alicia curtis  
  
   HOME     BLOG     SERVICES     BIO     VIRTUAL OFFICE     CONTACT     

Thursday, 20 November 2008

Focus Group with Generation Y employees

Yesterday I facilitated a focus group of young employees in the Resources Sector in preparation for my keynote presentation at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy 2009 Safety and Health Conference "Raising the Bar".   I wanted to make sure my research was in line with the actual thoughts and feelings of young professionals in this industry - and it pretty much was!

Here are some of the overall findings of the focus group:

* The best strategies for retaining employees under 30 years old:
1. Providing effective training and development opportunities. 
2. Providing a defined career pathway.
3. Providing opportunities to move within the company (or develop their skills with a variety of projects).

* How to improve your workplace culture to engage Generation Y employees:
1. Communicate often - provide transparency in the workplace.
2. Involve Gen Y's in the workplace - ask for their feedback and involve them in decision making.
3. Deal with bullying in the workplace.
4. Invest in training for your people.
5. Base recognition on individual's performance.  

Generation Y are frustrated with organisations that do not offer career development and training activities.  Comments included "I have to prove myself before they invest" and "we are a keen workforce, so give us the training". Managers need to have suggestions of the opportunities that are available. 

posted by Alicia Curtis @ 1:01 PM 0 Comments

Friday, 14 November 2008

Indigenous Leadership Program at St Brigids College

Over the last 2 and half months, I have had the pleasure of working with the indigenous boarders at St Brigid’s College.   Coming from all over the state, the girls board at St Brigid’s College to receive an education.   Throughout the program, the girls learned a variety of skills to develop their leadership capacity.   They met with leaders too – Sian White, past student at St Brigid’s College, members of the Business and Professional Women’s club in Kalamunda as well as Hon Helen Morton, Parliamentary Secretary.   Students also visited the Telethon Research Institute, Radio Lollipop at Princess Margaret’s Hospital and Parliament House as part of the program.   At our final workshop, the students delivered speeches about how the program had influenced their lives.   I really enjoyed facilitating this program because all of these girls had great potential to lead, not only at school, but in their home communities too.   Well done girls!

posted by Alicia Curtis @ 9:22 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Managing Gen Y's in the Childcare industry

Yesterday I spoke with members of the Childcare industry about managing their young staff.  Before the presentation, I made some phone calls to some young Childcare workers about their jobs, their place of work and their career directions.  What I found was that most Childcare centres offer great working environments for Generation Y employees.  They offer great teams to work with, caring bosses, opportunities to speak their mind during team meetings, job variety and career pathway opportunities - many things that Gen Y employees look for in a workplace. 

For Childcare centres that struggled to engage with their Gen Y employees much of this started with immediate managers not knowing how to motivate these young employees.  Incentives such as developing their social and career skills, offering them more responsibility within the Childcare centre and bascially just getting to know more about who they are.  Gen Y's really respond to caring, attentive and inspiring leaders who care about them and the workplace they work for - are you a role model manager? 

posted by Alicia Curtis @ 1:22 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Winning the Excellence in Speaking Award

On Monday night, I attended the final meeting of the National Speakers Association WA Chapter for 2008. It was a fantastic dinner with a cappella group called the Real Sing, getting us in the mood, then more music from David Koutsoukis sharing what speakers can learn from Neil Diamond. At the end of the night, the Chapter awards were given – President’s Award went to Glenn Cardwell and Glenn Capelli for their service to the WA Chapter in designing the program. Todd Hutchison was awarded the Rising Star Award. Then I was privileged to receive the Excellence Award for the Chapter. This is a very prestigious award which I feel so honoured to receive. Inscribed on the Awards Vase are past winners including David Price, Glenn Capelli and David Koutsoukis.   Interestingly, I'm the first female to win the award so hopefully I will pave the way for other female speakers in WA!

In 2009, I'm looking forward to taking on the Senior Vice President role on the WA Chapter under David Koutsoukis as President.   We have a terrific program planned and many exciting extras for members. 

posted by Alicia Curtis @ 9:17 AM 0 Comments

Tuesday, 4 November 2008

Meeting Dr Edward De Bono


Last year, I had the opportunity to participate in an amazing learning program called Rethink.  It was an opportunity for small business owners to learn the Edward De Bono thinking tools and apply them to our business thinking.   The facilitator of this program, Ali Sumner is an inspiring thought leader and I really enjoyed her passion and knowledge of the topic.

Since then, I have kept in touch with Ali and actually was contracted by the POWA institute (the institute that Ali is the CEO of) to work with her on a new thinking program for young people named Youthink.   

Last week, I was given the special privilege of meeting with Dr de Bono while he was on his trip to Perth at some special meetings that the POWA Institute hosted.  The first was a breakfast with some of the thought leaders of Perth, including Fiona Wood, Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, John Langoulant – CEO of Australian Capital Equity, Mark Beyer – Editor of Business News and more.   The second meeting I attended was filled with small business owners who were participants of the Rethink program.  It was at this meeting, that we were able to tell Edward about what we did in our business and hear his examples of how the thinking tools he created had made a difference in people’s lives especially in schools, business and regional communities.

 I think the power of the thinking tools, is about giving people a process to design a new and better future.   This is one of the aims of the POWA Institute in Perth.   Very exciting times!

posted by Alicia Curtis @ 9:09 AM 0 Comments

  copyright © alicia curtis 2010. all rights reserved