CozWine Blog

Slips, trips and falls

Staff — Wed, 02 May 2012 01:15:58 +0000

Slips, trips and falls can happen in any workplace. They can occur at the entry of a building, in the kitchen, in a cold room, loading docks and even as you are walking in or outside the building. These result in sprains and strains as well as cuts, bruises, fractures and dislocations.

Slips occur when a person’s foot losses traction with the floor. The most common causes of slips are slippery floor surfaces, wet or greasy and inappropriate footwear.

Trips occur when a person’s foot hits a low obstacle in the person’s path, causing a loss of balance. Often, the obstacle is not easily visible or noticed.

Falls result from slips and trips, but can also occur from low heights such as steps and curbs.

There are many ways that we can improve, monitor and maintain the workplace to eliminate or at least greatly reduce the hazards faced by employee and everyone. Everyone in the workplace needs to be aware of potential hazards and understand their role in reducing the problem.

Many slips, trips and falls can be easily prevented by:

Organising your work area and equipment
Keeping your work area clean and clear of rubbish
Cleaning up spills as soon as they happen
Storing things away, clearing the floors and access – ways leaving no obstructions
Regularly disposing of rubbish in the bins provided
Identifying potential hazards and notifying your supervisor

Don’t forget: A little slip at work can have a big impact in your life so take care and be aware of your surroundings.

Injury free lifting

Staff — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:18:44 +0000

Despite advances in lifting equipment, people naturally use physical force to move things around the home and in work environments. They continue to lift, move, stack and pack various items and in many cases do so in dangerous ways, whether by technique, location or by simply exceeding their physical capabilities.

Objects that are heavy or used regularly should be stored between shoulder and knee height so as to avoid awkward positions or twisting movements while lifting or reaching. When less precaution is taken, bodily harm can be caused resulting in a sprain or strain and in some cases serious back injury. Therefore it is important to understand and have some knowledge of the best way to lift a load.

Below are some steps you can take when lifting an object to avoid self-injury:

PREPARING TO LIFT:

Warm up and stretch prior to starting
Clear the path of any potential hazards
Check the load for sharp objects
Size up the load – if it’s too heavy or awkward seek help

PERFORMING THE LIFT:

Place your feet shoulder width apart
Obtain a proper hold – a diagonal grip is often strongest
Bend your knees and keep your back straight when lifting
Don’t twist your body while handling the load

Always think before you lift. Back injuries can be debilitating, so take care when lifting.

Stop and Think

Staff — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 02:00:14 +0000

Sometimes all it takes to prevent a workplace injury is for us to take a moment to stop…and think.

To further reduce the number of reported safety injuries, we have introduced monthly safety posters with information and reminders on best practice safety measures. We encourage everyone to advance the message of ‘stop and think’. Whether you are working in open areas or in built environments, don’t forget to take care and act responsibly. Below are some tips to do:

BEFORE THE JOB

Observe the work area and surroundings
Plan in steps what you are going to do
Think about what else is happening in the area
Identify what could go wrong
Ensure all hazards are controlled before beginning the task

DURING THE JOB

Don’t go into auto-pilot when performing a routine task
When finishing a job or coming to a natural break (eg: a meal break) re-focus to complete the task safely

It’s getting hot out there!

Staff — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:45:17 +0000

Summer is well and truly here so whether you are working outdoors or in environments with little or no cooling, don’t forget to take care of yourself and act responsibly.

Australia generally experiences more extremes in heat during the January and February months. So how prepared are you to protect yourself from the warm weather?

Too much exposure to the sun can be harmful; you can suffer from sunburn, and increase your chances of developing skin cancer. You are also much more at risk of heat stress and dehydration. Although this is obvious, it is surprising how many people end up sunburnt, dehydrated or heat stressed during summer in Australia.

Prevention:
Avoid over-exposure to the sun’s harmful rays by working in the shade where possible and wear a wide brim hat and suitable protective clothing covering any exposed skin. As weather can be unpredictable, take protective gear with you just in case, even if the day starts out cool.

Also make sure you drink plenty of water to hydrate and always apply SPF 30+ sunscreen regularly even when overcast, as UV rays can be extremely damaging.

