Workforce Characteristics Research Articles

Inside the classroom door: Understanding early care and education workforce and classroom characteristics experienced by children in subsidized center-based care

The federal child care subsidy program is the nation’s largest public early care and education (ECE) program for low-income children, yet little research has documented the workforce and classroom characteristics that affect children’s experiences in subsidized classrooms. Moreover, no existing study has compared the workforce and classroom characteristics in subsidized classrooms to those in classrooms across the range of alternative center-based settings available to low-income children. To fill this knowledge gap, the present study uses data from the newest national survey of child care available – the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE), collected in 2012 – to describe subsidized classrooms on a broad set of workforce and classroom characteristics. Classrooms serving children with child care subsidies are compared to other classrooms serving low-income children, with a distinction between those that receive other public funds (Head Start or school-based pre-k), and those that do not (non-publicly-funded centers). Consistent with prior research, which finds classrooms serving subsidized children to have lower observed global quality than Head Start or pre-k classrooms, our findings reveal that classrooms serving children receiving subsidies typically have a more disadvantaged workforce and fewer classroom characteristics indicative of higher quality and believed to promote child development. Compared to non-publicly-funded center-based classrooms, classrooms serving subsidized children scored lower on several desirable workforce characteristics such as hourly pay and receipt of coaching, but did not differ on classroom characteristics.

Bureaucratic Competence and Procurement Outcomes

To what extent does a more competent public bureaucracy contribute to better eco- nomic outcomes? We address this question in the context of the US federal procurement of services and works, by combining contract-level data on procurement performance and bureau-level data on competence and workforce characteristics. We use the death occurrences of specific types of employees as instruments and find that an increase in bureau competence causes a significant and economically important reduction in: i) time delays, ii) cost overruns, and iii) number of renegotiations. Cooperation within the office appears to be a key driver of the findings.

The Impact of Sickness Absenteeism on Firm Productivity: New Evidence from Belgian Matched Employer–Employee Panel Data

Using rich longitudinal matched employer–employee data for Belgium, we provide a first investigation of the impact of sickness absenteeism on firms’ productivity. To do so, we estimate a production function augmented with a firm‐level measure of sickness absenteeism that we constructed from worker‐level information on nonworked hours due to illness or injury. We deal with the endogeneity of inputs and sickness absenteeism by applying a modified version of the semiparametric control function method developed by Ackerberg, Caves, and Fraser (2015), which explicitly takes firm fixed unobserved heterogeneity into account. Our main finding is that, in general, sickness absenteeism substantially dampens firms’ productivity. However, further analyses show that the impact varies according to several workforce and firm characteristics. Sickness absenteeism is more detrimental to firm productivity when absent workers are high tenure or blue collar. Moreover, it is especially harmful to industrial, capital‐intensive, and small enterprises. These findings are consistent with the idea that sickness absenteeism is more problematic when absent workers have in‐depth firm‐/task‐specific knowledge, when the employees’ work is highly interconnected (e.g., along the assembly line), and when firms face more organizational limitations in substituting absent workers.

Lived Experience: Characteristics of Workers in Alcohol and Other Drug Nongovernment Organizations

Background: Workers with lived experience of problematic alcohol and other drug (AOD) use are increasingly recognized as integral to the AOD field. However, little is known about the prevalence or characteristics of AOD workers with lived experience across the general AOD workforce, in Australia or internationally. This study aimed to (1) investigate the prevalence of lived experience in AOD workers, (2) build an initial profile of workers with lived experience, (3) identify areas where appropriate support mechanisms may be warranted, and (4) generate recommendations for future work. Method: Nongovernment organization AOD workers from New South Wales, Australia, were invited to participate in a purpose-designed, online survey. Measures included demographic and workforce characteristics, work-related psychosocial factors, and health, quality of life, and AOD use. Descriptive analyses compared responses from workers with and without lived experience on key variables. Results: Two hundred and sixty-eight workers responded. Workers with lived experience comprised 43% of the sample; were more likely to be older; male; identify as lesbian, gay, homosexual, or queer; have lower salary; report discrimination in the workplace; abstain from alcohol; report opioid use; and experience less support outside work. Conclusion: This is the first Australian study to examine the profile of AOD workers with lived experience. Workers with lived experience constituted a substantial proportion of the AOD workforce. Analogous to other countries, comprehensive, appropriately tailored workforce development and support policies are required. Future research should build on these findings by extending to a broader population base, including government workers.

The development of competency frameworks in healthcare professions: a scoping review.

