS as a whole advertises through a centralised internet site http://www.jobs.nhs.uk/ this enables the organisation to attract a wide variety of candidates for any single advertisement. We also use techniques such as talent banking and generic recruitment campaigns. The trust aims to ensure that the recruitment and selection of employees and volunteers is always carried out in a fair, timely and cost-effective manner. Poor staff retention has many consequences including cost of staff turnover, loss of company knowledge, and decreased morale. These things can all be detrimental to your business. The retention of key employees is critical to the long-term health and success of any business. Organisations need to try to do what they can to retain their best employees to ensure customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied co-workers and reporting staff, effective succession planning, and deeply embedded organisational knowledge and learning. www.health4work.nhs.uk Tameside is considering undertaking the introduction of assessment centres, psychometric testing and competence-based selection methods for all vacancies within the organisation. This approach will underpin our commitment to delivering dignity in care by ensuring a workforce hard wired with the requisite behaviours and values. The induction process is also being reviewed and it will be mandatory for staff to be re-inducted every 2 years. Essentially Tameside is aspiring to be as modern with its recruitment process as possible as well as cost efficient. The Trust marks itself to be able to attract and retain the best possible staff but Torrington et al (2005) suggests that this varies over time as labour markets become successively tighter and looser depending on economic conditions. Because an organisation may have to bring about a cultural shift within the company in order to improve employee retention, you may be faced with some resistance to change from some members of staff. Resistance can take many forms ranging from the subtle undermining of change initiatives or withholding of information, to active resistance including strikes. Poor communication has been linked to issues surrounding the effectiveness of change management because imposed change can lead to greater employee resistance. Reward and Recognition Through communications, pay modernisation-benefits realisation and staff recognition schemes Tameside audits itself to ensure the workforce is fully engaged with the delivery of the corporate objectives. Benefits realisation of the recent new pay systems so we can continuously improve productivity. There are schemes which recognise staff commitment which reinforces values and behaviours: Chairmans Prize for Service Improvement, Teamwork and Innovation Above and Beyond Award Caring for Those Who Care Award Long Service Award 100% Attendance These schemes motivate staff and contributes to wider organisation performance and links back to Tameside being the Local Hospital of Choice. Succession Planning Ideally an organisation would not want one talent to replace another but to develop a pool of talent. This is a more dynamic approach to succession planning and gives individuals the chance to put themselves forward to a talent pool. One of the key features of a structured management development system is a succession plan. Cole (2002:390) Succession planning is typically defined as a process by which one or more successors are identified for key posts (or groups of similar key posts), and career moves and/or development activities are planned for these successors. In other words, succession planning is about preparing organisations for likely or inevitable changes now, in order to minimise challenges later. www.idea.gov.uk Some large organisations develop schedules for their succession planning but Tameside does not have such an elaborate schedule. Succession planning is a very informal discussion between managers identifying potential candidates who would be suitable for roles which are about to become vacant from retirement, voluntary leaving, dismissal or sickness. Strategically the NHS has a workforce review team (WRT) but at local levels like District General Hospitals it is more difficult to implement workforce planning effectively. With an organisation such as Tameside a more formalised approach to succession planning would be advisable to build a pool of staff rather than assessing staff within your own department. For workforce planning to be successful it requires accurate data, modelling, continuous and iterative planning, specialist skills, scenario building and stakeholder involvement. Talent Management Develop leadership and staff empowerment, talent spotting and succession planning. Performance Management and Monitoring with HR Metrics, Performance Monitoring and External Benchmarking. Tameside recognises the importance of a positive approach to the management of unsatisfactory work performance to enable the Trust to deliver quality services. Unsatisfactory performance by individual employees for whatever reason is detrimental to the service and Trust as a whole. As well as reducing standards of patient care and service delivery, poor performance by individual members of staff has a demotivating effect on other employees. The hospital operates a rigorous Capability Policy for managers to use when assessing individuals who require performance monitoring. It also ensures individuals are treated fairly, sensitive and in a consistent manner. It is the responsibility of managers to ensure when recruiting that the right candidate is selected and they can perform the role they are applying for. Managers are given full support from their individual HR Managers to ensure the policy is adhered to. There are 4 stages to the Capability Policy: Stage 1 Informal