The Latest from Kristy-Lee

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 applicants, you may very well get absolutely no applicants.

Right now, applicant...

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 you are wasting your time and theirs, because there i...

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 – and that can result in a bottom like increase in profits of more...

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 ‘checked out’ and if they are not actively looking to exit, they certainly aren’t planni...

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 utilised are ‘work trials’ where you ...

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?

Conversely, what do you do when the shoe is on the other foot, when o...

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 importance of consultation. Each and every Modern Awa...

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 ideal audience.

This is the case no...

In an industry that hasn’t exactly been characterised by constant change, from 1 November 2021 we have seen yet another change to superannuation rules here in Australia.

The 1^st November sees the commencement of an additional step in setting up new employees and their compulsory superannuation guarantee – it’s called Super Stapling.

Whilst it’s a funny term, put simply, a stapled super fund is simply an existing superannuation account that an employee has which is linked, or 'stapled', to that individual employee. Effectively this superannuation fund follows the employee as they change jobs – it’s stapled to them.

From 1 November 2021, if you have a new employee start with you, and they don't choose or nominate a superannuation fund, you have an extra step to take to comply with choice of superannuation fund rules. Rather than just setting that employee up in your default super fund that your business uses, you will need to check, via the ATO, whether that employee has a stapled sup...

Like most leaders and managers of teams, you have probably found yourself in a place where you had had success in building your team, you have found great people, you have kept great people. Yet at a certain point things weren’t all working as well as you liked with your employees. Perhaps you realised your latest hire wasn’t ideal, or you were getting attitude from one of the team, or they just didn’t seem to be doing what you expected, or you needed to exit someone but the thought of having to do that was less than comfortable.

The first thing you need to know is that it is totally normal, and there are always going to be points as you grow your business where things get a little wobbly in certain parts, despite the fact that you have other elements of your team running along seamlessly.

For the last 7 years I have been on a mission to better understand the unique needs of SME’s when it comes to their human resources, their people management and staffing structures. Over this time ...