March 11 Newsletter

Welcome to our Newsletter!

Wow what an exciting month we’ve had at Beaumont Consulting, breaking some FIRST EVER company records in relation to job flow.

Our Permanent job flow almost doubled from January to February, we have never had that much of an increase, certainly not in the last 5 years. There is talk of confidence throughout the market, so those figures confirm the way things look like they are going. Brilliant!

What does that really mean? Well for those looking for work, there are more opportunities coming on to the market. Remember not all jobs get advertised, so if you are looking, keep in touch with one of our Consultants and ensure they know what you want to hear about.

For those looking to fill roles, the extra competition in the market means you have to work harder and faster to secure the candidates you want, because if you don’t, your competitors will. You may also find your response to your advertising decreases and it becomes increasingly harder to find that perfect candidate. That’s where we can be invaluable; our candidate networks give us access to a wider range of candidates, so when you can’t find the right candidate, we usually can!

We have to also consider that a significant increase in opportunities in the market, will mean more people find new opportunities, which means more people change jobs, which means more vacancies get advertised and so it goes on… media reports are already eluding to the fact that 2011 with be a year of extremely high turnover, figures from 30 – 60% are being talked about which is insane! Many of our clients are also confirming that this is the case. Just last week we held a complimentary breakfast addressing the issue of retention with Kim Seeling Smith which received rave reviews. If you want a copy of her top 10 tips for keeping your critical people – please contact Patricia Leech our Operations Manager.

On another exciting note, we will be launching a new retention tool in March, which is a first for the recruitment industry, designed to give you critical information to support you in retaining your new hires as well as increasing their productivity and effectiveness. So watch this space for more information or give me a call to discuss.

Have a great month.

Nikki Beaumont

market

Job market reaches tipping point

By Kate Southam

Newly released data shows Australia’s job market is heating up placing new demands on organisations to “sell” what they have to offer as an employer.

Recent reports reveal job openings in January increased by 12.8 per cent adding to gains in October and November.

“Workers are geared-up and confident” about changing jobs and will even move across the country to get the best deal according to IPA Recruitment’s CEO Tricia Phillips. CareerOne’s own research – due out next week – reveals a majority of workers in a survey of nearly 1,000 people were currently looking for new jobs.

Ms Phillips advises employers to review all aspects of their recruitment process immediately including their speed to hire and the ability of their key people to “sell” their organisation to job hunters.

“Employers need to really understand why people exit their organisation and also ensure everyone involved in their recruitment process knows how best to sell their organisation to candidates,” says Ms Phillips.

“If they used to take three weeks to short list candidates then they might need to speed that up or face finding their shortlist is empty because those candidates have accepted jobs elsewhere [in that time] .”

IPA’s monthly report is based on job vacancies placed by clients with its consultants in 28 branches around the country. Industry sectors include call and contact centres, executive, legal, industrial and trades, technical and engineering, mining and resources, governments, logistics and health.

Other key monthly job data is due out in the coming week including the Advantage and ANZ surveys. The Australian Bureau of Statistics was due to release its official unemployment rate for January next week but has been postponed the release date due to Queensland’s floods and cyclone. The unemployment dropped to 5 per cent in December, the lowest level since January 2009.

As rebuilding projects begin it is predicted that job openings across services industries, manufacturing and trade sectors would put upward pressure on wages in those sectors.

Ms Phillips says employers face additional difficulties due to the increased mobility of the workforce. She says local workers as well as those coming in from overseas were prepared to go anywhere in Australia to secure the best working conditions.

Kate Southam is the Editor of CareerOne.com.au and author of the Ask Kate column and the Cube Farmer blog about work matters.

chat

How to Deal with a Chatty Coworker

Enjoying a relaxed and sociable attitude among coworkers makes the workday go by that much quicker. Being able to take a few minutes out of the day to catch up with news of coworker's family or discuss relevant news items creates a much more amiable work environment. Some people choose to keep discussing any issues not related to work to a minimum, while others are naturally social and can easily talk their coworker's ear off if given the opportunity. While you may genuinely like your chatty coworker, being constantly interrupted while trying to get your work done can cause not only you frustration, but also your boss. Here are some tips on how to deal with the chatty coworker.

Have A List Of Responses Ready When Your Chatty Coworker Becomes Too Long winded. By having phrases such as "Interesting, let's talk about this further at lunch," or "I'd love to hear all about it, lets talk during break" will send the message across without hurting your coworker's feelings. Chances are your chatty coworker is not aware that their tendency to go on and on is interfering with your work and simply needs a gentle nudge to hold their long and involved conversations in check until a better time to converse becomes available.

