Tag: Canberra

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Improve focus at work

Have you ever felt disorganised and inefficient at work?
Did you struggle to find the causes and solutions?
Did you then work late to finish the tasks on time?
Here are the top four main causes and their corresponding solutions:

1. Fail to manage important messages
Think of a scenario in which your team and the other team are involved in a project using different communication tools. It could either be easy to miss out on some information or difficult to concentrate on your current tasks with too many notifications and information piling up in your inboxes.

Solution: Establishing boundaries allows your team to know when to respond and where to manage projects and tasks.

2. Too much workload
When dealing with time-sensitive projects and large initiatives falling behind schedule, the unbalanced workloads lead to a high volume of work, stressing employees and making them lose their focus.

Solution: Using proper tools to plan for a busy period reduces the workload on your employees’ plates and brings them back to focus.

3. Seek approvals and feedback
Seeking approvals and feedback from others is one of the types of ‘work about work’, leading to staying up late for work.

Solution: Creating clarity gives employees a picture of each party’s duty and removes the guesswork.

4. Chase teammates to complete works
Constantly chasing teammates’ progress to ensure they can meet the deadline may cause tensions on both ends.
Solution: Training everyone on the same work management platforms aligns everyone’s work and enhances a transparent and communicative environment.

Source: Asana

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

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 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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How to find your passions?

Find a passion is the phrase that we always hear others suggest but defining your real passion can be challenging and time-consuming. It requires you to regularly self-reflect and take action to find tasks and industries that make you feel excited. Find the following four steps to identify your passion:

1. Explore high points in your day
Taking notes of both seemingly significant and insignificant high points in both your life and work allows you to collect details related to your career for future assessment, and to know yourself better.

2. Know where you consume your resources
Time and money, the two essential resources in your life, are meaningful to you. They will help find your passion if you pay attention to how they are consumed and if you find the hidden theme of your consumed items.
They could be any of your consumptions, for example, the movie you have watched, the topics you taught or talked about with others, and so on.

3. Think about your strengths
It could either be a hard or soft skill you have been cultivating or a natural one that makes you feel confident and motivated when completing specific tasks.

4. Examine the details
As you have gathered enough information on your record, you might also deeply consider some internal logic behind the scenes to figure out what motivates you. And this will help you to have a narrowed selection among jobs and industries and help you find job opportunities that align with your interests.

Source: Indeed

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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Four strategies to boost team’s cohesiveness

1. Establish your team mission early
This is to make sure that you and your team members are on the same page and moving towards the same goals. And depending on the team nature and qualities of team members, you need to set a general mission statement and a project goal and clarify team roles.

2. Set a clear communication plan
A well-stated communication plan can serve different tasks, including methods to communicates important information to key stakeholders. Moreover, it allows team members to work effectively, follow the right direction, and a clear guide of how to solve conflicts.

3. Play to your team members’ strengths
“A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.” – John C. Maxwell
This is because when each individual’s strengths are brought together, it establishes a sense of teamwork and team comprehensiveness.

4. Confrontation with healthy approaches
As conflict cannot always be avoided, leaders are recommended to regularly give candid feedback and resolving suggestions in a 1:1 setting. This process contributes to a transparent and trusting environment.

Source: Asana

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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What are SMART goals?

SMART is an acronym that you can use to set good goals, in order to ensure you will be able to accomplish them.

S: Specific
Specific goals set a clearer path to which you can focus your efforts and stay motivated. To set specific goals, ask yourself the five “W” questions.

M: Measurable
Measurable goals allow you to track and assess your progress. This way you can stay focused and meet deadlines.

A: Achievable
Achievable goals are realistic goals with constraints taken into account.

R: Relevant
Does the goal meet your needs? Is it the right time? Is it applicable in the current environment? Is it relevant to the people involved?

T: Timebound
Setting deadlines can help you focus and give you something to move toward. It also helps with prioritization.

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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Graduate Program versus Graduate Job

At your university, you probably have heard about the Graduate Program and Graduate Job a lot. However, despite the similar name, what are they, and how they are different from each other? Understanding the differences between them might be very helpful for you to know what is more suitable for you while hunting for job opportunities!

