Planning for the 2023 Christmas Close Down: What Employers Need to Know

Unveiling the Changes to Christmas Close Downs: Prepare Your Business Now

You might think it’s a bit early to be talking about Christmas close-downs – but you’d be surprised how planning ahead will save you that feeling of dashing to the finish line.

If you're a business owner or leader who typically closes your business over the festive season, this blog post will cover the essentials you need to know.

As expert HR consultants for small to medium businesses across Australia, we’re identifying the changes that have been made and what you need to do differently this year.

What We Already Know about Christmas Close Downs

Christmas close downs have become increasingly common over the years and, in Australia, are now considered the norm across many industries and awards.

The Christmas close-down period is also the time that many business owners will do all their planning. In fact, at People Powered Business we’r...

How AI Can Help with Your HR To-Do List

In the rapidly evolving landscape of business, finding innovative ways to optimise productivity and efficiency is crucial. 

Enter artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that has gained significant attention recently, with the rise of software like ChatGPT, and offers immense potential across various domains.

While AI may seem unrelated to human resources (HR), it can be a powerful tool to enhance HR processes. In this blog post, we explore how AI can revolutionise your HR to-do list, focusing on three practical applications.     

1. Crafting Job Advertisements with Ease:

Writing effective job ads can be a time-consuming task that requires careful consideration of language, tone, and content.

With AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Bard, you can streamline this process and save yourself some valuable time.

By providing prompts and specific details about the role, AI can generate well-written job advertisements that capture the essence...

The term employee engagement sounds like one of those HR buzz words which fade in and out of popularity over time.

However, the concept behind it is not a new one, and the impact it can have on an organisations bottom line results in terms of profitably, efficiency and revenue generation should not be underestimated.

So, how do we define it? Employee Engagement ultimately is a level of an employee's commitment and connection to the organisation. Two keys words commitment and connection, both are critical to engagement. Commitment in not only showing up, but giving their absolute all, and connection not just to their job, but to a cause or calling bigger than them, their roles or perhaps even this organisation. Connection to the leaders, to their colleagues and to the important part their role plays in achieving something bigger.

To put it simply, engagement refers to the extent to which an employee is willing to go above and beyond, commit that extra bit and throw all of their energ...

We all know the feeling, we’re losing sleep, we’re avoiding the person at work, we’re angry, frustrated and tearing our hair out. We have an employee who is not performing, not showing up how we want them to at work or behaving in a negative way, a way that isn’t sitting right with you.

We can’t always quite put our finger on the exact issue, it’s just not quite right, but it’s wrong enough to be consuming our time and attention. Or maybe it is more obvious, but we feel like we’re going over the top if we bring it up – we don’t want them to feel like we are micromanaging them or pulling them up for something that feels petty and insignificant (yet the fact that it’s consuming our time and attention does in fact mean that at some level it is significant to us).

So, we tolerate it, whether it’s behaviour, attendance, performance or something else, we tolerate it. We think maybe it’s not that much of a big deal, or maybe it’ll be short term, or surely they will realise soon and fi...

As a business owner, leader or manager, the ability to successfully delegate tasks, responsibilities and authority is critical to your ability to grow and develop your business.

However, it’s a skill that often we struggle with.

Even those who can delegate, often don’t do it as effectively as they could, and for those who own their own businesses this can be a really tough art to master, because it involves letting go, and releasing control.

Put simply, delegation is the action of assigning responsibility for the completion of a task to another person.

Typically, you as the delegator maintain the responsibility for the task being completed, although you may, depending on the circumstances, delegate the authority up to a certain level as well. So, you delegate the ‘doing’ but still need to ensure the doing gets done.

As your business grows, delegation becomes critical, you will ultimately become a bottle neck in your own business, and the reality is you can’t do ever...

Do you ever get the feeling you are trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole when it comes to your team?

It’s not that people are doing a bad job, or underperforming, but simply that the skills they have no longer suit the business, or that the business has changed and needs new skills.

All businesses face these challenges as they grow and evolve. The skills that were once critical to your service delivery perhaps are now obsolete, technology has absorbed tasks or customers have changed how they do business with you.

When we need to grow what we tend to do, often out of uncertainty and desperation is just to ‘tack on’ a new role, where we think the gap is, without any strategic thought or forward planning.

The problem with this approach is you end up creating a team structure that’s clunky, anything but streamlined and usually isn’t the most efficient and productive structure for your business.

This is why I really believe in the value of a clean slate, and ...

This is one of the topics I most often get asked about.

I see business owners, leaders and managers struggling with this one all the time: tackling difficult conversations with staff. Usually this comes after a period of avoiding that difficult conversation which is what we’re going to spend a bit of time today looking at in depth.

If you’re anything like me, conflict is not something you run headfirst toward with arms wide open to embrace - that’s exactly why tough conversations are hard.

That dreaded feeling in the pit of your stomach, sleepless nights, anxiety, avoiding the staff member and putting off THAT conversation, if not avoiding it entirely.

You are absolutely not alone.

Even with my experience, I don’t like having these conversations either. I never have, and while I’m definitely better at tackling these tough conversations, it doesn’t mean I like it any more than I did before - I just developed the skills to get better at having them. 

These skills ...

In my view, leadership is one of, if not the most critical attribute in successful organisations. Businesses who can not only survive, but thrive in tough environments, and continue to exist beyond the lifetimes of their founders and their original dream team, must, by their nature have great leaders., without that they are surviving in spite of themselves and will ultimately fail to continue.

Importantly, leadership is not a position, or term of rank within any business. Great leaders can be found at any level, in any role. Leadership is not a title. Put simply, leadership is the ‘art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal’ it could be directing, but that’s really managing, for me leading is about inspiring others to take action, by setting the example and the tone for ‘how things are done around here’. Great leaders have people follow them not because they have to, but because they want to, not because of what they do and say, but because of how they ...

What could you achieve with a highly motivated team?

Motivating your staff is one of the most important tasks you face as a leader. After all, your employees are the lifeblood of your business. Without their hard work and dedication, your business simply can't thrive.

But what’s the key to motivating them – and keeping them motivated for the long haul?

Unfortunately, there are plenty of roadblocks that can get in the way of your success. If you're struggling to keep your team engaged and motivated, it could be due to one of three big issues.

1. Clarity The first roadblock is failing to provide clear goals and expectations. When your employees don't know what they're working towards or how their work contributes to the success of the business, it can be demotivating.

2. Micromanaging The second roadblock is micromanaging. When you micromanage your team, it sends a message that you don't trust their abilities.

3. Rewards The third and final roadblock is focusing so
...

How would you feel leading a motivated and high performing team?

Learning how to transform your team from good to great requires understanding the foundations of motivation, supporting bottom-up problem-solving, and building a culture of trust, vision, and belonging.

It sounds simple, right?

But if it was that simple you probably wouldn’t be reading this.

As a leader, it’s invaluable to invest in your own strategic professional development as well as that of your team.

What would your business or organisation look like if you were leading a motivated and high performing team? Would you and your team feel more sense of purpose, achievement, and solidarity? Would your bottom lines and KPIs be easier to meet because there are less obstacles and resistance in the way?

At People Powered HR we identified 3 key areas that are crucial to level up average or low performing teams to motivated and high performing teams – but it requires all three of these areas to be nurtu...