When a job seeker attains employment after a prolonged period of searching they are presented with a wide range of positives. Many job seekers spend extended periods of time in search of the employment that best suits their skills and their circumstance. After a certain amount of time job seekers may even become discouraged in their search for employment.

One of the many positives that a job seeker will experience when gaining employment is a sense of victory and accomplishment. This comes from the hard work that went into creating and sending their resume to potential employers, waiting for the call back, attending the interview (which we all know can be a bit nerve racking) and then once again waiting to be contacted. As we all know looking for employment can be a difficult, time consuming and stressful process, when this results in achieving employment you begin to focus on the benefits that came out of the search rather than the obstacles that you faced.

Gaining employment is not only a great encouragement, but job seekers are presented with a better standard of living; financially, socially and in obtaining life goals.

Financially – Obviously the financial stress of being unemployed is lifted even for those who have gained employment in a low income position. Bills are able to be payed, debts dealt with and general household needs can be met.

Socially – Entering into new employment also brings new people into your world allowing you to broaden your relationships. It is a great opportunity to get to know new people and develop social and communication skills.

Long term goals met – Everyone has goals set, whether it be travelling, buying a new car, a new house, or even just saving money for emergencies, having an income stream allows these goals to become a reality in the lives of now employed job seekers. Goals that seemed so far away now seem closer and happiness is experienced through the thought of reaching long term goals.

Although gaining employment has many more rewards such as; not being at home all day and not having to worry about providing for the family; presented are just a few of the advantages a job seeker receives after gaining, full time, part time or even casual work.

By Geoff Kelly

Employment Services Manager – Inspire Community Services

The Challenge

Ask any leader or manager of an organisation what the cost of poor communication is in their company and you will get a variety of responses; wasted resource, conflict and tension amongst staff, lost customers, poor productivity, low morale and much more. Each of these factors are an important consideration for today’s manager. Expecting members of our teams to have the ability to effectively communicate without additional training is an unreasonable expectation. From a young age we are ingrained with thinking and communicating the ‘me first’. How do I get acceptance? How do I get my needs met? How can I get the person to see my point of view? I just want to be understood. Although these statements are not directly communicated they are often the underlying motive beneath our attempts at communicating with someone.

People are eager to have greater effectiveness in the way they communicate with their work colleagues, their family and their friends. There is great benefit in having a workplace that promotes clear communication between co-workers and between staff and the customers. When needs are clearly identified and met there is a significant increase in customer and job satisfaction and subsequently increased productivity from employees. When a customer or staff member feels understood and validated they are more willing to listen to your perspective as the manager or supplier. When conflict does arise, there is an underlying value and respect for each other, allowing the root cause of the conflict to be identified and resolved. Here are some key questions that you can ask in order to determine how free communication is in your organisation:

· Do we understand and meet the needs of our customers/clients?

· Do we understand and meet the needs of our staff?

· Do our staff as individuals understand the importance of the other staff members?

· When conflict arises, how does our staff deal with it?

How Do Personality Differences Restrict Communication?

One of the most common and easily resolved barriers to communication is differences in personality. Let me explain: Imagine you are a manager of two individuals, one of whom is a natural introvert and one of whom is a natural extravert. Both are required to work together in order to come to a decision. The extravert thinks aloud and asks many questions while coming to their conclusion. She is vocal about the options before her and moves at a rapid pace through the options. The introvert analyses the options internally and he needs some talk-free time to properly process the information that has been given to him. Although a wise decision will benefit both parties the conflict that arises from differing communication and information processing styles can lead to a stalemate. No decision is made and both parties are offended at the other. The extravert believes that the introvert is ‘withholding’ or ‘not engaged,’ while the introvert labels the extravert as ‘invasive’ or ‘overbearing.’ All this happens with each party believing the other is missing the point. The challenge here is not that either party is wrong in the way they go about decision making; it is just that they are both going into the process with only an understanding of their own point of view. They expect the other party to function the same way they do.

With an understanding of personality differences and training of how to communicate ‘out of preference,’ both the introvert and the extravert can appreciate and value their differences instead of allowing them to be a cause of conflict. Through mutual consideration they can combine their skills to reach a more informed decision than if either of them had tried to decide alone.

How Does Knowledge Of Personality Differences Benefit My Workplace?

A personality indicator such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) identifies important differences in communication style, information gathering and giving, and the process individuals use to reach a decision. Undertaking training in an MBTI® or a similar personality tool can be of great benefit as it helps us to understand our own natural preferences as well as the preferences of other personality types. It gives us an insight into how individuals different to ourselves operate. Recognising these differences in personality type can be beneficial as it tends to depersonalise conflicts. Conflict is much easier to resolve when the parties involved are willing to implement the constructive use of differences. When the differences in communication style are correctly recognised and developed, people in the workplace better understand each other and are often able to clarify misunderstandings that they experience with personality types that are different to themselves.

Is There An Inappropriate Use Of Personality Differences?

It is also important to recognise the limitations of personality studies in communication and conflict resolution. If only one party in a conflict talks in terms of personality and the other does not there is a danger of stereotyping the other’s behaviour to ‘explain away,’ their perspective. By stereotyping the person by their type, the conflicted party is essentially being invalidated in their emotions and perspective on the issue. “That’s what all ENFPs do…” “You are such and ISTJ…” If the MBTI® cannot be used to discover a common ground or to constructively identify differences by both parties, it should not be used at all.

