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Episode 22
413 Plays1 year ago
News for the week beginning 14 August 2023 and Question of the week: "Do recruiters need to be explicitly told how to behave in the office?"
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Transcript
Labor Hire Contract Announcement
00:00:07
Speaker
This is the news for we commencing 14th of August, 2023. Oztender, on behalf of the Department of Finance, has announced the successful recruitment agencies for the people panel phase two labour hire services contract, effective 7th of August, 2023 for four years. The highest profile agencies among the 70 successful suppliers were Adeco, Clicks, Cox Patel, Davidson, DFP, Drake, Finite,
00:00:36
Speaker
healthier nights, haze, high tech, hoeven, launch, manpower, MacArthur, people to people, people bank, Randstad and work pack. Recruitment News Australia understands this list is not finalised. Significant existing suppliers to the federal government that may yet be added as successful tenderers include Hudson, Chandler McLeod, Horizon One, Ignite, SOS and Mosaic.
00:01:05
Speaker
Other high-profile agencies missing from the list include Michael Page, Page Group, Robert Walters, Robert Half, Programmed, Paxis and Six Degrees. It is unknown whether these agencies even responded to the tender. The participating federal government agencies include the ABC, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian War Memorial, the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Reserve Bank and Tourism Australia.
00:01:32
Speaker
and all 17 federal government departments amongst the 94 authorised agencies.
ASX-Listed Tech Group's Financial Performance
00:01:39
Speaker
ASX-listed high-tech group reported full year revenue and gross profit were both up 18% year on year and net profit was up 23% for the full financial year ending 30 June 2023. Japanese recruiter Will Group, owner of local brands DFP Recruitment, Key Appointments and Ethos Speech Chapman
00:02:01
Speaker
reported a revenue drop of 2.8% for the first quarter ended 30 June 2023 when compared to the same period last year. Gross profit was down 5.9% and operating profit dropped 21%. Age Group announced that group gross profit declined by 4.4% on a constant currency basis for the half year ending 30 June 2023. Operating profit declined 47.5%.
00:02:30
Speaker
A 4.3% growth in the group's largest region, EMEA, was offset by declines across all the group's other major regions, with APAC down 17.3%. Australia recorded a 2% drop compared to the corresponding period in 2022. Recruit Holdings, Japan, headquartered owner of local brands, Chandler McLeod and PeopleBank reported revenue fell 2.1%
00:02:57
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in constant currency for the first quarter ended 30 June, 2023 when compared to the same period last year. Gross profit was unchanged. However, operating profit rose 15%. NASDAQ listed Kelly Services reported second quarter revenue fell 4.5% year over year in constant currency. Asia Pacific revenue declined 3.2% and global gross profit declined 8.5%.
Zoom's Hybrid Work Policy
00:03:25
Speaker
Last week, in a shock announcement, the platform synonymous with remote work Zoom, advised staff that any employees living within 50 miles of a Zoom office must now work in the office at least two days a week. As one news site put it, Zoom has Zoom fatigue. In a statement, a Zoom spokesperson said that the company believes a structured hybrid approach is most effective for Zoom because it provides an opportunity for workers to interact with their teams. Last year, Zoom CFO Kelly Stekelberg
00:03:55
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cited an internal survey across 7,400 employees showing that about 85% of employees who work remotely want it to stay that way.
Atlassian's Remote Work Success
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Zoom's attitude is in direct contrast to Australian tech giant Atlassian who last week lauded its remote work policy when it posted better than expected financial results for the financial quarter of 2023.
00:04:20
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In a letter to shareholders, the company went hard on the gamble they made at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic on remote work, saying its approach was vital to its most recent successes. Atlassian's Team Anywhere policy allows staff to work remotely or in person in Atlassian's own offices with teams physically meeting where appropriate for major strategy and planning sessions.
Employee Monitoring at Insurance Australia Group
00:04:42
Speaker
Insurance Australia Group used keystroke technology on an employee's work laptop
00:04:47
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to test whether she was working her designated hours. And the result was used as a key piece of evidence in having the Fair Work Commission reject the employee's unfair dismissal application. According to the FWC findings, the employee, Outbound Communications Disclosure Consultant, Susie Checo, was fired on 20th February, 2023 for missing deadlines and meetings being absent and un-contactable.
00:05:15
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and failing to complete a task which caused the industry regulator to find IAG. Ms Checo's boss asked IAG's cyber team to conduct a review of her laptop activity between October and December last year by checking how much she was typing on her laptop while she was working. It was discovered through the review that Ms Checo did not work her rostered hours for 44 days across the three-month period.
00:05:40
Speaker
She started work late on seven days, left early on 29 days and recorded zero work hours on four days. When Ms Checo did work, the findings showed she had a very low keystroke activity on her laptop, averaging 54 strokes per hour throughout the three months. And she did not make a single keystroke across 320 separate hours. When the cyber review was brought to her attention, Ms Checo vehemently rejected the accuracy of the data.
