“A Coffee with Palmerston North Personnel” a short and sweet series of coffee meetings with Manawatu Business Managers / Owners and Palmerston North Personnel. 

Today we are glad to interview Gary Taylor from Gary Tayler Limited – you can find them online at http://www.garytayler.co.nz/ 

Who are Gary Tayler Limited? Where are you based?

Gary Tayler Limited is a family business who specialises in Employment Law and based in Onekawa – Napier.

We service clients from Invercargill right through to Auckland…and that includes Palmerston North which is Palmerston North Personnel’s territory too.

What does your business do? What makes it successful?

We are Employment Law and Relationship Specialists. We connect with businesses in an advisory capacity. Our core market is the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) market – the sort of business that is typically too small to justify employing a Human Resources/Employment Relations Manager  but big enough to be exposed to Employment Relationship risks.

We are successful in our market as we complement business managers by supplying them with specialist Employment Law advice on best and fairest practise in areas like:

• Recruiting
• Employment agreements
• Employment rights and obligations
• Mediation hearings
• Employment Relations Authority hearings
• Employment Court Disputes
• Dispute Prevention and Resolution

As Gary is an ex Department of Labour mediator and with more than 20 years of experience we can be the affordable Employment Relations Specialists who are not on the employee payroll. We tailor our costs to suit the business’ needs; considering the complexity of the work required and the volume.

What industry sectors do you work with or in? Do you specialise?

We work with all types businesses within the private sector. 

Really, we work on best practise processes and procedures that cross industries and sectors so we are not bound by location or business type.

We see you have Covert Surveillance Products and Services on your “product suite” – is this an emerging niche market? I guess privacy laws become an issue with these tools. What advice/recommendations do you give employers in using these tools?

Our son Adrian’s business, “Third Eye Ltd.” focuses on the sale or hire of surveillance products and installation/monitoring services – and naturally there are some synergies there for our clients.

This technology is being used in quite large businesses right through to private homes. There is nothing more powerful than undisputed facts and where an employee is caught on camera committing serious misconduct, a dismissal that might follow, is unlikely to result in any claim for unjustified dismissal. It is a great cost saver for employers.

The surveillance technology is just amazing with Infra-Red, Motion Detection and real time broadcasting of video right through to your cellphone … even cameras that detect motion behind them and turn around to capture that activity.

Adrian, who has a private investigators license, manages and advises the clients on technology, camera placements and safe guidelines – the general rule of thumb is to place them in “public areas” and not in private spaces like toilets.

How does your business work with clients and over what timeframes? How do you work with Manawatu businesses?

Technology is really our friend in today’s world – Gary Tayler Limited work predominantly by phone and email to service clients nationally. With mobile phones and laptops we can run a truly seamless service from the office, home and at short notice. While we prefer to meet our clients it is not always essential as we can send and receive correspondence by email and if absolutely crucial we can courier physical documents.

Our core speciality is dispute prevention and resolution - avoiding Court unless the parties’ understandings of legislation / guidelines are very different.

We only appear in the ERA or the Court 2 or 3 times in a year – I think that shows our approach to prevention of disputes really works.

We also engage with clients a number of ways:

• Some engage us on an hourly rate for occasional intermittent queries
• Large numbers engage on a case by case basis
• Some of our clients have an annual contract with an annual review to have the ability to plan expenses, budget effectively and manage their Employment Law risk effectively without the worry of receiving a bill each time they engage us.

Palmerston North Personnel work with great Manawatu employers who assist their employees with Outplacement Services to make effective transition through redundancies and restructures.

What services or support does Gary Tayler Limited provide employers in these areas?

We work with our clients to guide them through a fair redundancy process and that often means we suggest using agencies for outplacement services.

It is good practise to preserve the dignity of affected employees and get respect from them – because it’s important that they be part of the discussion process.

The Manawatu market has lot of Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and often they don’t have an HR or Employment Law Specialist in their team. To meet recent legal requirements, Palmerston North Personnel ensure our clients provide an agreement for sign-off prior to employees commencing.

What comments or observations do you have in this area?

That is exactly what you should do and it’s good to hear you are driving your clients to this.