monitoring, coaching and counseling Stage 2 Formal meeting Stage 3 Formal meeting Stage 4 Formal hearing stage This is a lengthy process and on occasion has been known to take 12 months to redeploy or dismiss an employee who is not performing their role. Performance Management takes the form of a continuous self-renewing cycle, as illustrated in the figure below: The performance Management Cycle Armstrong et al (2009) There is a lot of red tape to the current performance management technique. If a staff member is unable to perform the role to the required standard the process is so long that nobody really bothers to use it and usually waits for the individual to leave. This workforce strategy was produced in 2007 and was scheduled to be periodically reviewed over the course of 5 years. Leopold et al (1999) suggests that the correct definition for Human Resource Strategy is personnel strategy. Organisations which do not concentrate on attracting and retaining talents may find themselves in a very vulnerable position, as competitors may be outplaying them in the strategic employment of their human resources. With the increase in competition, locally or globally, organisations must adapt themselves to become more resilient, agile, and customer focused to succeed. Human resource management challenges cost your organisation money, time, resources, lost opportunities, and reduced productivity, to name but a few. Organisations need to rethink their strategic HRM and think more about strategic recruitment. www.strategic-human-resource.com Cole (2002) suggests that there should be strategic long-term goals when it comes to a HR strategy which includes: Ensuring the HR needs for the next five years are met Maintain wage and salary levels sufficient to recruit, retain and motivate staff at all levels in the organisation. Give priority to the development of leadership skills Ensure effective training and development opportunities Effective communication systems between management and other employees Provide mechanisms to cope with the human consequences of change This is certainly reflected in Tamesides Workforce Strategy. How Human Resources Management (HRM) contributes to the achievement of organisational objectives. HR Consultant Louise Allen suggests there are key steps in the quest to delivering a successful HR strategy that links to the organisation objectives of the business. Aligning business and HR needs The business goals sit at the heart of any HR strategy and in order to align business and HR needs can your organisations internal capability deliver its business goals? A HR strategy which is aligned with the business strategy is about the growth of the organisation by increasing the performance of the employees and keeping budgets under control. The process of the alignment of the HR strategy with the business strategy is about going deeper and finding the real root of the successful human capital management in the organisation. Developing your HR strategy It needs to understand your business goals and the business model can identify any potential threats and opportunities in the quantity and quality of human resource required by your organisation. It is critical the HR team as a whole has a high level of knowledge and expertise in aligning HR interventions and how this impacts on business performance. Organisational performance This is the process by which business goals and objectives are cascaded and managed across and down an organisation. It provides a rationale for all other HR activity and directly impacts the business success, enhancing HRs reputation and contribution. Organisation culture Culture commonly described as the way we do things round here www.thetimes100.co.uk Organisations tend to create their own culture and this gives the business a sense of identity. The organisation culture encapsulates what it is good at and what has worked for the business in the past. These values can often be acknowledged and accepted without question by long-serving members of the business. In re-aligning an organisations culture there can be real benefit and competitive advantage through improved service. Changes to the Organisations Current HR Strategy The fundamental change to our Workforce Strategy is that it needs updating. The current strategy differs somewhat to where we are currently. The change in government is not something that was envisaged and the impact of this change and how it would affect the Trust. I understand this would be difficult to envisage but all eventualities should be considered in a HR Strategy which has a 5 year plan. There isnt a one-size-fits-all and your HR strategy may change as the business evolves. www.humanresourcesiq.com The organisation needs to create a robust performance management process that sets out performance objectives for all levels of staff within the business. This is an opportunity to develop line managers skills in being able to disseminate and set stretch targets for their business. Another element is a personal development review process where individual strengths and weaknesses are identified for the purposes of assessing and meeting organisational development needs. Evaluation of the impact of SHRM on the business Even though HR professionals like Guest and Legge are convinced that their efforts add value to the organisations bottom-line, frequently there is little evidence to demonstrate such belief. www.allbusiness.com Improvements could be made to our HR department but it seems to be a consistent trend throughout the organisation with regards to funding and resources which would enable you to deliver those objectives. A prominent guru of HRM, David Ulrich discusses the role of HRM moving from a functional to a more operational role and involves partnership rather than being resource based. He describes HR as