Blog

You know what most Boards are continually trying to do – get results, increase profits and de-risk the business. So how is HR supporting these strategic imperatives – we try and hire the best people and manage performance, but how do we strategically influence the risk profile of the business? We try to keep the […]

Throughout my 23 year career in HR, we have had allegations of being ‘soft and fluffy’, or ‘chicks with slides’ – obviously not commercial enough, so we have struggled to get the Board to ‘invest’ – financially, emotionally or strategically in the ‘people’ side of the business. Investment is for the financials, marketing or IT. […]

By Natasha Hawker People often ask me, if I could get one thing right around my people strategy, what would it be? Unfortunately, there is not one strategy that fixes everything. For example, I had a client that I initially went in to one day a week, to help with the HR for a period […]

One of the things that I get on “my soapbox” about is the disproportionate representation of women in the boardroom, and it was made even clearer to me this week just how deep-seated this problem is. My daughter put in her application to be formally considered for School or Vice-Captain. This was followed by two […]

Communication is key to your success. It is so vital for a successful culture and business, it’s easy enough to do but it’s a balancing act for it to be effective.   Are you communicating too much? – In which case people have stopped listening. Are you not communicating enough? – In which case people […]

As crime becomes more professional and lucrative for the criminal community, data owners need to review the way they store and secure their personal and corporate data. Markets exist online for the sale of personal and corporate data and the consequences for businesses that have their databases stolen are often critical. Despite the professional way […]

Do I hear groans? Yes, I know. “Plan” is not the sexiest word in business but it’s crucial to ensure your business is moving forward and you have a way to measure success. The beginning of the year (financial or calendar) is the best time to formulate your Strategic Plan. This can feel overwhelming, but […]

  Icare will be introducing some changes early this year with the intention that it will make the workers insurance scheme easier to use and more accessible for insurance companies, that are agents of icare, and also for businesses with workers compensation insurance. The main changes are as follows: Icare will undertake all policy and […]

We recently helped a client reduce their annual leave and long service leave liability from $790k down to $200k. Now this liability was sitting on their balance sheet (looks bad to potential investors) and if a chunk of their team left suddenly, it would need to be paid out immediately. Do you have a spare […]

It’s Friday afternoon and Christine, who has a series of documented performance failures, is about to be dismissed by you. You are by no means looking forward to this awkward conversation, but can be comforted by the knowledge that you have complied with your obligations thus far — and that Christine has decided to accept […]