Forum to keep staff

By Dion Teasdale
THE SHIRE of Yarra Ranges is hosting a forum aimed at identifying how employers can find good staff and keep them.
The shire will stage the Work Life Balance for Staff In Your Business Forum in Montrose on Monday, 10 April.
The forum is being run in partnership with Industrial Relations Victoria and French’s Laundry, Healesville, to help businesses retain staff and improve work performance.
Yarra Ranges councillor and representative on the Centre for Agriculture and Business Yarra Valley Board, Graham Warren, said the free forum was an opportunity for local businesses to explore strategies to improve job satisfaction for employees.
“Good staff find good jobs, and the more an employer can do to make a job attractive for prospective employees, the more likely they are to attract high-calibre staff,” Cr Warren said.
“They are also more likely to retain staff and improve work performance and staff commitment to their business.”
Cr Warren said the forum would help businesses with strategies to improve job satisfaction, work performance and staff commitment to their business.
“The Work Life Balance Forum is an opportunity for employers in the shire to hear from industry experts who have seen first-hand the benefits of providing employees with flexible and family-friendly workplace arrangements,” he said.
The forum will feature three guest speakers. Senior policy analyst for Industrial Relations Victoria, Leonie Morgan, will discuss why work and family balance is important to business, strategies that can be used, benefits to business and communicating and negotiating with staff to ensure success.
Managing director of French’s Laundry, Anthony Schache, will show how a negotiated training program has helped his staff gain skills in areas of their family and community life that have had a positive flow-on to his business.
Shire of Yarra Ranges human resources manager, Heather McIntyre, will discuss the various models of employment, flexible work arrangements and family-friendly initiatives used at the Shire of Yarra Ranges to benefit both employees and the shire.
Attendees at the forum will also have the opportunity to ask questions, or to speak from the floor about their own workplace initiatives.
The Work Life Balance for Staff in Your Business forum will be held at the Montrose Town Centre, Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, Montrose on Monday, 10 April. Registration and serving of a light meal will begin at 6pm, followed by speakers and an open forum from 6.30 to 8.30pm.
For bookings or more information, contact Donna Donovan on 1300 368 333. Bookings close Thursday, 6 April.