Did you know?
The Australian Taxation Office has recognised the importance of sun protection for outdoor workers, with tax deductions available for sunscreen, hats and sunglasses, for more information visit www.ato.gov.au.

Applicants ask, “How long is this going to take?”

Staff — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:10:53 +0000

How many of your prime candidates have found another job by the time you wish to proceed with an interview or offer them a position? One. Two. Three? Too many!

According to an industry survey conducted recently, more than three quarters of prospective employees are discouraged by the lack of communication, feedback and sometimes lengthy recruitment process.
How do you ensure your potential star employee remains engaged throughout the recruitment process and is still eager and available when you wish to make them an offer?

It is imperative that your recruitment processes are above all, timely and efficient. Communicating about the process and time schedule to your applicants is extremely important. Survey results revealed that candidates in some instances have had to wait anywhere between two weeks and two months to be advised if they are successful.

In this current climate with skills shortages becoming more apparent, good candidates often have the luxury of multiple employment options. It is therefore important to ensure that your recruitment processes are clearly defined, provide the best representation of your organisation and secure the interest of appropriate candidates.

“When you delay your potential employee, they will start to feel nervous and conclude that you have found someone else, leading them to take up employment with another company. They might even assume the delay is a reflection on your company’s culture. If this has happens, not only have you missed the boat, you may have to repeat the process all over again,” comments Sean Blanche, General Manager of Bayside Personnel.

Unfortunately candidates pass on negative feedback to their friends and colleagues, often resulting in companies failing to attract the best candidates due to the organisation’s tainted image.

The right employer image
Interviewers with minimal recruitment exposure may unintentionally under sell the role and/or the company. It is important to find an employee to fit your culture by providing an accurate picture of your organisation, but it is equally important to present yourself in the best light. According to the survey, 45% of candidates who withdraw their application do because they dislike the person(s) interviewing them! Utilising a recruitment specialist allows you to keep the candidate engaged and retain their interest in the role through continuity of engagement.

“Historical data shows that businesses who enlist the services of a recruitment specialist experience better retention of employees than those who choose to go it alone,” says Blanche. “This is often a result of an effective recruitment process which retains the best talent and maintains candidate interaction throughout the recruitment process.” Although many companies do this well, often the individual responsible for recruiting has other priorities, resulting in inconsistent communication and timeframes that may differ from candidate expectations.

Bayside Group is equipped with experienced consultants who are well versed in the industry for which they recruit, and are therefore able to partner with clients to effectively meet their business needs. As such we would like to partner with you by offering best practice application management and interview training sessions for your employees, so that they can assist your organisation to reinforce your image.

To submit your expression of interest:
- Email: enquiry@baysidegrp.com.au with the heading Recruitment Training
- State your name, company, title, phone number and email address

Cheer us on at the FOXTEL lap

Administrator — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:19:07 +0000

We are proud supporters of our national charity, October 28 will see us trading our suits for runners in support of a very important cause. Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.Funds raised from the FOXTEL Lap play a vital role in helping the Murdoch Childrens research team find answers to the big child health issues.
What’s it all about?
We’ll be competing against other corporate teams to run as many 100 metre ‘laps’ as we can during the 10 hour challenge, in turn raising as much money as possible for live-saving child health research.

Why are we doing it?
A child’s life is priceless, which is why Murdoch Childrens is dedicated to finding innovative ways to help children live happier, healthier lives.

With your support, Murdoch Childrens can further their research to discover ways to treat and prevent conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, depression and premature birth.

We raised a significance amount last year, and we’re hoping to rise even more this year.

What can you do to help?
We’d love your support – spur us on with a message of encouragement, a donation or both! Every dollar makes a difference and all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Bayside Group | Partnering in the future of people.

Effective salary review management

Administrator — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:18:21 +0000

Salary reviews are one of the most stressful and mismanaged activities on the organisational calendar. With the financial year drawing to a close for Australian companies in particular, many leaders are in overdrive assessing remuneration and implementing recommendations. If badly managed salary reviews de-motivate employees, why do so many organisations get it wrong?
Pam Dew, CEO of the Bayside Group, believes manager avoidance and a lack of training commonly result in poorly managed salary reviews, as do processes that are not transparent. With Australia in the fortunate position of having a relatively strong and stable economy, employee expectations will undoubtedly increase. However, research suggests that monetary rewards alone are far from sufficient to facilitate an engaged workforce.

