Category: General

Employee literacy is your business

Linda


Employee literacy and numeracy skills impact many factors in the workplace. Recession, Covid-19, productivity, innovation, customer service, competition all mean your employees need the literacy and numeracy skills to help lift your business and deal with new challenges, work practices and technologies.

Confidence and skill with language and numbers underpins many other skills that are vital in life and in the workplace. Employees with difficulties can struggle to adapt to new systems, can stumble over paperwork and reporting including avoiding H&S compliance, can be harder to train, avoid new challenges and new opportunities, can become isolated or argumentative, often enjoy work less and generally have poorer job retention.

Supporting basic skills development in staff can lead to a much more adaptable, happy and proactive workforce. A person with the skills to participate in life more fully will bring more value to their job role.

One or a few staff may have quite low literacy or numeracy and may be hiding this. Helping these people may be life changing. But there may also be many staff who have less difficulties but are still considered as having low literacy and are eligible for funded training. Skills considered vital and funded include reading, writing, spelling, language and workplace communication, plus confidence with numbers – and they also extend into digital training, financial skills and self-care skills.

Government – in response to concerns from business about the low levels of literacy of new staff – funds literacy and numeracy education for working adults. You may not know that a problem exists for some staff – Literacy Aotearoa can make a difference.

Benefits
Improved employee performance:
• Improved reading skills mean employees can follow instructions and procedures, leading to a safer workplace with fewer errors or returned products.
• Better speaking and listening skills mean improved communication, more useful feedback and better teamwork.
• Improved writing skills mean more accurate orders and more useful reporting.
• Improved numeracy skills mean accurate deliveries and better record keeping.
• More confidence, greater staff loyalty and improved retention.
• Greater employee safety and health.
• Better problem solving and fewer mistakes.
• Gaining new skills to support innovation and improve productivity.


Funded and Tailored Workplace Programmes.
Literacy Aotearoa is funded by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to develop and deliver tailored literacy, language and numeracy programmes throughout Aotearoa.
We develop programmes that are customised to fit the real and actual needs of your workplace, your staff and their particular job roles and tasks.
Our mission is to develop, promote and deliver accessible, quality literacy services to ensure the peoples of Aotearoa are critically literate and able to realise their full social, cultural and economic potential. We recognise that low literacy is an impediment to many vulnerable people’s lives but we also know that literacy and numeracy are trainable skills.

We design and deliver targeted programmes that addresses general workplace issues and also individual staff needs. By delivering a programme aimed at lifting the skills of a staff group we can support those with the greatest literacy needs while also helping those with lesser issues. Because these programmes are directly related to your employees’ daily activities, they are more relevant, effective, easily remembered and readily put to use.


How we work with you
Literacy Aotearoa works closely with a business to develop and deliver quality programmes that will address business priorities and meet employees’ individual literacy, language and numeracy needs.

We:
• meet with your key personnel for a site visit
• identify issues and conduct a needs analysis
• develop a customised group programme to suit the business need and staff
group
• develop individual programmes for each employee
• deliver tuition on-site or at our premises, generally in small groups, at times
that best suit you and your employees.

Taking up this funded support allows a business to provide educational support for staff – that will help them in their daily and work life and that will directly address some of the business issues that low literacy brings. Literacy Aotearoa programmes encourages staff to think about learning and improving their skills while providing the support they need to succeed.

This blog was contributed by Literacy Aotearoa.  Check their website to find more about their work and how they can support employers with literacy programmes.

The future of work: Why we’re setting ourselves up to fail by guest author Alicia McKay

Linda

“The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed.”
William Gibson

When ATMs came on the scene, economists, politicians and the media panicked. With people no longer required to give the correct change and stamp deposit slips, we were experiencing the early stages of the robot revolution. Automation was to rob bank tellers of their jobs!

The reality, however, was far more nuanced. In fact, there are more bank tellers now than ever. Rather than widespread job loss, the automation of routine tasks has allowed tellers to shift their focus to higher value tasks like customer and relationship management, financial services and sales.

