Leading women speakers will be discussing equal opportunity in the workplace and strategies to achieve higher levels of women in leadership roles throughout Australia. It will encourage and inspire women to succeed in the workforce.

“The conference has been running for 22 years, yet 22 years later we are still looking for solutions to these intractable issues. Although many Australians do not want to hear it, gender continues to act as an insidious barrier,” Conference co-chair Melanie O’Connor said.

“Research by Associate Professor McGraw published in The 2008 Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency Census highlights some alarming statistics which show that women do not form the majority in any category of senior job position in any industry in Australia. Not surprisingly, not a single industry in Australia pays women more than they do men and most pay them less.”

“In 2008, there were four female CEOs in the top ASX200 companies in Australia or two percent, down from three per cent in 2006. 106 companies in the top ASX200 do not have a single woman on their boards. A new update of the Macquarie/EOWA research featuring 2010 data will be released by the time of the conference,.”

The Women, Management and Work Conference will include presentations, round table discussions and workshops encouraging audience participation run by influential Australian leaders.

Topics discussed over the two days include: how to get on a board, how to get on an executive team, coaching and mentoring, promotion and development in your job, balancing the risks and rewards as well as inspiring leadership success stories. This year also includes topics on starting your own business.

There will be over 20 inspiring and leading speakers including:

• The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for Housing; Minister for the Status of Women
• Brigadier Simone Wilkie AM, Director General Training, Headquarters Forces Command
• Heather Ridout, Chief Executive, Australian Industry Group
• Andrea Grant, Group Managing Director Human Resources, Telstra
• Mia Freedman, Journalist, columnist, author and media consultant

The Women, Management and Work Conference is scheduled for 29 and 30 July 2010 (9am – 5:30pm) at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, 61-101 Phillip St, Sydney.

For more information and program details visit: http://www.lmsf.mq.edu.au/wmwc

To register visit: http://www.lmsf.mq.edu.au/wmwc/register_now

SOURCE: Macquarie University – Women, Management and Work Conference

Since its inception, the WITEM program has impacted over 100 mentor-mentee pairs, and in November 2008, WITEM was awarded the most “Outstanding Initiative/Result for the Advancement of Women” at the EOWA 2008 Business Achievement Awards.

Joe Kremer, managing director of Dell Australia and founder of WITEM, was recognised as one of Australia’s Leading CEOs for the Advancement of Women in the 2009 EOWA Business Achievement Awards (pictured).

A 12 month pilot of the WITEM program was launched in December 2005 and involved managing directors from Dell, Altiris, Cisco, EMC, Ingram Micro, Intel, LAN Systems and Lexmark, each mentoring a female executive from across marketing, sales, legal counsel and channel management functions from an alternate company.

Following the success of the pilot program, WITEM moved from the IT industry to the wider IT profession, encompassing public and private sectors. Organisations committed to the WITEM program span industries such as finance, distribution, professional services, education, manufacturing and ICT.

All participants work closely with Orijen, a mentoring specialist consultancy group, who facilitates the program to ensure maximum benefit is derived by both mentors and mentees. For more information visit the website www.orijen.com.au

Fiona Webster, Head of Career Coaching & Outplacement at recruitment & HR services company, Randstad, believes we need to treat work more like a relationship to see its positive benefits.

If you were asked to rate ‘love’ and ‘work’ on life’s happiness barometer, it would be rare to find them on the same scale, but think about the 168 hours there are in a week and how many of those you spend working. So learning to love your day job is vital to achieving a happy balance both at and away from the office.

It takes two
Like love, work is a two-way street, if you don’t feel satisfied about what you’re getting out of your role, then it might pay to give more to your day-to-day activities. Sometimes, ‘you only get out what you put in’ and thinking of ways to improve your basic daily tasks can give you more satisfaction and provide more value to those around you. In the same way, contributing more to your team or getting involved in social activities at work might hold the key to a healthier two-way relationship in 2010.

Openness and honesty
Like a relationship, employees should be in regular communication with their team and management, not just to know what’s happening on particular projects but to form good habits so that when issues or challenges arise, they can be addressed, discussed and dealt with in a timely, mature manner. If something is annoying you or you want to give positive feedback, it’s a whole lot easier with open lines of communication. Trust and empathy go a long way in building positive, long-term connections with people to help carry you through good times and bad.

