SAVE THE DATE – 15 March 2012

• Are CEOs interested in investing in future leaders?
• How do CEOs implement effective talent strategies for a worldwide workforce?
• How worried are CEOs about lost IP and succession planning?
• How critical is HR to business success in 2012?
• How can HR support CEO decisions during tough times?

SHL, the global leader in talent assessment solutions, will answer these questions when it hosts the first Australian LINK Conference on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney.

“CEOs have a major impact on how effectively HR supports business objectives to achieve success,” says Stephanie Christopher, managing director for SHL Australia and New Zealand.

“CEOs who align their people strategy with business strategy will find they have the right mix of skills and leadership to face the challenges of 2012,” she says.

The complimentary, one-day SHL (Learn. Interact. Network. Know.) LINK Conference will demonstrate the importance of understanding the value and potential of employees and how that knowledge translates into improved business performance.

Speakers at the conference will share industry thought leadership, real world case studies, and local and global strategies for effectively integrating HR with overarching business objectives.

Confirmed speakers include:

• David Leigh, CEO SHL Global
• Eugene Burke, Chief Science and People Intelligence Officer, SHL
• Caroline Hands, Principal Advisor Group Graduate Management, Rio Tinto
• Caroline Adams, Senior Manager: Global Learning and Development, KPMG
• Keynote speaker – Adam Spencer, Breakfast show host ABC 702
• More speakers to be announced closer to the date

During the conference SHL will host workshops on succession planning, professional hiring and graduate recruitment.

For updates on speakers and topics, follow @SHL_LINK12 on twitter. Additional information can also be found at SHL LINK 2012.

For further information or to arrange an interview with Stephanie Christopher, managing director for SHL Australia and New Zealand, please contact:

I have a confession to make: I’m obsessed with time. On my phone I track every minute of the day and how it is being used. I can even show you a spreadsheet with months of data where my time up to the minute.

For example, I can tell you that on average I sleep 7 hours and 14 minutes a day and I spend on average 87 minutes a week running errands. You might wonder why I’m doing this. The reason is that I want to be on the fast-track to success. One of the ways to reach my destination faster is by maximizing the time I have at my disposal. In other words, by time saving.

Over the months of tracking my time I wanted to figure out ways to shave minutes of certain low value activities so I could refocus that to more important matters. The list of time saving tips below is the one I’ve done myself to free up time, and I have redirected those minutes and hours to work and personal projects.

21 Time Saving Tips That Work

1. Check your smart phone in line – Waiting in line is a waste of time, so use this time to check your email, respond to text messages or participate on social media.

2. Automate your monthly expenses – Stop paying bills through the mail and switch to paying your expenses online. If you are already doing that, the next step is to automate your payments and set a time once a month to review all your monthly payments.

3. Maximize your commute times – Read a book, listen to audiobooks, call people, email or get other work done.

4. Eat your frog – The first thing you do in the morning is the task you dread the most. Brian Tracy coined this term and he got it from the saying: “If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long!” By doing the dreadful task first, the rest of the day is going to be easy in comparison.

5. Stop watching TV – Cut back on watching television and switch over to on-demand media. TV commercials provide little value and revolving your day around the TV’s schedule is an inefficient use of your time. You can still watch most your favorite shows on Hulu or Netflix, but at your own pace and time.

6. Learn keyboard shortcuts – Using the mouse can be slow for certain tasks which oftentimes can be done faster by keyboard shortcuts. Learn a couple keyboard shortcuts of your frequently used programs, like your browser, word processor and spreadsheet software.

7. Stick to 3 tasks – If you only had time for 3 tasks each day to complete to make your day worthwhile, what would they be? Answering this question forces you to prioritize so you spend time on important things and avoid working on things that have little importance.

8. Call people – Sometimes calling is much faster than sending emails. What can be said in less than a minute usually takes you a couple of minutes drafting an email, proof reading and then sending it.

9. Get a virtual assistant – Personal outsourcing is a great to save time because someone else can do the menial tasks you dread (and cheaper). This leaves you with more time for leisure or to do more high value activities. Examples of tasks you can outsource is online research and data entry.

