Workplace flexibility

With the introduction of the Fair Work Act and amendments to Equal Opportunity Legislation, every employer needs to be prepared for requests for flexibility from eligible staff.

A practical and realistic guide has been developed to assist employers in implementing this strategy into your workplace.

This guide is unique in that it covers issues at the enterprise level such as policies and procedures right down to the individual request and specific role arrangements. All content has been legally verified and the content can be simply adapted to your business needs.

This guide will save your organisation many hours of internal policy development and procedural wrangling. Simply adapt the templates in this guide to suit your company's situation.

Available in hard or soft copy, this guide is suitable for companies of all sizes and industries and is completely customisable to accommodate your brand and internal processes.

For more information contact Teresa on 0407092966 or email info@laconcierge.com.au for a quote - price dependable on employee numbers.

Your Business Matters

A new section of LaConcierge is coming soon. The new site, Your Business Matters will be launched soon.

Are you confused with the new FairWork Act?
Are you paying your team members their correct payments?
Is your brand trade marked?

Then Your Business Matters can assist you in:
• Human Resource management resources
• Branding and Intellectual Property assistance

Your Business Matters is a service provider assisting business operators with resources, information, workshops and forums.

F1 in Schools Program

F1 in Schools – Australia is an initiative of Re-Engineering Australia Foundation (REA).

REA is a not-for-profit organisation with committed partners providing exciting yet challenging educational programs in engineering and design through action-learning of science, maths and technology.

Through the appeal of Formula One, F1 in Schools is engaging and inspiring young people, piquing their interest in engineering related careers, connecting students to industry and making learning relevant and fun!

Get Involved

The F1 in Schools Technology Challenge is an exciting, yet challenging and rewarding program aimed at school students around Australia. It has demonstrated and proven success in classrooms all over Australia having significant impact on career choices and student development.

How can you get involved?

Students - Compete in the challenge, represent your school, become a world champion!

Teachers - Run the challenge in your school, compete yourself with industry.

Industry - Link with a school, collaborate with students, be a hero, compete in the industry class.

Students: Getting your school involved

Are you on the right track? F1 in Schools is an exciting and rewarding program which should be running in your school now! Over 250 schools around Australia are competing already. The F1 in Schools challenge is typically run in the Industrial Technology, Design or Science faculties of school, so the first step is to talk to the teacher who is the head of department of these faculties.

If you want more information to give them, or want REA to contact them, go to http://www.f1inschools.org.au/

Teachers: Getting your school involved

The F1 in Schools challenge is specifically aimed at High Schools, and has been running for over 5 years. It is easy to begin getting involved, and you can be up and running in a fortnight. The challenge is typically run in the Industrial Technology, Design or Science faculties, however has been successfully integrated into Math, Enterprise and Business learning areas as well!

To take part in the challenge, schools should purchase the REA supported CATIA V5 CAD/CAM software through Re-Engineering Australia Foundation, and then link with an existing REA Technology Hub that is a certified manufacturing centre. Hub schools have technologies such as CNC Router Machines, smoke and wind tunnels, and the race track, which you can negotiate to access and use for the challenge. New and existing schools can also become hubs; simply go to http://www.f1inschools.org.au/.

Industry: Getting your company involved

Investing in Australia's innovation leaders of tomorrow is a must. The F1 in Schools program is an ideal platform for you to become involved in your local community, promote your company and scout for your company's next star recruits.

It's not just about 'giving back to the community', but about sharing your knowledge and experience - become a hero! Student teams need to link with industry mentors in the context of their projects; this provides role modelling opportunities through a demonstrated link between fun classroom activities and careers.

How can you help?

• Get linked to a school in your area. Teams are required to collaborate with industry, so you'll be doing them a huge favour by talking to the students, acting as a mentor by suggesting ideas and assisting in the development of the program at the school.
• Support and sponsor the school's F1 program. Schools investing in advanced technology often require funding assistance to get state-of-the-art technology into the classroom.
• Get straight into the challenge and actually COMPETE in the new Industry Class of competition. This is your chance to take on and beat the students, and then work out that the next generation are already overtaking today's engineers and manufacturers! You can work individually or in a team of 2, either just industry, or an industry representative and a teacher.

Get involved today - go to http://www.f1inschools.org.au/

YouTube links:

REA design and make process

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icilAZNlNgA

F1 in schools world championships

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbhcjJ2LI6I

Contact LaConcierge for the opportunity to link businesses as sponsors of this program. Go to www.laconcierge.com.au

Regional Development Victoria -

Where Will the Jobs Be?

