Tag: Kalgoorlie

Apprenticeships should support workforce planning

Posted on by thepeopleandcultureoffice

In 2013 when this most recent downturn hit I was made redundant from my job (the joys of working in a support service – you aren’t seen as an income generator so off you go).

I am passionate about youth employment and an opportunity arose for me to work in the apprenticeships & traineeships space.

What I become to learn (and alarmingly so) was that because of the down turn apprentice numbers took a sharp turn south. Companies that had in the previous years taken on a dozen or so new apprentices were only taking on 1 or 2 – or none.

These were for trades that once we come out the other side of the downturn (as past history would show we always do), would be in high demand. These were trades that up until the down turn businesses were recruiting from the eastern states and paying for existing employees to undertake trade upgrades.

Had companies maintained their apprenticeship program, by 2017 they would have had a bunch of tradies finishing their time and ready to work within their businesses, and most importantly, with a skill set tailored specifically to that business.

Apprentices & trainees should be seen by business as a way to bring fresh new talent into the business, to support their succession planning and growth aspirations and to minimise any negative impacts from current or future skills shortages.

And what a better way to have have a workforce trained to your specific business requirements than to grow your own talent. Apprenticeships and traineeships offer you the opportunity to train your up & coming employees in the areas that your business needs the most, providing your business with the skills it needs the most.

You want to know what else is great about employing youth into these roles? They bring a fresh approach & energy into a business which can have a knock on effect to other employees. A company that is willing to invest in people by supporting apprenticeships is showing a positive approach to corporate social responsibility, which is good for attracting both customers and future quality staff. It builds a positive employer brand which in turn will increase your profile as an employer that people want to work for.

And now to address the elephant in the room, I often hear business owners and older employees lament about the younger generation in the workplace; they are lazy, you have to hold their hand every step of the way, they are always on their phones.

Hands up who left school and started their first job and knew EXACTLY what to do? ……… anyone ……… anyone? Nobody can start a new job without some sort of training – ranging from “this is my first job ever and I don’t know how to conduct myself” through to “where do these documents get saved”. If you want your employees to not just exceed, but to excel, you need to spend time with them.

So if I hear “they are lazy” my response is did you asked them why they are sitting around not working; if you are telling me you have to hold their hand every step of the way I would suggest you try alternative ways to communicate, because your current method may not suit their learning style, and if I hear they are always on their phones I’m more interested in understanding why you haven’t told them to get off of it.

Depending on the industry & qualifications employers of apprentices and trainees can attract some great financial incentives with commencement, midpoint & completion payments available as well as well as additional incentives for priority areas and subsidised payroll tax for the bigger employers.

With the new financial year WA businesses can take advantage of the Jobs and Skills WA Employer Incentive. The great thing about this incentive is it is also available for school based trainees, which means you can gain a financial incentive to select and nurture your future employees from upper high school right through to the completion of their apprenticeship or traineeship. There’s a potential $8,500 in incentives on offer for a 4 year trade and $4,250 for a 2 year traineeship – woah!

Nicole Goldsworthy from Apprenticeship Support Australia is a valuable resource for employers within the Goldfields region and can answer your queries, sign your apprentices and trainees up and assist with sourcing reputable registered training organisations. You can email Nicole here.

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

IT’S TIME FOR HR TO MOVE BEYOND POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE & CULTURE INITIATIVES CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS.

What’s the tea

Posted on by thepeopleandcultureoffice

Settle down and get comfy because I’m about to spill some tea.

Tea Spill GIF - Tea Spill The GIFs

Last month I was visiting a friend and we were all chatting, her husband, who works for one of the bigger employers in town, was telling me how the organisation had sent out an employee feedback survey.

The workplace has quite a low morale, pays are low compared to the rest of the industry and there are quite a number of FIFO workers. The sentiment amongst the residential workforce in general is that the big bosses are more concerned with putting profit over our community.

So the crews are assembled in the meeting room and management start discussing the terrible feedback from the employee survey and they ask if anyone would like to make a comment on the issues (let’s not lose sight of the fact that these types of surveys’ sole purpose IS for employees to make a comment – this is information they already have).