Good Sense of Humour
Make time to laugh with people who you work with – the physical and emotional benefits of laughter are overwhelming – it reduces stress, relaxes your body and boosts your immune system, not to mention the effect it has on positivity and productivity levels in the workplace. Laughter can shatter tension, lift the spirit of a group and break the ice in difficult situations.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Australians are renowned for building up annual leave – the most recent Roy Morgan research, released in December 2008, shows Australia has 123 million days of leave built up. Not taking ‘time out’ often leads to stress and finding yourself bogged down in the little things.

For many employees, a short break can really improve motivation levels and helps us remember what it is we love and miss about our work – whether it be a sense of achievement, purpose or the people around us.

Taking time out to rebalance and re-energise also gives you a fresh, clear and healthy perspective on who you are, what you want to do and what you want to achieve. Generally any niggly things that may have been annoying you will soon dissipate after a well-earned break and it can result in a new found love for your job.

Getting the spark back
A great way to feel inspired about work again is through learning and developing new skills. A new area of interest or the motivation to progress your position by adding another notch to your skills belt is a great way to breathe new life into your attitude and energy in the workplace. Knowing you have a new stream of learning can really help you reignite the passion you once had for what you do. It can also make your day-to-day job easier, saving you time and boosting your productivity.

Look back on your achievements, celebrate positive milestones and map out new goals, as this can be refreshing and energising for you, rather than feeling like you are treading the same path, hoping that something interesting will happen. Think about how you would like your daily work to look, and start to create something that is meaningful and enjoyable every day.

Work may not always be smooth sailing and, like a relationship, it may require a little extra effort at times but with challenges come growth, satisfaction and a healthy relationship which can be deeply rewarding.

For more information visit www.randstad.com.au

Randstad is a Fortune 500 Company and the second largest HR services provider in the world, specialising in executive recruitment, HR Solutions, inhouse services and temporary and permanent staffing across a wide range of specialist industry sectors and professions.

Traditionally a time for relaxation and rejuvenation, the holiday season provided recession-weary workers the chance to unwind, recover and ready themselves for the new working year. |It is now when employees can look to form a positive outlook for the coming year and arm themselves with the right attitude for a happy workplace.

It’s widely believed that genes play a major part in the formation of a person’s disposition – some people are easygoing and feel very little anxiety, while others are more susceptible to self-doubt and negativity. Martyn Newman, Consulting Psychologist for recruitment & HR services company Randstad, believes that happiness ultimately goes hand-in-hand with a set of emotional and social skills that can be measured and learnt.

Martyn Newman refers to happiness as ‘emotional capital’ because “It’s the kind of wealth that literally creates peace of mind. People with this kind of wealth are the ‘new rich,’ they are emotional capitalists with the spending power to be at their best whatever the challenge.

“Not only do they have more energy and drive than most people, they also enrich everyone around them with their skills and attitude,” he said.

Using a simple online tool such as the Emotional Capital Inventory (ECi) it is now possible to measure these skills and obtain a quick snapshot of how people are doing on the ten skills that lead to greater happiness and productivity.

“Of course, being able to measure these skills is the first step to being able to systematically build them. This is one of the best investments individuals and organisations can make to create true wealth.”

Martyn Newman’s top tips to becoming an emotional capitalist:

• Be self-reliant – The emotional power to accept responsibility in both planning and making important decisions is the first step. Having had a tough 2009, in which you may have had to deal with unexpected circumstances, discover what matters most to you, and have the courage to believe in yourself.

• Be self-confident – People need to have the courage to take on initiative despite social pressures and learn to not rely on the approval of others to pursue your course of action. Having the guts to face challenges head on in 2010 will prove to be extremely beneficial in the long run.

• Be optimistic – Always look on the bright side of life and sense opportunities even in the face of adversity. Even if the task at hand is particularly daunting, looking at it positively will evoke feelings of triumph once these goals are achieved.

• Be more resilient – This past year has seen everyone experience their fair share of failures, losses and disappointments. The important thing to remember is to bounce back from adversity and overcome those negative emotions.

• Be passionate about what you do – Passionate people spend twice as much time thinking about what they have accomplished, how achievable the task ahead is and how capable they are of achieving it. If workers are able to find something that sparks their interest, their state of mind will improve.

Practicing kindness and compassion also helps ‘top up’ the happiness quota and gives workers that ‘feel good’ factor they can bring with them into the New Year.

Martyn Newman is the author of the international bestseller, “Emotional Capitalists – The New Leaders” published by John Wiley and the “Emotional Capital Inventory” – the world’s first scientifically designed tool for measuring emotional intelligence and leadership.

