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3 ways to take your people to the next level in 2019

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3 ways to take your people to the next level in 2019

As 2018 draws to a close it’s a good time to reflect on what we need to do to improve performance in the coming year.  

Focusing on your people is the key to unlocking enhanced performance. Motivating your team, reducing employee turnover, building a high-performing culture and aligning your people with the organisation’s goals are critical for ensuring organisational success.  

Three ways you can take your people to the next level include: 

1. Implement a performance management program 

  • This should involve a review of your HR foundations and structures to ensure you have clear roles and responsibilities outlined for your staff.  
  • Set SMART goals for employees that align with your organisational goals.
    S – Specific
    M – Measurable
    A – Agreed upon
    R – Realistic
    T – Time-based 
  • Ensure you provide regular feedback or set up regular touch points so you can let employees know how they are tracking. 

 See our range of performance management templates in our HR Shop. 

2. Develop the skills and capabilities of your leadership group

Consider implementing ongoing training and professional development programs to upskill your leaders on key management areas like: 

  • Building and managing high performing teams 
  • Managing for employee engagement 
  • Navigating difficult conversations 

Learn about the leadership workshops and training options we offer.

3.Concentrate on workplace culture
Happier employees make for a more stable and high performing business. Create meaningful values for the organisation. If you’ve already done this, implement a plan to help your team live your values.

Read this blog post for ideas on how to achieve this.  

If you’d like help to improve your team’s performance in 2019 please reach out to the friendly team at PeopleStart for some valuable advice on how you can get started. 

Five ways to better live your company values

For many organisations, values remain words hanging on the wall and have little bearing on the employees’ behaviours and actions or on day-to-day operations. These unrealised values are a sure-fire way to lose the confidence of your employees and show your customers that your company lacks commitment and conviction.

But when values are fully lived by your people in that they guide decision-making, behaviours and company culture, it can help you to engage your people so they perform their best. In fact, if you look at today’s most top performing companies, you’ll notice they are all driven by values.

Some of our favourite company value statements are:

Focus on the user and all else will follow. – Google

We are delightfully surprising, red hot, straight up whilst maintaining an insatiable curiosity, giving a heartfelt service and creating smart disruption. – Virgin Airlines

The world is our community. We believe in the power of sport to move the world. – Nike

Deliver WOW through service. – Zappos

Our role is to provide support that will drive our clients’ success. – PeopleStart

Here are five ways to help your people and organisation better live your values:

  1. Let them guide the hiring process
    Your company values can help you determine if the person you are interviewing will be a great addition to your team. In the interview ask them to share situations in which they displayed your values, for example, accountability.
  2. Teach/instil values through training
    Providing training solely on the company values, how they originated and their significance shows commitment and demonstrates the importance and role of the values in the organisation. It also helps your people understand how to integrate the values into their roles.
  3. Reinforce your values in all communication
    Every employee touchpoint, intranet, employee newsletter, meetings or memos, should reflect and reinforce your values in a positive and enriching way.
  4. Recognise and reward values-driven behaviour
    It makes sense, but few organisations do this. You can do this in many ways – a mention in the employee newsletter, recognition at the weekly team meeting or even monthly employee poll with a prize for the most voted for.
  5. Incorporate values into your performance review process
    This builds in individual accountability and measurement of your values. For instance, if exceptional customer service is a core value, then KPIs and performance measures should centre around this area.

If you would like advice or help in setting and aligning your company values with your business goals, get in touch with our expert HR team to talk through your people, culture and aspirations for your business.

Call us on 1300 134 110 or email us at hello@peoplestart.com.au

PeopleStart in Inside Small Business: Navigating difficult conversations

PeopleStart Director Dayna Edwards, was featured in Inside Small Business sharing her advice on how you can navigate difficult conversations in the workplace.

Read the full article below:

If you were to take a guess at the employee issue that causes owners and managers the most anxiety, what would it be? Performance, productivity, managing personalities? It’s actually none of these.

The employee issue that causes managers the most amount of stress is how to have that “chat” or difficult conversation with an employee. Now that “chat” or difficult conversation could be for any number of reasons, including:

  • An employee isn’t meeting expectations in terms of productivity or quality of work.
  • An employee isn’t going to get the pay rise or promotion they wanted.
  • An employee’s behaviour is inappropriate and it’s having a negative effect on the team.
  • Personal presentation, for instance how an employee dresses or communicates with others.
  • Talking to an employee about personal hygiene.
  • An employee keeps missing deadlines and lacks accountability.

Avoiding these difficult conversations is understandable and very common. But doing so can have far reaching effects, for instance:

  • Decreasing employee engagement, eroding productivity and culture. Employees know when their peers aren’t performing and begin to wonder, “Why should I work hard when Colin isn’t and no one seems to care?”
  • Poor execution of your business strategy. Employees aren’t aware of what is expected of them and poor performance is allowed to continue.
  • Lost time. The longer you wait to address issues, the more complicated and distracting the situation is for other employees and the longer it will take to address.
  • The cost of valuable time and resources due to increased turnover of employees.
  • Increased stress for both management and employees.
  • Legal implications. If the first conversation you have about an employee’s performance is at the time of termination, you could be exposing yourself and the business to a Fair Work claim or lawsuit.