00:06:08
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In a written response, Sheko said she looked at the data to seek an explanation for the missing hours, but I really can't recall why or how it's that low. According to the FWC ruling, Sheko attended one Microsoft Teams meeting with her manager regarding her performance with the letters F-U-C-K written across her hand.
00:06:29
Speaker
FWC Deputy President Thomas Roberts found that Ms Checo couldn't provide a credible explanation for the allegation relating to the non-performance of her duties, put little evidence forward to assist her argument that the data from the cyber review is inaccurate, ultimately concluding, I'm satisfied that the dismissal of the applicant was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable.
Underpayment Crackdown in Food Sector
00:06:53
Speaker
In a speech detailing Australia's biggest pay cheats,
00:06:57
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Admitted and alleged acting Fair Work Ombudsman, Kristin Hannah has revealed the national wage inspector has launched an undercover crackdown on the cheap eat sector, especially cut price sushi bars for underpaying workers. Speaking at the AI Group's annual conference in Canberra two weeks ago, Hannah said the FWC was targeting and designing investigations for problematic industries and running a rolling program of unannounced audits in the fast food, restaurants and cafes sector.
00:07:26
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specifically targeting areas with cheap eats havens. In the sector, fair work inspectors are finding franchises are frequently underpaying workers with individual hero sushi, 85 degrees daily cafe and baker's delight franchise owners copying large finds recently.
00:07:47
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And just a reminder, the RCSA 2023 shape conference gets underway in Hamilton Island in two weeks time. Adele and I will be there recording a couple of podcast episodes live, specifically question of the week. So please seek us out. We'd love to have you involved live on the episode. See you there.
Recruiters and Office Behavior Guidelines
00:08:16
Speaker
And our question of the week this week, do recruiters need to be told explicitly how to behave in the office?
00:08:27
Speaker
Now, I've raised this with Adele because of an article that I've read recently, in fact, only two weeks ago. So let me just read some of this article to give you context. As more employees return to offices, their employers are realizing some are rustier than expected when it comes to their understanding of how to behave in the workplace.
00:08:47
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Many work from home in the past few years outside the demands of office norms, and younger workers who started remotely might not even have had a full-time in-office experience yet. Turns out that employees need refreshes on how to do things such as hold workplace conversations, dress appropriately, take lunch breaks, and even make eye contact, Israelist leader said in a survey conducted this month by RegimeBuilder.com.
00:09:13
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Almost half of the survey's more than 1,500 respondents said they're currently offering etiquette classes. And another 18% said they plan to roll out such training programs by next year. One of the participants said, people need guidelines and some standards so they know what to do. So Adele,
00:09:37
Speaker
Does this apply in the recruitment industry? Do we need such etiquette classes for our recruiters as they come back to the office? Well, they've been back for a while yet, but are we in need of etiquette training in our industry? This one just makes me laugh because it's comical to think that this is a requirement is needed, but the answer is probably yes. I mean, I think there was possibly some of these issues that may have been
00:10:08
Speaker
becoming a problem even pre-COVID. Standards were starting to slip a little, I think, even before then. So there may have been a need for some of this even before COVID hit. And then obviously post-COVID, with, you know, like you said, changes to the way offices are working. Some people never having worked in an office, all of those things. Maybe there is a need for
Returning to Office: Dress Codes and Hours
00:10:28
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it.
00:10:28
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OK, well, let's talk about a few specifics. So firstly, dressing appropriately. Is there a need for that to be explicit? Definitely. I think that's probably number one in my opinion of where standards have definitely slipped. I think definitely dress code expectations need to be set because there has been such a blurred line during Covid and being able to have, you know,
00:10:51
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your jammies on the bottom and your business on the top. So I think, not that I'm suggesting anyone's coming to work in their pajamas, but standards have definitely dropped. Okay. What about working hours in terms of start times, lunch breaks, finish times? Do you think we need to be explicit there? Yeah, I again think that people have had really flexible start and finish times and ability to, you know, the day has been fluid. And I think when you're going into an office,
00:11:21
Speaker
there's probably more of that expectation that you're going to do work in those work hours. You know, there isn't, you know, you're not going to just go off and pop off and have a coffee with a friend or go and do the washing or, you know, there's all those other things that are interrupting the day. So they may need to relearn how to manage their time in an office environment when they're just working on work, you know, nine to five.
00:11:44
Speaker
So picking up on a couple of those things, what about people's personal appointments? Going to the doctor, the dentist, going to physio, I don't know, getting your nails done, getting your hair cut, like you think there needs to be explicit understanding of how those things to be managed Monday to Friday? Yeah, well, I think, again, if you're a leader that would expect some of those things to occur, one, either out of hours or maybe two,
00:12:14
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when the person is on their kind of designated work from home days, then it's important to be explicit about that expectation because again, your staff have been able to do these things without wondering or worrying about what day of the week it was or time of the day because they could extend their day out and work after dinner or go and pop out for an appointment and nobody probably knew about it for the most part.