10. Batch your activities – Putting activities that are similar in nature allows you to process them faster and in one batch. For example, if you need to call or text people, do that in one batch instead of spreading it throughout the day.

11. Use a calendar – I’m often surprised when I still meet people who don’t use a calendar. It is also not surprising these people tend to be late most of the time or even completely forget their commitments. Avoid this by using a calendar. Bonus points if your calendar syncs through the cloud.

12. Tame your email – Email can be a big productivity killer. Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read, check it only twice a day at fixed times and set each session to a limit of 25 minutes.

13. Stop playing video games – They are great way to relax and wind down, but video games can also suck up a lot of time. Cut it completely or limit it to one hour every week.

14. Try a different route – We are creatures of habit and we like to stick to the path of least resistance. Once we have commuted to work on a particular route, we stick to that route no matter how bad the traffic is. Have you ever considered planning a new (and more efficient) route to work?

15. Touch it once – Whenever you get something in front of you, decide right away what to do with it. Don’t let it sit around for you to decide another time what to do. Either plan, do it, delegate or delete.

16. Use text expansion software – If you are someone who writes the same phrases and messages each day, you will greatly benefit from using text expansion software. It allows you set abbreviations (or keyboard shortcuts) and the software will fill it up with text. This is great for phone numbers, email signatures, and anything else you often type. Get started with DashExpander (Mac) or PhraseExpress (Windows).

17. Protein shake – If you want to keep your morning routine short, have a protein shake and a snack for breakfast.

18. Two laptop power adapters – If you bring your laptop home and to work, it is worthwhile buying a second power adapter. This will prevent you from forgetting to pack it. Thus save you a lot of time (and headaches).

19. Clean your desk at the end of the day – Before you stop working for the day, clean your desk. This makes it easy for you to get started the next time you start working.

20. Use a password manager – Trying to remember passwords and wasting time on recovering them is a thing of the past. Use a password manager such as 1Password (Mac) or Lastpass, and all you need is to memorize one password for all your logins.

21. Improve your typing speed – Considering you spend a lot of time writing emails and documents, it’s worthwhile learning how to type faster. This will add extra minutes to your day.

Source:  Work Awesome

Australian small business owners and employees are embracing working from home as they try to improve their ‘work/life balance’.

Deena Shiff, Group Managing Director, Applications & Ventures

New research conducted for Telstra Business by analyst firm IDC shows the small business sector, the country’s biggest employer, is more mobile than ever before.

The comprehensive study found six out of ten small businesses allow their staff to work from home, with both employers and employees keen to use technology to maximise flexibility and improve their lifestyles.

Other key findings included;

• 65 per cent of small businesses have at least one staff member spending the majority of time outside of the office;
• More than a third (35%) of small businesses have the majority of their staff working out of the office more than they work from it and;
• 75% of small businesses have some staff using laptops while 55% have some staff using smart phones for work purposes.

This follows Telstra research showing more than a quarter of Australians spend more than five hours a week working away from their designated place of employment.

Telstra Business Group Managing Director, Deena Shiff said Telstra commissioned the research as it prepared to launch its next generation of digital business products for small business.

“The lines between home and office are increasingly blurred –in fact a large proportion of our customer base actually works from home,” Ms Shiff said.

“And they’re not what you might imagine a home-based business to be. Usually we’re talking about fast-growing start-ups playing a vital role in our economy. They are using the internet to target their products and services to a global market.

“Other research we have run has shown they are often run by women who have set up their own businesses to conveniently re-enter the workforce or to escape corporate life. Similarly, we’re seeing people setting up regional-based businesses as they seek a sea-change or tree-change escape.”

Ms Shiff said the challenge for Telstra was to deliver a new generation of digital products for small businesses that recognised their demands were changing along with their lifestyles.

“The research shows most small businesses acknowledge they are not making the most out of the mobility solutions available and they find it difficult to keep up with the latest technology solutions,’ she said.