Sections 63A, 64 & 65 of the Employment Relations Act requires:

All terms of employment must be in writing and signed

• Contracts are to be made available for labour inspectors upon demand whether signed or not.
• Employment agreements must signed by employees and employers
• 90 day trial are invalid unless the agreements are provided to the employee, who has then been given at least 3 days (sometimes more) to consider the offer and they have signed, before the employee commences employment.
• Employees have the right to seek advice before signing and must be given a reasonable opportunity to raise any issue about the terms on offer.
• Labour inspectors can seek penalties from employers who don’t have written agreements and don’t provide them upon request.
• Employees can choose which parts of the agreement they agree with and those they don’t agree to if the agreement hasn’t been signed

The simple guideline is follow Palmerston North Personnel recommendations to get clients to have their agreements signed and keep them on file.

When should an individual or employer talk to Gary Tayler Limited?

There is a saying that seems to fit the bill here

“If what you are doing feels right it probably is, if what you are doing doesn’t fell right, it probably isn’t and if you are not sure then ring Gary Tayler Limited first”

 

If employers or employees engage an Employment Law Specialist – what recommendations would you have for them? What should they look for?

Look to work with a practitioner who has dispute resolution skills and experience. Especially look for early intervention skills and a sound knowledge of employment law.

Many of our clients are referred by other clients – which helps. We encourage the clients to meet us or talk to us to get a feeling of how we engage with them and if they feel we can work together successfully.

Do all employment disputes end up in employment court – what alternatives are there if any?

No, the way we approach situations is to resolve disputes and/or mediate and to not end up in the Employment Court.

Some little known statistics:

• 90% +/- of the 1000’s of disputes are mediated and resolved
• 10% +/- are largely dealt with by the Employment Resolution Authority  (ERA)
• Approximately 50 cases per annum make it to Employment Court
• There is also a number of disputes that are resolved without any third party intervention

 I think this shows the intention of the legislation is for the parties to resolve and mediate disputes rather than have the Employment Court rule on them, is working.

In Summary:

It was an interesting “virtual meeting” with Gary Tayler, very good to hear Palmerston North Personnel are using sound practise in getting our clients (YOU) to sign employment agreements before new employees start. And secondly, Gary Tayler’s emphasis on mediation and resolution, rather than heading towards an adversarial “employment war”. 

It was also pleasing to interview an Employment Law Specialist who clarified the intention of New Zealand legislation is encourage peaceful resolution between employers and employees and that the legal framework appears to work well.

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, “I’ll give each of you just one wish.

“Me first! Me first!” says the admin clerk. “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.”

Puff! She’s gone.

“Me next! Me next!” says the sales rep. “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.”

Puff! He’s gone.

“OK, you’re up,” the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, ”I want those two back in the office after lunch.” 

(click the next page to see what the lesson is)

]]> http://blog.pnpersonnel.co.nz/a-free-management-lesson/feed/ 0 http://blog.pnpersonnel.co.nz/when-was-the-last-time-you-thanked-your-team-or-clients/ http://blog.pnpersonnel.co.nz/when-was-the-last-time-you-thanked-your-team-or-clients/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:49:57 +0000 Palmerston North Personnel http://blog.pnpersonnel.co.nz/?p=420  Let’s be fair – not all roles in our businesses are glamorous and exciting . And not all roles are as bad as the image to the left! And there are a number of thankless tasks done by great people who do a great job for us.

 On the way to the office this morning I was struck with the thought – through April 2012 we are managing a number of short working weeks, Easter, school holidays, ANZAC day (which is also Admin Professionals Day) and we are still  maintaining full output! This can be a thankless task.

 How do we (you) manage to be fully productive when there are reduced working days?

The short answer is – we rely on our people to be hard working, organised and committed. Especially when performing business critical functions.

In the case of Palmerston North Personnel we work with Clients, Employees, Contractors and Temporary Employees who expect us to meet our statutory obligations to payroll on time and invoice accurately. Funny That!

During April 2012 New Zealand enjoys Easter as a statutory break and celebration which means Good Friday and Easter Monday are Statutory breaks. During these short weeks we ran a full payroll and invoicing cycle so our clients receive their accurate invoices on time and our fantastic pool of “Temps”, Contractors and employees get their correct pay in the bank – on time.

To make this happen we forward plan, we involve the internal team and communicate to our clients about our systems to manage business as usual.

