April 09 Newsletter

Welcome to Beaumont Consulting's April newsletter. This months newsletter hopes to provide you with some interesting information as well other news and gossip. We hope you enjoy it.

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Work balance grant for small business

Small businesses - this is worth a look. The Australian Government has introduced the Fresh Ideas for Work and Family grants program to support Australian small businesses to implement practices that help employees balance their work and family obligations as well as improve employee retention and productivity.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), are offering grants of between $5,000 and $15,000 to develop your own in-house flexible working arrangements or work-life balance program. The next round of funding closes on 24 April, so why not fill out an application form and apply.

DEEWR notes that family-friendly work arrangements do not need to be "prescriptive and difficult" in order to succeed.

It outlines 20 simple family-friendly ideas that employers can introduce at "little or no cost".

These include:

scheduling meetings within normal working hours;
negotiating start and finish times and giving staff a say in rostering arrangements;
allowing staff to make up hours if they need to attend an appointment;
discouraging weekend work and staying back late, except in exceptional circumstances;
broadening the definition of 'family' (to include more distant relatives) for the purposes of bereavement leave;
holding a 'bring your child to work' day or family picnic day;
allowing leave without pay for cultural purposes;
introducing a policy for breastfeeding employees; and
introducing a keep-in-touch plan for staff on maternity leave.

In addition, the program supports small businesses through:

developing and distributing business and industry specific information to assist in implementing family friendly work arrangements.
having experts within Fair Work Australia from January 2010, to provide assistance in setting up family friendly work arrangements.

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Employment Forecast

The Age recently put out Australia’s employment forecast for March 09 and it's not all doom and gloom folks!
The latest release of the forecast finds that although Australia’s economy is slowing under the weight of the global downturn, employment is forecast to grow but at lower levels and Australia will also avoid the large job shedding that the USA and UK are experiencing.

It also finds that the Government stimulus packages, lower interest rates and a lower exchange rate will assist in keeping Australia reasonably insulated from the downturn but we are facing more difficult times.
As the stimulus initiatives take hold, the job market is expected to start to improve in the second half of the year.

Typically, in difficult times the least educated and unskilled experience the brunt of the forecast rise in unemployment and this time it is expected to happen again. The dynamics of the labour market have changed as well, temporarily. Now there is much more of a “sit tight” culture with fewer people willing to switch jobs and business’s reluctant to take on new staff.

Businesses are also switching to more casual staff, this is a fairly typical response in challenging times as business seeks to reduce labour costs.

Click here to download an easy to understand two-page summary of the Forecast.

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Are you looking for a volunteer opportunity?

Beaumont Consulting have been working with and supporting Cure Cancer . They have a number of volunteer positions available as below – but while I have your attention, you can also buy the 09/10 Entertainment Book through them for $65 and $13 from each sale will go to Cure Cancer. Just click here to download the order form.

Now back to business - Can Too is a program that trains people to run a marathon, half-marathon or 10k event, or swim in an ocean swim while raising money for Cure Cancer Australia. Can Too has competed in 11 major events in the past 4 years, raising over $2,650,000 for cancer research. None of this would have been possible without the valuable assistance of volunteers who have helped at training sessions and on event days.

Are you interested in becoming involved in Can Too, but don’t see yourself as a runner or swimmer? Then there are many other ways you can contribute, Can Too always need:

"Water Boys and Girls" to help on Saturday mornings cheering runners in and handing out drinks and food. Hours: Saturday mornings 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM, or 10 AM - 11 AM.

Assisting at events: Sydney events on Sunday 17 May 2009, 20 September 2009, and Melbourne events are on 28 June 2009 and 11 October 2009. People needed to donate a couple of hours to set up and serve food and drinks in the Can Too marquee and then clean up. The atmosphere is great and it is a lot of fun!!!

Masseurs : After the Can Too team have completed their running or swimming event Can Too love them to get treated to a short massage for their tired and aching muscles.

Physiotherapists, podiatrists, nutritionists: Can Too invite physiotherapists, podiatrists and nutritionists to talk to their group for 15 minutes after a training session on a Wednesday evening or a Tuesday morning about your specific skill and expertise. This is also a great opportunity to be introduced to some potential new clients.

Sports psychologists/motivational speakers: If you would like to donate 20 minutes of your time to motivate and inspire one of the training groups, they would love to hear from you.

Office administration: People are needed who would like to donate time to assist in office administration for a couple of hours a week, a month or around the time of our events. It is a lovely environment, with really friendly people.

You CAN TOO –check out the website www.cantoo.org.au or if you would like to apply for any of these roles email info@cantoo.org.au

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Upcoming Events

After a fantastic response to his last presentation, we are pleased to be able to offer another entertaining and informative evening with Anthony Sork

Manager as Coach - Are your management behaviours positively or negatively impacting organisation climate and engagement levels?

This interactive 1 hour session is designed to build awareness of the skills and behaviours of managers who apply the “Coaching” behavioural style of management.

Presented by Anthony Sork, Managing Director of Sork HC , and one of Australia ’s leading Facilitator’s and Executive Behavioural Coach’s. A recognised Human Capital expert, Anthony writes regularly for publications on Human Capital issues and Leadership Behaviour. Anthony has worked with Leadership and Management teams of leading organisations including JP Morgan, CBA, The Belron Group, NSW Lotteries and more.

To make this accessible to all our valued clients, we are offering this presentation at City and Chatswood locations.

When: 15th April in the city, OR, 22nd April in Chatswood, Registration at 5.30 for 6pm start

We will also be having a few drinks and canapés after the presentation.

If you are interested in attending this session, register now, as these sessions are filling up fast!

To see what other events and training we have coming up, visit the Value Added Services page on our website.

Hope to see you there!

Our IT Division

Sarah Cunningham has recently joined Beaumont Consulting’s IT Division as a specialist consultant.

Prior to working in IT recruitment, Sarah has had many years experience working in the IT industry, and her varied experience includes: selling product & professional services for a software project methodology organisation, sales & middle management roles & running the Business Partner Channel business for Lotus/IBM, and a sales position at Microsoft. These positions provided her extensive first hand experience in working with clients in corporate and government – both at a State and National level. In addition, her roles have enabled her to have a deep understanding of the IT channel business.

Her approach to recruiting is to utilise her background experience, skills and connections and apply these to both the client and the candidate, by really listening to their requirements and applying the philosophy that ‘only the best will do in terms of servicing these requirements fully.

Her major focus is placing Senior I.T Consultants/Managers & Project Managers, sales executives, marketing managers & trainers in either permanent positions or contracting roles. Please feel free to call her on 9413 1311 to discuss any of your IT requirements, or for career assistance in this field.

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Temp of the Month

We appreciate all of the hard work that our temps put in for us and we would like to say a big thank you to you all.

This month an extra special thank you has to go to… Donna McClean, who is our Temp of the Month for April 2009! Donna consistently performs to an excellent standard and her commitment, flexibility and cooperative attitude really are a credit to her. Fantastic Donna, we love your work. Here is some feedback from our client on the great work Donna has done for us in the last few months:

“Donna has been with us for several months and has displayed a no nonsense attitude with a positive outlook within the team which is a great mix. She does the basics well such as attendance, and cares about what happens. Her statistics are also among the higher ones in the area.”

Brilliant! Thanks Donna, keep up the great work.

april

Whats on in April

Darling Harbour Hoopla – 10th - 13th April

Royal Easter Show – 11th – 22nd April

Autumn Racing Carnival – 11th - 25th April

Surry Hills Festival - 18th April

Jerry Springer – the Opera – 21st – 25th April