Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks have become a crucial tool in establishing and building business relationships for many companies. Employees are increasingly connecting with current and potential customers using social media in order to promote themselves and their employers.

However, what happens to social media accounts when employees decide to leave for greener pastures? Do employers have any rights to such accounts, or to stop their former employees from…

A key issue that businesses often struggle with is the distinction between employees and independent contractors.  

Just because you call someone an independent contractor doesn’t mean at law they will be viewed the same way. Like with the duck example, whilst you might call it a chicken, at the end of the day it is still a duck!

The issue of sham contracting is currently at the forefront of union and regulators minds with the result being increased scrutiny of purported…

Starting a new career in a new sector is a daunting prospect. In the recruitment world, those first few weeks are invariably a sink or swim baptism that can make even the best performers feel lost or uncertain about their career choice.

New recruiters must adapt to new systems, databases, employer and candidate processes and preferences. Once the basics are in place, the hard stuff begins as they learn to interpret and apply behavioural-based information, extract facts from candidates…

I have been reading quite a bit lately about creating a personal brand online. The subject fascinates me, not least because I see so many people making a total hash of it by the inane things they post on Facebook, Twitter, blog replies, and to a lesser extent, LinkedIn.

But recently I had such a powerful personal example happen to me, that I feel compelled to share it with you. This small Twitter exchange taught me a huge lesson in how quickly “Brand You” can be harmed by…

Can you teach an elephant to dance? That’s what many HR professionals are being asked to do with the introduction of ‘agile’ or ‘lean’ principles to large enterprises, particularly in areas like performance management.

In the circus they get the pachyderms prancing through repetition and pain, but does injecting some agility…

On opposing ends of a continuum, there are those amongst us who love a good verbal tussle, a professional challenge or a debate and then there are those amongst us that run headlong from the slightest frown. Usually it has something to do with our experience of conflict as kids; I know my parents used to see it as a personal slight on their marriage if anyone heard them so much as disagree – so guess which end of the continuum I tend…

Family Friendly is a business and employee benefit

If you struggle to get the very best people to come and work for you.   If you believe your employees aren’t giving their best, or are stressed because their working life and domestic life don’t work well together.  Or if you have a high rate of unexplained absence, then you may wish to consider reviewing your family friendly offer.

If you want to attract and retain top talent now and in the future;  to remain…

The Federal Magistrates Court recently shed some light on the operation of the general protections provisions in respect of prospective employees, confirming that a person would not usually be regarded as a “prospective employee” unless they had actually made an application for employment or were negotiating in relation to possible employment.

Referring to a string of Federal Court decisions, Federal Magistrate Cameron noted that the expression prospective employee “implies a…

A request for feedback on a new tool for hiring managers.

RecruitLoop has recently released a tool for employers and HR managers to automate the screening process, with recorded video interviews.

It's a free tool, which can save hours in the screening process.

We'd appreciate feedback from the community, as it's an early release. Is it something you'd use? What questions/concerns would you have? Is it easy/difficult to understand?…

As a result of the decision of the minimum wage panel of Fair Work Australia to increase the federal minimum wage and award wages, employers should take note that the high income threshold (for unfair dismissal claims and other purposes) will increase to $123,300 from 1 July 2012.

This also results in an increase to the compensation cap for unfair dismissal claims to $61,650

The merge of social networking technology and business has caused an epic shift in working culture as a whole, especially when it comes to the new required levels of transparency in businesses. Enterprises are now obliged to be more interactive on a personal level with their customer, whether their customers are other businesses or the general public. The whole marketing monologue of a company now needs to be shifted to an ongoing dialogue with customers over a wholly public channel, moving…

The current rise of social recruiting and in-house sophistication is the most significant change I’ve seen in my 13 year career within the recruitment sector across Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom. Whilst that should be no surprise to anyone in the industry, I do wonder if a majority of the industry truly understand that it’s only getting bigger and, therefore, we need to adjust our value proposition. It would seem not!

It is great that employers now have so many…

It struck me recently during a program called Strategic Relationship Development run by one of the largest companies in the world, that the investment and focus of contemporary sales and influencing skills training was in trying to regain something in the workplace we all do naturally outside of it… connecting as human beings.…

There is an elephant in the room when it comes to the basic business model of our industry. People don’t talk about it much, yet it’s a fundamental flaw in the relationship between client and recruiter, and it drives poor service and lack of satisfaction for all parties.

Multi-listing of job orders across multiple agencies, and recruiters accepting briefs on a contingent and in-competition basis.

There are three primary reasons client multi-list job orders and expect…

Experience is often essential, but it takes time!

One of the most valued attributes an employee can bring to the workplace is their experience.  In a fast changing world where employees are more likely to move from job to job for a number of reasons;  sometimes great knowledge and skill are present, but not necessarily experience.  The problem is of course experience takes time and often we are short of that commodity!

If you have great staff but they simply…

If you’re thinking about entering the job market, you may well be in the “detachment” stage with your current employer. This is where the numbers of “pull” factors at work are outweighed by the “push” factors. Pull factors are the things you like about your current employer. Push factors are the things that are driving you away.

“Detachment” and transition can be an emotionally draining time.

If you’re in this stage, you may well be experiencing feelings associated with…