4 Easy Ways to Increase Time on Site and Keep Your Visitors Around

One of the most worrying facts for website owners is that most people leave a new website in under a minute. Those visitors will see very little of your content, so they arent likely to remember you a day or a week later. This means you need to do everything you can to increase time on site.Fortunately, it isnt hard to encourage people to stick around. Using a few simple techniques, you can greatly improve the chance that new visitors will spend plenty of time reading your content, exploring your products, and so on. Even better, these methods can be used on just about any type of site.In this guide, well introduce four smart ways for you to increase time on site. By the time were done, youll know how to hook your sites visitors and keep them coming back. Lets jump right in! Using a site like Pingdom, you can find out how quickly your website loads.Its simple to build a WordPress website that looks amazing and contains plenty of high-quality content. However, all that effort will be for naught if your site doesnt also perform well. Keeping people on your site for as long as possible is important for improving conversions and other key metrics, and its no secret that slow pages drive visitors away  (especially for eCommerce sites).The first thing youll want to do is check your sites loading time. This can be done using a tool such as Pingdom. Just enter your sites URL, and youll get a snapshot of how well its performing. If the results arent promising – especially if the load time is more than two seconds – you may want to make some changes.There are a lot of ways to improve your sites performance, but here are a few key techniques:Optimize your images. Using a plugin like Optimole, you can make your images smaller (and faster to load).Use a caching plugin. Caching tools such as W3 Total Cache  will deliver pages to your visitors more quickly when properly configured.Employ Gzip compression. This simple fix compresses your sites data and is inc luded in most caching plugins (for example, WP Super Cache).Weve written extensively about how to speed up your WordPress site in the past, so wed suggest checking out those articles as well. After all, theres no such thing as a site that performs too well.2. Provide content suggestions to keep people readingPresenting your visitors with related content prompts them to stay longer.If your site contains a lot of content – for example, if its a blog or a news site – you want to encourage people to read as much as possible. However, holding visitors attention isnt easy. If youd like them to spend more time browsing, youll often need to give them a little push.Suggesting related content for visitors to read is a smart way to increase time on site. By this, we mean including a short section on each post or article showcasing other relevant pieces. That way, people wont have to go searching for something else to read on another site.There are two main methods for including c ontent suggestions on your site:Display popular posts. Sometimes it pays to show off your best and most popular content since thats whats most likely to attract attention. You can do this with many plugins, including Jetpack.Show related posts.  If your site contains content on many different topics, you may want to show visitors pieces that are directly relevant to what theyre currently reading. Jetpack can do this too, or you can get a dedicated solution like Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP).Using either of these strategies is a great way to keep people hooked on your site and expose them to as much of your content as you can.3. Use exit intent pop-ups to dissuade visitors from leavingExit intent pop-ups can encourage people to stick around by presenting special offers.If you really want to increase time on site, its important to give visitors a reason to stay. Exit intent pop-ups can be an effective way to do that. This kind of pop-up appears when a user tries to leave your site (usually when they move their cursor to the very top of the screen), and attempts to convince them not to go.Exit intent pop-ups work best when you use them to offer something specific to the visitor. You can provide a special coupon or discount, promote an intriguing piece of content, or encourage them to sign up for a free newsletter. Of course, its also important not to annoy people, so youll want to avoid making these pop-ups too intrusive or hard to close.There are plenty of solutions you can use to create exit intent pop-ups. The Sumo List Builder, for example, enables you to set exactly when your pop-ups appear and customize what they contain. For more help implementing this technique, check out our guide on adding exit intent pop-ups to your WordPress site.4. Make smart use of internal linksLinking to other pages and posts on your site helps to increase time on site.Finally, its crucial to include plenty of internal links on your website. By ‘internal, we sim ply mean links to other content or pages within your site. This is an important consideration for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and a smart way to increase time on site.In a nutshell, this works the same way providing content suggestions does. By offering lots of internal links, you direct people to other parts of your site and encourage them to explore everything you have to offer. If you send them away to another site, by contrast, they may never come back.Actually adding internal links to your content is simple, but youll want to pay attention to how theyre incorporated. For best results, try following key best practices, such as optimizing the anchor text and only linking to relevant content. The premium version of Yoast SEO can help a lot with this strategy by automatically suggesting related posts that are a good target for internal links.Use these four methods to increase time on siteWere willing to bet that you spent a lot of time building and perfecting your site. Whats more, it probably takes just as much effort to maintain it. For all that work to pay off, you need to keep visitors around as long as possible. That way, you have the best chance to make a strong impression.Fortunately, as a WordPress user, there are a few easy ways to increase time on site. You can:Optimize your websites performance to improve load times.Provide content suggestions to keep people reading.Use exit intent popups to dissuade visitors from leaving.Make smart use of internal links.Do you have any questions about the techniques weve introduced in this post? Ask away in the comments section below! How to increase your website's time on site to keep your visitors around longer