“For example, even though 61 percent of non-home based small businesses allow staff to work remotely, only 21 percent are equipped with network solutions that allow them to access computer files remotely. This potentially exposes them to real risks by having unsecured data.”

“With small business playing such a crucial role in our economy, the challenge Telstra faces as we prepare to launch new digital solutions for small business is to give them the same communications capability as big business, and to recognise mobility is crucial – the days of being chained to a desk or attached to a particular business site are over. Most importantly, the technology has to be affordable and easy to set up and use.”

Ms Shiff said Telstra would be unveiling its plans to help Australian small businesses make the move to digital communications in coming weeks.

About the research: Commissioned by Telstra Business and conducted independently by IDC using an online survey with 500 decision-makers in Australian small businesses of 1-19 employees in Oct/Nov 2010.

Source: Telstra

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and Fair Work Australia (FWA) are the two key organisations in Australia’s workplace relations system. Each has different functions within that system.

The Fair Work Ombudsman

The Fair Work Ombudsman is an independent statutory agency.

The Fair Work Ombudsman’s role is to:

• educate people about their workplace rights and obligations
• investigate breaches of people’s workplace rights
• take cases to Court to enforce workplace laws.

Nicholas Wilson is the current Fair Work Ombudsman.

The Fair Work Ombudsman appoints Fair Work Inspectors. Inspectors are empowered to investigate possible breaches of workplace laws and enforce compliance with them. They do not act on behalf of either employees or employers and are impartial in their investigations. The Fair Work Ombudsman can take suspected breaches of workplaces law to a federal court.

The Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman has around 1000 staff who work in 26 locations around Australia.

Fair Work Australia

Fair Work Australia is the independent national workplace relations tribunal.

It makes decisions about the national minimum wage and can create and change modern awards.

Fair Work Australia hears workplace related matters initiated by individuals or organisations and makes decisions about many workplace matters, including:

• unfair dismissal
• industrial action
• equal pay
• transfer of business
• right of entry
• enterprise bargaining

Justice Giudice AO is the current President of Fair Work Australia.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman

You can spend weeks perfecting your resume: selecting the perfect font that represents who you are, finding the right alignment for your bullet points and weighing up the pros and cons of hard versus soft copy. And this is all before you’ve decided what to include in it. Many a time your labour of love can end up lost in a sea of resumes on the recruiter’s desk.

It’s vital that you make your resume stand out to the recruiter and this can be achieved not only through the content but also through the delivery. For many industries, video resumes can be a great way to remove yourself from the pulp and show recruiters your personality. It will also make it easier for people to remember your name if they can attach a face to it. Here are some tips on how to create the perfect video resume.

Think about your audience

Video resumes are not appropriate for every job or industry. If you’re applying for a more traditional role or a role with a conservative company, it is probably recommended that you leave the video resume at home.

Before you embark on your video-making adventure, bear in mind who you are making your video for, and for what job. Make sure it’s targeted to the role. If the position requires someone with a bubbly, outgoing personality, make sure you convey that. Hone your video to be job- and industry-specific.

Make it different

Your video resume will sit alongside your traditional resume, not in its place. Therefore make sure that both differ in content – and length. A video resume is not a clip of you reading out your resume. It is your chance to engage and start a conversation with the interviewer, so use it wisely.

Show them who you are and what you are capable of achieving. Use the medium to show your enthusiasm and convince them that you’re a perfect match for the company by aligning your skills and experience with the position.

Keep it tasteful

There is a fine line between video resume and home movie. Remember that you are still applying for professional employment and you need to convey this professionalism and show that you have taken your application seriously. You do want it to be entertaining but steer clear of making the interviewer feel like they’re at an amateur stand-up comedian night.

You want to make an impression, but for all the right reasons. Try to emulate the vibe of the company – this means dressing and acting the part. You don’t want to look too casual if you’re applying for the role of a suit or look too corporate and conservative if you’re pitching to a funky design company.

It’s incredibly easy for your video resume to fall into the cheesy category. The best way to avoid this is to be yourself and keep your content as natural and honest as you can.

