The Latest from Kristy-Lee

Hello and welcome to Episode 123 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode of the podcast, we’re discussing workplace flexibility, and the fact that no longer is it a ‘perk’ but a baseline expectation of employees. Whether it’s location flexibility, hours flexibility or other aspects of a role that employees are looking for flexibility with, there is no denying the fact that the need to offer flexibility is critical to being able to attract and retain top talent, and to a productive and engaged workforce.

So how are you baking in flexibility to your workplace? I’d love to hear, and I have a special invitation for where you can join us to share your experiences:

An Invitation

Would you like to connect with other like-minded business owners, leaders and managers experiencing similar situations with their team? Join the discussion inside our free Facebook Group – HR Support for Australian Businesses.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

It wasn’t all that long ago that businesses who could offer some sort of ‘workplace flexibility’ to their staff were at a distinct competitive advantage when it came to attracting and retaining top talent. We weren’t talking about total location independence, or complete control of hours either, we were talking things like maybe starting and finishing an hour later than others, or maybe working from home one day per fortnight.

This sort of flexibility driven competitive advantage to win the war on talent was largely played out in the large organisations, corporate world, heavily but not exclusively in the tech sectors. Small businesses were simply not able to envisage how they could possibly offer this kind of flexibility without losing complete control, without having some of their small teams feeling disadvantaged and whilst being able to maintain their consistency, productivity and control over outputs.

And not that long ago you can remember why the technology just didn’t le...

At the time of writing this article, the Fair Work Commission has recently handed down its decision following the Annual Minimum Wage Review process. The process involves the Commission reviewing submissions from various interested parties, including employer and employee representative groups, as well as analysing data relating to wages, such as changes to cost of living and alike.

Essentially, they are looking to ensure that the minimum wages set out in the Fair Work Act, including the National Minimum Wage, as well as al Award minimum rates of pay, is set at an appropriate level for our current economic conditions.

And hasn’t this years’ decision been interesting!

With issues such as inflation playing a key role in the decision making, the rising cost of living and the return to some sense of normal in this current stage of the pandemic, the Commission certainly has taken action.

Keeping up with compliance obligations is one of the key pain points employers face, esp...

One of the most common, and annoying, challenges we face as business owners is when we have a staff member who is frustrating us! Sound familiar?

It takes up headspace, energy, time, and ultimately distracts us from focusing on more positive actions and activities in our business.

Often we can clearly identify why we are so frustrated, but sometimes it more subtle, and even hard to put your finger on, and these are the trickier situations to manage. When we are clear on why we are frustrated, we can talk to the employee, articulate the problem, state what needs to change and work on a path forward. Whereas when the issue is more subtle and difficult to identify, it’s hard to know what to do. What ends up happening is the frustration builds, and often we lose sight of what we originally were reacting to, and everything starts to frustrate us when it comes to that team member.

Fundamentally, when we are frustrated with one of our team, it’s because they aren’t meeting our exp...