So don’t put these ‘chats’ off. Here are three practical ways to navigate a difficult conversation in the office.

1. Prepare

When we are talking about conflict, emotions often run high and going into the conversation unprepared will set you up for an unproductive and contentious debate. Taking the time to prepare mentally will help you to remain calm, increase the chances that the conversation will go smoothly and improve the ultimate solution.

2. Ask powerful questions

By asking questions early on the conversation you give the other person a voice, avoid blunt and unhelpful statements, for example, “I hate working on this team”, and open up a space for meaningful discussion. However, refrain from asking irrelevant questions as these can do more harm than good, as well as statements phrased in the form of a question, for example, “What were you thinking?”

3. Acknowledge and then motivate for change

It’s important to understand and acknowledge the behaviour of others, even when it is wrong, if you want to get them to first discuss it and then change. If you acknowledge that their behaviour is ‘normal’ or happens to other people, it makes finding a solution easier. Then to create long lasting change in other people, you need to give them the motivation to do so. For instance, give them a benefit for changing their behaviour and express confidence in them.

Next time you face a difficult conversation with an employee don’t try to avoid it or attempt to ‘wing’ it. Following these steps won’t make these ‘chats’ any more enjoyable or less awkward, but you will be more likely to get a positive result following your ‘chat’.

PeopleStart runs workshops and workplace training for leaders on ‘Navigating Difficult Conversations’. Find out how we can help your team improve their leadership skills by downloading our workshops brochure today:

Why culture fit is the enemy of workplace diversity

It has been well researched that workplace diversity improves team performance and leads to higher levels of innovation. For instance, McKinsey research has shown that diverse companies are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry average.

Not only can it unlock performance, it can also open up your talent pool, particularly with Australia becoming increasingly multicultural. For example, the 2016 Australian Census affirmed that Western Australia is one of the most diverse states with 53.5% of West Australians having one or both parents born overseas (up from 51.7% in 2011).

However, plans to increase workplace diversity can be thwarted with traditional hiring thinking around ‘culture fit’.

The problem with hiring for ‘culture fit’ is it reinforces homogeneous thinking, limiting creativity and team work. Hiring for ‘culture fit’ means you are always employing candidates that fit a certain mould. On one hand, they may fit in from a social sense and ensure good workplace harmony, but what you end up forgoing could be much more valuable.

If you want to grow your business what you should be hiring for instead is ‘culture add’, candidates that will be fresh thinking, new perspectives and different skills.

Here some tips for hiring for ‘culture add’:

  • Do a skills audit. What skills are lacking in your current team and what skills could make your team even stronger?
  • Emphasise the need for ‘different’. In your job ad description and even in interviews, ask candidates, “what is something unique or different you can bring to our business?”
  • Be open minded. If you find yourself continuing to hire the ‘same’ type of person, make a conscious change and widen your candidate pool to include a more diverse range of people.
  • Use objective methods where you can to assess candidates. For instance, aptitude and psychometric testing can give you a more unbiased picture of a candidate’s potential.
  • Look for candidates that will complement your team, rather than reflect the existing skills, experiences and backgrounds.

A good place to start when looking to increase workplace diversity is by having an Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Policy. Not only will it help you to attract a more diverse pool of talent, it can help to create a working environment that is free from discrimination and harassment.

We offer a easy-to-use, customisable Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Policy in our HR Shop to help you get started.

If you would like some help to improve teamwork, workplace culture and performance for your organisation, get in touch to organise a call with one of our expert HR consultants, we’d love to help.

 

Pro Bono Australia: Why WA disability service providers will need to overhaul HR

PeopleStart Director, Dayna Edwards was featured in Pro Bono Australia discussing how WA disability service providers will need to reassess their HR and recruitment strategies as the NDIS rolls out across Western Australia.

In her article she outlines two key HR areas disability service providers will need to counter:

  1. Tightened employment market which will make recruitment and employee retention more difficult.
  2. Managing HR compliance under the Quality and Safeguarding Framework to ensure you remain a registered NDIS provider.

Read the full article here

Read more about how PeopleStart works with Not For Profit organisations like disability service providers. 

Accurate understanding of the labour market helped this small cap miner move from exploration to production

With strong mining market confidence and many new mining projects on the horizon, PeopleStart has become a core partner with several mining companies to provide comprehensive labour market salary analysis for detailed feasibility studies and also preliminary HR plans to ensure businesses are ready to meet the current labour market challenges.

PeopleStart recently partnered with an innovative small cap mining company to do just this as it moved from exploration to production. Read how we gave the company the confidence to move forward with its project by providing a thorough understanding of its projected labour costs and what would be required to attract the necessary skilled workers.

1. Labour market salary analysis

PeopleStart provided a detailed labour market salary analysis to the client to enable them to make key strategic decisions and understand the full cost of labour for the project.