• The Temporary Solutions Team – Cushla and Christine – communicate with clients and manage the receipt of completed timesheets 
• The Administration Team – Lou and Jo – check, and process the payroll (in this case in one business day rather than two), and this for our business generates our invoices 
• The Permanent Solutions Team – Annabel and Kelly manage overflow and support the team on an Ad-hoc cycle

THANK YOU

• Our fantastic clients who make sure all the “Temps” have authorised timesheets and communicate well ahead of the breaks.
• Our “Temps” who make sure they got their timesheets in for processing 
• The Temporary Solutions Team for managing a busy workload in less hours and who managed our Easter Temp Draw – see it on our facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/pnpersonnel
• The Permanent Solutions Team for driving your workloads and team spirit
• Lou our new Service Coordinator who is doing fantastically well

AND Thanks to Jo our Administration Manager

Jo, our Administration Manager, who managed payroll and invoicing in short timeframes …without a hitch! I enjoy paying my mortgage on time and having statutory breaks without wondering if my pay is in the bank account.

And this year Jo also doubled as our internal Easter Bunny – as if she didn’t have enough to do!

Have you remembered to thank your team and your clients?

Have you ever thanked the person who manages to your regular Pay? If you haven’t …maybe Admin Professionals day on 25 April 2012 is a great day to do it?

“A Coffee with Palmerston North Personnel” a short and sweet series of coffee meetings with Manawatu Business Managers / Owners and Palmerston North Personnel. 

Today we are glad to meet Dave Craig the Marketing Manager at the BCC and drill down into the coolest competition in town Innovate Manawatu 2012.

What is your role at the BCC?

I’m the Marketing Manager at the BCC. 

My role is to oversee all marketing channels here including communications, website, social media and facilities.  I also oversee the Innovate Manawatu campaign. See it here at http://www.innovatemanawatu.co.nz

Last year saw the inaugural Innovate Manawatu Competition and now Innovate Manawatu 2012 is happening – tell me more about the differences from Innovate Manawatu 2011?

Yes – Innovate Manawatu is a great success story.  Last year’s competition was fantastic and in order to make it work better this year, we’ve re-tooled the process.  ANZ has come on board as our corporate sponsor which gives our Manawatu start-up businesses a real international advantage.  Our partnership means we’ll be able to give Manawatu businesses access to significant international contacts and expertise.  Connections play a big part in the ultimate success of business and having access to ANZ’s huge international networks could help our local entrepreneurs become world leaders.

We have more prizes to give away as well.  The pool is over $40,000 and everyone that enters goes into the draw for a new iPad.  Each finalist gets $1,000 cash as well as entry into the BCC Market Validation programme.  And, if you are lucky enough to win, you get $10,000 cash and the opportunity to pitch your idea to our angel investors.

There is also a youth award this year worth $1,000 cash.  This goes to the best entrant aged 21 or younger. 

So, things are massively different.

I see there are business partners and commercial partners…who are they and where do they fit in?

This year, we have a fantastic assortment of companies that joined our already strong contingent.  From the top they include –

• The BCC, of course 
• Palmerston North City Council 

• ANZ
• The Radio Network
• Manawatu Standard
• Massey University
• Jumprope 

• Manawatu District Council
• Fitzherbert Rowe
• Morrison Creed
• AJ Park
• UCOL
• Studio Madfish 

• Brendan Lodge Photograhy
• Skyline Buildings
• Bacbou Billboards
• Joe’s Garage

Each of our partners brings their own bit of speciality to Innovate.  If I am being honest and was setting up a company today and knew I had these folks behind me, I would feel very, very, very confident (I am sure I could say very a few more times to get my point across!)

 What are the challenges to making Innovate Manawatu 2012 a success?

The biggest challenge we have is making sure everyone knows about Innovate Manawatu.  In marketing, there’s an old adage – it’s called the Rule of Seven.  Just quickly – it’s getting your message in front of someone 7 times before they engage. 

With technology today that makes our job a bit easier and also much more difficult.  Our goal this year is to make sure most people in the Manawatu have heard about Innovate.  We do this using traditional mediums like radio and the newspaper and new technology like Twitter and Facebook.  I know we can get our idea in front of you 7 times – the trick with it is, will you remember?  And, that’s a massive challenge that makes my day tick!

How does The BCC work with the Innovate Entrants?

Initially, we are here to help guide you through the entry process.  Once the competition closes, we will select the top 30 ideas and give each idea valuable feedback.  From these 30, we’ll select the top 10 ideas which will then be put through our Market Validation programme here at the BCC.  That’s $25,000 worth of investment from us!

If someone enters Innovate Manawatu – how do they protect their Intellectual Property (IP)?

Remember – there is a ton of information you can talk about in regards to your idea without giving away the “meat and potatoes.” 

That being said, the only people that see your idea from entry to the pitch are the folks that work at the BCC and our judging panel – all who are covered by our strict confidentiality agreement.

Why do The BCC run Innovate Manawatu?

