Management Blog

Credit check please

More and more employers are checking the credit history of candidates before making a job offer, reports Business Sense.

According to the article, a massive 42 per cent of US companies performed credit checks on potential employees in 2006, an increase from 35 per cent in 2004.

HR commentators say the increased use of credit checks is taking place as the process offers an employer a means of determining a candidate's character.

Credit checking employers argue that if a person is reliable with their own money they're also likely to act responsibly in their professional life.

Entrepreneurship... not a family affair?

The latest Sensis Business Index has found 60 per cent of small businesspeople do not come from a family of business owners, ABC reports.

The survey also indicates first-born children are more likely to become entrepreneurs than the youngest child, a finding that contradicts popular belief on SME related family dynamics.

However, Swinburne University management researcher Professor Murray Gillin suggests the findings need to be viewed with caution.

He says passion and commitment – as opposed to birth order or family background – are ultimately the hallmarks of a successful entrepreneur.

Web ads fail older surfers

Online ads are failing to hit the mark for older web users, according to a survey of 13,000 internet users.

The Burst Media study found only 19 per cent of people aged 55 and over felt online content was appropriate to their needs in terms of information, advertising and web site design.

In comparison, 76 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 and 74 per cent of survey respondents aged between 35 and 44 believed online content was satisfactorily directed at them.

Burst says the findings indicate advertisers are ignoring the needs of older web users and, in effect, missing out on capturing a largely untapped demographic.

Jobs growth continues unabated

Many Australian workers liked what they saw on their pay slip in January this year with the country recording an average 4.7 per cent increase in wages growth, AAP reports.

Research by consulting and outsourcing company Mercer identified a 0.2 per cent increase on last year’s figures, the highest growth in three years.

Mercer says that while there is pressure on companies to curb wages growth in the interests of keeping inflation at bay, many employers are forced into raising wages to hold onto staff.

The highest pay gains were recorded in the construction and energy sector. Conversely, engineering, sales and clerical roles all experienced wages growth that was less than the national average.

Branson rates as the ideal boss

A new Talent2 survey has found the majority of Australian workers believe Richard Branson would be their ideal boss, news.com.au reports.

Over 40 per cent of survey respondents gave Branson the thumbs up, Bill Gates was the second most popular dream boss with third place going to Apple's Steve Jobs.

Westpac's Gail Kelly, the highest ranked Australian, came in at number four. Other local leaders identified as ideal bosses included retail guru Gerry Harvey and John Hartigan of News Limited.

Talent2 says Branson's top ranking reflects the Virgin founder's energetic management style and his establishment of a company that is not overly bureaucratic.

Making word of mouth work

Three months is all it takes to see results from a sustained word of mouth campaign, according to Australian Anthill blogger Ben Angel. To kick-start your WOM strategy, the following tips are offered: 

Be a 'go to' person - establish yourself as an expert in your industry by identifying and talking about a specialist area

Talk it up - offer your services as an expert speaker at industry events and networking groups   

Mix it up - spread your expert message using various media such as email marketing, websites, competitions, trade shows

Go hard - speak in public as often as you can and send out as much content as possible during your three month WOM campaign

Regional businesswomen step up

Keep an eye on the businesswomen of regional Australia – a new study has found women living in regional areas are more likely to start and operate a business than their city counterparts.

And, according to the Australian Women in Business study, they're doing so at a younger age than city dwellers with around two-thirds of new female business owners aged under 35.

Westpac, which commissioned the study, says the trend may be an outcome of limited employment opportunities in regional areas and a desire of women not to leave their hometowns for the city.

Who's afraid of Web 2.0?

Businesses are refusing to harness the power of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking, blogs or wikis despite believing the pursuit would be profitable, The Australian reports.

Recent research indicates 50 per cent of companies in the Asia-Pacific region consider Web 2.0 as being a business opportunity while just 8 per cent see it as a threat.

Commentators say there are few examples of successfully implemented Web 2.0 sites in Australia, however companies including Telstra, LendLease and AMP are testing applications.

A snapshot of work life in 2018

Balancing work pressures with the responsibility of looking after elderly parents will be a major challenge for workers in 2018, according to a forecast by the UK Chartered Management Institute.

The forecast suggests workers will spend more time at home in order to care for both parents and children while staying connected to work via instant communications and holographic meetings.

In addition, the forecast predicts workers will increasingly use microchips to enhance performance such as 'bio-chips' implanted into an employee's brain to boost their memory or knowledge.

Employers 'dis' slang-filled resumes

In a trend that has many employers concerned, text message abbreviations and gaming slang are becoming commonplace in the resumes of university graduates, The Canberra Times reports.

The poor state of graduates' spelling and grammar skills has also attracted criticism from employer groups.

However, many employers are finding they are not in a position to ignore job candidates with poor communications skills because of the country's intensifying labour shortage.