RECRUITMENT

Welcome to the Greater Western Sydney Regional Round
Table (GWSRR). The GWSRR is an initiative of Adjunct
Professor Jim Taggart OAM and Western Sydney Business
Access. Its purpose is to bring together people of influence to
capture and share insights about issues that shape the region.
Members of the GWSRR meet in a private board room setting.
The theme for this GWSRR was Future Employer and was
sponsored by Know My Business. Photos are by Melinda Hird
and transcription services by Ausflare. The venue was the
Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE.
FUTURE EMPLOYER
David Pring, KPMG
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Change Management,
Open-Mindedness and
Communication.
Tom Graham, Black
Financial Services
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Attitude, Interpersonal
and Analytical.
Alison Wood, TAFE NSI
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Capability,
Interpersonal,
and Analytical.
Nicole Karagiannis,
Calvary Health Care
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Communication,
Feedback and Learning.
Hardeep Girn, Know My
Business
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Confidence,
Capability and
Conversation.
Scott Henshaw,
Forsythe Recruitment
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Communication,
Team Player and
Intelligence.
Michael Walls, WSBA
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Critical Thinking,
Communication and
Adaptability.
Jim Taggart, GWSRR
Chairman
MY 3 CRITICAL SKILLS
Interpersonal,
Adaptability
and Team Player.
Jim Taggart: Well, good afternoon. A very
warm welcome to each and every one of you.
On behalf of Access I extend a vote of thanks
for you giving your time today. In particular
I would like to acknowledge Know My Business.
Hardeep, thank you for your support and
friendship in today’s event. Your support in
the community, both from a business perspective
and a community perspective, is most
welcome and does not go without us saying
thank you personally and also collectively
on behalf of people, particularly in Western
Sydney. Quite interestingly, today is National
Skills Week so it is fitting that we have this
round table at this time. Before we start, we do
a quick introduction of what we do and who
we are and how we fit into today’s events. So,
may I start with you, please?
Nicole Karagiannis: I’m Nicole Karagiannis,
National HR Manager for Calvary
Health Care. It’s a not for profit organisation
of four streams – private/public hospitals,
retirement communities and community
care. And I look after the 11 private hospitals
from an HR sense. So, quite excited to be here
today, talking about the role of the employer
into the future for my own purposes in my
profession.
Jim Taggart: Thanks Nicole.
Good afternoon everyone. My name is
Scott Henshaw. I’m a director of a recruitment
firm called Forsythe’s. We have offices in
Sydney, but also on the Central Coast, Newcastle
and in the Hunter Valley. We provide a
diverse array of recruitment solutions in both
a permanent and temporary capacity, and do
a lot in the organisational development of HR
consultant space as well.
Jim Taggart: Thank you, Scott. Michael?
Michael Walls: I’m Michael Wall, publisher
of Western Sydney Business Access.
We’ve been doing these Round Tables now for
about four years. We’ve had about 25 of them.
They’re very successful and very popular in
the newspaper. And thanks again to Hardeep
for sponsoring this one – also for David Pring
of KPMG and yourself, Jim, for chairing it.
Jim Taggart: Thank you.
Hardeep Girn: Hardeep Girn, Managing
Director for Know My Business. We help
companies get to introduced to other companies,
looking for prospects, referral partners
and for suppliers. And, today’s session is really
for us to talk about how we’ve partnered up
with and collaborated with Northern Sydney
Institute on a course that will be hosted here at
the St Leonards facility in the coming months.
So, I’m really looking forward to that relationship
forming and growing over time, and also
in discussion for today.
Jim Taggart: Thank you, Hardeep. David?
David Pring: Hi. David Pring. I lead
KPMG’s office in Western Sydney, based in
Parramatta, wishing to grow and be relevant
to companies in the Western Sydney region as
they grow, innovate and manage their risk. So,
we would help them with all of those areas.
Jim Taggart: Thank you, David. Tom?
Tom Graham: Tom Graham, Black Financial
Services. An extensive career in finance,
auditing and in financial planning. But, my
primary role here today would be more about
my/our role as a Financial Adviser for corporate
superannuation plans. We provide services
to large corporations on corporate superannuation.
And that involves us going to different
state offices and sites around Australia and
talking to employees when presenting seminars,
but also talking to them on an individual
basis. Obviously, financial planning is a very
personal thing. We end up talking to people
about debt management, budgeting controls,
are they happy in their environment – things
of that nature. So, I’m going to take probably a
little different view from a lot of you.
Jim Taggart: Great. Thank you, Tom.
Alison Wood: I’m Alison Wood. I’m the
Institute Director for the Northern Sydney
Institute. So that involves all the campuses in
the north and slightly north west for the metropolitan
region. There are four institutes in
the metropolitan region. So we’re one of four,
and our campuses include Hornsby, Northern
Beaches, Ryde and Meadowbank, this campus
and Crows Nest. And we also host and manage
Bradfield High School, which you may
have heard of. So, obviously, we’re the public
sector vocational training provider. And, you
know, our role is, as a public sector, is to build
a skilled workforce for the state. And we work
in a subsidised area, with government subsidies.
But we also do lots of other programs,
like Hardeep was talking about, where we
customise programs to meet actual targeted
needs. And we just work with clients to do
that. We’ve got lots of international students
and we also run out of Ryde, Le Cordon Bleu,
which is the largest Le Cordon Bleu training
facility in the world. And we’ve almost
doubled our enrolments in a couple of years
there. So, we’re doing very well in the commercial
space as well as in the public arena.
Jim Taggart: Can I say formally thank you
on behalf of today – and particularly, Know
My Business – thank you for your kind support
and friendship, both informally and formally,
for making today I think a real success.
Nicole, I’m going to ask you this question:
Why is today’s topic important to you?
Nicole Karagiannis: It’s important for I
guess the HR profession generally, to know
how they continue to fit in, in between the
employee/employer equation. So, today is important
for me from that perspective. But also
as an employer, it’s important to know what is
the changing landscape for – you know, from
a technology perspective, from a social media
perspective – and interesting from a not for
profit perspective as well. Questions for me
are:What is our presence in the social media
world? How does that fit into our value proposition?
Actually, what is our value proposition?
And given our footprint in regional locations, how
do we keep up with the technology changes that
make sure that we bring both our patients and
employees with us?
Jim Taggart: I’m going to challenge you
now. Two part question. First: Why, is there a
difference, and who does the employer represent?
Is it themselves or the employee when looking for
quality staff? Who’s the important person in that
equation?
Continued on page 26
WESTERN SYDNEY BUSINESS ACCESS SEPTEMBER 2015
25