I spent time with one of our clients last week as they requested support for one of their new managers to become a better leader. I know this…

In most calendar years, our little blue planet’s denizens get to look up into the night sky and see a beautiful full moon 12 times – that is, once a month.

However, the lunar month doesn’t quite match up to our rigid structure of calendar months. We humans like to define everything in a way that often suits us, but more…

Many employers believe they’ll get a better result and widen the pool of candidates by briefing more than one recruiter. But that’s simply not true for so many reasons.

I know what you’re thinking, of course he’d say that. He wants the commission all to himself!

But forget about trying to find any ulterior motive: using an exclusive recruiter…

Whilst data analytics is no longer the ‘new kid on the block’ for public organisations, it is still at the core of many initiatives to improve workforce performance and ensure workforce planning is aligned with commercial objectives.

Some organisations are more advanced in using analytics to deliver value, but that can depend on many variables – be they scope of objectives, size of organisation or nature of priorities.

For the Australian Defence Force (ADF), which constitutes…

Employers are often faced with the challenging task of how to approach the situation where an employee falls foul of the law as a result of conduct in their personal life.

Consider the following recent examples involving professional footballers:

In February this year, a former rugby league, Australian rules and now rugby union player was charged with the use and supply of cocaine. The player was immediately stood down from his club, the Queensland Reds, and after entering a…

Death by a Thousand BUT’s

The Gen-Y & Gen-Z arrived into the work scene and brought in very apparent variations in the workplace aspects. Few of them are praised, others criticized. Whatever is opinionated on the style of workplace attitude displayed, the chemistry that hovers in the workplace of today is a mixture of collaborative & competitive and friendly & superficial. The challenge is to turn it all around and to make the best use of the chemistry for the absolute mutually-valued outcomes for every…

Employee engagement is a very hot topic for organisations and justifiably so. Today, almost regardless of country or industry 70% of employees feel indifferent or disengaged at work. This is costing the US economy an estimated $500B in lost productivity, substandard performance and employee turnover annually. In Australia, these costs are estimated at $43B annually which is…

‘I want you to think back to the very last presentation you attended and…

I moved house last week.

T-O-T-A-L nightmare!

1. Live in house
2. Decide to move to new house
3. Buy boxes & pack stuff in them
4. Move boxes
5. Unpack boxes
6. Recycle boxes
7. Live in house…

And what’s more, I’ve moved house quite a lot in my time. I reckon either I…

"The Feeling is Mutual" is the second in a 10-part series outlining the concepts included in "The Physics of HR; Mastering the Laws of Motion," the Whitaker joint set to publish in mid-2016. The first installment, "We Make People Move" can also be found on HRHardball.com

"I'd never join a club that would allow someone like me to be a member." - Woody Allen

What kind of…

In the recent case of Mr Christopher K v Linfox Australia Pty Ltd [2015] FWC 3967 the Fair Work Commission confirmed that there will be a valid reason for the termination of an employee’s employment where they are unable to perform the inherent requirements of their position.

In this matter, Mr K was employed as a full-time truck driver for Linfox at its Newcastle site. Earlier this year, whilst driving his own vehicle, Mr K was charged…

If you are thinking of using a coach to solve a problem for you, think again, it’s a flawed view of coaching. You may end up wasting time, money and the opportunity of really making a difference with the person you want coached.

We get called into organisations a lot to help a CEO or HR Director solve a ‘problem’ they have with one or more of their executive managers.…

The corporate world has evolved significantly in the last fifty years, in part, lead by four notable drivers of change including; the advancement of technology, globalisation, corporate and social responsibility (‘CSR’) and the integration of generations. These four drivers have forced organisations to really think about how they need to work with employees to continue…

As our readers are aware, we have previously blogged about including psychological testing as part of a pre-employment medical.  Building on that theme we now comment on a recent FWC decision involving an employer’s ability to have existing employees undergo a psychological medical examination.

In January 2014, Mr Z raised concerns about the behaviour of his…

Not only do we want to increase our EBIT or net operating profit as I recently wrote about and this can be done by maximising performance and productivity of employees however we can also, which most people automatically think of is by reducing costs! 

Reducing costs is probably unfortunately more of a focus in business than maximising performance and productivity to increase EBIT but are the…

Whether you are a Business Owner, Executive Manager, Manager or Board Member, if you or your Organisation employ people, I would hope the reason for employing is for the individual to assist you to reach the business goals. Right!? Right!

Now we have established that I understand in business that the EBIT (Earnings Before Interest & Tax) or operating profit is a big consideration and so is increasing it!  So, if you are employing people into the business to achieve your business…

I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a sales pitch where the pitcher calls…

Are your workers more stressed than they used to be? What strategies do they use to cope? Could their stress lead to physical injuries or conditions?

Stress can manifest in any workplace and in any worker, and below, I discuss how workers handle workplace stress and how more workers than ever before are feeling stressed.

Encourage workers to use active coping strategies

Employers can prevent worker stress escalating and becoming chronic by training employees to…

In sport the role of the coach is clear, every professional or amateur team has one. Even my children are afforded a coach for their barely co-ordinated soccer matches, but in business it is different!

Comparing business to sport is an old cliché but when it comes to the role of the coach, therein lays a gap between the two. So, if the role is so critical in…