The BCC created Innovate Manawatu to harness and celebrate innovation here in the Manawatu.  It’s a natural fit that the BCC runs Innovate as the team here consists of some of the best business brains around Palmerston North.

What advice can you give any entrants that might help them succeed?

I’ve run a small business for 10 years – gone through the hard yards to get it to a spot that I was proud of.  The biggest chunk of advice that I can give to all of our entrants is if you are comfortable with your idea or what you are doing, it’s time to step it up a notch. 

Comfortable is not successful – it’s just comfortable.

As the newest kid on the block at The BCC – what is your impression on the amount of innovation happening in Manawatu?

It blows me a way to be quite honest.  I always knew we lived in a pretty smart community but seeing what comes through the pipeline at the BCC and working with some very bright folks adds a ton of intrigue to who we have living here in Palmerston North.  I’ve always been the type of guy that sits down next to a stranger and wonders what their story is.  Are they a pilot, a brain surgeon or the next winner of Innovate!? 

It cements the fact that we have the highest IQ in New Zealand living right here in Palmerston North.

How many entries so far? What is the calibre of entries like and are there any hot trends in the competition?

110 as of today.  We are getting about 4 entries a day – compared to just under 2 last year. 

The calibre of ideas is fantastic and in regards to trends and the ideas that are flowing in, all I can say is stay tuned. 

Keep up to speed with the competition on our website – www.innovatemanawatu.co.nz, through Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/innovatemanawatu and on Twitter – @innovatemanawat or http://twitter.com/innovatemanawt 

In summary:

Dave is an inspiring marketer who is working for an awesome business that run a fantastic competition in manawatu to celebrate great ideas, innovative ideas!  The BCC is also a commercialisation hub …this is a match made in Innovation Heaven! When innovators and commercialisation specialists get together – high growth business happens!

Innovate Manawtu has to be good for the competitors, great for the Manawatu region and New Zealand!

Get behind it Manawatu!

We think www.innovatemanawatu.co.nz deserves a THUMBS UP!

“A Coffee with Palmerston North Personnel” a short and sweet series of coffee meetings with Manawatu Business Managers / Owners and Palmerston North Personnel. 

Today we are glad to meet Sarah Yee and clarify some of the mystery behind Psychology, the tools in use and its relevance to Recruiting in Manawatu.

Sarah Yee  Organisational  Psychologist from OPRA GROUP.

Who are OPRA?

OPRA is a specialist team of organisational psychologists and consultants. We have offices in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch. You can see us online at www.opragroup.com. You can also read Sarah’s blogs at http://oprablog.wordpress.com/author/sarahyee/

What does your business do? How do you do it?

We are probably most well-known as a provider of psychometric assessments – just like those used by Palmerston North Personnel. Click Here to see those tools.   What some people aren’t aware of is that our work is much broader than just psychometric assessments. We also provide HR consulting, surveying (e.g. 360 feedback, culture and exit), training, and development services. We work in partnership with our clients to provide expert advice and human resource solutions that are both practical and supported by research. 

What is your role as an Organisational Psychologist?

Organisational Psychology focuses on better understanding organisations and how they work, so that we can identify ways to improve performance and the wellbeing of employees. We look at all stages of the employee life cycle, and help organisations to recruit and select the right people, enhance employee performance, and understand/improve their culture to perform better as a whole.

What are psychometrics?

Psychometric literally translates to measurement of the mind (psycho = mind, metric = measurement). Psychometric assessments are a standardised way of looking at an individual’s mental ability and their personal preferences. 

What is the relevance of Psychometrics when recruiting staff? Why should Manawatu businesses use Psychometric Services?

Psychometrics are extremely useful in selection and development because they provide us with an objective way of identifying someone’s potential and likely performance, to determine whether or not they are a good fit with a particular role.

I guess if I had to make a statement here it would be that rather than Manawatu Businesses seeing psychometrics exclusively in recruitment and decision making – I would like businesses to see Psychometrics as strategic tools for people management and development. Beyond selection, they also provide valuable information that can be used to manage and motivate employees, identify potential for career progression, increase self awareness to facilitate team development and communication, and understand what differentiates between high and low performers. 

Palmerston North Personnel provide OPRA Psychometric Services to our clients through Claire Frame our internal Psychometric expert – our clients find the current profiles and reports very useful and helpful. 

What are the most regular or frequently used psychometric assessments? Are they used exclusively for executive placements – how are they being used most effectively?

