The Business Wodonga Connection September 9th , 2022
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THE BUSINESS CONNECTION
Message from CEO
Hello Members,
What a wonderful day Business Wodonga’s Job Expo was on September 1.
Sixty-two exhibitors took part and an estimated over five hundred plus people came through in the eight hour Expo. We have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback on the initiative: stories of positions filled, jobs found. Equally important, relationships built between exhibitors. One of the many things that we are proud of was being able to be a part of a morale booster for many business people in our community. We are grateful that they saw that we and our partners identified the need and put so much time and effort towards building a solution.
Once again, I thank our Partners in working with us to deliver the Expo, those being Jobs Victoria and their local agent, Qualify Training, City of Wodonga, Wodonga TAFE, North East Local Learning & Employment Network, Latrobe University and Ashlin Technology Solutions. Without their support the Expo would not have been the success that it was.
To the many that missed out on having a space at The Expo, only due to capacity limits, we feel for you, but stay tuned, your opportunity may be next Expo.
The Jobs Victoria Digital Jobs Board on our website remains active and depending on feedback may be a permanent addition there. This is a resource where local jobs may be posted that any business can use and has been widely promoted to job-seekers, before during and after the Expo.
https://businesswodonga.com.au/jobs-expo/submissions/
Exhibitors, we do need your feedback for the evaluation. Tell us what we did well and most importantly, where we can improve, so that we take everything into account to make it even more successful next time.
On Wednesday evening Wodonga TAFE hosted both a celebration event of the Jobs Expo and launched their Social & Economic Impact Report, which was a great evening of networking and information sharing. So much positivity!
What an important asset Wodonga TAFE is to our community. A few things that you may not have known about Wodonga TAFE:
- The largest third- party training provider to Defence in Australia.
- Australia wide, employing over 650 people and contributing over $42 million in wages to their relevant communities.
- Currently delivering more than 200 courses, apprenticeships, traineeships and other skillsets to over 8,000 learners across 50 industry sectors.
- Ranked #1 for student recommendation across all Victoria TAFEs in Victoria in 2021. 80% of students being “very satisfied’ with the training they received.
The full report can be found here: Social and Economic Impact (wodongatafe.edu.au) Thank-you Wodonga TAFE for being such an important part of our #strongerwodonga
Until next week.
-Graham
Jobs Expo
What an Expo!
We would love to hear of great stories, great outcomes or just your views. Please take the survey.
Upcoming Events
Join BWAW alongside 5 of the most well-respected local women in
business for a Financial Wealth Workshop.
Coming up soon! Don't miss out on seeing this stunning location!
An exclusive and inspiring location for seminars and conferences, corporate functions and cocktail parties, as well as a perfect and private venue for weddings or any celebration.
This truly unique location right on the banks of the Murray river is less than 5 minutes from the centre of Albury, yet offers you the opportunity of feeling that you are indeed “a million miles away”.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2022 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Grant Writing for Beginners
Curious to know about grants and if you can get one for your business or your community activity?
Where do you starting looking and what should you know before you start writing?
Come along to the Grant Writing for Beginners Workshop where Pat Grosse will introduce you to some fundamental truths about grants, how they work, and how to go about writing applications that get funded.
Save these dates. More information will follow.
Information
Changes to Covid Isolation Periods
People who test positive for COVID-19 will only be required to isolate for five days except in vulnerable settings following a meeting of national cabinet. Workers in high-risk settings such as disability and aged care, and people still displaying symptoms would be required to keep to the seven-day isolation period.
The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions is surveying businesses in regional Victoria to get a better understanding of the business environment.
If you are a regional business, or have operations in regional Victoria, you are encouraged to complete the survey via the following link.
Please note the survey closes COB Friday 7 October 2022. Feel free to distribute the link further, as required.
As we are all aware, last week the Australian Government facilitated a National Jobs & Skills Summit with participation from invited attendees.
