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Posts Tagged ‘covid-19’

Tips For Boosting Employee Retention in A Post-Pandemic World

Posted by Emily Ridley

The covid-19 pandemic has changed the way the world works in so many different ways. Covid has changed the way we travel, the way we socialise and one of the biggest changes is the rise in popularity of flexible working options for employees.

Now that more people are working from home and ultimately the employee has more power in a post-covid world when compared to before covid. As a result of this employers are having trouble retaining some of their most valuable employees. Here are some tips to help employers boost employee retention in a post covid world.

Understand The Importance of Having Flexible Working As An Option For Your Employees

Although most people are able to return to the office now if they want to, there is also a large number of employees who are resisting the everyday commute becoming the norm again. A survey showed that 95 percent of workers say they prefer working from home in some capacity. This illustrates that there is a clear expectation for flexible work arrangements to continue post covid-19.

Furthermore, 62 percent of employees say they wouldn’t even consider a new employer who doesn’t have a flexible working policy. 81 percent of people surveyed said that a company that allows for flexible working is really important to them when looking at future roles. 

Offer Your Employees Practical Support

Navigating the post-covid world and negotiating a hybrid working balance that is beneficial to both employers and employees is now an important consideration for all businesses. Those who don’t support staff in their desire to maintain a flexible work situation will find themselves at risk of losing some of their most talented employees. 

However, just agreeing to your employees working flexibly isn’t enough; it’s about supporting them to work effectively and productively from anywhere. Research shows that both employers and employees get the best out of hybrid working when their home office reflects the ergonomics of a traditional office environment. 

Be A Leader for Your Employees Not a Boss

Very few people want to be leaders, but everyone wants to be the boss. Remember, though, that people follow leaders, while they abandon bosses. A boss is a dime a dozen while leaders are rare.

It is important to make sure you have a clear direction towards the future. Good leaders let employees know where the company is headed. Bosses don’t share information and leave employees wondering if there’s good or bad coming down the pipe and if they should be concerned.

A leader also believes in the importance of people. A great leader considers employees their most important asset. Bosses are more focused on numbers.

A great leader also Inspires confidence in his employees. Good leaders make employees feel confident about their ability to lead them to a good place. Bosses on the other hand have a tendency to inspire passive-aggressive frustration as employees question the decisions that have been made that have affected them negatively.

Realise That Counteroffers Don’t Always Lead To Retention

Attempts made by businesses trying to retain employees by making a counteroffer are falling short. Recently published research has discovered that of the 50 percent who do accept the counteroffer will resign from their position of employment within the next 12 months.

According to the research, 82 percent of business leaders surveyed are concerned about retaining employees in 2021. 

To fight the issue, many are finding themselves extending counteroffers in an attempt to retain employees. Despite this, 52 percent of employees who accept a counteroffer leave in a year or less. Of these employees who leave one in five leaves in less than six months.

Counteroffers are more often a tool to assist the employer. Particularly in a competitive market, it can be tempting to make counteroffers in order to retain institutional knowledge and avoid the resource-intensive exercise of recruiting, onboarding and training a new employee.

The fact that a counteroffer is designed as a tool for the employer, rather than the employee, is the major reasons why counteroffers are an ineffective retention strategy.

Although offering a salary increase may seem like a cost-saving initiative, a counteroffer doesn’t necessarily advance the career of the employee, so in most cases, the employer is still left with a dissatisfied employee who was motivated to leave the organisation in the first place.

Rather than being reliant on reactive counteroffers to address staff retention, business should be looking at their existing retention strategies as a proactive mechanism to ensure employees feel satisfied, valued, and therefore less likely to court competing offers.

Some more effective strategies could include conducting regular salary reviews to ensure their compensation is competitive, establishing clear career paths with individual employees to help their progression and reduce the appeal of a competing title change, and offer flexible working arrangements to support employee work/life balance.

NSW Government Announces $1 Billion Support Package to Help Businesses Impacted by Omicron

Posted by Emily Ridley

As businesses across the country struggle to cope with the current wave of Omicron cases, the NSW government has announced a $1 billion support package to help the state fast track its economic recovery from the latest outbreak.

The support packages aim is to target businesses that currently have a turnover that’s less than $50 million and a 40 percent decline in turnover during the month of January 2022. The package will also provide support to assist businesses with purchasing rapid antigen tests.

The NSW Government will also provide $80 million to support the performing arts sector which has suffered significantly during the course of the pandemic.

Applications for the support package will open in mid-February and business that are eligible for the funding will be given a payment of 20 percent of their weekly payroll, up to $5,000 each week.

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean outlined that the past few months had been difficult for small businesses across the state but said the “comprehensive business package” would help them get “through to the other side”.

Mr. Kean also spoke about his disappointment in the lack of financial assistance provided by the federal government to help businesses during the current covid-19 omicron wave.

“I was hoping to make this announcement standing beside the Prime Minister today and the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, but they’re not to be found. These are not just New South Wales businesses, they’re Australian businesses, Australians that pay their taxes to the Commonwealth government. So, what we want to see is rather than the Commonwealth government stepping aside we want to see the Commonwealth government stepping in,” says NSW Treasurer Matt Kean.

Mr. Kean continued to outline that the money from the support package would be directed to “those parts of the economy that are really struggling”.