Martyn is also the Consulting Psychologist for global recruitment and HR services company, Randstad, and Managing Director of RocheMartin.

Visit the HR Solutions area of the website www.randstad.com.au for more information.

It’s been a tough year for recruitment agencies. Those who were barely hanging on before the economic downturn, were forced to close their doors at the height of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) when employers introduced a recruitment freeze. Now the job market is beginning to recover, employees are once again on the move and that’s good news for the recruitment industry.

According to Leadership Management Australasia’s latest Leadership, Employment and Direction Survey, one in six employees say they have recently applied to leave their current employment and more than half say they are considering moving on.

The survey also revealed that one in five are actively looking around – an increase of 36% since June 2009.

“The signs are clear – with the slow return to more normal economic conditions, talented employees are already on the move, looking for new opportunities,” says Grant Sexton, CEO of Leadership Management Australasia (LMA).

“One in five employees is looking to jump ship for a better offer. Organisations will need to be highly vigilant in talking with and staying close to their top people. If they don’t, they’ll lose them,” he said.

CEO and co-founder of Six Figures, Kelly Magowan says that as our economy continues to recover from the GFC, employers are likely to find themselves back where they were 18 months ago – facing a critical skills shortage.

“Although some employers still have a recruitment freeze in place, over the past 2-3 months we have seen the banking and finance sectors returning to where they were before the economic down turn,” she said.

Leadership Management Australasia (LMA) says that although 87% of employees would prefer to develop their career with their current employer, only 64% believe that’s possible.

“Too many managers and business leaders seem to be trading on the loyalty of the people who helped them through the worst of the global financial crisis. But they could be in for a wake up call. They must identify and talk to their top people to lock them in for the future,” said Mr Sexton.

Kelly Magowan told Australian Women Online that while employees are looking for new job opportunities, job seekers are unlikely to make a move until February next year.

“Traditionally we see a slow down in recruitment activity during December and January because this is when people take their annual leave. However, I think we’ll see a lot more job seeking activity from February 2010,” she said.

What you say and who you share it with during the job interview process can work for or against you. There is no magic formula to follow to get the right balance, but rather an ability to read the interviewer and be discerning about who you share what information with about your abilities.

When most of us leave the interview we play back in our minds the interview questions asked and how we responded. Did we give the right answers? Were we too brief in our responses or did we prattle on too much? Did we come across as too shy or to confident? and so on. Ultimately, we wonder if we came across as the right person for the job. Rarely do we question if we shared the appropriate information with the appropriate person. We simply automatically assume we are doing the right thing by selling ourselves and our abilities to all that we interview with. Remember, not every interviewer is created equal!

Read the Interviewer’s Body Language
During the interview it is advisable to read the body language and listen to the language used by the interviewer and respond accordingly. Mirroring how they engage with you is more likely to respond in a favorable outcome. This includes the language and tone that they adopt. If they are fairly reserved and softly spoken they may not respond as well to someone who is overly gregarious as to someone who has a similar mild-mannered approach. Remember that people tend to like and ultimately hire those like themselves, so temper your personal style to the interviewer where possible. For example, while you may be a confident person in the interview, which one would assume is a good thing, it can work against you if the interviewer is not a self-confident and well adjusted person themselves. If you come across too confident and experienced they may see you as a threat to them and their job – hence you don’t get hired. Being likeable and in some instances non-threatening to the status quo can land you the job, which will guide how you behave and respond in the interview. As covered in a previous blog post “Why we need to like the ones we work with and how this impacts hiring decisions” most of us hire those we like, that we can see making agreeable colleagues.

Assess the Interviewer’s Own Position and Motivations
One other area that is not often considered in job interviews is to assess the interviewer’s own point of view and their position related to the one you are being interviewed for. Knowing who to display your expertise and knowledge to is crucial. It is more likely that those more senior to you are going to be more receptive to a confident and go-getter than perhaps someone who is your peer or at a similar level that you may eventually be competing with for promotions etc. So consider adapting your interviews responses to the decision-making level or seniority of the interviewer.

The Interview is an Intense Judging Process
While there is no doubt that you need to be yourself during the interview, it is important to remember that interviews themselves are highly unnatural situations. The interviewer is making rapid judgments about you and may have preconceived opinions of you before you have even met. Hence, everything you can do to mitigate negative judgments being formed is advisable. Throughout the interview decisions are being formed based on your appearance, language, body language, question responses and your overall manner throughout the meeting. No wonder very few people enjoy being interviewed; even the most seasoned interviewer generally dislikes being on the other side.

