How a HR Health Check can assist your business

What is a HR Health Check?

A HR Health Check is a diagnostic tool used to assess the people management aspects of your business. 

How can a HR Health Check assist my business?

A Health Check will enable you to review, plan and make adjustments to your HR practices enabling you to deal with issues before they arise.

How does a HR Health Check work?

A HR Health Check steps you through a series of strategic questions designed to cover a wide range of employer to employee related questions, assessing the current position of your HR management performance, business HR maturity and any limitations that may be affecting people performance.

Who is a HR Health Check designed for?

Whether you are a small business without a HR department or a large company, a HR health check can be beneficial in assessing the state of your "people performance".

What happens after the HR health check?

It is really up to you to decide.  It will depend upon your business priorities at the time.  Our company can assist you in developing a customised solution that fits perfectly with your business needs.

What type of solutions does your company offer?

We offer customised HR services for your business.  We don't believe in off the shelf generic solutions.  We take the time to understand your business needs and requirements.  Whether you require a one off solution or a completely outsourced solution, we can help.  Examples of the types of solutions we provide include:

·         HR compliance solutions include policy and procedure development, employment contracts and workshops on areas such as Fair Work Legislation, EEO, Recruitment and Harassment/Discrimination laws.

·         Work Health and Safety (WHS) solutions include: development of policies and procedures, design of work health and safety management systems, safety audits, safety leadership programs and workshops outlining WHS responsibilities for small business.

·         Performance Management solutions include: assisting you with performance managing your staff.

·         HR Skills Training solutions include customised training to assist you in building and developing internal HR capability.

Is it expensive?

No.  We have solutions designed for every size organisation and budget.  You can select an option that suits your specific needs.

Where can I get further information?

Visit www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

Email: info@leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

Securing Finance for your Business

A business seeking capital can’t afford to underestimate the importance of business financial projections. A business financial projection is simply forecasting your sales and revenue to the lender. This information is important because it is a key indicator to your ability to repay a loan.

 

If you are unsure about financial forecasting and how it relates to your business it is best to hire someone who does know. Most lenders will want to see a three or five year projection. There are 14 different items to include and fully support in your financial projections. With these different items it is best to give a month-by-month breakdown for the first year, a quarterly breakdown for the next two years, and an annual breakdown for the final two years you are projecting.

 

The different items to include in your projections are; sales revenue estimates, administrative costs, production costs, sales costs, capital expenditures, gross margin by product line, sales increase by product line, interest rates on debts, income tax rate, accounts receivable collection plan, accounts payable schedule, inventory turnover, depreciation schedules, and the usefulness or depreciation of assets.

 

The income projection enables the owner/manager to develop a preview of the amount of income generated each month and for the business year, based on industry supportable predictions of monthly levels of sales, costs, and expenses. When determining the total net sales you will be finding out how many units of products and services you expect to sell at the prices you are projecting. Make sure to think of what returns, allowances, and markdowns can be expected. The sales costs needs to be calculated for all products and services used. Ensure that when determining the costs of sale that you don’t forget anything such as commission paid to sales representatives, transportation costs, or any direct labor costs.

 

For the gross profit you would subtract the total cost of sale from the total net sales. To get your gross profit margin you will divide the gross profits from the total net sales. This will be expressed as a percentage of total sales or revenues.

 

When formulating your business financial projections there are five items that will ruin the accuracy of your projections, and damage your chances of being approved for business financing. The first one is wishful thinking or being over-optimistic about your sales potential. Ask yourself: “Is it possible to achieve the sales levels you’re forecasting?”. A good example is that a sales team can only visit a certain number of customers each week or a factory can only manufacture a given amount of products on each shift.

 

Make sure to keep your projections realistic and even more important to be based on supportable evidence. It is imperative to also make sure that your sales assumptions are linked directly to your sales forecast or your information will contradict itself. Most lenders are “by the numbers”, so if your numbers don’t add up, you will get declined. A good example of this is to say that you expect increased sales in a market that is declining. That just does not add up.