being a four sided partnership consisting of: Strategic Partner Change Agent Employee champion Administrative expert This allows the challenge of change to be more transparent and enables a strategic involvement from the beginning involving all stakeholders from the macro and micro environment. The employee champions act as an advocate for the employees and protects them throughout the process of change. The administrative expert is a flexible role within Ulrichs model ensure the maximum possible quality service is delivered at the lowest possible cost to the organisation. The Ulrich model relates very closely to how Tameisde will require support in the future developments and changes within the organisation. Competitive Advantage There is evidence to suggest that HR practices have a direct link to sustaining a competitive advantage in any organisation. Leopold et al suggests that in order to gain human resourcing advantage there should be a combination of efforts towards generating both human capital advantage (by recruiting and retaining outstanding people) and human process advantage (instigating difficult-to-imitate, socially complex, historically evolved processes such as learning, co-operation and innovation). There is also evidence to suggest that mixing human resourcing activities inevitably presents HR planners with a major challenge. To help with this, the notion of horizontal integration, this relates to the degree to which different aspects of HR are compatible with each other. Porter has argued that employers have three basic strategic options in order to gain competitive advantage: Cost Leadership Differentiation Focus www.business-fundas.com Porters five forces model (Appendix 4) provides a simple perspective for assessing and analysing the competitive strength and position of an organisation. This model can be used alongside other models like SWOT and PESTEL with good analytical effect. More recently Michael Porter has been working with Elizabeth Teisbery to revolutionise Healthcare reform in the United States. The Economist (Aug 2008) suggests that Porter effectively redefined the way that businessmen think about competition Conclusion After reviewing the HR strategy for Tameside Hospital it is clear that as an organisation we have yet to deal with any real human resource issue that leads to any disciplinary action. Our paperwork trail is not fluent and procedures are followed in a haphazard way. Due to a significant cut in resources even before the new round of government cuts it is difficult to follow out-of-date policies effectively. There is a real need for training and education on Human Resource Management as Tameside is leaving itself wide open to legal disputes. Clear guidelines need to be in place to protect the workforce and also the employees and organisations interests. The succession plans of the business are also ineffective. There are no established structured channels for promotion for staff within the business which are committed to their own self development. With the future of the Primary Care Trusts diminishing and the commissioning role transferring to the responsibility of the GPs, Tameside will come under increasing pressure to have their policies and protocols up-to-date which are adhered to by staff at every level.

The Rise of Nazism in Germany :: Ancient Rome Roman History

The Rise of Nazism in Germany Germany's defeat in World War One created political, economic and social instability in the Weimar Republic and led to the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) or Nazi party. The First World War placed increasingly heavy strains and sacrifices on the German people. The gap between the rich and poor widened and divisions between classes increased. It had direct effect on the workers' living standard as earnings fell and food shortages grew. Food was sold on the growing black market but the prices were high and the poor could not afford to buy. This led to a crisis in the cities and as many as 700 000 died of hypothermia and starvation in the winter of 1916-17. In order to force the German people to bear the hardship of the war, chancellor Bethmann Hollweg promised political reform in a speech in the Reichstag in February 1917. This promise led to political unrest and an organised strike of 400 000 ammunition workers in Berlin, which threatened to cripple arms production. However, as long as the military held their dominant position and the possibility of victory remained, the prospects of reform seemed remote. After the chancellor was forced to resign in July 1917 military repression increased. There were severe restrictions on the right of assembly, stricter control of meetings to discuss grievances, a return to military service for striking workers and the banning of all anti-war material. In September 1918 the military effort suddenly collapsed. The allied powers, in particular President Wilson of the United States, demanded that Germany be transformed into a democracy. On November 1918 the SPD declared the abdication of the Kaiser and the birth of the new Weimar Republic. On 28 June 1919 the German government signed the Treaty of Versailles imposed on it by the victorious powers. Clause 231 blamed Germany for causing the war and vast majority of Germans rejected this. They blamed the Weimar government for losing the war and signing the outrageous Treaty. Linked to this was the demand for financial compensation for the cost of the war paid to France and Britain. This shocked the Germans severely as it would be hard to pay reparations since the war had weakened the country. Germany's army personnel was to be reduced to 100 000 and was forbidden to produce "offensive" weapons. There was to be no air force or submarines and the navy was to be reduced to six small battleships and six cruisers.