Webinar: How to Stabilise Your Company Through Your Team

Welcome, welcome everyone. Can, can everyone hear me okay? If you can just start getting used to, to the little navigation panels on the right and left, and let me know if you can see me, hear me clearly. If there's any audio issues, let me know now or forever hold your peace. Welcome, welcome everyone. Oh, that's so nice. Look at that. Thanks, Fred. I'm glad it sounds nice and live to you. Fantastic. So where is everybody from? If you— while we wait for more people to roll in, where is everybody from? It looks like we've got people from all parts of the world. Parts of the world joining us. Belgium, Holland, Blue Mountains, welcome. So we've got everyone from all parts of Australia coming in, and we've also got loads of people coming from overseas, from the Netherlands, welcome, and other parts of Europe as well, UK, so welcome. And, you know, it's quite interesting. It's really because, you know, one thing is for sure, this situation has definitely brought all the countries a lot more together because of this shared understanding that we have now. We have this common, one common enemy, you know, that's slowing down our productivity and our livelihood. So right now, I think more than ever before, we've all got this shared common purpose. And that's to, you know, how do we help ourselves, help our team, help our company stabilize? And that's why we're here today. So we've got— our group is continuously growing. We're also live on Facebook for anyone that is not here today. They can watch elsewhere. So, but thank you, all of you, for coming. Thank you. And we've been getting some good news here in— I'm from Victoria, I'm from Melbourne, so we've been getting some good news here at the moment with the loosening of the restrictions. So I think we're all dying to get out there and do what we do best and not let this get in the way. So, well, welcome. So let's get started. To give you some background on Performia, presently we're in over 20 countries, we operate in over 30 languages, And we've, for anyone that knows what we do, we basically partner with companies and provide them exact training and tools to hire the right people. So we've actually put over 3 million candidates through our productivity and personality screening system. We have tens of thousands of clients who have been trained by our tools and they use our systems every single day. And a little bit more about Performee's background, Performee's roots are actually roots are actually Swedish. Performia was founded in 2001 by Martin Runau, who actually realized late into the '90s that personality testing alone is not the key to successful hiring. So he realized back then that there's another element involved when you're hiring and building teams, and that's why he actually brought productivity testing together with personality testing so that you get a much more balanced picture of a person, you get a more full picture of someone and who you should really bring into your organization. And that's actually why our training was created so that business owners and executives, they can better understand people and not only know how to hire better people, but also understand, you know, how to get the best out of people, not be surprised by how people operate, by how people act and basically have a much better chance of being able to create the most productive, fun, and safe team. So, and that's why we're here today. We're here to talk about teams, how to stabilize our company through our team. And a bit about myself, I'm the CEO of Performia in Australia, China, and some of the Asian regions. I actually started with Performia 12 years ago. And on achievement of certain milestones and some tough and challenging missions, I was able to move up through the ranks to my current role. And outside of Performia, I also hold strategic and training roles with volunteer committee type organizations to do with charity and foundations and also sporting committees as well. So you've probably seen this little animation I've got on that slide with these guys that are pulling at this cart. So many of you will have seen this, this famous cart, we call it, and it's in different languages in different countries. But basically, it's a short little film about building a team. And essentially, you know, when we work with companies, they've got various degrees of the team on the left side, and we help them get, you know, get moving, get the right people on board. So they become more like this. on the other side, more of a winning team. So throughout this webinar, if you do get questions that come up, I'd love to answer all your questions during the webinar towards the end or at the end. So please pop them in the chat box and towards the end, we'll get through it as much as we can. And if we don't get a chance, we'll always get back to you. So I've got a couple of our team members who'll be monitoring that. and making sure we get through all of it. So recently we conducted a survey and basically the results indicated that the top 2 issues at the top of mind were obviously keeping the company viable and as well as that, keeping, you know, working out how do we actually get the best out of our team. So even though restrictions are obviously loosening up and to various degrees depending on the country and location and state, We still have a lot of work to do. And obviously, look, we've got to acknowledge the fact that there's companies that have been forced to shut and have their operations cut back significantly. So it's a lot tougher for those companies. And look, many companies as well will be in a state of emergency right now. And some are also looking and assessing the future and predicting what is about to happen. And they're declaring themselves in a bit of an emergency so they can start taking action. So now's not the time to relax, and not for us as leaders and definitely not for our teams. So it's actually up to us to respond to this, and our viewpoint is what is going to make a huge impact to the outcome at the end of it. And look, like I said, for sure, all of us, all businesses are impacted one way or another. Many companies have lost a lot of revenue. And as tough as it is, we still need to think as much as possible. We