Pay rises were virtually non-existent across most industries in 2020 as companies looked to cut costs while dealing with the pandemic. It’s no secret that the Australian economy has recovered from the effects of COVID-19 better than many countries. Our GDP growth is expected to hit 4.35% in the 2021-22 financial year, up from 1.25% in 2020-21. Despite this, a lot of businesses will still be hesitant to hand out pay increases in 2021.

If your company does offer pay rises, there’s a good chance your boss may not have enough funds for everyone. Therefore, it’s never been more pertinent to be clear, concise and forward when asking for and negotiating a salary increase.

Negotiating for the first time

If you’ve never negotiated a pay rise before, there’s a few things you can do according to PERSOLKELLY Recruitment Consultant Kayla Densley, ‘ask for a one-on-one meeting with your manager, express to them that you would like to request a pay rise’. She says it’s vital to list your reasons for the pay rise and it’s important to be specific. Have your KPIs with you and list any and all relevant achievements. This is your opportunity to remind your boss of your value to the company and all that you’ve achieved throughout the year. You may be tempted to go back further than a year, however that’s only relevant to do so if your pay wasn’t evaluated last year.

Preparation

When asked how to give yourself the best chance at succeeding in your request for a raise, Kayla stresses that preparation is key. ‘Be prepared, understand what you are contributing to the business so you can measure your outcomes.’ She also states that confidence can play a pivotal role in nailing your pitch, as does keeping it to facts and achievements. The best achievements are ones that can be measured or demonstrated.

Ideally preparing for a pay negotiation should begin when you start a job or after the last salary discussion. Keep a journal to jot down achievements. Digital is best as you can use keyword searches later to find relevant entries. Setting up alerts via Outlook or via the reminders app on your phone can be helpful to ensure you remember when work gets busy. Every fortnight or month are good intervals, any longer in between can lead to difficulty remembering what you’ve done since your last entry.

Have a figure in mind

Asking for a specific amount can also help you get what you want, and it conveys confidence in yourself and your worth. Review the Programmed and PERSOLKELLY 2021 Salary Guide to see high, low end and average salaries for your role. If you’re currently in the low end, it may be easier to rationalise why you deserve an increase. If not, it’s even more important to have examples to show why you deserve what you’re asking for.

When reviewing the guide, it can also be handy to look up what your boss’s role is paying. Knowing what they earn can help you decide on a realistic figure to ask for. If you ask for a raise that would have you earning a similar amount to your superior, it’s extremely unlikely to be granted.

Lay on the loyalty

If you’ve been at a company for a long time, highlight your loyalty. High turnover is a big problem for a lot of businesses. There is a myriad of costs associated with replacing a staff member, and your boss is keenly aware of this. In many cases a raise may be more cost-effective than losing and replacing you. It can take months for a replacement to get up to your level of competence and efficiency.

Non-monetary benefits

If you already know a monetary raise is off the table or your boss tells you early in the discussion, consider asking for non-financial rewards. Employees often crave more flexibility such as different hours and partially working from home. COVID-19 has forced business to embrace it. Seeking training and further education are also options as it can be prudent for companies investing in the skills and futures of employees.

Handling rejection with grace

While following the tips outlined above should put you in good stead for receiving a pay rise, there’s still the chance your boss says no. It could be due to factors outside of your control such as the economy and the bottom line, while other times it may be due to your performance, output or efficiency. It’s important to react professionally and not let the exchange negatively impact the relationship with your superior.

Seek feedback

Getting as much detail from your boss can help you going forwards says Kayla. ‘Ask your manager for specific reasons why your request is denied and then work together on a plan around what you need to work or areas of improvement which can be measured.’ The Muse published a great article on advice on how to take on board constructive criticism. Kayla suggests scheduling monthly meetings with your manager to track your progress. Taking on feedback in a positive way can go a long way to turning a no at this year’s salary review, into a yes at the next one.

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PERSOLKELLY is one of Australia and New Zealand’s leading staffing and recruitment providers. If you’re looking for work, explore our jobs, or register your details, search and apply for jobs on GO, available free from your App store. If you’re looking for staff, get in touch with us to find out how we can support your business with great people.

Mindfulness has become a practice that has grown in popularity over recent years. It’s known to be practised by leading figures in the business world and is being adopted in some of the world’s top workplaces. If you’re considering building mindfulness into your business, our quick guide will help you to understand how to best implement it.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of being in the moment. In the modern world, the ability to be in the present has become more important than ever. With distractions including phones, technology, other workers, meetings etc. you can be dragged away from the important tasks that need to be completed in your day. 

What are the benefits of mindfulness? 

Mindfulness in the workplace allows you to let go of thoughts about the past and future and focus on the present. A meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience has shown that slow breathing techniques can produce increased relaxation, alertness and reduce anxiety. This can help you and your team to be calmer in the workplace, leading to better decision making and work output. 

Mindfulness and focusing on one thing at a time prevents multitasking. Multitasking can negatively impact time management and increase the time it takes to complete tasks, which ultimately impacts performance.

