Congratulations to ACCI.Their new campaign to raise awareness of small business in the lead up to the Federal Election is a great idea and something we all need to get behind

As we have spoken about many times before - small business contributes significantly to the overall economy by employing the vast majority of Australian workers.  The voice of Small Business is largely ignored (in our opinion) because of the influence of big business and interest groups on our politicians. read more

In an outstanding performance this quarter, People Smartz has won the Client Heartbeat "Business Excellence Award - Partnership Category" for the Professional Services & Consulting Industry in Australia.

Through an independent evaluation process the leading consulting firm scored a weighted "Partnership" score of 8.9/10 as determined through an independent survey conducted across People Smartz's entire customer base. Scores were calculated based upon the question asked to clients "How collaborative and proactive do you find us in supporting you?". read more

I often visit small and growing businesses to discuss with them their people management needs. Their need is a very simple one - "I just want to treat my people right and make sure I am compliant". Unfortunately,until recently, that need could not be addressed in a simple manner and many employers would place the need in the "too hard" basket.   read more

The Federal Government has introduced into parliament its second tranche of legislation amending the Fair Work Act. The changes to the Act include new responsibilities for the Fair Work Commission in regards to Workplace Bullying by introducing a new avenue for a employee to complain about Workplace Bullying. The bill allows a worker who believes they are being bullied at work to apply to the Commission for an order to stop the bullying. read more

The latest HR Coach Quarterly Index has been released.  The HR Quarterly Index provides a summary of industry confidence in the business sector. According to Index,  "The new year seems to be bringing a sense of conservative optimism with it. Although business confidence hasn't risen, it hasn't worsened, indicating that business sentiment could be leveling out."  According to the index, business indicators appear to be trending into positive territory  read more

Everywhere you go today, social media is the topic. The news bulletins are telling us about "social media trolls", television advertisements invite you to "follow" a particular company and radio stations are embracing "multi-mode marketing" encouraging listeners to visit their website for more juicy information.   read more

The latest Quarterly Index from the HR Coach Research Institute as been released providing a summary of industry confidence in the business sector. Points of Note include: read more

Fair Work Australia this week released its latest annual report.  It is interesting reading. As you can see by the title of this post, the number of unfair dismissal claims has once again risen over the year 2011-2012 to a total of 14,027.  This is an increase of 9.2%. The "headline" number for the government in this report is the number of claims settled overall under this system - 81%.  Evidence that the system is "working" they say. read more