More than 8 in 10 Australian companies believe that building their skills base is the key to achieving international competitiveness as most continue to be frustrated by chronic skill shortages
More than 8 out of 10 Australian companies believe that building their skills base is the key to achieving international competitiveness as most continue to be frustrated by chronic skill shortages. A recent Australian Industry Group report found that 74 per cent of companies identified the inability to secure skilled staff as a barrier to success over the next three years, ahead of all other factors, while companies experienced the most difficulty in securing skilled tradespeople (64 per cent), technicians and paraprofessionals (48 per cent) and engineers (46 per cent). Furthermore, the most common employer strategy for overcoming the skills shortage was to retrain existing staff (85 per cent), followed by increasing investment in training (69 per cent), redesigning jobs (65 per cent) and retaining of mature age workers (63 per cent). These figures highlighted the severity of the skills shortage and the need to accelerate reform to Australia’s training system, according to Ai Group chief executive Heather Ridout.
Commonwealth takes WorkChoices approach to OHS
The Federal Government’s plans to allow large employers to self insure for workers compensation purposes would seriously undermine workplace health and safety, according to NSW Minister for Commerce and Industrial Relations, John Della Bosca. The Commonwealth has signalled that larger companies using the Comcare scheme no longer need comply with State occupational health and safety laws. Comcare has just eight staff in New South Wales, and Della Bosca said this signals a workplace safety free-for-all for large employers. However, the Federal Government said the changes are designed to ensure there is a stronger connection between work and a claimant’s eligibility for workers’ compensation coverage for injuries, and will result in savings to the Commonwealth workers’ compensation scheme.
US: Bonuses for top executives primarily based on profit
Cash bonuses for executives are primarily tied to organisational financial performance, according to recent research conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management. Although not all executive-level cash bonuses were contingent on financial performance, 59 per cent of bonuses were impacted by gross/net revenue, 54 per cent by profit growth, 40 per cent by cost containment, and 35 per cent by customer satisfaction levels. Furthermore, executive-level employees are far more likely to receive performance-based cash bonuses and stock options (76 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively) than non-management employees (43 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively) at all organisations. Stock options for executive-level employees were offered by 79 per cent of publicly owned companies and just 27 per cent of privately owned companies.
Refsure and Australian Background merge
Background checking companies Refsure and Australian Background have merged entities to manage increased demand for outsourced background checking services in Australia and to provide a platform to launch into the Asia Pacific region. Both companies have experienced significant growth over the past two years. The number of background checks has increased by 75 per cent for both companies combined compared to the previous year. Luke Battah, CEO of Refsure, will head the combined companies as CEO, while Sally Mooney has resigned as co-managing director of Australian Background and will take a sabbatical for an indefinite period. The interim company name will be Refsure Australian Background in the short term, and a new corporate identity will be created following the integration period.
Employees wary of adult sites on corporate networks
Forty-six per cent of workers believe they are at risk of losing their job if they visit adult content using their work-owned internet connection, according to a US survey of 351 IT executives. Conducted by web security and filtering software provider Websense, the survey also found 30 per cent of workers said they would be fired if they infected the company with malicious spyware or a virus. In addition, 12 per cent of employees admitted that they have had a co-worker, friend or acquaintance send a link to their work email address that they considered offensive. Similarly, 11 per cent of employees admitted that a co-worker, friend, or acquaintance has sent a link to their work email address to a website that they thought might contain spyware or lead to some sort of security risk.
