Top of mind and top of Budget: SMEs and consumers want living costs prioritised in Budget 2022

As the Government prepares to deliver Budget 2022, both local businesses and consumers believe the focus should be on relieving the impact of rising costs, according to our latest research.

As inflation increases at the fastest rate in 30 years, the latest MYOB Consumer Snapshot – a survey of more than 1,000 New Zealand consumers – revealed that nearly three quarters (73%) of consumers are concerned about the current cost of living.

MYOB Head of Go-to Market – Jo Tozer, says consumers’ key priorities revealed in the Snapshot underscore how much of a challenge the rising cost of living has become.

Read more from the latest MYOB Consumer Snapshot here.

Supply chain security: Why data-led insights are big business

Covid-19 has changed a lot of processes in business, while revealing changes required in many others, such as our global over-reliance on opaque supply chains. Not knowing who’s in your supply chain – or perhaps having the ability to even find out – is causing big concerns worldwide.

Whatever your business, the past two years have demonstrated that being able to access in-depth data about your supply chain partners (and even their partners) is essential for using data-led insights that will assist you to navigate through any future disruptions, no matter how they materialise.

Read the latest article on the MYOB Blog here.

Featuring:

• What is supply chain risk?

• What is supply chain security?

• How to strengthen supply chain security

• How data can be used to inform business leaders

• What are market innovators doing in 2021?

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace

As a business grows, the team and cohesion of its workforce becomes more important. That’s when promoting diversity and inclusion really takes the stage.

A diverse workforce is only the first step. To realise the benefits to insight and innovation, you first need an inclusive culture – one in which diverse voices will be heard and taken seriously.

There are many ways to promote inclusion and diversity in your place of work, with most of them aimed at celebrating and creating awareness of the diversity that exists in your workforce to foster a sense of belonging.

That being said, it all starts with making sure you’re building a diverse team from the get-go. And that could mean reviewing your hiring processes.

How you continue to promote diversity and inclusion with an existing workforce will likely come down to the members of that workforce and what they’re hoping to see in terms of representation. 

Read the full article with examples of diversity and inclusion, and how to create a diverse and inclusive culture at work, on the MYOB Blog here.

Seizing Advantage: The technology pivot ANZ businesses must make

Businesses that aren’t seizing the benefits of a modern business and people management system are struggling.

Mid-market businesses in Australia and New Zealand must make a significant technology pivot in order to successfully take on the challenges of a post COVID-19 world.

However, adapting to new ways of working through basic digitisation is not enough. The core systems of a business must be upgraded in order to navigate future challenges, unlock productivity, and stay ahead of the competition.

A new MYOB commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, reveals that unified, cloud-based business and people management systems are vital to a mid-market organisation’s ability to thrive and succeed.

Visit MYOB to get a snapshot view of why mid-market businesses must make the technology pivot to a unified business and people management approach, download the full report and/or watch the ‘Seizing Advantage’ webinar on-demand and get the full briefing on the technology pivot businesses must make.

University of Auckland students win MYOB IT Challenge 2021

Helping SMEs gain deeper customer insights while preserving limited time and resources is the focus of an app developed by four University of Auckland students, which took the top spot in the Trans-Tasman MYOB IT Challenge for 2021.

Team members Nicholas Kondal, Laith Saeed, Sonia Wang and Emily Zou – all studying conjoint engineering degrees, and from Auckland – developed Rev-you, a functional prototype app for the MYOB marketplace designed to help SMEs automatically collect and analyse customer feedback.

The MYOB IT Challenge, which has now been running for seven years in partnership with the Management Consulting Club, is designed to develop, support and foster the skills of up-and-coming tech talent. The challenge sees students combine business and digital technology skills, as they tackle real-world business issues using tech-led solutions, presenting to senior industry professionals in the Trans-Tasman Final.

Read the full media release of this year’s winners here.

How to flex: Enabling flexible working arrangements

Flexible working arrangements have become the norm for professional services firms. But are they working for your organisation?

Many businesses have been worried about giving employees too much control over where and when they work. Without oversight, how can you tell that your people are actually working while they’re at home?

For business owners, productivity is an ongoing concern, but it’s no longer so clearly tied to the presence of the workforce in a central time and place.

The pandemic, with its strict working-from-home requirements and disrupted childcare arrangements, created the ultimate test – and by and large, many organisations have seen that working from home and flexible work hours are possible.

Increasingly workers are choosing their employment based on the availability of flexible working conditions, and there are direct benefits for businesses that are quick to adjust their systems and processes to accommodate it.

Read the full article here to find out how to create a more flexible workplace and make flexible working business as usual.