This included:

  • Roster options and impact: Reviewing the labour market and providing key data on a range of roster options and how that would impact the project both in terms of logistics costs and attracting skilled staff.
  • Salary costs: Preparation of a schedule of annual salaries (average, 50th, 75th, 100th percentile) for all operations staff based on different roster options and plant locations, including overhead and recruitment costs.
  • Market analysis: Detailed analysis on the availability of technical skills (labour) within the area and information on other project labour i.e. live locally, DIDO, FIFO, relocations offered etc.
  • Accommodation: Detailed analysis on the cost of relocating staff to the area of the plant and supplying accommodation offsite at several different locations.
  • Point of hire: Analysis on the cost differences between different points of hire across Australia.
  • Personnel logistics: Provision of a cost analysis on expected personnel logistics costs (flights, buses etc.) by breaking down labour into point of hire based on roles and strong understanding of the current labour market.
  • Expenses: Break down of costs involved with meals, other ad-hoc accommodation, relocations, mobilisation / demobilisation, potential labour hire and recruitment costs.
  • Benefits: Analysis of current and expected employee benefits that will be offered to attract skilled staff.
  • Competitor information: Detailed information on how competitors are attracting skilled labour, salary costs, benefits, rosters etc.
  • Turnover: Provided detailed information on current turnover trends and projected costs to the business.

2. Development of human resource management plan

PeopleStart was tasked with the development of a detailed HR Plan that would ensure best practice HR management of operations staff including recruitment, onboarding and strategic employee engagement as well as retention initiatives.

This included:

  • Workforce planning – How the workforce would be recruited and managed, comments on the workforce requirements, interfaces for the project and a foundation for which recruiting can be measured and controlled (owner’s team, contractors and subcontractors).
  • Recruitment plan – A guide to the recruitment strategy and approach, local content availability and competencies.
  • Employee / industrial relations strategy.
  • Industrial relations management plan – For the organisation, contractors and subcontractors.
  • Retention plan – To ensure a stable and skilled workforce in a tightening job market.
  • Staff on-boarding processes and procedures.
  • Performance management plan – To ensure proper PM processes, the tracking of staff progress and development and legal protection.
  • Training and development outline – Requirements for the training and competency with the plant, processes and systems.
  • Organisational development; – Development of a plan to develop an integrated high performance project team.
  • Organisational charts and levels.
  • Position descriptions – Detailed position descriptions with KPIs (key performance indicators) for all roles and responsibilities.
  • Team building and employee engagement plan.
  • Site conditions – Provide details on site conditions and management.
  • Communication plan.

The outcome

The client was amazed by the detailed information provided by PeopleStart which provided salary comparison against 10,000s of mining employees. Several of the businesses PeopleStart obtained data from were major labour area competitors for the client.

The salary information provided by PeopleStart in comparison to an earlier feasibility study done by an engineering firm showed that labour costs would be DOUBLE than what was previously projected. This had a significant impact on the client’s financial forecasting and capital raising requirements.

This more accurate projection was due to PeopleStart’s extensive knowledge of the industry and up-to-date salary information. This information was key in the executive team understanding the REAL project costs and where there were opportunities for ‘blow outs’ or unexpected recruitment or turnover costs.

The ability for PeopleStart to breakdown costs based on plant location, point of hire and role, better enabled key strategic decision making by the executive team.

In addition, the HR Plan gave the business confidence to tackle the challenging labour market and attract skilled people, and the exiting journey from explorer to producer starts for our client in Q1 2019.

 

PeopleStart in Australia’s Mining Monthly

Our Director Dayna Edwards was featured in Australia’s Mining Monthly discussing PeopleStart’s HR and recruitment program for Northern Minerals’ recent rare heavy earths project.

In the article Dayna discusses how Northern Minerals faced a number of hurdles as it made the move from constructor to producer, including the plant’s remote location and extremely complex world-first production processes.

Get the article here: https://www.miningmonthly.com/investment/news/1346312/finding-the-best-for-browns-range

3 reasons to consider using outsourced HR support

Outsourcing core business processes has become the norm for growing businesses that want to benefit from specialist expertise they don’t have in-house.  

Human resources is one of these areas. For some businesses it doesn’t make financial or strategic sense to develop specialist HR expertise in-house. Rather, through outsourcing you can access these skills and knowledge from outsourced providers while also saving costs in the long run.  

1. Stay focused on core business activities  

Managing HR can be a burden. It can be time consuming and takes the focus away from revenue generating activities. 

Outsourcing HR activities to professional human resources consultants can free up your workload. Instead of working IN the business doing administrative heavy tasks, like HR, you can work ON the business and implement critical strategic plans.  

2. Access specialist support when you need it 

Depending on the size and nature of your business, you may not need to have a recruitment specialist or strategic HR management expert on payroll permanently. For instance, you may already have a HR manager but want to run an employee engagement program and need additional support. One of the biggest benefits of outsourced HR support is it can be flexible, allowing you to access best practice HR processes and specialist expertise when you need it.   

3. Improve productivity and performance 

Outsourced HR support may suit your business if you find HR administration is starting to reduce productivity, employee relations is becoming strained and engagement falls. 

Low employee engagement is linked with high employee turnover, low morale and ineffective teamwork – making productive work almost impossible. Effective HR management can help to ensure your employees are productive, enthusiastic and performance driven.

If you’d like to learn how outsourced HR could benefit your business, get in touch to talk with one of our friendly and knowledgeable HR experts.  

We offer an obligation free, no cost 30 minute consultation for all potential new clients. Let us know a bit about your business and we’ll do our best to help you. 

