Culture Archives - Page 2 of 4

10 free tools for remote working teams

Posted on September 16, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

With COVID-19 keeping everyone away from the office, the need for tools that accommodate remote teams continues to grow. Unfortunately, many companies are also having to keep their budgets small and can’t afford to invest in pricey software to meet their needs. Thankfully, there are several free tools out there that HR teams can use to make their jobs a bit easier. We share our top recommendations in this post.

10 free tools for remote HR teams

While there are many great options to choose from, we selected some of our favourite tools to make remote work easier for HR teams and employers. To help put them into action faster, we also shared ideas on how to use them for HR-related projects and initiatives below.

1. Asana

Asana is a task management platform that makes it easy to collaborate on projects with other team members. This is a great tool for remote work since it allows people to keep tasks organised, communicate with one another, and keep track of progress – all in one virtual workspace. Below are a few ways HR teams can use Asana:

Create a to-do list for new hires that they can check items off as they go
Manage ongoing projects with other members of the HR team
Document processes (i.e. for onboarding and offboarding) that managers and leaders can easily reference

2. Slack

Communication is key – especially when it comes to remote work. Having a communication platform that can be used via desktop or mobile, such as Slack, makes the experience of working with decentralised teams much more seamless. Here are ideas on how HR teams can use Slack to their advantage:

Create a Slack channel specifically for new hires
Regularly check in on employees to make sure everyone is feeling supported
Set up reminders for upcoming virtual webinars, events, or meetings

3. Flare HR

At Flare, we offer multiple products that are free for companies to use – such as a remote onboarding software and an exclusive benefits and discount platform. These offerings can help streamline all your HR processes and provide a better overall experience for your employees. With Flare, you can:

Add new employees quickly and integrate with your ATS
Easily generate employment contracts and policy documents
Send new hires a link and have them enter information, sign contracts, upload certiﬁcates and more through a simple online interface
Give your workforce access to exclusive benefits and discounts with leading retailers like Woolworths, JB Hi-Fi, and Amazon

4. SurveyMonkey

Surveys are an incredibly important tool for all HR teams to have at their disposal. If you don’t have the budget to afford a more comprehensive surveying platform, you can always use a free version of SurveyMonkey to create your own. Here are a few types of surveys you may want to consider distributing to your workforce:

Employee engagement surveys
Pulse surveys
Onboarding and/or new hire surveys
Offboarding surveys
COVID-19-related surveys

5. Donut

When everyone is physically apart, it’s difficult to foster a sense of community. Donut is a great solution. This tool can help everyone – from people within your own team to other employees across the organisation – stay connected to one another by setting up virtual hangouts. Donut also integrates easily with Slack so you don’t have to download another platform to use it. There are lots of creative things you can do with this tool:

Set up randomised “Donut dates” to encourage relationship building across teams
Assign new hires a buddy through Donut to help them ramp up and onboard faster
Create learning opportunities by connecting employees looking to learn new skills with experts inside your organisation using Donut

6. Zoom

Video calls are essential for remote work. This technology gives us that face-to-face time we need but otherwise wouldn’t be able to access outside the office. We love Zoom because it offers a free version that can host up to 100 participants and unlimited 1:1’s. They also offer an array of fun, virtual backgrounds to make meetings a bit more interesting. HR teams can use Zoom for multiple use cases, such as:

Interviews with potential candidates
Training sessions (such as a financial literacy workshop or DEI session)
Company-wide meetings or celebrations
Virtual events like happy hours or costume contests

7. Chimp or Champ

Right now, employees are struggling with their wellbeing as a result of Covid-19. That means that it’s more important than ever to keep a finger on the pulse and check in with your workforce regularly. Chimp or Champ is a great tool that lets you send out an anonymous weekly employee happiness meter to see how everyone is doing. There are a few things you can do with the feedback you collect:

Develop initiatives according to the happiness levels of employees
Create a monthly report to keep track of overall employee wellbeing (and make sure to share it with your leadership team so they’re aware too!)

8. Dropbox

You likely work with lots of large documents in your job – such as contracts for new hires and legal documents for employees. Due to the file size, these documents are difficult to send through email. And we unfortunately don’t have the luxury of printing them out and handing directly to someone. In cases like this, Dropbox can be a huge help. It’s a platform where large files can be shared and downloaded. With this tool, you can:

Create a shared folder for new hires that contains their contracts, forms, and other benefits information
Upload recordings of past trainings or webinars that all employees can easily access

9. Loom

One of the challenges with remote work is finding the right time to host meetings and events. Since everyone is working across different time zones and schedules, it’s challenging to find a time that’s convenient for everyone. Loom can help by letting you record presentations or announcements in advance. The tool then gives you a link so you can easily share the recording and let employees catch up when they have time. Here are a few other ways you can use Loom:

Create videos that explain the onboarding and offboarding process
Pre-record training sessions so employees across all time zones can view it at their leisure
Have your CEO record messages or announcements to share with the organisation

10. Calendly

Being able to effectively schedule meetings is even more important in the remote world than it was in the office. Calendly is one of the best tools you can use to make the scheduling process a bit easier and more transparent. It integrates with popular calendar apps and shows people your availability so they can easily schedule a meeting or appointment with you. Some of the benefits of using Calendly includes:

Making scheduling easy for potential candidates who are interviewing
Simplifying the scheduling process across time zones
Reducing blockers to scheduling meetings for larger groups

Using the right tools can make the remote working experience so much easier. Make sure to take advantage of the free ones we mentioned above to create a better work experience for yourself and a better HR experience for your employees. To learn more about Flare HR’s free onboarding software and employee benefits, request a demo.