Competency frameworks serve various roles including outlining characteristics of a competent workforce, facilitating mobility, and analysing or assessing expertise. Given these roles and their relevance in the health professions, we sought to understand the methods and strategies used in the development of existing competency frameworks. We applied the Arksey and O'Malley framework to undertake this scoping review. We searched six electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Scopus, and ERIC) and three grey literature sources (greylit.org, Trove and Google Scholar) using keywords related to competency frameworks. We screened studies for inclusion by title and abstract, and we included studies of any type that described the development of a competency framework in a healthcare profession. Two reviewers independently extracted data including study characteristics. Data synthesis was both quantitative and qualitative. Among 5710 citations, we selected 190 for analysis. The majority of studies were conducted in medicine and nursing professions. Literature reviews and group techniques were conducted in 116 studies each (61%), and 85 (45%) outlined some form of stakeholder deliberation. We observed a significant degree of diversity in methodological strategies, inconsistent adherence to existing guidance on the selection of methods, who was involved, and based on the variation we observed in timeframes, combination, function, application and reporting of methods and strategies, there is no apparent gold standard or standardised approach to competency framework development. We observed significant variation within the conduct and reporting of the competency framework development process. While some variation can be expected given the differences across and within professions, our results suggest there is some difficulty in determining whether methods were fit-for-purpose, and therefore in making determinations regarding the appropriateness of the development process. This uncertainty may unwillingly create and legitimise uncertain or artificial outcomes. There is a need for improved guidance in the process for developing and reporting competency frameworks.

Workforce Composition and the Risk of Labor Market Exit Among Older Workers in Finnish Companies

Abstract This article investigates how a firm’s workforce characteristics affect an individual’s timing of exit from the labor market. It analyzes the relations between the age, skill, and wage structures of companies and the risk of labor market exit of Finnish older workers by using the detailed longitudinal register-based Finnish Linked Employer–Employee Data. The study follows the Finnish working population born between 1942 and 1950 (N = 216,713). Multilevel discrete-time survival analysis with individuals nested in firms is applied to estimate the risk of permanent exit from work between the ages of 53 and 68. The results show that these risks differ between firms: greater diversity in age and education levels among the workforce as well as seniority-based wage systems within a firm decrease the propensity of early exit, while being employed at a firm with an older staff increases the risk of exit. The findings from interactions between individual- and firm-level characteristics further illustrate that one’s individual characteristics matter in relation to the characteristics of the overall firm’s workforce. Being dissimilar from one’s coworkers, especially in terms of skills and education, can reduce the risk of early exit.

Comparing Outcomes and Costs of Medical Patients Treated at Major Teaching and Non-teaching Hospitals: A National Matched Analysis.

Teaching hospitals typically pioneer investment in new technology and cultivate workforce characteristics generally associated with better quality, but the value of this extra investment is unclear. Compare outcomes and costs between major teaching and non-teaching hospitals by closely matching on patient characteristics. Medicare patients at 339 major teaching hospitals (resident-to-bed (RTB) ratios ≥ 0.25); matched patient controls from 2439 non-teaching hospitals (RTB ratios < 0.05). Forty-three thousand nine hundred ninety pairs of patients (one from a major teaching hospital and one from a non-teaching hospital) admitted for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), 84,985 pairs admitted for heart failure (HF), and 74,947 pairs admitted for pneumonia (PNA). Treatment at major teaching hospitals versus non-teaching hospitals. Thirty-day all-cause mortality, readmissions, ICU utilization, costs, payments, and value expressed as extra cost for a 1% improvement in survival. Thirty-day mortality was lower in teaching than non-teaching hospitals (10.7% versus 12.0%, difference = - 1.3%, P < 0.0001). The paired cost difference (teaching - non-teaching) was $273 (P < 0.0001), yielding $211 per 1% mortality improvement. For the quintile of pairs with highest risk on admission, mortality differences were larger (24.6% versus 27.6%, difference = - 3.0%, P < 0.0001), and paired cost difference = $1289 (P < 0.0001), yielding $427 per 1% mortality improvement at 30 days. Readmissions and ICU utilization were lower in teaching hospitals (both P < 0.0001), but length of stay was longer (5.5 versus 5.1 days, P < 0.0001). Finally, individual results for AMI, HF, and PNA showed similar findings as in the combined results. Among Medicare patients admitted for common medical conditions, as admission risk of mortality increased, the absolute mortality benefit of treatment at teaching hospitals also increased, though accompanied by marginally higher cost. Major teaching hospitals appear to return good value for the extra resources used.

How do early care and education workforce and classroom characteristics differ between subsidized centers and available center-based alternatives for low-income children?

