Media Watch
At Howard Recruitment, Search & Selection, we are constantly on the look out for articles of interest to other professionals. We have developed this page to provide our clients, candidates and subscibers articles we have identified that address relevant issues.
Below are links to some articles that may be of interest to you as an employer or job seeker. These aticles may link to other websites. Some of these websites may require a subscription or fee to access content.
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Changed structures make all a leader
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithTraditional corporate hierarchies are increasingly being turned on their head, writes Fiona Smith.
Hierarchy is not dead in the modern office, but it has definitely caught a cold. Organisations have shifted, gradually but inexorably, towards empowering workers and cutting executives down to size.
Where experiments in workplace democracy and flexibility were once seen as extreme, their success is providing inspiration for business leaders who want to do things differently..... http://afr.com
Fair chance of success
Review 21 July, 2009 - Fiona SmithThe new industrial relations system is a chance for a more co-operative approach, writes Fiona Smith.
Now that employers are legally bound to negotiate with unions, those with a more optimistic view of human nature are hoping that it could be the start of a new, more co-operative relationship between the traditional adversaries.
The Fair Work Australia workplace relation system started this month and obliges employers to recognize the authority of unions to negotiate on behalf of their members. It also requires both sides to bargain in good faith, meet in a timely manner, disclose relevant information and give genuine consideration to proposals.... http://afr.com
Chief leads the palace coup
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithThe CEO of a global company has revolutionized its workplace, writes Fiona Smith.
Vineet Nayar, the man at the top of the tree at information technology services provider HCL Technologies, wants to destroy the office of chief executive. It is a brave act for any leader to take the metaphorical axe to his own office, dismantling the traditional hierarchy that invests almost total power in the chief executive. It is even more interesting when that office is in India, historically home to one of the most hierarchical cultures in the world.
Nayar, who leads a global organization of 55,000 people, has been busy flipping the organizational pyramid, empowering the workers who, he says, are the real value-creators at HCL.... http://afr.com
There's more to performance than reviews
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithThere should be more to assessing employees' efforts than ticking boxes once a year, writes Fiona Smith.
The best thing to be said about performance reviews is that they provide an opportunity for people to talk to their managers. So why not make sure these conversations are happening regularly and cut out all that bureaucratic, time-wasting, frustrating, humiliating, box-ticking other stuff?
Graham Winter, consultant to BHP Billiton, Newmont Mining and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, is hard at work trying to convince his clients that a lot of what they do in their performance reviews is unnecessary and demotivating.... http://afr.com
A little empathy goes a long way
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithThere are times in the workplace when it's entirely appropriate to reach out and touch someone, writes Fiona Smith.
It is one of life's delicious ironies that while Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego – Bruno, the Austrian fashion journalist – was tricking conservative Texas congressman Ron Paul into a seduction scene, the cousin of the "comedic guerilla" was probably busy in his Cambridge office, studying the subject of empathy.
Almost as famous, in his own way, is his cousin Simon Baron-Cohen, a celbrated professor of developmental psychopathology at Cambridge University, where he is also director of the Autism Research Centre.
This Baron-Cohen is one of the world experts on empathy and sex differences, having conducted studies that show that women are better empathisers, while men are better at systemizing, or making sense of the world.... http://afr.com
Mind games to win immunity
The Australian Financial Review - Rachel LebihanTaking pre-emptive action in the workplace can deflect the boss's axe, writes Rachel Lebihan.
Workers within the threat of redundancy hanging over them like the sword of Damocles could try using the power of persuasion to save their job.
Damocles, according to Greek legend, was forced toe at a banquet with a sword suspended above his head by a single horse hair and that same sense of foreboding is creeping into the modern-day workplace as unemployment rises.
But rather than waiting to be tapped on the shoulder, workers could try using their persuasive power to change the situation ... http://afr.com
Lack of representation shows change still needed
The Australian Financial Review - Catherine FoxThe latest data on the significant under-representation of Australian women on boards and in management ranks is another important plank in the compelling argument for greater gender equity in organisations.
The Pay, Power and Position report from the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, and a study on female directors and executives by Connect 4, The Australian financial Review's research company, shore up the existing evidence that women in this country are well qualified and capable of top roles, but are largely failing to progress into them.... http://afr.com
Maybe problems if staff find pleasure in more leisure
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithOnce staff accept fewer working hours, it may be difficult to get them back again, writes Fiona Smith.