A guide on how to onboard new employees remotely

Posted on August 11, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

As COVID-19 continues to keep employees remote, companies have to start thinking about how to adapt their HR processes accordingly. One of the most important experiences to consider is employee onboarding. The type of onboarding program you have in place has a significant impact on factors like new hire retention and productivity. In fact, a study found that a structured onboarding experience resulted in 69% of employees being more likely to stay with a company for three years and 50% greater new-hire productivity.

While being remote does present some challenges to the onboarding process, we believe there are things you can do to make it just as strong as one that’s in person. Below, we outlined a five-step process to help you get your new hires onboarded remotely:

1. Start with preboarding

Many employers wait until the new hire’s first day to start the onboarding process. But there’s actually a step that comes before that called preboarding. The purpose of this step is to get your new hires up-to-speed before they start their new roles so they don’t feel overwhelmed on their first day. Preboarding activities have also been found to increase first-year retention by as much as 80 percent. These activities can include:

Filling out documents (employment contracts, super information, etc.)
Reviewing benefits options
Collecting personal information (employee’s favorite snack, personal hobbies, etc.)

To help companies manage this process remotely, Flare has a free digital onboarding software that lets you add new employees to your ATS, generate documents, and gives your new hires a seamless way to auto-sign contracts and share important information with the company.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

2. Create a warm welcome experience

Once you have all the preboarding logistics squared away, you can focus on creating a warm welcome experience for your new employee’s first day. Since your team won’t be able to take them out to a welcome lunch or greet them in person, it’s important to find other ways to make them feel excited about their new job. Below are a few ideas you can try:

Send a welcome card that’s been digitally signed by the CEO, their manager, and their new team members
Gift the new hire with a prepaid card to their neighbourhood cafe; They can grab a coffee and get to know their teammates through virtual hangout sessions
Host a virtual welcome party with the whole team
Ship a ‘welcome pack’ that contains the new employee’s favorite treats, movies, or board games

The last thing you want is for your new hire to feel isolated on their first day. These ideas will help your employees feel like they’re already part of the team and get them excited about their new company – even when they’re not physically at the office!

3. Establish a support system

Any employee’s first day can feel a bit scary – especially when they’re remote and don’t have the luxury of asking the person sitting next to them a question or getting to know people over lunch. To make sure they feel supported from day one, it’s important to establish a system that they can turn to if they have questions, need help, or simply want to feel more integrated into the company. Here’s how:

Set your new employee up with a designated buddy. This is their go-to person if they have any questions, need someone to chat with over a virtual lunch, or simply want to learn more about the company
Create a Slack channel for new hires. At Flare, we have one called #newbies that contains helpful resources and is a dedicated space where new employees can feel safe asking questions
Encourage the new hire’s manager check in with them frequently during the first 30 days to make sure the transition is going smoothly

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

4. Run induction sessions

In addition to helping your new hires feel socially integrated, you want to make sure they understand the various aspects of the business as well. This is where virtual induction sessions can be helpful. The purpose of these sessions is to meet with different leaders within the organisation – from the CEO to the Head of Engineering – so they can better understand how the business operates.

Not only that, but induction sessions can help new employees put faces to names and develop a clearer view of how their specific role contributes to the broader mission of your company. This allows new hires to recognise that they’re a valuable part of the organisation and helps them find a sense of meaning in their work.

5. Collect feedback

Finally, remember that your onboarding process doesn’t end after 30 or 60 days. There are ways to continuously iterate on and improve your program – especially if your remote onboarding process is brand new. The best way to do this is to distribute an onboarding survey to new hires after they go through the experience. This provides an opportunity for them to share feedback on what worked, what didn’t, and how they felt coming out of the onboarding process – all valuable input that you can use to strengthen your existing program.

As you can see, a powerful employee onboarding experience can have a significant impact on your business. Thankfully, there are ways to make sure this process is effective, welcoming, and informative – even when doing so remotely. Follow our recommendations to make sure your onboarding process goes as smoothly as possible for your new remote employees.

To learn more about Flare’s free digital onboarding software, and how it can save you on time and paperwork, request a demo here.

What to do when you can’t give your employees a pay rise

Posted on July 28, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

With Australia now experiencing a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, companies continue to feel the pressure of the pandemic. Unfortunately, this also means that employees may have to keep waiting for their promotions and pay rises due to constrained resources. This, of course, is likely to lead to lower employee morale.

But there are ways for companies to mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic. One of the best solutions is to consider expanding your benefits offerings. These additional offerings can support your employees in key areas during this challenging time and also provide some financial relief to make up for the lack of a pay rise. Below, we share four categories of benefits to consider:

Flexible work benefits

According to a study, a flexible work arrangement is one of the ‘must have’ benefits for Australian employees. This is especially prevalent now, as employees are feeling the stress of balancing their work and home lives once again. Here are some flexible work benefits to consider:

Flexible working hours. The 9 to 5 schedule doesn’t work for all employees – especially those with families and children. Allow your workforce to choose their own hours so they don’t have to stress about being online at a time that’s inconvenient for them. This will not only relieve stress but also demonstrate to employees that you understand and respect their individual needs.

Work from home options. Whether your employees have recently returned to the office or are still remote, it may be a good time to either extend or offer up work from home options as an alternative to being in the office. As COVID-19 cases escalate again, you want to make sure everyone feels safe while they work.

Home office setups. If you do have employees working from home, relieve some of the burden by paying for their home office set up. This can include covering the cost of a new desk, chair, monitor, or whatever else they need to work comfortably from home.

Financial benefits

Even if you can’t directly provide a pay rise, there are other ways to financially support your employees – while staying within your HR budget. Below are a few ideas of the types of financial benefits you can offer:

Employee discounts. At Flare, we have an exclusive benefits and discount platform. that provides your employees with discounts from hundreds of leading retailers, including Amazon, Woolworths, and Foot Locker. Giving your workforce access to these types of benefits can ease some of the financial burden they’re feeling right now.