Accommodation, Cafes and Restaurants Industry
Employment prospects in the accommodation, cafes and restaurants industry are average.
The recent economic downturn has negatively affected the industry. The industry’s services are more related to leisure and entertainment than basic necessities, therefore demand responds quickly to the changing economic conditions. Demand for the industry’s services is expected to decrease in 2009 and 2010.
The longer term outlook is positive for the industry. Growth in the industry is expected to recover from 2010, and employment is forecast to increase by over 8 per cent by 2015. Chefs, waiters, fast food cooks, restaurant and catering managers and elementary service workers are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Industry
Employment prospects in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry are above average.
Despite the current economic downturn, expectations remain positive in the industry for 2009 and 2010 due to stable demand conditions. Demand for the industry’s output is mainly determined by basic needs and therefore likely to be less sensitive to the deteriorating economic conditions.
While employment in the industry may decline slightly due to the downturn, it is expected to increase moderately within the next five years. Livestock farmers, skilled agricultural workers, shearers, farm overseers and finance associate professionals are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Building and Construction Industry
Employment prospects in the building and construction industry are average.
Following ten years of strong growth, activity is expected to decrease in the industry in 2009 and 2010 due to the effect of the economic downturn. The industry is expected to recover in the longer term due to underlying strong housing demand, government initiatives and the improvement of the global financial markets.
Employment is expected to increase moderately from 2011. In the next five years, employment of business and administration associate professionals, engineering, distribution and process managers, transport drivers, fabrication engineering and wood tradespersons is expected to increase the most relative to other occupations in the industry.

Electricity, Gas and Water Industry
Employment prospects in the electricity, gas and water industry are above average.
The outlook for the industry is positive for 2009 and 2010 due to stable demand conditions. The industry provides essential services and utilities for businesses and communities, therefore activity and employment is not expected to be significantly affected by the effects of the economic downturn.
Employment in the industry is expected to increase by around 5.5 per cent during 2009 and 2010. In the next five years, employment of engineering, distribution and process managers, engineering tradespersons, computer professionals and business associates is expected to increase the most relative to other occupations in the industry.

Government Administration and Defence Industry
Employment prospects in the government administration and defence industry are above average.
The government administration and defence industry currently provides 2.5 per cent of the Victorian economy’s output.
The employment outlook is positive in the sector, as employment is largely determined by Government policies rather than external market factors. The economic downturn has not significantly influenced the industry.
Employment in the Victorian government administration and defence industry has increased by around 25 per cent during the past ten years. The number of people employed in the industry is expected to increase steadily from 2009 by around 13 per cent over the next five years. Urban and regional planners, and business and information professionals are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Health and Community Services Industry
Employment prospects in the health and community services industry are above average.
It is expected that activity will increase in the industry during 2009 and 2010 and it is not likely to be further significantly affected by the economic downturn. The longer term outlook is also positive for the industry. Demographic changes predict increasing demand for health and community services. It is expected that because of the aging population and the recent spike in births, demand for maternal health, childcare and aged care services will continue to rise.
Employment in the industry is expected to continue rising from 2009 onwards, by over 5.4 per cent in the next five years. Employment growth in the community services sector is expected to be higher than in the health sector. Personal care and nursing assistants, nurse managers, childcare workers and welfare and community workers are expected to be the fastest growing occupations in the industry in the next five years.

Transport and Storage Industry
Employment prospects in the transport and storage industry are above average.
Following a period of substantial growth, the industry has experienced some decline during the past quarters. The transport and storage industry provides services to every other sector in the economy, and the effects of the economic downturn have impacted on the industry. However, the longer term outlook is very solid for the industry.
Employment in the industry has gradually increased from 94,500 to around 113,000 during the past ten years. Employment is expected to continue to rise in the next five years at an annual average rate of 1 per cent. In the next five years employment in the road transport sector is expected to increase the most, followed by rail transport. In this time, employment of transport managers, supply and distribution managers, transport and despatching clerks, and truck, delivery, bus and tram drivers is expected to increase the most relative to other occupations in the industry.

LaConcierge - Linking students to jobs - laconcierge.com.au

Learning for the Jobs of the Future

Dr Peter Ellyard

Dr Peter Ellyard futurist, strategist and a leading international speaker.