Keep it simple

Even though you may feel like the next Steven Spielberg, keep in mind that this video is heading for the HR department, not the box office. Don’t make your video convoluted with special effects – unless, of course, you’re applying for a job in special effects. It needs to be a balance between showcasing yourself and your skills.

Avoid making your video run longer than the one-minute mark. You don’t want to make your resume so long that the interviewers require an intermission midway.

Make it accessible

You need to make your video easy for recruiters to access and view. There is no point spending months creating a masterpiece if HR requires a home entertainment centre just to watch it.

If you’re providing a hard copy of your resume, then send in your video on a CD-ROM or DVD disc. If you’re emailing your documents, upload your video to YouTube and place a link in your resume and cover email. It’s also a good idea to add a link to your clip to your LinkedIn or Twitter profile.

Be creative

Here is your chance to showcase your skills and talents. Don’t make the recruiter regret taking the time to watch your clip. Your video needs to convince them that you deserve the job or at the very least an interview.

While it doesn’t have to involve state-of-the-art special effects, a little sophistication and editing won’t go astray. If you’re applying for a role in a creative industry, then make sure you display some of that creative energy that’s going to get you hired.

Practise

Don’t be fooled by TV presenters who make performing on camera look like a breeze – it’s not. It takes a lot of practice, so don’t be disheartened if your first attempts look like they should appear on Funniest Home Videos. Be prepared to do a lot of takes but try to stay natural and relaxed – and don’t forget to smile!

Need more help with your resume? Our professional resume writers can create you a job-winning application. Click here to find out more about our Resume Writing Service.

Source: Career FAQ’s

Working women who want to get ahead are invited to “Spring into a New Career” during September, by taking part in herCareer, a new initiative of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network (ABN).

Headed up by career expert Susan Wareham McGrath, herCareer was established in response to direct requests from the ABN’s 20,000 strong community, of which almost 50% are women working full or part-time for others, while operating, or planning to establish, their own businesses.

herCareer’s launch program, 30 Days to a Great Career, is a free, month-long program of daily blog posts designed to help working women advance their career and reach new goals. Support and strategies will be provided by a team of Australian Businesswomen’s Network community members, each of whom is an expert in their career-related field.

Topics that will be covered this September include:

• How to stand out from the crowd
  • Questions you should ask at every interview
  • Running your own business – how to switch the corporate ladder for your own stairwell
  • Staying positive through your job search process
  • Behavioural interviewing – how to make it work for you
  • Serving on non-profit boards – good for you; good for the community!
  • Your personal brand and how to build it
  • How to boost productivity at work
  • Tell us a little about yourself” – how to answer five tough interview questions
  • Job seeking etiquette
  • Managing your online presence as a jobseeker
  • Approaching your boss – a mentoring perspective

To be part of herCareer, subscribe to the ABN’s HerBusiness blog, follow @her_career on Twitter, or likethe ABN’s Facebook page - getting ahead in your career has never been so easy!

Contact:  Susan Wareham McGrath – 0437 005 620 or moc.maherawnasusnull@nasus

My work gives me the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life—from high-powered executives to work-at-home professionals. One thing I found in common among these people is the desire to land a “dream job.”

But what is a “dream job?” Is this being promoted to manager, wearing a nice suit? Is this managing your own business? Or earning so much money you can retire and not do anything?

We all have ideas of what a dream job is but I believe that there are two important values a person must possess to make sure that he finds his dream job.

Where’s the passion?
Passion is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a strong liking or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.” Passion is what fueled artists to create masterpieces, directors to make movies, engineers and scientists to invent.

Therapists, psychologists and career counselors often say that you must have passion in what you do. Whether you’re a hotel staff in charge of housekeeping, a writer for a magazine, or an admin assistant, you must have a strong liking to what you do.

Are you committed?
Passion, however, is nothing if you are not committed. Commitment is the art of following through and finishing what you must do.

Whatever your job is, you will sometimes face challenges that will make you feel like giving up. People will try to put you down, spread lies about you, or just plain discourage you. On some days, projects won’t go well and it would feel as if the universe is conspiring against you.

