Cr advantage Issue Nine

cr advantage the magazine for Church Resources Members issue nine march 2014

You’re invited to CR’s Procurement Showcase

CR advantage

march 2014

Contents

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You’re invited to CR’s Procurement Showcase

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10 talent strategy game changers for 2014

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Member case study - Feros Care

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School group travel - why it doesn’t need to be stressful

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CathNews celebrates fifteen years

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Australia’s first not-for-profit Apple Authorised Education Reseller

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A flexible approach to activity tracking for CR Members

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Save with our ‘My Benefits portal’

Welcome to Issue nine Dear Member, Welcome to the first edition of CR Advantage for 2014. CR Advantage is your guide to how you can make the most out of your Membership of Church Resources, with great savings ideas from our range of solutions.

In this edition, we’re excited to invite you to our first CR Procurement Showcase - an exciting, free event to help you gain a better understanding of procurement best practice. I hope to see you there!

We also bring you news of a new school group travel offer from Campus Travel, as well as the latest from some of our Preferred Partners, including Medibank, Randstad and Apple.

With best wishes,

Luke Kenny CEO, Church Resources

Share your thoughts At CR, we always want to hear what our Members think of CR Advantage and how we can help you. Send your thoughts to cradvantage@cr.org.au.

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CR advantage

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Free event for Church Resources Members Church Resources is constantly looking for new ways to assist our Members in the not-for-profit industry to gain maximum value from their procurement.

As a result, we are launching a new series of ‘procurement showcase’ events to give you a chance to learn more about procurement best practice, hear a viewpoints from a range of speakers, and meet with other procurement descision makers from not-for-profit organisations. the first of these procurement showcases is being held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, on Thursday 10th of April, and attendance is absolutely free for employees of not-for-profit organisations.

We hope to bring you details of more events across Australia in the coming months.

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CR Procurement Showcase: Lessons learned from bad procurement The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 10th April 2014, 7.20am We are delighted to bring you Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision as the Keynote Speaker.

Join us for lessons learned from bad procurement and hear about the impact procurement can have on your not-for-profit organisation.

Tim Costello is one of Australia’s most sought after voices on issues of social justice, leadership and ethics. Since 2004 Tim has been CEO of World Vision, Australia’s largest international development agency.

Trained in economics, law, education and theology, Tim has practised law, served as a Baptist minister, and has been active in church and community leadership, local government and national affairs.

In addition, the Panel Procurement discussion will feature contributions from our panel of special guests: Harry Banga - Director, Bill d’Apice - Partner, Markinson d’Apice Lawyers Lynne Simpson - National Procurement Analyst, Little Company of Mary Health Care Carole Dunphy - National Procurement Manager, Mission Australia

Format The event is a breakfast function and a hot breakfast will be served.

it’s free!

Register now To book your place for this exclusive, Member only event, click here to provide your details: http://www.crprocurementshowcase. eventbrite.com/?aff=CRA

Timings 7:20 – 7:45: Arrival and networking (coffee served looking out to the beautiful Sydney harbour); 7.50 – 8:00: Everyone takes their seats and breakfast is served; 8:00 – 8:15: Welcome, CR CEO Luke Kenny; 8:15 – 8:45: Keynote Speaker, World Vision CEO Tim Costello; 8:45 – 9:30: Panel procurement discussion; and 9:30 – 10:00 Q+A and departure.

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CR advantage

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10 talent strategy game-changers for 2014 Organisations, whether large or small, need to be more serious about workforce planning, talent sourcing and investment in strengthening their employer brand if they are to remain an attractive proposition in Australia, New Zealand and throughout Asia this year.

With talent acquisition challenges on the horizon for many industry sectors, those wishing to stand out from local and international competition will start placing a greater focus on workforce planning and talent analytics sooner rather than later.

Reluctance to invest time in workforce planning strategies may hinder the ability to attract talented employees to fill pipelines for critical roles and leadership in the future.

With a skilled, engaged and satisfied workforce key to maintaining productivity levels, strategic talent management needs to become a central business consideration in the coming year according to the annual World of Work research, commis-

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sioned by recruitment & HR solutions specialists, Randstad.

Organisations need to take time to assess what their employees’ value in the workplace and ensure these are incorporated into the heart of business and talent management plans.

Not every employee is after a bigger pay cheque.

