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Archive for March, 2022

How To Ask for And Receive Customer Feedback to Improve Your Business

Posted by Emily Ridley

Australian Businesses Are Offering Employees Massive Incentives to Combat The Great Resignation

Posted by Emily Ridley

Millions of Australian workers are preparing to quit their jobs in the upcoming months. To try and entice workers from quitting, employers are making an effort to offer a number of incentives to try and convince their workers to stay.

One Australian organisation offer $6,000 to all of their 200 employees to spend on anything they want in order to prevent a mass exodus of employees as the Great Resignation looms in Australia.

The Great Resignation has been occurring in America with everyone from frontline workers to senior executives quitting their jobs as people seek out flexibility, work that aligns with their values and companies that treat them as humans.

Linktree is a social media start-up that has the backing of billionaire Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar, is offering an annual $6000 reward for staff to spend across four pillars, including wellness, personal growth, lifestyle and impact.

Linktree is working in a fiercely competitive space for employees with a crippling shortage in the industry, as Deloitte Access Economics estimates Australia will need to upskill an extra 200,000 tech workers over the next few years.

A Linktree employee named Hannah has said that she is very impressed with the rewards program and she describes the $6,000 incentive as a “pay rise but with more intention”.

She plans to spend the money on personal growth courses that will help her with her wellbeing and also spend the money on a gym membership and massages.

She is also planning to spend the money to help the environment. “I have always wanted to get solar power for the house and I will use some of this to go towards powering it. It’s a big investment but the rewards program is giving me the opportunity to do it sooner,” says Hannah.

Hannah says it is the best employee incentive she has ever heard of and ever received from an employer.

“It definitely highlights how much that Linktree actually cares about its employees mental and physical health, both in and outside of work. One of the pillars that we could select to spend benefits on was priorities outside of work like cleaning, which I thought was really cool as people’s priorities are really different, and there’s the flexibility there,” says Hannah.

Defying the ordinary was one of the core values of Linktree, said its head of people operations Emily Moore, and implementing the rewards program was a fantastic feeling for employees after a tough few years with Covid.

“Right now many people are re-evaluating what is really important to them and making changes in their lives they may have been putting off prior to the pandemic. We want our employees to be able to bring their best ‘whole selves’ to work and truly believe in creating policies and initiatives that enable them to achieve just that,” says Emily Moore.

Other employers have been scrambling to offer their employees some major perks to stand out from the crowd and entice newcomers or keep current employees.

Some of the incentives range from heartbreak leave, time off for cultural celebrations, free cooking classes, shares in the company and more time out when having a child.

Fintech company Finder introduced five days paid leave for life’s big events on top of its annual and sick leave entitlements.

The $56 billion Aussie design company Canva introduced a vibe and thrive allowance for all workers, which can be spent on everything from gym memberships, home office set ups, social celebrations, wellbeing and education.

Financial technology company, Iress, has introduced more leave for staff, who will be able to take up to six long weekends each year, with no impact on their current annual leave balance or pay.

Important Information About The NSW Government’s JobSaver 2.0 Support Package

Posted by Emily Ridley

Qualities That Every Great Accountant Should Have

Posted by Emily Ridley

An accountant that is highly valuable should have a large range of skills that play a vital role in helping your business become more successful. Here is a list of qualities that will help you determine how valuable your accountant is.

They Are Highly Organised

An accountant that is highly valuable should always be able to keep your bookkeeping records updated. At the end of each month, they should be able to show you how much revenue you have earned and how much revenue you spent based on the documents they’ve kept within the month. They should also be able to use these documents to show you whether you actually made a profit or not.

Furthermore, the ability of the accountant to stay organised will also make it easy for you to access financial documents whenever needed, ensuring that your business doesn’t end up paying fines because of misplaced or missing documents.

They Think of Money as Numbers

For many people money can have an emotional value, this often influences whether you decide to save or spend. A high quality however, understands that money represents numbers or figures to manage. Regarding money this way helps accountants take the emotion out of managing finances. Being able to think of money in terms of numbers only is among the most important qualities of an accountant.

They Are Patient

A high-quality accountant must have a lot of patience for their clients. It takes a long time to complete accounting tasks and explain the entire process to their clients. It is highly advised that you only work with an accountant that you know will remain patient all the time.

