20 Jul 2012

Protect Business
Australia’s Aging Workforce The ageing of Australia’s workforce is one of businesses’ major emerging challenges.  By 2044-45 it is estimated that 25% of Australians will be aged 65 years or over, which is approximately double the present population. Additionally, over the last decade the average age of the Australian workforce (especially the full-time workforce) has been increasin...

20 Jul 2012

Report Reveals
Surveys as risk management tools Well designed organisational surveys are profitable for your business. They operate as risk management tools, helping organisations to prevent problems before they occur. They can help identify/prevent inapproriate hires, inappropriate promotions, poor organisational culture, unsafe practices, misconduct, poor leadership and burnout. Alternatively, no...

20 Jul 2012

Safety Matters
Incidents such as the leak of the cancer-causing chemical hexavalent chromium by Orica in Newcastle in August last year highlight the importance of safety procedures and proper handling of health and safety incidents by organisations. Following the leak, Orica closed the plant for six months, reportedly lost $90 million in earnings, faced court for breaching Environmental Protection l...

16 Jul 2012

Striking
A dispute between workers at Coles' National Distribution Centre in Melbourne turned into an indefinite strike last week over a new workplace agreement with Toll (the company which Coles outsources their warehouse staffing to). Staff believe the agreement does not provide them with the same pay and benefits as employees employed directly by Coles. Early last week 250 workers and union...

11 Jul 2012

Skilled Job Seekers
What the research shows about Generation Y Many surveys and studies on Generation Y (individuals born between approximately 1980 and 1995, earlier or later in some definitions) indicate that, as a group, there are a number of characteristics they tend to display that employers should be aware of when hiring and managing these individuals. Specifically, research has shown that more th...

07 May 2012

Recruitment Process
A recent survey has shown that 79% of job applicants lose interest in a job when faced with a long recruitment process and 45% have withdrawn their application because they didn't like the interviewer. This is consistent with the experience of James Nicholson, managing director of the professional recruitment consultancy Robert Walters. Nicholson said he has consistently observed that...

18 Apr 2012

Legal Issues
Fraud and misconduct "grey areas" in the workplace Yesterday's Human Capital Australia magazine outlined a recent decision by Fair Work Australia (FWA) and the implications for dealing with fraud and misconduct in the workplace. A supermarket store manager was dismissed for taking groceries without paying, however, the dismissal was overturned by FWA and he was awarded more than $15,...

28 Mar 2012

Our last blog looked at psychometric tests and the difference between psychometric and skills tests. The main focus was on cognitive ability tests and specific skills sets.  An interesting question, therefore, is where does personality fit in? Personality tests Personality tests are psychometric tests. They are based on personality research and theories about how personality is stru...

28 Mar 2012

Sales Performance
Psychometric tests and skills tests are often used in job selection. Both can be vital tools to help you find the best people for the job.  But what exactly are they, and what are the differences between these two types of tests? Psychometric tests are instruments that tell us about individual differences: such as personal characteristics or cognitive ability (intelligence), compared ...

28 Mar 2012

Job Skill Test
Declarative and procedural knowledge There are several different 'ways' of knowing things and of acquiring knowledge. Two of the main ways are declarative and procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge is knowing that - i.e.,  factual knowledge and information - for instance that Sir Edmund Hilary climbed Mt Everest.  Procedural knowledge is knowing how - i.e., knowing how to perform...