Some key initiatives from the Summit are:
- Age Pensioners being able to earn up to an additional $4,000 before pension income is reduced.
- Permanent Migration Program being increased from 160,000 people to 195,000 in 2022/23.
- Extra funding of $1 billion dollars for free TAFE training courses in 2023.
Australians have until 20 September 2022 to seek priority allocation of an .au direct domain name that matches their existing domain name.
Anyone with an Australian presence (including businesses, organisations and individuals) can now register a new category of domain name, known as .au direct. These shorter simpler domain names will end in simply ‘.au’ (e.g. mybusiness.au) and will complement existing namespaces such as ‘com.au’, ‘net.au’, ‘org.au’, ‘asn.au’, ‘id.au’, ‘gov.au’ and ‘edu.au’.
Existing domain name licence holders have been provided priority to register the .au direct equivalent of their domain names until 20 September 2022, after which domain names that have not been allocated will become available to the general public.
Startup Shakeup is excited to be launching our new ‘soon to be released’ education platform ‘Click Region’ at the start of October. Last year Startup Shakeup ran a regional survey for small business regarding Digital Confidence. From the survey we saw that small businesses can be extremely busy, overwhelmed with irrelevant information and need assistance with digital tools & programs. So, Melissa Antony and Bree Nightingale from the Startup Shakeup team would like to extend an opportunity to the North East Region’s community groups with a face-to-face introduction to the website.
Additional Support
SAVE THE DATE for
Australia’s must-attend event for anyone representing small business
Mark these dates in your diary to access and hear from politicians, regulators, senior policy makers, business influencers and association leaders who are shaping policy for small business in Australia.
The COSBOA Summit is your opportunity to make your voice heard, to influence the important policy issues for small business across workplace relations, compliance and regulation demands, jobs, training and skills, contract law and competition policy, energy costs, data insights and security and digital transformation.
Most of all we will hear the voice of small business people – find out about their experiences, how they are reviving, and what they need and demand from us to help them thrive in the future.
Let us learn, share, engage and represent our small business people with purpose!
The Victorian Skills Plan provides a skills roadmap for Victoria.
The industries and jobs of today will not necessarily be the same tomorrow, as innovation and disruption lead to new products, services and changes to work and lifestyles.
The Skills Plan provides comprehensive, robust data and analysis – tested with industry and other stakeholders. In addition to reliable occupational forecasts, it outlines the actions to be taken in response to the skilling challenges Victoria faces and to realise the opportunities before us.
A new approach to connecting industry, learner and community insights, providing evidence for the provision of training and skills across Victoria.
Member Spotlight
Maclo's goal is to support participants to be the best version of themselves, to achieve their goals and participate in their community safely and at a pace that suits them.
'At MACLO Consulting we work independently with NDIS participants, carers, families and service providers on ways to utilise funding and implementing plans.'
'We also collaborate with allied health and therapeutic services to support participants to achieve their goals and participate in their communities.'
0417 247 564
info@maclo.com.au
Allison's Business Blog
Hi all,
How have you all recovered from the Expo? What a day it was. Seeing so many people come together, not just job seekers, but businesses networking was awesome to see.
This is what Business Wodonga is about, locals supporting locals. I would personally like to say thanks to everyone who came.
There are still many jobs listed on our page also. Check them out here
The one topic that was loudest heard was, keeping staff from leaving. This is a hard situation for everyone in the business. Maybe these little hints could help.
What drives employees to leave:
- Treating everyone equally. As bad as it might sound, not everybody is equal. Some produce more, some less results.
- Tolerating mediocrity. Some of the top performers might not be excellent team players. Putting them together with a bunch of C-players is not good for anyone.
- Having dumb rules. We need rules to make sure everything runs smoothly. That doesn't mean these rules can be dumb.
- Not recognizing outstanding performance and contributions. It's just that important, give your employees feedback and recognize the behavior you want repeated.
- Not having any fun at work. Even when you're dealing with serious challenges, it doesn't mean you have to be serious all the time. Workplace can and should be fun.