need to think with expansion and improvement, not just survival. Because if we shoot for survival, we'll land a little bit below that. So we need to be looking at how do I expand out of this, or minimally, what do I do to improve to be ready when we can come out of this? So we'll be sharing some ideas and tools with you so that hopefully, no matter which category you fall in, you'll have some ways to help your, your business and, and your team. You know, our teams, the people we hired, the people who are on our team right now, who are also on the market that hopefully we can get to come to become part of our team, they're actually our greatest source of support and strategy. to fight this crisis. So how we work with them, how we support them, how they help us back, that's going to go a long way. I've just got a question on the right side I'm going to answer from Nicoline. She says, can they watch it later on Facebook or is it only live? No, look, it will be available on Facebook and we will also make it available for anyone who missed it. It will take some time though, that's why it's always nicer if some people, you know, you guys have come attended it live, so you get the instant information, but we will make it available for those that missed to attend a bit later. So I hope that answers your question. Now, obviously, this webinar is about stabilizing your company through your team, but if we first just have a look at what actually destabilizes a team, and the things that cause instability And these things actually apply to right now to your business, but also later. So it's not just now that you need this information. It's also later that you can apply it. So one of the biggest factors and contributors is actually when your staff are in mystery. And this can be about their job, which is likely to be happening a lot right now. You know, am I going to have a job next week? What will the government do next? How will my company be impacted? All of these things can impact the morale, the stability of your team. And another point as well is about communication. When all the communication is about bad news, what's going wrong, the doom, their attention is naturally going to go to more problems, and this is what you want to get them out of, because that If all their attention is on that, again, that's going to cause instability in your team. So, look, rarely— we've put a bit of a list there on the things that cause instability, and rarely will you get very effective decisions happening when— if your team or your managers are operating out of more of a negative tone level or more focused on problems and we can't do anything about it and more problem-oriented. For sure, these are tough times. These are unprecedented times. This is, you know, we've never gone through this before. So we all know this. But what we need to look at is what can we do? What can we control? That's what we're really interested in for those that actually want to survive and get ahead of the curve. So it's important that our team is not operating from a state of fear, because this will impact not only their emotional state, but also the quality of their decisions. So us, our role as managers is to get our team members out of that level of thinking, because it's not going to help them, their families, and not help the company either. So the first decision, the first thing we have we would have done, I think you would have all done it by now, is chosen how to respond. You know, like how do we actually respond to the pressures and the challenge? Because this will also form our mindset and our viewpoint. And you know, one really interesting thing that I personally really like is looking at the word responsibility. It's actually derived from the word respond. So, it's sort of like, you know, how do we respond? And how do we respond to the pressures? Because for sure, these are pressuring times. And, you know, I mentioned we're a global company. You know, we're in over 20 countries. And every week we actually meet up. We have a Zoom meeting with all the leaders of the countries there. And we share news and updates on those that are actually on the ground. And we hear about how people are solving things and coming up with new ideas and new ways of keeping themselves occupied. And in some cases, actually doing much better as well. And it's not just because, you know, it's not because they're selling toilet paper, so the market is now perfect and their business booms. Sure, that can help. But it's because they felt the emergency. long before it was an emergency. And then they looked at how they can reorganize their area and make changes. They were measuring things, they were looking at key indicative statistics to know how do I tackle this before it becomes really problematic. And then when the problems have hit, they've looked at how do I reorganize. Now I've got to deal with it, how do I reorganize and do the best that I can? And the first point is actually communication internally and externally. You know, the last couple of months until now, it's been absolutely vital. It still is vital to open all lines of communication. Don't stop and keep promoting what you're doing. We're not just talking about selling. You know, this is like communication is very different. With internal— when we talk about internal communication, it's absolutely vital to share your wins, share your successes. Let your team know what's working, as small as it might seem right now. It's like your team needs to know what is working, and this applies all the time, not just during crisis mode. And, you know, communicating with your team is really important to also re-engage them with the company purpose. Remind them of why they're there, how they contribute, what their role is within that, because no role is too small or insignificant. Once you've done that, once you've done the communication to keep your team reminded of the purpose, you then need to reorganize. And look, you will have obviously looked at immediate costs to cut that are obviously, you know, to help you stay viable. Well, one very, very important point on the topic of cost cutting, which you should take into account again now and also in the future is when you're cutting an expense, it's really important that you check