Municipal Government Benefits Practices and Personnel Outcomes: Results from a National Survey
Employee benefits are an essential and costly component of the compensation and human resources management system. This research effort surveyed 358 municipal governments on their employee benefits practices. The survey results clearly indicate that municipal governments are very competitive in terms of traditional benefits (health, pensions, dental coverage, etc.) as all 10 types, except for short-term disability, are provided by a majority of the responding municipalities and exceed private sector rates. Municipal governments lag behind the private sector in the deployment of key family-friendly benefits such as child-care, elder care, flexi-place, flex-time and job sharing.
An Examination of Employee Benefits Cost Control Strategies in New Jersey Local Governments
Employee benefits are an essential and costly component of the compensation and human resources management system. This research effort surveyed 118 New Jersey local governments on benefits cost management strategies. The results indicate that the majority of local governments are utilizing displacement strategies that shift or impose costs onto either taxpayers (higher taxes) or employees (outsourcing, higher co-payments) in contrast to structural solutions that address the macro-level financial variables that influence either the demand or supply side of benefits finance (i.e., self-insurance, benefit consortiums, or service regionalization). Only a quarter of the strategies employed entailed structural solutions. Recommendations are provided to enhance the effectiveness of benefits plan cost-control strategies, including systematic needs assessment and technical assistance.
Rotating dialysis cell as in vitro release method for oily parenteral depot solutions.
The purpose of the study was to investigate an in vitro release method based on a rotating dialysis cell for parenteral oil depot formulations using different model conditions and test formulations. The total amount of drug released from the rotating dialysis cell was in accordance with the theoretical values calculated from the partition coefficients. The release rates were shown to depend on the total amount of drug available for the release process and to follow first order kinetics. The rotating dialysis cell has a potential as in vitro release method for characterization of oily depot formulations for parenteral administration.