The Latest from Kristy-Lee

In the world of small business, we are always ruminating on the skills v’s fit tension when hiring new staff for organisations.

Commonly these days, the cultural and team fit far outweighs the skills requirements, but obviously new hires still need to have the fundamental and foundational skills to get the job done – otherwise what’s the point in hiring anyone?

In saying that, my advice to business owners, leaders and managers over and over again is this: you can hire the most technically competent and brilliant employee the market has to offer – but if their values don’t align with those of the business, they ultimately won’t be a great fit and they won’t last – meaning any benefits you gained by having their brilliance in your business will be eroded by the lack of alignment and fit, under engagement and ultimately the turnover of the role.

So, if fit is going to trump raw skills, and ultimately you will hire someone who fits into your team every time, provided they have ...

Hello, and welcome to Episode 257 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode I am sharing 3 common but completely avoidable hiring mistakes that businesses make.

The 3 big mistakes are:

1. Lacking Clarity – when you are not clear on the specifics of the role, and the ideal applicant you are looking for, it’s impossible to attract the right people, and repel the wrong ones;
2. Rushing the Process – not putting appropriate time, energy, expertise and resources into a recruitment project is another common mistake. Hiring well takes time, knowledge and energy.
3. Failing to Reference and Background Check Effectively – quality reference checking processes remain the most effective way to assess a candidates work history, but few people do them effectively.

These are certainly not the only hiring mistakes, but they are three of the most common, and as you can see they are all easy to avoid.

An Invitation

As always, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, ...

In a competitive market where applicants are in short supply and the struggle to even find one person who might be suitable for your role is real, it’s easy to think that there is no need to screen and assess applicants. Well, there is no one to screen, or so few applicants so what’s the point, right?

Actually, wrong. You see, despite there being far fewer applicants to chose from, the importance of making the right hiring choices hasn’t changed. The reality is you can’t outrun a bad hire. So even if there is only one applicant, hiring the wrong person is guaranteed to cause you more frustration, more stress and cost you more than hiring no one at all.

When we had only a handful of applicants to select from, screening effectively is even more important because in these moments we can lose focus and clarity on what’s really important, out of desperation, overwhelm and stress. We waiver on the previous non negotiables, and start to consider applicants who we know really aren’t ri...

Hello, and welcome to Episode 256 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode I am bringing you an excerpt from a best of episode of the podcast – today I am sharing my proven framework for effective resume screening.

The thing is, when we are short on applicants for a role, our usual screening methods tend to go out the window, and as a result we don’t shortlist effectively, which means we are at risk of making poor hiring choices. And what I know to be true is that you can’t outrun a bad hire.

So whether you have 5 applications or 5000 effective screening is essential, and this 5 step framework is super simple to follow and will keep you on track for great hiring choices.

If you’d like to ask questions or start a discussion about note taking, I have an invitation for you.

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 Facebo...

Hiring the right person, the first time, is essential to building a successful, productive and high performing team.

But in a tough market, it isn’t always easy. I anticipate that in 2025 we may experience a challenging hiring period where attracting great applicants to your roles, especially in some industries, will be tricky.

If you’ve hired recently, or are in the process of hiring right now, you’ll know what we’re talking about.

Maybe once you would be inundated with applications, right now it’s looking more like a dried-up oasis. Even the bad applications aren’t coming through.

You don’t always want to hire anyone as a stop-gap because they could create more damage to your business and team in the long-run. It’s still incredibly important to be considered and strategic with your recruitment processes.

Business owners and managers alike may be frustrated, desperate for help and uncertain about how to continue without finding the right staff (or any staff) for their...

Hello, and welcome to Episode 255 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode I am bringing you the first of our tech tips for 2025. Each month I’m going to be dedicating one episode to sharing with you how you can leverage new technologies to help with your HR.

Today we are looking at how you can use AI to help with your recruitment campaigns, and I’m focusing on specifically how I have seen Chat GPT used effectively.

The 5 ideas I share are using Chat GPT to:

• Help you write or improve your job descriptions;
• Write your job ads and ensure they are compelling;
• Craft direct outreach or head hunting messages;
• Draft interview questions;
• Create a candidate communication plan.

This is far from an exhaustive list, but these are all ideas that will save you time and stop you staring at the blank screen.

So, how are you using AI to help with your recruitment campaigns? I’d love to know.

As always, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support f...

As 2025 begins, businesses find themselves navigating a dynamic and ever-evolving workplace landscape. Employee expectations are shifting, market conditions are demanding agility, and technology is opening new doors to innovation.

Amid these changes, one constant remains: the critical importance of building and nurturing a successful team. Here are five practical strategies to set your team up for success this year and beyond.

1. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

The foundation of any successful team lies in clarity. Setting clear goals and expectations ensures that every team member understands their role and how it aligns with the organisation's objectives.

As Brene Brown famously said, "Clear is kind; unclear is unkind."

Action Steps:

• Host Team Goal-Setting Sessions
  Kick off the year with a collaborative planning session. Share the business’s goals for the year—whether they involve revenue targets, product launches, or customer satisfaction metrics—and explain h
...

Hello, and welcome to Episode 254 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode I’m joined by Lexi Smith, Founder and Financial Coach with Moneyvine.

Lexi helps individuals and couples gain clarity, create a plan and take confident steps with their money.

In 2020, after a decade as a Financial Adviser, she side-stepped into Financial Coaching.

She has an energetic ENTP personality, which gives her a knack for problem solving and offering fresh perspectives.

Lexi’s team sessions focus on optimising cashflow - boosting income, understanding expenses and finding ways to improve your financial trajectory.

To connect with Lexi:

• https://moneyvine.com.au/
• https://www.instagram.com/moneyvine.au/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexi-smith-moneyvine/

As always, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having. Join here - https://www.faceb...

You’ve done it! You’ve found the PERFECT person for the role. They have all the skills and experience you are looking for, they have accepted the proposed salary, you think they’ll be a great fit, and the team are super excited to have them joining you in a few weeks time.

And then your email ‘dings’. Thinking noting of it you go check your email, see it’s from the new employee, but as you start reading your enthusiasm turns to uncertainty, disappointment, anger or frustration.

Their email is informing you that their current employer has made a counter offer, an offer that is too good to pass up, and they can no longer accept your offer to join your team.

Ever been in that situation? Frustrating is an understatement, isn’t it? 

Counter offers are one of the trickiest things to navigate, do you go back and offer more? Do you negotiate? Or do you just let them go and decide that it wasn’t meant to be?

Conversely, what do you do when the shoe is on the other foot, when one of your te...

Hello, and welcome to Episode 253 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode I’m following up on last weeks episode where is shared 5 strategies to help set your team up for success in 2025. Today I am sharing my top predictions for your team for 2025.

My 5 top team predictions are:

1. Job mobility will be on the rise: for a range of reasons, I believe we are heading into a season where more employees will be looking to change employers – this may be good news for you if recruitment has been tough for the last couple of years.
2. Increase in the use of AI and associated technology: we’re already seeing job applicants actively using AI in their application process – so your hiring skills really need to be on point right now. But on the flip side, how can your team leverage these tools to help them at work?
3. The right to disconnect implementation will be closely watched by your team. If you haven’t yet put any thought into the practical implementation of this new legislat
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