Coming Across with the Right Balance of Confidence and Expertise
Getting the right balance in how you come across, particularly through how you answer the interview questions, is a tough balancing act. It is unlikely that they will hire you if you are too shy and reserved and correspondingly if you are so full of energy and confidence that you are completely over the top. Either extreme is not desirable during the interview process. However, I will qualify this by saying it has very little impact once you are in the job; these extremes of personalities can certainly work well in the workplace but they tend to not work well in the interview process. Generally, round one (and sometimes round two) interviews are conducted by those at a more junior or peer level; it’s only at the end that you meet with the real decision-makers higher up in the organization. It is at this level you can unleash your expertise and really sell yourself without hesitation. Only the most evolved of us are happy to hire someone who has the potential to outshine us.

About the Author – Kelly Magowan
Kelly has been specialising in the arena of Human Resource Management, Recruitment and Career Counselling for 13 years. She is co-founder of the Six Figures www.sixfigures.com.au the Executive Job Site for $100K+ jobs and contracts. Kelly regularly writes and presents on career related matters relating to professionals and executives. To access free career and job search information visit the Six Figures Resources area http://www.sixfigures.com.au/job_seekers/resources

Main photo credit: nyul – Fotolia.com

Established in Hong Kong, by lawyer Ms Bobbi Campbell, WMN provides members with professional support, leadership development and networking opportunities and consists of women employed in media companies, suppliers to those companies and women aspiring to work in the industry, across the Asia-Pacific region. WMN offers member activities and a mentoring program that taps into the region’s leading female executives.

“WMN is an organization which celebrates excellence by bringing together women in media to share, inspire and support each other. Our launch event features Asia’s most prominent and inspirational women media executives and we are honored to have The Walt Disney Company (Asia Pacific) Limited sign on as Founding Sponsor and Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific as a Corporate Patron Sponsor. The involvement of these leading executives and media companies demonstrates the opportunity to be gained,” said Bobbi Campbell, founder of WMN.

The opening event panel, moderated by CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout, includes:

• Christine Fellowes, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Comcast International Media Group (CIMG),
• Michelle Guthrie, Senior Advisor, Providence Equity Asia Limited
• Aliza Knox, Head of Online Sales and Operations, Google Asia Pacific
• May Lee, Lotus Media House, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
• Rohana Rohzan, Chief Executive Officer, Astro
• Laura Wendt, Vice President and Managing Director of Walt Disney Television International (Southeast Asia).

”Disney is delighted to support WMN. Helping people realize their full potential ensures Disney attracts and retains great people to build our business. We commend WMN in providing a network to make this a reality for women in Asia Pacific,” said Andy Bird, chairman Walt Disney International.

In addition to the professional commitment, WMN will donate all profits to support Meng Eng Orphanage and Daya Hongbo Vocational School, part of the China Nest of Hope Foundation. The Foundation, which focuses on children and in particular girls who fall out of China’s adoption framework, supports the building of schools, education of children, job training and development of young women and aims to provide a brighter future.

“The choice of China Nest of Hope Foundation reflects the role we can each play in making a difference,” said Ms Campbell.

Membership to Women Media Networks costs HK$800/ US$100 (AU$120), and is open to individuals across the region including Australia and includes member rates for events and complimentary access to mentoring services provided by leading international coaching and leadership development organization, Praesta.

For more information about joining WMN and attending the WMN Breakfast visit the website at www.womenmedianetworks.com

Due to growing demand by high salary earners for more specific career and industry related content, Six Figures is meeting demand by catering for additional aspects of a professional’s career, with career development, directorships, education and industry news forming a part of its extended offering.

Since launching in March 2008, Six Figures, Australia’s only stand alone executive job site, has grown to over 25,000 members ($100K+ job seekers) and over 300 advertisers spanning government, education, corporate and recruitment firms. With a focus on quality, service and building relationships the site is continuing to grow and deliver success to both members and our advertisers in sourcing top passive talent via their job ads.

The original Six Figures website had an executive look and feel with much of the content locked away to be accessed by registered members and advertisers. Six Figures will continue to have an exclusive look and membership model however the site will have more information available to website visitors including career resources, jobs and news. Registered members will continue to receive additional benefits to those non members visiting the site. Six Figure remains focussed on providing the highest level of jobs and careers support to its growing membership.

