Great and good things have come about because someone somewhere believed in what they were doing, and never lost hope or faith for a positive future, and removing or at least diminishing evil.  So let’s remain motivated and keep our own messages strong and encouraging.

Believe in your own businesses, and your own abilities to work through the coming months. Continue to engage the very best practice methods you have long ago introduced, or upgrade to ensure your own futures.

Penrith Valley is still very much the right place to be and make it happen, our own ‘land of opportunity’! And of course we need to work to achieve it. But rewards do come even in tough times.

All the more important this year will be your attendances at as many of our networking functions and special activities as you can. Reinforce your relationships with others and keep top of mind on their ‘shopping’ lists. As well we will be holding workshops specifically targeted at surviving tough times and managing a better workplace. Some of these sessions will be free. All our programs will be presented by professional people offering and reinforcing best practice in their fields of expertise. Please take advantage of these.

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Tips for businesses to adapt to the future workforce
• Make employing the right staff for your particular business a key priority. Poor recruitment is an expensive mistake for any business, even more so in times of a severe skills shortage.
• Have sensible HR risk management strategies in place. This will better prepare a business for the worsening skills crisis. Strategies should be primarily focused on attracting skilled staff, retaining skilled workers; and employing measures for integrating different generations into one motivated team.
• Before making an employment decision: Reassess your business plan and consider what skills your business needs for now and the future. Develop detailed job descriptions for the roles you need to fill. Undertake employee screening and choose new staff wisely. Be aware of the value of diversity of staff by gender, ages, skills and background
• Develop practices, such as job sharing and job rotation, to encourage knowledge transfer within the organisation.
• Have flexible HR practices, offering part-time and variable hours, which acknowledge the family commitments of employees.
• Recognise the value of interpersonal skills, which are critical to maintaining effective work practices.
• Develop a culture that reflects the values and needs of the employees. Update staff skills constantly to optimise the value of employees and enable them to move up within the organisation.
• Become an employer of choice and adapt the culture to meet these challenges.

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Testimonials – Member Feedback Unsolicited

'I would absolutely love to mention CTC Communications so everyone knows how brilliant they are! We met them through the Chamber (at the Little and Rabie evening) and they installed a new phone system for us - they have been absolutely unbelievable, the service is just phenomenal - I cannot emphasise it enough. Graham and his team have really gone above and beyond for us to make sure that they system is everything we need and more and I just thought if we could acknowledge that publicly somehow it would be great ... !

Many Thanks , Paul and Elaine Montgomery

Functions:
 
Tracey Loughland - AAA Safe Cash AAA Security Solutions - I want to express my thanks for the informative and supportive evening on Wednesday at the Small Business Support Group.  Very unsure of what I was to encounter it was a wonderful opportunity to meet other people “in the same boat” and talk about the joys of being a business owner.  Through talking to a few of the other members I became aware of some areas that I need to address and offered advice to others.  A big THANKYOU to Telstra Countrywide for their presentation and for the Lucky Door Prize – the jacket will come in handy for the car races and football, please pass on my thanks for me.

Debbie O’Connor – Penrith Valley Home Based Business Network - I just wanted to thank you for the Small Business Networking meeting on Wednesday evening.  It is the first one that I have been to and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The atmosphere was so friendly and welcoming and I got to not only meet, but actually talk to some wonderful business owners. I think it’s a wonderful Chamber initiative!

Tracey Machut – Tony Ferguson Weightloss Centre - I have attended the Monthly Networking evening and Small Business Group Networking Functions, I found them great value for business connections. I was very impressed with the Small Business Support Group.

 Website:

Linda Kemp – Complete Recruitment Solutions - I have been advertising on the PVCC website since becoming a member of the chamber last year, just after the website was launched. I thought “$1.50 per day is not a lot to risk…let’s give it a try” We are a really new business, just over a year old now, so we really needed to do something different to ‘get our name out there’. Whenever we have enquiries from new prospects (clients), we always ask how they came to hear about us, and I am amazed at how many times we hear the words ‘we saw your ad on the Chamber website’.

When we originally decided to try advertising with a small ad, I wasn’t sure if we would get much response, but I am so impressed with the feedback that we get, that I have decided to invest in a larger size ad.