Novated car leasing. Offering employee benefits like novated car leases and salary packaging can help your employees reduce their taxable income and therefore reduce their income tax. Flare offers novated car leasing to customers as part of employee benefits.

Real time pay. Imagine if employees could access their pay after each day’s work rather than waiting for the weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay cycle? This could soon be a possibility. Flare will soon be offering real time pay as part of employee benefits so that employees can access their pay for a small fixed fee for when they really need it.

Equity. If you can’t afford to increase the salary of your employees, consider giving them more equity instead. This is an investment that can pay off many times over in the long run, and it gives workers more stake in your organisation – which, in turn, can boost morale and engagement.

International payment transfers. You may have employees with family members outside of Australia that they’re providing financial support to during COVID-19. If you want to help them save on expensive transfers, consider offering WorldRemit as a benefit – they offer much more affordable international money transfers. They’re also a partner on our own benefits platform!

Physical and mental health benefits

Your employees are dealing with many stressors right now – from feeling anxiety around their job security to worrying about the health and safety of their family members – which can come with negative physical and mental health side effects. To help them combat these potential problems, you may want to consider the following benefits:

Wellness budget. If you have the funds to do so, consider giving each employee a wellness budget. They can use this money to invest in self care. For example, they can use this budget to cover the cost of a massage, new running shoes, or an online meditation course – anything that helps improve and maintain their sense of well being.

Fitness subsidisation. Staying active can go a long way. And the great news is that there are tons of virtual fitness classes these days. So whether it’s an online yoga course or a cycling class, pay for your employees to indulge in their favorite exercise routines – it gives them one less thing to worry about cost wise and encourages them to get moving.

Healthy snack delivery service. If you want to make healthy eating more accessible for your employees and boost their morale, provide them with delicious snacking options! Companies like Snacks With Bite will deliver healthy snacks directly to your employees’ homes. It’s one less decision they have to make, and it’s something they can share with the rest of their family.

Family benefits

As schools start to close down again due to the new wave of outbreaks, parents are scrambling to figure out how to balance work and family life for the second time. Not receiving the pay rise they were expecting can further exacerbate your employees’ stress levels. To help, here are a few benefits you can offer:

Childcare support. If your working parents do find themselves back at home with the kids, give them the funds to hire additional childcare support. Maybe they can have a trusted babysitter take care of the kids in the morning, when they’re the busiest with work. Or they can hire an in-home chef to prepare healthy meals for the family if they don’t have time to.

Fun family activities. It’s challenging for parents to always think of new, stimulating things to do with their children. To help, send your working parents “family care packages” that contain fun activities – such as puzzles, at-home scavenger hunts, or s’mores kits. This is one less thing that your employees have to think about and gives them a reason to spend quality time with their families.

Even though your employees will be disappointed to not receive the pay rise they’ve been waiting for, they’ll appreciate your efforts to compensate them in other ways in the meantime. Take care of your employees’ needs during this challenging time, and you’re likely to see a more engaged and productive workforce.

Want to give your team access to more employee benefits and discounts? Flare Employee Benefits gives your workforce access to an exclusive benefits and discount platform of leading retailers like Woolworths, JB Hi-Fi and Amazon. If you’re looking to implement more employees benefits in your company, reach out to [email protected] to learn more.

Simple strategies to promote emotional wellbeing in your workplace

Posted on July 20, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

We live in an increasingly stressful world. Everything from rising costs to escalating pressures in the workplace are contributing to mental health issues in our employees. Given this, prioritising emotional wellbeing is more important than ever. But what exactly is preventing our workers from achieving emotional wellness, and what can we do to help? These are questions we’ll address in the rest of this post.

Why is emotional wellbeing important?

As of 2019, 50.6% of the Australian workforce had experienced a mental health condition, and two in five of those workers reported that their workplace either caused their condition or made it worse. These work-related mental health conditions cost approximately $543 million of workers compensation and $750 million in life insurance claims paid to Australians each year.

It’s clear that emotional wellbeing, or lack thereof, is a huge problem that infiltrates the workplace. There are a few reasons why it’s important for employers to address this problem head on: first, since one of the main sources of stress is from work, it’s every company’s responsibility to help alleviate some of that burden. Secondly, without addressing emotional wellbeing, we can’t expect our employees to perform their best at work. Mental health issues can affect everything from an employee’s satisfaction with their job to the bottom line.

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Barriers to emotional wellbeing

It seems as though more and more employers are investing in emotional wellbeing programs each year. But if this is the case, why do mental health issues continue to be a problem among Australian workers? It may be that the programs aren’t explicitly addressing the most common barriers to emotional wellbeing, which include:

Lack of education and training. A survey found the most common barrier to achieving an emotionally healthy workplace is lack of appropriate skills in managers. Therefore, investing in more training and education around mental health and wellbeing can help break down this particular barrier.

Fear of stigma. Even though the conversation around emotional wellbeing is becoming more commonplace, that doesn’t mean the stigma around mental health issues doesn’t exist. In fact, research has found that mental health is the issue Australian workers feel most uncomfortable discussing with their managers.

Access to the wrong resources. Finally, it may also be the case that you’re not offering the resources that employees actually need to improve their emotional wellbeing. Unless your decisions were backed by feedback and data from your workforce, there’s a good chance that your employee wellness program isn’t aligned with people’s mental health priorities.

In the next section, we’ll cover simple strategies that will help your organisation overcome these common barriers.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

3 simple strategies to promote emotional wellbeing at your company

Your emotional wellbeing strategies don’t have to be complicated or break the bank. Start off with one or all three of these strategies to start taking steps in the right direction:

1. Make mental health trainings a requirement

Sometimes mental health can be tough or uncomfortable to talk about. That’s completely natural. But that’s why we encourage HR teams to invest in mental health training – not just for employees, but also for the managers and leaders at the company as well.