Graduate Program

1. A structured learning, training, and mentorship program that gives graduates the opportunity to see multiple parts of the business. This is usually called a ‘rotation’ – graduates can then select which part they’re most interested in.

2. Aims to identify and foster future leaders for the organisation. It is a way to fast track these trained graduates into leadership roles within the organisation.

3. It is extremely competitive. Graduate programs attract the most applications per vacancy, but only provide positions to 30% of graduating students each year.

4. The program lasts 12-24 months and most often guarantees a transition into a full-time role after the program is completed.

5. They have a long and rigorous recruitment process, which is not surprising because there are so many applicants to go through. Programs can take months with very formal and automated steps.

Graduate Job

1. A specific entry level role that requires a university degree but little to no experience. They don’t have structured training, but still involve training practices used by the company to develop staff.

2. Aims to fill a specific position from day 1.

3. Relatively lower competition compared to graduate programs. The roles get less exposure to and hence less number of job applications.

4. A permanent contract with no fixed terms. But they usually do have probationary periods of 3-6 months.

5. Recruitment process varies but most tend to be up to 50% faster with less steps.

Source: GradConnection

 

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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Methods of improving team’s efficiency at work

“Work is a process, and any process needs to be controlled. To make work productive, therefore, requires building the appropriate controls into the process of work.”

– Peter F. Drucker.

Team efficiency is essential because it directly influences the team’s productivity. What can managers do to improve it?

1. Set and track attainable goals

When assigned to a project, managers should first consider the key goals and team members’ capacity. This is to make sure that managers leverage each team member’s strengths to maximize team productivity.

2. Clarify roles and tasks

Especially when working on a large project, managers should break it into smaller tasks and allocate each task to the most suitable person so that the whole team will not be overwhelmed.

3. Prioritise works based on key results

Each day, managers may be given several tasks and deciding which one to start with is always a problem. Keeping the organization or department goals in mind helps managers prioritize and keep all the team members on the same page.

4. Communicate effectively

Productivity can be enhanced by communicating effectively. Building an environment based on truth and trust or using the right technology will help form a healthy and effective communication environment.

How about you, do you have any other methods to improve the team’s efficiency? Let’s share with us by commenting below!

Source: Asana, HR Cloud

 

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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What are transferrable skills?

Each job has their own skill set, which is specific for that position, and only people in that area can perform the job sufficiently. For example, a Website Developer need to know about coding languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, while a Operation Surgeon needs to have excellent knowledge about human anatomy. Meanwhile, regardless which position you are responsible for, having transferrable skills are the skills you can use in every job position, which is helpful for you during job’s transition. Some examples of transferable skills are:

1. Communication Skills
Communication not only involves written and verbal communication but also includes using and reading body language and talking to people in different contexts.

2. Dependability
Dependability is what makes you a trusted employee. It could include punctuality, organization, and responsibility.

3. Teamwork
Effective teamwork requires qualities such as empathy, active listening, and strong communication.

4. Organization
Organized employees typically meet deadlines, communicate with others in a timely manner and follow instructions well.

5. Adaptability
Adaptability means being flexible when encountering change. There are an increasing number of employers look for adaptable candidates, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

6. Leadership
Leaders are people who can organize and inspire teams to reach shared goals.

7. Technology literacy
Technology literacy refers to comfort with and ability in navigating new technology.

Review the job description carefully and identify which of your transferrable skills are most relevant to the job!

 

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

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What are the differences between management and leadership?

‘Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.’                                                is a famous quote from Jack Welch.

Although a leader can be a manager, not all the managers can be a leader.

👉 Managers are those who emphasize the term ‘I’, while leaders instead, would focus on the term ‘we’.

👉 Leaders tend to mentor, train, and develop employees based on their blueprint on their business strategy to fully use their abilities and cultivate their potentials. They would make a positive impact on the whole organization by making employees feel valued and respected.

 

𝗢𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗲

CRICOS 03878K | RTO 45644

————————

 Phone: (+61) 261 018 650

 Email: enquiry.act@opc.edu.au

 Website: https://opc.edu.au

 Canberra campus: Mezzanine Level, 15 Moore Street, Canberra ACT 2601

 Melbourne campus: Suite 802, Level 8, 474 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000