The world has changed
Examples like this are playing out across all industries and organisations. As the nature of work changes, new technology is introduced and social norms evolve, we need a different set of skills from our people and leaders. The pandemic abruptly accelerated this process, as we sprang into action learning to work remotely, manage business interruption and adapt to virtual environment.

The challenge for ambitious professionals and learning and development managers is working out what to focus to equip our leaders for all this change. What skills should we be teaching and learning? How do we make sure we aren’t being left behind?

The answer lies in reframing the question.

Asking better questions
For decades, we’ve followed a classic trajectory for leadership development: we teach people to be operational experts, then we give them some management training and, if they’re lucky, some personal development stuff to work out their Myers-Briggs or what bird they are.

But it’s not working anymore. The half-life of a skill has dropped to less than five years – which means that while your typing skills may have served you for life 20 years ago, that new coding skillset will be out of date in little more time than it takes to do a degree.

A 2019 World Economic Forum report revealed that less than half of chief HR officers were confident that their workforce strategy prepared them for the future. Deloitte’s Readiness Report, from the same year, revealed that only one in four business leaders were highly confident their workforce has the skill sets needed for the future – and this was all before we’d heard the word ‘coronavirus’.



Our development pathways are lagging behind, resulting in leadership teams full of experts in their field, who know how to balance a budget but are battling with the stuff people really need from them. Things like… how to respond well to change when things are uncertain and volatile. How to make good decisions in a complex environment. How to create smarter systems for complicated organisations, and how to maximise performance when people are overwhelmed. How to connect meaningfully and get people on board with change, when the way forward is unclear and their jobs feel under threat.

Strategy is the future of work
All of these skills are strategic skills.

Rather than trying to predict the technical and operational capabilities we need the most, we should be thinking about how to tackle our strategic capabilities, so that we’re OK even when our operational demands change.



The strategic capacity of our leaders is the most important determinant of personal and organisational success. When we prioritise quality thinking, big-picture perspective and insightful questions, we create a culture that bends and flexes to uncertainty, we build powerful organisations and equip people with what they need to succeed regardless of what’s happening around us.

The five untaught skills of a strategic leader
Strategic leadership is all about context. Strategic leaders ask questions like: “what’s going on?” “what does that mean?” “what should we be thinking differently about?” and “what are we not seeing?”.

Strategic leaders have mastered five critical skills.
1. Flexibility
To lead through complexity, we need to be OK with change. Flexible leaders know that leadership isn’t about getting things done in spite of their environment, but because of it. They have the awareness, agency and resilience to withstand pandemics, natural disasters and technological disruption, because they stay flexible to the world around them.

2. Decisions
Making good decisions is a learned skill. Decisive leaders know it’s not what they think, but how they think that matters, focusing on providing direction that drives action. They know that no cost-benefit analysis will save them, without the skills to capture diverse input and build in tolerance for change.

3. Systems
Strategic leaders think in systems, because they know that suc¬cessful organisations dismantle siloes and work out how things fit together. Systems leaders don’t settle for what’s in front of them, focusing instead on the messy stuff – context, relationships and dependencies. They stop finger-pointing and problem-solving, to pull levers and dis¬solve issues before they take hold.

4. Performance
True performance isn’t operational excellence or time management – it’s focus. Strategic leaders understand that their most valuable resource is their attention, optimising their environments and teams to invest in the factors that make a real difference. They know that once they eliminate distraction and insist on value, quality and accountability, there’s nowhere left to hide.

5. Influence
Influential leaders know that political savvy isn’t slimy; it’s non-negotiable for impact at scale. They know that their integrity, reputation and relationships are what makes the difference. As our environment continues to shift, it will be the leaders who can bring others with them whose ideas will take hold.

Lessons that count

In the knowledge economy, we’ve got access to all the technical information and instruction in the world at the touch of a button. If you need finance knowledge, watch a video and get your head around it in 15 minutes. If you need marketing expertise, Google for a freelancer and book the job in online.