Kelly Magowan co-founder of Six Figures says that “The principles behind Six Figures will not change. We are simply expanding our offering and opening up the site to be more accessible for job seekers and advertisers to access all the great content Six Figures has to offer. However, most importantly the site will remain primarily focussed on connecting advertisers with top talent and our high salary earning members with great $100K+ jobs”.

As the employer and job seeker market evolves, with both group’s increasingly becoming time poor and looking for more effective and trustworthy ways to build relationships and connect, Six Figures continues to evolve its service offering. Magowan says “particularly at the higher salary levels, integrity, quality and relevance matter to job seekers and discerning advertisers, who want applications from a small qualified group of top people.

The generalist job board model, based on large volumes of job listings, traffic and applications is only relevant for transactional recruitment. It is not going anywhere anytime soon” says Magowan. “However it is not a viable model for organisations looking to attract the high salary earning market. They are not where you will find the best passive talent, unlike Six Figures where the majority of its members are currently employed.”

The new Six Figures site www.sixfigures.com.au was released on Friday 21st August 2009.

With redundancy comes opportunity, many professionals will secure new work and will need to learn once again how to shine as the ‘new recruit’. James Nicholson, Managing Director of Robert Walters Australia offers some advice on how to survive a new job and inevitably, a new boss.

One of the most exciting challenges in a professional’s career is starting a new job but this can also be a very stressful and demanding time. Professionals must realise that the job will never be exactly as they expected although if you anticipate the challenges ahead, your transition can be much smoother. A new job means new relationships, new ways of doing things and new expectations.

Not only has your workplace changed but so has your boss. Many professionals will say that adjusting to a new boss is the hardest part about starting a new job; others will feel it to be the easiest. In order to ensure your new role starts well, it’s important that you let go of your old boss and accept that your new boss will have new priorities, a new focus and almost certainly, a new way of doing things.

It is important to figure out the communication style of your new boss, find out how they like to work and how they like things done. Be proactive and initiate a meeting with your new boss to discuss how they like to work and then adapt. This will help you get an understanding of what is expected of you and help set clear expectations.

Working under a new boss can be challenging, however it is an experience that should be embraced. Learn everything you can from the experience, try and empathise with the boss’ situation, this will ease the transition for you both. Ultimately it is just as important for you to manage your new boss, as it is for them to manage you. And remember – it’s up to the both of you to make the relationship work.

Robert Walters is a leading global recruitment consultancy, specialising in placing high calibre professionals into permanent, contract and temporary positions at all levels. For more information visit the website www.robertwalters.com.au

Source: Robert Walters

Respect as defined by Wikipedia: ‘Respect is esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, a person, a personal quality, ability, or a manifestation of a personal quality or ability. In certain ways, respect manifests itself as a kind of ethic or principle, such as in the commonly taught concept of “[having] respect for others” or the ethic of reciprocity.’

When it comes to recruitment, the lack of respect shown by some falls on both the shoulders of the recruiter and the job seeker.

Recruitment, Respect & Job Seekers
From the job seekers side, it starts with an advertiser posting a job ad, with those that apply assuming that the ad is current and ‘real’.  Wasting people’s time with vague job ads where the advertiser may be simply fishing, looking to reverse market candidates into businesses, looking to build up the number of resumes in their databases, or maybe going through the advertising process as a part of protocol (even though someone has already been marked for the job) , shows a distinct lack of respect for the job seeker’s time.

Then move onto the application process. Moreso these days, applicants have to spend 30 – 60 minutes uploading and reformatting their data to suit each prospective advertiser’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in the hope that their resume will be parsed and the right key words matched, enabling them the luxury of speaking with a person should it make it through. It seems more like a production line with tight quality control rather than a process for hiring people.

Job seekers often spend large amounts of time sending their applications into the ether. For most job seekers, a simple email notifying them that their application has not been successful would be welcomed. Or even better, a return phone call or email should they make contact with a specific query. After all it is their career!  As a sign of respect one would think it is the least a recruiter could do. Particularly given all this great technology available that one would hope is there to save them time ‘processing’ so that they can focus on meeting with and building relationships with applicants.

Time is precious to us all, yet when it comes to the recruitment process it seems that we all waste an inordinate amount of time applying for jobs that are not actually ‘real’, interviewing with people who have no idea of what the job involves, being told after the interview we don’t have the right experience (which was highlighted at the outset in our resumes), or being added to the client shortlist to make up the numbers (as most clients need to see a number of applicants before they make a hiring decision).