Although the federal child care subsidy program is the nation’s largest public investment in the early care and education (ECE) of low-income children, few studies have attempted to identify the ECE workforce and classroom features that characterize subsidized center-based settings and differentiate them from other alternatives. To address this gap in the literature, the current study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to describe subsidized center-based classrooms on an expansive range of workforce and classroom variables. Notably, we compare these classrooms to classrooms in the other center-based settings that primarily serve low-income children – both those that receive public funds from other sources (Head Start or school-based pre-k) and those that do not (non-publicly funded center-based settings). In the vast majority of comparisons, differences between subsidized settings and others were not statistically significant. However, when differences were detected they were in the direction consistent with prior literature: subsidized settings are lower in quality than Head Start or public pre-k settings – for instance, offering fewer activities and materials – but higher in quality than non-publicly funded settings – for example, offering more referrals to ancillary services and screenings. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

A Novel Approach for Workforce Surveillance at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Expert groups have recommended ongoing monitoring of the public health workforce to determine its ability to execute designated objectives. Resource- and time-intensive surveys have been a primary data source to monitor the workforce. We evaluated an administrative data source containing US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) aggregate federal civil service workforce-related data to determine its potential as a workforce surveillance system for this component of the workforce. We accessed FedScope, a publicly available online database containing federal administrative civilian HHS personnel data. Using established guidelines for evaluating surveillance systems and identified workforce characteristics, we evaluated FedScope attributes for workforce surveillance purposes. We determined FedScope to be a simple, highly accepted, flexible, stable, and timely system to support analyses of federal civil service workforce-related data. Data can be easily accessed, analyzed, and monitored for changes across years and draw conclusions about the workforce. FedScope data can be used to calculate demographics (eg, sex, race or ethnicity, age group, and education level), employment characteristics (ie, supervisory status, work schedule, and appointment type), retirement projections, and characterize the federal workforce into standard occupational categories. This study indicates that an administrative data source containing HHS personnel data can function as a workforce surveillance system valuable to researchers, public health leaders, and decision makers interested in the federal civil service public health workforce. Using administrative data for workforce development is a model that can be applicable to federal and nonfederal public health agencies and ultimately support improvements in public health.

Characteristics of the Health Information Technology Workforce in Georgia

Characteristics of the Health Information Technology Workforce in Georgia

Migration Pattern of Industrial Workers in Bekasi Regency

Bekasi Regency, which is located in the periphery cities of Jakarta and Bekasi, has experienced significant regional development. As an industrial area, Bekasi Regency is very attractive to prospective workers. The population problem that needs attention is the employment issue. As the population increases, the number of workers also increases. The purpose of this study is to geographically identify the area of origin of industrial labor in the Bekasi District which is the most dominant, to find out the characteristics of the industrial sector workforce based on their level of education and competence. This research used a quantitative descriptive method with a survey approach, and also conducted interviews with stakeholders, namely the local government of Bekasi Regency

The relationship between workforce characteristics and perception of quality of care in mental health: A qualitative study

BackgroundMental health services worldwide are under strain from a combination of unprecedented demand, workforce reconfigurations, and government austerity measures. There has been relatively little research or policy focus on the impact of staffing and skill mix on safety and quality in mental health services leaving a considerable evidence gap. Given that workforce is the primary therapeutic intervention in secondary mental health care this constitutes a major deficit. ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the impact of staffing and skill mix on safety and quality of care in mental health inpatient and community services. DesignExploratory, qualitative methodology; purposive sampling. SettingsInpatient and community mental health services in the United Kingdom. Participants21 staff (including nurses, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, and care co-ordinators) currently working in mental health services. MethodsWe conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with a purposive sample of staff recruited via social media. We asked participants to describe the staffing and skill mix in their service; to reflect on how staffing decisions and/or policy affected safety and patient care; and for their views of what a well-staffed ward/service would look like. We conducted thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. ResultsThe participants in this study considered safestaffing to require more than having ‘enough’ staff and offered multiple explanations of how staffing and skill mix can impact on the safety and quality of mental health care. From their accounts, we identified how the problem of ‘understaffing’ is self-perpetuating and cyclical and how its features interact and culminate in unsafe care. We conceptualised the relationship between staffing and safety as a ‘vicious cycle of unsafestaffing’ which comprised: (1) understaffing (the depletion of resources for safe care provision); (2) chronic understaffing (conditions resulting from and exacerbating understaffing); and, (3) unsafestaffing (the qualities of staffing that compromise staff capacity to provide safe care). ConclusionsContinued policy focus on safestaffing is clearly warranted, especially in mental health as staffing constitutes both the principal cost and main therapeutic driver of care. This paper provides compelling reasons to look beyond regulating staff numbers alone, and to consider staff morale, burden and the cyclical nature of attrition to ensure the delivery of high quality, safe and effective services. Future research should investigate other mechanisms via which staffing impacts on safety in mental health settings.