Another misuse of the tools like the MBTI® is that they can be used in the selection of individuals for job or team positions. Personality indicators are designed to assist people in identifying their psychological type preferences. What they cannot do however is determine how well an individual uses different aspects of their personality; an individual may be very good at undertaking a specific task even though they would naturally prefer something different. Just because I don’t naturally like talking to lots of people does not mean I can never learn the skills.

Understanding Builds Trust

From interpersonal relationships to the workplace, having a growing understanding of ourselves and others is vital in the development and growth of healthy relationships between human beings. Using tools such as the MBTI® to increase our understanding is an easy and necessary step in the right direction. With a willingness to understand people different to ourselves, we are opening the door for communication to flow, for understanding to take place and for an atmosphere of trust and mutual appreciation to be prevalent in our workplace and personal relationships.

By Adam Boyes

Training Services Manager

Inspire Community Services

We all know the pressure facing all Australians in this current economic climate. With the increase in petrol prices, groceries and just about everything else, we are being forced to watch where every cent goes. This maybe something new for some, but for the residence of Western Sydney who have been tightening their belts for at least the past two years, there is nothing left to give.

The signs of financial stress were evident in 2006. A study commissioned by Wesley Mission, found that ‘one in every seven households in Sydney’s west where on the edge of insolvency. Fifteen percent of the 400 families surveyed, couldn’t cope with an extra payment of $40 per month.”

Since these findings, we have seen several interest rate rises and the extra $40 per month that families couldn’t cope with, for some has turned into $40 per week.

The Reserve Bank’s Financial Stability Review in March 2007 stated that ‘While the overall picture suggests that, in aggregate, the household sector is coping well with the higher levels of debt and interest servicing, there are some limited pockets where financial stress is evident. Areas of western Sydney, in particular, look to have been adversely affected by the fall in residential property prices, with a disproportionate number of households in this area taking out loans with high loan-to-valuation and debt-servicing ratios near the peak of the house price boom.’

With the Reserve Bank specifically mentioning western Sydney as an area suffering financial stress, this has caused the NSW Parliament to sit up provide assistance to those on the front line. Community organizations were encouraged by Premier Morris Iemma’s injection of a further $1 million to the financial counselling sector. This will enable more clients to be assisted free of charge and cut back on waiting lists for services.

In May this year the Parliament of NSW addressed the issue of Mortgage stress. Mr Allan Shearan (Londonderry) brought the following to the attention of Parliament, ‘‘According to Fujitsu Consulting, an organisation that measures mortgage stress on a regular basis, such stress particularly affects young growing families and mainstream suburban families. I need not tell the House that Western Sydney is especially vulnerable in this regard. In February, 46.53 per cent of all New South Wales writs in possession issued by the Sheriff’s Office were for homes in the Western Sydney area. Blacktown is hardest hit, closely followed by Fairfield, Bankstown, Liverpool and Auburn. While Western Sydney constitutes one-quarter of the State’s population, it accounts for almost half of all the writs in possession.”

These figures clearly outline that homeowners need to be educated on their options with regards to financial matters. Many people have never heard of the Consumer Credit Code, which enables people suffering hardship to renegotiate the terms of their contract. If they are unable to reach an agreement with their credit provider they can then seek assistance from the Office of Fair Trading.

Most people don’t think of seeking assistance until they are in arrears by two or three months. By that time, they have incurred several fees and charges and have made payment plans they cannot keep.

The key to financial difficulty is not to push it into the too hard basket, but to seek assistance as early as possible.

Free Financial Counsellors operate throughout the western suburbs through various community organisations. The Consumer Credit Legal Centre can also be contacted for free legal advice.

By Jodie Lewis

Financial Services Manager

Inspire Community Services

There has been much debate over the past decade on the advantages and disadvantages of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), What is Corporate Responsibility its place in business and value to general society, particularly in light of the James Hardy asbestos claims and the heightened exposure to global warming.

As the Managing Director of a medium-sized Community Services Organisation that gains the majority of its funding from the Local, State and Federal Governments, we understand the importance of CSR to our organisation as well as to your community and your business.

The importance to your business:

Enhances Branding

Increases brand reputation and image

Increases community trust and desire for a product or service associated with a higher cause

Improves customer loyalty

Increases employee loyalty, commitment and morale

Improves culture within the organisation

Tax

Advantages by reducing your tax liability, both business and personal

Personal significance

Feeling of making a difference

Significance rather that just success

Increases Satisfaction

Do good

Success

Builds your business and long term success

A strategic approach to support

Stops those annoying phone calls that ask for donations

The importance to your community:

Creates sustainability and community growth

Develops a better social fabric and ethical basis in which to do business

Creates a better community to live, work and learn

The importance to our organisation:

Allows us to do what we do

Allows the specialist to do what they do.

Sets us up to be more effective

Allows the community organisations to focus on their task

Corporate Social Responsibility is about a commitment to the community in which a business operates. CSR is an important contributor to long-term business success and should be viewed in a strategic business sense rather than with a “feel-good” approach.

While corporate philanthropy for its own sake has a place, a well-defined and effective CSR campaign identifies and addresses issues that impact on both the company and the wider community. Give to the community that gives to you makes good sense.

Just as strong families create strong communities, strong communities create a strong business environment which, in turn, helps create a strong nation. CSR is the responsibility of all corporate Australia, including medium and small local business and it extends to each individual within our society. To achieve a broad and long term effect in creating a better community and business environment, partnering and balance are the keys.

CSR is definitely a friend and all round nice guy

Find out more about CSR

Mike Meyer

Managing Director

Inspire Community Services

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