Silence………. nobody speaks a word. Then finally a voice pipes up “People are too scared to say what the issues are” discussion ensues and a couple of people, respectfully, share their input.

The meeting ends and those who spoke up are pulled aside and given a bollocking for what they said.

😳🤔 Do you think they get the irony of their actions?

Anonymous employee surveys are an excellent way to gain insight into the workplace culture, employee morale and what you are doing both right & wrong – as long as the organisation, and by that I mean management, is mature enough to accept the good with the bad and take action to make meaningful changes for the better.

All too often you see companies invest heavily in “yay team” training sessions or social activities in an effort to improve culture while failing to address the real issues.

Organisational culture is accepted behaviour, not expected behaviour

Culture flows from the top down

A strong & positive culture comes from strong & positive leadership. Words don’t change a culture. Displaying company values around the premises & in communications, or imprinting mugs, mouse pads, note pads, or key chains with the (company’s) values might be nice reinforcement, but these things do not define or change a culture.

Culture change comes from concrete and noticeable changes in leadership behaviour: what they do; who they hire; who they ask to move on; who they listen to and emulate; where they spend their time; what they talk about in meetings; what they measure; how & where they invest their $$.

When you listen to employees talk which pronoun do they elect to use when talking about the company? “We” or “They”? “They” suggests disengagement and at its worst, alienation.  While “we” suggests that employees feel as though they are part of something meaningful and significant.  They are engaged, productive & proud employees.

Do people want to work for your company and what do they write about you online? High turnover & finding it hard to attract quality talent (or keeping them) is a sure fire sign there is something wrong within your organisation, or within a particular department.

Going back to my story at the beginning of the post, I did a Google search to see what employees had to say about their experiences working there, here are snippets from the 5 most recent reviews;

“Your Employees Matter Too, Not Just Shareholders”

“Over worked, under paid and no real sense of being appreciated”

“Only management and share holders matter workers are nothing”

“The people working there are essentially good shame about the management”

“Upper management being very detached from daily struggles in the working environment and low pay rates”

Ouch! Now think about my reference to the FIFO workforce, the Kalgoorlie mining community is small and bad news spreads fast, the FIFO community draws from a much bigger pool. The number of FIFO onsite kinda makes sense doesn’t it?

Want to learn more about workplace culture? You can find more blogs here, here & here.

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

IT’S TIME FOR HR TO MOVE BEYOND POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE & CULTURE INITIATIVES CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS.

Our June newsletter is here!

Posted on by thepeopleandcultureoffice

It’s full of Friends quotes and a plethora of important and interesting info

Follow the link to get reading……… and remember “He’s her lobster” 🦐

https://mailchi.mp/013db8f2ad25/its-like-a-cows-opinion-its-moo

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

IT’S TIME FOR HR TO MOVE BEYOND POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE & CULTURE INITIATIVES CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS.

A bit of this & a bit of that

Posted on by thepeopleandcultureoffice

If you follow me on Insta or Facebook you may have seen this ⬇️ photo about how I spent my 1st business birthday getting papped by the lovely Rachel of Madison Studio Photography.

Oh hey! Thats me 😂

Rachel is one of the amazing local small businesses offering my clients a discount on services as part of our Employee Benefit Package 🙌 You can learn more about the Program here, here and here.

This week I wanted to make use of my post to cover off on a few HR related bits and pieces that small – medium businesses commonly have misconceptions about, or are common errors, but aren’t sufficient enough to warrant a stand alone post on the subject.

Terminating employees as a small business

As a small business you may have heard you are exempt from Fair Work action if you have less than 15 employees, a belief that has lead many an employer to just terminate the employment of people willy nilly without cause.

In actual fact Fair Work introduced a Small Business Code in 2009 to provide a framework in regards to the termination of employees. The Code provides a process that employers must demonstrate they have followed prior to termination. If the employee in question is eligible to lodge a claim through Fair Work, and the employer cannot demonstrate procedural fairness was shown through the following of the Code, then Fair Work will rule the dismissal as being unfair and the employer will be liable for compensation.