Them Ther is Fighin Words

Them Ther is Fighin Words Free Online Research Papers â€Å"Nigger†. It’s the first word that appears on Barry Noreen’s Gazette article, Use Fighting Words, and You Should Expect a Fight, but instead, it’s written as n-. The word is â€Å"such a distasteful racist epithet, The Gazette doesn’t want it to appear† (Noreen, para.2). The article covers a local story about four boys in Monument’s own Creekside Middle School. It’s explained that three young Caucasian boys approached an African-American boy and began taunting and racially harassing him by chanting KKK, â€Å"Nigger†, and waving a hood in front of his face. This African-American boy in response to being disgraced fought back and managed to get one of his white classmates in a headlock. The tussle was broken up, but was followed with harassment charges against only two of the instigators and a misdemeanor assault charge against the young black child. That’s right; a misdemeanor charge was put on the African-Ame rican boy defending his pride after being rudely attacked by his white classmates. The entire situation, regardless of whether or not the behavior was wrong, can be broken down by the sociological perspective and analyzed into different parts of culture, socialization, group interaction and different forms of social control, maybe then the boys’ actions can be better understood. To start off, including the word â€Å"Nigger† in this paper, to most people, breaks common acceptable folkways and obliges proscriptive norms. Norms are the â€Å"rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members†, proscriptive norms are those not to be done while prescriptive norms tell what should be done. Using that particular word is a proscriptive norm, it should not be done. Similarly, folkways are â€Å"norms for routine or casual interaction† (Macionis, p.72). Norms and folkways are created by society to regulate, guide, and control everyday interactions not only between people, but between societies and nations. They can be seen in a variety of ways; clothing, hand or body movements, facial expressions and of course language. Language is a very powerful means of social control because almost every word has a considerable symbolic meaning that expresses or evokes an emotion. The word â€Å"Nigger† is simply considered a rude racial slur intended to offend someone. The easiest way to control someone is to make them feel inferior and demoralized, which is what racially offensive words are intended to do. Noreen states in his article that â€Å"[in] the real world, if you utter fighting words you should be prepared for what comes next, because it might just be a punch† (Noreen, para.12). In a utopian world the African-American child would’ve just walked away, but in today’s light, when you’ve been offended you defend yourself. The reason the word is even considered offensive is because of the socialization process, which includes the way a child is taught how to perceive him/herself. Noreen reports that the mother of the African-American child â€Å"told police she was proud of how he stood up for himself† (Noreen, para.8). From this statement, it’s made obvious that the black child was brought up in a household that embraces their race and understands racial judgments to be offensive. The child identifies and knows himself as an African-American, and when he was harassed because of it he was under attack, not just his race, which is why he fought back. As for the white children, they too understand themselves to be of a certain race and bonded into a peer group because of it. A peer group is known as â€Å"a social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common† (Macionis, p. 129-130). People involved in a peer group tend to view their own group as dominant and put down other group; which explains why the group of white boys attacked the black boy, he was considered a different peer group and seen as inferior. The white boys had been, at one time, socialized to view African-Americans as below themselves and deemed in necessary to act upon it. Of equal importance influencing behavior and social norms is the Criminal Justice System, laws, and the government. Society’s government has deemed certain punishments for specific behaviors. The young black child was charged with assault because he had in fact physically attacked his white classmate. The white children were also punished, not only with school suspension, but also harassment charges for instigating the situation. The government maintains control by enforcing these punishments although the punishments and intensity of the crime are culturally and nationally based. Most local people agree, however, that the African-American boy did no wrong because he was defending himself and should be released of his charges. Unfortunately the charges will be carried out by the District Attorney’s Office as planned as a way of establishing and maintaining that violence will not be accepted in school settings. The entire situation was not only uncalled for, but it also deteriorated quickly, becoming more than the boys probably originally expected. And although the boys from Creekside Middle School, home of the courageously respectful cougars, have reasonable behaviors according to the sociological analysis, their behaviors violated acceptable norms and abused means of social control. Noreen, Barry. Use Fighting Words and You Should Expect a Fight. Gazette.com. March 15, 2008. March 15, 2008.www.gazette.com/articles/black_34256_article.html/boys_fighting.html Macionis, John J. Sociology, Eleventh Edition. Pearson Education, 2007. New Jersey. Research Papers on "Them Ther is Fighin Words"Hip-Hop is ArtEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementWhere Wild and West Meet19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseBringing Democracy to AfricaUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresCapital PunishmentComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito

Teenage pregnancy Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 9000 words

Teenage pregnancy - Literature review Example Legal as well as social and psychological issues and funding are considered. Introduction For those people who have planned and look forward to having a child, the news of a confirmed pregnancy is a very positive event. In the case of some young people however, similar news can come as a shock. There seems to a be a degree of disconnect in some minds between sexually risky behaviour and its possible aftermath. Reactions may well include ‘Why me?’’ together with fear of the reactions from her parents. A girl in such a situation may well feel lonely, scared, ashamed, sad and desperate. She may feel angry with the young man concerned. He may be just as scared of the possible wrath of his parents, but also perhaps of any future responsibilities for which he feels unprepared. He may also find himself on the side-lines or even totally discarded, being allowed little or no part in any decisions to be made. For both of these young parents life choices are suddenly very di fferent from what they were only a few weeks earlier. There are also long term concerns such as future education prospects, housing and all the rest. According to Innocenti, 2001 ‘In the world’s rich nations more than three quarters of a million teenagers will become mothers in the next twelve months.’ As soon as a girl begins to ovulate she is physically open to the possibility of pregnancy, whatever age she is and however prepared or not she is for the impact of a teenage pregnancy. A teenager who is sexually activity is highly likely to become pregnant with a year. This fact has huge implications, physically, psychologically, educationally, social and affects such things as the chances of employment and future marriage opportunities despite then normalisation of sex outside marriage in recent times. The rates of teenage pregnancy vary between the countries of the world, as well as among areas and groups with those countries because of a number of factors. Thes e include such things as: The differences in the levels of sexual activity among young people, which is turn is affected by the social norms of their particular society, which may be in turn be affected by such things as religious ideas and educational levels. The general amount and quality of sex education provided. The availability of, and access to, affordable and acceptable methods of contraception. In the United Kingdom 5% of underage conceptions happen to girls aged under 15 ( Department of Education, 2012). According to Medline (2012) birth in very young mothers carries with it increased risks of low birth weight babies, and prematurity, both linked to the high numbers of teenage mothers who continue to smoke during pregnancy. It can be demonstrated that these low birth weights may also be directly linked to the lack of physical maturity of the mother. This latter fact cannot be altered however good the antenatal care given, but at least medical staff will be prepared for the possibility, and prepared to support a baby with a low birth weight, often born prematurely (Law, 2012). There is also an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (March of Dimes, 2009). According to the Department of

Portfolio Project (350 Points) The Portfolio Project is due at the end Term Paper

