The Latest from Kristy-Lee

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 were looking at the perception of crime in children, and specifi...

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...

• Actively create and cultivate your culture, show them how things should be done around here.

• Get expert advice when you need it (because you wouldn’t get advice from your accountant about your car would you?)

• Get across yo
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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...