The assessments we would see used most often would be ability assessments and general personality assessments. But there are also many specialist assessments available, like the occupational interests assessment that Claire uses for career coaching and outplacement. 

Psychometric assessments can be used for executive placements and they often are, but definitely not exclusively.  Our clients use them at all levels. In terms of being used most effectively, it is great to see some of our clients linking personal preferences back to their competency models and values, using profiles to help develop interview and reference checking questions, and as a way of understanding how to best manage new employees and keep them engaged.

OPRA itself is a consultancy service – how much impact do your staff have on your business?  What assessments do your staff go through and why those assessments?

Our staff are key to our business. We all have a background in Organisational Psychology, so we share the same passion for what we do.  Team work is really important to us so we work very hard at that. We do regular culture surveys and 360 degree feedback as a team, to ensure we are all on the same page and that we make the most out of each individual’s strengths.  We also put ourselves through psychometric assessments for our own learning and development. For example, in the Wellington office recently, we talked through our personality profiles as a team so we can better understand how each of us prefers to work!

How can you see Palmerston North Personnel (in partnership with OPRA) adding the most value to our Manawatu Businesses?

As a professional personnel consultancy who use OPRA tools we know you are already adding value to clients… although I was surprised how diverse your business is in Manawatu. We often find that adding Psychometric Assessments to recruitment and selection adds another layer to decision making and shows employers a well-rounded view of an employee. This layering of information with CV’s, professional interviewing, psychometrics, references, background checking, and skills assessments provide  an in-depth understanding of a job applicant. By including objective measures like Psychometric Assessments, Palmerston North Personnel also add an impartial measure for clients to fully validate the shortlisted applicants against Palmerston North Personnel’s  recommendations.

What recommendations or advice would you have for anyone using Psychometric Assessments?

The best advice I could give to candidates completing Psychometric Assessments is to remember that it is just one part of the process, and give it your best shot. Don’t be alarmed if you walk away feeling as though it was tough – they aren’t designed to be easy! Have a look at the practice questions and make sure you get a decent sleep the night before so that you can complete the assessments being as fresh as possible. Most of all, be honest with yourself.  Remember that personality assessments are about fit, they help match people to the right role, there are no right or wrong answers!

For organisations using Psychometric Assessments, make sure that candidates are aware they will be completing an assessment and why, this can help to minimise candidate anxiety. Seek advice from local providers like Palmerston North Personnel, with in-house experts like Claire Frame to help you identify which assessments will work best for your organisation.

What are the trends in Psychometrics… are there any advancements or new initiatives we should know about?

Psychometric Assessments are such a valuable tool and I think that we will see more and more organisations recognising this over time. I think that one the most likely advancements will be the increased use of Adaptive Testing. 

Adaptive Assessments tailor the questions to the candidate’s level, as questions are selected from a large pool of questions, based on previous responses.  Adaptive Assessments allow you to assess ability with a high degree of accuracy in a short space of time, and improve the candidate experience because respondents are not continually presented with questions that are too easy or too difficult for them.

I also think that with the convenience of remote testing and as more people see the benefits of psychometrics, we are likely to see online testing capability improve.

In Summary:

Sarah Yee was very interesting to meet and the topic was fascinating, we discussed the broader use of psychometrics and it was obvious that Sarah is passionate about the insights to be drawn from Psychomotrics, 360 degree surveys and developmental tools.
And it was especially pleasing to see that Sarah endorsed the quality and depth of Claire Frame’s work with the OPRA tools – you can see the range of the tools Palmerston North Personnel support  RIGHT HERE

We have seen Manawatu businesses surprise at the affordabilty, depth and quality of our psychometric assessments. Interestingly when applicants get their feedback they are surpised at the depth of understanding too -with a regular comment being “…that’s exactly me…”

I think its fair to say Psychometric Assessments with quality analysis and a full recruitment process add an extra layer of credibility and clarity when trying to make the best decision about how to hire and manage quality employees in Manawatu.   It seems there is extra value to be had in using them to develop and retain employees too.

The Venue:

Sarah was up from Wellington so we took the opportunity to interview Sarah at Palmerston North Personnel  53 Princess Street, Palmerston North. So naturally the coffee was sensational.

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“A Coffee with Palmerston North Personnel” a short and sweet series of coffee meetings with Manawatu Business Managers / Owners and Palmerston North Personnel.

A Coffee with Hamish Pryde, Director from Coombe Smith

Hamish Pryde is a Chartered Accountant and one of two Directors from Coombe Smith Palmerston North (the other being Brent Dickins)

Who is Coombe Smith?