 

Updated family and domestic violence leave entitlement

As of 1 August 2018, Australian employees covered by an award are entitled to five (5) days unpaid family and domestic violence leave each year (non-cumulative).

According to Fair Work, family and domestic violence means violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by an employee’s family member that:

  • Seeks to coerce or control the employee
  • Causes them fear or harm.

A family member includes:

  • An employee’s
    • Spouse or former spouse
    • De facto partner or former de facto partner
    • Child
    • Parent
    • Grandparent
    • Grandchild
    • Sibling
  • An employee’s current or former spouse or de facto partner’s child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling, or
  • A person related to the employee according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship rules.

Employees not covered

There are some awards that don’t include the new unpaid family and domestic leave entitlement:

  • Enterprise awards
  • State reference public sector awards

Employer’s responsibilities

As an employer you will need to update your leave policy to include this new entitlement and advise current employees.

Get more information about this new entitlement here: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/family-and-domestic-violence-leave

Download our leave policy template which includes the new family and domestic violence leave entitlement.

Only $99.00

Get in touch with us today to get help with updating your leave policy.

What is an employer brand and how to develop yours?

Put simply, your employer brand is your reputation as an employer – good, bad or in between. Organisations with a good employer brand are the ones that consistently attract and retain the best talent, even though they don’t necessarily pay the highest salaries.

Your employer brand is more than just the perks you offer, like a funky office environment, tasty office snacks or a ping pong table. Perks make coming to work easier but they aren’t going to keep people working for you and they aren’t what sets you apart from other employers.

Your employer brand stems from your organisational culture, your values and mission and the opportunities your offer employees.

Recently we helped small cap miner Northern Minerals promote its employer brand and attract operations staff for its new Browns Range Project. See the full case study here.

In a tight employment market, we highlighted certain aspects of Northern Minerals’ employer brand to attract potential candidates:

  • We communicated the vision of the company to be the first significant producer of rare earth element dysprosium outside of China.
  • We outlined the opportunities this provided for employees to learn and develop in a highly exciting and cutting-edge space.
  • We put the candidate experience at the forefront of the recruitment campaign as part of Northern Minerals’ culture of ‘People first’.
  • We highlighted Northern Minerals’ genuine care and commitment to its people.
  • We emphasised the opportunity to take part in helping the local Browns Range community which experiences a number of tough social and economic challenges.

When developing your employer brand you need to be proactive, otherwise your brand will be created for you by others. Here are three steps to develop a stronger employer brand.

  1. Understand the current perceptions about your employer brand – this can be done by undertaking internal and external research, such as surveys. This will give you a benchmark and also highlight areas for improvement.
  2. Develop an employee value proposition (EVP) – An EVP is like a blueprint of why employees want to work for your organisation. Read our blog on what an EVP is and how it can help attract and retain talent.
  3. Communicate your EVP – this is a critical step in having a good employer brand. You might have a great EVP but if it isn’t communicated potential employees won’t see what makes your workplace great. Your EVP should be communicated internally and externally, through channels such as your website, job ads, newsletters and social media.

Developing your employer brand is part of our 3-step recruitment model. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you attract great people and build a strong employer brand, get in touch with our friendly team.

Small cap miner reaps the benefits of a strategic recruitment and HR program

Northern Minerals case study

Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) is positioned to become the first significant producer of rare earth element dysprosium outside of China. 

PeopleStart was engaged by Northern Minerals to implement HR structures and manage the strategic recruitment of all operations staff for its Browns Range Project as it moved from construction of the large-scale pilot plant into production.  

PeopleStart were tasked with: 

  • Development of an employee value proposition (EVP), strategic recruitment and HR strategy as well as a marketing campaign to attract skilled personnel to the 3-year pilot plant project 
  • Creation of site-based contracts of employment and associated policies to ensure compliance and protect the business 
  • Recruitment of all operations staff including: 
    • Management and supervisory staff 
    • Process operators / production roles across complex minerals processing areas 
    • Mechanical and electrical tradespeople 
    • Mobile plant operators 
    • Senior chemists and laboratory staff 
    • Process engineers, metallurgical staff 
    • Environment, health and safety staff 
  • Onboarding of all mine operations staff, including inductions, bookings of medicals, arrangement of clearances, etc. 
  • Indigenous engagement management  

The challenge 

Northern Minerals faced a number of challenges in its efforts to attract and retain the highly skilled talent with complex minerals processing experience needed for the Browns Range Project. 

Challenges included:  

  • The plant was located 160km south east of Halls Creek near the WA / NT border, the Browns Range Project is in the one of the most remote and socially and economically disadvantaged parts of Australia.  
  • Project personnel were predominately FIFO from Perth which resulted in significant travel time for personnel from point of hire to site (10-12 hours). During parts of the year the site is inaccessible by road and affected by the Kimberley wet season. 
  • An atypical roster of 15 days on, six days off, which differs from what is offered by most competing companies that have an 8/6 roster. 
  • The camp was very basic with few amenities, much like an exploration camp. For instance, there were no televisions in the staff quarters and no mobile phone reception. 
  • The beneficiation and hydro-metallurgical processing plant had extremely complex global-first production processes.  
  • Increasing competition from other projects, putting pressure on available skills 
  • The pressing need to complete the recruitment campaign within deadline to meet commissioning and mine opening time frames.
  • Budget constraints put downward pressure on wage offers.

