The HR Advisor

Workplaces are made up of people with different opinions, values, interests, ideas and communication styles. However, when differences are not accepted or are poorly understood, conflict results.

Diversity is a cornerstone of successful organisations, as is a passionate endeavour for continuous improvement. An organisation’s values, culture and leadership determine how conflict impacts on both individuals and teams.

Managing employee performance can be complicated. Every situation is unique, and despite feedback, informal counselling, additional support and training, an employee’s performance or behaviour may remain at a standard that is unsatisfactory.

While it is unlikely your business will be able to completely remove the need to manage employee performance and behaviour, there are tried and true steps you can take to improve productivity and reduce instances of underperformance. 

Begin by asking yourself these key questions and then take the suggested and necessary action to create a best-practice framework.

While flexible work arrangements have been the hot topic of the last decade, the question remains; how genuinely willing are employers to give it?

Being truly flexible requires a significant mindset shift for employers. It hands over control to the employee to determine how they work; whether it be from home, part-time, job sharing or non-typical hours. True flexibility provides employees with an element of freedom to design their work-life around their personal life and define work preferences which allow them to give their best. 

In business, there will almost certainly be cases where you have an employee who is underperforming or acting inappropriately. Issuing written warnings is a mandatory part of the performance management process; either driving performance corrections or supporting the decision to terminate.

A warning needs to communicate the performance deficit of the employee, reiterate the expectations of the organisation and communicate the consequences if improvement is not achieved.

The chances are that you have an employee right now that is not meeting the required standards of performance or behaviour. Such employees have a direct impact on the productivity and the profitability of the organisation and depending on their role, may have consequences ranging from lost clients to safety risks and workplace accidents, to the resignations of fellow staff members.

Prevention is better than cure in the case of poor performance. So, while you may be in a position where you need to be able to take corrective action, keep in mind that developing strategies to minimise performance management matters is the goal. Employee engagement is one such practice which should be a top priority for your business.   

One of the easiest ways to know whether it is Monday or not is to spend some time on social media. You will undoubtedly see a series of memes cursing the start of another working week. Sure, I can see the funny side in most of them, but what is most striking is the number of likes, shares and comments on these flagships of disengagement at work.

Deloitte research¹ found that engagement requires an empowering and highly inclusive work environment. However, such a level of inclusivity is a rarity; only 11% of companies have such work environments. It comes as little wonder then that this same research found 85% of executives rated employee engagement as a top priority – even though only 46% of companies are prepared to handle the challenges that employee engagement presents.

As an Australian business owner or manager, your compliance responsibilities are far-reaching. From accounting, to HR, to operations, all facets of your business have legal requirements that you need to ensure are met.

While this is still a confronting concept for many businesses across the country, there are more and more organisations now approaching their legal and ethical obligations with a best-in-class mindset, resulting in them greatly exceeding many of their base compliance requirements. Why? Because they recognise the tremendous upside of doing so, particularly in the area of HR.

Bullying occurs when people repeatedly and intentionally use words or actions against someone or a group of people to cause distress and risk to their wellbeing. The effects of bullying on an organisation are difficult to measure, but there are certainly wide-reaching impacts on both individuals and the broader workplace culture.

WorkSafe Australia reports 37% of Australian workers have being sworn or yelled at – quite unbelievable that almost half of us have been bullied at some stage of our working life. While such prevalence is an uncomfortable reality, there are important insights in each story which can be a powerful educational tool. 

What is your secret to success?  Entrepreneurs, sporting greats and successful business-people alike are almost always asked this same question at some point in their leadership journey. Inevitably, their responses boil down to a few consistent elements: hard work, resilience, and strong team culture.

We are taught from a young age that a champion team will always beat a team of champions, in that same manner, a positive and productive workplace culture will propel an organisation much further than endeavouring to succeed on the basis of a few key personnel.

Casuals are great for a workforce. When used correctly, they allow for peaks and troughs of work, ensure coverage for your full span of opening hours, and cover for other people’s holidays and breaks.

But when is a casual really a part-time employee?