 

Another thing not to do when projecting your business finances is to spend a lot of time refining the forecast. Try to avoid tinkering with the target numbers once they are set. Many business owners neglect to ask the opinions of the sales people who know the buyer’s intentions about what they think the projected sales should be. It is important to make sure your sales team agrees on any sales targets that will be set. One other fatal mistake made by business owners when working on financial projections is not getting feedback on the projections from an accountant.

 

Like to know more?  Visit www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

Managing Workforce Absences

That absence management is a key component of workforce management does not really need an explicit mention. However, planned and unplanned absence is a universal fact of work and many organizations might take it as something that cannot be avoided.

There are ways to minimize both absence and its impact. First, we need to look the factors that cause absence, particularly unplanned absence that is more disruptive to work.

Reasons for Absence

• SHORT-TERM SICKNESS: Short-term sickness is a major contributor to unplanned absence. An employee might call in sick, or produce some kind of certificate to prove the sickness.
• LONG-TERM SICKNESS: This kind of absence is usually covered by a certificate.
• UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCE OR PERSISTENT LATECOMING: The employee might just absent himself or herself without any excuse, or might be a habitual latecomer.
• AUTHORIZED ABSENCE: Employees are entitled to different kinds of leave under the provisions of employment laws. These include annual vacations, maternity (and paternity) leave, educational leave, and so on. These kinds of absence can be scheduled and alternative work arrangements can be made through advance planning,

 

Measuring Absence and its Cost

Many organizations do not take the trouble to find out the cost of employee absence, the reasons for the absence and ways of reducing its impact. With proper focus, absence is controllable to some extent, and the resultant benefits can be significant.

By accumulating absent hours (including late hours) and comparing it to total available hours during the period, we can calculate the percentage of time lost owing to absence. By comparing the percentage for different periods, the trend of absence can be monitored.

By department and section wise monitoring of the trend, it might even be possible to identify some of the reasons underlying high absenteeism. For example, poor working conditions or a bad manager or supervisor might be aggravating the problem in a department or section. Absence can also be measured by individual workers. The number and length of absences of each employee during a 52-week period is noted. Problem employees can be identified and the reasons underlying their absence can be investigated.

Policies and Actions for Absence Management

Surveys have revealed that sickness is a major factor for absence. The studies also indicate that stress-related absence is increasing compared to earlier periods. Absence management starts with clear policies for allowing employees to take time off due to sickness. The policies should meet the minimum requirements under the law, and can be more liberal to attract better employees.

The policies must be communicated clearly to employees. In particular, employees must be fully aware of the procedures for availing sick leave, such as whom to notify, when a doctor's certificate or examination by company doctor is required and also any return-to-work interview requirements.

Implement systems to measure absence by departments/sections and by employee. Seeking the help of occupational health professionals to reduce the incidence sickness and stress can help reduce incidence of occupational health and injury problems. Unacceptably high and persistent levels of absence need to be handled through disciplinary procedures.

Moving Forward

Absence management is an important component of workforce management. Absences can occur owing to different factors. Managing absences start with the organization measuring the levels of absence and identifying the reasons for it. Once a clear picture is available, organizations would find it easier to tackle unacceptably high levels of absence. Studies indicate that sickness and stress are major contributory factors to absence. These are unplanned absences and cause more disruption.


If you'd like to know how we can assist you with your workforce planning, please visit our website www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

  

Busy Managers vs Productive Managers

Only about 10 percent of managers work purposefully to complete important tasks, according to a 10-year study of managerial behavior across a variety of industries. The other 90 percent self-sabotage by busily engaging in non-purposeful activities, procrastinating, detaching from their work and needlessly spinning their wheels.