It is not difficult for employees to indiscriminately find remuneration surveys online, many of which are too general, too narrow or not relevant to a business to lack credibility. This can lead to a perceived lack of parity amongst employees and/or the marketplace. With hype surrounding salaries in skill short areas such as leadership, engineering and mining, it is no wonder that stress levels increase for managers who are generally forced to make recommendations within the confines of allocated budgets.

“As a result, leaders face a constant juggle between employee expectations and organisational financial performance,” says Dew. Nearly every organisation has the same issue – their cost model affects their pricing model. Where fixed cost agreements exist, a company has even less room to negotiate salaries. It is therefore useful to provide credible information to employees to counteract the hype. If you are unable to find credible salary sources, ask your recruiter to help you gain a general understanding of where your organisation sits in comparison to competitors, both in terms of salary package and remuneration structure.

“While many organisations use bonuses and commission based remuneration to ensure costs relate to sales, it is important for salary structures to align with the organisation’s purpose and core values,” explains Dew.

“Commission and bonuses linked to financial performance may create behaviours that benefit the individual rather than the organisation or its customers, which can be detrimental to the ethical integrity of the business.”

Although companies have different approaches to reviewing and remunerating employees, simple considerations can help an organisation and its leaders become more effective.

Organisation	Manager
Establish systems for managing key talent Benchmark salaries against competitors, market and/or industry Provide training to managers Clearly communicate the policy and/or procedure to all employees Career progression planning Ensure the employee value proposition and any additional benefits align with needs	Identify key talent within the team Know the market value of your key talent Provide ongoing feedback on performance, not just at review time Meet with each individual to identify and expectations so they can be managed early Establish an objective based training and development plan Ensure employees align with the value proposition and know how to access any additional benefits

These principles could also be used in working with longer term contractors, as retention is often critical to project deadlines.

“Whether an organisation has stringent or informal salary review processes, leaders should take responsibility for effective communication and planning to achieve better outcomes,” says Dew.

Making a good impression in interviews

Administrator — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:17:47 +0000

Few people attend job interviews without a specific objective in mind. In the workplace, if we wish to meet our objectives we will work to understand them and plan accordingly. These same basic principles should apply to job interviews; yet too often they do not.

Bayside Group Chief Executive Office, Pam Dew, has twenty five years experience in the recruitment industry as a consultant, trainer and manager. “Understanding selection criteria and effectively preparing for an interview is critical to making a good impression,” explains Dew.

Preparation

Preparation may seem like obvious advice, yet it is surprising how few people attend interviews fully prepared. As most interviewers will expect you to know about their organisation, it is useful to research the company, their history, values, future strategies and market position.

Furthermore, reviewing your strengths in relation to the selection criteria and listing specific examples to demonstrate them will enable you to more effectively answer a range of questions. However, an interview works both ways and provides you with the opportunity to gather as much information as possible in order to make an informed decision.

“While the interviewer is making their assessment, you should be determining your interest in the role, the organisation and how it fits with your career goals,” says Dew.

Here are questions you might ask:

What does a standard day in this role involve?
Ideally what skills/attributes are you looking for in the successful applicant?
Where is the organisation heading over the next 12 months?
What is the next step in the recruitment process?

Understanding the selection criteria

It is important to understand the recruitment criteria and identify what employers are actually looking for. Behavioural questions are commonly used by interviewers to gain well rounded information. They require you to draw on past experiences and provide specific examples in order to demonstrate key competencies and attributes.

“Many candidates will explain their experience, but fail to take this opportunity to promote their specific strengths through examples of behaviours and achievements,” says Dew.

Figure 1 illustrates examples of common behavioural questions in relation to competencies and attributes.

Figure 1

Competencies & Attributes	Example
Initiative	Provide examples of ideas and suggestions you have put forward to make your job easier, more enjoyable or more effective?
Interpersonal Skills	Describe a situation where you wished you had acted differently with someone. What did you do? What happened?
Planning and Organising	Tell me about a time when you faced conflicting priorities. How did you determine the top priority?
Rapport Building	If I asked (peers / managers/customers) to describe their relationship with you, what do you think they would say? Can you give me an example that would depict this?
Teamwork	Can you recall a time where there were issues or strong disagreement among your team members? Describe the circumstances? What did you do? How did you feel? What was the outcome?

