This week I met with a promising new client. They have a handful of vacancies, one position that has been vacant for 3 months and another that they have interviewed 30 candidates for (yes, face to face) and still haven’t found the right candidate. Hmmmm…. Houston we have a problem!

The managers are pulling their hair out as it…

We asked 5,000 business owners, managers and HR professionals what their biggest employment headache is, here's what we found:

Biggest Employment Headaches

#1. Recruitment (25%)

#2. Retention & Engagement (24%)

#3. Performance Management (17%)

The results show that your biggest concerns are getting the right people through the door, and keeping…

For the past 9 years the ‘Towards Maturity Benchmark Study’ has been investigating how organisations in Europe embed innovative learning practices, and the impact those practices have on learners and the organisation.  This year the study is being extended to the Asia Pacific and provides a chance to understand more about the learning practices within organisations in our region that excel in business agility,  efficiency,   employee engagement   and…

Trevor Vas, Principal Consultant with HCMS shares his observations on our recent *Talent Management Roundtable meetings (TMRT) where we discussed: “Creative Ways to Add Value to Your Organisation when Jobs Decline”. 

How many of you have experienced coming to work one day, only to find that the CEO has issued an edict:  “Freeze on All Hiring”? What do you do?  How do Recruitment Functions maintain their relevance and capability when there are…

This year’s recognition as an Aon Hewitt Best Employer has meant much more to Hilti Australia because in a soft construction market everyone had to work much harder to retain high employee engagement.



In 2011 when Hilti was recognised as the ‘Best of the Best’ Best Employer the company felt the impact immediately. Most notably, there was an instant boost in employee confidence and a 300 per cent spike in job applications.



In my experience, an engaged and motivated…

For those who may not have heard the term before, managing upwards is an often used euphemism for dealing with a difficult relationship with a more senior person in an organisation.

‘Managing your manager’ can be a worthwhile skill to have to help you succeed in your career. So what are some strategies you can use to become effective at managing up?

• Insist on meeting regularly with your manager and be prepared.
• Be alert to organisational changes and a manager’s…

Human beings belong to a gregarious species. We live in groups, we organise ourselves in communities, we develop language, rules and technology to communicate with each other, and usually, we work in teams.

In short, we engage with each other and with our environment. Our engagement keeps us safe and happy. By co-operating together, in every form of work and endeavour, we support each other, harness the power of multiple skills, talents and intellectual points of view, and we create…

We all already know that disengaged employees cost much more than a wage, but what about your engaged employees, how do you make sure they stay engaged and satisfied in their role?

Keeping hold of that perfectly engaged employee is vital for the long term health of your business. It is a key challenge for employers today with retention rates falling; particularly within generation X and Y where employees have different values than previous age brackets. The SHRM…

In Brief

A recent dismissal case before Fair Work Australia ("FWA") serves as a useful illustration of the issues facing employers when weighing up an employee's poor disciplinary record and whether a dismissal would be justified.

Warning Confusion…

A recent study has shown that office workers can work up to an extra 16 days a year if they eat lunch at their desks and do not take a break.

The research, performed by a UK university, also discovered that:

-       Half of the 1,000 employees surveyed claimed that they felt guilty if they took a full hour

-       60% of employees surveyed say they eat lunch at their desks

-       Two thirds take 30 minutes or less, even though they are entitled to a full…

There is no doubt about it, the Australian workplace is going through massive structural changes.  Wage costs are high. The cost of living and working in the major capitals is also high. In case you hadn’t noticed, Sydney is the seventh most expensive city in the world. Melbourne is the eighth.

So it’s no surprise that organisations have been…

Over here at RedBalloon we've been discussing how disengagement manifests itself across different industries. The topic of athletes came up after a discussion about the Olympics - so we had a bit of fun chatting about some famous Aussie athletes who have shown signs of disengagement in recent times.

So here is our list of the top five most well-known disengaged and misbehaving Australian Olympians, and where…

Those who read the thermals of the future workforce are like eagles. But when we unexpectedly lose our job, we're like seagulls, fighting over the scraps.

 High skilled jobs will be the cornerstone of our economy and HR will play a leading role in directing job seekers and ‘upskillers’ to the VET sector.

 The Australian Government's Skills for All initiative is now subsidising  places for all Australians aged 16 to pension age to complete a first  certificate 111 or IV…

Why should you invest in creating an entrepreneurial culture for your organisation? Quite simply, you will create a team of people who push the boundaries, look for hidden opportunities and understand profitable growth.

Once you’ve developed a workplace that breeds innovative thinking, you won’t accept talent into your business that doesn’t have that spirit about them. New staff will immediately see a culture where challenging and pushing the boundaries is encouraged and…

I’ve noticed, as I go around talking to organisations about diagnosing, understanding and harnessing their creativity to improve their business practices, that there is one crucial ingredient of creativity that most people don’t know about. This makes me think that idea Incubation might be the secret ingredient of innovation and problem solving.

Some people, like Steve Jobs, know the secret automatically, but…

Whilst the focus has always been on the all-important high level of engagement in employees, (and the subsequent positives outcomes for your business); a new report suggests that the correlation is not as simple as previously thought. The research identifies that there are actually two different types of engagement, which can produce…

A recent decision of Fair Work Australia serves as a useful reminder of the importance of properly characterising contractors and employees. It is also likely to give rise to exclamations of surprise given the presence of what might otherwise have been thought to have been iron clad indicia of a principal/independent contractor relationship.

In Kuat Chee v Renown Business Solutions Pty Ltd (Renown), Commissioner Jones was called upon to determine whether the…

People management – great or grim?

In early April I posted a blog HR Manager’s Effectiveness: 21 variables to aspire to.

It took 2077 hits.  What follows is a further development of the theme – the…