Research shows that people don’t mind going through a lengthy and rigorous recruitment process in the event that that the job is real and that the process is outlined at the outset. Managing peoples’ expectations is also a sign of respect.  Due to ad hoc recruitment processes and general inefficiencies, many recruitment processes are haphazard, sometimes political and frequently archaic.

Unfortunately, to get the job as a job seeker you often have little choice other than to waste a lot of your time going through a lot of unnecessary frustration and degradation before you land the job. Recruitment and respect are two words that I have not frequently heard in the same sentence. That is not to say that things cannot change and that there are not organizations out there with professional and recruitment processes that incorporate respect.

Recruitment, Respect & Advertisers
From an advertiser’s point of view, they too find that their time is wasted. It can start with a client (internal or external) who does not really know what they are looking for and as such may provide a poor job brief. The recruiter is then flying blind, which can lead to those vague job ads you frequently read; where if you changed the job title it could be any job that we would all be adequately qualified to do.  The client may be hard to access and unrealistic in their demands. As a result a recruiter can find that they need to make many attempts at advertising to source the right person. Hence as a job seeker you are wasting a lot of your time due to un-prepared clients going to the market to hire.

Recruiters also receive a lot of applications from people who have clearly not bothered to read the ad or address any of the criteria outlined. A simple “what is required check against what you have” can go a long way. If you don’t meet the majority of the criteria the job ad is seeking, save your time and the recruiter’s time and don’t apply. Many recruiters when they advertise receive large volumes of unsuitable applications. This does not occur as much at the executive and professional levels yet it does still happen.  Applicants need to use their common sense and make a judgment call – “Is it worth my time to apply for this job ad?”, “What are the odds that I will progress to an interview stage given my experiences?”

One of the great things about online job sites is the ease and ability to view and apply for large numbers of jobs. However, more does not necessarily translate to better or success. Therefore, in order to increase the likelihood of being interviewed and hired, it is not a case of applying for many jobs but rather being select about what you apply for and spending the time to prepare a terrific, relevant and tailored resume. This will increase your strike rate more than pumping out job applications. It will also free up the recruiter’s time and hopefully translate into more time for them to offer you a professional and personalized service.

Employers, Redundancy & Respect
Perhaps one of the most important times for showing respect is when employers are making their staff redundant. Unfortunately, due to the unpleasant nature of the task, the redundancy process is often managed far from professionally with departing staff being shown little respect and as such leaving the organizations with various emotions bubbling inside them – from anger to frustration, loss of dignity and so on. These emotions do little to help the employee and even less for the organization’s employer brand. Granted, a retrenched person will go through a series of emotions such as highlighted in at the loss of employment, no matter how good or bad the process is managed. What does matter however is that the person leaves with a sense of dignity, feeling that the process has been managed with some respect to their needs and emotions on the organization’s behalf.

Consider the example of MySpace, seen as a good employer by global standards. When times were good it was an organization overflowing with bright, hardworking, committed and innovate employees.  It offered a great employer brand and culture. Hmm well not any more! A recent TechCrunch article shows even those organizations that supposedly had a ‘good reputation’ when good times go bad fail to offer respect to departing and current staff.  MySpace, who recently laid of over 30% of its workforce in a less than professional fashion, also managed to bungle the final pays of its retrenched staff whose payouts were delayed. “In a press release announcing the layoffs, CEO Owen Van Natta called the company “bloated”, displaying a surprising lack of respect towards the terminated workers.”

According to the article “MySpace has been holding a number of meetings for staff who are still at the company, during which they’ve referred to the recently terminated employees as “fat”. Unfortunately, some of these “fatty” employees have been present at these very meetings — the company has kept a number of terminated employees onboard through the duration of their contract.”  This can only do wonders for staff morale and their reputation. One does begin to question in the disposable culture that we live, have we crossed a point where people are considered just another disposable item?! You would hope that organizations show current and departing staff a little more respect.

There are some terrific resources and services available to assist organizations in managing the redundancy process in a dignified manner. Good outplacement providers as a part of their service will offer to manage this part of the process for the client.

Six Figures recently wrote a post for employers that offers tips and advice for a professional redundancy process. We also offer a free guide for your organization. To view the article on the Six Figures Blog at http://blog.sixfigures.com.au/

Author Details
Kelly’s 13 years experience working across HR, Recruitment & Career Coaching has provided her with a solid understanding of what the job market looks like, what employers look for and the common experiences and challenges they face.  Kelly Magowan, CEO Six Figures,  the Executive Job Site for $100K+ job seekers to connect with employers and their six figure jobs and contracts across all industries and professions.