But if you need to understand how best to adapt to your environment, how to make quality decisions that capture the big picture, how to drive focus and how to take people along on the journey… well, it’s time for strategic leadership. Let’s shift the dial.

Alicia McKay, author of ‘You Don’t Need An MBA: Leadership Lessons that Cut Through the Crap’ is a Wellington strategic leadership expert and founder of the NaMBA programme – a game-changing alternative to traditional leadership education. Alicia works with leaders and teams to spark strategic shifts in the way they think, work and lead. For more information about how Alicia can help your team visit www.aliciamckay.co.nz

 Copies of Alicia’s books are available in different formats in Wellington City Libraries’ collection.  If you want to know more check out these :

You don’t need an MBA : leadership lessons that cut through the crap / McKay, Alicia
“The 21 lessons in You Don’t Need an MBA are practical rather than academic. They are meant for the fast-paced, new world of leadership and for leaders who are looking for practical solutions to everyday challenges. Alicia McKay’s writing is engaging and direct. Readers immediately have confidence that her approach works – no further post-grad studies required. Leadership expert, Alicia McKay believes that leaders are made, not born. But they are not made in the lecture halls and seminar rooms; you don’t need an MBA to be an effective leader. The ability of next-generation leaders to cope with constant change has never been more important or more poorly understood. The world keeps throwing curveballs, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s not that we don’t know we need to change. The gap isn’t knowing, it’s doing. The leaders of tomorrow need to change today. They need to get smart, be strategic about the next step and expand their range, to face a complex and uncertain future. They need paradox: clear values and open minds, high performance and meaningful space, dedication to detail and big picture perspective. They need to ask different questions, design different options and most of all, they need to do that with others on the same journey. You Don’t Need an MBA demystifies the skills leaders of the future need and epitomises the brave new world of leadership; united leadership that focuses on real outcomes, not quick-fixes. Alicia McKay draws on the latest global thinking on leadership and outlines a way forward, in plain English and with actionable steps.” (Catalogue)
Also available as an e-book

From strategy to action : a guide to getting shit done in the public sector / McKay, Alicia
“Lack of clarity on purpose, vision and priorities plague all levels of the public sector, with short-termism and reactive management crowding out opportunities to develop genuine strategic capability.Operating in this environment without pushback is no longer enough, for public managers tired of late, unfinished and failed initiatives. Nor is it enough for a jaded public, who rightfully expect value from their contribution to the social contract. From Strategy to Action provides a framework to shift the needle and make progress on the big picture. Using the tools and advice compiled in this book, public managers who are ready to seize agency and do things differently will be pleasantly surprised at the impact they can have on their teams, organisations and communities”–https://aliciamckay.co.nz.” (Catalogue)

Privacy is the foundation of trust

Linda

Privacy Week 2022 is 9 – 14 May 2022. This year, the theme is Privacy: The Foundation of Trust.
In the blog below, Jared Nicoll from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner outlines the steps small businesses should be taking to ensure information they collect is kept safe.

If you hold personal information, you must protect the privacy and mana of those who have entrusted it to you. As well as meeting your legal obligations, taking care of New Zealanders’ personal information helps ensure people maintain trust and confidence in your organisation.

The Privacy Act applies to any person, organisation, or business that collects and holds personal information about other people. Knowing how to safely manage people’s personal information is a cornerstone for building strong relationships and good business.

For Privacy Week 2022, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has focused on events and activities to help agencies understand and improve their privacy practices, The theme for this year’s Privacy Week is Privacy: The Foundation of Trust. OPC has collaborated with others across the privacy community to put on a week of webinars and workshops across a broad range of privacy-related topics from 9 to 14 May.

Topics include a panel discussion on Tikanga Māori and Privacy: reflections from the High Court review of decisions about Māori Covid-19 vaccination data; a workshop on cyber-incident response best practice; plus specialist privacy expertise for those working in specific industries including healthcare and education. Visit privacy.org.nz for further details.