It is during these hard times when you must not lose sight of what you are doing. Commitment is understanding that these challenges will pass and that you must stay focused.

But I have bills to pay and mouths to feed!
Yes, the reality is that we have families to feed and bills to pay. While it may be easy for some to pursue a career that they are passionate about, many people don’t have the time and luxury for it. A person may have a very strong interest in writing but never finished Journalism in college. Or a taxi driver may have a talent for singing but can’t pursue it because he has limited options.

For practical reasons, people get jobs that allow them to pay the bills. I will not argue with the wisdom behind that decision. What I can give is advice to love (or, at the very least, like) what you do, regardless of what kind of job you have.

Loving or liking what you do allows you to have a reason to stay with your job and not feel bored. It gives you the strength to wake everyday to do the same thing over and over again.

And if you have some free time at the end of the day, you can pursue what you really love as a hobby— painting, blogging, or singing. And who knows your hobbies might just give you the opportunity to pursue what you are really passionate about.

How about you? Are you doing what you love to do?

Gossip is a feature of every workplace. Everyone wants to know what’s happening, who is doing to what to whom and how will this affect them. The reality is that every organisation has two channels of communication. One is the official channel, which is the party line, and the second is the grape vine where you get the real dirt.

Like most things, gossip can be good and bad. On the positive side, gossip is a way of bringing people together and creating camaraderie. But it can also create a lot of heartache and trouble. When the scuttlebutt isn’t true, it can break hearts and wreck careers.

As explained here, there are several reasons why people gossip at work. These include the payoff of socialisation. Also, if people are uncertain the unknown, they’ll talk. More often than not, they aren’t even aware they’re engaging in gossip when they drop little tidbits of information about Jane’s divorce or Bob’s demotion.

The Harvard Business Review argues that workplace gossip is not unprofessional. According to Professor Giuseppe Labianca, even when the stories aren’t true, it still plays a role.

“Gossip can be very helpful to people in organisations, especially when the flow of information from the top gets choked off, as often happens when companies are in crisis or undergoing change,” Labianca says.

“If a few people know what’s really going on, gossip becomes the means of spreading that information to everyone else. What’s more, research shows that gossip often reduces individuals’ anxiety and helps them cope with uncertainty. It’s true that gossip can sometimes crank up the fear level in an organisation, but research shows it usually does the reverse. By sharing gossip, you make a personal connection, which gives you social and emotional support.”

Yes, there can be problems with negative talk. But that’s not because of the gossip, he says. It’s because of conflict and the gossip is just a symptom. He says the reasons managers don’t like gossip is because it threatens their power base.

“Our study shows that the more you gossip, the greater your informal influence among peers,” he says. “It’s a democratising force. It levels the playing field between managers and employees.”

Career coach Ramon Greenwood says gossip is inevitable in any workplace. It’s going to be there whether you participate or not so you might as well make it work for you.

He suggests several ways to do it. That includes tuning out from the stuff that deals in personalities, especially the malicious stuff that can do people’s careers damage. When you hear it, you verify it or rule it out. Identify the most active purveyors of gossip and rank them according to their reliability and interpret their messages for what they are. And if there’s stuff out there about you that’s not true, you confront the originator and set the record straight.

How much gossip goes on at your workplace? What kind of things are talked about? How much of it is malicious and how much of it is true? Have you ever confronted someone that was gossiping about you?

Source:  The Sydney Morning Herald

Going green for small businesses is not only kind to the environment, but also presents many opportunities to cut operating costs. As we spend a lot of time in the office, simple little changes in our day to day work environment and work habits will reap rewards now and for our future generations. Always think ‘How can I Reduce, Re-use, Recycle’

The best way to start is by taking small steps. Here are a few simple ideas you can work with.

Go Carpooling

Carpooling to work is the way to go if you want to help the environment. Not only it helps you save on petrol and money, you can also catch up for a chat with your work buddies on the way. Why don’t you initiate a Carpool Committee and encourage and empower others employees in your organization to do the same.