the long-term impact of that. Are you just making a short-term profit but actually cutting your business at the legs? Because of the impact of that decision long term. An example of that is stopping your marketing, stopping your communication with your customers irrespective of what they're spending or not. It doesn't change. Just because someone's not buying right now, it doesn't mean you stop communicating. That's really wrong. So another incorrect thing to do would be to actually stop selling. Some sort of hiring, because if you can hire good people, they can actually help you come out of this. So the first thing is decide on your viewpoint, which you would have done by now. Create more viability by cutting really unnecessary costs based on statistics. And then look at how do we actually use this time to allow us to come out of this stronger hopefully stronger, but minimally to be ready. Because this will be over. It will be a new level of normal, but it will be over and we need to be ready. And, you know, one example of a marketing company I know that really changed their operating basis was they looked at their products, they saw that the market really does need their solutions still, and they actually offered 24-month payment terms. So it actually suddenly made it really affordable for a lot of companies to want to get that service and benefit from it, because every company needs to be doing marketing right now. Another example of a company was that they had— they have a showroom, and now they have a lot more space in there because they couldn't quite work with certain products. So they actually opened it up and forged new partnerships to be able to do more with that space. So this is quite important. And then the next thing is that your attitude is going to be noticed by your team. And this is probably the most important, important thing. So it's completely okay and expected that you'll be honest with them. It's okay to be vulnerable. You know, you're all in it together. But remember to remember that you also all have a role to play in leading that team. So how you communicate with them and how you focus them is really important, especially if you've got the opportunity to keep people employed. And their motivation and morale is absolutely crucial for your company, which is why we're going to look next at team building. How's everyone going so far? Still hearing me okay? Good to see more people coming in, some late arrivals, but excellent, fantastic. Good to see a lot of you there. If you have any questions, please make sure that you place your comments in there and we'll get to them at the end. So, let's look at team morale because it's so, so crucial to look at this. And as you can see, we say part 1 of 4. There's a few things we're going to go through on the topic of team morale. So, first of all, you might have noticed this, but typically you'll have the least HR, human resources issues When you and your team are on the same page, you're all aligned and you're focused towards one purpose. So purpose is one. Keep your team really focused on purpose. The next thing is keep your team very, very busy. Make sure they're so busy that they don't have time for anything But to be busy, good busy, not bad busy, busy producing and contributing. In fact, if you're in a situation where you ever don't have enough work, you know, it's actually— or your team is already doing as much as they can— it's nearly better to be understaffed than to be overstaffed and have people not doing anything. I know that sounds That might sound a bit odd, but no or low production will actually lower morale. So every person on your team needs to be contributing, and they need to be productive busy, not creating problems and then becoming busy. There's a difference there. And this is actually how you'll get your staff into a much better mood as well. So refocus them. They already hear enough bad news. Make sure you celebrate the wins and successes, as small as they might be. It doesn't matter. And, you know, when your team has too much time on their hands to keep themselves interested and occupied, that's when they might actually start to even create problems out of nothing. Things that are not even problems will start getting discussed. And, you know, you might be really busy, but then if that person is not busy, it's like now you start noticing things that were never an issue before, but now suddenly, apparently, they're an issue. And then that gets routed to HR, and then HR doesn't become so pleasant. And usually in smaller businesses, it gets handled by the business owner who's already so busy, you don't have time to deal with those things. So another point to look at is that if your staff are not kept busy, if there's not enough for them to do and you're not managing that, this is also when you will typically have your really good staff start looking for work. If they feel they can't do enough, they like to contribute, they like to keep the exchange right. So if you're paying them money— again, this might sound crazy, but really good people do think like this. They like to keep good exchange in place. So if they don't feel they're contributing where they are, they'll start looking elsewhere, and companies that are hiring now will snap them up. So, it's also important for you to keep your really good staff, to keep them there. You absolutely need to keep them busy. Make them feel needed. Not just busy, not contributing, but make sure you really work out a plan to get them contributing. And again, like right now, it might seem tough, but you need to be shooting for minimally improvement, ideally expansion, not just survival. It's absolutely crucial. Part 2 of looking at increasing team morale is actually, again, communication and keeping your team engaged with the vision. This is even more important now when working from home. I think I saw a stat somewhere about 60% of people working from an office are now working from home. So it's really important that you set regular meetings and have an agenda with purposes. So you don't want meetings to go fluffy, People are busy. People are there to achieve a result. Have a structure and stick to it and make sure it's achieved. So one example here is here at Performia, we actually have 2 different