The attract and recruit strategy 

PeopleStart was able to meet these challenges by implementing an effective attract and recruitment strategy that included the following elements: 

  • Build a dream. Focus on the vision of the company and the opportunity this provided for employees to learn and develop, rather than conditions. 
  • A highly integrated and personal approach to candidate attraction and management. 
  • Focus on the putting the candidate experience at the forefront of the recruitment campaign as part of Northern Minerals’ culture of ‘People first’. 
  • Create a feeling in the recruitment advertising and marketing that demonstrated Northern Minerals’ genuine care and commitment for people. 
  • Emphasise the area’s unique challenges as an opportunity to be part of helping a community of people in some of the toughest social and economic conditions in the country. 

The outcome 

  • PeopleStart generated large amounts of interest from 10,000s of potential candidates through social media campaigns and advertising. This helped to create a strong company brand and increase brand awareness for Northern Minerals. 
  • PeopleStart built on the trusted relationships of the executive team to become a well-integrated extension of the wider Northern Minerals team 
  • Completed the recruitment campaign to ensure commissioning and production commenced on schedule
  • Reduced initial recruitment costs to the business by a massive $250K
  • Reduced annual labour costs by 10%
  • Exceeded Indigenous engagement targets by 200% 
  • PeopleStart continue to be utilised by the Northern Minerals team for advice on people related matters. 

 

“PeopleStart are exceptional. Trust is important when you are managing critical projects and they deliver above expectation every time” – GEORGE BAUK, CEO of Northern Minerals

The strategic HR tool that will help you in the war for talent

Many industries in Australia are facing critical skills shortages. For instance, in mining sourcing quality talent is becoming more difficult thanks to a lift in activity around the country. This trend is predicted to worsen with reports that mining-focused university enrolments are at a 17-year low.   

To combat this war for talent, organisations need to rethink their employee attraction and retention strategies to allow them to engage the necessary workforce to help them achieve their goals.  

This is where an EVP (or Employee Value Proposition) comes in. 

Much like marketing’s customer value proposition, an EVP outlines the appeal of your organisation to employees and why they should work for you. It’s the combination of rewards, benefits and opportunities you deliver to employees in exchange for their loyalty, productivity and energy.  

Your EVP could be made up of elements like salary, benefits, organisational culture, company mission, career opportunities and employee programs (e.g. development training, wellness programs and flexible working arrangements).  

Why it matters in the war for talent 

Essentially, an EVP is what can set your organisation apart from your competitors and make it easier to attract the best talent. In a tightened labour market this can be a significant competitive advantage.  

Plus, the benefits don’t stop there. Research has shown that companies with a strong EVP are: 

  • Less likely to report problems in attracting and retaining critical-skill employees 
  • Five times more likely to report their employees as highly engaged 
  • More than twice as likely to financially perform better than their competitors   
  • Able to reduce new-hire costs by up to 50% 

What an EVP can do for your business 

  • Re-engage and inspire your current workforce – Helps to build trust and strengthen commitment as employees are included in the EVP process. 
  • Resonate with critical-skill employee groups – Addresses the wants and needs of key employee groups. 
  • Takes the focus off compensation – Even if you aren’t offering the highest salary you can still attract quality employees.  
  • Strengthens your employer brand – A strong EVP positions your company as a place where people want to work. 
  • Make more compelling job offers – In the process of creating and implementing an EVP you need to understand what’s important to your employees and potential new hires. This information can help you create more attractive job offers to candidates.  

Developing an EVP is the first step in PeopleStart’s 3-Step Strategic HR Management Process which is all about setting up the right HR foundations that will set an organisation on a path to success.  

If you’d like to learn more on how your business could implement an EVP to help you attract better talent, contact one of our experienced consultants today.  

Sexual harassment in the workplace: Your responsibilities

Recently the Australian Human Rights Commission announced an independent national inquiry in sexual harassment in the workplace. Following on from the viral #MeToo movement it will look at the effectiveness of existing laws and what is happening in Australian workplaces.  

Is sexual harassment in the workplace really an issue?  

According to the Human Rights Commission, workplace sexual harassment affects around 21% of people aged 15 years and older. It states, “We have also seen the emergence of new and different forms or sexual harassment, facilitated in part by the increasing use of social media and other technologies at work.” 

In light of this, in the post we’ll look at what your responsibilities are as an employer when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace.  

1. Compliance 

Under the Sex Discrimination Act, as an employer you must take all reasonable steps to minimise the risk of discrimination and harassment occurring in the workplace. You are expected to: 

  • Have an appropriate sexual harassment policy 
  • Train workers on how to identify and deal with sexual harassment 
  • Implement procedures for reporting and dealing with complaints 
  • Take appropriate action if and when sexual harassment occurs.

2. Employee engagement and culture 

Sexual harassment in the workplace is more than just a compliance issue. It can have damaging effect on an organisation’s culture and the engagement of its employees. Allowing inappropriate behaviour to continue will negatively affect work performance, lead to increased absenteeism and higher rates of employee turner over.  