Managing Personal Appointments at Work
00:12:37
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So I think, yeah,
00:12:40
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They're wanting to do personal appointments in the normal day. I think, again, like the old days, you had to ask for time off. You had to ask permission or at least notify your boss in a professional manner that you were going to be offline for a period of time to take something or do something personal. What about social media use? Do you think that's something that there needs to be clear guidelines around or is it OK for people to be on Insta for 10 minutes or Facebook?
00:13:06
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you know, whenever they kind of feel like they need a bit of a mental break. A break. Yeah, that's a hard
Social Media and Communication in the Workplace
00:13:11
Speaker
one. I think, again, hard one to monitor and manage. And, you know, I guess people, if you think about, you know, through COVID, you could be in a meeting and sitting looking at your phone while you're still participating in the meeting. And, you know, in the physical sense, that that's not practical to do. And probably seen as downright rude to sit there in a meeting and be scrolling on Instagram.
00:13:34
Speaker
you know, while you're sitting in the meeting and yet people have probably been habitually doing some of those things and then maybe have to be reminded that that's not how you behave or that's not going to be accepted or you know, you're now in person or they might be having withdrawal symptoms from those activities. They're used to sitting and having that little fix. Yeah, those little short breaks in between, you know, the workday. I think one of the things probably would need further expansion would be
00:14:03
Speaker
Communication in the office, like when is it appropriate to go up and just interrupt someone in terms of emailing colleagues or texting colleagues or I don't know, making requests on social media to connect. I think all of those sort of areas, things have become a little blurred and people
00:14:25
Speaker
particularly newer people or younger people, perhaps a little unsure or just not understanding where the appropriate boundaries are there. So I suspect that's probably an area that would need some work. What do you think? Well, you think about how you learn those things, you know, you come into a job for the first time and how do you know what is the appropriate means of communication, whether people do go up and interrupt the boss or
00:14:52
Speaker
whether you need to go and book a time if you want to have a chat. You know, those things are learned culturally in an organization. You see others do it. Someone says to you, that's not how we do it. You know, you learn that kind of on the job. And that's the part we're missing. There's not the on-the-job training parts of behavior in the office that you're missing. So unless somebody sees you do that or you happen to mention, this is what I'm going to do, you could very easily create a, you know, cause a bit of a faux pas in the workplace if you didn't know that that's not how it's done. So
00:15:22
Speaker
There may really be a need, I think, for certainly setting expectations with employees or resetting expectations with your employees if you're a manager or leader listening to this. Maybe, you know, full etiquette training might be a little too far and a little too formal, but certainly makes sense to sit down and say, these are my expectations now that we're back in
00:15:46
Speaker
the post COVID way of working because again, as I said, people had a different way and we had to accept many things that maybe aren't acceptable anymore. You know, the one that kind of annoys me, maybe I'm going to show what a dinosaur I am.
00:16:04
Speaker
If I'm going to a shop and I'm being served and the person refers to me as mate, how are you going, mate? My first instinct is I'm not your mate, but I don't want to be a grump. I don't expect them to call me like sir. How are you going, sir?
00:16:25
Speaker
I don't know to me it's like referring to people as mate and like my my eldest son who's just turned 24 does that a bit and it's just I don't know kind of a little cringe worthy with me so I think the etiquette of how to address people like using their name and not using I don't know mate or some other form of um
00:16:51
Speaker
a dress that may be a little offensive, you know, love. How are you going, love? Yeah, I was going to say. For women, that's a real pet hate, I can assure you. But yeah, no, you're right. Communication in that sense of how to address people. Even, you know, again, I'll show my age as well. You know, we were taught that if you were sick and you were phoning in to work, you had to speak
Setting Clear Workplace Expectations
00:17:13
Speaker
to your manager. You had to get on the phone and have a verbal conversation with the manager.
00:17:17
Speaker
for the purpose of being able to talk about the work that you had on or interviews that you had booked and as a professional courtesy to clear out your day, not just send a text message, but over time we've had to accept that text is a valid form of communication and we have to loosen some of these things. So that's the real danger here. Where is it that we've just got to move with the times and make the changes?
00:17:43
Speaker
Or where is it that someone hasn't set the expectation? And I think that's the gray area. Yeah. So I think the summary of today's conversation,
00:17:53
Speaker
remove all doubt and set expectations appropriately. And our brothers and sisters in the etiquette consulting industry, I suspect they could definitely serve a purpose here because often it helps having someone coming in from outside to communicate these things because sometimes the message can be perceived. If someone internally is delivering it, potentially there's the unintended message that
00:18:22
Speaker
People aren't behaving very well and we need to kind of lay the law down as distinct from, this is more generally how behavior is appropriate and where it's appropriate in the workplace. Yeah, I think you're right. I think using an external provider for more formal address of this could be an easier way for some managers to deal with it rather than the uncomfortable conversations. But yeah, really interesting topic today, Ross. Thanks, Adele. That's a wrap.
00:18:50
Speaker
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