types of team meetings. We have a Friday afternoon drinks catch-up, and you drink welcome, drinks catch-up where one of our staff is actually responsible for setting a really fun theme for that day. Last week was red theme day. I have red nails. So I fit in quite easily. But so, you know, on that Friday, it's all positive highlights. We're doing a debrief. We're looking at all the great things that happened, all the wins, all the positive things, all the highlights. And we're also looking at what the team did really, really well. We celebrate them. And then come Monday is a very different meeting. It's all 100% production-focused. So on the Friday, we're looking at wins, personal and professional. And then on the Monday, we're looking purely at what were the results that were achieved, what were the statistics of that person, what are they shooting for in the new target. If their statistic was down, what do they have planned to get it up? Everyone has a graph that they measure themselves on. And The other really key point is that when you have a team, it's really important to make sure they're accountable to a specific result, a target, a measure. And then when they report on their targets, it's really up to them to tell you what they're going to do to get to that target. It's not your job. Your job as a manager is to provide the right training, the right support, the right platform, that enables a person to do that job. But really, you provide them the runway, but how quickly they run on that runway is really up to them. So then this is also how you create a culture of performance. It's really important. So with us, we have our fun, really good fun on that Friday. It's quite nice. And then on Monday, it's all production-focused. And one really key thing, the reason why we do do it on a Friday is that we like to end it on an especially good positive note for the weekend for them. We want them to have a nice positive mindset for their weekend. And we actually do care quite a bit about people's mindset and their emotional state. And just on a side note, it's actually one of the reasons that when we send rejection letters to candidates as part of their application process when we help companies is that We actually send a rejection letter on a Thursday, not a Friday. We send it on a Thursday, and the reason is because we want to give them the opportunity to clarify any problems and questions on the Friday and then move forward for their weekend. So they're people, you know, it's like we need to do the right thing by everybody. So that was a bit of a sidetrack, but I thought it might— that's something that we do. Okay, moving on. So coming back to our team morale, Now, look, this doesn't mean that when we focus on positive things and good results, good performance, highlights, it doesn't mean that we don't have issues and we don't have challenges that we need to solve. But there's a time and place. And we make sure that we keep our Friday meeting in irrespective of anything else going on. Because it's actually what brings the team together, united, focused, and Despite anything else going on, it keeps that commonality together. So, that's really crucial, and I'd really recommend that you do have those types of team meetings in place. All right. So, part 4 of this, and let me ask you this. If you look at your team and then look at a really successful sports team, If you can just write in the chat box, what are some of the things you quickly notice about a successful sports team? What are the things that a successful sports team does really well? And what is it about it? Just write it in that comment box. So what is it? What are some of the factors about a successful sports team that allows them to to do what they do best. Yep, so we've got some people saying they trust in each other, work together. Yep, yep, work together, absolutely. They have the same goals, 100%. Clear roles, absolutely. They help each other. Wow, that's 100% right. And when we look at the real features of them, it's that purpose. It's pretty clear why they're there. You know, they've got, they've got that common purpose. We know why they're there. Everybody wants the same thing, and it's very, very obvious. They have a game to play. The game is measured. There's numbers, and everyone is in it for the, for the same purpose. It's very simple, isn't it, when you look at a sports team? So why should it be any different when you Look at your own team. Suddenly, it gets quite complex. It becomes unimaginable. But if we look at this, because you've got teams that go through different emotional states at any point in time, and it's very common. Now, if you have staff who are upset, a bit bored with what they're doing, or they might be angry, or they're in some sort of fear because they're uncertain with what's really going on, how good is their state of mind going to be, and also the quality of the decisions they're making? If someone is in fear of what's happening, are they going to be more making short-term decisions or really thinking long-term? Now, if that person's in a more senior role, this becomes even more problematic. So the other point is, how fun are they going to be to have around if they're in those lower emotional states? And how fun will it be for them? They're probably not really enjoying it. They don't want to be in that emotional state. So one very effective way to actually have your team operating at a new level is to get them involved in the game, the game of your business. And you can do this at every level in your company. Work out a game, set the rules of the game. The rewards should be pretty obvious. For one, the company is going to do a lot better. Create more opportunities. But on top of this, you might also have some incentives. And, you know, the key to building really high-performance teams is to actually get your team producing more through their inner drive that's pushing for the same purpose. The other thing that this does, when you have the same purpose, you have the same goals, Is that, and you have a game, what usually will happen is that those little menial problems, they'll go away. They will evaporate before they become anything. So why? Because everyone's playing the same game. Sure, everyone might get a bit angry and