07 Mar 2012

Report Reveals
Personality and Cognition Personality and cognitive ability tests have long been used in job selection. They have both been shown to be important predictors of job performance but are considered separate tests which measure different aspects of job suitability. An interesting set of studies shows that they may have more in common than previously thought. It has been shown that apse...

14 Nov 2011

Sleep Desk
The work culture With Australians working longer hours than ever before and working the longest hours of all countries in the developed world, businesses are finding that they need to provide a greater number of more innovative ‘perks’ to reward their employees’ hard work, to keep their employees’ productive and to ensure they attract and retain the best workers in a competitive marke...

10 Oct 2011

Say No Bulling
A new national campaign backed by big business, sportspeople, charities, ministers and celebrities has been unveiled in an effort to eliminate bullying in the workplace and other settings, according to Human Capital Magazine. Involved are such organisations as Foxtel, Channel 9, and Living Social; such high profile individuals as cricketer Brad Haddin, sports commentator Phil Gould, r...

04 Oct 2011

Selecting Job Applications
An article in the 'mycareer' section of 4 October’s Sydney Morning Herald revealed that increasingly employers are using social media sites such as Twitter to help select job applicants. Alan Geere, from Essex Chronicle Media Group and Northcliffe Media South East in the UK this week asked would-be reporters to apply for jobs by tweeting 140 words about...

01 Sep 2011

Personality Assessment
Meta-analyses have revealed that the most valid predictors of job performance are ability measures (cognitive or intelligence tests) and personality assessments, particularly the "Big 5" personality traits, followed by structured job interviews. Together, ability tests and measures of conscientiousness or integrity provide an adjusted validity of 0.65 (Ones, Viswesveran, & Schmidt, 1...

28 Jul 2011

Safe Contact Centre
The security breaches at Sony Corp., makers of the PlayStation consoles, in April this year exposed both the wealth of personal information that contact centre staff gather from customers on a daily basis and also the potential costs and reputation damage that can result from lack of risk management and appropriate security practices. The information stolen by hackers of the Sony Corp...

26 Jul 2011

Protect Business
A front page story in the Sydney Morning Herald  "Injuries Show the Dangers of Childcare" highlighted the serious problems that can arise when employees are unaware of or, do not follow, organisational safety procedures. One report indicated that there were 13,300 potential health and safety breaches in child care centres in NSW in 2009-10, resulting in 1,000 children requiring medica...

25 Jul 2011

Managers Test
Leaders exert a significant influence over the satisfaction and engagement of the employees that they lead (Harter, Schmidt & Hayes, 2002). A good manager can inspire and transform a workplace; while a bad manager can derail their own efforts and those of the organisation. Signs of derailment include failure to delegate, attitude of arrogance and insensitivity, bullying and inability...

25 Jul 2011

Identify Leaders
The idea of a 360 degree performance appraisal is to survey those around an employee to gather information about their performance from the perspective of different individuals they interact with at work. Feedback is typically provided by subordinates, peers and supervisors, the individuals themselves (self-assessment), and may include feedback from customers or clients. "360" refers to ...