Requesting or forcing the resignation of an employee

The legal definition of Constructive Dismissal is conduct of the employer was so “harmful, adverse or unfriendly to” the contract of employment and the employment relationship that the employee could not be expected to put up with it. Some examples of Constructive Dismissal include;

  • an employer expressly suggesting that an employee resign (irrespective of whether the employee made the suggestion) so as to assist with preserving the employee’s future ability to obtain work;
  • an employer actively making it very difficult or impossible for an employee to fulfil their role;
  • an employer continuously failing to provide, to a serious degree, a safe and/or healthy working environment (this includes failing to act on bullying and / or harassment of an employee); or
  • an employer imposing unauthorised and detrimental variations to the employee’s contract, such as a pay-cut, demotion, change of working hours, relocation or unreasonably failing to prevent or punish a co-worker who may be harassing or discriminating against the employee.

The steps you take as an employer to terminate an employee must be well considered and consistent with your termination policy. No matter how well intentioned your actions may have been, there is rarely a low risk shortcut that can substitute the correct performance management or redundancy process. You can read more about Constructive Dismissal here.

Abandonment of employment

Lets say you have an employee that hasn’t turned up to work for the past couple of days and hasn’t called in sick, what do you do? At what point does their job no longer exist?

Abandonment of employment is defined as “circumstances where an employee is absent from the workplace without reasonable excuse, or has failed to communicate with the employer to provide an excuse for being absent.” Traditionally, modern awards have allowed an absence of more than 3 days as evidence a worker has abandoned their employment and an absence of 14 days without reasonable cause showing clearly that they have. Recently Fair Work removed the relevant clause from a number of awards, despite this procedural fairness is still required, therefore best practice for unauthorised absences should be;

After a 3 day period of unauthorised absence the employer should make an attempt to contact the employee firstly with a telephone call, and, if there is no response, to follow up with a written request sent by email or registered post requiring the employee to provide an explanation for their absence by a specified deadline.

It is very important that the employer is aware of what provisions govern that particular employee’s employment— whether that be a modern award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment — as that particular instrument may contain a specific clause stating how abandonment of employment must be handled. Also, an employer may have a workplace policy dealing with absences which should be considered.

Finally, once all avenues have been exhausted and there is no explanation for the absences provided, an employer should always issue a letter stating that the employee’s employment has been terminated without notice, effective immediately, on the basis of abandonment of employment.

What is NOT abandonment of employment

  • When an employee has provided a medical certificate for an absence (note the “temporary absence” provisions of the Fair Work Act).
  • When an employee has made a workers compensation claim and is unfit for work while being paid weekly payments under the claim.
  • When an employee has taken authorised leave.
  • Unnotified absence from work for up to 3 days.

Do you have a subject that you would like to know more about? Contact Me via email to let me know and I can write a blog or Facebook post about it.

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

IT’S TIME FOR HR TO MOVE BEYOND POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE & CULTURE INITIATIVES CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS.

I’ll just do 1 more Buzzfeed quiz then I’ll start

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The People & Culture Office | Kalgoorlie

Ahhhhhh procrastination, one minute you are focussed on work & what needs to be done, next, your 12 quizzes deep on Buzzfeed trying to find out which Teletubbie you are (I’m Tinky Winky BTW).

We’re all human so we all experience periods of procrastination, it’s just the depth & length of time that varies. I’m generally pretty focussed, but working from home you have no-one sitting just over from you to bounce ideas off, so when you need to stop and think it’s easy to just stop. You’re also pretty aware that a nice hot cuppa, the lounge & Netflix are just a few paces away, hence I quite often find myself like this.

In my defence I’m often thinking of work 😳

Given my extensive experience on the subject, I feel I’m well placed to offer up some tips on dealing with procrastination.

