Most of us avoid conflict and difficult situations like the plague. Maybe it’s because we don’t know how to broach the subject, or haven’t had the training. Maybe we can’t separate the person from...
If Mahuru Māori (Māori language month) has your team fired up to venture further on the journey to Māori cultural competency, and you’re not sure how to take a meaningful next step, then help could...
Are you clear on your organisation’s purpose? And can you articulate it? Research by KPMG showed that purpose is fundamental to a great employee experience, and builds the crucial connections between...
Do you remember what it’s like to land a new job? The interview process, the hope, the anticipation? You turn up on ‘Day One’, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready. Ready to make a difference,...
Revolving Doors - our latest insights paper - offers guidance for leaders looking to slow down rates of employee churn and increase retention in this tight labour market. For the first time we’ve...
As New Zealand emerges from the global pandemic, it’s time to reflect on the immense impact that COVID-19 has had on our collective mental health and wellbeing. Workers are more stressed now than...
If your workplace is experiencing elevated levels of employee churn, it might be worth considering whether psychological safety is a factor. Our latest insights paper – Revolving Doors – looks at the...
Kia ora, this week, whānau, school students, community groups, and organisations across the motu are celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Aotearoa New Zealand’s annual celebration of te reo Māori....
Managing poor performance is one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. It requires tactful conversations that meet business needs, preserve employee dignity and wellbeing, and stay on the...
10 August 2022: Recent stories of shocking conditions and ill treatment of migrant workers in Marlborough show that New Zealand has work to do to ensure the integrity of the RSE scheme and prove that...
In this second in a series of blogs on how transparency is the greatest shield in being an ethical employer, our Chief Executive Chris O’Reilly talks about recent examples of alleged exploitation and...
In this first in a series of blogs on how transparency is the greatest shield in being an ethical employer, our Head of Product Craig Whitcombe talks about some of the challenges the country is...
If you’ve been inside a supermarket lately, or to a petrol station, you’ll know that the cost of living is rising rapidly. The pandemic, supply chain issues, interest rate rises, and the war in...
Koinei te tau e tohu ana i a Matariki hei hararei tūmatawhānui mō Aotearoa. This year marks the launch of Matariki as a rā whakatā ā-ture (public holiday) for Aotearoa, New Zealand. Matariki, or...
Recruitment and retention is taking a disproportionate amount of bandwidth as organisations struggle to fill roles, and deal with the downstream impact of the pandemic, government lockdowns, and two...
Late last month Taituarā celebrated achievement with its annual Excellence Awards, recognising the mahi, innovation, and dedication of Aotearoa’s local government professionals. AskYourTeam is proud...
Job ad data hot off the press from Seek paints a sorry picture for New Zealand Inc. Vacancies were up 3 per cent in April compared to March, up a sizeable 15 per cent compared to 12 months ago, and...
Today as Pink Shirt Day is celebrated for the 15th year, it would be nice to believe its future is finite. Unfortunately though its cause is as important as ever as the issue of bullying remains...
The latest unemployment figures are cold comfort to businesses up and down the country desperate for staff. In this tight labour market workers are in the driver’s seat, while employers wring their...
A little over two years ago New Zealand plunged into lockdown due to the appearance of COVID-19. Overnight our working world changed. Bustling office buildings became like ghost towns, complete with...
Today is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. While it is primarily focussed on preventing workplace accidents, it’s worth reflecting on how the concept of workplace health and safety has...
Proposed legislation released on Friday by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood is “heartening” and offers New Zealand an opportunity to position its produce as “the most ethical in...
Wilful blindness is not an excuse. That’s a phrase I have repeated many times since we first started looking into how to help organisations rid their operations and supply chains of modern slavery...
The Covid pandemic has been challenging for leaders and their teams. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity have taken a massive toll on leadership effectiveness. With huge and...
Despite targeted legislation and overwhelming social pressure from consumers, vulnerable workers are failing to be identified and protected through current accreditation processes and practices. As a...
New Zealand is not immune from the Great Resignation. Large numbers of workers are resigning, and with the labour market tighter than a drum, those workers are not so easily replaced. Through...
Today as we celebrate International Women’s Day, it could be easy to question the need for a day to promote diversity, inclusion and breaking biases. After all, its 2022 and some significant inroads...
As Omicron bites and takes a bigger chunk out of the workforce, pressure will come on those remaining to pick up the slack. It’s a watch out for leaders, to make sure they don’t accidentally pile too...
The professional development needs of managers and leaders are forever changed by the global pandemic. Over the past two years the way we work, market, communicate, and collaborate has changed,...
Healthy organisational cultures are often characterised by a common sense of purpose and shared values. However, most of us know a story or two of company cultures that go beyond this, and the...
One could have been forgiven for having a bit of a deja vu moment when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the move to red light status. News that the Omicron variant is now circulating in many...
In today’s competitive environment, taking the time to understand your market is a must if you want to be successful. It’s not enough to maintain brand loyalty based on good customer service or...
While New Zealand and the world is experiencing a phenomenon called the Great Resignation, at AskYourTeam we like to think the glass is always half full. We’re focused on the Great Reinvigoration. ...