 

In a revealing study over a 10-year period, 1993-2003, authors Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal tracked behaviors of managers in a wide variety of industries (A Bias for Action: How Effective Managers Harness Their Willpower, Achieve Results, and Stop Wasting Time, Harvard Business School Press, 2004).

 

They found that over 90 percent of managers fail to act purposefully in their everyday work. Bruch's and Ghoshal's study identifies four profiles of managerial behavior, as charted in a grid measuring focus and energy. Managers were charted as being high or low in focus, and they were charted as being high or low in energy.

 

High focus, high energy managers were described as Purposeful.
High focus, low energy managers were seen as Detached.
Low focus, high energy managers were described as Frenzied.
Low focus, low energy managers were seen as Procrastinators.

 

The Frenzied: Forty percent of managers are distracted by the overwhelming tasks that face them each day. They are highly energetic, but unfocused. But "the need for speed" prompts them to be unreflective. They could achieve more if they consciously concentrate their efforts on what really matters.

 

The Procrastinators: Thirty percent of managers procrastinate on doing their organizations' most important work. They lack both energy and focus, spending their time handling minor details in lieu of what could make a real difference to their organizations.

 

The Detached: Twenty percent of managers are disengaged or detached from their work. They can be focused, but have no energy. They seem aloof, tense and apathetic.

 

The Purposeful: Only ten percent get the job done. They are highly focused, energetic, and come across as reflective and calm amid chaos.

 

The costs of unproductive busyness take a toll on both managers and their companies. Continual unreflective activity has a direct effect on an organization's profits and managerial morale, as it's ineffective and ultimately unsatisfying.

 

For example, frenzied managers often act in extremely shortsighted ways. Under extreme time constraints and the need to do more with fewer resources, they become adept at finding short-term solutions. As a consequence, they seldom take time to reflect, and neglect long-term issues. Frenzied managers demonstrate a well-intentioned, but desperate, need to do something-anything-which makes them potentially destructive.

 

Chronic procrastinators are generally recovering frenzied managers. Once they have learned that frantic, desperate actions are unsatisfying, many lapse into procrastination, losing energy and focus. It becomes all too easy for them to put off action altogether.

 

What distinguishes managers who take purposeful action from those who do not?

Willpower, discipline and clarity of purpose fuel the force behind energy and focus, enabling managers to execute action and to ignore distractions. Even when uninspired by the work and tempted by other opportunities, purposeful managers maintain energy and focus through will power, determination and clarity of purpose.

 

Next time you evaluate your managers' performance, place them on the low/high Focus/Energy grid. Find out who fits the descriptions of Detached, Frenzied, Procrastinator, or Purposeful manager. Then see whether it is focus or energy that can be improved. Busyness for the sake of being busy without regard for results can lead to false assumptions.

 

Like to know how we can assist your managers to become more purposeful?   Visit www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

The Leadership Crisis - What you can do.

Todays businesses are experiencing a worrying lack leadership, not only to lead current businesses forward into growth and expansion but to mentor, support and encourage leadership with in the business for the future. Managers will continue to just manage if they do not have positive role models to learn from and aspire to be.

According to a recent report the business world is currently in a leadership crisis. Up and coming managers, those who will be our business leaders of the future do not see examples of inspirational leadership in their work places. Employees long to see a genuine shared vision, real confidence and trust in teams and respect for colleagues, customers and employees. Less than 40% of managers actually see these traits on display in the workplace.

Maintaining the value of leadership was the main reason for writing this article. Only in this way will the future know more about leadership. 

It was at the spur of the moment that we ventured to write something about leadership. Such is the amount of matter that is available on leadership. We were furnished with so many points to include while writing about leadership that we were actually lost as to which to use and which to discard!
life is short. Use it to its maximum by utilizing whatever knowledge it offers for knowledge is important for all walks of life.

Where did all our leaders go? Perhaps we have placed too much emphasis on management of our businesses instead of leadership. I would hazard a guess that more people are comfortable with the thought of becoming a manager than they are with being asked to take the position of leader. Therefore, naturally we have more aspiring managers than leaders but a much bigger percentage of managers are capable of becoming leaders in their fields that are actually stepping up to this role.

