All posts by Ali Brown

Turning your hobby into a business


Heather from Flax Floristry School shares her experience about running a small business: “Recently I travelled with Tracey Wildhaber to speak at an MSD Expo called “Helping Yourself Expo” I was asked to speak as an encouragement to those with disabilities, or those going through long term unemployment to look to their hobbies as a potential business opportunity. I suffer with severe early onset Osteo Arthritis which effects my mobility and live with chronic pain every day. I’m also managing 2 herniated discs in my lower back. Without Flax and Fibre and my Flax Floristry School I would be on a disability benefit. I can work and provide for my family because Flax Floristry is so flexible and varied. Even with disabilities and limited finances this career has helped me be Able. I wanted to share this opportunity to others, thats why I started Flax Floristry School. Flax floristry can be a life changing career option, especially for those who can only work 15 hours a week for what ever reason!”

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Remembering Iwa

We are very sad to advise that our ‘volunteer’ for many years, Iwa, has passed away. For a number of years, Iwa has been coming to work at Catapult with his Mum Vicky, our Office Administrator. Iwa has been a real member of the Catapult family, his friendly presence helping clients to feel comfortable and giving them a welcome to the premises. We miss you Iwa. Thanks for being part of Catapult for so long.

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10 tips for employers when hiring staff

These useful tips are from an article in The Conversation, entitled “10 ways New Zealand employers can turn the ‘great resignation’ into a ‘great recruitment’”, December 3, 2021

Here are their top 10 tips:

Choose your words carefully: write inspiring, authentic job advertisements. If your recruitment team can’t do it, get someone who can.

Be realistic: create reasonable candidate specifications – wanting extreme levels of skill, attitude and experience is likely put off good candidates.

Canvas others: when designing employee value propositions, get input from recruiters and current employees.

Remember glass houses: recognise there is no such thing as perfect behaviour when using behavioural-based interview questions, especially given the organisation itself may be questionable in some of its conduct.

Consider the context: give due consideration to reference check results – if a candidate’s last boss says he or she was disconnected in the end, perhaps it’s because they were already in a high state of turnover intention.

Go back to the future: be open to hiring past employees. Initiatives such as alumni programmes can be used to connect with and recruit former employees.

Know your team: be open to conversations about the attributes and attitudes of the person a successful candidate will be reporting to, and the team they will be working with.

Be technology wise: use automated recruitment technology (such as SnapHire, JobAdder or QJumpers) to enhance – not replace – an integrated people-oriented recruitment experience.

Provide clear pay ranges: if an applicant knows what the pay is from the outset, it saves everyone valuable time and energy.

Be gracious: formally thank all candidates for applying – this can help ensure you retain them as future applicants and/or customers. Find out more...