Affectors Academy urges business to be more creative

THE Affectors Academy is offering courses led by artists to teach businesses the skills they need to release their creativity.

Affectors Academy founder Matt Jackson.

THE Affectors Academy is offering intensive courses in Melbourne and Sydney led by artists to teach businesspeople the skills they employ to release their creativity.

Founded last year to bring together arts and commerce, the academy is urging businesses confronting the challenge of growth in a slow economy to stop outsourcing idea creation and look to the creativity of their employees to boost productivity and innovation.

Founder Matt Jackson says Australia spends $8 billion a year on consultants, and the Affectors Academy wants businesses to redirect the budget they spend on outsourcing and instead help staff be more creative.

“Too many employees have lost sight of the habit of being creative and come to rely on outsourcing their creativity,” Jackson says.

Hi-tech monitors

AN absence management company says human resources staff and line managers are spending more than two hours each week on people who are sick, and the financial impact is significant when training additional staff or temporary workers, or with fellow employees using overtime to ensure jobs are done.

Workforce Software Company general manager Leslie Tarnacki says automating systems that record absenteeism can reduce costs.

She says automated systems provide clear, documented channels for handling absence requests, recognise patterns in absences, alert the right people when occasional absences become more frequent and keep absence-related communication within a single system.

Learn to lead

LEADERSHIP training organisation Proteus is running two-day workshops in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth from May.

The workshops will cover topics such as communicating with confidence, improving interpersonal skills, leading a positive workplace culture, managing poor staff behaviour and performance recruitment. The course can be used to obtain credits for Proteus’s online diploma of management course. More: proteusleadership.com.

Aussies in top 10

THE Confederation of Private Recruitment Agencies has released an international report showing Australia is among the top 10 employment services markets.

The global recruitment industry grew by 9.6 per cent in 2013, including agency workers.

Recruitment and Consulting Services Association chief executive Steve Granland says Australian employers are continuing to use the offerings available from employment services agencies, providing work for more than 420,000 full-time equivalent workers and serving as a pathway to the labour market for others.

Globally, 60.9 million people gained access to the labour market through the employment and recruitment industry in 2013.

Direct action

PEOPLE taking on leadership positions should take their first 90 days to set the direction in which they want their workplace to go, Hays chief executive Alistair Cox says.

Cox says some new leaders take a “watch and learn” method and take time to learn about the business before making any significant changes, while others prefer to take immediate action by embedding themselves in the business quickly and implementing changes early.

He says the first 90 days of a new leadership role provides the best opportunity to let the business understand why the new leader is there and what their agenda is.