3. Monitor the workplace  

Relying on employees to report inappropriate behaviour isn’t always enough to prevent and manage sexual harassment in the workplace. In some cases it may be necessary to regularly monitor workplace behaviours using tools like employee surveys and workplace investigations. 

Being anonymous, employee surveys can be a useful tool in understanding current workplace behaviours and employee engagement levels. They can help you to identify if you should provide additional workplace training and whether your procedures are effective in supporting employees to report incidences of sexual harassment.  

In some situations you may need to conduct a workplace investigation to uncover details of specific instances or understand why you have a recurring issue around inappropriate behaviour. Workplace investigations are best conducted by an outside objective party, such as a HR consultant, so employees feel like they can be open and honest without workplace relationships being an issue.  

If you would like some help to review your sexual harassment policies and practices, please get in touch as we’d love to help.  

Improving teamwork: The 5 dysfunctions of a team

Teamwork remains the one sustainable competitive advantage that has largely been untapped. However, the reality is despite so many articles and books on the topic, teamwork is rare. Most of today’s organisations contain underperforming and often dysfunctional teams.

Why is this?

Firstly, like most other buzzwords, the term ‘teamwork’ has been overused and has lost much of its meaning. Teamwork is not a given but a strategic choice organisations can make to optimise performance.

Secondly, the concept of teamwork is a contradiction. It’s a simple theory but putting it in practice is difficult, mostly due to human nature.

To overcome these issues, teams must be willing to invest time and energy to improve their teamwork. Functional teams make better decisions and can accomplish more in less time, with less distraction and frustration.

For any team to become functional it must overcome five common dysfunctions:

  1. Absence of trust
    Members of great team trust one another. They are comfortable sharing vulnerabilities, weaknesses, mistakes and fears with one another. They get to a point where they can be completely open with one another, without filters.
  2. Fear of conflict
    When team members trust each other they are not afraid to disagree with, challenge and question one another when it comes to dealing with issues and decisions critical to the team’s success.
  3. Lack of commitment
    If a team is able to manage conflict and openly discuss issues and challenges, it is better able to achieve consensus and commit to a course of action. All opinions and viewpoints are considered and discussed so that the team feels that every option has been explored.
  4. Avoidance of accountability
    When team members can commit to decisions they are more able to hold each other accountable when it comes to sticking to those decisions.
  5. Inattention to results
    If a team can achieve all of the above: trust one another, engage in conflict, commit to decisions and hold one another accountable, they are more likely to focus on what is best for the team. This includes setting aside their individual needs and agenda and focusing on the collective results that will effective team success.

If you are interested in how you can improve teamwork in your organisation, PeopleStart offers an interactive workshop for teams to help them build cohesion and collaboration based on the 5 dysfunctions of a team model.

Get in touch with us to find out how this valuable workshop can benefit your business. Learn more about our workshops and workplace training.

Navigating difficult conversations workshop – 19 July 2018

What could be more challenging than having difficult conversations? And yet we face potential difficult conversations all the time.

Telling the boss that your project is late, giving an unfavourable performance review, or informing one of your work colleagues that their work isn’t meeting expectations – all can be threatening and consequential.

Putting off these conversations is tempting but solves nothing and leaves others in the dark, unable to act to correct problems. On the other hand, having difficult conversations without the right preparation can be just as risky, leading to misunderstandings, anger and an even worse mess than you started with.

This workshop will help participants to learn to approach difficult conversations with confidence, leading to better work outcomes.

Who should attend

Anyone that struggles with how to approach a difficult conversation, including managers and team leaders.

Program content

  • How we define what a difficult conversation is and the consequences for avoiding them
  • Emotions and stress in difficult conversations
  • Using the CANDID approach

Learning outcomes

  • The brain’s response to conflict or stress and the techniques to help you remain calm during a difficult conversation
  • How to use appropriate planning skills to prepare for a difficult conversation
  • How to demonstrate empathy through active listening and powerful questioning skills
  • Tips to maintain relationships and engagement while having a difficult conversation
  • Be able to approach a difficult conversation with more confidence using a support framework

Faciliatator

people-start-jade-corbett-managing-consultantJade Corbett, Management Consultant

With over 10 years’ experience as a senior HR and IR consultant, Jade has a wealth of experience in best practice people and culture theories and strategies. She understands what drives team and organisational success and delivers practical content and programs which result in real learning outcomes.

Event details

Date: Thursday, 19 July 2018

Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Full price: $799

Venue: PeopleStartHQ, Level 1, 484 Albany Highway Victoria Park

The number one employee management issue – Navigating difficult conversations

In the past two years of running workshops for managers, no matter what workshop it is – there is always one topic that surfaces and that most managers want direction in.

How to have “that chat” or a difficult conversation with their employee.

Now “that chat” could be any number of things, but the most common issues are:

  • An employee isn’t meeting expectations in terms of their productivity or work quality
  • An employee isn’t going to get the pay rise or promotion they wanted
  • Providing feedback to a boss about their behaviour
  • An employee’s behaviour that is inappropriate or affecting the team negatively
  • Presentation, for instance, how an employee dresses, interacts/communicates with others
  • Talking to an employee with personal hygiene problems
  • Employee punctuality or absenteeism
  • Difficult behaviours; aggressive / passive aggressiveness, complaining, negativity
  • Employees who miss deadlines, lack of accountability
  • An employee who doesn’t work well with others, team issues

Avoiding these difficult conversations is understandable and very common. In fact, 86% of our workshop attendees said they have avoided a difficult conversation and 100% had done so on more than one occasion.