"The secret to a successful life is to understand what is one’s destiny to do, and to do it." Henry Ford

Dr Ellyard spends a great deal of time working with young people on their career options for the future. When they ask what they should study in their tertiary education he tells them to follow their heart and study what interests them, not what they think will generate a job. It is more important to be a committed lifelong, learner-driven learner than to know particular facts relating to one kind of work or another.

It is also pointless to prepare oneself for one of the current crop of job categories unless one expects to be fulfilled by doing this. To study for a job because the job seems to provide economic security or status, but without passion for the work entailed by that job, will create considerable misery and will also undermine the habits needed for lifelong learner-driven learning which is so critical for thriving in the long term. In the early 21st century the workplace is changing more rapidly than ever before. The pace of technological and social change means that work skills are being made redundant at a faster rate. From Dr Ellyard’s observations and discussions with colleagues, it seems that up to 50 per cent of the skills required in the newer, knowledge based industries become redundant every three to five years. If one looks at the rates of globalization and technological change and the development of tribalisation, which will lead to an increase in cultural customisation of products and services, it seems reasonable to deduce that in the next twenty-five years up to 70 per cent of all job categories are likely to change. Of this percentage, half of the existing job categories will disappear; the other half will consist of new jobs that do not yet exist. Other jobs will keep their present names but the nature of the work will change.

Technological change is one of the major reasons why workplace learning must be broadened from its traditional narrow base to the world of multiskilling. To maintain a robot, for example, it is necessary to know about mechanics, pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics and software engineering. All of these were individual disciplines and were the responsibility of individual workers, sometimes belonging to different trade unions. New technology is causing the traditional demarcations between skill areas to disappear, and the need to avoid technology-created demarcation disputes is one of the major reasons for the development of ‘super’ trade unions in the 1990s. The domains of electronic technologies and bio-technologies are also coalescing, as are the domains of the natural sciences, technologies and social sciences. Where these various domains overlap hybridization is occurring between them, and these areas of hybridization are now producing the greatest rates of innovation. Multimedia and learning technologies generally are a good example of this. In a world where cultural differences are often being celebrated, it is also likely that technologies will undergo greater degrees of cultural customisation: increasingly the domains of culture and technology are also overlapping.

Work-place learning will also be increasingly linked to career-path planning together with credentialling of work-place learning. Until now it has been appropriate to ask people about their current work. In the next decade it will be as relevant to ask people about what they are learning to become as to ask what job they do at present: ‘becoming’ will become as important as ‘being’. With this comes the introduction of increased work-place based learning and career-path planning. Ford pointed out in his letter that the next important component of all work-place learning would be the professionalisation of all employees. If a work place wants to thrive in the twenty-first century up to 20 per cent of all its resources should be devoted to learning, both individual and collective. The most successful businesses will be those that maximise organisational and individual learning, and good employees will be attracted to work places which offer this. Any work-place learning will need to incorporate the elements of the learning culture, including learner-driven, just-in-time and customised learning. Modern technology can deliver this to people in the work place.

Integrated enterprise learning assisted by personal development planning, with their links to adaptability, innovation and productivity, will become major components of successful work places in the early twenty-first century. These should be complemented by learner-driven, just-in-time learning aided by modern technology.

Dr Peter Ellyard’s list of the skills and capabilities which he believes young person will need to thrive in the years beyond 2020, to achieve wellbeing in this society includes:

• Developing a successful career path with an emphasis on job making rather than on job taking. This involves utilizing insight to determine one’s destiny, what is one’s aptitude and passion; foresight to understand emerging trends, opportunities and possibilities and being able to strategically position oneself in a 21st century industrial structure ; and hindsight to learn from one’s experiences, so as to inform one’s career and personal development.

• Being an enterprising innovative person, constantly seeking to do old things better and new things first. This requires a major focus on life/enterprise skills, and in continuously developing one’s own creativity and enterprise, and respecting it in others.
  

In many rural communities the ecological prosperity can be a major source of wealth generation. In economically poor urban communities, cultural prosperity can be used to create economic prosperity.

• Economic prosperity involves the promotion of emerging 21st century industries. Seventy percent of the industries, products and services of the year 2025 have yet to be invented. Almost all the new industries born in the 20th century were born in cities, and there they stay. New forms of connectivity means that we can now locate many emerging 21st century industries in rural communities. It also involves increasing the collective bargaining power which rural communities have with the external world.

Most young people in rural communities and in disadvantaged urban communities who are motivated and knowledge seeking will leave these communities as soon as they can, never to return.