Taking Innovation to the Streets: Microgeography, Physical Structure, and Innovation

In this paper, we analyze how the physical layout of cities affects innovation by influencing the organization of knowledge exchange. We exploit a novel data set covering all census block groups in the contiguous United States with information on innovation outcomes, street infrastructure, as well as population and workforce characteristics. To deal with concerns of omitted variable bias, we apply commuting zone fixed effects and construct instruments based on historic city planning. The results suggest that variation in street network density may explain regional innovation differentials beyond the traditional location externalities found in the literature.

An investigation of Australian osteopaths\u2019 attitudes, skills and utilisation of evidence-based practice: a national cross-sectional survey

BackgroundOsteopaths are an integral member of the health care team, playing a pivotal role in the provision of care for patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Osteopaths, like other health care providers, are under increasing pressure to deliver evidence-based health care and to improve patient outcomes. However, the extent to which osteopaths engage in evidence-based practice (EBP), particularly in Australia, is not well understood. This study therefore set out to investigate the attitudes, skills and use of EBP, and perceived barriers and enablers of EBP uptake, among osteopaths practicing in Australia.MethodsNational cross-sectional survey of Australian registered osteopaths. Eligible participants were invited by email and other digital media recruitment strategies to complete the online Evidence-Based Practice Attitude and Utilisation Survey (EBASE).ResultsA total of 332 osteopaths completed the survey. The demographic characteristics of respondents were generally consistent with the characteristics of the Australian osteopathy workforce. The respondents were mostly favourable of EBP, with the majority agreeing or strongly agreeing that EBP assists in making decisions about patient care (86.7%) and improves the quality of patient care (75.6%). While most respondents (88.3%) had some training in EBP, most reported a moderate level of perceived skill in EBP. The majority of respondents engaged infrequently (0–5 times) in EBP activities within the last month, and most indicated that a very small or small proportion of their clinical practice was based on clinical research evidence. Leading barriers to the uptake of EBP were lack of time and lack of clinical evidence in osteopathy. Key enablers of EBP uptake were access to the internet and online databases at work, and access to full-text articles and EBP education materials.ConclusionsOsteopaths participating in the survey were largely supportive of evidence-based practice, yet engaged infrequently in EBP activities. An important next step in this research is to identify suitable strategies that effectively improve EBP uptake in osteopathy, and perchance, improve patient outcomes.

Global reach and second-tier cities: An initial exploration of export activity from the bottom of the U.S. metropolitan hierarchy

ABSTRACT Urban-economic research has long been dominated by a focus on the largest cities. Nonetheless, growing economic inequality and differences in connectivity throughout most advanced market economies has led scholars to acknowledge that second-tier urban places can function differently than their larger counterparts. Grounded within the research frameworks of the smaller city literature, as well as export base and urban-level export research, this paper seeks to examine the economic role of exports (and by extension, global trade) within smaller U.S. metropolitan areas, evaluating how export performance and export composition are related to the economic health and workforce characteristics of these second-tier urban regions. The analyses find that smaller metropolitan areas have a greater dependence upon goods-related exports than large metropolitan areas, consistent with the expectations of the product life cycle. Moreover, export intensity in second-tier metropolitan areas creates downward pressure on per capita GDP. Finally, the paper discusses export policy in terms of its impacts on second-tier metropolitan areas.

FSMB Census of Licensed Physicians in the United States, 2018

ABSTRACT There are 985,026 physicians with Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degrees licensed to practice medicine in the United States and the District of Columbia, according to physician census data compiled by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). These qualified physicians graduated from 2,089 medical schools in 167 countries and are available to serve a U.S. national population of 327,167,434. While the percentage of physicians who are international medical graduates have remained relatively stable over the last eight years, the percentage of physicians who are women, possess a DO degree, have three or more licenses, or are graduates of a medical school in the Caribbean have increased by varying degrees during that same period. This report marks the fifth biennial physician census that the FSMB has published, highlighting key characteristics of the nation's available physician workforce, including numbers of licensees by geographic region and state, type of medical degree, location of medical school, age, gender, specialty certification and number of active licenses per physician. The number of licensed physicians in the United States has been growing steadily, due in part to an expansion in the number of medical schools and students during the past two decades, even as concerns of a physician shortage to meet health care demands persist. The average age of licensed physicians continues to increase, and more licensed physicians appear to be specialty certified, though the latter finding may reflect more comprehensive reporting. This census was compiled using the FSMB's Physician Data Center (PDC), which collects, collates and analyzes physician data directly from the nation's state medical and osteopathic boards and is uniquely positioned to provide a comprehensive snapshot of information about licensed physicians. A periodic national census of this type offers useful demographic and licensure information about the available physician workforce that may be useful to policy makers, researchers and related health care organizations to better understand and address the nation's health care needs.