Make a to-do list & use planners – I am obsessed with using lists and filling my planner, the pure enjoyment of writing things down and crossing off tasks as I complete them. It’s a visual of your achievements & goals. You can better manage your time if you plan out your day on paper, it keeps you accountable & serves as a reminder of how much you still have to do (so get off Facebook & get back to work)

Put away your distractions – ….. you know what’s up – PUT DOWN YOUR DAMN PHONE we are all guilty of falling down the rabbit hole with our phones at work, they are time sucking devices with no reward. Think about the frequency you open your phone without being influenced ie: without the phone ringing or getting a message. Get your fix then put it away until you’ve taken care of what needs to be taken care of.

Create deadlines & establish goals – another way of keeping yourself accountable and motivated. I don’t know about you but I work best when working towards a deadline, I switch it up a knotch and I’m completely focused until I’m done.

Don’t multitask – focus 100% of your attention on one task at a time, I used to be a multitasker but as I progressed in my career into more intense jobs with high work loads I couldn’t sustain it, I would miss things, I felt scatter brained and all over the place; something had to change. And this brings me to………..

It’s ok to take breaks – this is a must & includes getting a good nights sleep and switching off when you leave work. Exhaustion & productivity do not go hand in hand & never will. Burnout is a real thing and results in reduced productivity and a major lack of motivation. If you feel yourself losing focus take 5 to clear your head and recharge; go sit on the loo, get a drink, go outside and catch some rays, you’ll feel infinitely better.

Reward yo self – The more you reward yourself for small achievements, the less you will feel like you are missing out or being deprived, hence you will procrastinate less. I don’t mean pulling the credit card out and treating yourself, I mean get up, go outside & appreciate the view, have some T2 in your draw to use for moments just like this or have a playlist of your favourite bangers to listen to for the rest of the day.

Obviously this isn’t going to work 100% of the time (something, something, only human), nor will you just adapt your work style for change straight away. It takes 66 days to form a habit so just refer back to these tips when you find yourself getting a bit lost and with time it will become second nature.

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

IT’S TIME FOR HR TO MOVE BEYOND POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE & CULTURE INITIATIVES CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS.

Employee Benefit Program – Salary Packaging Explained

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HR Consultant | The People & Culture Office

As a business you want to be as successful, and as sustainable as possible, a large contributing factor to achieving this is ensuring you attract and retain quality employees. Salary Packaging is fast becoming one of the key components of an employees total remuneration package, giving participating employers an added advantage over their industry peers.

In the video below, I give a brief explanation of the core component of salary packaging, and the financial benefit it can provide.

Download the flyer here

Another cinematic masterpiece, bought to you by The People & Culture Office
Employee Benefits | The People & Culture Office

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

IT’S TIME FOR HR TO MOVE BEYOND POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH PEOPLE & CULTURE INITIATIVES CONTACT US TO ARRANGE AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS WHAT SOLUTIONS WE CAN PUT IN PLACE TO DRIVE ACHIEVEMENT OF YOUR STRATEGIC GOALS.

Our Employee Benefits Program – what is it & how can you become a part of it?

Posted on by thepeopleandcultureoffice

I was asked this week by a client this week if I stand in the shower coming up with ideas……. yes, yes I do.

About 7 weeks ago after struggling to secure candidates for 2 clients for an ongoing period (and who in the Goldfields isn’t experiencing this right now) I wondered if I could put together an Employee Benefits Program like I had for previous employers – except on this occasion it would need to suit multiple employers, a diverse range of industries from not for profit to mining contractors, not have the “buying power” of a large employee base and I would have the unenviable task of trying to convince fellow small businesses in Kalgoorlie, most doing it tough in retail, why supplying a discount on purchases or services is actually a marketing business driver as opposed to a business negative.

And so the seed for pulling together an Employee Benefits Program to benefit my clients and their employees was sown 🌱

The Employee Benefit Program is absolutely FREE 😱 to my clients and is strategically designed to assist with attracting new employees, retaining existing ones and building a positive workplace culture & employee brand. The strategies can assist with not just saving money by reducing turnover but makes the business more sustainable, every time an employee walks out the door they’re taking their organisational knowledge with them. And in an era where everyone is a subject matter expert in something, that puts most businesses in a precarious position.

