Workflow: four-day-week fans

FUTURIST Morris Miselowski says the notion of a weekend and five-day week with 9-5 jobs will be obsolete in the next few years.

SELF-PROCLAIMED business futurist Morris Miselowski says the notion of a weekend and a standard five-day week with 9-5 jobs will become obsolete in the next few years as workplaces move into a world that exists on a project and task basis.

Miselowski says getting things done as, where and when they need to be done will be the norm, rather than trying to shoehorn roles into an industrial revolution-constructed work week.

He says the ability to work where and when you want will allow families to choose together time that suits them all, to be able to come together for important events and school activities and to reframe family back into the centre of activity, rather than something that must be juggled in a busy week.

Miselowski supports claims by one of Britain’s leading doctors who recently called for that country to switch to a three-day weekend.

The doctor claimed a four-day week would enhance health, wellbeing, family, society and the economy, and based it on the need for more time to relax and unwind, creating more efficient workers focused on four days of work, with the chance to hire others to work on additional days.

Boom and bust

DUN & Bradstreet’s review of new and failed businesses has found 62,160 enterprises began operations in the second quarter of this year, up from 50,539 in the previous three months and 57,504 in 2013.

The firm’s Australia and New Zealand chief executive Gareth Jones says the 23 per cent increase compared to the previous quarter and 8 per cent rise on the previous year points to confidence the trading environment may be strengthening.

“Confidence is critical for entrepreneurship and these numbers on business start-ups indicate there is a building mood of positivity about opportunities in the economy,” Jones said.

The review found that with more businesses being created, there has also been an increase in business failures, which Dun & Bradstreet defines as those that seek legal relief from creditors or cease operations without paying their creditors in full.

Year-on-year business failures have increased 9.6 per cent from 9056 to 9927, but failures declined by 11 per cent from the previous quarter.

A spokesman says the pick-up in new businesses during the second quarter this year reflects a mood of positivity about the trading environment, with Dun & Bradstreet also finding that 64 per cent of firms are more optimistic about growth this year compared to 2013.

Learning in the cloud

ONLINE learning organisation Skillsoft has released an e-book to help businesses determine which cloud-based training and development programs best suit their needs.

Cloud-Based Learning Solutions: Making the Right Choice for Your Enterprise is aimed at helping decision-makers fully understand cloud-based learning and how to use it to achieve business goals.

The publication includes contributions from industry thought leaders, checklists and case studies, and aims to educate organisations on everything from selecting a cloud learning solution to improving business outcomes.

The e-book is intended for readers across human resources, IT, learning and development areas.

Numbers men add up

RECRUITMENT firm Hays says jobs for accountants are likely to increase this quarter as consumer confidence grows.

In Hay’s latest Quarterly Hotspots report, business services seniors, external audit seniors and senior tax accountants top the list for in-demand professionals.

Accountancy and finance regional director Susan Drew says candidate levels have increased as more people decide it is time to advance their career.

“Given the release of new-financial-year budgets, employers are recruiting the skills they need to drive their accountancy department forward,” Drew says.

“Practices are adding to their headcount and demand is predominantly for permanent candidates at the intermediate to manager levels.”

In the commercial sector finance managers, auditors, all-round accountants and credit controllers are needed.

She says accounts payable officers and bookkeepers are in demand, and there is more activity in construction and property, and health and aged care.

Drew says more companies are offering 12-month contracts instead of permanency, and confidence is slowly returning to the public sector in most states.