May 07 Newsletter

Office move! North Shore Branch

In case you didn’t know; it’s a very exciting time to be working in the Beaumont Consulting Chatswood Branch! We have just relocated to our plush new offices in Help Street and will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary in September! Looking after both temporary and permanent business support and banking and finance vacancies, covering the entire North Shore, our team of 4 are busy interviewing candidates and meeting clients! So if you are struggling to find the perfect employee who is happy to travel across the bridge, don’t hesitate to call us! Our new telephone number is 02 9413 1311.

Embrace Older Candidates Now

Recruiters and HR professionals will increasingly consider older workers as a significant part of the work force. A report by The Treasury’s Intergenerational Report 2007, released early April, states that the number of workers aged 55-64 will be the fastest growing group of workers over the next 40 years.

The report states that the total labour force participation rates are projected to fall (from 76.2% currently to 57.1% by 2046-47), reflecting the rapid increase in the proportion of the population aged 65 and over.

There has been a recent lift in labour force participation for older workers, and this is likely to remain significant, softening the projected decline in participation.

Labour force participation for working-age people (15-64) has risen from 60.7 per cent in 1978-79 to 64.5 per cent in 2005-06. This is believed to be a result of the strong rise in women's participation over that time (from 43.5% to 57.2%), while male participation has fallen from 78.5 per cent to 72.1 per cent.

New Consultant in our Banking & Finance Team

We welcome Sarah-Loiuse Saywell to the Beaumont Team. Sarah-Louise will be specialising in recruiting for the Banking and Insurance industries. She has a strong background in both the New Zealand and the Sydney markets and prides herself on providing a high level of service to both candidates and clients. Sarah-Louise enjoys the opportunity to work in partnership and her consultative approach means she builds strong and lasting relationships. Sarah-Louise believes that the key to her relationships is always following up and doing what you say you will. So if you are seeking a temporary or permanent role within banking and insurance or you have a vacancy in your team, Sarah-Louise would love to hear from you!

Office Workers Need to Move More

Don’t sit at your computer for too long without a break if you want to protect yourself from the risk of blood clots.

A study by the Medical Research Institute in New Zealand has found that about a third of patients admitted to hospital with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were office workers who spent hours at a computer. DVT is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs. The clots can travel to the heart, lungs or brain, causing chest pain, breathlessness or possible death from a heart attack or stroke.

Lead researcher Professor Richard Beasley says some office workers who developed clots sat at their screens for 14 hours a day. "Some of them were going three to four hours at a time without getting up.”

Taking regular breaks, every hour, to go for a walk or even do some stretches, is important to both physical health and mental health.

For more on this story, go to: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1870247.htm

Beaumont Babies

We think there must be something in the water, as we have had two new additions to the Beaumont Team recently! Leanne Ferguson gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Isabella Rose

More recently, Sian Keegan welcomed a bouncing baby boy Bowen Rhys

Aren’t they gorgeous? We are glad to say our team is always growing!

Our Next Client Evening is Coming Up...

Beaumont Consulting are holding another Client Evening on Thursday 24th May at 6pm.
The keynote speaker, Anna-Lucia Mackay from HCM Global, will be presenting "Understanding Employee Engagement".

If you would like to find out more information regarding this event, please contact Lucy Wells on (02) 9279 2777

Workplace Death and Serious Injury: can you be held personally accountable?

By Rhonda Dunn

Workers compensation provides valuable protection to workers and their employers in the event of a workplace-related injury, disease or death. All NSW employers must have a workers compensation policy to insure themselves against compensation claims.

On 1 March 2004, the Crimes (Industrial Manslaughter) Amendment Act 2003 came into force. The Act was implemented to fulfil a 2001 election commitment made by the Labor Government, and is part of a comprehensive range of measures to improve workplace health and safety standards. It created a new offence of industrial manslaughter and reinforced the importance of workplace safety by imposing severe penalties including fines and/or imprisonment for breaches of the Act.

What a lot of employers and managers do not know is that “senior officers” can be prosecuted where it is proven that their negligence or recklessness led to the death or serious injury of an employee under their supervision.

Although the Occupational Health and Safety Act may vary slightly from State to State, in NSW “a person may face criminal penalties for breaching one or more of the workplace health and safety obligations created under the Act.” Despite mounting pressure in the wake of a number of workplace deaths between 2000 and 2003, the Minister for Industrial Relations in NSW opted to make changes to methods of investigations of workplace accidents and established a WorkCover fatalities unit, with the aim of ensuring that any workplace deaths were prosecuted in the appropriate court so that sentencing relevant to the crime would apply.

NSW currently has the highest maximum financial penalties for those found guilty of breaching the Act. The maximum penalties for a breach of a general duty of, for example a duty of care owed to an employee, currently range from $55,000 for first time offenders, to $825,000 for corporations who are repeat offenders.

Conclusion

Every year in Australia, a significant number of people die as a result of workplace accidents. This is despite the existing regulatory scheme of OHS laws in operation at Commonwealth, State and Territory level.

The solution to reduce the toll from workplace deaths and accidents is not easy to come by. Despite the implementation of legislation and education programs, deaths and serious injuries are still occurring in workplaces across Australia at a cost of approximately $30 billion annually. To ensure you and your business are protected from being negligent in managing your OH&S practices, we suggest you refer to http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/LawAndPolicy/Regulations/default.htm.

Amusing Facts

In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a 100kg rock. More than twenty people witnessed the ceremony.
The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.
Bamboo plants can grow up to 36 inches in a day.
Travelling by air is the safest means of transportation.
The hippopotamus has the capability to remain underwater for as long as twenty-five minutes.
An apple, potato, and onion all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged. They all taste sweet.
When the Pez mint dispenser was first introduced it was meant to replace the activity of smoking.
Three years of a person's life is spent on the toilet.

Quote

"If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine." - Morris West