frustrated time to time, but so they do that in a sports team as well. I play lacrosse, and if I miss the ball, I might get mad. bit frustrated myself. So it's only natural, right, to have those emotions. But the point is that you're all going for the same goal. The game is measured. You all are measuring, you know what you're contributing. And the other point is that, you know, how each person is contributing. It's not just the team factor. So that's quite crucial. And look, the other thing is that When people are busy producing things, they create value, they see the impact of what they're doing and their value, they also go in a better mood themselves. And they go higher in their tone level and they start making better decisions, better quality decisions. So there are some of the ways you can get your team morale up. Now, one of the things that has come about when we've talked to our clients is how can they make decisions today? Because it's quite tough. Things are changing constantly. For example, this week in Victoria, where we are, we received some good news about lowering of restrictions. We can have friends over now, limited numbers, but still, it's better than one person. And the Treasurer was saying that Australia's economy is going to grow by almost $10 billion a month. So now the fact is that on any given day, it's going to be quite difficult to make decisions if you don't have all the facts present. That's about anything. If you're going to go buy something, it's like if you don't have enough correct information about it, how are you going to make the right decision? And how do you get these facts if you don't have them? And when it comes to your team, some companies really watch their staff and really know exactly what's going on. But generally, micromanagement is not really appreciated in the workplace. People like to be trusted. And especially in the current times where people are not there for you to constantly look at what they're doing, it becomes even more important to have facts present for you to make decisions based on that. So, you know, there's a lot of bad news, a lot of bad press, a lot of things on the TV, and you could very easily make assumptions. But rarely will you, unless you can, you're very effective and proven at making calculated guesses and coming up with good decisions. But for majority of people, it's quite difficult to make good decisions off assumptions. So we need to always look at facts. And one important thing is to actually have statistics in place. And we've come to realize that not every business operates off statistics. And statistics is basically the collection of data and facts. And every company needs to have specific statistics for each part of the organization. Many of these will get reported by the team because it's based on their production and some will be automatic from system reports. Now, each of your team members needs to know exactly what is the key result of their role and then how they measure that and keep track of that because then that is what will actually give you the information and give you the statistics When you have stats on production, you'll be able to pinpoint with accuracy the areas that need attention before they even brew to become a problem. You'll know also who's contributing and who's pretending. So, without statistics that measure actual production, and we're talking correct statistics, you'll tend to rely a lot more on How people look and sound, how busy they look, how well they communicate, how early they start, and how late they finish. But you see, this is— and I'm sure many of you have noticed this— this is where it can actually get quite dangerous. Because just looking busy or communicating well or working long hours doesn't actually equate to results. If you can just put a comment in the chat box, do you operate with statistics? Do you have much stats in the workplace? Have you ever found yourselves making assumptions during the day, during the week about people? I'm sure I've been guilty of it. And the other point about statistics is that When you have real statistics, you can make decisions based on how your graphs are trending and you'll know what requires attention. So, but just to give you an example, because there's a thing we also call indicative statistics. So, let's say, for example, you measure your sales and some of the key contributors to that could be number of appointments. Now, if you start noticing that the number of appointments are dropping when in fact usually in the past they've always been quite high, you need to now take that as an indication that, look, very quickly I need to be on top of this because my sales are probably going to be impacted. So then you can actually use that as an indication to start taking certain actions and get moving because they're what we call indicative statistics. And another really, really interesting point is that what gets measured gets done. So I'll just repeat that. What gets measured gets done. It's actually quite a powerful line because if you're not measuring things, people also don't really get the importance of it and it can go unnoticed. So if something is of importance to you, make sure you measure it. This is quite crucial. Thanks for everyone who shared there. We've got our regular contributors. Thank you for that. And now let's look at our job as managers. We also have a very, very key role, and one of it is actually to create just enough of the right level of challenge for our team members that gets them operating a little bit out of their comfort zone. And, you know, it's really important for us that we actually keep our teams really focused on the key end result of their position and for the team that they're part of and keep them actually really focused and undistracted from anything that doesn't contribute. The other part that is associated with our role is actually It's our responsibility to get the best from our team. And one thing to realize is that people are different, they have different personality types, and the more you know about your team, well, then you can adapt your style to them. But of course, you might know your team from a long time and already know how to get the best out of them. So make sure you know your people, because that will really