Portfolio Project (350 Points) The Portfolio Project is due at the end of Module 8. Read the following description carefully. C - Term Paper Example Lastly, it reflects on how the digital aspects have influenced the rise of secular religions with its popularization. Metzger, M. J., & Flanagin, A. J. (2008). Digital media, youth, and credibility. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. This book portrays the way society has unlimited access to broad spectrums of information through extremely portable and easy to access digital forms as compared to the past. It expounds on the comfort brought by the availability of media tools as forms of entertainment and quality information providers. It also touches on the youth as possible audiences and implementers of the same. In addition, it emphasizes on the need by the youth to use the internet as a health information seeking to tool for their personal gain. Miller, R. (2008). Digital art: Painting with pixels. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books. In this book, the digital form of art is on the spotlight by giving the meaning of this art form then building up on its impact on culture. It diffe rentiates the digital way from the traditional form of artistry by presenting its historic background. Additionally, the book encompasses how technology in the digital world has evolved to give birth to sophisticated outputs in the advertising field. Lastly, it gives insights in to contemporary art and the influence that the tool has on cultural growth. Morgan D. (2008). Key Words in Religion, Media and Culture. Taylor & Francis: London. This book is an introduction to cultural interrelation between the digital media and religion. It gives the extent to which the media tool has affected important concepts within the religious walls. Morgan has incorporated a number of scholars in this book to bring out seasoned rationale revolving around inquisitions on the constitution of culture. it provides a basis in to which future generations may refer to when it comes to leads towards theological explanations in the future through the digital media. Finally, it gives insights in to the curios ity that has led to the inception of secular religions and idol worship as part of the digitally revolutionized culture. Ricardo, F. J. (2009). Cyberculture and new media. Amsterdam: Rodopi. In his book, Ricardo depicts the state of the exposure in which the youths have used the digital forms for their own selfish gains. It reflects how distant the youths have gone in terms of the basic concept of internet use. It highlights on the other ways in which the youths have conveniently applied the virtual concepts to promote moral decay and immoral creations. Ideally, it is a study guide that shows disconnect between self-ideologies and societal culture. Shelly, G. B., Cashman J.T., Gunter A. G., Gunter R.E. (2008). Teachers discovering computers: Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom. Boston, Mass: Thomson/Course Technology. The projections in this book explain the transformation of the educational sector concerning dynamic approaches of advanced learning. It covers o n digitized media concepts in relation to the advancement in technological forms of simplified learning. It also depicts the ease within which instructors find their carriers to be more fulfilling than that of past tutors because of the remarkable aspect of simplified learning. Straubhaar, J. D., LaRose, R., & Davenport, L. (2012). Media now: Understanding media, culture, and technology. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. This book

Managing a Multigenerational Workforce Term Paper

Managing a Multigenerational Workforce - Term Paper Example rce could be challenging as well as interesting because if it is not properly understood, it would create a hazardous situation in between different age groups, leading into creating instability as well as conflicts. Based on different skills s as well as diversified ways of communication, these groups must be segregated accordingly. These diversified age groups could create a rich talented workforce, which in turn, would prove to be quite beneficial for the organisations in future. However, it should be too much challenging also for its remarkable diversity, which should be managed properly, otherwise the situation becomes fatal (Fallon, 2014). It has been earlier mentioned that multigenerational workforce could create positive and negative impacts on the overall performance of organizations belonging to this modern day context. From the perspective of positive impacts, an effective management of a multigenerational workforce could result in facilitating the modern organizations to reap several significant benefits. These benefits could be duly measured in the form of increasing the profitability level, attaining greater competitive position and ensuring long-term sustainability among others. On the other hand, from the standpoint of negative impacts, the implications of the above stated subject matter could be reckoned as decreased level of overall business or operational performance, ineffective decision making and most vitally mis-utilization of certain valuable resources like human resources. Thus, with this concern, it should be managed in an effective manner for enabling the modern organizations to reap several signi ficant benefits including taking wise decisions about developing the performance of the employees and taking deliberate efforts towards sustaining in this competitive business settings. While discussing about the management of a multigenerational workforce, it will be vita to mention that in this 21st century, operations performed within the

