The Latest from Kristy-Lee

Hello and welcome to Episode 289 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Most small business owners are stuck doing HR in bits and pieces: a contract here, a policy there, some software that never really gets used. But at the end of the day, they’re still chasing staff, second-guessing decisions, and carrying all the pressure.

In this episode, I’ll share:

1. Why HR still feels hard, even when you think you’ve “ticked the boxes.”
2. Why expensive HR software isn’t the fix for small business teams.
3. The real missing piece that changes everything - a simple HR framework designed for small business.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing “something” with HR but it’s still not working, this episode will show you what’s missing - and how to finally get it right. Feeling stuck? Email me at [email protected] and let’s chat.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Fa...

Hello and welcome to Episode 288 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Running a business with a team is hard enough - and when it comes to HR, most small business owners admit they’re just “winging it.” A contract here, a policy there, figuring it out when problems pop up.

The trouble is, winging it only works for so long. Eventually, it costs you time, money, and stress, and leaves you stuck chasing your staff instead of leading them.

In this episode, I’ll share:

• Why winging it feels fine at first, but always backfires in the long run.
• The hidden costs you’re already paying (even if you don’t realise it).
• How “making it up as you go” keeps you stuck in the day-to-day.
• What to focus on instead if you want your team to step up.

If you’ve ever felt like HR in your business is messy, ad hoc, or just one more thing on your plate, this episode will show you why winging it isn’t the answer. Feeling stuck from winging it? Email me at [email protected] and let’s...

Hello and welcome to Episode 287 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

We’ve spoken about our employees rights a lot lately, specifically most recently about our employees right to disconnect from work.

Posting in our People Powered HR members community about these changes and a member asked ‘does that apply to us too’? And it’s a good question.

Because often as business owners we are bad at disconnecting, at setting and upholding boundaries and at protecting our self care when things are busy.

So today we will discuss the real technical answer to the question as to whether these new rules apply to us.

But more importantly this is a conversation about the need to set or re establish boundaries with our teams, our customers and ourselves, and to protect our energy and look after ourselves to show up as the best leaders we can be.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free F...

Welcome to Episode 286 of the People Powered Business Podcast

I’ve been having some great conversations  about leadership – team leadership, business leadership, self leadership, thought leadership and I wanted to explore common threads that I've been seeing.

We are all leaders, CEO of our business - You are a leader if you listen to this podcast - so let's talk leadership.

Firstly I want to start with why it’s important to consider yourself a leader (even if you only have contractors, VAs or casual staff).

Then I'll share 3 common traits of people powered leaders.

Finally I discuss why this is a skill anyone can (and should learn), and why you don’t need to go it alone.

Want to work with me on this? Just email [email protected]

Hello and welcome to Episode 285 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we’re bringing you a tech tip episode – but I’m not recommending a system – in fact the opposite. I’m sharing how you can use what you’ve already got to solve your HR admin headaches and why you don’t need a HR system or expensive software subscription to do that for you.

To start with I encourage you to do an audit of what you already have, what those systems can do for you, and then really looking at where you do have gaps, and what specifically you need to solve them.

We then look at using your existing workspaces, whether it’s MS Office, Google Suite or something else and leverage and that more effectively. Are you using the integrated AI in those programs to shortcut things and create tools such as spreadsheets to support you?

And of course we touch on AI and I share how I’m using Chat GPT and Chrome Extensions to help with HR tasks in my business and to support members of our People Powered HR Comm...

Hello and welcome to Episode 284 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

I have a bit of a theme going at the moment which I’m calling ‘Compliance Quarter’ and today we’re taking a look at the looming deadline for small business to comply with the new right to disconnect laws.

In this episode we unpack what the right to disconnect is and what it actually means, we discuss the implementation, pathway and why this matters for small business now and we take a look at what will it actually mean for your businesses in practical terms.

I also share some real life examples of what I am seeing play out with the clients I am working with and how they are implementing the right to disconnect.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here - https:...

Hello and welcome to Episode 283 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

I have a bit of a theme going at the moment which I’m calling ‘Compliance Quarter’ and today we’re taking a look at the recent changes to casual employment.

We discuss what changed and when, the new definition of a casual that was inserted into the Fair Work Act last year, an update to Casual Conversion pathways and why the onus is on you as the employer to get it right.

In  August 2024 a new definition of what constitutes a casual was inserted into the FWA (so it’s law). From this point of time onwards, employers had a legal obligation to ensure that if they engaged someone as a casual employee, they had to meet this definition.

The casual definition requires that an employment relationship must:

1. Have no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work (like a guaranteed weekly roster); and

2. Entitle the worker to casual loading or a specific casual rate under a modern award, enterprise agreeme...

Hello and welcome to Episode 282 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today I’m sharing a conversation I recently had with Juliet Robinson over on the Grow Your Influence Podcast.

So often when we are recruiting new people into our teams, we are doing it under pressure. We need someone NOW and it can be tempting to just fill the job that has been created, rather than thinking strategically about the skills we need in our team.

When we’re recruiting we often bring in people like us. People we can relate to in interviews so we think they will fit in the team and we can train them up for the job. Sometimes that works. Often it doesn’t. And either way, it takes a lot more time and energy that taking a skills-based approach in the beginning.

In this episode Juliet and Kristy-Lee talk about the challenges of recruiting for a skills-based team that also ‘works’. That is, the new joiners ‘fit’ with the team culture and have the skills to contribute immediately, even if the way they work...

Hello and welcome to Episode 281 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we’re tackling a topic which I can’t believe we haven’t discussed before in isolation on the podcast – productivity.

I’ve been having a lot of conversations recently about team productivity – and a lot of business owners seem to have busy confused with productive.

In addition there is a lot of chatter more broadly about productivity declining, ways we can improve it and why it matters.

So in this episode we will look at what productivity actually means, why it’s important to monitor it, and how you might go about measuring (and improving) productivity in your business.

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello and welcome to Episode 280 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

In this episode we’re unpacking a recent Fair Work Commission decision that has seen a worker based in the Philippines being deemed to be an employee of an Australian based business, and what that means for those engaging offshore workers.

In the case, the worker, based in the Philippines, was working for a Brisbane based business. Her tasks were to work as a Paralegal. She worked from her home, and was required to work Australian hours – 8:30am to 5pm QLD time.

Her engagement was terminated by the business (because she allegedly copied company data onto a personal computer drive – an allegation she denies).

Upon termination she felt wronged and unprotected. She felt unprotected by Philippines workplace law because of how her engagement was set up, but also wasn’t sure she was covered by Australian workplace law, but because she felt like she was acting just like an employee – she would make an unfair dismissa...