However the education system can and should play a major role in enduring that the capabilities of young people in rural communities are of the kind needed to enable them to stay in rural communities and lead these communities into a knowledge rich sustainably prosperous future . If this does not happen rural communities will decline even more and many will die all together. If we are to create sustainable prosperity in rural communities we must engender a population of innovators in these communities: people who are both creative and enterprising.

JobLink - Linking Students to Jobs

www.laconcierge.com.au

Business and Defence Partnership

How military thinking can enhance business productivity

There are many benefits you can gain if your employees are Reservists. Reservists are smarter thinkers, problem solvers with team spirit to get on with the job. They are disciplined, motivated, highly focused and develop a range of skills that become second nature to them. It's qualities such as these that will contribute to your company succeeding in today's ever evolving business climate. What's more, by showing your support to your Reservist employees, the Employer Support Payment Scheme can provide financial assistance of more than $1000* per week, which may be used for offsetting the costs of releasing Reservists for duty and paying for replacement staff. Discover how your business can enhanced if your employees are Reservists, and learn about the benefits and obligations you have as an employer. With a range of other support services also available to you, you'll soon see how a Reservist can make all the difference.

Find out more - call 1800 803 485 or visit www.defence.gov.au/reserves

LaConcierge - Linking students to jobs. www.laconcierge.com.au

*Conditions apply. Vist www.defence.gov.au/reserves for further details.

Tips on Success

To be afraid is to succeed.

Matthew Michalewicz tells us that knowledge is power .... and to succeed we need to be afraid.

Matthew Michalewicz - Saxton Business Speaker Matthew Michalewicz -Saxton Speakers Bureau

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuOWE88fwVI


Laconcierge - Linking students to jobs

www.laconcierge.com.au

The Future of Careers

Mark McCrindle, social researcher wrote
"Get the skills mix right and you can thrive in the workplace of tomorrow"
Today in Australia there are as many 60-years-olds as 6-year-olds. This is the start of the age wave hitting Australia. Our traditional spread of ages formed a "population pyramid" shaped by the bulk of the population being children, and declining numbers as you moved up the age groups. However this "pyramid" is becoming rectangular. By the end of this decade life expectancy at birth will exceed 81 for male and 86 for a female, and more than one in five Australians will be over 60. Hand in hand with an ageing population goes an ageing workforce. In 2020 the "never-grow-old" baby boomers will be in their 60s and 70s, and the oldest Gen Xers will work later in life than any other generation.
This ageing workforce wil eventually result in mass retirements, a knowledge gap, a skills shortage, and succession planning challenges. Over the next decade 40 per cent of today's senior leaders will reach retirement age. Already the average age of an employed person in the education sector is 44, and in the health sector it is 45.
Therefore there will be a premium paid to employees who can gain experience in a career, climb the ranks within an organisation, and more into leadership positions. Whereas the past decade saw the growth of portfolio careers, work-life balance, and "sea-change" lifestyle jobs, this new decade is bringing a return to career stability.
There will be great rewards and excellent opportunities for workers who are prepared to develop their skills, commit to an organisation and step up into leadership roles. The exodus of long-term, full-time older staff won't be effectively filled by part-time, short-term, variety-seeking young staff. So educated, innovative, productive, and committed Australians will be in global demand.

How to thrive in the ever-changing workforce:
1. Regardless of age, keep abreast of workplace technology. If it means attending a course to brush up your skills - do it!
2. The average school-leaver today will have five careers in their lifetime. So regardless of which career you're up to, stay plugged into education: be a life-long learner. And this doesn't just mean in the classroom, there are many online courses and on-the-job qualifications that will keep you relevant in times of great change.
3. The workplace is increasingly diverse. Those who can communicate across generations, cultures and genders will be "in-demand" team leaders and managers. Work hard to understand the differences and bridge the gaps. People skills are key, so work on your emotional intelligence, conflict-resolution skills, active listening and collaborative management.
4. The leaders of tomorrow are those who take on extra responsibility today. Look for extra responsibility, take on tasks that will enhance your skills and deliver you more experience. Leaders with generalist skills and a positive attitude to work will be the ones first in line for promotion.
5. For leaders at all levels, it is essential to develop those around you. Great leaders model excellence, mentor their teams and continually delegate responsibility to ensure seamless leadership transitions.

www.markmccrindle.com

If you want the opportunity to shape your future register at www.laconcierge.com.au
Linking students to jobs.