Set Aside A Period Of Time To Talk. By arriving at your workplace in the morning and seeking out your chatty coworker to talk with while you hang up your coat, pour coffee and boot up your computer, you can give them the opportunity to talk with you before your day gets into full swing. By letting the chatty coworker get whatever they want to talk about off their chest before your day becomes hectic, you will greatly reduce the chance of being interrupted later.

Be Honest, But Polite. There is absolutely nothing wrong with letting your chatty coworker that you are far too busy to talk at the moment. By simply telling your coworker in a gentle way that you are swamped at the moment, but that you look forward to talking to them later in the day or at break time, you can stop the conversation in it's tracks without hurting any feelings.

Stop Responding. This may seem like a passive aggressive tactic, but if all other suggestions have been tried with little success, it may be the best way to stop your chatty co-worker from holding up your day and impeding your work flow. Conversations need to be more than one sided and eventually your chatty coworker will stop talking to you if they are not getting a satisfactory response.

Have A Talk With Your Supervisor. This is certainly the last resort, as a mature and cohesive work environment does not benefit from complaining about a coworker to the boss, but if you simply can not get your work done with the expected amount of quality due to a chatty coworker, letting your supervisor in on the problem may be in order. You will not only give your superior a heads up as to why you are having issues completing your work assignments in the expected amount of time, thus saving your reputation and possibly your job; you will also give the person in charge the opportunity to solve the problem by reprimanding the chatty coworker about office rules regarding socializing during business hours.

Lisa Riggs, Yahoo! Contributor Network

network

Social networking: the challenge for employers

Ben Williams

As a result of the growth of online social networking sites in recent times, employers are being forced to address a number of related issues. Thoughts and opinions that would have once been exchanged in private, now find their way onto the internet where they can be viewed by large numbers of individuals or are even made available to the public as whole.

A common problem appears to be that employees consider their comments on such sites to be invisible to their employer. This was clearly the case in January 2009, when staff of a well known British store were caught branding customers as 'idiots' and 'cheap little b******,' on an online forum. Shortly before that, British Airways staff referred to passengers as 'smelly and annoying’. Recently, an employee, after adding her boss as an online friend, later described him as being lecherous towards her and said," My boss is always making me do s*** stuff just to p*** me off!!" It took a matter of hours before her fate was sealed in a response from her boss which itself became an internet sensation, with images of the exchange emailed around the world. He replied: "Hi Lindsay, I guess you forgot about adding me on here?" before going on to sack her.

The most recently reported matter concerned a bank worker who lost her redundancy payment when minutes after having received the announcement of widespread redundancies, she described it as the "best news ever" on her Facebook wall. She added, "I speak for myself when I say WoOOOOooooOooooHOoooOooOoo it was pretty damn obvious something like this was coming". A colleague reported her comments and she was dismissed for breaching her ‘declaration of secrecy’. Whilst this matter may well find its way to a Tribunal for determination, it exposes some interesting questions for employers such as what they can do to protect themselves from unwelcome exposure in this way.

Facebook alone has over 500 million reported users with over 200 million of them accessing the site through mobile phones and 700 billion minutes are spent on the site each month. Employers are therefore well advised to adopt strict policies for internet and telephone use during working hours. However, when it comes to online incidents occurring outside of working hours, this involves a difficult exercise of ensuring a balance is struck between the employee’s right to a private life with the employer’s right to protect their business and its reputation. Employers can only take reasonable action in response to comments recorded by employees. Personal prejudices must be kept to one side and action would only be appropriate if the employee has stated something that genuinely puts the reputation of a business at risk. This will entail close scrutiny of what is written and who would be able to see it.

This is clearly a developing area of employment law, and with social networking growing ever more popular by the day, it is likely there will be many more dismissals as a consequence of alleged misuse.

Ben Williams is a barrister at Kings Chambers in Manchester and Leeds, UK

temp

Temp of the Month

This month our $100 Temp of the Month prize goes to ….. Mitchell Leroy.

This is what the client had to say:

"Mitchell has taken on his territory with enthusiasm and a professionalism that is paramount in his role. He is very well regarded by the customers in his QLD territory and that has contributed to the success of the Customer Service team in winning the Customer Service Award from one of our largest customers for last year. He has proven himself to be a valued asset to the team and our company. Well done Mitchell."

Trish W - Customer Service Leader

Well done from the team at Beaumont!