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Workforce Summit

The AFR Workforce Summit gathers the nation’s most influential business leaders, policy makers and stakeholder groups to dissect the profound shifts facing workforce and driving forces in the new realm of work.

Featured

You won’t die wondering what young employees think, says Kris Webb.

Five tips to manage your Gen Z workers

Knowing what these young employees want is one thing. Actually managing them – and trying to retain them – is quite another.

  • Sally Patten
IR changes an 'unambiguous assault' on gig work: Chamber of Commerce boss
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IR changes an 'unambiguous assault' on gig work: Chamber of Commerce boss

Chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) Andrew McKellar says the latest changes to Australia's industrial regulations rules are an attack on gig work.

  • Updated
Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood, Airtasker founder Tim Fung and Woodside vice president of corporate services Julie Fallon at the AFR Workforce Summit in Sydney.

No scrutiny of Labor’s workplace laws

Labor did not consult its top productivity adviser over its latest workplace laws, including the right to disconnect, a change industry says ‘shows common sense has left the room’.

  • David Marin-Guzman, Patrick Durkin and Euan Black

Workforce summit exposes IR inflexibility mismatch

The government calls its new industrial relations laws ‘closing loopholes’ when it is really about closing off flexibility.

  • The AFR View

How bosses are using generative AI to work smarter, better

Companies are still divided on whether automation and new AI will guarantee productivity and efficiency gains.

  • Samantha Hutchinson and Patrick Durkin
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February

 Jennie Rogerson says Canva wants to keep evolving its work from home policy.

We’re all guessing on WFH, but firms may soon need to pick a side

From Canva to JPMorgan, leaders are still feeling their way when it comes to working from home. But employees may be about to force the issue. 

  • James Thomson
Danielle Wood.

Aussie bosses falling behind in tech race

Local business leaders are lagging rich countries in adopting technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics, contributing to the economy’s productivity slowdown, Productivity Commission chairwoman Danielle Wood says.

  • John Kehoe
How JPMorgan polices return to office mandates
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How JPMorgan polices return to office mandates

JPMorgan CEO Robert Bedwell explains how the company is policing its return to the office mandates and how compliance affects performance reviews.

  • Updated
Medibank’s Kylie Bishop said early signs were good for its four-day week trial.

Four-day week v office mandate: One size does not fit all

Medibank’s Kylie Bishop says its workers on a four-day-a-week trial are less stressed, but JPMorgan says it needs its merchant bankers in the office every day.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Woodside Energy human resources head Julie Fallon has warned of adverse consequences from two Labor industrial relations policies.

Right to disconnect ‘a real challenge’ for global firms: Woodside

With offices around the world, Woodside fears the new labour rules could be stifling, and HR boss Julie Fallon says same job, same pay laws sap productivity.

  • Euan Black
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Woodside executive: same work, same pay adds paperwork, not productivity
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Woodside executive: same work, same pay adds paperwork, not productivity

Julie Fallon, executive vice president corporate services at Woodside Energy, says same work, same pay legislation adds bureaucracy, not to productivity.

  • Updated
The pay gap is finally shrinking at a faster rate.

Gender pay gap shrinks at fastest rate in 20 years

The “encouraging” change is largely thanks to fathers spending more time looking after their children and doing housework, according to the latest HILDA survey.

  • Hannah Wootton
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Dutton pledges to cut off employees’ right to disconnect

The opposition will present voters with a “targeted package” repealing key parts of Labor’s pro-union industrial relations regime, shadow ministers say.

  • Andrew Tillett
Michele Bullock said that she was a glass-half full “optimist” about a recovery from Australia’s post-pandemic productivity slump.

A bad week for Australian productivity and prosperity

Michele Bullock may be a glass-half-full optimist, but Labor’s latest moves will make economic recovery that much harder.

  • The AFR View
The right to disconnect.

Businesses’ guide to the new IR laws

Human resources and workplace lawyers explain how to manage the swath of workplace changes about to hit business.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Benham conducts fortnightly meetings with each of his direct reports, usually face-to-face and which last for between 45 minutes and an hour.

How to manage staff who work from home

Managing staff who work partly, or mostly, at home is no mean feat. Senior business leaders reveal how they do it.

  • Sally Patten
Mandi Ford (left), pictured with colleague Jacqui Walker, says people who want to work from home would “not be a good fit” for her concierge business.

Meet the bosses insisting on five days a week in the office

Some bosses are bucking the hybrid working trend and requesting staff return to the office full-time. They believe it makes it much easier to get stuff done.

  • Euan Black and Sally Patten
Company directors expect more staff will begin to return to the office in coming months.

More staff expected back in office: Lendlease, Seek, SBS chairmen

Senior directors are predicting an increase in office attendance the coming months as benefits of spending time in the workplace increase for workers.

  • Sally Patten and Patrick Durkin
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said he will seek to fix a right to disconnect before it comes into effect.

Burke’s workplace changes will undercut bargaining

Business groups say Labor’s industrial relations changes will lock in decades-old union conditions in workplaces and undermine the enterprise bargaining system.

  • David Marin-Guzman

What’s in Labor’s new workplace laws

Labor’s third tranche of workplace laws since its election is set to pass the Senate on Thursday. Here’s what businesses need to know.

  • David Marin-Guzman
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Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.

Labor’s IR bill as bad as the poor process

The changes extend the archaic inflexibility of Australia’s complex, legalistic and proscriptive industrial relations regime.

  • The AFR View
Senator David Pocock and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke.

Crossbench and Greens seal deal on workplace changes

Labor has reached a deal with the Greens and crossbench, but business slammed the secret process and “attempt to legislate common sense”.

  • David Marin-Guzman
CBA’s Gavin Munro with Microsoft’s Alysa Taylor, at the bank’s Sydney headquarters.

CBA claims AI is already making it work 30pc better

AI is making the bank’s highly paid staff more efficient by doing some of their boring work, CBA’s tech boss says, while its customers will deal with AI more.

  • Paul Smith
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said it was “a pretty good model” if employers had a right to reach out of hours but workers could still ignore them.

Burke and crossbench near deal on right to disconnect, casuals

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has backed not fining bosses who contact staff after hours as part of critical IR talks with the crossbench.

  • Updated
  • David Marin-Guzman
The RBA governor Michele Bullock is hoping for a sharp improvement in labour productivity to dampen stubborn inflationary pressures.

Bullock bets on sharp lift in productivity

The problem is that if productivity growth remains disappointing, the RBA’s hopes for a gradual reduction in inflation will be thwarted.

  • Updated
  • Karen Maley