Coombe Smith (PN) Limited has two directors, Brent Dickins and Hamish Pryde both Chartered Accountants who have over 33 years experience combined helping businesses and their owners succeed. Coombe Smith has a great team of nine working with the directors. You can find them online at http://www.coombesmith.co.nz/

What does your business do? How do you go about business?

Coombe Smith (PN) Limited is a business whose business is working with people to get ahead and achieve their goals. We believe people are interested in one or all of five things.

1. Growth
2. Profit
3. Cash Flow
4. Asset Protection and/or
5. Succession

We have the knowledge and experience to help our clients succeed in these areas.

We also complete annual financial statements and tax returns. We are the first firm in the Manawatu- Wanganui region to offer fixed price proposals and a ten-day turnaround. 

Hamish tells us that this transparency in fees and understanding of the work being done is really proving good for business and still allows Coombe Smith to create tailored solutions for clients that add value to the Accountant – Client Relationship. 

What industry sectors do you work with or in?

We specialise in the professional services sector, the medical professionals (anything that ends in “ist” like Pharmacist) and road freight transport. 

What are the challenges you see most often when working within the Chartered Accountancy market?

The biggest challenge is people’s perception of value. Specialists have the necessary knowledge and expertise and the know how to find solutions for people, however people sometimes don’t want to pay for this knowledge, or they think it’s too expensive. If someone can fix a problem that has been causing pain or frustration, what is the value of that?

There’s a saying, “If you think an expert is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur!”

You wouldn’t get your mechanic to fix your teeth. You need your Chartered Accountant to help you and your business grow, become more profitable, with cash and protected assets and when it’s time to sell to help you realise the most from the sale process. 

What makes Coombe Smith Successful?

Our focus is on results. Goal setting and keeping our clients accountable for the targets we help them set together.

Palmerston North Personnel work with great people every day – what comment can you make about the impact people make to your business internally?

You need to surround yourself with great people. As the leader in your business, you need a driver (and co pilot) and the right people in the right seats doing the right jobs. It’s a team effort to get the results. 

How much impact do your staff have on your business externally?

Our clients know that the Coombe Smith team is working for them. Everyone in the team has an important function. We have a ten-day turnaround for financial statements. The machine is well oiled and our clients appreciate the efficiency that the team delivers. 

What value has Palmerston North Personnel added to Coombe Smith or you personally?

We know that once we define the position we are looking for then Palmerston North Personnel will work hard to find a good match for our needs. The follow-up has exceeded our expectations.

We see Palmerston North Personnel as a strategic partner and we recommended Palmerston North Personnel to our clients who have HR needs. 

We see you have launched a rebranded web site and you do a bit of blogging…how is that working for you ?

We changed our website to be more user friendly. We have received some great feedback as a result. Blogging is something that if you have something interesting to say share it. However, a blog should also be little pieces of knowledge to pass on as a taste of what services or knowledge we possess. Social media, I am also active on LinkedIn and do have a business face book page. However, any blog is posted on all these sites.

 I wasn’t convinced to start with, but have made connections that have lead to business. The only cost is your time. 

You can see Hamish’s social media links here:
 BLOG 
LINKEDIN
FACEBOOK 

Hamish – what are your predictions for the 2012 business environment in Manawatu?

Business confidence is not high at the moment. There is concern on what’s happening in Europe and the price of oil. These are big picture issues. They are things we can’t do anything about. We need to focus on what we can control. It’s important for businesses to communicate their point of difference or unique selling point. When people are spending you need to be chasing their dollar first before your competitors. Being the best or first at something will put you in better position rather than stuck in the pack competing for market share.

In Summary:

Hamish is an energetic professional working for a like-minded Manawatu Accounting practise that is trying to break the mould. If you have seen Hamish walking around Palmerston North you’ll see he is a man on a mission. Coombe Smith are embracing social media, sharing information with the market and bringing a fresh approach to the accounting industry in Manawatu. Hamish tells me there is more coming too…watch this space!