These educational opportunities can give everyone the practice they need to navigate conversations about emotional wellbeing, respond with more empathy to people who are struggling, and understand what next steps might look like. While you don’t want your managers to play the role of therapist for your employees, they should – at the very least – know how to handle those initial conversations and connect their direct reports to the right resources.

2. Normalise conversations around emotional wellbeing

It’s unsurprising that Australian employees don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health at work. This usually stems from a fear of judgment or – worse – a fear that it’ll affect their career development. The best way to assuage these fears is to normalise conversations around mental health in the workplace so that your employees know this is a challenge that almost everyone is dealing with.

Don’t just wait for Mental Health Month to have these conversations – instead, make it a normal and accepted part of your company culture. There are several ways to accomplish this: ask your leaders and managers to speak openly about their own mental health struggles; create safe spaces or Employee Resource Groups where people can speak openly about emotional wellbeing; and make it ok to take mental health days.

3. Customize your benefits offerings

This may also be a good time to revisit your benefits offerings. Even if you have an incredible benefits package that gives employees stipends for massages or virtual therapy sessions, that doesn’t mean it’s what your workforce needs. Maybe it turns out that they’d rather have flexible working hours and more mental health days instead.

The only way to find out what your employees truly need is to ask them. You can do this through one-on-one conversations or, if you have a bigger organisation, send out a wellbeing survey to identify the current gaps in your benefits. Once you have this information in hand, you can actually customise your offerings to align with your employees’ priorities.

Don’t overlook emotional wellbeing when it comes to your overall HR strategy. The mental health of your employees has the potential to make a huge impact on their happiness, productivity, and desire to stay with your organisation. Use our strategies to demonstrate that you care and to promote the importance of emotional wellbeing in your workplace.

If you have any employees who are in need of support, be sure to check out The Flare Wellness Network, a free hub designed to support Australian workers by giving them access to benefits and offers, while encouraging businesses to partner together in an effort to support the wellbeing of the Australian workforce.

If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

Managing COVID in the hospitality industry with Shaun McDonald from Lucas Group

Posted on July 14, 2020October 17, 2023 by Chris James

Lucas Group has six restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne including Chin Chin, Kisumé, Gogo Bar, Baby Pizza and more. Their aim is to provide exceptional dining experiences which redefine the boundaries of expectations and excite the senses. In this interview, we chat to Shaun McDonald, the General Manager of People and Development, about how Lucas Group have been managing COVID in the hospitality industry.

Tell us about the impact of the pandemic on LUCAS Group

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the restaurant industry, including LUCAS Group, was required to close as non-essential services. The impact on our business resulted in us having to stand down 650 people during that time, and changing our business operations.

Our main priority was around our people. Every decision we made was about putting our people first, communicating regularly, and executing on a strategy that supported our people as much as possible throughout the pandemic.

We shifted to ‘takeaway’ business operations within 48 hours and reopened our brand — something that we’ve never done before. The sole reason for this shift was to support those people that would not be eligible for financial assistance from the government. 30 percent of our crew are from overseas.

The Job Keeper Program was introduced by the government a few weeks later, which was great for our people. It was another mechanism for us to support our crew. We applied immediately, and were able to support our stood down crew.

How did you manage communications with your staff?

Strong communication was critical for us during this time. We focused on crafting messaging that was concise and clear, and enabled managers to share messages aligned to our CEO’s direction. Managers were provided tools and training, so they could communicate with their people.

At every level of our organisation, we ensured people understood the new direction, that they knew what to do in their roles, were trained up effectively and ready to fight. We needed to ensure our systems and processes were set up to effectively deliver the same quality in house in a takeaway model.

Training was so crucial to helping people understand what to do, as their roles changed — and to deliver exceptional service to our guests and bring that level of comfort.

What are your return to work strategies and plans?

As we transition our business from being a takeaway back into a restaurant, there are a few safety precautions we needed to make to our workplace so our crew felt comfortable to return to work. At the beginning, things were changing on a daily basis, constant updates, changes to legislation and changes to the job so we needed to keep up to date.

When we reopened we wanted to make sure that, we had done everything as a business to make sure that our people were safe, and explained to them that we were meeting social distancing guidelines and being compliant.

We also educated our managers to make sure that the messaging was the same. This brought a level of comfort to our crew. We’ve actually received a lot of positive feedback about the level of communications that came out of the clear and the concise messaging that was distributed.

We had to go through lots of planning to ensure which employees we would stand up and planning how we would layout our restaurant to adhere to social distancing restrictions. If any of our staff had reservations about coming back to a guest facing role, we put some of them into back of house roles so they would be more comfortable. We made sure that we communicated to our staff so that they knew we were running our venues safely and we were adhering to all the requirements set by the government.

How do you ensure that your employees are engaged and feel safe after returning to work?

Pulse surveys have been a great for us to ensure that people are comfortable with being back in the work environment. We’ve been able to get feedback and jump on any changes that we possibly need to make to make sure that people feel safe and they feel comfortable at work.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

Learn more about how Shaun McDonald used Flare to engage with employees through digital onboarding and benefits in this case study. If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

10 appealing employee benefits companies should consider

Posted on July 6, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

Employers understand that they play a huge role when it comes to helping their employees succeed both in and out of the workplace. But you may be wondering: how do we support every individual’s needs when we have a rapidly growing organisation? The answer lies in employee benefits.

Employee benefits are additional forms of compensation that are provided to employees in addition to their salaries. They’re a great way to address the needs of your workers and can easily be scaled. To ensure that you’re only investing in the most impactful offerings, we put together a list of 10 employee benefits that we believe will have the most positive effect on your workforce.

Why are employee benefits important?