For further information, request a copy of the Bayside Group’s Interview Guide by emailing enquiry@baysidegrp.com.au .

Local Lifeblood

Administrator — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:13:49 +0000

What a time to write about high achievers in the Australian wine industry. With record low grape prices, an oversupplied market and slumping demand for Aussie wine worldwide, in recent month’s success stories have become harder to find than a perfectly cellared bottle of ‘72 Grange.

Yet, among the fruit left hanging on the vine and warehouses full of unsold vintages, CozWine stands tall as a beacon of optimism in an otherwise gloomy market.

As the industry’s leading recruitment agency CozWine operates at the coalface of business, placing permanent, part-time and contract staff into roles in Australia’s best wine regions.

“All the market signs should suggest slowing employment,” says CozWine national manager, Steve Oliver, from the organisation’s Barossa office.

“Yet, our experience over the last six months is telling us the exact opposite. We are busier than ever placing all manner of staff-from winemakers and engineers, to cellar hands and bottling line attendants- into newly created positions.”

Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in the Barossa, where against all odds the region continues to record above average State levels of labour force participation rates and is bucking trends to remain at below average levels of unemployment.

“Our information definitely supports this,” says Steve. “The Barossa is riding this wave of uncertainty relatively well.

“Businesses want to ensure they are employing the right person the first time round, particularly when the purse strings are tighter. Employment decisions become the one percenters that can make a real difference to an organisation’s success. Our role is to take the guess-work out of recruitment-for both job seekers and employers.”

More than playing matchmaker though, the CozWine commitment builds communities.

“Healthy employment is the lifeblood of any community,” says Steve. “If you’ve got people working it can completely transform an area-with it comes economic stability and growth.

“Imagine the Barossa with a high unemployment rate. Of course there are the demoralising individual effects-loss of income, struggling to make ends meet, depression-but the broader implications are devastating.

“As one of the largest recruitment firms in the region, we definitely contribute to community stability which brings with it a raft of positive effects for social wellbeing.

We are one of the cogs that keeps the Barossa turning and it is amazing to be a part of this region’s success.”

But success, Steve cautions, doesn’t happen over night.

“Like any business, you have to operate with integrity and reliability. It’s about building sustainable relationships,” he advises.

“We have recently been awarded new supply contracts in South Australia and New South Wales, but it wasn’t an overnight achievement. The team worked for the best part of 18 months to form a strong partnership with the clients.”

Does Steve see CozWine as a shining light, helping to lead the bleary-eyed wine industry out of its current darkness?

“A recruiter’s role is always pivotal to a winery’s success, tough times or not,” he says. “There is a constant need to ensure the right people are in the right jobs because that’s how we build our communities.”

This article appeared in Barossa Living Magazine – Summer 2009-10 edition.

APESMA Alliance

Administrator — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:13:11 +0000

Bayside Group and APESMA (Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia) are excited to announce a strategic partnership that aims to offer greater career opportunities and support to APESMA members.

Under this agreement, the Bayside Group has replaced ETM as APESMA’s national recruitment arm. Bayside Group was selected to offer specialist recruitment services to APESMA’s 30,000 members, who include engineers, science, I.T. and management professionals.

The APESMA strategic partnership aligns with the Bayside Group’s vision of ‘partnering in the future of people’. With our specialist recruitment team working closely with APESMA to support members, we aim to expand our capability for sourcing technical talent.

John Wilson, Director of the Bayside Group, says, “This is a great opportunity for the Bayside Group to work together with APESMA to ensure the future needs of our clients and jobseekers are met, particularly given the scarcity of technical skills in Australia.”

As a leading engineering, scientific and technical recruiter, the Bayside Group will provide opportunities to APESMA members through many of Australia’s premier organisations and projects. Bayside Group also services major engineering clients in the Middle East, for members who are interested in international experiences.

Key benefits of the agreement for both Bayside Group and APESMA include:

An increased network of technical professionals
Enhanced recruitment team to service client requirements
Greater access to market information
Ability to offer enhanced career services

For further information on how you can benefit, click here to email.