The Venue:

Joes Garage on Princess Street – good coffee, a deconstructed building themed like a workshop, friendly staff and I’ll be back …especially as they tell me they be changing the Summer menu to include seasonal produce. See them online HERE

The impact of changes to the ESCT

One of the changes coming into effect on 1 April 2012 is the elimination of the 2% exemption to the ESCT (employer superannuation contribution tax), KS is a superannuation contribution, so what this means is that from the 1 April 2012 the entire employer contribution (default being the 2%) will be liable for ESCT (taxed at the top employee marginal tax rate based on the estimated employee gross annual earnings, so up to $16,800 will be 10.5 %, $16,601 – $57,600 will be 17.5%, $57,601 – $84,000 will be 30% and $84,001 upwards will be 33%).  So what all this means…

• The default employer and employee contributuion rates remain unchanged at 2%
• The entire employer contribution is now taxable
• The employer still contributes the same amount of money but the amount the employee receives in their KS account is reduced by the ESCT
• This will be clearly defined on the payslip and a wee example is below:

(previously the amount of the KS Employer contribution would have been $12.00, so no additional cost to the employer but the employee receives less in their fund) 

While we always recommend you seek professional tax advice for your specific business we hope this illustration has been helpful. You can also see other upcoming changes here at http://www.ird.govt.nz/changes

Here are some key findings from the Small Medium Business 2011 Survey – a collaborative business survey from the good people at VantagePoint and NZ CA Ltd.

Thanks to the good folks – team at VantagePoint   and Naylor Lawrence & Associates (a member of NZCA) for allowing us to share the findings with you.
You can also download either a short form or full report www.growthguide.co.nz/reports

Know your customer

Understanding your customers in current times is essential – While 91% of businesses surveyed felt it was extremely important yet only 22% of businesses rated themselves as excellent at achieving it! That’s right!

The Growth guide showed the majority of surveyed businesses identified that new business acquisition was important and that they do a worse job of it than they feel they could. This begs the question “has your business invested in excellent sales and marketing specialists and incentive schemes to excite and motivate high performance?”

77% of surveyed businesses felt acquiring new business is the number one priority.

Here at Palmerston North Personnel we work with businesses to source and acquire excellent people to build the engine that drives your business. What are the implications for your business if you have non-specialists driving business growth?

Collaborate with those closest

The learning’s were very clear and strong – businesses surveyed gave a clear message it’s hard to grow your business alone and the most important parties are clients/customers, staff and suppliers. These stakeholders are already invested in your business and hold significant relevant information and insights – when have you last engaged these stakeholders in think-tanks or surveys on business growth or efficiency?

 A picture tells a thousand words… see the graph from the 2011 Growth Guide below

Customer Retention vs. Customer Acquisition

There was an interesting trend across a few areas – most businesses saw the need to acquire new business, felt they could do better in this area and that competitors will doing the same. The question I have is “How are you retaining your existing customers?”

It is well documented and understood that it is much more expensive and timely to attract new customers than retain existing customers – so don’t forget to engage with your current and past customers too.

Have you got untapped potential in your existing client base?

For example, in our industry – we have clients who use our Temporary Solutions exclusively but do not use Permanent Solutions or Psychometric Assessment. 

Is that because historically we haven’t discussed them or because they use our competitors for these services?

As a proactive business we have processes and reviews in place to ensure these are not overlooked – or if they have been missed to catch them and get them back into our programmed service patterns.

How are you/we doing in making our respective clients repeat clients with wider, deeper and stickier relationships?

As an observer and supplier to a variety of fantastic businesses here in the Manawatu, seeing a local business educate the market and provide value added services like the Growth Guide was very encouraging.

As an observation, I think existing customers would feel value from this and prospective clients would see our good hosts as valid local experts who are being proactively positioning as a quality business.

There is a valuable learning in this itself.

Don’t forget - You can also download the full report at www.growthguide.co.nz/reports

We think the team at Vantagepoint and Naylor Lawrence & Associates deserve a Thumbs Up for this simple and intuitive report.

This is the first of our on-going series  ”A Coffee with Palmerston North Personnel” a short and sweet series of coffee meetings with Manawatu Business Managers / Owners and Palmerston North Personnel.

A Coffee with Warren Bebb from The BCC

Warren Bebb is the Business Growth Manager and works with start-up companies to help them move from idea to product-market fit. 

Who are the BCC?

We are a public/private partnership dedicated to finding and supporting high-growth start up and commercialisation opportunities. You can find us online at THE BCC

What does your business do? How do you go about business?

We have three key areas – Startup and Growth, Technology Transfer and Investment.  The Startup & Growth area concentrates on the private sector, the Technology Transfer area focuses on Educational & Research Institutions, and Investment manages a fund and coordinates a group of investors who provide the investment needed to help these opportunities succeed.

In the Technology Transfer area we do the commercialisation work for institutions.  In the Startup & Growth area we work with founders to accelerate them through early stage hurdles.  We actively source deal-flow for the investment group.