Why?

What is leadership? Perhaps we don't have as many leaders as we need because not enough of us understand what leadership is really all about and who can become a leader. Can you take someone who isn't a natural leader and turn them into one? Are we all leaders in our own unique way? What do Leaders do and what skills do they need?

Leadership is about behaviour first, skills second. Good leaders are followed chiefly because people trust and respect them, rather than the skills they possess. Leadership is different to management. Management relies more on planning, organisational and communications skills. Leadership relies on management skills too, but more so on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity. Some people are born more naturally to leadership than others.

Most people don't seek to be a leader. Those who want to be a leader can develop leadership ability. Leadership can be performed with different styles. Some leaders have one style, which is right for certain situations and wrong for others. Some leaders can adapt and use different leadership styles for given situations. Some leaders are big, bold and brash characters, others are quiet, unassuming but determined and visionary. As a leader you must know yourself and know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you. Leadership is about finding the best in yourself and giving the best of yourself. Leaders always go first, setting the example, walking the talk, doing not dabbling.

Like to know more about our Leadership solutions for your business?  Visit our website www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

Business Contingency Planning and Curve balls

Contingency plans are vital for your ongoing business success..  A contingency plan is what will help you deal with the curve balls and unplanned events that arise.  Despite your best research and planning, there will always be surprises or unexpected events.  Markets and market forces are in a constant state of flux.

When you develop contingency plan you need to consider all issues that can think of that will either positively or negatively impact your business. There are a number of things that you should consider for your contingency plan including:

Your market niche - what contingency plan can you put in place if your niche dries up or turns out to be unable to support your business?  Who are your competitors?  How many competitors are in your market niche and how long have they been established in the marketplace?  What is the point of difference with your product/service?
Labor market supply and demand - do you need a contingency plan (Plan B) for a lack of availability of employees or contractors?  Where is your business located geographically?
Your products/services- if clients don't need the services you provide, are you able to move into different service markets?  What is the level of responsiveness of your organisation?

A thorough contingency plan address a wide range of  reasonable possibilities that could affect your ability to remain profitable and commercially viable. Your contingency plan should be revised regularly and thoroughly.  The time spent in contingency planning can determine whether you prosper or perish!


At the end of the day, your company doesn't  want to be caught without a contingency plan.   For assistance with a range of business planning options, please visit our website.

www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au

 

Professional Resume and Career Counselling Services Worldwide

Leadership and Management Solutions is a market leader in Resume Writing and Career Counselling Services. We will ensure that your resume stands out from the crowd. Achieve your dream career! Your resume will be written by Masters qualified multi-award winning Human Resource professionals who understand the requirements of business and recruitment - both locally and internationally.

Our Expertise
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Why choose us?
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Don't run the risk of having your resume prepared by substandard resume services. With Leadership and Management Solutions, your career is in safe hands.

Our Career Expertise

Our team have over 40 years experience in Human Resource Management, Resume Writing and Career Services, together with Masters degree qualifications. You will have a quality resume that will stand out from the crowd.

Our process is straightforward

We know that job seeking can be a stressful business. Our resume writers take the time to understand your needs and provide you with the high quality resume you deserve.

Every job seeker is an individual

Every job candidate has different needs. We take the time to understand your needs and tailor a resume and or cover letter that is individualised for your personal situation.

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In today's competitive marketplace, your resume has less than a minute to make an impression on a recruiter or prospective employer. We offer competitive rates for all levels of job candidates. Whether you are a school leaver or an experienced executive, we have a package to suit you.

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Our writers have extensive local and international business experience. Irrespective of the field that you work in, we can design a customised resume for you.

Make the smart move. Contact us today for a quote. Visit www.leadershipmanagementsolutions.com.au