Managing People And Absence Management Management Essay

Managing People And Absence Management Management Essay INTRODUCTION Managing attendance at work is recognised as being an increasing priority for all employers. Both short term and long term absences have a significant impact upon the efficiency and resources of any company and the management of such absences can have a significant effect on both the company and the individuals who are involved. The focus will be on Coleg Sir Gar and how they deal with absence. One of the key challenges facing organisations is how to manage absence effectively to ensure that those who are genuinely sick are fully supported, and that the small minority whose absence is not health-related is deterred. UK legislation places a duty on employers to safeguard employee health, safety and welfare, in addition to which there are rising expectations among staff of what employers should be providing in terms of working conditions and benefits. Adopting an approach to sickness absence management that is both supportive of the genuinely sick and that acts as a deterrent to the few whose absence is not health-related is difficult to achieve, but a crucial element of successful management practice. While the majority of absence is thought to be genuine and related to ill-health, a number of factors appear to have an impact on absence levels. These include motivation, work levels and morale within teams. Individuals perceive their work as stressful due to factors such as overwork, heavy administrative loads and relationships within their teams. Many individuals who feel valued in their roles are less likely to take sick leave as they appreciate that their contribution is important to their organisation. Other causes of absence include needing to take time off for domestic responsibilities such as childcare. Although most organisation have in place a policy relating to special leave aimed at coping with domestic emergencies, awareness of this leave does not appear to be high. The presence and implementation of a good sickness absence policy is an important first step to managing absence well. Ideally, a policy should be clearly understandable and take into account different causes of absence and develop appropriate ways of dealing with these. It is also vital for an organisation to accept that a certain level of employee absence is an inevitable feature of working life. Appropriate support should be offered to employees who are absent and unable to work for health reasons, and a policy should ideally recognise that employees may sometimes need to be absent for reasons other than health, and that this should not be counted as sickness. MANAGING PEOPLE Absence is very expensive. The CIPD annual survey Absence Management 2009 was based on replies from 642 employers in organisations employing a total of more than 1.9 million employees. The average cost of absence per employee per year was  £692, which is a slight increase from the previous years figure of  £666. The annual cost of absence, as last year, is highest in the public sector, averaging  £784 per employee per year; however, this represents a reduction from the previous years figure of  £906 per employee per year. Manufacturing and production employers recorded the next highest cost at  £754 per employee per year, a slight fall from the figure for the year before of  £759. Absence costs among non-profit organisations also fell slightly to  £698 from  £741 per employee per year. Private services organisations recorded the lowest annual absence costs, averaging  £666 compared with the previous years figure of  £663. For an organisation with 1000 employees, t his is nearly three quarters of a million pounds per year. But direct costs are only a part of the problem. Absence disrupts production, operations, customer service and morale. Organisations have to spend extra money on temporary cover or overtime as a result. And unchecked absence can lead to bad feeling, conflict and disciplinary action, including dismissal. And that can lead to tribunal hearings, and even compensation payments, if organisations are unable to demonstrate that they have acted fairly. Why measure absence? A key element of managing absence effectively is accurate measurement and monitoring. An organisation must assess if it has a problem with absence, its extent and the best way to tackle it. Only 41% of employers monitor the cost of employee absence, a figure which has remained low over the last few years. Employers should collect and use data to identify particular patterns of absence and underlying causes, for example, the management style of a particular manager or an increase in workloads. It can also provide evidence of how absence impacts on the bottom line and why it is worth investing in an effective absence management programme. There are a number of measures that can be used to assess absence, each of which gives information about different aspects of absence. There are two aspects to absence in Coleg Sir Gar: 1. Total time lost 2. How that time is distributed. Total time lost This is the crudest measure and the one used most often. To calculate this, the total number of days that could be worked in the organisation is added. Then the number of days that were lost due to absence are deducted and expressed as a fraction of the total. In a sense, this is the cost of the extra people that the organisation has to employ purely because of absence. For example, an organisation of 1000 people with an absence rate of 3.5 per cent has to employ 35 more people than would otherwise be necessary, just to cover the absence. How that time is distributed Many organisations only measure the total time lost. Yet this figure can describe several quite different problems. In a department of 30 people, an absence rate of 3.5 per cent could result from one person being away for a year with a longà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Ëœterm illness, with no other absence in the department, or it could result from everyone taking small amounts of time off. Or it could result from a few people taking quite long absences. Before you can define the problem, you have to ask: Who is being absent? How often are they being absent? How long are they being absent for? Bradford Factor The Bradford Factor identifies persistent short-term absence for individuals, by measuring the number of spells of absence, and is therefore a useful measure of the disruption caused by this type of absence. It is calculated using the formula: S x S x D S = number of spells of absence in 52 weeks taken by an individual D = number of days of absence in 52 weeks taken by that individual For example: 10 one-day absences: 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 1 ten-day absence: 1 x 1 x 10 = 10 5 two-day absences: 5 x 5 x 10 = 250 2 five-day absences: 2 x 2 x 10 = 40 The trigger points will differ between organisations. As for all unauthorised absence, the underlying causes will need to be identified. So should we try to manage absence? After all, if someone is ill, they are ill. The answer is that we should. And there are several reasons for this. Stopping theft of working time. Some people do take unauthorised time off for no reason other than personal gain. These people are stealing. They are stealing from their employer, because they are being paid for work they are not doing, and they are putting unfair extra work on to their colleagues. Stopping this theft of time is a clear moral and legal imperative. Some people take time off because they have a problem. This may be a personal problem, or a problem affecting someone close to them. By investigating the absence, managers can find out about such problems. In many cases, the organisation will then be able to offer support to the employee. In the longer term, this will reduce absence and help the employee. Some people take time off because of stress or unhappiness with work. It is very likely that these problems will be affecting performance generally, quite apart from affecting attendance. Investigating the absence may uncover such problems and enable the manager to address them, resulting in better performance in general and less absence. There must be no question of trying to coerce someone who is genuinely and unavoidably ill into coming to work. But in this case it is still important that the organisation knows the facts and so is able to plan its response accordingly. The sick employee may well suffer unnecessary extra stress and anxiety if he or she is not sure how the organisation views the illness. Directly confronting the illness, and being clear about the organisations attitude to it, will not only help the organisation know what it has to deal with, it can help the employee deal with the illness, too. Confronting and discussing absence not only helps the organisation, it helps the absentee. What causes absence? First, the causes of absence should be looked at to provide insight into the problem and to illustrate the areas where policy has an influence. Research shows that the causes of absence fall into the following four distinct clusters: The general health and lifestyle of employees and its impact on