The average employee spends one-third of his or her life at work. Given this, workers have very limited time to tend to other aspects of their life – whether that’s family, personal passions, or health. By offering a variety of benefits, employers can make this balancing act a bit easier for their employees by providing them with the resources, tools, or opportunities needed to take care of their personal and professional needs.

There are business advantages to offering employee benefits as well. These types of offerings have been proven to improve company culture, boost productivity, and increase retention rates – all of which can lead to significant cost savings for your organisation.

Below, we share 10 types of employee benefits to consider.

Mental health

The unfortunate reality is that we’re living in an increasingly stressful world. This is reflected by the fact that more than half (55%) of Australian employees feel stressed at work. One of the most effective ways to help employees manage this stress is to offer mental health benefits. These can come in the form of tools and resources to help your employees relax, work through their problems, and build resilience.

Examples of mental health benefits:

Online therapy or counselling services
Meditation or mindfulness apps
Paid time off for mental health days

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

Physical health

Physical health is an extremely important component of employee wellness as well. Whether it’s helping your employees stay active or better manage any illnesses they’re dealing with, benefits that improve physical health can make a huge difference to your workforce.

Examples of physical health benefits:

Flexible wellness budgets
Subsidised gym memberships
Annual health screenings
Chronic disease management or smoking cessation programs

Family

Juggling the demands of both work and family is challenging. To ease some of the burden, employers can offer benefits that either financially support family-specific needs or make the integration between home life and the office a bit more seamless.

Examples of family benefits:

Flexible childcare spending accounts
Adoption, surrogacy, or in vitro fertilisation support
Daycare center at the office
Monthly family-friendly work events

Commuter

As businesses start to re-open after COVID-19, we’re likely to see an uptick in commuting. Getting to and from work can easily be one of the most stressful parts of an employee’s day, as they battle terrible traffic or sit on the bus for long periods of time, just to get to their 9 a.m. meeting on time. Fortunately, there are commuter benefits you can offer to minimise the impact.

Examples of commuter benefits:

Subsidised public transportation passes
Employee parking spots
Flexible schedules that allow employees to commute during off-hours

Financial well-being

Two out of five Australian workers experience financial stress during their careers. This makes it clear why financial wellness benefits are becoming an increasingly important part of wellness programs for many organisations. Offering benefits to boost the financial health of your employees can help reduce anxiety and help them reach long-term goals like buying a home or starting a family.

Examples of financial well-being benefits:

Financial counseling
Real-time payments
Financial education courses
Additional superannuation contributions

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Professional development

A study found that one of the ‘must have’ benefits that Australian employees expect to receive is training and development on the job. To keep people feeling fulfilled and engaged at work, you have to provide them with opportunities to grow – not only professionally, but personally as well. Benefits are a great way to encourage this type of development.

Examples of professional development benefits:

Learning and development budget
Monthly training opportunities
Coaching or mentoring programs

Flexible work

One of the other ‘must have’ benefits for Australian employees is flexible work arrangements. Increasingly, people are looking for the ability to choose when and where they work. That’s why companies that offer flexible work benefits, such as accommodating remote working options, are likely to attract and retain top talent.

Examples of flexible work:

Work from home days
At-home office budget
Flexibility to set a personal schedule

Pets

Did you know that 62% of Australian households own a pet? Your employees likely view their dogs and cats as part of the family. This can make it stressful for workers to leave their pets at home all day or deal with a sick animal. Offering pet-focused benefits that relieve some of the financial burdens or allow pets to be in the office with their humans can have a positive impact on your employees.

Examples of pet-friendly benefits:

Pet-friendly office
Subsidised pet care
Paid time off to take care of a new pet

Recognition

Introducing benefits that are focused on recognizing the hard work of your employees can be a powerful way to keep them feeling motivated and appreciated. There are many types of recognition programs you can introduce to your organisation.

Examples of recognition benefits:

Experiential recognition program
Peer-to-peer recognition program
Company value awards

Social

Having the opportunity to connect with other teammates can be hugely beneficial to employees. Not only does it encourage collaboration, but it ensures that people know they have a community to turn to. There are several socially-focused benefits you can offer to encourage these bonding moments at work.

Examples of social benefits:

Monthly team outings
Budget for coffee dates or lunches with colleagues
Company-wide gatherings or events

Lauren Dick from Relier Group on how to train employees and build high-performance teams

Posted on July 1, 2020August 11, 2023 by Chris James

We interviewed Lauren Dick, the founder and director of Relier Group. Lauren has over 10 years of experience working for Australian owned retail brands such as Kookai, Aje and Tigerlily. In her experience working as a national training and development manager for Tigerlily and a National Retail Manager at Aje, she was responsible for coaching and developing hundreds of individual sales associates all across Australia.

She has now launched her own business, Relier Group, which is a HR consultancy business with the goal of making enterprise training and recruitment accessible for all businesses. Lauren uses her skills to build bespoke training programs and talent acquisition programs which help her clients build high performance teams who achieve consistent business results.

What are the company values of Relier Group and how do you uphold these values?

Relier is a french word with an English translation which means to connect. Connection is my founding value and my two other values are community and communication. My goal is to help businesses connect with their staff so that they can generate customer loyalty, client loyalty, and employee engagement. The communication value is based on open, honest, transparent and kind communication.

The reason I started Relier is because not all companies can afford to have an in house training manager or an in house HR support, so I started Relier so that no business would have to miss out on the benefits that HR can establish between an employee and the business.

What are some things you’ve learned by working in HR?

One of the biggest things I’ve learned by working in HR is to get feedback from the staff who are customer-facing because they tend to understand the customer best. Some businesses make the mistake of making assumptions about what their customer wants when they are quite removed from their customers. A better strategy is to ask their customer-facing staff for feedback.