“Those businesses that ply their trade through face-to-face trading, things like hairdressers, nail salons, the tourist industry and also hospitality and bricks and mortar retail, “says Matt Kean.

Dom Perrottet the NSW Premier expressed the opinion that businesses across NSW are currently doing better than he expected them to be doing during the current Omicron wave and that confidence is finally starting to return to the market.

“And as we did with earlier recoveries, we will come through this recent challenge stronger than ever. We’ve got the backs of businesses, as we have throughout this entire pandemic,” says NSW Premier Dom Perrottet.

The support package will include a topping up of the Small Business Fees and Charges Rebate from the current $2,000 limit to a new limit of $3,000.

The rebate will be expanded so it can also be used to subsidise the cost of rapid antigen tests by 50 per cent, but it will not be retrospective.

Wes Lambert, the chief executive of Restaurant and Catering Australia, has expressed praise for the newly announced grants but shared the Treasurer’s concern over the Federal Governments lack of involvement.

“It’s very important that we continue to advocate for additional funding from the federal government. We would have liked them to have supported the New South Wales government in this support package but we certainly thank the Treasurer and the Premier’s office for releasing this package today,” says Wes Lambert, the chief executive of Restaurant and Catering Australia.

9,000 Tourism Jobs Have Been Lost In Cairns During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Posted by Emily Ridley

It has been reported that 9,000 tourism jobs have been lost in Cairns since the start of the covid-19. The total number of lost jobs make up for half of the local industry’s workforce.

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic the tourism industry in the Cairns region was more 2.5 billion annually.

Mark Olsen the chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland has said that the regions tourism industry employed 15,750 full and parttime works before the covid-19 pandemic began.

However, as a result of the discontinuation of the federal government’s JobKeeper program, many workers have had no choice but to leave the tourism industry for good in hopes of finding a higher paying and more reliable job.

“Without international visitation, we’ve lost about 9,000 staff over the last 22 months. At first it was the frontline staff, those on the part-time and casual roles, but as the pandemic extended on, we started losing highly skilled staff,” says Mark Olsen the chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

“Even in the last few weeks, we’ve seen businesses have to stand down some of their most senior staff because the cash flow is so tight. We’ve lost a lot of skill and experience that has guided the region, which has been one of the most successful tourism destinations, over the last 30 years,” continued Mr. Olsen.

On Saturday 22nd January, the Queensland Government introduced quarantine-free international travel for fully-vaccinated tourists who were wanting to visit Queensland.

However, it is expected that a huge influx of international tourists will not become a common occurrence for at least the next few months. This is due to the Australian Government’s decision to limit the number of overseas arrivals to mainly just to returning Australian residents, working visa holidays and international students.

Cairns restaurant owner Craig Squire says that the recent Christmas holiday period wasn’t very busy for his business as he had a number of workers unable to work due to covid-19.

“The first week of January, we had five staff out waiting on test results, so that really put a dampener on what would have been a quite a successful trading week. We had to close for several days because we just didn’t have enough staff to operate the business. It’s been a terrible January, there’s big losses,” says Craig Squire.

Mr. Squire has highlighted that the vaccination mandate has been frustrating to enforce and having to turn away unvaccinated customers has meant that he has lost even more money.

“The concept that the unvaccinated can’t go to restaurants and cafes but can go to gyms and hairdressers and food courts, even licensed food courts, it just doesn’t stick. It basically started as a coercive measure to get more people vaccinated, we’re at 90 percent fully vaccinated in Cairns now so surely, we can let go of that. It’s not stopping the spread of covid,” says Cairns restaurant owner Craig Squire.

Restaurants Across Australia Are Fighting Over Workers To Keep Their Businesses Running

Some restaurants across Australia have resorted in poaching workers from rival hospitality venues by offering them a higher pay rise to keep their business operating. Furthermore, a number of hospitality establishments across Australia have been forced to close temporarily for the first time since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.

The fast-spreading Omicron variant has left many industries, especially the hospitality industry in economic disarray as thousands of workers have either tested positive to covid-19 or been required to isolate as a result of being a close contact of a positive case.

A trickle of international students and temporary workers back into the country after border closures has also exacerbated staff shortages for a number of businesses, while others that manage to stay open are operating on a knife edge.

For a number of venues who have been had a large percentage of their employees being unavailable to work due to covid-19 isolation requirements, the trading hours of many hospitality venues is dependent on how many people are available to work at that given time of day or night.

Furthermore, many hospitality venues are noticing an increase in rude customers who are complaining about the wait times for them to receive their meals as there are less employees available to work in the kitchen. As a result of this meals are taking longer than usual to be made for customers.

“That’s why I always ask the customers before they order food if they don’t mind waiting as we catch up with orders due to staff shortages. Please be kind with the hospitality industry right now. We are trying our best to serve you,” says Hana Tania, owner of Indonesian restaurant Ayam Ria Penyet.

Hana Tania reveals that some restaurants had also resorted to poaching staff with offers of better pay.

“Let’s say we were already offering a rate based on the standard award, but a fine-dining restaurant could offer them $35 an hour to wash dishes. Many restaurant owners that I know told me that they can’t compete with them. A couple of restaurant owners have even offered to give their staff a few hundred bucks extra if they can refer and bring their friends to work,” says Hana Tania.

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