Work At Home & Telecommuting

Flexible working benefits society by reducing traffic and pollution. If your company has a policy on telecommuting, consider taking this opportunity. Telecommuting greatly helps reduce your carbon footprint. How wonderful would it be not travelling to work on a daily basis? No more over crowded trains or buses that are constantly running late or breaking down. Imagine saving yourself 10 or more hours per week if you worked from a home office. Avoid the traffic and the stresses of commuting during rush hours. Jack Nilles, who coined the words Telework and Telecommuting, has developed a ‘telepicker’ to help employers and employees assess whether Telework is appropriate. Check it out.

Use of Computers and Electricity

Turn off your computer when not in use. This includes going out for lunch, attending a three-hour meeting, or during weekends. If you only have to be away from your desk for a few minutes, set your computer to “sleep mode” as this helps cut energy by as much as 70%.

Take it a step further; involve other people in your office by making this a Policy, which may also include turning off and unplugging printers and other equipment at the end of the day. The air-conditioning units can also be turned 15 minutes before the end of a workday.

Use of Paper

Be conscious about printing on paper. According to a study, an average employee can use up to 10,000 sheets of paper in just on year. Make use of scraps to print your drafts and perhaps even inter-office memos. Use both sides of the paper and print in draft mode to conserve on ink and toner. You can purchase chlorine-free or recycled paper and recycled ink cartridges from your local office supply store.

Before printing anything, consider if the message can be disseminated via email or the company intranet instead. This way, you use less paper. Besides, it is easier to keep tabs with your co-workers electronically these days. This can cut time and increase efficiency when trying to close a deal or doing projects together, as communicating electronically is faster and easier.

Pay Bills Online

Paying bills online saves paper, envelopes, stamps, and all the fuel to deliver the bill twice: once for the billing statement and the other trip for the payment. An increasing number of companies are offering consumers the choice to receive bills and statements by online or by email, which means it is now possible for the whole process of paying bills to be paperless.

Go Green literally with plants

While many companies insist on keeping decorations and adornment of work areas to a minimum, it wouldn’t hurt to have a plant in your work station. Plants actually help absorb indoor pollution, creating a healthier environment for you.

Use a Coffee Mug or Glass

Instead of using paper cups every day at work, get a groovy coffee mug and a glass for your water.

Going green should not be confined in your household. It should be part of our daily lives, including the workplace. Remember that going green is not just improving your carbon footprint. In the end, it will benefit everyone in this planet.

Did you know?

• Air-conditioning and artificial lighting left on long after most workers have gone home accounts for 84%* of the energy used in office buildings
• Screensavers don’t save energy; they just protect your screen. If you like your screensaver, set it to come on for a few minutes, but set your computer to then switch to sleep mode
• A laptop uses about 10% of the power used by a desktop computer

* Australian Greenhouse Office, 1999

Further Links

Green Street is designed and sponsored by people who believe grassroots action is needed so that we can live more sustainably.  When you signup to Green Street you will land on your very own profile page where you can calculate your Green Street Score and begin to network with others. You will be able to see straight away if there is anyone else in your street already a part of Green Street.  You can also join groups with special interests and invite friends to link with you

Earth Hour In 2011 Earth Hour embraced 5,251 cities and towns in 135 countries and territories and reached an estimated 1.8 billion people worldwide, making Earth Hour the largest environment campaign in history. We’ve captured the passion of this year’s Earth Hour in our new video. Watch it now to see supporters from all corners of the globe, celebrating the planet and taking action beyond the hour. And don’t forget to sign up to Earth Hour 2012.

Carbon Footprint – Business Carbon Emissions Calculator. This calculator allows you to estimate your household or business greenhouse gas emissions.

Telework Australia – At its simplest telework is work from a distance but it covers a wide range of work forms and can have many names. Telework is about people: how they work, how they interact and how they prepare for an increasingly changing world. And it’s about flexibility: flexible work locations and work times, flexible management structures and flexible responses to the challenges of change.