attendance at work has been a popular topic for research. Virtually all studies demonstrate a clear link, for example, between smoking and increased absence. Similarly research shows a strong link with excessive alcohol use and absence. For a proportion of employees there is a strong direct relationship between absence and poor health, but for others nonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ medical factors are equally important. Absence management polices need to discriminate between those who are unavoidably absent due to illness and those whose health is affected by factors over which the employer can have some influence. Employers who are able to support health education programmes which promote healthier lifestyles and actions such as providing healthy meals at work, encouraging exercise and aiding those who wish to give up smoking will all benefit from the improved general health of employees and reduced staff sickness rates. Some aspects of the working environment affect the wellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ being of staff. Research into how work is organised has shown the importance of team working with absence being lower where people work in small collaborative teams. Absence can also be a way of avoiding aspects of work that are emotionally demanding or stressful. The long hours culture also has an adverse impact on absence. A strong link exists between those who consistently work more than their contracted hours and both psychological and physical sickness levels. Management actions such as team working, awareness of health and safety issues and discouraging the working of excessive hours can all help to reduce the adverse impact of these factors. How employees feel about their working lives has been shown to be an important influence on attendance. Research has demonstrated that organisational commitment has a directly beneficial effect on absence and through this to business outcomes. The major influence on the creation of this commitment has been identified as the line manager and the quality of their relationship with their staff. The sensitive handling of change within organisations, often in the hands of line managers, is also essential as various features of the change process are associated with deterioration in employees health. These include uncertainty, lack of control, role ambiguity and job insecurity which can lead directly to reduce physical and mental health. Stress and absence are generally also shown to be related, although in the field of research the definition of stress is problematic and whether it should it be regarded as psychological or as a series of physiological symptoms has not yet been resolved. C areer satisfaction is one of the more powerful predictors of absence behaviour. Absence is higher among those expressing dissatisfaction with their careers. Among those who have marketable skills and are often absent the likelihood of them resigning is high. A link also exists between resigning and attendance behaviour. Those with poor attendance records are more likely to express an intention to leave and there is evidence that those with high absence rates are indeed at a greater risk of leaving. What policies need to contain? Good policies should clearly define the roles and responsibilities of key factors such as line managers, senior managers, the HR function, the occupational health function and the individuals themselves. They should also establish procedures to ensure that each case is treated in the same way and that standardised information on absence is collected. The first step to managing absence effectively is to ensure that you have a clear policy in place that supports your organisations business objectives and culture. Legislation requires employers to provide staff with information on any terms and conditions relating to incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any provision for sick pay. Effective absence policies must spell out employees rights and obligations when taking time off from work due to sickness. The policy should: provide details of contractual sick pay terms and its relationship with statutory sick pay outline the process employees must follow if taking time off sick covering when and whom employees should notify if they are not able to attend work include when (after how many days) employees need a self-certificate form contain details of when they require a fit note from their doctor explain that adjustments may be appropriate to assist the employee in returning to work as soon as is practicable mention that the organisation reserves the right to require employees to attend an examination by a company doctor and (with the workers consent) to request a report from the employees doctor include provisions for return-to-work interviews as these have been identified as the most effective intervention to manage short-term absence. Sickness absence policies are put in place to manage sickness absence. Staff are expected to maintain a satisfactory record of attendance. However, the aim is to balance the sensitive nature of individual sickness and ill health against its needs to achieve its objectives. As a caring employer, the aim is to assist employees to retain or regain good health. It is essential that the procedures be carried out with tact and sensitivity and a realisation that the management of attendance is the joint responsibility of the line manager and the individual member of staff. Human Resources (HR) will be available to advise and support line managers and their staff. Employees may be requested to consent to be examined by the occupational doctor or nurse and to agree to allow Occupational Health to provide a medical report. Employees may also refer themselves to Occupational Health. If a member of staff fails to comply with notification or certification procedures or otherwise abuse the procedu res, the disciplinary procedure may be used. The policy and procedure that apply are: This policy and associated procedure incorporate the following principles. Good faith The policy and procedures will be applied to all members of staff in a consistent manner and without discrimination. Fairness Any action taken will be reasonable and necessary.  Ã‚  Members of staff involved are entitled to be heard with courtesy and respect. Confidentiality Information relating to sickness absence will only be shared with individuals who have a need to know. Representation If issues of attendance arise within these procedures and a formal approach is required to deal with them, a member of staff will be entitled to be accompanied by a trade union representative or by a work colleague.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusions Recommendations Accepting absence as unavoidable and inevitable in an organisation creates a culture of poor attendance. This highlights the critical role of managers in communicating clearly the organisations expectations on attendance. Without positive action it is possible to have a culture where absence is just accepted as uncontrollable, or in the worst scenario, viewed as entitlement to extra leave. Overall, it is clear that managing absence is complex, and a successful approach must involve a mix of elements that successfully support those that are genuinely ill and deter the small minority of those that are absent for non-health-related reasons. Line managers are key in terms of implementing the policy, but they must be adequately supported by other areas of the organisation, such as senior management, the HR function and the occupational health function. Further, it is important for line managers to achieve the right balance when managing sickness absence, and to learn to tailor their approach appropriately. For example, in terms of the frequency and type of contact with individuals during long-term sickness absence, what is right for some individuals may not work for others, who may want more or less frequent contact? It is therefore up to line managers to find the appropriate balance between what is perceived as intrusion and support. Communicating the objectives of any attendance policy clearly to all staff members is essential. A policy which is to be credible and successful needs to be understood throughout an organisation and applied consistently and fairly. An individuals case of sick absence, depending on length, can require actions from various individuals and services such as the line manager, senior managers, the HR function, the HR Business Partner, Occupational Health Services and the Employee Assistance Provider. For an attendance policy to be effective in practice it is essential that the respective roles of the individuals and services involved in managing cases of absence are defined. This ensures that cases are handled systematically and efficiently. At any point in an absence it should be known who is responsible for each aspect and what outcomes are to be expected. Once the areas of responsibility are defined the procedures to be applied need to be established. This makes certain that each case i s treated the same way, that similar approaches are used and standardised information collected. Word Count excluding references: 3,090