allow you to make the right recommendations to your team. Now, it's also really possible, especially right now, it's very possible that in your company, you'll have some areas a lot more busier than other areas of your company. So, for example, let's say you've got your operations team, they might not have as much to deliver in services. You need to start looking at reorganizing, at least for the current period, to get you out of the situation. Don't worry that their job description doesn't cover that. It doesn't matter. You're in survival and expansion mode right now. So for that person, I would look at how can they contribute to create more activity. Could they start doing surveys with clients, complete backlogs, contact customers, get testimonials, make calls and book appointments, help you go digital, help with social media. Basically, make a list of all the things that would help the company right now. And then think about all the things that you've always wanted to get done and then start allocating tasks. And look, some businesses also will be completely forced to shut. One example is nail salons, nail and beauty salons. They're completely closed. So they might look at it and go, look, my team is just— they can't function. But what are some of the things that the owner or some of the team members of that kind of salon could do? Perhaps you could start calling the regular customers and start building a bit of a database and update them with news. Check in on them, see how they're doing. Be honest. Be honest, but also Keep a positive tone. You don't want to bring them down as well. So just be positive. But that whole communication will actually help your morale, keeping communication with them and keep you at the forefront of their mind when things— when restrictions do lift. Now, if you have done the Performia personality evaluation, that's just a graph on the side, then if you've done that on your team in the past, that will also give you some insights and ideas about, you know, are they more likely to like routine and like to know things like stability, or are they more challenge-oriented? Because then also you can develop the right projects that's suited to them as well and adjust your communication to suit their style. So, you know, around this time, you might be noticing a lot more, you know, when things are under pressure, you might notice a lot more easily who is really on your team, based on their contribution, their willingness, and their interest. You'll really start to realize who really is on your team. And the truth of the fact is that your business really cannot tolerate low willingness to help and low production ever, but especially not now. Especially for small businesses, you don't have unlimited buffer. For errors and mistakes and low production. So, if you have people who are unwilling to help, you need to set the expectation. Be very clear about the outcomes that you really require. Obviously, support them. Let them know the right— the support that you're willing to provide. But also, they're the people that you need to keep an eye on and have measures in place Collect statistics so you know what is actually going on. And look, ultimately, if there's no willingness and there's no results, it's quite simple to realize that you probably don't have the right person if they also have a track record of being that way. Now, your business definitely cannot afford that. So, You know, we actually have a saying at Performia that the worst combination you could get in a person is that they're unproductive, they don't fit the job, they don't get along with others, but they're not going to stay— but they're not going anywhere and they're going to stay forever. This would be the worst combination you can get. So when it comes to low producers, just monitor their production, give them a number they're responsible for, and measure the results. That's all you can do, manage by statistics and manage by performance. Because there's a lot of fantastic people on the market right now who do want to work. And they're out there. So the other side of it is let's not let these low producers take all of our attention. In fact, the majority of your attention should go on your high producers. So, make sure you are supporting these productive guys at the front of the cart. Make sure you're supporting them by taking an interest in them. Support them with setting goals and make sure you actually acknowledge their successes, as small as it might be. It's like nothing is too small right now. Right now, even the smallest accomplishments should be acknowledged, should be celebrated. So just make sure that you are putting attention on your high producers. Just an example, it's like let's say you had a new training program, right, that was designed to boost sales, and you had to pay for this training program. If you paid this, if you put your top producers into this training and you invested all this time and energy into your top producers, If they increase their result by 10%, what's the difference going to be? Now imagine you've given that same training to your low producers. If they increase their result by 10%, what is it going to be? So you know that you've got to put more of your attention on the people who are actually there, interested, willing, and want to do the right things. This is very crucial. Just to touch on this, because communicating remotely, this has obviously become a lot more critical at the moment. And for some companies, this is totally normal. It's quite okay for them. They've done it before. But just some stats that we got from Seek employment website is that 35% of candidates are now working from home. 60% or 61% of office workers are now working from home. So this just shows you what a big shift there's been. And there's opportunities within that. As long as you've got— if you have the right systems to support that, to hire people and then to onboard them and then to manage them, this could be a great opportunity if your business allows it. Obviously, if you've got a dental practice, it's like there's not really much opportunity within that. It's not going to help a great deal. But, you know, for those of you who do have teams working from home, make sure you set agreed working hours so you know how