The Latest from Kristy-Lee

As we grow our teams and our businesses develop, flex and change, we come to realise that what got us where we are, won’t necessarily get us to where we want to go. Sometimes this is true for some of our team as well. It’s completely normal, we fill gaps as we see them, but often without strategically considering how this fits with the future vision of the business.

In time we can feel overwhelmed and like we are spending our days managing people, which is the opposite of what we wanted to do when hiring a team.

At these times of growth, overwhelm and change gaining clarity is critical to being able to move forward and get to where want to be faster and more efficiently.

This is just one of the reasons I really believe in the value of a clean slate, and the clarity this can bring to understanding what you need in your team and how you can go about creating this mix, and potentially making positive change in your business.

Having a solid...

Were you like me, and one of those kids who would ask ‘why?’ all… the… time?

My parents must have lost count of the number of times I said ‘but why’ and kept asking and asking and asking until I had a satisfactory answer, and I quite often didn’t.

As young ones we are naturally curious, some more than others, but we all have a natural curiosity, and it seems that as we grow older, wiser, more experienced, we stop leaning into that curiosity. We become quicker to make assumptions, to assume we know the answer, to make educated guesses. That serves us well some of the time, but a lack of curiosity can also have its downside – we miss things, we miss the truth, we make false assumptions, and we make decisions based off half-baked information.

I first witnessed this fading in true curiosity when completing a major research paper for my university studies, when I was studying criminology and forensic psychology. We...

Are you hiring right now, or have you tried to hire in the last few months? If you have, it’s likely that you’ve found it pretty tough! Perhaps usually you are inundated with applicants and right now it’s crickets… not even bad applications are coming through.

We are certainly seeing this trend across the board, from every corner of the Country and in every industry.

Business owners and managers alike are frustrated, desperate for help and uncertain how they can continue without more staff. Many are turning away work, re considering their business viability and increasingly working insane hours which will undoubtedly lead to burnout.

So, what’s the answer? Is there a way to actually find anyone right now?

Here’s the thing – what worked before simply won’t work now. Writing an average ad, throwing it on Seek and sharing it on your socials just won’t cut it. You not only won’t get quality...

Should You Sack Them or Save Them?

Ever found yourself asking this question?

You have someone on your team who isn’t where you want them to be, but you’re torn. On one hand you really want to make it work, and continue doing more to turn them around. You know how difficult it is to find great staff, and recruitment is time consuming and costly. You want to avoid having to start a hiring process, but is it even possible to turn this person around, no matter how much you like them?

On the other hand, despite feeling like you can’t make it work, you don’t want to fire them! That requires confrontation, and what if you get it wrong? An Unfair Dismissal Claim doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun.

You end up going around in circles asking yourself whether you should sack them or save them.

So, what’s the answer? How do you really know whether, with a little effort, this person might be your next super star, or whether...

How frustrating is it when you have someone on your team who you know has so much potential, is actually really great at their job and everyone really likes them - but it’s like they are just going through the motions? They get the job done, but only just, they certainly don’t show initiative and you just want to shake them because you know they are capable of so much more, of doing a much better job.

You know they are smart, capable, skilled and you’re frustrated that you’re not seeing their best.

Here's what you’re dealing with when it comes to these people – it’s not that they are lazy – they simply lack motivation.

Why is that your problem you ask? Well, you know how hard it is to find great staff right? So, you don’t want to exit them and have to go through the recruitment process again. Add to that the fact that by proactively working to improve motivation you are actually improving employee engagement...

You know the feeling, you’re frustrated, you feel like you’ve tried everything, there has been training, opportunity to improve, endless meetings – you’re wondering what else you can possibly do.

This staff member is not performing, but should you really be looking to end their employment?

Surely there is another way?

The thought of firing them feels overwhelming, mean and let’s be honest, the thought of recruiting for the role again doesn’t exactly have you jumping with excitement.

So ,you’re looking for a sign, something that will tell you which way you should go. But the reality is if you leave it that long, looking for a blindingly obvious sign, it’s likely you’ve let it go too far.

If you’re waiting for your employee to make the decision for you and exit themselves, there are certainly some signs you can be looking out for.

High absenteeism is the #1 sign the person has...

As a business owner or manager, it can often be difficult to determine an applicants exact practical skills simply by reading their resume and conducting an interview. All job seekers are determined to make the best impression they can at interview, and that will include how they answer questions and what skills they do and don’t possess.

Whilst in an ideal world we would take everyone’s comments at face value and trust the accuracy of the words that are spoken, the reality we all experience as Managers is that it’s not always this simple.

In addition, the quality and type of work expected at one place of work may vary greatly to the expectations you have of your staff. Workplaces, quality standards, culture and practices in any industry are not created equal, so how else can you determine if this employee is in fact a perfect fit or you will be trying to squeeze a square peg in a round hole?

One method which is not always appropriately...

You’ve done it! You’ve found the PERFECT person for the role. They have all the skills and experience you are looking for, they have accepted the proposed salary, you think they’ll be a great fit, and the team are super excited to have them joining you in a few weeks time.

And then your email ‘dings’. Thinking noting of it you go check your email, see it’s from the new employee, but as you start reading your enthusiasm turns to uncertainty, disappointment, anger or frustration.

Their email is informing you that their current employer has made a counter offer, an offer that is too good to pass up, and they can no longer accept your offer to join your team.

Ever been in that situation? Frustrating is an understatement isn’t it?

Counter offers are one of the trickiest things to navigate, do you go back and offer more? Do you negotiate? Or do you just let them go and decide that it wasn’t meant to be?

...

If there is one constant theme of the last couple of years, that theme is change. We’ve needed to adapt to constantly changing ‘rules’ and ‘health orders’, be resilient enough to navigate changes in where, when and how we work, and all of this for many businesses has resulted in internal changes to structure, operations and expectations of our team.

Whether it be about changing work location, mandating vaccination, or using Rapid Antigen Tests, things just keep changing.

So how do we as business owners get through all of this change, and how can we effectively, and legally, implement the changes that we need to in order to keep operations going, and our workplace safe?

There is one single thing that is absolutely king when it comes to implementing this kind of change that effects our team, and that is consultation.

Why is consultation so important?

Recent cases heard by The Fair Work Commission have demonstrated the...

The most successful recruitment campaigns rely on you as the business owner or manager being able to choose from a great list of quality talent, a perfectly suited shortlist, who are all skilled for the role you are hiring for – and ultimately are a great fit for your team.

But have you ever found yourself without this stellar shortlist? Instead, you may have found yourself with only one or two applicants, neither of whom are ideal, but you’re desperate, so you’ll probably hire one of them. Or you have a lengthy list of people you’re considering, but none are ideal, they are ok, they have applied, but they are a mish mash of skills, experience and suitability.

The thing is, in order to achieve a high-quality shortlist of applicants to choose from, it’s imperative that your candidate attraction strategies, including any advertising process, social posts or invitations to apply are targeted, aligned to your requirements and engaging to your...