Following the 2017 Budget, the announcement of a $100 million fund being pumped into the automotive supply chain business has hit like a thunder bolt.
This funding assistance for the car manufacturing industry will assist manufacturing organisations to increase technology skills across their workforces in preparation for changing careers.
Fostering technology skills can be actioned over the entire employee life-cycle to ensure relevance and success for future growth and sustainability, both for the employee and the organisation.
What are some of the things organisations can do to foster skill increases in technology?
Learning culture – Foster a learning culture where employees understand the need to continually learn to remain abreast of industry and technological advances.
Broader skill range – Create a broader skill and experiences range to ensure employees are able to adapt and embrace changing technology demands as required.
Multiple minds – Encouraging and rewarding a diverse range of mindsets, decision making can assist with generating a greater suite of ideas and suggestions to drive the organisation forward through the embracing of new and improved technologies.
In today’s society, both male and female employees want to juggle their caring responsibilities to maintain work life balance and overall wellbeing. Long held gender stereotypes that are gradually changing, are making it difficult for males to access flexible working.
Despite many organisations promoting flexible work practices, there is a comparatively low take up of flexible work options by males. Recent reports also depict that flexibility does not appear to be as readily available for men as women for example:
Men are twice as likely to have requests for flexible hours knocked back as women (ABC News Report, 2016), and
Women who have access to flexible working are more inclined to move into senior positions, whereas men who opt for flexibility are less likely to receive the same treatment (News.com., 2016).
These studies represent a growing concern for males in Australian organisations who may be susceptible to stereotyping and discrimination and alert organisations to re-think their actions when approached by their male employees for flexible work arrangements.
So how can an organisation increase the uptake of flexible work practices by males:
Create a culture where it is safe for both males and females to access flexible work practices,
Educate senior leaders on the benefits of flexible working for both males and females – such as higher levels of employee wellbeing, engagement and productivity,
Address stereotypes that caring responsibilities are a female’s domain,
Educate that taking time out for caring responsibilities does not mean an individual (whether they be male or female) is not career focused and
Share stories about individuals whom have taken up flexible work practices to encourage others to also partake in such practices.
For further information on encouraging flexible work practices, please contact the team at Nurture HR Consulting www.nurturehrconsulting.com.au
Recently I was asked how frequently my consultancy comes across mental health concerns in the workplace, within the same day I also spoke to a client about mental health in the workplace.
This led me to ask the question – are we as HR professionals doing all we can to assist organisations in supporting and addressing mental health in the workplace?
So what can we do to assist workplaces?
Communicating the relevance and impact of mental health to the workplace
Providing education to leaders and employees on how to identify and support mental health concerns
Actively supporting individuals with mental health in returning to the workplace
Driving a diverse and open culture in the workplace where mental health is openly spoken about
Minimising stigma and stereotypes about mental health
Ensuring workloads are manageable
Designing roles and workplaces to reduce exposure to mental health concerns
Making resources about mental health available to the workforce
Building personal resilience within a workforce
Reviewing and updating policies and procedures
Proactively maintaining the conversation about mental health and wellness in the workplace
Promoting early intervention and facilitating this
Being available and responsive to assist employees and leaders with mental health concerns when they are identified
For more information on how to assist workplaces with mental health wellbeing please contact Eva and her team at eva@nurturehrconsulting.com.au
Having recently attended a workplace currently in the process of transitioning to automation it struck me that never has the need to remain abreast of industry changes been more paramount if one is to stay current in the workplace.
For employers, it poses two questions – how does an organisation continue to attract employees to an organisation facing automation and secondly how do employers maintain and motivate workers during the period of transition? A time when employees themselves see that the roles they currently occupy may in the not so distant future exist.
For employers, now is the time so start planning for the transition by:
Creating a high-calibre process during the recruitment phase, make it a standout to really solicit candidates. Remember you have to really sell the journey and support to the individual
Developing a clearly defined pathway and development plan for newcomers to the organisation, demonstrating the transition. If there is a clear vision for the employee with stability, they will be more inclined to continue on the journey
Ensuring regular catch-ups are arranged with the employee and a mentor to ensure they are motivated and content in their role and their career pathway is being monitored effectively
Conducting a skills gap analysis and make provisions for training opportunities to assist advancement of their career within the organisation and the employees position, keeping them interested and refreshed
Seeking alliances with industry groups and training organisations such as TAFE and universities
Encouraging employees to undertake online part-time courses to build on their soft skills; frontline management, negotiation, leadership and/or IT skills, whilst still continuing to work
Utilising social media platforms; LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to remain abreast of changes and understand what other organisation’s are implementing.
If employees know that you are invested in them and making efforts to facilitate their career pathway there will be a much greater inclination to stay with the organisation, thus improving retention overall.
“Australia’s population grew by 1.4% during the year ended 30 June 2016; of this, natural increase contributed 46.1% whilst overseas migration contributed 53.9% respectively to total population growth for the year ended 30 June 2016. ” ( ABS, June 2016).
Given these demographics, organisations will be need to utilise a diverse workforce to optimise employment opportunities as we head into the future.
To foster a more diverse organisation, please refer to the suggestions below:
Develop a hiring strategy to increase workforce diversity,
Explore and extend your talent searching opportunities to capture candidates from a more diverse background pool,
From the outset, create a captivating job advert, which is culturally sensitive and attracts candidates to a highly diverse organisation,
Be willing to invest time in recruiting candidates from Non-English speaking backgrounds,
Put measures in place to ensure a skilled older workforce is working alongside unskilled employees to obtain that knowledge and make provisions for knowledge to be retained within the organisation,
Develop retention strategies for the older workforce to try retain them for as long as possible within the organisation,
Develop succession planning to ensure employees are afforded opportunities to be promoted and developed which will assist with retention,
Develop an employee referral scheme to attract candidates,
Provide diversity training in your workplace and
Offer other benefits such as willingness to accommodate cultural and religious practices.
Through the nurturing of diversity, organisations will be better equipped to deal with the challenges faced, retaining a skilled and effective workforce on and into the future.
As Australians, who doesn’t love those 4 day long weekends, however, when it falls in the middle of the week, having to turn up to work on the Friday, post-public holiday, can prove to be most upsetting for the estimated 11.9 million plus employees who must show up to work (ABS, 2016). Not least, for the organisations who will have to also face the backlash and torment from employees!
Organisations must be pragmatic and proactive around absenteeism coming into the new year of 2017, putting it at the top of the agenda and making it a priority. How can we as employers alleviate absenteeism during these post-public holidays and in general in the workplace?
Know your employees – watch out for signs that employees are lacking motivation and develop a retention strategy to increase employee commitment and job satisfaction
Provide more flexibility in working hours and conditions – be open to employees working from home, starting later or finishing earlier
Ensure employees are furnished with a leave policy – distribute this both at the beginning of the year and half way through the year to ensure new employees are completely aware of the policy and expectations
Applying for leave – employees wishing to take leave need to do so within a given timeframe. For those that miss out, alternative strategies around opportunities for leave could be discussed
Encourage supportive and caring teams – teams who are able to feel happy for their team mates and able to carry the load when they are away will be far more effective and satisfied than those who lack empathy and care for their team mates
Health and wellness – through the promotion of a healthy work environment, access to facilities to avail of exercise and advise about health and wellness will demonstrate to employees that you have their best interests at heart and care for them, leaving them with a positive feeling about their workplace
Take these steps today and we as organisations can reduce absenteeism and be more equipped to deal with backlash from employees as we approach those Public Holidays!
