Help the young ones find their way

Over the past 12 months, I have noticed an increasing number of university graduates applying for junior administrative roles that tend not to match their qualifications. My observations reflect the high rate of unemployment (26%) of 18-25 year olds.

It is no secret that the job market is tight at the moment. With the current economic climate, we are hearing of business closures, job cuts and redundancies on a weekly basis in both the public and private sectors. The 18-25 year olds are typically overlooked because there are more experienced candidates looking for work.

Another emerging trend is the number of university and TAFE students who are studying part time and working full time. For some, this means that it will take up to 6 years to complete their degree but they have to adapt to current employment demands – and practical work experience is rated highly.

If your business has part time or full time opportunities, consider approaching local universities or TAFE colleges to find some good candidates. Candidates with previous experience may be at the top of your wish list, but it still takes most people up to 3 months to settle into a new job regardless.  If your focus is on the candidates’ aptitude and attitude in the recruitment process, and not just relevant experience, you have the ability to create a far more productive workforce. If candidates have a have a willingness to work and the ability to listen, you may stumble across some very capable and grateful workers who are looking to be given a chance – just like you were at the start of your career. Apart from the interview process, you can tap into psychometric testing to assist you in finding the best candidate.

If you have children or family members aged between 18-25, provide them with some career guidance.  Gone are the days of going to university for 3-4 years, completing a generalist degree (e.g. Bachelor of Arts), working in cafes and bars, and landing a dream job.  If they don’t know what they want to do, encourage them to find a full time job while completing a Certificate of Diploma at TAFE part time.  It is a cheaper option, they still come out with a qualification, and they are working and earning money.

Another great source of information is researching the growth sectors in our economy. Where this growth, there are jobs. According to IBISWorld, some of the hot 10 industries over the next few years include organic farming, investment banking and securities broking, mining, aged care services, online information services, veterinary services, financial planning, accounting, general hospitals, and biotechnology.

An insight into the modern workplace

A month ago, I was asked to PwC Canberra’s new office opening. It sounded boring but I agreed to go because it meant getting out of dinner, bathing, homework and reading duties with my three children.

What unfolded was a very interesting evening discovering what a modern workplace looks like and how it functions.   The office provides 200 staff with a personal locker, laptop, and a range of individual and team workspaces – but no personal desk. Every workspace has a computer, docking station for the laptop, and phone. There is an online filing system so there is no paper lying around.

The workspaces are colour coded, guiding staff on the suitability for different activities. The colours also assist staff in identifying where people are working that day. There is an Etiquette Officer responsible for ensuring that people do not sit at the same workspace each day.

Meeting rooms are scattered around each floor to conduct team meetings or client meetings. Most of these meeting rooms are fitted with iPad-style touch-TVs. Others have whiteboards. Some meeting rooms have couches, while others have standing desks.

This type of workplace has been created to improve collaboration and creative thinking. The thinking is that if staff are able to work in close proximity to people beyond their team, there is a burgeoning of ideas and connectivity that is not normally achieved.

It also encourages ‘activity-based working’ – otherwise known as agile working or flexi-working. If staff need to work at a client site or work from home, they are set up to do this. The focus is on productivity…. wherever you decide to work. The fundamental ingredient to make ‘activity-based working’ work is technology.

In some respects, this futuristic workplace negates the need for a flexible work policy. What becomes important is a performance management system to measure staff productivity.

No doubt there are many critics of this innovative workspace approach. However, I can’t say that current workplaces are effective either. I recently was working out of an office in Sydney that had an office for every employee including the new intern. I did not observe any team meetings or work –related discussions. I did observe people with doors shut and hiding in their office. Desks were messy, with paper and files strewn across the desk and floor.

Time will tell whether PwC’s workspace approach engenders productivity and collaborative thinking. One thing is for sure, they have attracted many Generation Y and Zs.

Is it time you found a new therapist? by Dr Mataji Kennedy

Julie is 40 and has been married for 12 years to Joe. They have two children together and have survived many ups and downs as a couple including the bankruptcy of the family business, the death of Julie’s dad and the diagnosis of their son with Autism.

More recently, Julie feels Joe has been distant and withdrawn. He stills seems connected with the children but when she tries to get close to him he pulls away. Finally after several weeks she gathers the courage to ask him if he’s OK and he admits to her that he is unsure if he wants to remain in the marriage. He feels as though he has fallen out of love for her. After further probing Julie finds out that he has met someone at work and has feelings for this other woman, nothing has happened as yet but Joe is clearly confused. Julie is devastated and after a week of crying and feeling desolate she decides she needs to see a counsellor.

She asks Joe to come to couples counselling with her and initially he resists however after much discussion he finally consents to go along. Julie is unsure about how to find a good counsellor and asks her friends if they know of anyone. She finally speaks to her GP and is referred to a local Psychologist and she manages to get an appointment within a week.

The minute she walks through the door of the Psychologist’s office her heart sinks. The Psychologist is 15 years younger than her and Joe and while she is very professional she hasn’t had the same level of life experience. After the first session Joe refuses to return for another session and Julie once again is desolate and unsure as to what to do next.