If people are happy at work, if they’re being recognised for their efforts, if they are motivated to achieve their goals by inspirational leaders, if they see a clear development path and have the flexibility they need to balance their work and personal commitments, then success and engagement will follow. And these aren’t actions that require any great expense.

Analysing the data received from over 5,500 employers and employees across Australia and almost 14,000 respondents throughout the Asia Pacific region, it’s clear that refining skills and expertise in the following 10 game-changing areas will assist business leaders in driving future business success in 2014:

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Plan ahead

With skilled talent shortages set to persist, better talent mapping and workforce planning is essential to secure a diverse, high performing, creative, adaptive and productive workforce, particularly to feed the leadership pipeline.

2. Align workforce & business strategies

aligning attraction, retention and employee development strategies with overall business strategy makes it easier to plan your workforce while motivating employees to achieve their goals.

3. Cultivate new leaders

there is a leadership crisis in Australia – it’s time for organisations to invest in a pipeline of leaders to drive high performance and growth. The aim is to develop creative and adaptive professionals with wide-ranging experience who are confident with risk and uncertainty, whilst also sourcing visionary, authentic leaders who are comfortable managing through uncertainty.

4. Boost productivity

tackling Australia’s productivity challenge means getting every employee in your organisation working together to achieve better outcomes – so focus on strategies to boost the performance and productivity of your workforce.

5. Increase employee engagement

essential to boosting productivity and performance is the need to strengthen employee engagement and collaboration of your people. Invest in career development and training to facilitate this.

6. Improve & innovate

to remain relevant and engaging to the customers of today and tomorrow, continue to adapt, improve and innovate your products, services and the way in which you work.

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Keep up-to-date

having access to the latest technology will help to drive continuous business efficiency, innovation and a high performance workforce. It will also boost engagement, both internally and externally to your business.

8. Up-skill & outsource

build up expertise in specific areas of your business, or outsource to the experts. Outsourcing key elements of your talent strategy to specialists in talent sourcing, recruitment, development, HR and talent management is an effective way to access hard-to-find skills, boost the quality and potential within your workforce, create efficiencies and save money – while allowing you to focus on your core strengths.

9. Revitalise your EVPs

when competition for talent is fierce, define a compelling employee value proposition to strengthen your employer brand. What is it that makes your company unique? Why do people choose to work for you? Use your employer brand to convey these important messages. Employers who lead this charge will enjoy better retention, engagement and productivity and attract a higher calibre of talent.

10. Manage change successfully

ensure you have the right people/teams and leaders in place to effectively manage change – whether it’s internal or external – and realise this is an ongoing process that can have a significant impact on the overall success of your business strategy.

Church Resources partners with Randstad to assist our Members with their recruitment needs.

To request the Randstad World of Work Game-Changer series, please visit www.randstad.com.au/workforce360.

Randstad is passionate about matching people with organisations that will create enormous potential – as when the right people are in place, the business opportunities which can be created are endless. Click here to get in touch and lean mre about how Randstad can help you.

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CR advantage

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Member case study: Feros Care Feros Care is an award winning, not-for-profit aged and community care provider with operations in regional New South Wales and Queensland.

Feros Care wanted to bridge the gap between the geographical locations that they cover. Their facilities extend 1,000 kilometres up and down the eastern seaboard so they wanted to link offices for better communications and remove the need for frequent travel. Their care managers frequently work from home offices and they wanted to provide a way for them to engage in face-to-face communications with other team members.

CR introduced Feros Care to a video conferencing solution from LifeSize, and calculated that Feros Care would get a return on investment in less than two years. Less than three months after going live, they already believe that this was a conservative figure.

With the guidance of CR’s Preferred Partner, LifeSize, Feros Care deployed seven LifeSize Express 220 room-based systems and one LifeSize Passport device. Passport gave them the capability of inter-operating with Skype. LifeSize are the only provider that can interact with Skype straight into a room-based system.

Feros Care liked the ease of use and the standardised way of using all the different models.

Obviously, the decision also came down to cost.

They are a community based organisation and must ensure they maximise value from all suppliers. Two of the other systems that they considered came in at extraordinary amounts of money, and when Feros Care compared what they were offering to the LifeSize system offered through CR, they could not see the difference that would account for an extra $100,000.

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The IT team provided training to encourage staff to explore the video conferencing capabilities. To support the need for behaviour change, they also stipulated that travel costs would no longer be reimbursed for targeted meetings. The approach ensured staff were exposed to the new technology and helped them to quickly get over any initial concerns about engaging in a video conference.