How do you practice mindfulness?

There are many ways to practise mindfulness. It can range from short, simple tasks such as focussing on one’s breath to longer meditation sessions. General ideas around meditation exercises as recommended by Australian Government service, Health Direct include:

1. Find yourself a quiet spot, away from distractions.
2. Get settled into a comfortable position, either on the floor or in a comfortable chair. When you feel comfortable, close your eyes.
3. When meditating, the key is to practice focusing on just one thing. When you become aware that your mind is wandering, just guide it back (without judgement) and focus. 

Research has also indicated that performing mindfulness outdoors is especially beneficial.  While meditating may be difficult to begin with, just like a muscle, your ability to meditate will become stronger and relaxing will become easier. Creating a daily habit to practice mindfulness will go a long way over time. 

How can you implement mindfulness in your workplace?

Strategies to include mindfulness in your company include:

Create education programs

Educating your workplace about the benefits of mindfulness will need to be a big part of embedding it within your business. Having sessions where mindfulness is explained, or setting time for people to practice meditation together will help it become a regular practice. 

Create a culture around mindfulness

Allowing time in the workday for employees to perform their mindfulness will send a message that it’s encouraged by management. By joining in on these sessions, management not only shows they believe in it, they can also enjoy the benefits themselves.

Mindfulness challenges

Workplace challenges can motivate employees to practise mindfulness and develop good habits. You might want to challenge your team to achieve a certain amount of hours of mindfulness per month, which will create healthy competition and encourage team members to meditate. 

Building a culture of mindfulness will benefit both employees and employers. Having a focused and capable team of problem-solvers will help you achieve more.

For effective staffing solutions to improve your recruitment process, contact us at PERSOLKELLY today to learn more. 

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PERSOLKELLY is one of Australia and New Zealand’s leading staffing and recruitment providers. If you’re looking for work, explore our jobs, or register your details, search and apply for jobs on GO, available free from your App store. If you’re looking for staff, get in touch with us to find out how we can support your business with great people.

Working from home has now become a big part of our working lifestyle. This new lifestyle has its own challenges that might prevent you from being your best. Developing good habits and strategies will help to ensure you have a healthy mind, body and relationship with work. This will allow you to stay on track to achieving your goals with your team.

Create a divide between work and home

When working from home, it can feel like you’re always at work. Sometimes, this can be overwhelming and stressful. To overcome this, create a clear divide between work life and home life. Strategies such as having a specific area soley for work will help to ensure there is a clear segregation from other areas of your home.

Developing clear boundaries mentally about your work habits are also important. Developing a strict schedule for when you’re in ‘work mode’ and ‘home mode’ will help you to clock off mentally. Simple tricks such as having a work outfit and outside-of-work outfit may help you to mentally distinguish when you are at work from when it is personal time.

Create a comfortable workplace

For many, you will be spending at least 37.5 hours of your week sitting in the same spot. It’s important to make sure that it is a great place to be. Make an investment in purchasing the right equipment for your workspace. Have an ergonomic office chair to promote good posture. If you’re used to having multiple monitors or a standing desk, you might want to think about purchasing these to create the same feeling you would have in the office. Creating a comfortable workplace at home will help get the best out of you.

Maintain physical and mental health

Maintaining your physical and mental health is important. Regular physical exercise is one of the simplest methods of decreasing stress and preventing depression. The World Health Organisation recommends having at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity a week. 

At a minimum, get outside for a walk to enjoy the sun and the outside world. This will do wonders for your physical and mental health. Exposure to sunlight has been associated with boosting mood, providing Vitamin D and helping a person feel calm and focused. When working from home, sometimes you might not leave your home for hours on end. During the year, it can be dark when you wake up and the sun will set before you finish work, so it is important to take time out of your day to get outside and soak up some sun. 

Managing your mental health can easily be neglected but it is just as important as your physical health. Practising mindfulness will help to alleviate stress and improve attention span. Mindfulness and other forms of meditation are just like muscles and require constant practice to become stronger. Taking 10 minutes out of your day is all you need to make a significant difference. Mindfulness apps such as Smiling Mind, MyLife Meditation and Healthy Minds Program are great tools to guide you through your meditation.

If you’re struggling with your mental health, it is important to speak up. Please speak to another employee, friends, family or there is professional assistance externally to help you through any struggles you may be going through. 

Stay in regular contact with coworkers

Working from home takes away the face-to-face interactions we have with our coworkers. This can make us feel isolated and lonely, which can harm our mental health. Creating events via video calls, catching up in person (if possible), and messaging people throughout the day will provide the human interaction you need to still feel a part of your team.

Working from home has presented new challenges for the workplace so it is important to develop strategies for you and your employees to help maintain the health and effectiveness of your team. 

For those looking for work, finding a workplace that provides the right environment is important. PERSOLKELLY offers a wide range of job options and opportunities with our career pathfinder for candidates. Contact us at PERSOLKELLY today to learn more.

