Comments for Talking Talent

Comment on Tips on the balancing act by Karen Jamal

Karen Jamal — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:25:04 +0000

If the juggling act gets too much and you feel like you’re dropping more balls than you are catching, seek out the help of a coach, mentor or counsellor. I’m a great advocate of mentors – people who’ve been there and done that before. As Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”.

Comment on Tips on the balancing act by Eamonn Davies

Eamonn Davies — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:23:52 +0000

It’s always worth considering your life roles – what are the most important jobs in your life? Is it being a worker? Or a father? Or a friend? Or a partner? Once you’ve ordered your life roles, it can help you find clarity with your work life balance. Plan your life according to the things that are most important to you.

Comment on Y Genners ask why work for the govt? by Erik

Erik — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:43:17 +0000

I’m in the U.S., but yeah, in general, I have never considered working for the government. Perhaps it’s just reputation, but I prefer an environment where I can work hard, grow fast and not be bogged down by “traditional governement stereotypes.”

My company, btw, is doing a Generation Y and Talent webinar next week if you’re interested (Thursday, August 7, 2008@1pm EDT (in the U.S.): https://i4cp.webex.com/i4cp/onstage/g.php?d=333010212&t=a&SourceID=TalkingTalent

Comment on 457 visa restrictions choking our ICT industry by Charakan

Charakan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:28:40 +0000

Why the Australian Government is afraid of Foreign workers?

Comment on Sharpening the knowledge workers’ tool kit by Russell Yardley

Russell Yardley — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:12:28 +0000

This is indeed a thought article and proposition from Steve. Steve would agree that online collaboration has the allure of enormous value creation but unlike email these tools need a significant modification to most people’s behaviour. That is they need to be prepared to be open and share with people they may not know. Where as when the fax machine and later email offered great opportunities for efficiency gains there was little or no change in behaviour required! History tells us online collaboration may therefore have a slow take up.

Comment on Over 55s the key to business growth by Matt

Matt — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:49:05 +0000

I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing, this girl actually worked for a recruitment agency and should have known better. For some of these mature age workers it’s not just about finding “A” job, but getting training and re-skilling themselves and becoming bigger assets in their workplace.

We are finding that older workers realise they are going to have to work longer as their current superannuation accounts just won’t be enough to retire on when they had expected to, while others who have retired are bored at home, miss the comraderie at work and most of all have a great deal to offer employers.

Comment on Over 55s the key to business growth by Sheryle Moon

Sheryle Moon — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:44:17 +0000

Matt thank you for the comment and the website - I have sent it on to a few people in the RossJuliaRoss (www.rossjuliaross.com) business. I have also had experiences of young people sayings such things as older workers are not creative, not menatlly alert, not agile. As a baby boomer myself who is very active, rides a motorbike and is a senior executive I find it amazing that we undervalue a pool of workers who coudl contributeb to relieving the current skills shortages.

Comment on Over 55s the key to business growth by Matt

Matt — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:21:56 +0000

My Father and I have just launched a web site ( http://www.olderworkers.com.au ) aimed at linking older workers, mature age workers and age friendly employers.
On Friday I spoke to a young girl about recruiting older workers and she said she didn’t think she would have anything suitable as there was lifting involved????? It was as if once you turn over 40 you suddenly become completely feeble. We have 600 registered jobseekers on our site so far and high percentage of them have encountered age discrimination of some kind. There is a huge underutilised workforce in Australia and if employers don’t pay attention they will be missing out on a resource that is readily available.

Comment on Services the secret by R Jeehan

R Jeehan — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:22:34 +0000

Thanks for an interesting post really interesting, Sheryle.

There’s an article on Cisco’s website [http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/retail/archive/talk_innov_11142007.html] which argues that until functional powerhouses like China and India become creative and experiential in the consumer marketplace, their growth is limited and fragile.

The Barbie example shows us that ninety percent of the consumer’s dollar goes to the brand owners, who dream up products, and the retailers, who can aggregate customers. Further, the manufacturers’ $2 is under continual threat because unskilled manufacturing is almost valueless. Given the state of technology, just about anyone, anywhere, can make and ship a Barbie with a fairly limited investment. The manufacturing work will continue to move to the lowest cost.

Cisco says “China and India aren’t threats to mature Western markets; they are under siege by Western brand owners and retailers seeking hot new markets for their products.”

Comment on Everyone’s an information worker by Ollie

Ollie — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:15:22 +0000

There’s a bunch of terms we tend to bandy about quite freely without ever really explaining: Information Worker, Knowledge Worker, Structured Task Worker and Data Entry Worker.

I see an Information Worker as an overarching term which describes one of three subsets of workers:

The Knowledge Worker, who works with ideas and manages teams. Creates, consumes, transforms, analyses. Examples: middle/senior managers, consultants, marketing execs.

The Structured Task Worker, who tends to work only with data and information, not ideas. Consider bank clerks, call centre operators, nurses.

The Data Entry Worker, who creates and consumes, but don’t transform or manage information. This type of user typically works in some kind of administrative, secretarial or receptionist role.

So, when we talk about information workers, we are still talking about people who are process driven, rather than ideas driven.