Today, the equipment is in frequent use for everything from formal inductions to monthly staff meetings. As anticipated, travel and accommodation costs are in decline. In the process, Feros Care is also managing to reduce their carbon footprint.

Feros Care are also passionate about the communications benefits that video conferencing offers to residential clients. The technology gives their clients an easy way of keeping in touch with friends and family.

Find this and more in our latest Annual Report Our 2013/14 Annual Report is out now, containing even more ways that we are helping our Members.

To request a copy as soon as it becomes available, email info@cr.org.au.

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CR advantage

march 2014

School Group travel – why it doesn’t need to be stressful Do you work for a non-government school or university? Then we have some good news for you, because now you have access to a whole new range of academic travel benefits!

Campus Travel have recently joined their sister company, FCm, as a CR Preferred Partner. With 15 years experience in academic travel, they are Australia’s most experienced travel provider and advisor to the industry.

Stress-free group travel As fun as travel is, planning it can also be a headache and managing a group of students of any size can be challenging. That’s why startto-end trip management is so important – Campus Travel has the latest technology and highly experienced travel consultants to organise flights, accommodation, car hire and more. This personalised service can also extend to having tour guide leaflets made (ideal for history and language tours) and jerseys printed (for travelling sports teams).

Business travel for school staff Need to travel to a conference? Campus Travel is your one-stop shop, even if there are no students travelling with you. Bursars, teachers, principals and other staff can book all business related travel through CR’s Campus Travel agreement. This gives you access to all the usual

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Qantas, Virgin and Hertz discounts.

In fact, all the typical CR Member benefits you get with FCm are also available through Campus Travel. This includes dedicated account managers and 24/7 Australian based global travel assistance, and advice on passports, visas, insurance and foreign currency.

Great value – Guaranteed!

Since 1998 Campus Travel have been looking after Australia’s education industry, while giving clients access to exclusive academic rates and airfares supported by our Value Pledge*. That means that CR Members enjoy great savings because Campus Travel guarantee to beat any rate or fare, provided the same product is available at the time of booking.

Find out more To enquire about academic travel and all the great benefits contact us at info@cr.org.au, or on 1300 248 724.

*Value Pledge: Applies to genuine quotes from airlines and Australian registered businesses and websites for travel that originates/departs from Australia. Quote must be in writing and must be presented to us with your price beat request prior to booking. Product must be available and able to be booked by the general public at the time of booking. Fares/rates available due to membership of a group or corporate entity, subscription to a closed group or exclusive arrangements with suppliers are excluded. Must be for same supplier, same dates, room type, car group, policy inclusions and flight class (like for like product). The fare comparison excludes payment processing fees and also excludes service fees applied in accordance with the terms of your service contract. We will beat the price by $1.00. If the same quoted product is not available, we will find you the best available alternative that suits your specific needs. For further details, please contact your Campus Travel team. Australian OpCo Pty Ltd (ABN 20 003 279 534) trading as Campus Travel. Licence numbers: NSW 2TA002547, VIC 32360, ACT 18800566, QLD 3124259, SA TTA192799, TAS TAS160, WA 9TA1362, NT LTA149. CTCT55918

CR advantage

february 2014

CathNews celebrates fifteen years This year, CathNews celebrates fifteen years of e-publishing.

Church Resources’ own award winning publication brings its readers news of Catholic events in Australia and around the world, via the cathnews.com website and six emails per week.

You can subscribe, free of charge, at www.cathnews.com.

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Australia’s first not-for-profit Apple Authorised Education Reseller.

Through the ongoing support of our Education Sector Members, Church Resources has now been authorised by Apple as an Education Reseller. This means we can offer a full service Apple Education solution not-for-profit schools, including bring-yourown-device, all computers and devices, infrastructure and endto-end project delivery.

As Australia’s only not-for-profit Apple Education reseller, we are uniquely positioned to serve notfor-profit schools:

> Our team of Apple Specialists are greatly experienced in working with not-for-profit organisations like yours, with a detailed understanding of your needs;

> As a not-for-profit organisation ourselves, we are motivated solely by achieving the optimum learning outcomes for your organisation; and

> Our close relationship with Apple means we

can provide the complete Apple experience, with a full Apple range and dedicated service and support resources.

Why Apple?

Apple’s unique product ecosystem, including Mac and iOS devices, is designed with education in mind. With products that are easy to use and set-up, and thousands of education-specific apps available to maximise learning outcomes, Apple products are an asset for your classrooms.

Find out more If you would like our dedicated Apple Specialist for Education to contact you and discuss how Church Resources and Apple can help your organisation, visit www.cr.org.au/appleeducation to provide your contact details, or call us on 1300 279 661.

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CR advantage

march 2014

A flexible approach to activity tracking for CR Members A look at how the latest offering from Fitbit stacks up.

Medibank member Alex donned the Fitbit Flex, a wireless wristband device tracking activity by day and sleep by night, for two weeks. With an LED display lighting up to indicate progress and automatic data syncing, Flex aims to make boosting and tracking your activity levels simple and fun. Let’s see whether Alex found it a motivating way to achieve better health.

Have you ever used an activity tracker before?

No. How did the flex wristband feel?

Comfortable and light – I loved how it had a ‘barely there’ feeling. It doesn’t interrupt during walks/runs/sleep. The only issue was the clip, which requires you to push the metal parts hard into your wrist.

How motivating was it to track your activity levels?

It keeps the 10,000 steps goal top of mind during different parts of the day, which was my expectation. In terms of maintaining that goal, it certainly encouraged me towards the end of the day to go that extra mile to reach it. It didn’t motivate me to go much further beyond that.

How did you find the wristband’s LED display?

It took a few days to work out how to use it (for sleeping/waking) but the five dots gave

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sufficient feedback to know where I was on my journey.

Was the battery life sufficient?

I loved the long battery life, it lasted about three to four days. Once I was caught out over the weekend as I didn’t realise it was nearly dead and had left the charger at work. I unfortunately missed out on three days of tracking. Everyone would love longer battery life though.

Did you use the iOS or Android Fitbit app to sync data?

Android – Samsung Galaxy Note 2. It took a little bit of fiddling to get it to work, but it magically happened without manual intervention so I appreciated that. I loved how I didn’t have to do anything manual to sync data.

Did you use any of the additional features?

I used sleep tracking, which was fantastic and great to get an indication of sleep duration, I would have loved more information beyond that though, i.e. sleep target, tips on how to ensure better sleep, a view on how deeply I was sleeping, motivation to sleep more. I also logged water intake – useful but I wasn’t motivated to keep filling it out after the first week.

How does Fitbit Flex help you achieve better health?

For a basic 10,000 steps/day goal, it’s perfect – I’d encourage my family to use it for that purpose as well. It has no appeal/impact/ motivation for me to get out into the gym or to motivate myself against friends.

Any suggestions or tips for people thinking of tracking their activity with Fitbit Flex?

- Ensure you understand that it’s best for reaching a daily goal for walking/movement (perfect for office workers) - Good for males and females as it is fairly discreet and fashionable - Good for people that have an Android/iOS phone - The wristband is water resistant, which is great if you’re a swimmer

Find out more This feature comes from Medibank’s Be. Magazine. To find out more about how Medibank can help with your health, and the exclusive discounts for CR Members, contact us at marketing@cr.org.au.

- Great for tracking but not so great for pushing you further (and I wasn’t able to find any other friends to compete against socially

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CR advantage

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Save with our ‘My Benefits portal’

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For many not-for-profit organisations, providing the high level of recognition and rewards to retain your valued employees can be unaffordable and difficult to maintain.

Church Resources has created the CR My Benefits Portal to allow employees of not-for-profit organisations direct access to great savings and offers from some of our Partners, including: Holiday and get-away offers Do you like the sound of a European tour, Pacific cruise or the opportunity to tailor-make the ideal holiday? Join the CR Travel Club and hear about the latest offers.

Special offers on iPad 2 We currently have a special offer on the iPad 2. You can also save on the entire Apple range.

Health Insurance A discount on your health insurance with Medibank.

Home appliances Get the best price on appliances and electrical goods through CR.

Car Hire Directly book and review car hire for personal use, at a discounted corporate rate and with additional benefits of reduced fees and liability.

Apply Now If you would like your organisation to benefit from CR’s range of employee benefits, contact CR, and we’ll create a unique My Benefits portal for your staff.click here to contact CR.

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CR advantage

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Make us your first resource If you would like to know more about Church Resources and how we can help your organisation, we would be happy to assist you.

Email info@cr.org.au Web www.cr.org.au Phone 1300 CHURCH (1300 248 724) or 02 9439 2622 Fax

02 9439 2802

Mail PO Box 1522, Crows Nest NSW 1585 Australia

www.cr.org.au