The Psychologist Julie and Joe saw was no doubt skilled and professional and works very well with certain clients but was not the right fit for them. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon scenario. You may find yourself going through a rough patch. Maybe it’s a relationship breakdown, death of a loved one or a family crisis. You decide to get some professional help by way of a counsellor and ask your friends, GP or someone else if they know of anyone good. Most people chose a counsellor based on convenience to where they live or work but how do you really know if they are the best person for you to see?

Choosing a counsellor has to be based on more than just locality. Research shows the fit has to be right between the client and the therapist otherwise therapy doesn’t work.  So what should you look out for when choosing a counsellor? 

Here are some tips:

• They have experience in the area you need. Therapists often specialise in an area or a few areas and have a deep knowledge and understanding of these particular areas.  It’s no good going to see a therapist who specialises in just anxiety for instance if you need help with alcohol dependence. Asking your therapist their area of interest is a good place.
• Personal qualities. Who do you feel comfortable talking to? Each of us are different in this way and you need to feel comfortable with the therapist in order to be open and honest in the sessions. If you feel comfortable with the therapist in terms of their personality, gender, age, style and nationality then the therapy will be more effective.
• Qualifications. It is important to see a counsellor who is fully qualified and well trained. The term “Counsellor” is a broad term and can cover people who have many years of experience to people who have done a weekend workshop. Regardless of whether your therapist is a Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist or Counsellor they should have formal qualifications and professional association membership. 
• Work on self.  To work well with clients its important therapists also attend to their own personal and professional development. Most commonly this means they receive supervision, engage in their own therapy and extend their skills via courses and workshops.

The challenge for many of us is how do we find a counsellor who ticks all the above boxes. It’s time consuming and not an easy task to shop around and find out these things about your therapist before you make the first appointment.  One option is to use a service that helps you find the right therapist, Select Counsellors is such a service.

Select has developed an assessment interview in which they gather important information about you and then use this information to match you with a therapist who is the best fit in terms of experience, qualifications, personality and style. They are Sydney wide and have a large pool of qualified counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists. The initial assessment costs $130+GST and can take place face to face or via phone or Skype.

You can book an assessment online at https://www.selectcounsellors.com/book-an-assessment.php > or by calling 1300 123 680.

If you would like further information on the service you can browse the website www.selectcounsellors.com where you'll find information about the kinds of issues and concerns they can help with.

A sales-focused recruiter or service-focused recruiter – you choose!

The purpose of recruitment is quite simple – it is about finding the right person for a specific role. The challenge comes with who you choose to find the right person for your business.

There are two types of recruiters – sales-driven recruiters and service-driven recruiters.

You will typically find sales-driven recruiters in medium to large recruitment firms. It is no secret that these recruiters are paid a low base salary and the rest is based on commission from meeting sales targets (placing people in jobs). The speed of the placement is paramount and the general quality of the service delivery can be lacking at times. The quality of the candidates may be lacking as well because there is no time to do due diligence on their suitability to the role. And at the end of the process you are presented with a large fee.

If you feel that you have received good service and you needs have been fulfilled, you will be prepared to pay the expected fee for the placement.  Where people see value, they will pay for it. But unfortunately service expectations are not always met and this is the consistent complaint from businesses that they are paying excessive fees for minimal service. 

Last year, I came across a business that must have been so disappointed by recruiters that they decided to turn the tables and offer to pay the recruitment fee monthly over 12 months. If the employee left after 5 months for example, they would stop paying the fee. The problem with this payment structure is that it takes away the responsibility of the employer to properly engage the new employee and be responsible for loyalty and retention.

Service-driven recruiters are typically found in small and boutique recruitment firms. They have the capacity to act more like an HR partner. If you want service from your recruiter, you should be expecting the following:

•    Initial discussion to understand the role and the culture of your workplace;
•    Design of the job advertisement and sign-off;
•    Promotion the job advertisement via various job channels;
•    Receive and sort applications;
•    Conduct initial phone screening;
•    Conduct Face-to-face or Skype meetings with shortlisted candidates;
•    Submission of shortlisted candidates for review;
•    Organise interview schedules;
•    Sit in on interviews if required;
•    Conduct formal referee checks.

Is your current recruiter doing the above recruitment activities for you?

Look at other recruitment models as well such as www.recruitloop.com. Recruiters via this service charge a rate per hour for their recruitment service – this can save businesses thousands of dollars.

Kate Sykes runs both www.careermums.com.au and Lift Recruitment (www.liftrecruitment.com.au).

Making a difference in the slums of India

It never ceases to amaze me how and where people find charitable causes to support.  Some people donate time, others donate money, and some even donate blood!

Recently I attended a networking lunch and was inspired by a woman’s story about how she contributes her charitable dollars. A few years back, Cathy taught English in a slum in New Delhi for two years. She found this experience and the students she met inspiring. Most of these students paid for their own education while working seven days a week at low-paid night jobs like security guards and factory hands. But when they completed their education, they struggled to find work, since being slum-dwellers meant that employers just assumed that they were lazy and drunkards. Cathy was convinced that if they could get their first jobs, they’d be able to prove to employers that being poor didn’t make them worthless.

