I would like to clarify a comment of mine quoted in your story on the Reputex ratings headlined ‘Westpac wins top social responsibility rating’ (Human Resources magazine, issue 43) where “Burrow said that one of the worst performing companies in employee ratings was wood products firm Carter Holt Harvey.”
I would like to clarify a comment of mine quoted in your story on the Reputex ratings headlined ‘Westpac wins top social responsibility rating’ (Human Resources magazine, issue 43) where “Burrow said that one of the worst performing companies in employee ratings was wood products firm Carter Holt Harvey.”
I understand that my reference to the (unpublished) employee ratings has been confused with the (published) workplace practices category score and the (published) overall ratings. The employee ratings were coordinated by the ACTU from reports from employees and relevant unions as one of five groups contributing to the workplace practices score. While Carter Holt Harvey achieved ‘satisfactory’ ratings in the workplace practices category and in the overall ratings, the company was one of the worst performing in the employee and union ratings coordinated by the ACTU. My comment was made in the context of highlighting noteworthy aspects of the ratings for employees and unions including mention of some of the best as well as the worst-performing companies.
– Sharan Burrow, ACTU President
Keeping it in the family
In response to your editor’s note in Issue 43: As a family company employing more than 400 staff it is with some pride that we have taken note of the regularity with which our staff stay well past their ‘use-by’ date and on into the future. In fact since I saw the need to actually create a HR department in our company some seven to eight years ago, there have been more and more 10-year and 15-year long service certificates and holidays come across my desk. On average we turnover our staffing of 400 once a year with the majority of those departures being in the 17 to 20-year-old bracket as they find their feet (or lack of them) with the balancing act of study and work pressures. This is a particularly low turnover figure for hospitality.
In a company of 38 years with at least one manager having been with us since we opened in 1965, it is quite common throughout our company for me to hear that it is the ethics, spirit and moral standpoint of the company that inspires them to stay on together with the training support and other standard reasons as outlined in the testimonials. With our office staff it would be the company’s interest in alternative health and general philosophy of courtesy that keeps them happy.
– Samantha Meadmore, human resource executive, The Pancake Parlour Restaurant Group Australia