Another important lesson I’ve learned is to coach your team to make decisions for themselves. I’ve worked in roles where I would have 300 people reporting to me, so it would be impossible to dictate every decision everyone makes. Instead, I learned to coach my team into being autonomous. By asking them the right questions which are thought-provoking and solution-focused. In the long term being able to coach people into making the right decisions instead of telling them what to do will mean you will develop a team of amazing leaders that are ready to take on new challenges.

Where do you go to learn?

I think that the best way to learn is to look at what other companies are doing well, what they’re not doing well, and then developing an innovative strategy based on that. I would probably say a lot of my learning is self driven and is about understanding the competitive climate.

How do you ensure that a new hire is a good fit for your clients?

In my experience with recruiting for large companies for several years, what I’ve learned is that the culture first approach gets the best outcome in the end. The culture first approach means that you hire people based on cultural fit first, rather than their technical skill. The reason why I use this approach is because I believe that the best outcomes don’t always come from the people who have the best technical skill. Culture fit is especially important in a client and customer facing role, because the employees are representing the brand to customers and clients in everything they do. In my experience, a culture fit is always more important than a skill fit because skill fit is easier to find.

What tips would you give someone who’s just starting out in HR?

In any HR role, you have to start by really mastering leadership and mastering people management. Theory can only teach you so much it really comes down to getting practical experience in leadership and management roles. In these roles you will be able to learn how to manage different personalities, learn how to be an effective communicator and how to take on feedback to give feedback.

Education comes next when you’re at the point where you do want to step into a generalist role or a HR specific role. However, experience comes first because it’s hard to give advice when you haven’t been in the situation yourself. That’s why it’s important to pick your field, get experience, lead people, become an amazing leader and then go from there.

What are some of the best things that you’ve learned about leadership?

I think good leadership starts with communication. One of the best things I’ve learned is how to communicate effectively and drive learning for different personality types. Learning that different people have different needs has been really beneficial for me.

I’ve learnt to tailor my communication based on the needs and innate motivations of each individual team member and this has certainly been fundamental to my success. For example, I consider who in my network is an intuitive leader, who is driven by analytics, who is driven by individual success, who is more driven by shared team successes and so on. This then determines how I lead, coach and personalise their training to optimise outcomes. Communicating differently with each personality type is a skill I’ve learnt through retail training courses and consistent applied practice throughout my entire career.

How do you lead, coach and strategise with clients to achieve great retention rates for them?

It depends on what service they need, whether it be hiring and performance advice or developing customer service models.

My approach is to collaborate with the entire team, get to know the customer and develop a model which is customised for them. This helps to improve the retention rates and get better results on the shop floor.

Adjusting the focus and roles of the team to ensure that the right people are in the right roles is also important. For example, moving team members to focus on KPIs or moving them from a KPIs focus to a networking focus. This process ensures that my clients can retain talent and save on costs associated with having to hire or train new employees.

How do you ensure that new hires of your clients have a great experience?

I work on the onboarding process for my clients as a first step. An example which comes to mind is when I developed a digital onboarding experience using Flare for one of my clients. This client was a holiday and travel business, so I developed an onboarding process which was aligned to their values. In this onboarding process, it would take new starters on a digital journey which was really unique to the client’s business. I believe that a new starter’s onboarding experience sets the tone for what they can expect on their first days at work.

Are there any final words you’d like to share with our audience?

The best thing you can do is communicate regularly with your team and lead with kindness. This can help you ensure that you are staying productive and working towards your goals.

Some businesses are afraid to share results with their team, however I believe that it’s important to educate your team on the results, why they’re important and how they can impact the business in a positive way. Showing your team that they are important and they can make an impact is my biggest tip.

15 best questions to ask in an employee satisfaction survey

Posted on June 23, 2020August 9, 2023 by Chris James

Every company wants their employees to be happy at their jobs. But the challenge is that many employers aren’t even aware that their workers are unhappy until it’s too late. This is how most organisations end up losing their top talent to competitors. To prevent this from happening, you may want to consider introducing an employee satisfaction survey to better keep a finger on the pulse.

If you’re not sure how to get started, don’t worry! We’re here to help. We’ll explain exactly what an employee satisfaction survey is, how to set one up, and share recommended questions in this post.

What is an employee satisfaction survey, and why is it important?

An employee satisfaction survey is an objective tool that’s used to measure how your workers feel about their jobs, their work environment, and the overall company culture. It’s an effective way to collect feedback from your workforce – regardless of size – and use that data to make more informed decisions about things like performance, retention, and innovation.

You may be asking: why do I need a survey to do this? Why can’t I just talk to my employees to figure out whether they’re satisfied with their jobs or not? This is a fair question. There are a few reasons why this isn’t the most effective way to measure employee satisfaction.

Related article: 10 Ideas to help you boost your employee engagement

You’re susceptible to bias. All humans have bias. So if you’re looking to collect objective data, conversations aren’t the best way to do so. For instance, as the HR leader, you want everyone at the company to be happy. Which means you’re more likely to highlight the positive feedback you receive and deprioritise the negative or constructive feedback. This doesn’t give you an accurate sense for employee satisfaction.

You’re not seeing the big picture. Let’s say you talk to one or two employees who absolutely love working at your company. You may walk away thinking that your employee satisfaction levels are fine. But what about the other 100 employees that you didn’t talk to? The truth is that one-on-one conversations, while valuable, aren’t scalable and don’t paint the bigger picture of what’s going on.

Your employees might not be honest with you. Finally, there’s a good chance that if you ask an employee how they feel about their work and the company, they’re not going to be completely honest with you. This is completely natural. People may not feel comfortable sharing their true thoughts or may think they’ll be punished for saying something negative about leadership. Either way, you can’t expect your workers to give you full transparency.

How to conduct an employee satisfaction survey

While you certainly have the ability to conduct your own employee satisfaction survey, we recommend investing in a software platform to help you instead. The reason is because running and analysing your own surveys takes up a ton of time.