So Cathy arranged to get an accounting job for one of them, by paying his salary to his new employer for the first year. For about $800 she guaranteed him a job, giving him experience and training, and starting him on the path to a secure future. This was so successful that a year later he moved onto another job without her help and he is now earning a good income to support his family.

Cathy then repeated this with another former student who graduated as a qualified teacher but because of his slum background, couldn’t get work. So she paid his salary to a small school for a year.

Neither of these young men is aware that Cathy paid their salaries to their employers, although they know that she arranged their placements.

All of Cathy’s former students in the Delhi slum have access to Facebook on cheap mobile phones. She is able to chat with them a few times a week, to see how they are going, find out what they are learning, and to ensure that they are not being exploited by their bosses. She is delighted to see the progress they are making. 

Paying for a first job is such a great way to make a difference to someone’s life that she plans to continue doing it. Cathy has a pipeline of students to tap into as they complete their education and start to look for opportunities in the workforce.

Cathy knows that she can’t help every slum-dweller in India, but her small contribution can make a big difference to a small number.

What is it with older workers?

For the life of me, I just don’t understand the discrimination of older workers. This is based on my healthy respect of anyone older than me and my willingness to learn from them. I also hope that I won’t be discriminated against once I reach 50 and over!

Last year, the Federal Government offered $1,000 to employers if they hired anyone over 50 years of age. Apart from it being an insult and a disgrace, $1,000 hardly covers the cost of bringing on a new employee.

So what are some of the typical negative perceptions of older workers?

• They have limited IT knowledge;
• They are generally unwilling to accept direction from younger managers;
• They have an inability to take a company to ‘the next level’ because they are no longer hungry for success.

Really? I come across candidates in their twenties that fit this description.

It may surprise you that older workers are computer savvy, don’t always want to be the leaders anymore, and have so much life and work experience that could be utilised in your growing business.

As a business owner, it is important for you to understand the labour market issues that may impact on your hiring strategy and may encourage you to start hiring more older workers:

• Australia is getting older. In four years, 20 per cent of Australia’s population will be over age 65. The 2010 Intergenerational Report estimates 8.1 million Australians (around 26% of our population) will be over age 65 by 2050, pushing the ratio of working Australians to retirees down to just 2.7 to 1.
• Labour force participation tends to drop off as people near retirement age. In the 60-64 age group, half of women and one-third of men are not working. Over the past 5 years though, this trend has been changing due to the global financial crisis and peoples’ superannuation balances declining - more retirees are heading back to work to make up for the losses in their superannuation funds.
• Australians are living longer. Our superannuation must last for a longer period of time so people are cautious about leaving the workplace too early. Baby boomers who were 65 in 2010, can expect to live another 18.7 years (the female baby boomers are even better placed – they can expect another 21.8 years). So baby boomers who retire at 65 can expect to spend 21% of their life in retirement.
• According to Deloitte Access Economics’ “Where is your next worker” report, older Australians have the lowest turnover, the least number of sick days and the best safety record.

Are you a cranky boss?

Do you have employees that are naturally bad mannered, rude or oblivious when it comes to human emotions? Or does that sound like you?

A few weeks ago, I was tasked to recruit an administrative person for a client. The brief was reasonably straight forward. Well, sort of. The challenge was finding a suitable candidate that was going to handle one of the managers that this role reports into to. The successful candidate needed to be ‘thick-skinned’ and able to ‘cop the odd rude comment without taking offence’.

There were two things I found interesting about this brief:

• That the company puts up with the behaviour of this manager time and time again without taking action, and they have never initiated a  conflict management or ‘how to be  great team leader’ course for this person.

• I was going to have to politely let candidates know that one of their direct reports can be a bit abrasive at times. Not often a good seeling point when talking to good candidates!

The end result is that I found someone who passed the personality test and could do the job as well.

Winner: cranky boss!

Unfortunately for this employer, the culture of tolerating badly behaved people in management positions will continue to cause staffing issues.  So what are some suggestions to improve workplace culture?

• Buy your staff lunch, sit around the table, and talk about the type of working culture they want. If it is driven by your employees, they will own it more vigorously.

• Then put something in writing to make it official. It may be a code of conduct that sets the standards of behaviour or appearance in your workplace.  It can include how you interact with people (with respect and politeness), how to handle an issue with someone.

• Post it on the wall of your office so everyone has access to your personalised code of conduct every day.

Another great behavioural model to show-case around the office is ‘Above the line thinking’. This feeds into the expectations of behaviour in your office.

It goes like this:

What matters is how we respond to events. We can operate at a level of thinking that is either ‘above’ or ‘below’ the line.

 

Taking ownership of my response to, or my part in, this situation 

Acceptance of the aspects of this that are outside my control 

Taking responsibility for my previous and future actions

___________________________________________

Casting blame externally: ‘It’s not my fault...’ 

Making excuses: ‘I couldn’t do it differently because...’ 

Staying in denial: ‘There’s nothing I could change...’

The more time you spend above the line, the better your behaviour and treatment of others.