Deborah Peppard - HR Director
Amie Graham - HR Advisor ​

​​Based on numbers alone chances are you will have an employee in your business living with mental illness at any one time.  Globally, mental illness is predicted to be the fastest growing and most significant non-communicable disease impacting on the economy, and higher income countries such as Australia are impacted the most.


​As a business owner it is your responsibility to ensure you are creating a mentally healthy workplace.   Not only to do the right thing by your people but as part of your business strategy so you remain competitive and successful, reduce absenteeism and maintain productivity levels.

​The hot weather is just around the corner and of course that can mean excessively hot work environments for some employees, especially those working onsite, in factories and in warehouses. Excessive heat has potential to cause a significant safety hazard in work places that can lead to symptoms such skin irritations, dizziness, dehydration, excessive sweating, heat stroke or, in the extreme, death. 


So how do you protect your employees while balancing the needs of your business?

​A positive change by business leaders is the recent focus on workplace culture, wellness and morale. If businesses are not ahead of the game, they risk losing valued and talented employees to a workplace with a higher morale or stronger culture.  With a tough talent market – good, great and especially exceptional employees are really hard to find.  High quality candidates have a lot of options and when they are tossing up which position to accept they are certainly more likely to choose a business that is known for its positive workplace culture and morale.  Not only do these businesses secure the best candidates, they are able to deliver long term and high levels of engagement and satisfaction throughout their employment – win-win for businesses and employees!  

So what's your workplace morale like and is it worth all the effort to make changes to boost it?

​It can be challenging for most businesses to navigate the myriad of rules and regulations that they must comply with, and this gets even trickier when trying to make sense of the various employer obligations regarding people: discrimination laws, privacy laws, Fair Work legislation and more. Over time the facts can be distorted until there is a particular belief about what employers can and can’t do, should and shouldn’t do etc. Deb Peppard attempts to’ bust four common HR myths’ to help you get a handle on the facts!

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Flexible working arrangements have become the new normal in workplaces in recent years.  Until recently, it was mostly working parents that requested greater flexibility in the workplace but over time it has become far more common for a diverse range of employees to request a transition to flexible working arrangements for a variety of reasons.  

So as a business leader, should you consider these requests? 


​Yes!  In a perfect world, all businesses would be able to offer their employees such flexibility as there are significant benefits to you as an employer, as well as to your employees, but in reality, there are many things to consider.