Not only do you have to come up with the right questions, build your survey, and manually calculate your results, but you also have to be able to translate all this information into a comprehensive report or dashboard to share back with your leadership team and employees.

On the other hand, if you use a comprehensive performance management tool like Culture Amp and Lattice, it’ll be much less resource intensive. Both of these platforms will easily be able to help you launch your survey, come up with the right questions for your workforce, collect the feedback, and find ways to take action on the data that comes in.

There are a few best practices to keep in mind when conducting an employee satisfaction survey, regardless of whether you do it yourself or turn to a platform:

Be consistent. This means that if this is meant to be a twice-a-year survey, you have to consistently distribute it twice a year. Otherwise you risk skewing the accuracy of your data and won’t be able to measure progress.

Make it anonymous. As we mentioned above, employees likely won’t be honest in the survey if their identities are attached to their responses. So make sure your survey is anonymised to protect your employees and encourage transparency.

15 Questions to include in your survey

Below we outlined 15 key questions to include in your survey, which are categorised into three buckets: company culture, work fulfillment, and management/leadership. These are the pillars that have a huge influence on an employee’s satisfaction levels. Keep in mind that these questions are by no means comprehensive, so feel free to add on any others that are relevant to your business.

Company Culture

These questions gauge how your employee feels about the company culture and work environment. This is all about measuring overall sentiment around how the company treats its employees, and whether or not someone feels compelled to look for a new job.

1. Do you feel positively about our company culture?

2. On a scale of 1-5, how likely are you to recommend our company as a great place to work?

3. Are you proud to work at our company?

4. Can you see yourself working here two years from now?

Work fulfillment

These questions are focused specifically on how an employee feels in their role. This digs into everything from how fulfilled they feel by their work to how compatible they are with their fellow teammates.

5. Do you feel proud of the work you’re doing?

6. Are you aligned with the company’s mission and vision?

7. Do you feel like the company is invested in your personal and professional growth?

8. Are your roles and responsibilities clearly defined?

9. Is your team supportive of one another?

Management/Leadership

These questions are about how employees perceive the leadership and management teams. It’s about identifying whether or not they feel their executives are honest, reliable, and have their best interests in mind.

10. On a scale of 1-5, how transparent do you think the leadership team is?

11. Do you feel informed about what’s happening at the company?

12. Does your manager make you feel supported and valued?

13. Do you feel comfortable approaching your manager with work-related problems?

14. Is the leadership team’s expectations of your performance clear?

15. Are you connected to the resources you need to succeed in your role?

Related article: 5 Ways to help your employees improve their financial wellbeing

Next steps

Even after you collect the data from your employee satisfaction survey, the work isn’t quite over yet! There are a few next steps to take into consideration:

Use the data as a benchmark. If this is your first time running an employee satisfaction survey, your results will serve as the benchmark for next year. In other words, the next time you run this survey, the goal is to compare it to these first round of results and (hopefully) be able to note progress.

Boost participation rates. With every survey, your goal is to have as many employees participate as possible. If you found that your participation rates were low this year, don’t worry. There are many tactics you can use – from sending out eye-catching reminder emails or Slack messages to incentivising employees with a prize – to increase participation rates.

Identify a few actionable insights. The most important thing you can do with your survey results is to take action. For instance, if a common theme in your data was that employees didn’t feel like the leadership team was transparent enough, it may be time to introduce one to two new initiatives to address that issue. This can be having “Ask Me Anything” sessions once a week or having your company leaders set up more one-on-one meetings with employees throughout the year. Don’t try to address all the issues at once – otherwise you’ll feel overwhelmed. Instead, take one or two of the most pressing issues and focus on them over the next few months.

Employee satisfaction surveys are a powerful tool that can help you retain top talent, improve performance, and increase innovation at your company. Follow these steps to get your survey started on the right foot.
If you’re looking for an additional HR software to support your business, Flare offers a free onboarding software with employee management and benefits. To learn more, please request a demo.

How to build an effective human resource planning checklist

Posted on June 18, 2020August 11, 2023 by Andrew Choueri

Human resource planning comprises four comprehensive steps

When creating a human resources plan, these are the main considerations for any HR professional. Start with broader goals, narrow them down to strategies, evaluate your business, and build a workforce that will grow alongside your business.

Before getting results, businesses need not only a clear picture of their company but a good understanding of several other factors before they can put their plan into action. Think about this in actionable terms. If your company currently has fifty employees but you expect to double in size over the next five years, how will you maintain your culture? How will you encourage an atmosphere of learning and growth? Can your staff keep up with the technological changes and your company objectives of the future?

Step 1: Analyse company objectives and HR needs

What gives one company a record of success with human resources while others do not have a strong reputation? Much of this is due to a strategic planning effort on the part of the organisation.

Strategic aims within an organisation must be aligned to human resources practices in order to ensure that a human resources plan is as effective as it can possibly be. For example, FedEx is a corporation with a track record of success in their industry and among customers. They obtained this reputation with a clear focus on strategic aims. They even follow the philosophy “People-Service-Profit” for every employee, customer, and stakeholder. Employees are trained to follow this philosophy and their feedback is collecting annually for consideration.

Moving forward with analysing your company objectives next to HR needs involves asking yourself some questions. It also should include C-suite executives, managers, and HR team members. Questions to ask include what growth or decline is expected? How might this impact the workforce? What are predicted sales for the forthcoming year?

Goals need to be shared; CEOs should be on the same page as HR professionals so that the focus on human resources is fully embraced by all of the people involved in the planning.

Some ways to invest all people in the creation of the strategic plan include:

Incentivising staff members to give honest opinions
Allowing an open forum between staff members at different organisational levels
Reverting back to the mission statement or vision in all organisational goals
Focusing on the expected growth of the business

The human resources plan should cover every part of a businesses from sales to expansion, from recruitment to training. An excellent way to ensure that everyone is on the same page is to implement a strategic plan for human resources to utilise.