If your accountant is impatient, it’ll be challenging for you to get your business’s bookkeeping right or learn how accounting works. How can you get answers to your accounting-related questions if your accountant doesn’t remain calm? Do you think you can actually understand how your business’s accounting works if this is the case?

It is therefore vital that you pick a patient accountant to ensure that your business’s books are accurate and you’ll be able to learn about the entire process.

They Have Great Communication Skills

Communication is one of the key soft skills that might not seem all that important for accountants, but this is not the case. Being, an accountant means having to explain finances and financial information to clients or co-workers who are unfamiliar with accounting terms. If you’re good at explaining difficult or complicated concepts in simple, easy-to-understand terms, this is an excellent quality to have as an accountant.

They Are Reliable and Trustworthy

Clients should know that they can depend on their accountant to complete work or handle financial data carefully. Being reliable and trustworthy are important personality traits to have if you plan on working as an accountant or any other profession.

They Are Detail Orientated

A key characteristic of a great accountant is that they should be very detail-oriented. An accountant must have the ability to take a large amount of information and summarize it in an understandable manner so that the average person can understand.

A good accountant will also be able to present their findings in a way that’ll make it easy for their customers to understand. This includes presenting their findings in such a manner that the information can be easily understood by the customer.

They Embrace New Technology and Are Up to Date with The Latest Accounting Trends

One of the best qualities an accountant can have is the ability to keep up on the latest trends relating to accounting. As a customer and business owner, you should make sure that you are working with an accountant that’s well informed about the current trends in the industry. Having this quality is vital for a business’ success because trends change regularly, and being outdated with these trends can take a toll on your business’ daily operations.

An accountant who knows the latest trends in accounting can give an unbiased opinion that will make it easier for your business to flourish and succeed in the long term.

NSW Government Announces $1 Billion Support Package to Help Businesses Impacted by Omicron

Posted by Emily Ridley

As businesses across the country struggle to cope with the current wave of Omicron cases, the NSW government has announced a $1 billion support package to help the state fast track its economic recovery from the latest outbreak.

The support packages aim is to target businesses that currently have a turnover that’s less than $50 million and a 40 percent decline in turnover during the month of January 2022. The package will also provide support to assist businesses with purchasing rapid antigen tests.

The NSW Government will also provide $80 million to support the performing arts sector which has suffered significantly during the course of the pandemic.

Applications for the support package will open in mid-February and business that are eligible for the funding will be given a payment of 20 percent of their weekly payroll, up to $5,000 each week.

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean outlined that the past few months had been difficult for small businesses across the state but said the “comprehensive business package” would help them get “through to the other side”.

Mr. Kean also spoke about his disappointment in the lack of financial assistance provided by the federal government to help businesses during the current covid-19 omicron wave.

“I was hoping to make this announcement standing beside the Prime Minister today and the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, but they’re not to be found. These are not just New South Wales businesses, they’re Australian businesses, Australians that pay their taxes to the Commonwealth government. So, what we want to see is rather than the Commonwealth government stepping aside we want to see the Commonwealth government stepping in,” says NSW Treasurer Matt Kean.

Mr. Kean continued to outline that the money from the support package would be directed to “those parts of the economy that are really struggling”.

“Those businesses that ply their trade through face-to-face trading, things like hairdressers, nail salons, the tourist industry and also hospitality and bricks and mortar retail, “says Matt Kean.

Dom Perrottet the NSW Premier expressed the opinion that businesses across NSW are currently doing better than he expected them to be doing during the current Omicron wave and that confidence is finally starting to return to the market.

“And as we did with earlier recoveries, we will come through this recent challenge stronger than ever. We’ve got the backs of businesses, as we have throughout this entire pandemic,” says NSW Premier Dom Perrottet.

The support package will include a topping up of the Small Business Fees and Charges Rebate from the current $2,000 limit to a new limit of $3,000.

The rebate will be expanded so it can also be used to subsidise the cost of rapid antigen tests by 50 per cent, but it will not be retrospective.

Wes Lambert, the chief executive of Restaurant and Catering Australia, has expressed praise for the newly announced grants but shared the Treasurer’s concern over the Federal Governments lack of involvement.

“It’s very important that we continue to advocate for additional funding from the federal government. We would have liked them to have supported the New South Wales government in this support package but we certainly thank the Treasurer and the Premier’s office for releasing this package today,” says Wes Lambert, the chief executive of Restaurant and Catering Australia.

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