To support this year’s Privacy Week events, here is some more information to help those in businesses understand their obligations.

All businesses must have someone familiar with privacy obligations who fulfils the role of a privacy officer. In smaller organisations, the manager is normally responsible for all legal compliance, including privacy.

Only collect information you need

 Only collect personal information that’s necessary for a clear lawful purpose. Your purpose is what you’re trying to achieve by collecting the information. For example, it could be to deliver a product or service, or find the right person to employ.

Think carefully about why you are collecting it. Don’t collect people’s identifiers such as name, phone number, etc unless it’s necessary for your collection purpose. If the personal information you are asking for isn’t necessary to achieve something closely linked to your organisation’s activities, you shouldn’t collect it.

Always try to get it directly from the person when possible, and ensure they understand what you will do with it. If your lawful purpose changes or you want to use the personal information you have collected for an unrelated purpose, you are likely to need the agreement of the people you collected it from.

Store personal information securely

Make sure that you take reasonable steps to store and use personal information securely. You may need a locked cabinet for physical documents, or password protection for electronic files. Do you use portable storage devices such as USBs? Are they encrypted?

Make sure only appropriate people can access the information. Depending on the sensitivity of the information, it may be necessary to set up systems that limit or keep track of who accesses it.

People have the right to access the personal information you hold about them, and to correct anything when necessary.

Don’t keep personal information for longer than you need

Businesses shouldn’t keep information for longer than they need it. Holding more information means a greater risk of a privacy breach. However, retaining key information can be helpful, for example if a customer returns to your service. Remember, ensure people understand what you will do with their information from the start.

Once it is no longer required, dispose of personal information securely so that no-one can retrieve it. For example:

  • remove names, addresses and birthdates from documents before you dispose of them
  • use shredders and secure destruction services
  • wipe hard drives from machines – including photocopiers – before you sell or decommission them
  • delete back-up files as well as originals.

Human error and the need for good email hygiene

More than 60 per cent of privacy breaches last year were due to ‘human error’.  Businesses are responsible for ensuring their systems are fit for purpose and that the personal information they hold is protected by reasonable security safeguards.

Poor email hygiene is a common cause of privacy breaches.

One example we were made aware of involved an email containing detailed health information about a group of patients, which was intended to be sent internally to the staff of a medical provider. A typing error in the ‘TO’ field resulted in a member of the public receiving these patients’ medical records. Having their sensitive personal information exposed in this way caused considerable emotional harm to a number of these patients.

Respect the people whose information you’re sending by double-checking who you’re sending it to. Go a step further and use a delayed send option on your email to avoid any hasty mistakes. Always use the BCC field when emailing groups of recipients.  If you are emailing sensitive material, encrypt the material. If you do this, the password (phrase or code) should be sent by some method other than email so that the wrong person doesn’t receive both.

When things go wrong

If your business has a privacy breach that is likely to cause anyone serious harm, you are legally required to notify the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and any affected persons as soon as you are practicably able to.

Our expectation is that a breach notification should be made to our Office no later than 72 hours after agencies are aware of a notifiable privacy breach.

All privacy breaches should be appropriately noted so changes can be made to help ensure they don’t happen again.

Further information

 Please visit privacy.org.nz for further information about your rights and responsibilities under the Privacy Act.

Business magazines on Libby

Linda
Libby formats

Digital platform Libby offers library users over 2000 eMagazine titles for reading — across all genres.
This includes 106 titles in a range of languages in the Business and Finance section plus 89 titles in News and Politics.

Within these sections you can find magazines such as :
Fast Company,
Entrepreneur,
NZ Property Investor,
NZ Marketing,
NZ Business and management (Business and Finance)
and
NZ Listener,
Economist,
Guardian weekly,
New Yorker (News and Politics)

The menu at the bottom of screen helps you locate and navigate around the content.

Using the Refine option at the top right corner you can select language, subject and availability.
Once you’ve made a selection to access it, click on your selected title and then Borrow and at the prompts enter your library card details.  Open your selected magazine and start reading!

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.