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Jul 11 Newsletter
Welcome to our newsletter
The end of June marks the end of our financial year for most companies. This usually means a hectic time for our accounts teams as they close off the year’s finances. Managers are busy finalising budgets and for many of us it’s a time to reflect on the past 12 months and plan for the year ahead.
At Beaumont Consulting we’ve experienced another challenging but interesting year, we’ve seen the economy improve but felt some fluctuations too. Despite the disparity of opinion in recent media coverage regarding the current economy, we remain positive about the opportunities for businesses and individuals for the coming year ahead. Our Consultants are busy working on some really interesting vacancies and we’re seeing some fabulous talent on a daily basis. Now is a great time to be looking for new staff to join your organisation or for a new role yourself, so please contact one of our Consultants today.
July 2011 also marks the 10th anniversary for Beaumont Consulting which gives us a wonderful reason to celebrate but also to reflect. Looking back over the last 10 years the one thing that stands out for me the most is the wonderful people I have been lucky enough to meet through Beaumont Consulting, candidates, clients, suppliers and of course the team at Beaumont Consulting, past and present. We’ve worked on over 13,000 jobs in the last 10 years and placed over 8000 candidates. I wonder what the next 10 years will bring? Further changes to the way we use technology for sure, different expectations for both candidates and clients, perhaps different service offerings?
We’re still working with many of the clients we were working with in those first few years and our relationships are as strong as ever. Candidates come back to us time and time again when they’re ready to make that next move. We sincerely hope that many of you who are reading with this now, will still have a relationship with us over the years to come. I intend to be here for sure!
Enjoy our newsletter, thank you for being a loyal customer of Beaumont Consulting and here’s to a successful year ahead!
Cheers!
Nikki
Market News
“JOBS Minister Chris Evans believes the latest employment data highlights the resilience of the labour market with the jobless rate holding at 4.9 per cent.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said just 7800 jobs were created in May, well shy of the 25,000 expected by economists, but after a surprise fall in April.
This kept the unemployment rate steady for a third straight month.
"The latest ABS figures show the resilience of Australia's labour market,' Senator Evans said.
"The latest figures show that in the past month we have seen a return to job creation.'
Australia remained in an enviable position compared to its international counterparts with Europe and the US continuing to battle unemployment rates in excess of nine per cent.
"With the unemployment rate expected to fall to 4.5 per cent by mid-2013, we're focused on building a bigger and better workforce that our economy needs,' Senator Evans said.
"We want to ensure Australians receive the training and education they need to enable them to access the job opportunities which will arise from our economic strength.'
From: AAP - June 09, 2011 1:50PM
know
This month we're getting to know Renee Johnson
1. What is your role in Beaumont Consulting? Temporary Team Leader – City
2. What was your first job? In a little local Italian deli…I was 14 yrs and 9mths old and got paid $5.25 per hour, which I was so excited about!
3. What was your favourite subject at school? Society & Culture
4. If you were stuck on a desert island, what is the one thing you couldn’t do without? My mobile phone…to keep in touch with the world!
5. What is the first thing you notice about people? A friendly smile
6. Who is someone that inspires you and why? My grandmother….she has ‘been there and done that’ and at 73 still manages to keep 6 children, 10 grandchildren & 2 great grandchildren all in line!
7. What do you do in your spare time? Lots of walking and cooking
8. What was the last book you read? A cheesy autobiography (not telling you who!)
9. If you could be famous for anything what would it be? Talking the longest sentence without taking a breath!
10. What’s the best decision you have ever made? To relocate overseas at the ripe young age of 22…it took me on some amazing journeys and really opened my eyes to some wonderful experiences both personally and professionally
Temp of the month
This month our $100 Temp of the Month prize goes to ….. Neralyn Jordan
This is what the client had to say:
Having only been with us for four weeks it seems like so much more as Neralyn has really taken to the role and the team. She is a pleasure to deal with, very professional, gets the job done with a smile and has integrated herself into the team very quickly.
Well done from the team at Beaumont!
Ross Clennet brings you …..Interview questions to avoid and what to ask instead
I recently did some consulting work for a new client and as part of my work, I reviewed their interviewing template and sat in on a few interviews.
Oh dear!
It was more than a little disappointing to see how ineffective the process was, in accomplishing the critical tasks of an interview.
Having looked at the interviewing template, it was hardly surprising that these interviews were so poor. Interviewing templates are very important for rookie interviewers in ensuring that all the relevant areas of an interview are covered and, just as importantly, in reducing the chances of ineffectual, irrelevant or illegal questions being asked.
The three pillars of an effective interview are:
1.To understand the job/career aspirations and motivators/drivers of the prospective employee and as a result, whether the prospective employee is committed to their job search or merely interested in their job search.
2.To understand whether the prospective employee has the technical skills and behavioural competencies relevant to your current needs and/or your company and the motivation to do the job on offer.