Costs of avoiding difficult conversations

I remember many years ago when I was working in a team of four people and we were managing a bulk recruitment campaign at a crucial period for the project. Everyone was working 12 hour days, stressed and we were barely keeping our heads above water. Except for one person. Let’s call him “Colin”.

Colin was a likeable guy, he was funny and engaging and enjoyable to be around. The only problem was Colin seemed allergic to hard work and was constantly making up excuses to his manager about why he couldn’t do things, thereby pushing more work onto the ‘doers’ of the team.

I spoke to Colin who merely shrugged and then my manager about the inequity and pressure on the team. Even though he said he’d noticed Colin wasn’t contributing as much as the rest of the team. Instead of taking the time to have that difficult conversation with Colin, my manager told me to just worry about my own work and ignore Colin.

Except that wasn’t easy because I was working late doing Colin’s share of the work. It may me angry, then just plain resentful. What’s more our team developed a reputation in the organisation for ‘slacking’ thanks to just one underperforming team member.

My point is, avoiding difficult conversations happens all the time and it has far reaching effects. These can include:

  • Decreasing employee engagement, eroding productivity and culture. Employees know when their peers aren’t performing and begin to wonder, “why should I work so hard when Colin isn’t and no one seems to care?”
  • Poor execution of your business strategy. Either employees aren’t aware of what is expected of them and poor performance is allowed to continue.
  • Lost time. The longer you wait to address issues the more complicated and distracting the situation is for other employees and the longer it will take to address.
  • Costs the business valuable time and resources with increased turnover of employees.
  • Can cause stress of management and employees alike.
  • Legal implications. If the first conversation you have about the employee’s performance is at the time of termination you could be exposing yourself and the business to a claim/lawsuit.

Not having those hard conversations can be a far worse than the short-term awkwardness of having them. According to a Vital Smarts 2008 study on difficult conversations, 34% put off a difficult conversation for a month, 25% put it off for a year.

So why do we do it?

The main reasons for avoiding these conversations is usually primarily concern for the individual such as causing stress, damaging their self-confidence or causing them to become upset followed by:

  • Concern about permanent damage to the working relationship
  • Concern about awkwardness or an angry response
  • Recognition that expectations were not clear
  • Concern about not being fair or not having ‘all the facts’

 

Building high performing teams workshop – 2021

Striving to build a high performing team is of the remaining competitive advantages organisations can over their competitors. Building high performing teams teams is proven to contribute to making higher quality decisions and achieve more in less time with less distraction and frustration.

The Building High Performing Teams workshop helps participants understand what makes a high performing team as well as providing them with strategies to create their own high performing team.

Who should attend

If you’re either an experienced or aspiring manager, supervisors or team leader looking to develop a high performing team and culture, this is the ideal workshop for you.

Program content
  • Understanding what makes a high performing team
  • Team development using Tuckman’s model
  • Characteristics of a high performing team
  • 5 dysfunctions of a team
  • Creating a high performance team
Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the Building High Performing Teams workshop participants will be able to:

  • Define what makes a high performing team and the benefits of having a high performance team
  • Describe Tuckman’s model for team development and be able to identify strategies to move your team through the different stages
  • Explain the characteristics that create a high performing team
  • Implement strategies to create your own high performing team
  • Discuss the characteristics that prevent creating high performance
Facilitator

people-start-dayner-edwards-general-managerDayna Edwards, PeopleStart Director & HR Consultant

An experienced HR consultant and trainer, Dayna has over 10 years of experience in the HR and recruitment space. Before starting PeopleStart in 2016, she worked on multi-billion dollar resource projects across Australia. Her expertise covers the full spectrum of HR, including industrial relations, employee relations, recruitment, culture & change management, leadership development, career coaching, and organisational design.

Event details

Date: TBC (Please contact us for details)

Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Full price: $799

Venue: TBC

Managing for employee engagement workshop – 2021

The Managing for Employee Engagement workshop is designed to engage and involve managers in discovering how they can make themselves and their direct reports more successful and productive by providing the people they manage with what they need to feel fulfilled in their job.

Part of the workshop involves participants and their direct reports completing out an anonymous survey prior to the workshop. This will inform participants of their current strengths and weaknesses in relation to the three signs of a miserable job model.

Who should attend

All managers, team leaders or supervisors with direct reports.

Program content
  • Understanding what a miserable job is
  • Learning the three signs of a miserable job model
  • Exploring self-assessment results as well as individual strengths and weaknesses in relation to the job misery model
  • Overcoming the three signs of a miserable job
  • Putting into practice and developing action plans to take back to your organisation
Workshop pre-work

Each participant will receive a link to a survey which will take approximately 10 mins to complete. Participants will also nominate a specific number of direct employees to participate who will also be asked to complete the survey. PeopleStart will then compile the data which will be issued as part of the workshop program.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the Managing for Employee Engagement workshop participants will be able to:

  • Describe the three underlying factors that make a job miserable as presented in the three signs of a miserable job model
  • Use the feedback from a 180-degree assessment to identify their strengths and weaknesses as managers
  • Identify strategies for overcoming the Three Signs
  • Develop action plans for improving as managers by eliminating potential misery from their employees’ jobs.
Facilitator

people-start-dayner-edwards-general-managerDayna Edwards, PeopleStart Director & HR Consultant

An experienced HR consultant and trainer, Dayna has over 10 years of experience in the HR and recruitment space. Before starting PeopleStart in 2016, she worked on multi-billion dollar resource projects across Australia. Her expertise covers the full spectrum of HR, including industrial relations, employee relations, recruitment, culture & change management, leadership development, career coaching, and organisational design.