This plan should include factors such as upcoming retirements, staff who will be undertaking further training which will advance their skills and any other factors which will affect the future of your workforce.

ACTION – Create a strategic plan for HR and ensure it aligns with company objectives. Consider using cloud-based HR solutions to centralise and save valuable time.

Step 2: Determine recruiting strategy and evaluate current human resources

Recruitment strategy is a powerful tool when well implemented. Consider Starbucks; this is a company ranked at 120 on 2022’s Fortune 500 and with projected growth of global and U.S. comparable store sales between 7% and 9% year over year until 2025. How does a company this massive, even begin to successfully manage their human resource plans?

A vital aspect for Starbucks is their recruitment strategy which targets potential employees who are ‘on-brand’ and who pass a carefully structured interview process. Starbucks also puts a lot of energy into employees’ well-being and as a result, the company has an extremely low turnover in staff. Their somewhat unusual practices are working extraordinarily well and have been for many years.

Starbucks is a large company with operating goals that are a struggle to implement. Yet, they focus on their goals and design targeted programs which eventually lead to the desired result. By treating people as their biggest resource, Starbucks has lowered their employee turnover while building a booming brand.

You can begin by looking at the number of people currently employed, taking into account their skills and potential for future development, you should be able to determine which positions will need to be filled in future. Creating a profile for your ‘ideal employee’ which covers the gamut of openings within your business will also ensure your staff turnover is lowered.

Digitising employee onboarding can be a powerful way to not only cut the costs of recruitment, retention and management, but can also help your employees to feel more empowered and engaged.

Also consider which jobs will be created or phased out, how can the new positions best be filled? A performance evaluation strategy can help here as you review your employees’ performances. Cost-effectiveness of external hiring depends on the position you are filling, your current workforce, and required training costs for your team.

Once your plan is in place you can implement the best options for recruiting the best people for future gaps in the workforce. Hiring before the skills are highly sought out can get you ahead of the competition with employee selection. Always look internally at the potential growth of your current employees.

ACTION – Create a performance evaluation strategy and implement it across the organisation.

Step 3: Predict need

This is the practice of estimation. Looking at the potential numbers of future employees in an organisation and ensuring that they are of the best quality. The well documented worker shortage continues, and employers need to consider their recruitment strategy carefully.

It’s not an exact art. There is some estimation involved and because of this, it’s quite challenging. Gathering the data needed to predict the future of your workforce is tricky in itself and involves both statistical data and ordinary observation. Utilise data you already have access to including predicted sales and slumps. A few established ways to predict need would be to:

Check out industry trends
Track the economic forecast for your product and country
Assess company sales and historical growth numbers
Know the common trends that occur within your individual sales cycle

ACTION – Gather statistical data to predict the future staffing needs of the business

Step 4: Planning training and development

The previous steps will show you where, if at all, there are gaps. Will there be skills shortages within your workforce? Do you need to implement training for certain individuals now to ensure that you have the right workforce in place at the right time? Upcoming retirements for example can necessitate further training for individuals on lower rungs. This also serves as an opportunity to develop some of your more stellar, but lower-level staff members.

Some changes can’t be predicted; long-term illness for example and employees changing careers or the shifting needs of their families can all impact your team but there’s no effective way to predict these changes. You can however forecast some variables and these should be carried out with care.

Ensure that you keep records of the skills your workforce currently have and update them as the staff receive further training and development. It is also worth preparing for future skills needed in your sector. An aspect of Human Resource planning would be to invest in the proper training of staff, enabling your team to feel confident in spearheading programs, and building a business able to handle the future. Knowing the current gaps in your workforce can propel you toward a fully-prepared future.

ACTION – Carry out strategic forecasting to ensure that the company is well prepared for future changes.

Step 5: Build out your EVP

As the employment landscape becomes more competitive, and the fight to attract and retain workers is subject to a range of post-pandemic economic pressures, companies need to consider what matters most to their potential hires. Companies with a strong employee value proposition (EVP) seek to identify and align with their employees’ needs and values across workplace benefits including flexible working, career development opportunities, competitive salaries, and expanded benefits packages.

Using an EVP in job postings

At a time when digital portals are clogged with posts and offers, strategically including your EVP in your job ads can help you stand out from the competition. Begin with language that talks about your company’s unique culture, values, and benefits. This can help job seekers understand what makes the company different and why they should want to work there.

Mastering job ads

Structure, placement and guidelines that work Job boards don’t just randomly post ads on their platform — they consider many different factors when deciding where (and how far up the page) to place them. And, although there may be some differences from site to site, the following elements constitute best practice.

Syndicated content

Digital content syndication is a powerful way to get brand cut-through with your EVP. It involves distributing or republishing your own content like articles, blog posts, videos or infographics through third-party websites, social media platforms and other channels. Digital content syndication can expand your reach and attract new audiences, all while showcasing your unique value proposition and building brand awareness. Content syndication can also position your brand as a thought leader in your industry — something that can be leveraged for both sales and talent acquisition.

Novated leasing as a pay boost

Emerging businesses don’t necessarily have the budget to spend on meal services and other costly benefits that have traditionally acted as drawcards for employees at larger companies. But novated leases, FBT-exempt mobile phones, employee discounts at local stores and other in-kind benefits can increase pay packages for your employees and potentially save you money on payroll tax. These benefits are meaningful ways to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses of your employees, especially during times of inflation and financial stress. Novated leasing in particular allows employees to lease a car for private use, with payments deducted from their pre-tax salary. This helps employees save money on their private vehicle expenses while supporting their work-life balance. What’s more, employers can benefit from novated leasing by claiming GST on most associated running costs.

ACTION – Build out your EVP with our free cheat codes.

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