Male Specific Neurons In Flies Essay -- Biology Fly

Have you watched a fly chase another fly all around the room and ever wonder how they manage to always be so close together even though the prey is trying its best to get away? Well, some scientists wondered. They were intrigued with this "mating chase" of the male fly after the female fly. You could say that the female was trying to play hard to get while the male lustily engages the pursuit. The male nearly always gets his "prey". However, if the female fly tried to chase the male, she would have no such luck. This is due to the sexual dimorphism of the fly. The male fly has a superior visual system to the female which he can use to locate and intercept the female fly in flight; however, the female fly does not have this advantage. The male-specific neurons that control the fly's superior visual system are complicated and intricate. The history behind the study of the fly's neurons begins with a 19th Century scientist by the name of Cajal. He studied neural systems and was the first to isolate nerve cells near the surface of the brain. His work led to a greater study of neurobiology and the passion for attempting to understand the workings of the nervous system. However, real progress in this field did not culminate until Land and Collett established a remarkable theoretical model of the two part visual system of the fly's brain. This model was incredibly close to the actual structure and function of the male fly's visual system. The structure of the male's eyes are even different to the female's. When looking at the two side by side, one can readily see the differences. Even these outer physical differences attribute to the male's superiority with his binocular vision and the ability to keep a target continually in his... ...y will compensate, yaw, pitch, and thrust, to return the target image into the area of male specific neurons. This behavior is found only in male flies, and while female flies are attracted to flickering objects as males are, they do not use have a different system to control yaw torque as males do. The males employ a position- independent system of tracking using yaw adjustments, relying on direction. This allows the males to intercept a target or change direction in tracking without overshooting the target. Females are unable to do this. The males also use pitch and thrust to pursue other flies. The position of the target in the mid-sagittal plane drives the pitch, based on the elevation of the target's image. Thrust relates to the distance between the pursuer and the target. The relationship between target range and velocity is shown to be male-specific behavior.