For years, people have been telling their bosses that having time to do the things they love is more important to them than money. Now suddenly, they are getting their wish.
In workplaces all around the world, chief executives are inviting (or commanding) people to reduce their work hours - and take a pay cut. "It is that, or we will have to start sacking," they are told.
This is an emergency measure, intended as a temporary fix, but it has the potential to make lasting changes to the way we work ... http://afr.com
Ensuring people are everyone's business
The Australian Financial Review - Catherine FoxThe human resources role is besting tested more than ever as executives find themselves increasingly focused on the bottom line, writes Catherine Fox.
Human resources managers are in the front line when a recession hits. They are often called on to deliver the bad news about redundancies and to help boost the flagging spirits and productivity of those left behind, while also struggling with slashed budgets and cancelled training.
So how are they faring? And what works best in the environment?
WorkSpace recently gathered a group of leading HR practitioners around the conference table at brewer Lion Nathans' Sydney office to take a reading on their major preoccupations and the agenda for the year ahead ... http://afr.com
Juggling jobs and bringing up baby
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithOn January 1, 2011, women will have paid maternity leave and employers will have to adapt, writes Fiona Smith.
When the new federal maternity leave provisions come into effect in 17 months, some employers may feel they have been let off the hook.
About 46 per cent of working women have no access to paid maternity leave, their bosses having resisted the pressure to vie for favoured-employer status by offering the benefit.
The managing partner of Harmers Workplace Lawyers, Joydeep Hor, says there are organisations that may feel excused from having to cave in - now that the government is planning to provide 18 weeks at the minimum wage of $543.78 a week.... http://afr.com/
NAB poll backs hopes that worst is over
The Australian Financial Review - Adrian RollinsHopes that the economy might be coming through the worst of the slowdown have been boosted by signs that low interest rates and huge government handouts have helped lift business conditions after their worst deterioration since the early 1990s recession.
Sales, orders and profits all picked up last month, said a National Australia Bank survey. That underpinned a significant rebound in trading conditions and employment intentions, and lent support to battered business confidence.
The survey's index of business conditions rebounded from the deep lows reached early this year, jumping by 7 points last month to reach negative 10 points. The survey's confidence measure slid marginally by one point to reach negative 14 points, sustaining the improvement in sentiment that has occurred since early this year when fears of a global economic collapse peaked.... http://afr.com/
Media mix for tough times
The Australian Financial Review - Catherine FoxLike the consumers they target, Marketers are learning to do more with less. this year's AFR Boss Marketing Directions survey reveals the complexity ahead
Few would have predicted the extraordinary success of ABC television series The Gruen Transfer and yet a show about the advertising we claim to hate is attracting well over a million viewers a week.
In a bleak time for those trying to sell just about anything at all, perhaps it's worth remembering that many consumers are not only fascinated by advertising but must be paying some attention when those messages appear on their TV, newspaper, computer or mobile phone.
Marketers need to cling to that thought as this already tough year gets even tougher.... http://afr.com/
They're shooting blind in lay-off frenzy
The Australian Financial Review - Fiona SmithExecutives in a hurry to cut staff numbers are in danger of losing people vital to a company's wellbeing, writes Fiona Smith.
When deciding who to sack and who to keep, leaders may as well don a blindfold, take a pin and lunge towards their internal staff contact list. This is just as scientific as some of the methods being used to identify targets of retrenchment.
So distracted have they been in recent years by the difficulties in hiring and retaining people, they have not invested the time and money to find out what skills their staff actually have and what benefits they bring to their jobs.
Now that they need to get rid of people in a hurry, they are doing it without the benefit of knowing who they cannot afford to lose. http://afr.com/
Stress tests put businesses on their toes
The Australian Financial Review - Damon Kitney and Simon EvansGraham Kraehe has never seen anything quite like it.
The Reserve Bank of Australia director, Brambles chairman and veteran executive says the economic climate has made forecasting earnings nigh impossible.
Kraehe admits to being shocked by the dramatic slump in Brambles' fortunes between its annual meeting last November, when he predicted stable profits, and two months later, when demand collapsed.