This pandemic has presented a lot of challenges for businesses and workplaces. It has also caused a shift in how we work, with more employees working from home than ever before. This presents new challenges as a manager to lead your team and achieve the goals of the company. Our How to Guide will provide some great tips on managing employees remotely, ensuring the distance between you and your team won’t negatively impact your performance.

Create a similar working experience 

Now that more people are working from home, how you interact with your team will change. Remote working can make employees feel isolated and unsupported. It is important to ensure that staff still feel that they have the same support that they would receive had they been in the office. 

Still provide the same assistance, training opportunities and regular catch ups with your junior staff that you would normally provide pre-pandemic. If you need to have more zoom calls to answer questions, brainstorm or solve problems then it needs to be done. 

Onboarding a new employee 

Remote working may have made onboarding new employees one of the most complicated aspects of management. The pandemic has not stopped businesses from hiring new talent so you must create a program that will effectively help them to be a new member of your team as they work from home.

Bringing new employees into the office on their first day may not be possible. To ensure your new employee has everything to be onboarded, a program that can effectively communicate what is needed to perform their role is a must. Create a list of the software and accounts that need to be set up and provide resources so that they perform these tasks. If you are planning to provide equipment such as laptops, couriers may be required. 

The isolation of working from home presents some challenges that can really affect how the new employees feel about working for your business. It is key that they feel welcome and a part of your team. 

This is difficult to create when we are not able to interact face to face. To overcome this, create social events either digitally or outside of the office so you can help them to build professional relationships and friendships within the team.

Create avenues for feedback

This new working environment is new for everyone and not everything will be perfect on the first try. Feedback from your team will play a big role in working out where communication is breaking down and goals aren’t being achieved. Activities such as regular catch ups, suggestion boxes or message groups are a great way for people to communicate any issues they may be experiencing. 

As a manager, you should always approach this feedback with an open mind, be empathetic and lead from the front. This will help staff feel like they can approach you with any of their issues. 

This pandemic has presented new challenges with remote working. Leading from the front and working with your team to overcome these challenges will not only create better solutions but it helps you all to tackle the next problem that comes along. 

Sourcing quality professionals for your business can be challenging at the best of times. For effective staffing solutions to help you build the right workforce for your company, contact us at PERSOLKELLY today to learn more. 

Increased pay is emerging as the number one reason for changing careers or jobs in 2021, with almost half of workers, or 6 million Australians, considering a role or career shift during the past twelve months, according to our recent study.

Australian workers say reskilling and upskilling are the clearest ways to secure their financial future but cite cost as the largest barrier.

These are just some of the findings contained in our latest PERSOLKELLY and Programmed report, looking into how employees will prioritise their careers in 2021.

Our research tells us it’s careers and purpose more than COVID-19 that is prompting people to reconsider their lives, especially young people,” said Nic Fairbank, CEO, Programmed Skilled Workforce, Programmed Training Services, PERSOLKELLY.

Of those considering a career or role change, over 25 per cent say pay and financial security is the main reason to consider a switch. Unsatisfactory work conditions, perhaps disrupted or amplified by the pandemic, came in second with 23.0 per cent.

Less than 10 per cent of working Australians considering a move think COVID-19 itself was the reason. However, the majority of all workers (53.7 per cent) think the pandemic has changed the way they viewed their jobs.

• Increased pay is emerging as the number one reason for changing careers or jobs in 2021, with almost half of workers considering a role or career shift during the past twelve months.
• Our data shows reskilling and upskilling are the clearest ways to secure a financial future, but cost is cited as the largest barrier.
• Of those considering a career or role change, over 25 per cent say pay and financial security is the main reason to consider a switch. Unsatisfactory work conditions, perhaps disrupted or amplified by the pandemic, came in second with 23.0 per cent.

When looking at different industries, mining, construction/infrastructure, and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) have the largest number of workers considering changing careers or roles, though most plan to stay within the same industry.

Of those considering a change, 18-24-year-olds were the largest group most likely to look elsewhere, with half of that group aiming to stay in the same industry.

While pay was Australians’ most cited reason for wanting to switch jobs, Victoria saw the highest level of respondents citing COVID-19 (11.6 per cent), followed by New Zealand (9.8 per cent) – both regions impacted by severe lockdowns.

Those looking to change industries are eyeing a move towards Professional Services, which includes roles in administration, business support, accounting, technical professions, sales, marketing, and human resources.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the Health sector also rank highly, as healthcare labour and digital specialists across different categories are in high demand.

“Transitioning to the new economy means a skills evolution, not a revolution, to support industries that are growing but cannot get enough people, like healthcare and aged care,” said Mr. Fairbank.

Workers themselves are taking career changes into their own hands and are looking to upskill, reskill and conduct further study to progress their careers.

Close to one-third of Australian workers see growth as a key reason to consider upskilling or reskilling, while 27.3 per cent said it would progress their career. Up to 16 per cent said it was a job requirement. Download the full report at

What will employees prioritise in 2021?

Download the full report here