
AFR — Staff retention strategies top of mind for finance bosses
Kris Grant, CEO of ASPL Group, shares strategies for retaining staff, in response to the tightening labour market and talent shortage with the Australian Financial Review.
1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
My name is Kris Grant and I am the CEO of ASPL Group. I’ve held this position for nearly eight years. I lead a diverse team across Asia Pacific and we work across a range of portfolios.
Our clients include various government departments, health organisations, corporates and businesses in FMCG, telcos and tech. Our services include management consulting, training & coaching and talent recruitment.
We work to create total business solutions for our clients which align their people, their processes and their systems. This means we recruit and train employees, help optimise processes and systems to be more innovative and client focussed and we assist with common HR challenges – especially in leadership development and increasing capability.
My background and tertiary education is actually in finance! I started my career as financial controller in the resources and tech sectors for a decade before moving into HR and recruitment.
At 32 – and as a mother of two young children – I was made a C-level executive for an international recruitment firm, leading a team across Asia Pacific. This is where I developed my passion for people and culture and I discovered my flair for creating client solutions.
Looking back, I have learnt so much from my journey which I share regularly and my greatest achievement are my two incredible children, Aimee and Adam who are such inspirational, engaged young adults.
I’m also really passionate about inclusion and diversity, ending discrimination and working towards gender equality in the workplace. This is something we live and talk about daily at ASPL Group.
We created the #WeLead campaign as a way of amplifying the success of women in the workplace. By sharing their journeys and celebrating their achievements, we have created a platform and space which keeps the important conversations of gender equality front of mind.
We love speaking to leaders about what tangible changes they’re making in this space and what hurdles they have had to conquer as women in the workforce.
Kris Grant, CEO of ASPL Group, shares strategies for retaining staff, in response to the tightening labour market and talent shortage with the Australian Financial Review.
‘Employees who aren’t happy will walk’, CEO Kris Grant shares her thoughts on the latest employee turnover rates as many individuals take the lyrics from Beyonce’s newest single as a sign to hand in their resignation.
In the first half of 2022, Australian job advertisements reached its highest record level in 16 years. The rise of recruitment activity meant job ads were 25.7% higher compared to a year ago and 77.3% higher (or about 130,100 available positions) than pre-covid levels. SEEK revealed that job ads rose 2.1% from April and 25.6% year over year.
Most industries across Australia are suffering from skill and talent shortages. The National Skills Commission predicts almost a million new jobs will be created by 2025 on top of this. Our CEO Kris Grant shares with the @Smart Company’s five strategic priorities to retain staff to ensure businesses survive in one of the most challenging skill crises we have had in a long time.
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