Well, here we are almost at the end of another work year - and what a year it has been! 2021 certainly was reminiscent of 2020 with lockdowns, the need for people to work remotely, lots of...
AskYourTeam has developed a new tool that shines a light on supply chain integrity and helps to stamp out modern slavery not only here at home, but around the world. And I have never been prouder. ...
On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Ethical VOICE, powered by AskYourTeam, launches to replace “broken and dangerous” worker social practice accreditation systems 100%...
There’s some good news for New Zealand communities – council employees report feeling highly motivated to put their customers first and are proud to serve. They also believe in the value of the...
If there is one universal truth about leadership, it’s that there is no single way of doing it right. To be authentic, leaders must be themselves and, as we know, everyone is different. However, in...
Self-awareness. As I write this, I think I can hear collective sighs. That old chestnut, I hear the detractors say. What about it? And therein lies the problem. It’s one nut leaders across our most...
In the war for talent one of the most demotivating aspects for top performers is to see non-performance go unaddressed. This is an area where leaders consistently fail to deliver. Failing to act is...
AS PUBLISHED IN THE NZ HERALD 27/10/21. Photo / Mike Scott, File Would you buy overseas hazelnuts grown and packed by exploited children? Or canned tomatoes produced by abused migrants? No? As...
Organisational trust. It can take years to build and only moments to erode. But it’s absolutely critical to business success, given the close alignment between trust and performance. The...
As a leader you know your organisation inside out, right? You’re connected to your people, you’ve got a handle on your organisational strengths, you’re confident that you know what’s going on, and...
Everybody loves getting their teeth into a good project, particularly when there is hope of transforming an area of the business. But what happens when it goes wrong? What happens when projects go...
The latest research into the effectiveness of New Zealand’s private sector leaders should be ringing warning bells in boardrooms across the country. Chris O’Reilly, CEO of AskYourTeam says the...
This week Aotearoa New Zealand celebrates Te wiki o te reo Māori. Around the country and online there will be events and activities, with lots of ways to get involved. Developing Māori cultural...
In an earlier post, we talked about Global HR analyst Josh Bersin’s latest research into employee experience, which is fast emerging as the new frontline in the global war for talent. For...
The war for talent is being waged on the new frontline of employee experience, and it just got a whole lot tougher, according to latest research from global HR guru, Josh Bersin. With the number of...
COVID-19 has changed and challenged everything. What you knew about your customers pre- pandemic has either lost its relevance in 2021 or even worse, is wrong and could be a major hindrance. Today’s...
Whether you are looking to improve your customer experience, increase productivity, revenue, or enhance your employee wellbeing, a regular feedback process can be one of the most powerful ways of...
Ask around your colleagues at work - if you saw something wrong going on in the street, would you try to intervene, speak out, call the police? In my experience, just about everyone says yes they...
We recently heard about a company that was going through a period of major change, and had started a monthly ‘blue sky’ session where staff were asked to throw around big ideas and chat about...
News that Covid-19 vaccines will soon reach New Zealand is giving us hope that we’re finally turning the corner on the pandemic. Yet, there are concerns that our working lives may never quite be the...
Listening to people’s experiences, and acting to improve what matters most to them is. It’s key to making things better for colleagues and for patients. We are excited to tell you about a new...
2020 showed us that business is everything but predictable. The social and economic disruption of the past year is reflected in the new vocabulary we use. Speaking about a business planning a ‘pivot’...
The world of work is becoming more complex and unpredictable. Covid-19 has made the term ‘business-as-usual’ seem almost redundant. So how do we begin to grapple with these complexities when leading...
Our data shows that managing projects from concept to review is a critical weakness across all sectors of New Zealand’s business leadership, as evidenced by the chart below: Our Energy Sector...
Workplace bullying is New Zealand organisation’s elephant in the room: it’s underestimated, misunderstood and unknown. Our research validates Stats NZ’s findings that New Zealand organisations are...
Survey fatigue. Not a problem…We have probably all heard of it and some of us have experienced it but with a bit of thought it can be relatively easily avoided. Before we get into how, let’s think...
The Covid-19 crisis has tested HR leaders like never before. Globally, hundreds of millions of people have had their work lives upended. The rule book is being rewritten. It’s safe to argue we are...
AskYourTeam CEO, Chris O'Reilly, talks to TV One Breakfast team on the positive and surprising findings about working from home during lockdown. The insights shared are from our recent Wellbeing and...
Time apart for Kiwi workers and bosses during lockdown has had some surprising benefits, according to a nationwide survey of more than 20,000 New Zealanders working from home. It found bosses are...
Most employees won’t put on a public display of their grievances for fear of being labelled difficult or missing out on future promotion opportunities, they simply take their frustrations home...
As Sir Richard Branson famously said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” That’s the kind of mindset that leaders and business owners must give...
While historically it has been manufacturing and low-skilled labour roles that have felt the biggest impact from technological revolutions, today barely any role remains unaffected by its influence....
Diversity and inclusion drives brighter and better business. I’m sure you know that and are familiar with the terms demographic diversity and cognitive diversity. Demographic diversity gets the most...