What industry sectors do you work with or in?

We are entirely agnostic when it comes to industry sectors.  If it is a high-growth opportunity, then we are interested in being involved.  Generally this reflects the Manawatu’s strengths – agriculture, engineering, bio-tech, but this is not always the case. As is the case all over the world, there is also an increasing trend towards digital startups.

What are the challenges you see most often when working within your industry (especially Start-ups / High Growth Potentials / others)?

The biggest challenge we see in the Early Stages of a Start-up is the founder’s “Focus”.  They tend to focus on the technology/product at the expense of customer interaction and development of the business model.

Accessing capital to fund growth is also a challenge in the current environment.

How does your business work with clients and over what timeframes?

At the Start-up level we work from concept through to scale (and everything in between including market validation, prototyping, first customers, investment, building in governance, etc.).  The time it takes depends a lot on the industry and product development timeframes.  An ICT business may need 12 months, while a bio-tech company may need 3-4 years to reach the same stage.  In general we work closely with companies for 18-24 months.

Palmerston North Personnel work with great people every day – what comment can you make about the impact people make to your clients businesses?

The catalyst for turning an idea into a successful high-growth business is people.  The perspective and skills of the founders are the key determinant of the success or failure of their ventures.

The BCC is a consultancy style organisation – how much impact do your staff have on your business?

Our staff are key to identifying, evaluating and delivering on high-growth opportunities.  Their experience, intelligence and learning has resulted in the processes we use and value we offer early stage opportunities in our region, be it tech transfer or start up.

What value has Palmerston North Personnel has added to The BCC or you personally?

When we have a vacancy, Palmerston North Personnel is the first thing that comes to mind.  They have helped us find top people for our organisation. Palmerston North Personnel were part of the screening/interview process that got me this job, so there was a pretty big value add to me personally. 

What recommendations or advice would you have for anyone sourcing or employing people?

There’s nothing like hearing from people they worked with to know the real story.  Try asking the referee’s who else they worked with and go from there.

What are your predictions for 2012?

The NZ dollar will continue to be extremely strong, the new All Blacks will be as strong as ever, and the knowledge economy will continue to increase in profile as kiwi High-Growth companies’ successes increasingly move past the business pages into mainstream news.

In Summary:

Warren Bebb is a master of understatement. The BCC is an exciting group of people who work with entrepreneurial people to turn ideas/inventions/products into businesses. They partner with a lot of cool people at Academic and Research Institutions & in industry, and really have the entrepreneurial spark. They are the driving force behind INNOVATE – a business idea competition with over $45,000 in prizes – we recommend you check it out here http://www.innovatemanawatu.co.nz.

They also run a series of Meetups where they have successful entrepreneurs speak to others. That’s worth a look at http://www.meetup.com/e2e-Manawatu/

The Venue:

The Elm Cafe on Rangitikei Street – good MOCHA, a very relaxed outdoor setting, with friendly staff and appealing food …if there was a negative it would be the road noise fr0m Rangitikei Street (but its all part of the ambience). See them online HERE

I have one caveat – what ever the technology is it must make sense and be consistent with our professional business image. The first thought is what are they are and why would they be good for my clients?

WHAT ARE QR CODES?

According to Wikipedia (that wonderful online tool): 

QR code From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

QR code for the URL of the English Wikipedia Mobile main page, “http://en.m.wikipedia.org“

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code)

 first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the

 industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to traditional UPC barcodes. 

The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information 

encoded can be made up of four standardized kinds ("modes") of data (numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary,

 Kanji), or by supported extensions virtually any kind of data.

^[1]

As an early adopter of technology I enjoy keeping abreast of marketing and especially online marketing trends.

I’ve quickly trialled QR Codes for Palmerston North Personnel. To use these you get your smartphone to read these by pointing your phone camera at them and a little peice of software like Scanlife will read the image and convert it to an entry in your phone contacts or link to a webpage.

I have added QR Codes at the bottom of this post:

1. for our job vacancies webpage
2. for our blog
3. my virtual card

QR codes …do I see them working for us?  

Unfortunately not really right now. But as the use of smartphones increases they may become more important. So may be all you Android and Iphone fans will change the world of recruitment.

I don’t think these work for PalmerstonNorth Personnel …but I’ll be interested to hear if any one else is adopting QR codes in their business. Feel free to leave a comment or send us an email.

Palmerston North Personnel Vacancies

www.blog.pnpersonnel.co.nz

Mason Parker at Palmerston North Personnel