- Not keeping your people informed. Once again, we are back to emphasizing the importance of internal communications.
- Micromanaging. Did you know, that 38% of employees would rather do unpleasant activities – like opt for more work or sit next to someone who eats noisily – than sit next to their micromanaging boss.
- Not developing an employee retention strategy. Do you have a list of people you can't afford to lose? What are you doing to keep them engaged?
- Not conducting employee retention interviews. It's already too late when your top-performer walks out the door. You need to be able to guess their thoughts beforehand.
- Family. This is a hard one to navigate through, but, taking the time to ask may save you an employee.
What should you do to ensure your people stay engaged and on board? What can you do now to keep your employees from leaving in the future?
I am an advocate of positive thinking. As naïve as it sounds, I believe our positive or negative thoughts have enormous effect on the result.
How to keep your employees from leaving?
1. Give more praise and recognition. It’s not always about money or tangible extrinsic rewards. Why? Many people quit because of lack of appreciation. Extroverts or introverts, your employees still get a kick out of public or private praise.
2. Set clear objectives and goals. It’s difficult for employees to give their best if the task’s goal changes more often than they change their socks. Communicate your expectations clearly and set precise goals. Results are only as strong as the objectives you set.
3. Be future-driven. Analyzing the past is important to projecting the future. But focusing solely on employees’ progress isn’t enough in a fast-paced workplace.
4. Seek input and ideas. More often than we think, decisions are made without seeking input. This strategy might save you few minutes or hours, but it doesn’t guarantee success. Sometimes it’s okay not to be the smartest person in the room. Ask input from people around you. Your team has brilliant ideas; just learn to ask.
5. Give continual feedback. As tasks grow more complex and interdependent, people need more feedback. Employees need to feel that they are heard by their managers and they need it more often than twice a year.
Be attentive
6. Measure satisfaction. All of these tips mean nothing, if you fail to measure their success. Although it would be wonderful if it were true that one could verify that 2 pieces of feedback a week increased employee satisfaction by X percent, it is just not the case. Guidelines are only guiding lines. You are responsible for figuring out the exact actions. You can manage only what you measure.
7. Ask about emotions and attitudes. Don’t mix giving praise and providing feedback with asking about attitudes and emotions. The two are not the same. The first two relate to the result, the other two relate to the journey. You’ll be surprised what you learn about your team when you ask emotional questions.
Be mindful
8. Save time in meetings. One of the biggest employee motivation killers is wasting their time. Holding a poorly prepared status update meeting that lasts for hours wastes everyone’s time, including your own. Prepare for meetings; replace unnecessary meetings with online real-time tools.
9. Don’t be too negative. Constructive feedback is necessary, even if it’s negative, but regular criticism will take down even the strongest. People have much greater recall of unpleasant memories than positive ones. To keep your people happy and motivated, be positive and lead by example.
10. Communicate openly. Open internal communication plays a big role in successful teamwork. Share your weekly plans and thoughts; it will encourage an open atmosphere. Only after mastering the skill of sharing openly can you expect the same from everyone else.
11. Bonus 🌟 . Get to know each other! Team building activities are an often-overlooked perk that engages employees and boosts their morale. As an employer, you're showing your employees that you want to invest in their personal happiness and that work isn’t everything. They also help build stronger bonds within your team – and as we all know, the hardest part of leaving a job is losing your colleagues that you’ve built friendships with over the years.
I hope these may help a few of you. Remember, I am happy to come out and chat with you further how we can help support your business.
I welcome all the new members and followers to Business Wodonga. Don't forget to use our hashtag
#strongerwodonga
Remember, if you think a business needs some help, please give them my details and I will get in touch.
Until next week,
Please, we would love reviews, so if you could take some time out to write one, we would be very thankful.
Please contact Business Wodonga with your business needs, concerns or questions on 02 6056 8302 or mail@businesswodonga.com.au.
#StrongerWodonga
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