Have you been looking to hire new employees for your business? Looking for the person with the longest experience, or the best qualifications might seem like the ideal selection criteria, but don’t discount the impact and importance of personality. Make no mistake – their personality certainly matters.

Customer and client interactions, as well as interpersonal relationships within the team, can be informed and shaped by the personality of the employee that you hire. This can in turn affect their performance in the business.

Keep in mind that an employee’s knowledge and skillset can be built up, but a personality is innate. Picking a candidate with the longest experience in similar positions, but no enthusiasm for the role may not be the wisest choice. Stay open to the possibility of motivated and passionate candidates who are willing to learn – these employees can usually be moulded into the best team players.

 

When you are hiring a new employee, keeping these qualities in mind could net the best one for your business.

 

Positivity and confidence is key

Adding enthusiastic employees to your team can change the overall energy in the workplace, and create a far more enjoyable environment for all. Energetic employees will always put more focus and effort into each task they complete.

Confidence goes hand in hand with a positive outlook. A confident employee will be comfortable in their role and more willing to take on challenges. They have the self-assurance to convince your clients that they are the best candidate to take on their work.

 

Action focused

Do not be wary of employees who are inexperienced but looking to take action or form innovative ideas in their role. Though not every decision they make is likely to be successful, they have more potential to grow your business than an employee who stays inside the box.

Dot the ‘i’s, cross the ‘t’s

Employees who pay attention to the finer details are more likely to avoid making silly errors that might seriously jeopardise your business. It can also save you time in the long run as you will not be correcting minor mistakes continuously if you promote care over speed.

Authentic

A long history of experience is useful, but to maintain and protect your business’ reputation, always look to employ candidates who are honest and genuine. Extolling their previous responsibilities and KPIs can be a great way to learn about what your employee might be capable of. However, know that there may be a discrepancy between what they are capable of doing, and what they can actually do (whether it’s because of the difference in roles, skill level required or more).

 

Career motivated

Those employees dedicated to growing their careers are always looking for ways they can perform their roles more efficiently so that they can move up the ladder. Reward their motivation, and they’ll be even more likely to commit to creating the best business that they can.

Starting a conversation about mental health is never easy with the people that you love, let alone those who might be working alongside you. As a majority of your time throughout the week is spent alongside your colleagues, you may be in a position to notice when things are going amiss for them.

On 9 September is R U OK Day, which was designed to breach the stigma of mental health discussion in the workplace.

Beginning that conversation with your colleagues and your team about mental health does not have to be restricted to a single day. Rather, continuing the discussion beyond that time and allowing your colleagues to feel safe within the workplace to speak about their mental health can benefit everyone in the long run.

Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, employers must protect the mental and physical wellbeing of their employees.

That’s why it’s important that your employers, as well as you, should be on the lookout for signs that your colleagues and coworkers may be struggling with their mental health.

Sometimes, the way in which mental health is impacting a colleague can be a silent debilitation, but here are some of the signs that you can watch out for:

• Grooming and appearance may have been neglected, or the colleague may not appear as put together as usual over a prolonged period.
• Appear more tired and fatigued at work, and are struggling to complete tasks.
• Are suffering from severe and significant changes in their mood ie. react more emotionally than the situation may warrant.
• Appear to be overwhelmed by tasks that they had previously found manageable.

If these signs are present in a colleague, it may be the time to begin a conversation with them about if they are currently experiencing an impact on their mental health. Checking in on your colleagues is now more important than ever in these uncertain times.

Starting the conversation about mental health should take into account the time and place. Here are some tips for encouraging and promoting discussion about mental health between colleagues in the workplace and encourage reaching out.

• Actively listening to your colleagues when they reach out and open up to you for help in resolving the matter will make them feel heard. It might not necessarily be something that you can assist with, but you can help them verbalise what might be impacting on them.
• If they don’t wish to discuss it with you, don’t take it personally. Mental health can be a deeply personal subject that some won’t feel comfortable discussing with their colleagues. You can however prompt them to discuss it with someone they trust.
• Ask them the following questions to see if you can help them visualise a strategy forwards in dealing with an issue at hand
• Give them options to help them out of the situation – an employee assistance program (EAP) may be of assistance to them in this matter.
• Encourage them to engage with professionals in mental health if they are experiencing a significant impact. There is only so much that you will be able to help your colleagues with, and that’s okay.

Mental health is slowly becoming a more discussable topic in the workplace, but there might be a number of factors that impact how a person is able to reach out to others. By promoting open and healthy communication, you can help your colleagues make mental health an approachable discussion in the workplace.

If you are concerned about anyone in the workplace, or this has raised some concerns for your own mental health, there is a professional helpline that can be contacted at any time on 13 11 14 for further information or simply for a friendly voice to talk to.

