Helping others cope with loss and grief

Whether it’s an elderly relative or the unexpected loss of a young child, the loss of a loved one, be it in the family, a friend or colleague, is always a time of trauma and sadness for those left behind. At times grief can be an allconsuming sadness.

Support for people in mental health crisis

An increase in mental health related emergency ambulance responses is cause for great concern according to the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP).

A recent report released by St John, states that over the past six months St John has responded to nearly 20,000 people who have been experiencing some form of mental health crisis.

Chair of the RANZCP New Zealand National Committee – Tu Te Akaaka Roa, Dr Mark Lawrence, says “An increase of 10 percent in mental health related incidents is a clarion call to the mental health sector.

“These statistics are a clear wake up call to improve our mental health services to avoid people reaching crisis point. Our whānau should not be reaching this level of crisis.

“There is no denying, as a nation, we need to work together to address this. St John can’t do it alone, nor can whānau, nor can psychiatrists. Together however, we can – and must – make a real difference.”

The RANZCP emphasised that the best way to combat this increase in mental health call outs was for emergency and mental health services to work together.

“Let’s work together,” says Dr Susanna GaleaSinger, chair of the New Zealand Faculty of Addiction Psychiatry Subcommittee.

“We need to do more to prevent people reaching crisis point and this can be done by “getting the right people, in the right places, at the right time.

“In practice, this means seeking interventions proven to work – whether they are new and innovative or tried and trusted – then putting them into use with the funding required for their success.

“Community and peer support are crucial elements in the mix,” Dr Galea-Singer says.

Simple

Simplicity Funerals Nelson offers a simple and modern alternative to traditional funerals. Our approach is dignified, personal and stress- free. We pride ourselves on our flexibility and the many options we offer.

“Today’s mental health services are facing more complex cases: patients with multiple health issues. This makes service provision particularly challenging.”

Dr Lawrence also affirmed that while the figures are concerning, the situation is not entirely hopeless and there is still much we can all do.

“Our first step should be ensuring we keep a clear person-centred/whānau-centred approach. Viewing health and mental health holistically, there are successful, costeffective interventions that improve access, that work for Māori, and that can prevent issues from escalating to a crisis state.” CT

Dignified

We are committed to providing your family with the finest in personal care. We treat all races and religions with the same utmost respect. We’ll take on the responsibilities of the physical care of your loved one, and the emotional care of those left behind.

Personal

We are a small team and we keep things very intimate and personal for the family of the deceased. We take great pride in the little details. We go above and beyond for the families we serve... but don’t just take our word for it – read our reviews.

But if you want your company to grow, you need to hire the right people. You need people that are not only right for the now but can also help you move the business towards bigger and better things in the future.

This is especially so for smaller businesses and startups because they have fewer employees and a limited income with which to work.

For these companies every single dollar they spend on finding and hiring an employee can affect their longer term success, meaning it’s vital that they avoid making major mistakes while hiring.

But the trouble is that running a small business is hard work and there often simply isn’t the time to commit to a thorough hiring process; and as result, corners get cut.

The good news is that your competitors are probably making these mistakes whilst hiring as well. This means there’s an opportunity for you to seize; to waste less time and money by hiring right so you can get back to running your company.

Mistake 1 - Not having an interview plan

The single biggest hiring mistake small business owners make is winging it or not having an interview plan. At best they’ll have a few questions written down on a piece of paper, but little else.

You need to treat an interview like a deductive science. You’ve sorted through all the resumes and selected the best individuals to be interviewed – but now you need a better way of evaluating their suitability for the role than just having a chat and going with your gut.

You achieve this by having an interview plan.

First – decide what questions are the most important, and ask them to each candidate.

Second – know what answers you’re looking for. Then you can assess each answer objectively and place candidates in pecking order.

This doesn’t have to be an iron-clad, exactly repeatable process – but it does need to have some consistency to it so you can accurately assess candidates’ answers in relation to each other.

If you just wing each interview, the direction, tone and outcome of each conversation can vary wildly, making it more difficult to compare candidates to each other. The outcome of this can be that, despite spending all that time interviewing people, to a certain extent, you’re still none the wiser.

Then, the chances are, when it comes to deciding who to hire, you’re going to go with your gut, as you won’t reliably be able to compare one answer to another because you didn’t ask each candidate a few standard questions you can compare them by.

So, a little planning can go a long way towards helping you make an informed and considered choice of who to hire, as opposed to just sitting down with each individuals, having a completely random chat, and then hoping you get it right.

Mistake 2 - Overvaluing experience

It is risky to bet too heavily on how much experience a person has, when there are so many factors that determine whether someone will be successful in the role and a good fit for your organisation.

An applicant’s skills, knowledge, aptitude and personality all factor into the equation.

Because experience is a tangible and measurable component, it is very easy to overvalue it above less easily measurable factors such as intelligence, drive, and other components of raw talent.

Experience accumulates with time in the role and skills can be learned and acquired. Your next great employee might be someone with limited experience, but who has fantastic aptitude and flexibility.

Placing too much stock on a heavy list of qualifications in your job description, or only considering applicants with x amount of experience and not considering other factors, means you might be turning a blindeye to someone better suited to the role and your company’s culture.

However, this is a double-edged sword and there is a flip side.

If you’re looking to hire someone without any experience in the hope of finding someone cheaper – you might be buying into a false economy.

Ignoring a candidate with what you consider to be necessary experience in the hope of saving a few thousand dollars a year by hiring an unproven person, might not actually save you anything, due to the amount of on-the-job training and potentially decreased productivity the less experienced employee will deliver.

So, as with all aspects of running your business, you need to find a balance.

But it definitely pays to consider more than just the experience a candidate comes with. You want someone with the potential to grow into the perfect for your company.

Mistake 3 - Assuming the hiring process ends once they’re hired

This is a common mistake many small business owners make.

An employee’s productivity is comprised of 50 percent ability [the reasons you hired them], and 50 percent of what happens once they’re in the workplace.

So conducting a good interview, offering that promising person the job and them saying ‘yes’ is only half the task.

Employees need to be properly induced and introduced to your company, well trained and supported.

It doesn’t matter how impressed you are with someone’s potential – poor training, insufficient access to resources, and little feedback will add up to poor job satisfaction and this will impact their performance.

So recruitment doesn’t stop at the ‘welcome aboard’ handshake – you need to make sure they are introduced, trained and supported every step of the way.