What I was hearing & seeing from clients was the lack of ability to compete against the bigger employers in town with their deep, deep pockets. And quite often the salary on offer was comparable, if not equal to the big companies, but the the lack of capacity, for whatever reason, to match the additional extras hit their efforts hard.

So I’ve taken the guess work, and hard work, out of getting a program in place, and taking a proven, proactive measure against the hiring difficulties for small – medium businesses in the Goldfields.

The program is essentially a win / win for local business, my clients & their employees gain access to the program and it’s benefits, while participating retailers can improve the spend & repeat business of residents through a proven marketing method, all the while supporting fellow small businesses in town.

So what does the program offer?

Salary Packaging – Eligible employees can salary package their housing costs as remote area employees and / or a novated lease. Not sure how it all works? As we are based in a remote area as classified by the ATO, employees are able to claim Remote Area Benefits on items such as Remote Area Mortgage Interest, Remote Area Rent, Remote Area Fuel (gas & electricity) and Remote Area Travel. Normally tax is taken from your salary before you spend it. You then pay all your expenses and are left with the remainder. With salary packaging, the employer pays the same salary – but instead of paying all your expenses after you’re taxed, you pay for selected expenses, such as your mortgage or rent before you’re taxed. You reduce the tax you pay and are left with more spending money in the kitty. Normally salary packaging providers will only conduct business with individual employers with > 40 employees, after an Australia wide hunt I managed to track down a provider able to service small business needs

Corporate Gym Membership – Snap Fitness Kalgoorlie have come on board to supply corporate membership to the program. Encouragement of a fit & healthy workforce by way of corporate gym memberships can assist with a reduction in absence due to illness and a reduction of injuries, both at work and away, due to poor functional capacity.

A host of discounts on products & services – Because I have such a diverse range of clients I need to have a diverse range of offers to make the program a success. As much as I can, I have tried to keep the program 100% local, but, and this is a very big but, I work for my clients first and foremost and this program needs to be as diverse as my client base for it to have a chance at success. For that reason I will continue to try and build on the initial dozen or so participants by engaging with national franchises to encourage them to get on board, a discount program without any businesses willing to supply a discount just isn’t going to work.

So whats in it for you Simone? Total honesty? I’d love for Goldfields businesses to have the chance to experience the full scope of what contemporary HR can do for their business. I honestly believe that some of the staffing issues felt by employers can by directly traced back to a lack of, or poor, processes involving employees and the leadership team (whoa! big call). Yep, we are definitely experiencing a skills shortage with trades & operator positions and yep Kalgoorlie is experiencing a liveability crisis that is being reflected in the high number of FIFO employees and a general reluctance of people to uproot their lives and give living in the Goldfields a chance. But, not everyone starting a new job here is a newbie to town, they are an existing resident who has left a local employer, and happy employees don’t leave great workplaces unless they really have to. So in summary, what that means is I’d love to be able to build my business by being able to share strategies that will also help you build yours.

I’ve put hours and hours of work into this and I receive absolutely no financial incentive off it, I don’t charge clients to participate, I don’t receive kick backs from program suppliers – ZILCH.

So how is this all sounding? Contact me on the link below if you’d like to set the wheels in motion to become a client, if you’d like more info click here to watch a vlog over on Facebook.

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes. The People & Culture Office can partner with you to gain a competitive advantage through people & culture initiatives Contact Us to arrange an appointment to discuss what solutions we can put in place to drive achievement of your strategic goals.

Rethinking social media at work

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Employee Instragram | HR Consultant | The People & Culture Office Kalgoorlie

Posting inappropriate memes. Instagramming lunches. Facebooking a few office selfies. Browsing instead of working. Snapchatting Sharon trying to fix the printer.

These are the events companies imagine will takeover the work day if they let employees use social media on the job. Unfortunately, for businesses that ban the use of social media in the workplace, it is likely your employees are using it regardless of your policy (after all, thanks to smartphones we all have access to Facebook, Insta & Snapchat 24×7 without reliance on the work internet connection). Instead of wasting time and energy policing social media use at work, lets take a look at how business can leverage it to their advantage.