to reach your team and vice versa and how they can reach you. At the moment, there's actually been some problems that for people who are working from home, the receptionists are having this— having a hard time connecting people. This is a big, big problem for sales, for your customers. What's the impact if your customer can't reach your staff? You know, and what's the job of a receptionist? The job of a receptionist is to create connections, you know, to have smooth connections. And if you're not having connections, that's going to impact your sales and your customer relations even more. So make very sure that you have this Seamless. If someone's working from home or anywhere else, they need to be reachable, and it needs to be— it should make zero difference to whether someone's in your office or not. And make sure you have those group meetings like we discussed. Always set agendas so that you don't forget and you don't miss what's going to be discovered— discussed. And also, at the start of every meeting, make it a bit of a habit that you always cover Good news. Just go through your good news, even if it might be just a few minutes. Make sure you cover that because it's crucial for motivation, morale, and the focus of your team. And just let them know that even if things look tough and we might be struggling here and there, we are also doing a lot of right things. So it could actually stop them— stop your really good staff from starting to look elsewhere for work. So moving on, one thing I did want to really share with you is because a lot of companies won't be hiring right now, but there are a lot of companies who are hiring right now. And one thing I want to let you know about the candidate market right now, and this is global, not just in Australia, this is everywhere right now, this is happening. The candidate market is like never before. Companies have been downsizing, companies have been delaying their hirings, companies have been cutting hours of people. What this has meant is that there are more people on the market than ever before. And, you know, you can see some stats there. 30% of casuals and 21% of contractors have either lost their job or been stood down. 7% of all workers have taken a pay cut. 1 in 4 have had their hours reduced. So all of this, and on top of this, there's been a lot of companies that have had to do forced shutdowns as well, which is very sad. So what this has meant is that there has been an abundance of candidates created on the job market. So the other point I want to just make here is that Some of the people on the market right now are people you would never ever see on the market. They would never be normally applying for jobs, but because of the reasons I just mentioned, they're on the market now. And did you know that every— for every day that you do not delay the decision to hire someone new, you increase the chance of attracting really top candidates because they're out there now. But as soon as this epidemic slows down and people, the general people, the general public, they're not worried anymore, the really great candidates, they will have already evaporated like water on a hot stone during a hot summer day. So you need to act now. You need to start planning now. And if you want great, great staff, You need to start planning for it. And there's a myth that, oh, but if I hire someone and I can't put them on right now, they won't stay. There's always a solution. There's always a way to manage it. So especially if you're looking for technical people, more qualified people, now's the time to start looking. And look, let's look again at an example of a company that is closed right now. I'm picking the worst case, right? Nail salons and beauty salons, they're closed. Well, what I know is that from speaking with quite a few business owners in that industry, it can be pretty tough for them to get really great nail technicians. And, but you know, like, all of them are closed right now. Can you even imagine that any would be hiring? My guess is no, no, they wouldn't be. It would just seem crazy for them to be hiring. But then now can you imagine if just one of them, If one of those nail salons started to advertise that they want to hire amazing nail technicians, can you imagine how far ahead they will be when— and what a massive talent pool they'll start to build of great people? Because they will have one voice that is different to all the others. They'll be communicating. It's nearly like the cheapest marketing you can be doing right now when everyone else is quiet, you have no competition. There's one voice, one message. And that's why I say even if you have been forced into the unfortunate situation of significant negative impact, there's still things you can do to try and get a bit more ahead. And for companies that have got some problems within their hiring process, it's like you can do contactless hiring. You don't need to see lead people to do your hiring. There's different processes that you can do. So it's absolutely possible to make sure people are going to be productive and fit the job before you bring them on. And we've actually got some clients who've been able to hire better, put better people on, and actually restructure the pays as well, because then it allows them to actually hire people, help out that person, but also help their own company viability and profitability as well. So nothing is not up for discussion. You can do— you can discuss everything. People want to work. There's amazing people out there. And the companies that actually start that process will really get ahead. We've also got the other side of it, the downsizing and dismissing, which has been happening quite significantly. And the thing is, this will happen, this exists at all times of the year for all businesses. We all need to dismiss people. Sometimes it's for expansion purposes. So the other point about the candidate market right now that I wanted to share with you is that there's, as much as there's amazing, really amazing people out there on the market right now, There's also an unusual high volume of people who are not so productive on the market right now. And look, naturally, it's because many companies will have used this period to also dismiss people who've not been effective for a long