The World According to Cachia

As the saying goes, some people will never learn!!! but now it seems that scientists know the reason(s) why. Simply stated, 'People who keep repeating the same mistakes have less active brains'.

Researchers studied the brainwave patterns of 36 people who were given a simple time-guessing task.

They were asked to press a button when they thought 1.7 seconds had passed. The volunteers were then told if their guess was correct, too short or too long before having another go.

Good learners showed a greater electrical brain response when they were told where they had gone wrong. They demonstrated better communication between the parts of the brain that monitor performance and areas that coordinate senses and physical actions.

Although we are always told how important it is to learn from our errors, why is it that we don't all not learn from our experiences in the same way? Sadly, It seems, some people rarely do... despite being informed of their mistakes in repeated attempts.

Studies in this area presents an insight into how our brain processes performance feedback and what it does with this information, whether to learn from it or brush it aside.

Apparently the good learners used the feedback not only to check their past performance, but also to adjust their next performance accordingly.

Does this mean we need to listen to the feedback given, and actively introduce what we've learnt?

Fatigue can become a health and safety hazard in your workplace if you don’t act to observe signs and reduce risks.

Any person who does not allow themselves an adequate amount and quality of sleep is susceptible to fatigue. But certain types of workers are more likely to experience it due to their working and personal situations.

What types of workers are most likely to experience fatigue?

The most likely types of workers to experience fatigue include:

1. shift workers;
2. workers with excessive working hours; and
3. workers with significant demands outside of the workplace.

Remember that workers in high-risk workplaces create a higher risk if they are affected by fatigue.

Keep a look out for these types of workers in your workplace:

Shift workers

Shift workers are particularly prone to fatigue as their natural biological rhythms are regularly disrupted, especially those that work the night shift. 

And besides that, shift workers are at a greater risk of suffering from many other health and wellbeing issues including:

• obesity;
• cardiovascular disease;
• mood changes;
• gastrointestinal problems, e.g. constipation and stomach discomfort;
• higher risk of motor vehicle accidents and work-related accidents; and
• family problems, e.g. divorce.

Workers with excessive working hours

Workers with excessive working hours sacrifice the time they need for rest and recuperation, which makes them more likely to be fatigued at work.

To assist in managing the effects of working extended hours, make sure that your workers have regular breaks from the workplace, i.e. by using their annual leave entitlement.

Workers with significant demands outside the workplace

Workers who have significant demands outside of their workplace are more likely to be fatigued at work, e.g. those with a carer’s responsibility for an ill family member.

Consider what procedures your business has in place for identifying high-risk workers and what steps your business can take to accommodate the impact of their circumstances. Once these workers have been identified, monitoring and supervising them is critical.

There has been a recent push for the Australian Recruitment Industry to be better regulated... as apparently there are those considered ‘cowboys’ who are damaging its reputation!

Industry specialists are concerned that these so-called 'cowboys' are tarnishing the reputation of the recruitment industry... as they are unskilled and somewhat unethical?

Apparently you don't need to have any qualifications [and perhaps no affiliations] to be a recruiter, rather a mobile phone and a laptop is all that's required, and you're set to run your own business...

However, it will become obvious that soon enough, the inskilled recruiter will be found out! The good and professional recruiters (and yes there are many of them to choose from), will develop a good relationship with their clients... they will understand the [clients] business, and will present candidates that suit the role and the culture of the business!

On the other hand, those who don't manage their business affairs professionally, and therefore focus on the 'fees' tend more to work on the numbers and so focus on quantity and [sadly] not quantity... of course this has a negative impact upon the candidate as he/she is not being managed proerly, and are most likely missing out on valuable feedback and opportunities!

Perhaps the industry would benefit from better regulations, and/or the enforcement of penalties for poor and unethical conduct. This may then raise the standard of professionalism and ultimately reduce the negative impacts on job seekers. It may also weed out the 'cowboys'.

In the meantime, both clients and candidates alike, should research the recruiter, and perhaps investigate their client base... also be aware of their fee structure. Most importantly, make sure that you have some control over the process and if you feel your recruiter is not looking after you as you'd expect... well maybe it's time to find a new recruiter?

Women in Australia continue to be under-represented in positions of leadership, according to a new report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The report, Gender Indicators, Australia brings together a variety of ABS and non-ABS data to look at the differences between men and women, and how these differences are changing over time.

ABS Director of Living Conditions Statistics, Caroline Daley, said men still held a higher proportion of Australia’s top leadership positions including federal and state parliamentarians, CEOs in the top 200 ASX companies and managers in the Australian Public Service.

"Seven out of ten federal and state parliamentarians were men, and this hasn't changed over the past ten years," Ms Daley said.

"The proportion of women CEOs in top 200 ASX companies has remained below five per cent for the last decade,” she said.

“The situation in the public service however is changing, with the proportion of women in senior and middle manager roles rising from 35 per cent in 2002 to 46 per cent in 2012.

The report also shows that more than twice as many men as women receive nominations and awards for the Order of Australia.

“The difference is greatest at the highest tiers of the honours system, where around three times as many men receive either the Companion of the Order (AC) or Officer of the Order (AO) award in the General Division,” Ms Daley said.

“In 2012, 682 men and 297 women received a General Division Order of Australia award at either the Australia Day or Queen's Birthday announcements.

“Two women received the highest honour (AC), compared to 11 men, while 18 women and 57 men received the second highest honour (AO),” she said.

We all know we need to consult workers on health and safety matters that affect them. But how often?

There is not a black and white answer to this question.

How often you need to consult your workers will depend on various factors relating to your business.

When certain processes are being carried out you need to consult affected workers in those areas, for example, during:

• hazard identification procedures;
• risk assessment procedures that arise from work tasks;
• determining how to eliminate or reduce those risks;
• determining whether workplace facilities are adequate for the welfare of workers;
• proposing and making changes that affect the health and safety of workers; and
• making decisions about procedures, such as those for consultation, issue resolution, provision of information and training, and workplace monitoring.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has today released a report showing that in May 2012, one in ten full-time employees earned $2,364 or more per week. It was also found that one in ten full-time employees earned $738 or less per week.

ABS Director of Labour Employer Surveys, Mike Scott said "The Employee Earnings and Hours, Australia publication is released every two years and provides statistics on employee earnings and hours worked, broken down by industry, sex and state/territory among others.

"We found that the highest average weekly total cash earnings reported for all employees were for Managers ($1,926) and Professionals ($1,438) and the lowest average weekly total cash earnings were reported for Sales workers ($607), Community and personal service workers ($707), and Labourers ($779)." Mr Scott said.

"Across industries, average weekly total cash earnings for all employees ranged from $539 in the Accommodation and food services industry to $2,388 in the Mining industry. In the Mining industry, 63 per cent of full-time adult non-managerial employees earned weekly total cash earnings of more than $2,000 per week.

"Those employees who had their pay set by award only received the lowest average weekly total earnings ($634) compared with those employees who had their pay set by individual arrangement ($1,277) and collective agreement ($1,151). Of those paid by award only, the largest proportion were Community and Personal service workers (21 per cent).

"Average weekly total cash earnings for females were lower than for males across almost all variables. For all employees, male earnings were $1,343 compared with $904 for females, while full-time adult male employees received weekly total cash earnings of an average $1,472 compared with $1,226 for full-time adult females", Mr Scott said.

A recent survey was conducted to ascertain the general view as to whether Human Resources practitoners have the necessary skills required to navigate the complex landscape of industrial disputes...

Of the [almost] 1500 respondents;

The attention given throughout any Redundancy process is [normally] for those leaving the Organisation, but what of those remaining? Too often it seems that the so-called 'survivors' are overlooked, yet they feel the [personal] pressure from such downsizing, suffice to say that redundancies, if not managed properly, can have a negative effect on the workforce.

Employees wonder if there’s more to come and some will consider leaving before they’re forced out. Those who are left have to cope with the range of emotions and uncertainty that can result from layoffs.

For those remaining there needs to be strategies and measures in place to restore the workplace back to its previous state, or at least a state of optimum productivity and engagement.

There are many different methods for making redundancies, all of which can have different effects on morale... By communicating clearly, explaining motivations and giving as much information about the future as possible you can reduce the effect of layoffs and maintain morale.

Best practice tips:

1. Give as much information as you can
   Layoffs often follow months of executive level discussion and strategizing, but workers don’t see that. By giving as much information about the company’s reasons and goals for the cuts you can help workers see the layoffs as necessary.
   
2. Try to do all the cuts at the same time
   Uncertainty will keep your staff on edge and have the more marketable workers, who are exactly the staff you want to keep, polishing their resumes. If you can assure them that the process is done, they can relax and focus on their jobs, knowing they won’t lose them soon.
   
3. Communication needs to be on-going and consistent
   There’s a big difference between “We’re not considering layoffs.” and “We’re not considering layoffs at this time.” Have one executive do all the communicating to avoid misunderstandings from different wording and ensure that the message is consistent. In these days of instant and frequent communication one announcement is insufficient. Two-way, on-going communication will reassure your staff that you are listening and care.
   
4. If possible, help staff understand how management decided which people to cut
   “Survivor guilt” is common among those left behind so reassure them there’s a reason for every decision. If it seems like cuts were arbitrary or unfair that guilt will be worse, especially as workers may feel significant loyalty to their terminated colleagues.
6. Be good to those who are leaving
   Giving the departing staff a “soft landing” with counselling and severance packages shows the company cares about all its employees. Showing respect and compassion to those being laid off will generate goodwill among those who remain.

Fair Work Australia has upheld the summary dismissal of an employee after it found he invented a workplace fall and inappropriately exposed himself at work.

The Applicant was employed as an electrician until his employment was terminated on 24 May 2011. The Respondent dismissed the Applicant for reasons relating to a dishonest back injury claim, his conduct in the workplace (in exposing himself to a female colleague), and work performance issues relating to incomplete testing and tagging of electrical equipment.

After consideration of the evidence presented Commissioner Spencer found on the balance of probabilities that the Applicant “sought entry to the workplace on the public holiday when the business was closed for the purpose of making an entry after the fact in the First Aid book and completing an incident report on the alleged falling incident”.

Having regard to s.387 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) which sets out the criteria for considering whether a dismissal was “harsh, unjust or unreasonable” in accordance with s.385 of the FW Act, the conclusion reached by Commissioner Spencer was that the Applicant’s dishonest behaviour provided a valid reason for the dismissal.

On that basis he found it was not necessary to determine whether the Applicant had actually exposed himself to his colleague (however he found it unlikely she would have fabricated such an embarrassing scenario).

Notwithstanding the above findings, Commissioner Spencer found the dismissal had been deficient in some respects – namely, that the Applicant had been denied the opportunity to respond to the allegations, as well as the opportunity to have a support person present at a disciplinary meeting.

As the conduct of the Applicant was found to be commensurate with definition of “serious misconduct” in the Act, the deficiencies in the dismissal procedure were deemed insufficient to conclude that the dismissal was “harsh, unjust or unreasonable” in accordance with s.385 of the FW Act.

A common issue posed to Australian HR professionals and workplace consultants is in relation to best practice for managing personal leave entitlements, and more specifically those who obviously use their sick/carer’s leave as it accrues.

It is therefore imperative that effective and reasonable management of absenteeism is required and so, the following approach could be adopted:

A Personal Leave policy and guidelines which clearly stipulate employee entitlements, evidence and notice requirements

Effective and appropriate follow up with the employee upon their return to the workplace

Education of employees and managers to ensure a clear understanding of policy, guidelines and organisational expectations

Personal leave is of course a workplace right and as such organisations should not unnecessarily risk an adverse action or discrimination claim by requiring excessive evidence.

HR professionals (and/or line managers) really need to be well informed of their legal rights and obligations, and to ensure compliance, they should seek appriopriate advice... and/or consult the Fair Work Act 2009, National Employment Standards (NES) provision for guidance.