Social media use for marketing, communication or customer services purposes is no longer the new shiny thing, it’s been here for a while and it’s here to stay.

Recently Sonia from Scribe & Social wrote this post on Elevating your Social Media, click through to learn how to create an authentic voice for your business.

When I think about the case for social media in the workplace, there are many opportunities to leverage these tools as we become a more mobile and visual workforce that is literally always on the go. Social media is poised to become the office and workplace productivity tool of choice. I see 5 genuine categories where social media can be used at work helping to improve productivity, work flow and overall communication between teams, managers and business leaders who are tasked with reaching an audience of employees who are overwhelmed, disengaged and bombarded with tasks and responsibilities more than ever before.

  • Distribution and Communication. You want to reach your audience quickly and through multiple channels to ensure that the message and information is received and mostly absorbed by your employees.  Workplace by Facebook is a tool to connect employees via IM, video chat and groups to share work related information. I was lucky enough to take a look at it in practice at a local business in Kalgoorlie not long ago and was impressed by how they were using it as a communication tool. However, social media, just like any other comms tool, quite simply, will work for some businesses and not for others. It depends on the culture, the demographic and how much you can invest into it.
  • Recruitment and Hiring. Employers should look to their current workforce first to fill job openings. What better way that setting up social media or digital communication channels for employees to receive job openings to their mobile phones via instant message, direct message or by text. Social media is also a great source for engaging candidates externally. So while we are on the subject, take a look at your business Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram pages through the eyes of a potential employee, a potential employee who’s likely to be a Millennial. Do you like what you see? Is your content a good mix of sharing what you do and a touch of the personal? Does it speak in an authentic voice? Does it speak to your demographic?
  • Research and Personal Development. Social media such as Linkedin allows you access to peers, experts and individuals providing you networking opportunities, insights into experiences and most importantly personal development.
  • Employee Recognition and Engagement. Do you give out quarterly awards for employees who go above and beyond at work? Tell your social network about it! Not only are you giving a very public shoutout to the employees in question you are actively showing employees & visitors to your pages you value your employees & the work they do. Content sharing can be really powerful for spreading your message, your employees are likely to have connections that sit within your target demographic. If you can identify the active social employees within your business and recruit them to become social media champions, they can have a huge impact on sharing content to build your brand & following.
  • Employment Branding. Social media and recruiting has evolved into almost a science where candidates are reached through campaigns just like your business marketing, except this strategy is focused on the job seeker long before they apply for a job and become a candidate. Employment branding is complex like most marketing strategies and involves an understanding of the candidate you are trying to reach, your industry and geographic locations as well as experience working in HR and recruiting. I’ve written more about employment branding here and here

The most important thing to consider with social media, is that you will only get out of it what you put in. It’s really important to listen to the conversation taking place and find ways to engage your employees, by creating and sharing relevant content.

As use of mobile technology rises, it is important for businesses to give content human appeal and make the message sound genuine. Social media isn’t rocket science but you have to try things out until you find a way that works for you.

It’s time for HR to move beyond policies, practices and processes. The People & Culture Office can partner with you to gain a competitive advantage through people & culture initiatives Contact Us to arrange an appointment to discus what solutions we can put in place to drive achievement of your strategic goals.

Like what you see? Click around and discover how partnering with us can give your business a competitive advantage by aligning strategy with people & culture, or, give us a like on Facebook for regular updates on industry trends, blog posts & photo’s of me having coffee at my regular haunts and / or my dog & cat disrupting my work day

Simone Pickering | The People & Culture Office

BASED IN KALGOORLIE, THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS AN INDEPENDENT HR CONSULTANT WHO CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO OFFER A ONE STOP HR SOLUTION, WE ONLY CHARGE YOU FOR THE WORK WE PERFORM; NO CONTRACTS, NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES, JUST QUALITY SERVICE. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE