- Colourful Items to Chew and Digest
 
With so many items that have surfaced since the last article, I just couldn’t resist throwing them all into a page like a bowl of jelly beans. Some light hearted some with a message that may be relevant to your business or to your employer. Enjoy the brain candy!
 
Is there a link between pay and productivity?
In 2005/2006 a study confirmed that companies that focus on engaging and rewarding employees deliver an average shareholder return 142% higher than companies that do not (Watson Wyatt Worldwide study of 551 companies and over 3 million employees).
Hindered by survey results released February this year by AON and Human Resources Magazine (survey conducted in December 2007), two of the most important issues facing Human Capital Managers were:
Attracting Talent (74% of respondents indicated this was a key concern) and
Retention of Existing Talent (68% of respondents identified this as a key concern).
One thing is clear: since 1995, productivity growth has experienced a strong revival. In the prosperous years between 1947 and 1973, productivity grew on average about 2.8 percent a year. Then, for reasons that continue to be debated, annual growth slowed to 1.4 percent between 1973 and 1995. Productivity growth has since picked up, averaging about 2.8 percent a year between 1995 and 2005.
How well total compensation has kept up with productivity depends on how you adjust for inflation.
Wage growth may be expected to lag productivity growth when an economy emerges from recession.
Some economists, however, are more sanguine about the apparent disconnect. They note that wages have steadily fallen as a share of total compensation; benefits like health care and pensions now account for nearly 30 percent of overall pay.
Growth of total compensation provides a better comparison with productivity growth, they maintain, and on this score, they see little cause for alarm in the latest numbers.
 
Paid Maternity Leave is now the hottest topic in the IR arena.
By international standards, Australia is lagging behind in the provision of paid maternity leave. However, despite aggressive union pressure, Kevin Rudd (Australia’s Prime Minister ..for our International readers) remains steadfast to his resolve to not offer paid maternity leave as a national standard.  However, Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin has subsequently told mothers to expect a scheme funding just 14 weeks when the Productivity Commission inquiry reports on the issue next year.
As anticipated, employer’s immediate reaction to providing paid maternity leave is generally negative due to the perceived effect on the business’s bottom line.
However, in today’s labour market, employers who provide paid maternity leave provisions are seen to be signalling their dedication to their employees. Over the last decade, trends have shown that this typically translates into increased job satisfaction, greater employee productivity and improved employee loyalty. 
 
Banks are back on the CFOs’ radar!
While few finance chiefs expect bank failures of any magnitude, the discovery of modern banking’s soft underbelly has created unease. And the ripple effects are hitting corporations from many directions.
Now that the gaping holes in their risk management have been revealed, banks are trying to restore faith.
Even as banks work out their risk quandaries, they are already demonstrating far less appetite for corporate loans.
The clots in the arteries of financial markets are also bad news for companies that grant trade credit to their customers. The National Association of Credit Management’s Credit Manager’s Index, an indicator of trade-credit trends and receivables’ performance, has dropped for six straight months.
 
Email Dangers for Employers! Case: The ‘Ham Sandwich Saga’
The serious consequences of inappropriate email usage are highlighted by the ‘Ham Sandwich Saga’ that led to the dismissal of two receptionists at a Sydney Law Office. The incident was sparked when one of the dismissed receptionist’s sent out a mass email asking to be reimbursed for a ham sandwich which was removed from a company fridge by another staff member. The other receptionist questioned the legitimacy of the complaint, and this led to an escalation of tension between the two receptionists, to the point where personal insults and sexual-related information was released across the work email network. This information quickly spread across to major legal and financial firms in the Sydney CBD.
To avoid any potential ‘Ham Sandwich Saga’s’, there are a number of ways an organisation can make certain that staff are aware of email expectations whilst at work, and these include:
*  Having a policy entrenched in the contract or terms of employment which stipulate specifically that emailing for personal use is unacceptable.
* Re-enforcing to staff from time to time the expectations upon them to use company email accounts for company related purposes.
* Informing staff that if they have grievances not to use company email to deal with such disputes, as an accidental multiple recipient emails can have catastrophic consequences.
* Employer’s themselves setting a good example by avoiding sending out attachment based emails to staff including jokes, and minimising personal emailing during office hours.
 
Outsourcing HR
Recent research has shown that on conservative estimates, the average employer saves 9 hours per week (or nearly 20 full days per year) and $12,000.00 (net) per year by outsourcing their HR to a professional company.  (I just report the findings)
 
HR Outsourcing is a relatively new concept in Australia, but it is growing in its demand as many employers find it far too hard to engage best fit employees whilst they navigate the ever increasing and complex workplace laws. 
What would you be able to do with an additional 9 hours per week?

Karl Jansson
Managing Consultant
Broadcast Technology
Beilby
Level 9, 255 George St
Sydney NSW 2000

e: karl.jansson@beilby.com.au
w: www.beilby.com.au