Better workers, better elections? Electoral management body workforces and electoral integrity worldwide

Building better elections is a central task for the study of democracy and democratisation. Despite this, there have been no cross-national studies on the staff who manage and implement elections: electoral management body (EMB) workforces. This article provides the first macroscopic worldwide picture of workforce characteristics, human resource management practices and employee outcomes, and analyses the effects they have on electoral integrity, based on original international surveys of electoral management bodies (EMBs) ( n = 51) and electoral officials ( n = 2029). Drawing from the human resource management literature, a framework is developed to explain how these factors might interact with EMB performance. Analysis demonstrates them to be highly related. Adding data on human resource management practices and employee outcomes improves explanatory models designed to predict the performance of EMBs. Chiefly, EMBs that enable greater opportunities for employees to be involved in decision-making processes perform better. Recruitment practices, job satisfaction and levels of stress are also important.

Social network analysis of rural medical networks after medical school immersion in a rural clinical school

BackgroundThe impact of new medical graduates on the social dimensions of the rural medical workforce is yet to be examined. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is able to visualize and measure these dimensions. We apply this method to examine the workforce characteristics of graduates from a representative Australian Rural Clinical School.MethodsParticipants were medical graduates of the Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (RCSWA) from the 2001–2014 cohorts, identified as being in rural work in 2017 by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. SNA was used to examine the relationships between site of origin and of work destination. Data were entered into UCInet 6 as tied pairs, and visualized using Netdraw. UCINet statistics relating to node centrality were obtained from the node editor.ResultsSNA measures showed that the 124 of 709 graduates in rural practice were distributed around Australia, and that their practice was strongly focused on the North, with a clear centre in the remote Western Australian town of Broome. Women were strongly recruited, and were widely distributed.ConclusionsRCSWA appears to be a “weak tie” according to SNA theory: the School attracts graduates to rural nodes where they had only passing prior contact. The multiple activities that comprise the social capital of the most attractive, remote, node demonstrate the clear workforce effects of being a “bridge, broker and boundary spanner” in SNA terms, and add new understanding about recruiting to the rural workforce.

Enhancing Program Quality in a National Sample of After-school Settings: The Role of Youth-Staff Interactions and Staff/Organizational Functioning.

Using multilevel data from the national evaluation of Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), this study examined associations among programmatic structures, workplace and workforce characteristics, and relational practices of program staff as they relate to young people's ratings of their experience attending local clubs. The sample included 57,710 members and 5,231 staff members at 740 BGCA sites throughout the United States. Staff relational practices-including establishing caring relationships, setting high expectations, positive behavior management, encouraging youth input and agency, and cultural sensitivity-explained associations between staffing and organizational functioning and youths' perceptions of the quality of their clubs. Findings suggest a central role of staff relational practices in establishing conditions that youth experience positively, and that staffing and organizational processes, including community engagement and teamwork and efficiency can be viewed as foundations for establishing a culture of positive adult-youth interaction, which in turn can contribute to the promotion of positive youth development. Further, identification with the experiences of youth had a direct association with youths' perceptions of club quality. These results underscore the importance of staff workforce development initiatives as key to improving youth experiences in after-school programs.

The online integrated order picking and delivery considering Pickers’ learning effects for an O2O community supermarket

The online-to-offline (O2O) community supermarket is currently a popular O2O business model in China. Owing to the small lot-size, high frequency, time-sensitive, and dynamic arrival of online customer orders, many O2O community supermarkets face challenges in how to pick up the dynamic arrival orders and deliver them to customers with minimum makespan and delivery cost. To achieve the global optimal order fulfillment performance, we study the online integrated order picking and delivery problem for an O2O community supermarket, and order pickers’ learning effects are considered to better plan the integrated problem. To propose a feasible and efficient schedule, the online algorithm A is established, and the competitive ratio is proved to be 2 theoretically. To further verify the effectiveness and efficiency of algorithm A in practice, we summarize the actual order fulfillment rules (named A1), and conduct numerical experiments to compare algorithm A with A1. Moreover order pickers’ workforce characteristics are varied to evaluate the learning effects on the order fulfillment process. The results show that Algorithm A performs better than A1 in different situations, and considering pickers’ learning effects is significant for the accuracy and predictability of order fulfillment process.