30 Oct 2018

Word Test
"After Web browsers Word is the most-used app on the planet; it's still the platinum standard in word processing. Nothing else even comes close" (PCMag, March 2013). Microsoft Word is a word processing program developed by Microsoft."  It's been in existence since 1983, and since that time has undergone 14 revisions, the most recent being Word 2013. It is the most widely used word pro...

16 Oct 2013

Time Management
The importance of effective time management skills in the workplace has been highlighted by issues including increasing workloads, less funding and greater diversity in the client base. A situation has been created where health professionals need to achieve more in less time, making good time management skills essential. The importance of these skills has been endorsed by graduates, supe...

21 Aug 2013

Employee Engagement
The importance of employee engagement has been discussed in previous posts. Recent research indicates that nowhere is employee engagement more important than in professional services firms. While these firms are necessarily primarily client focused, ultimately the success of professional services firms relies on the success of their employees' work. And the most successful employees are ...

21 Aug 2013

Training
In Australia, on average 15 percent of all school students come from a non-English speaking background. In some states it is much higher: in New South Wales this figure is almost 25 percent English Second Language Students, as it is in the Northern Territory, and in Victoria it is 20 percent. According to Adriano Truscott, president of the Australian Council of TESOL (Teachers of English...

17 Dec 2012

Multitasking
Brunken and colleagues (2002) investigated multi-media learning and the processes that make it work. In two experiments they showed that the multimedia format facilitates learning through the processes of the dual coding effect and the modality effect. The dual coding effect refers to the effect by which learning is improved when related pictures are presented at the same as text-base...

12 Nov 2012

Job Performance
In the Australian work context, together with other similar individualistic Western countries (such as the USA and UK), job performance is typically assessed in terms of task (in-role) behaviour - i.e., how well an employee performs their duties;  organisational citizenship behaviour - i.e., going 'above and beyond' role requirements such as helping other employees with their workload; a...

20 Aug 2012

Hidden Cost
A recent research poll of Australian workers has found that more than 80% of Australian employees feel disengaged and work, with more than 20% being actively disengaged, that is behaving in ways that are actively harmful to the organisation.  They estimated that disengagement costs Australian organisations at least $33.5 Billion a year in lost productivity.  It also has other negative so...

15 Aug 2012

Management
Most organisational occupational health and safety (OHS) interventions focus on controlling employee procedures and the physical work environment in an effort to maximise workplace safety.  While such efforts are important, they do not take into account the human factors related to work safety, such as individual and group attitudes and the influence of management. Recent research inv...

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

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 the plant was closed for 6 months, it reportedly lost $90 million in earnings, it faced court over breaching Environmental Protection...