#Productivity
Why most small businesses using AI still aren’t seeing productivity gains
Treasury has warned Australia could miss AI’s economic benefits, and COSBOA says 2.7 million small businesses need targeted support to catch up.
Federal Budget 2026: Why the Treasurer’s productivity bet on AI may not pay off
The Budget has a productivity package. But who is responsible for making it work inside your business? HiBob’s Anna Volkova on the leadership gap that could stall Australia’s AI ambitions.
Productivity gains from AI are real. So are the talent risks that come with them
Caitlyn McDonough of Gartner on the workforce consequences of AI adoption that small businesses need to anticipate now.
Finding the sweet spot: Balancing productivity and employee wellbeing
In the latest edition of Let’s Talk, our experts delve into strategies for achieving the optimal balance between productivity and mental well-being in the workplace.
Why building a stand-out team is the secret sauce to agency growth in 2021
Here’s valuable leadership advice for not only managing staff in agencies, but in businesses as a whole. Read on…
There’s a 72% drop in face-to-face collaboration at work, so how can Australian businesses still harness group productivity?
By: Andy Hurt, Managing Director, Poly ANZ A single great idea can change the world, but it takes many hands and minds working together to turn that great idea into a reality. Looking at our workspaces today – this rings true. It’s rare to find an office now that isn’t open plan, designed to harness the power […]
Why working from home can lead to better performance
Organisations need to have more trust in their employees.
Research: 52% of employees are distracted by mobile at work
Research shows that employees check their phones up to ten times a day.
You don’t need to know dark art to run efficient, productive business meetings
We’ve all been there. A meeting is scheduled, most people arrive on time, and then nothing happens for ten minutes. Well, to be precise, quite a bit happens, or doesn’t happen, as the case may be. Usually those first ten minutes are lost because the team are trying to find a free meeting space to […]
The huge gains of incremental improvements
It’s a sobering exercise to consider where Australia ranks when it comes to global productivity levels. When the OECD compares countries by GDP generated per hour worked, Australia scrapes in at just 14th in the world.[1] We’re lagging the likes of Ireland, Germany, France and the United States. So, what’s the reason for this lacklustre […]
As the mercury rises, so too does employee productivity, new Robert Half study shows
Around three in five managers expect employee productivity to rise during the summer months, according to research commissioned by specialist recruiter Robert Half. The survey of 460 hiring managers from small, medium and large companies across Australia found that a majority expect their staff to be “somewhat more productive” or “much more productive” (58%) throughout […]
Are you focused or stressed? The hidden costs killing productivity in Australian workplaces
In today’s Australian workplace, employers are increasingly asking workers to do more, with less. This increased demand is ubiquitous and is readily accepted as the norm, so it may be surprising to many business leaders, and their employees, that the pressure to overachieve is creating an epidemic of poor work performance. Across Australian businesses, the […]
Why productivity is down despite a plethora of tech tools and how you can reverse the trend
If your employees are like most Australians, they work fairly long hours. But you can’t assume that just because they’ re working more, more work is getting done. Long hours might mean they love what they do and want to give it their all . Or it could mean their day is full of productivity […]
What happened when we banned email for a day
I spent all of last week travelling around Australia with one of my clients. She heads up innovation at a top tier law firm and I’d been brought in to deliver innovation keynotes at all of the firm’s offices. In one of our taxi rides, the conversation turned to email. She told me she gets […]
Branson is Wrong: you CAN train for attitude
Richard Branson is right about many things…but he’s wrong about attitude. One of his famous observations was that “you can learn expertise and gain experience but attitude is inherent”. In other words, you can’t train for attitudes – you hire attitudes. I believe that view is now defunct. By failing to train for attitude, organisations miss out […]
“It’s like Vegemite” – Why the business world has a love-hate relationship with culture
When it comes to business, culture is something of a ‘vegemite’ word: you either love it and embrace all that it stands for, or you hate it and avoid it at all costs. At Atomic 212°, we are tremendous believers in the virtue of strong culture, which we try to live by remembering that our […]
Time to stop ignoring the evidence: a healthy workforce fosters a healthy bottom line
With winter well and truly kicking in, it’s that time of the year when people get particularly vigilant about their own health. And there’s always that one person in the office who, upon hearing the hint of a sniffle, finds the culprit and demands they go home immediately to protect the well-being of everyone else. […]
Utilise your employee’s talent… or lose them
Employers must pay greater attention to the strengths and skills of their staff – or risk losing talented employees. That was the key take-away message from a national Wellness in the Workplace survey by professional development firm PDT involving 530 employees across the private, government and non-profit sectors. Of the 27% of respondents who didn’t […]
Increase productivity in three easy steps
Getting the most out of the work day is an important goal for most employees and organisations. Maintaining solid productivity levels is one of the most important factors in keeping a business profitable. Growth in productivity not only lowers costs, it permits sustainable growth and promotes efficiency. Improving productivity is not only favourable for businesses, […]
Beyond the ‘honeymoon’ phase: how to keep new employees motivated into the future
Employers often get the most out of their employees at the very beginning of their tenure, when the employee is keen to impress, eager to make a good impression, and excited to learn new things. But the honeymoon period doesn’t last particularly long, with most people becoming comfortable enough to rest on their laurels and […]
Productivity meltdown: what’s the best way to beat the heat (and maintain your bottom line)?
Well, that was a stinking few months! Thankfully, with March bringing summer to an end, we’ve seen a cooler change and hopefully this will be a boon for workplace productivity. What effect do these sweltering few months have on your business? Earlier this month, the Climate Council released their assessment of summer 2016-17 – dubbed “the […]
How to stop a sickie culture from taking root
With Australia Day falling on Thursday this year, an opportunistic employee might be tempted to ‘chuck a sickie’ on Friday to stretch the public holiday into a four-day weekend. While this course of action might be gratifying for the individual, it can compromise the employer’s bottom line – especially if a sickie culture develops and […]
The pros and cons of team building exercises
Have you ever been at a ‘team away’ day and, when faced with the choice of abseiling down a vertical cliff (supported by your team), raft building (again with said team members), or an archery challenge (at that point perhaps hoping not to be chosen as the target), struggled to recall why it had ever seemed […]
Cogs in a machine can’t strive for excellence
Companies can be such well-oiled machines they become just that: machines. Highly programmed to produce work at an exhaustively efficient rate – exhaustive to the staff, not the company, of course. Every employee is just one minor component; helpful to the overall operation but completely replaceable once worn out. These soulless environments can chew you up […]