time. And it's become quite obvious now that they can't afford them. They could never afford them. But now it's become very obvious. So naturally, they've let those people go. So this has actually resulted in a bit of cleansing of teams, and also meant that there's more unsuitable people as well on the market. So this is where you also need to be very, very effective at how you screen people, and how much also time you invest in your process. Because, you know, ideally, if you look at your recruitment process, you need to be very fast at deciding who to put your attention on, because if you take too long to spot who you should interview and who you should take further, you might have already missed those diamonds in the rough, those amazing people, especially if you've got 100 people applying, sometimes more. How do you know very quickly which one is going to be the most effective person? So whenever you are restructuring or downsizing, Again, make sure you use statistics and you're not just going off how someone looks and appears and how busy they look. Always look for yourself. Always look at statistics. Because the person that you might think is too quiet and therefore they're not so good, that might actually be your, your most fantastic person. So make sure you're going off of statistics. So, we're running towards the end of our presentation. I've got a little summary here to just go through. But if you've got some questions, please make sure you place your questions in the chat box. We'll have a few minutes to go through them. So, in summary, let's make sure we use this time to plan ahead. Aim for expansion and improvement. What are the steps we can take right now to improve things? Not just survive, because if we shoot for survival, we'll land a bit below and we won't be viable. And start planning how you can actually take advantage of the candidate market right now. It doesn't mean you need to put people on right away, but if you don't put your feelers out there, if you don't put your strategy out there to get people, especially if you hire more, you know, you want great people and you want technical people, You will miss out. Every day that goes by that you don't start is one more day that you're shoving a knife in your heart. I know that's a bit dramatic, but that's what I am— dramatic. So when you're cutting costs, just make sure that you're also not cutting your growth prospects. You know, one really interesting thing is we've measured the results of financial controllers And we've seen that one of the ways we actually measure the results of financial controllers is by the success of the company as well. Because sometimes financial controllers will tell us the results in terms of the company profit, and we always take that with a bit of a grain of salt because we say, okay, you achieved a short-term profit here, but then did you cut the company at its legs that 2 years later now they couldn't run as fast, they couldn't operate because you made that sort of saving 2 years earlier. So make sure you really assess based on statistics when you are cutting costs. Don't cut down on your marketing. Keep that going. Keep communicating. Keep your team busy and productive. It will solve nearly all your problems. Get your team to help reorganize the workforce. Doesn't matter what their job description is. If there's work to be done and there's people that you've got, you just put 2 and 2 together and you get them busy, you get them productive. It's absolutely crucial for your team morale and your business productivity as well. And, you know, really start looking at what you can control, how you can be proactive, and really look at the candidate market right now and how you can take advantage Because the more optimistic companies, they will go out hiring and they will start getting ahead of the curve. And also keep communicating with your clients and your team. And make sure you celebrate and you share positive news because soon you will grow. You will grow out of this. Okay, so that was my presentation. Thank you so much for watching so far. We're getting some questions coming through, so please keep the questions coming and we'll cover as much as we can. And we've also put the links to our webin— our Performia Facebook and LinkedIn page in the comment box so you can follow us. We'll be sharing the news on our next webinar. Okay, so we have a question. I understand and agree, and now is the time to find new people. What do you do to hire new people if there is no income and budget now? We'll need people in the future when the crisis is, but how to overcome the gap? I understand fully. So this is when you can't quite put people on right now. Is that what you're saying, Vincent? So that's totally fine. It's like you can still start attracting people. You can start writing job ads that attract people. In the title, you can put EOI or expressions of interest. Start building your talent pool. Be honest in your communication to candidates, or at least once they apply, you can let them know. But it's like, if it's only going to be a matter of 1 or 2 months until you are ready, I mean, that's how long hirings take or can take. So don't worry about that. If I were you, I would work out the plan. And then the next part is, I don't know exactly what your salary structures are like, but there's a lot of different ways to structure pay. And when you hire a productive person, they should be able to contribute in such a way that creates value for you. You're not a bank. You're not just paying salary for no rewards, no results. So every person you hire should be creating value, should be contributing. So always work out how they can— how you keep that exchange in. And you can start hiring. You can start advertising now minimally. get the message out there. Does that help? Hope that helps. Okay, so we are nearly at time. If you do have more questions, chuck them into that chat box. If we don't get time now, we'll come back to you and share more news. Make sure you follow us on the pages. Wherever you are, depending on where you are, thank you. Really appreciate you being here. And depending on where you are, I wish you a fantastic morning or a fantastic evening. So thank you very much and all the best with your business. Thank you.