The fact is that most of us have been doing diversity and inclusion wrong. Despite the volume of articles, think pieces, strategies and whitepapers being churned out week after week, D&I related...
As the ‘highly effective’ Stephen R. Covey said: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Employee feedback is the pure gold that can enhance...
It has become the number one jargon buzzword in business over the past five years. “Culture”. It gets used a lot, but seldom explained. “Good workplace cultures” get celebrated, “bad workplace...
There’s no doubt the future of HR will be tech-enabled. Every HR professional is either using a tech feedback tool or looking around for one to implement. Many of these tools are excellent and the...
The Deloitte 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report identifies the major trends in business and employment over the last year. The key findings from this report are that it’s now more important than...
The book Invisible Women: Exposing data bias in a world designed for men by Caroline Criado Perez, outlines the many ways in which data about women in the workplace is frequently excluded from...
The rapidly evolving digital world is bringing changes to the landscape of the HR workplace. These are exciting times. But, with the excitement we should exercise caution and not underestimate the...
Big data is not a new paradigm. It has been promulgated since Roger Mougalas of O’Reilly Media coined the term in 2005. The 14 years since its inception has seen the growth in storage data worldwide,...
Global consultants McKinsey say organisations are like living organisms. Their “trademarks include a network of teams within a people-centered culture that operates in rapid learning and fast...
Over a 17 year period, US Naval Captain David Marquet was a rising star moving up the elite ranks of the submarine service, being groomed to command the state of the art nuclear attack sub USS...
Is your thriving organisation really involving and empowering people to do their best work? We think it’s timely to share some fresh insight from Deloitte’s new 2019 Global Human Capital Trends...
This year we welcomed Jen McKay, our new Client Services Director. Jen has over 15 years experience in top level corporate management consulting and programme management and specialises in complex...
“We had a head researcher who told one of our in-house lawyers that if you stood in a certain spot under the glass stairs, you could look up women’s dresses,” says Alice*, an Australian HR...
It’s a human truth that we operate best in groups - in fact one of our most fundamental human instincts is the desire to cooperate and work together. Our most well organised and effective groups are...
Thinking about the theme of International Women’s Day this year of #balanceforbetter, it struck me what a great theme it is. It sums up nicely one of the key challenges we all face, and with no...
The race is on, for men and women to work together, to unleash the power of gender equality in business, politics, media coverage and wealth across the world. Diversity of thought informs better...
As 2018 began drawing to a close, New Zealand was hit with several high profile accusations of toxic workplace cultures. First, it was accusations of bullying by Commissioner for Financial Literacy...
Many collaborative teams work together frequently but can spin off to other projects and collaborations when necessary. Building collaboration into teams allows team members to push each other to...
Ask any foreign visitor about the areas in which New Zealand leads the world, and you’re unlikely to hear “bullying” in the top ten. But that might be luck rather than a reflection of reality. In...
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, engagement was heralded as the answer to every organisation’s challenge. Highly engaged employees equalled better business performance and companies all...
Digital disruption is reshaping the HR landscape, creating new opportunities for those organisations that are ready to transform. The most exciting are new digital HR tools that extend the influence...
It’s clear that empowerment is one of today’s great positive buzzwords in management and HR, and creating an empowering culture is near the top of every HR professionals’ agenda. And there’s good...
As the global talent shortage persists and new jobs are created as fast as others become extinct, business success depends on organisations having an effective career development strategy in place to...
As Mohammed Ali finished addressing 2000 graduating Harvard University seniors in 1975 he responded to a call from the crowd to “give us a poem”. Ali paused, locked eyes on the audience member who...
Empowerment in any workplace starts with leadership. It has to because at its essence, empowerment is a transfer of power from a leader in authority to someone lower down in the organisation chart....
Change is constant, we hear, and nowhere more so than in the world of work. A few years back the loss of a job was met with severe consternation by the employee and varying degrees of career...
For many decades in HR, performance management has been centred around annual performance appraisals. These occurred at both the individual level (the dreaded annual review), and the company level...
Diversity and inclusion are priorities for every HR pro today, but too often we shy away from conversations about the biggest barrier to creating more inclusive organisations -unconscious bias. This...
History can teach us a lot about changing HR practice. The first principle of history is the same as HR -the technology that drives economic activity in any society also dictates the shape of that...
Digital disruption is reshaping the HR landscape, creating new opportunities for those organisations that are ready to transform. The most exciting are new digital HR tools that extend the influence...
Every organisation should have a zero-tolerance to workplace bullying and intimidating behaviour, and no-one should be put in the position where they dread coming to work. Building a positive culture...
There’s been seismic shift in the dynamics driving today’s most successful organisations that is being led by HR practitioners using the technology of our highly networked age. It’s the shift from...
Having the ability to measure and analyse aspects of organisation, team and leadership performance, helps us find out what’s really going on. Both large and small company CEOs are often left...
In the years before adopting AskYourTeam, we’d been heavily focused on employee engagement at Smith&Smith. While we saw improvements in engagement levels early on, progress had stalled. We wanted to...