3.The prospective employee leaves the interview with the experience of being:
• validated
• appreciated
• understood
• affirmed
Here are a few interview questions I recommend you avoid asking and an alternative way to ask the same question.
Ineffective question: What are your major strengths?
Effective question: In your last performance review, what aspects of your work did your reviewer mention as being particularly good or strong? OR What accomplishment(s) or aspects of your current/most recent work are you most proud of? Why you are proud of it/them and describe to me how you accomplished it/them?
Ineffective question: What are your major weaknesses?
Effective question: In your last performance review, what aspects of your work did your reviewer mention as needing to improve the most, to take your work performance to the next level and tell me what you have done with respect to that feedback?
Comment:
The two ineffective questions above are both opinion-based questions and as such, will elicit an opinion from the prospective employee. It is critical to gain evidence during an interview.
A behavioural-based question explicitly asks for evidence (ie. "what happened") whereas an opinion-based question does not.
Ineffective question: What will you do if your child gets sick during work time? OR Do you have young children?
Effective question: Because of the intense customer-focused and high response nature of this job (or substitute any other valid job-related criteria), it is extremely difficult for our business to be flexible with starting and finishing times between the core hours of 9am and 5pm. Does that present any difficulties for you with respect to any other commitments you have?
Comment:
Although this sort of question may be asked with good intention, the reality is that if the prospective employee does not gain an offer for the job, they may believe it is because they gave the ‘wrong' answer to this question and as such were discriminated against on non-job related criteria. Always ask questions that are specifically and demonstrably job-related questions.
Ineffective question: How did you feel about that feedback?
Effective question: How did you respond when you received that feedback?
Comment:
Asking a prospective employee about their feelings with respect to anything, is a very indirect and unreliable way of asking a question where you need a definitive and reliable answer (eg I feel good about hamburgers, I just don't want one right now).
What a candidate feels might be interesting to know, but how a prospective employee behaves is what determines job performance. When you start asking prospective employees about their feelings you risk drifting into the territory of a counseller or therapist.
Ineffective question: Where do you see yourself in three years time?
Effective question: What skills do you want to gain or improve in the next 12 months and what steps have you taken recently to achieve this?
Comment:
In this day and age of rapid change in the job market, who really knows where they are going to be in three or five years' time? I know I don't. This may have been a sound interview question to ask in a much more predictable work world (25 years ago), but not anymore.
Asking effective questions is the foundation of effective interviewing.
About the author: Ross Clennett is a speaker, trainer, writer and coach who specialises in the recruitment sector. To read more of Ross’s articles or to find out for more information about Ross’s services please visit http://www.rossclennett.com/
vit
Office workers deficient in vitamin D
Nearly half of Australian employees working indoors are lacking in vitamin D during the winter months.
A survey of Sydney office workers, presented at the Dieticians Association of Australia conference in Adelaide on Thursday, found 42% of workers were deficient in the vital ‘sun’ vitamin by the end of winter.
"We suspected lifestyle makes a difference to vitamin D, especially working indoors, but we hadn't expected that we'd have this much of a problem," researcher Professor Rebecca Mason told AAP.
Vitamin D is absorbed by the skin through the sun’s rays and is needed to absorb calcium from dairy foods and for building strong bones and muscles.
A long-term deficiency in vitamin D can put people at greater risk of developing osteoporosis and can contribute to the decline of muscle function.
The lowest levels of vitamin D were found in people with darker skin, as the compound that makes their skin dark absorbs the sun’s UVB rays rather than the vitamin D compound.
Those with fair skin were also found to be lacking, due to them being more likely to avoid the sun’s harmful rays.
Mason suggested that workers need to make more of an effort to get out of the office during the day to soak up some much-needed sunshine.
She recommended 10 minutes of sunshine mid-morning or afternoon every day during the summer and upping it to 30 minutes around midday during winter, but warned people to remain wary of the sun’s harmful effects.
27/05/2011 from HC Online
Our bit for the community
Megaswim
On June 25th, the “Beaumont Bathers And Friends” took part in the Sydney Megaswim in aid of Multiple Sclerosis. The team swam continuously for 24 hours covering just over 50 kilometres and raising in excess of $3,000. Thank you to everyone who supported this achievement and to the “Bathers” who braved the cold to get to Sydney Olympic Park, especially those that swam through the night.
You can still sponsor the team at http://events.megaswim.com/index.html?kw=beaumont&SearchFor=Team
CEO Sleepout
Nikki Beaumont bravely spent a winter’s night sleeping on the streets for CEO Sleepout in aid of St Vincent De Paul Society. The luxury of four pieces of cardboard didn’t seem to make the experience much more bearable and Nikki was left feeling stiff, sore and tired but very humbled by the experience and grateful of the knowledge that she had a warm bed to go to the following night when there are so many that don’t.
Nikki managed to raise $3,385 so thank you to everyone that supported her and this very worthwhile cause!