Event details

Date:  TBC

Time: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Full price: $799

Venue: TBC

Bottom line benefits of a strong organisational culture

office-1000-300x200Culture, it’s been a buzzword for years but do you really understand it’s significance or how to drive it?

At PeopleStart we spend a significant amount of time working with business leaders to define, understand and drive their ideal organisational culture. This is because of the considerable financial and operational benefits associated with a strong culture from a business perspective, and also the positive benefits to employees.

In a recent study by Deloitte, it was reported that 94% of executives believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. However, only 12% of executives believed their companies were driving the ‘right culture’ and fewer than one in three said they understood their organisation’s culture.

Organisational culture is described as a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organisations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organisation and influence how they behave and perform their jobs.

To understand it’s importance from a business leader perspective, let’s consider at how organisational culture affects the bottom line.

Increased revenue

According to research from John Knotter in his book “Corporate Culture & Performance” which looked at 200 companies during an 11-year period, companies with strong cultures saw a fourfold increase in revenue growth.

Strong company culture and purpose is also shown to be one of the three major contributing factors to employee engagement. In a 2007 Towers Perrin survey of nearly 90,000 employees, it reported that companies which showed high levels of employee engagement (satisfaction) reported a 19% increase in operating income and 28% growth in earnings per share.

Decreased costs

As seen in research undertaken by LinkedIn, companies with strong culture and employee brand also cut their cost of hire by as much as half as it helps them to hire the right people, thereby enforcing the culture further.

Statistics show that a company’s culture has a direct impact on employee turnover, which also affects productivity and therefore success and your bottom line.

A Columbia University study showed that the likelihood of job turnover at an organisation with a high company culture is a mere 13.9%, whereas the probability of job turnover in low company cultures is 48.4%.

Companies with a strong culture and happier employees have been shown to outperform the competition by up to 20% and employees also solve problems faster.

So it’s fair to say that concentrating on improving or nurturing your culture is well worth the investment

If you would like help to define and drive your organisational culture, contact us for an obligation free consultation.

The impact of difficult behaviours in the workplace

It’s difficult to calculate the exact cost of difficult behaviours in the workplace, but they can have a significant impact.

Even one toxic person in a team can greatly reduce productivity and effectiveness of the rest of the team due to the time spent trying to deal with, or work around, the difficult individual.

Here are some of the common impacts difficult behaviours can have:

Decreased productivity

Lost productivity is the number one impact of difficult behaviours in the workplace. Rather than focusing on work, employees spend time figuring out how to deal with a certain colleague that exhibits difficult behaviour.

Consider this scenario: An employee working a 40-hour per week role averages 30 hours per week of direct service to the company, taking into consideration annual leave, sick leave and meetings. If this employee earns $50,000 pa and loses one hour of productivity per day, the annual cost to the company in lost wages and benefits is over $9,000.

Employee stress

One of the biggest causes of workplace stress is difficult employee interactions. In fact, the cost of employee stress to Australian business is more than 10 million dollars each year.

Leave

Toxic work conditions, like dealing with a colleague that can be difficult to deal with, can increase the rate of unexplained absences and sick leave.

Cost of replacing staff

For many employees, it’s easier to move on from a role than deal with difficult behaviour from a colleague each day. If this becomes a regular occurrence, the cost to a business can be substantial. The cost of replacing and training new employees starts at approximately 30-100% of the employee’s annual salary and go reach upwards of 300% depending on the position.

There’s also additional costs like:

  • The loss of embedded knowledge that goes with employees when they leave.
  • Decrease in productivity from when one staff member leave and a new employee is hired and onboarded.
  • A negative impact on employee morale and organisational culture.
  • Added stress on other staff members and management that have to cover the work for an empty position.
  • Potential overtime expenses so existing staff can cover the additional workload.

Reputation

If you have employees that exhibit difficult behaviours interacting with clients, there is a potential for this to have a negative impact to the business’ reputation as well as revenue. These instances may include:

  • Dealing with customer service representatives that are angry or rude.
  • Encountering people who do not want to be at work.
  • Overhearing employees complain about their work or other employees.

Every workplace will at some time encounter the effects of difficult people. The good news is there are tools, strategies and techniques you can use to help you better deal with difficult behaviours.

If you’d like to learn more about dealing with people, ask us about our ‘Dealing with Difficult People Workshop‘ which can be tailored to suit your organisation and team and can be run as a half day or full day session.

The workshop is a gamechanger for participants who will learn to recognise and understand difficult behaviours and leave empowered with the tools, techniques and strategies to deal with them in a positive and assertive manner.

 

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