Employees are now giving priority to their mental health over their cost of living, a recent study has found.

It’s the result of a paradigm shift in the culture of the workplace that has seen a movement away from the traditional “work to live” mindset of many in the workforce, where working was seen as a means to an end. Mental health and the issues and stigma surrounding it are now a considerable concern for many who currently are employed. Work often adds additional stress and impact to preexisting mental health concerns.

If you are currently in a work-to-live approach to your job, you may want to consider implementing the following in order to reset your thinking and reexamine your priorities:

• Leave work for the workdays and your allocated work hours. Free up your weekends and dedicate that much needed time for a reset and rest. Fatigue will accumulate over the course of the week, and allowing work to eat into your personal time can have a negative bearing on your mental health.
• Don’t work for more than 10-12 hours per day. In that timeframe, count any travel and preparation time to the work hours that you might also be incurring. You may only be working eight hours, but if your commute is long and you’re still thinking about work when you get home, you haven’t exactly begun to unwind from the workday.
• Be careful of how much you are investing into your work – you may want to be working at your optimal best, but fatigue, mental health condition and more can impact that ability. Socialising with friends, taking time off or taking up a hobby can be a great way to take your mind off of work.

With many preferring to quit their job rather than work for a company that doesn’t match their views on social matters, it is becoming increasingly obvious that employees have shifted from the cost-of-living approach to work towards a more socially-minded cohort in the workforce. Working on your career can be rewarding, and being in a position where you can comfortably do so can be of benefit to you. Take your chances and make your work and your life as comfortable as you can while allowing yourself to be challenged.

A team meeting at its core has the purpose of sharing information efficiently and provide scope for discussion around what is being hared. A good team meeting assists teams in aligning on the topics of discussion, air any concerns or obstacles and have clarity on future actions.

Sometimes a team meeting may be called a WIP, which stands for works in progress, and is generally an update on how the projects are overall progressing and if there needs to be further action from other members to assist in the progression.

The exact purpose of a team meeting is decided by the topics in the agenda and the business needs of the meeting and your organization.

Your team meeting might be business-critical – a place where company developments or valuable information or training are shared. Team meetings can also be where your staff are able to spend time together informally and share what’s on their mind.

Not only does a team meeting allow you to catch yourself up on what your team is currently working on (and get you acquainted with how things are travelling), a team meeting also allows you to:

• Improve and boost team morale
• Ensure that your team is constantly learning and upskilling
• Provide transparency within the team about what is happening, when and why
• Allow the team to have the chance to re-centre themselves, and know their set priorities and goals for the next month.

A team meeting does not necessarily have to be an overly formal meeting. It can be as simple as a quick discussion with everyone at the start of the week to lay out what is needed from each other, and where things are tracking. As long as there is regular communication between members of the team during the meetings, issues can be brought up, actioned and resolved quickly during team meetings.

To ensure that your team meetings are used effectively, ensure that you are fully prepared with what you require from it. Making a list of topics for discussion, how the projects are progressing and any immediate concerns you might have will help facilitate discussions during the meeting.

Flow is known as a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter and that the experience of being involved is so enjoyable that people will continue to do so (even at high cost) for the sheer sake of doing it. The flow state can occur across any industry and at any level.

Reaching the flow state means that you are at your most productive and can produce higher-quality results in your output work. If you can achieve this state while working, you are operating at your peak performance and are more likely to create your best work.

The chances are that you may have already experienced a flow state while at work but not been aware that it has happened. If you’ve experienced a state of “no thought” and a quietening of your mind while performing tasks, you may have entered into a flow state.

With the focus and clarity afforded to you by a flow state, tasks that can typically take days to complete may only take hours while performing under its influence.

How To Create A Flow State

A flow state cannot be achieved while under or in a state of pressure, as outside stresses and anxiety reduce productivity. Learning how to manage those is key to creating the environment for flow states to occur.

You also need to be challenged without being overwhelmed by the task. Achieving a flow state relies on a state of constant improvement, where the challenge is enough to keep you engaged without inducing stress. 

It’s also important to reframe your brain’s reaction to stress – it’s important to channel the pressures and stress of high-intensity roles or jobs and reframe them into positive reactions that can improve your ability to enter the flow state. 

Achieving flow can assist in your productivity and performance levels. When trying to work out the trigger for entering into your flow state, reflect on what was happening, what you were doing and how you felt during the period that it occurred. 

You can better your chances of invoking the flow state through:

• Quieting the mind by applying relaxation techniques
• Creating an environment free of distractions or focus-breakers, such as turning your phone off
• Associating items/objects with the feeling of the flow states (e.g. a photographer might get into flow states better when behind their camera)