Let’s help NFPs help others

a katz / Shutterstock.com As soon as we see them in their bright-coloured T-shirts on the street, we pretend to be busy. We look down on our phones, we’re frantically looking for something in our bags, or we become incredibly fascinated by that house to the right. We know what they want and we just don’t have the time to stop and talk. Or rather, we can’t be bothered to. If we just keep our eyes closed, look at our phones or that beautiful pigeon that just flew past, there is no problem. We live in a problem free world. And occasionally we give some money away, just to feel that we’re contributing,...

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The Need for Creativity in Education (and in life)

“All kids have tremendous talents. And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.” Ken Robinson states in Ted Talk Do Schools Kill Creativity? I’ll start by admitting that I personally went to a pretty wacky primary school, where creativity flourished. Instead of formal writing instruction, we were given 30 minutes a day to journal. Instead of following the suggested prompts as “What’s your favourite season?” or “Tell us about your best day ever”, I spent each day adding onto my literature saga titled When Pigs Attacked about a bunch of pigs that went on adventures. Weird? Yes. But totally...

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51% prefer social media as a source of breaking news

In 1966, NASA published the very first image of the planet Earth as seen from the moon. This made people realise that we’re all living on the same planet and sharing the same resources. Fast forward to 2016, where a social media is changing the way we look at the world. This was introduced first by Facebook, where all the relationships are shown on the social network. For the first time in our human history, anyone can share consistently what we know, what we think and what we feel. Social media has become our preferred source for breaking news. According to a recent global poll designed...

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The impacts of domestic violence on children

Leading up to what would have been her son’s 14th birthday, Australian of the year 2015 and domestic violence campaigner, Rosie Batty, urges the Australian government to revise the family law system to protect children from domestic and family violence. With many incidents of domestic and family violence occurring in the family household, children are often witnesses of the abuse perpetrated against a member of their family, or they are victims themselves. In AIFS Survey of Recently Separated Parents (De Maio et al., 2013), parents reported that 1,011 children had witnessed domestic...

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Gotta love Millennials

“Gotta love Millennials…” These words have been stuck in my head for days now. It’s the catchy refrain to a viral video by musician Micah Taylor. Set to the tune of The Beatles’ classic “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, the song describes members of the Millennial generation as entitled, lazy and just a little bit narcissistic. As Tyler points out, Millennials grew up expecting and receiving awards just for showing up. They spend all their time online and constantly post heavily-filtered Instagram selfies. Tyler was clearly being tongue-in-cheek, but his words can be a bit disarming for members...

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Let’s talk about fraud, baby.

In the increasingly technological world, cyber fraud affects online businesses and individuals the most. With internet services and online payment systems becoming more convenient for consumers to pay their bills, purchase their shopping online and even making online reservations, people today are slowly dropping their guard for other companies or people to gain access to our personal information. Our lives have become easier and faster but are we safer? With many people nowadays entering their personal details and credit cards online, it has opened a door for fraudsters into our...

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How to advance S&OP into integrated business planning

As stakeholder and organisational demands mature, it is imperative for business leaders to deliver best value, exceptional customer service, and continuous growth. Especially for food and beverage, FMCG, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, retail, utilities companies, these demands accompany with ensuring you have clear and collaborative processes and systems in place. Integrated business planning (IBP) is industry’s best practice model delivering a truly strategic perspective to better planning, innovation, and sustained growth. Oliver Wight, the global thought leaders on IBP, provide this...

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Why older workers will improve your company

You, like many other employers around Australia, may value your older worker less. You think they are tired, that they have lost focused and can’t keep up with technology. Perhaps you see them more as a burden to your company than a benefit? Well think again. Research by the Australian Human Rights Commission has proved that not including, and letting go of, older workers have several costly implications for your company Loss of knowledge and highly experienced and skilled staff High costs of recruitment and training Loss of productivity in workplaces Levels of job satisfaction Limiting diversity...

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67% of patients wait 8 hours or longer to be treated in Australian emergency departments

Overcrowding and bed shortages in hospitals are costing lives. A snapshot of Australia’s emergency departments found more than a third of patients will be waiting to be transferred to a ward, even waiting up to 24 hours to be treated. The biannual survey conducted by researchers from the Australian National University show that no improvements in waiting times, in fact, they’re getting worse. The build-up of patients waiting in emergency departments to be admitted into a ward is called access block and according to Australian doctors, this is proving fatal for some patients. Assoc....

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Diversity: Not Just a Buzzword

When we talk about diversity in organisations, it’s usually in a “warm and fuzzy” context. It’s a buzzword, a positive phrase thrown around in mostly an HR context. Very rarely do people ask, however, why diversity matters. From a social wellbeing perspective, the argument for it is pretty straight forward: we should be hiring a diverse workforce because it’s the right thing to do. However “doing the right thing” isn’t something that shows up on bottom lines. It’s great in theory, but unfortunately easy to overlook for the managers thinking only in terms of inputs, outputs, and profits....

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Get a grip- Take your professional development into your own hands

A massive 8.74 million Australians are disengaged from their job- that’s 76% of employees nationwide. We’ve all had that job. You clock-in on time, get the job done and clock-out not a second later than when you’re able. It turns out a lot of us are still in that job. You probably feel like you’re in a slump. It’s been years since your last promotion or pay rise (or haven’t ever received on at all). The well-used, stained coffee cup you use every day (the one with a hairline fracture running down from the lip) seems to represent your soul in this place- used and abused because it does...

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Injecting innovation into Australia’s hospitals

Facing a $57 billion budget cut and increased demand on resources, Australia’s hospitals are looking for ways to innovate. Australian hospitals are facing a challenging time. It’s no secret that our population is constantly and rapidly growing. Recent projections from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest our population will grow to 40 million by 2060, and over 50 million by 2100. This means demand on our hospital system will inevitably rise. The population is also ageing, placing new and increasing demands on our healthcare system. For example, the ABC reported spending on palliative...

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How can TAFE diversify its income and stay afloat in a changing funding environment?

As the TAFE system continues to compete with private vocational education and training colleges, the need to enhance existing financial models, and secure additional funding is bringing innovation and growth to the sector. Despite this class sizes continue to rise as back office resources continue to be reduced. Changes made in 2010 opened up VET FEE-HELP to the Vocational Education and Training sector. The change was designed to allow students who otherwise were unable to afford the fees of a private college the opportunity to study, gaining work based skills. In 2012, then NSW...

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