"I've never seen it as hard to forecast as this," Kraehe tells The Australian Financial Review. "These circumstances are like nothing I've seen in my working life...." http://afr.com/
White-collar job agencies hit by the slowdown
Sydney Morning Herald - Scott RochfortHIGH-END recruitment firm Hamilton James & Bruce has offered another illustration of the dire state of the white-collar employment market, after reporting a $5.9 million half-year loss.
The Sydney firm, which has been suspended from trading since early last month for failing to file its half-year accounts on time, released its results to the ASX late on Thursday showing it had been hit badly by the economic slowdown.
"HJB has been affected by the well-publicised decline in trading within the recruitment sector and in particular this has impacted permanent revenues which were down 54.5 per cent on the corresponding period in 2007," the company said in a statement.
HJB's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said there "is a significant uncertainty whether the company will continue as a going concern"... http://www.smh.com.au/
Is the party over for Gen Y?
Sydney Morning Herald - Lucinda SchmidtThe financial crisis hit Sally Mikkelsen's world just before Christmas. Two friends lost their jobs, and the chit-chat among her social circle started to stray into new and unwelcome territory. Phrases such as "compulsory annual leave", "minimal pay rises" and "delayed promotion" gave these twentysomething children of the economic boom a different perspective on flexible workplaces and work/life balance.
"We've always been treated well by employers," says Mikkelsen, 24, a consultant at professional services firm KPMG in Melbourne. "We've been able to do what we want." Now, she says, she and her friends are holding on to their jobs and waiting to see what happens. "It's good to give us a dose of reality, for us to realise we can't have everything we want."
Mikkelsen and her friends are part of the much-criticised generation Y, the 15- to 30-year-old children of generation X and the baby boomers.... http://www.smh.com.au/
How to fix HR
The Australian Financial Review - Leon GettlerWho’d want to be in human resources? Leon Gettler discovers how some companies are trying to make their HR people more credible.
Q. How many HR officers does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Four. One to assess the risks involved, another to consult the light bulb and its stakeholders, a third to ensure that the health and safety procedures are being adhered to while the bulk is being changed, and a fourth to actually change it.
The joke goes to the heart of the problem with human resources. It is widely seen as obsessed with duplication and wasteful processes, turning every minor transaction into a forest of paperwork and using uniformity as the vehicle for equity.... http://afr.com/
MBAs score well in worldwide ranking
The Australian Financial Review - Joanna MatherGraduates of Australia's top-ranked master of business administration course are earning double their former salaries, an average of nearly $200,000 a year.
The Australian Graduate School of Management's MBA is ranked as Australia's best and among the top 40 in the world in new figures from an annual global survey by London's Financial Times, published today.
Three years after graduation, AGSM MBA-holders earn approximately 100 per cent more than they did before gaining the qualification, which was an average of $193,500 in 2008.
AGSM's MBA is placed at number 32, up from 39 last year, and 49 the year before.... http://afr.com/
Workplace reform may lead to union turf wars
The Australian Financial Review - Steven ScottUnions have warned that the Rudd government's workplace law reforms will lead to turf wars between state and federal branches struggling for control of members' funds.
In a sign that old power struggles over members' funds could be renewed under the proposed laws, the NSW, Queensland, South Australian and West Australian branches of the National Union of Workers have said the Fair Work Bill would encourage federal union officials to engage in "a wholesale orgy of asset stripping" of state branches that will lose relevance under the proposed national system.
The NUW state branches have vehemently opposed a plan by the union's federal leadership for smaller branches to merge into a new general branch.... http://afr.com/
It's full speed backwards into recession
The Australian Financial Review - Alan MitchellAustralia will have what amounts to a recession in 2009 even if, by a combination of good luck and aggressive economic management, it avoids consecutive quarters of negative growth.
The question of whether the economy contracts for two consecutive quarters will be of great political importance. But while it is possible a rebound in farm production and government pump-priming could enable the economy to dodge the bullet of what the media calls a "technical recession", the economic indicators will leave no doubt that the economy is in the grip of recession.
The most important of those indicators will be unemployment. The latest forecasts by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development imply Australia's unemployment rate, which is now 4.4 per cent, will rise to 6 per cent by the end of 2009. Most economists would call a rise in the jobless rate of more than 1 percentage point in a year a recession.... http://afr.com/
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