Tag: Staff

If you've ever been a part of an organisation that has merged with another, you'll know that there's always at least one person who tries a little too hard to impress the newcomers. Take this effort from David Brent, Ricky Gervais's middle management anti-hero from The Office, as he welcomes 'the Swindon lot' to the fold.

Consider for a moment someone you trust deeply. Think about why you trust them. What is it that they say or do that makes you believe you can trust them? Conversely, think about someone you do not trust. What is it that they say or do that causes you not to trust them? The answers to these questions are more powerful than you think.

Keeping a close watch on cashflow and improving administration processes is the answer to growth and sustainability in 2010. Here is a ten-point checklist designed to help small businesses get their houses in order.

Our friends at Pollenizer, which has emerged as the fertile hub of Sydney's happening web startup scene, have launched a great new initiative to showcase the hive of activity that is Pollenizer HQ in Surrey Hills. On Fridays (starting two weeks ago), Mick Liubinskas thrusts his Flip camera in the face of colleagues and connected entrepreneurs, inviting them to share a little about the projects they're working on.

Smart phones have brought both the world and the office to the palm and pocket, enabling increased productivity for the workforce on the move. However, this new-found freedom has exposed a mountain of previously secure company information to the threat of theft and destruction at the hands of cyber criminals.

It seems to me that the biggest thing holding Australian businesses back right now is the “me too” syndrome. I do not consider the fact that there are not enough women on boards and in senior management positions to be merely a sexist thing. What I mean is that there is an ingrained corporate culture that says the leaders and directors want to hire others that are “like them”.

Generation Y has been slammed in the media for a lack of work ethic. To find out what business leaders think, Jack Delosa caught up with Janine Allis, founder of Boost Juice, to learn about how she turned this generation into her greatest asset and what Gen Ys can do to take advantage of the recent media attention.

In February, top level recruitment site Six Figures published its 2010 Executive Career Monitor Report. The report was compiled from a survey in late 2009 (in conjunction with talent site Destination Talent) of 1,332 Australian high income earners, with the findings being released at a breakfast meeting in Melbourne on 2nd March.

When business partners launch a new company, all of their attention and energy goes into getting the new venture on its feet. However, it’s not long before questions and difficulties arise over disparate workloads, responsibilities and remuneration. Darren Bourke offers some advice on how to keep all parties walking in the same direction.

Imagine how well your sales team could do if you knew what they were capable of. Stephanie Christopher, National Director of psychometrics consulting firm SHL, looks at how organisations can get the best out of their sales teams in an uncertain market.

Late last year, Miles Burke, the founder of Perth-based Bam Creative, engineered a coup d’état within his own business. He invited all the company’s employees to become shareholders. Bam started the new year with everyone buzzing around the office, genuinely working for the collective good rather than selfish individual ends. Here’s Burke’s account of how (and why) it happened.

Creative industries have changed dramatically over the past decade, but unfortunately the options for creative professionals to showcase their talent to peers and prospective employers hasn’t. Until now.

In the fourth post in this series, Nigel Malone shares the contents of another of his favourite business keynote slides, drawn from a cross-section of sources that includes some of the great business, brand and military planners of all time.

With visiting foreigners comprising up to one-third of all higher education students in New South Wales and Victoria, it’s clear that educating international students is big business in Australia. However, as Matthew da Silva and Mingming Feng report, Australia’s educational institutions have far more appetite for international student tuition than local employers have for hiring these students as legitimate employees, causing young foreigners to reconsider Australia as their educational destination of choice.

The New Year is a great time to take stock and prepare your business to gear up for a new operating environment. Westpac’s Sian Lewis provides the following New Year’s resolutions to kick-start your business for the year ahead…

December is a time when many people pause to contemplate how fulfilled they are in their current professional role and size up a potential move in the new year. A decisive and often overlooked factor in this consideration is company culture -- a magic ingredient for employers and employees alike. Persephone Nicholas reports.

If there is one good thing that came from this year's commercial carnage, it's the liberating affect the economic downturn had on our collective ability, as entrepreneurs, to speak openly.

The new year is a perfect time to clean out your desk, head and bad habits. Rowena Murray offers 15 tips for streamlining your business, renewing focus and retuning for a bumper 2010.

I don't profess to know how things work in your business, but one situation I've come across in almost every place I've worked is that the ICT team don't actually own the equipment for which they are accountable.

We've all had to deliver difficult news to a colleague or client. Just be thankful that the recipient wasn't Darth Vader. Particularly the prankster Darth as seen in this mashup.