GROW, Australia’s leading provider of peer groups for people with mental illness, is delivering on the promise of its name with ‘growing’ success through innovative programs such as Old Socks Day.

Called Old Socks Day – because anyone can have an odd day – is Grow’s national anti-stigma campaign and an opportunity for businesses to take a light hearted approach conversations about mental illness and stigma. 

Grow CEO Clare Guilfoyle said Odd Socks Day has five key actions – Be informed, Be brave (don’t tolerate stigma), Be open (share experiences) Be informed, and Be good to yourself … 

Ms Guilfoyle said Odd Socks Day this year is on Friday October 7 and Grow is urging businesses around Australia to take part as many of the solutions to mental illness can be developed in the business environment.

“Grow commenced in 1957, when there was little belief that people could recover from mental illness,” Ms Guilfoyle said. “Stigma surrounding mental illness was commonplace.

“Yet, our founding members believed that by supporting and encouraging each other, they could overcome the difficulties that their illness induced, and it worked.

“Our members consistently report improved relationships, sense of personal value, that they are taking charge of their lives and are more hopeful about the future.  They have a better network of friends and feel part of a community.”

Grow also supports people with high needs at two residential facilities, and provides a program in schools to disengaged children who are at risk of mental illness.

“We are also developing online groups for people in rural and remote areas,” Ms Guilfoyle said.

“The stigma surrounding mental illness is the leading reason why people do not seek help.  This year one in four people will experience mental illness.

“Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44 and the suicide rate among those aged 55 to 65 has surged by 54 percent,” she said.

“A 2015 report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers showed the cost to businesses is $10.9 billion per year where businesses do not take action to manage mental health conditions.”

Grow is a current Executive Leaders member of Queensland Leaders.

www.grow.org.au

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WHEN Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) finally reaches the front door of your business, you had best be ready for it – and that is no easy task, according to the experience of many clients of The GoLogic Group.

There is a great deal of communications system preparatory work to do, in order to see tangible benefits, said GoLogic CEO Clint Betts.

“Many businesses find themselves in a mad panic to organise their essential communications needs as most are not aware that you will lose many features with the loss of the analogue (copper) network including line hunt features and more,” Mr Betts said. 

“Tailoring a complete communications package with VoIP (voice over internet protocol) is a medium to major project within itself.  I have focused the delivery of our services to engage with our customers and provide fundamental planning and project management to the delivery of services to ensure businesses experience minimal disruptions.”

Beyond the vital communication network changes, there are other aspects to consider, including potential legal issues.

“The phrase ‘data sovereignty’ is now becoming a unique discussion within business security and slowly creeping up the priority board to protect the business and customers information,” Mr Betts said.

“Essentially it requires a business to be compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) guidelines (Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) amendment March 121, 2014).   You need to let your customers know if you are going to use a third party provider for any business software, storage or distribution solution through your privacy policy. 

“To avoid the threats and potential loss of customers, you can select to use a provider that engages data sovereignty such as The GoLogic Group,” he said. “On-shore routing and storage of your messaging improves your delivery success and response rates providing more beneficial to your baseline marketing.”

Mr Betts said recent high profile hacking, data breaches and spamming cases  had brought home the digital realities to Australian businesses and the changeover to the NBN was an ideal point at which to re-assess online communication systems and risks.

“Losing your customers details to an overseas spammer can be harmful to your business’s future and should remain a high priority at all times,” Mr Betts said.

“We have heard of the issues surrounding cyber attacks, ransomware and more world wide web threats and the impacts,” he said.

Mr Betts urged all businesses to keep data sovereignty at the forefront when considering which messaging and distribution solutions to utilise. The GoLogic Group specialises in online communications services, including online fax, e-mail to fax, fax to e-mail, e-mail marketing software, email newsletter design and campaign management, and SMS services including SMS broadcast and e-mail to SMS.

GoLogic is an executive member of Queensland Leaders.

www.gologic.com.au

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USING GAMES to help improve business results is fast becoming an accepted practice and powerful tool according to Brisbane-based experiential company Escape Hunt.

“As a company that uses games to deliver unique experiences, it is exciting to see the benefits of gamification in work place first hand,” Escape Hunt Brisbane director Giovanna Shakhovskoy said.  

According to Ms Shakhovskoy, in 1999 the US Army made headlines through its initial use of a ‘virtual Army experience’ to attract and screen new recruits.  

“What has followed has been a raft of examples from large and small companies alike that have pushed the boundaries of using gamification to transform aspects of their business,” Ms Shakhovskoy said.

“The World Bank created an online game, Evoke that they describe as a ‘crash course to change the world’ which has engaged a new demographic of young customers.

“Deloitte turned its poorly attended leadership training model into a game that included ‘level ups’, ‘unlocking harder courses’ and initiation into the ‘Leadership Academy’ that became highly addictive,” she said.

“As a company built on the foundations of game-based learning and engagement these examples are no surprise to us.”

Escape Hunt Brisbane sees ‘gamification’ of the workplace play out in many varied and often surprisingly positive ways.

“We spend hours each week watching corporate teams break through negative teamwork patterns when they are drawn into a unique experience and their different skills are on show,” Ms Shakhovskoy said. “These on and offsite simulations are gaming in its most pure form.  

“Under pressure with a time-constrained objective, teams are forced to work together to ‘escape a room’ or ‘solve a crime’, with the competition proving an effective motivating factor.

“As the World Bank and Deloitte have showcased, almost anything can be a game.  There are now platforms that can turn office chores, answering emails or project management into personalised gaming within your team.”

Ms Shakhovskoy said gaming was certainly becoming serious business.  

“If you're not already thinking about using gaming in your team building, customer engagement and product delivery methods, you should be.,” she said.

Escape Hunt Brisbane is one of Queensland’s Future Leaders participants.

www.escapehunt.com

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WORKING Mouse chief executive Eban Escott believes what he calls the “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” is already here and it is bringing a new wave of technological and innovative change.

In fact, Working Mouse is at the head of this process. Its teams have developed so-called software bots – software code that exists to write new code. 

“This progress has allowed us to move from the creation of the production line in the Third Revolution to the current position: automation of the whole process,” Mr Escott said.

“We have seen the reshaping of the Internet of Things (IoT), huge leaps in artificial intelligence (AI) and even autonomous vehicles like drones and driverless cars. Underpinning all of these technologies is the common goal of software development,” he said.

But Mr Escott warned that the focus on this type of development has come at a time when the world is in high demand for software, but remains unable to supply enough software engineers.

“In Australia, supply within the country is so low that we imported 3725 software engineers on a 457 visa from 2013 to 2014,” Mr Escott said. “The solution for the software industry lies in the automated processes of the Fourth Revolution.

“Within the array of technologies being developed in this movement are software bots. These bots can be described as code that writes code. They talk a common business language and can then work independently of humans to generate code.

“For instance, the WorkingMouse software bots are able to write an average of 92.68 percent of the software target. Figures like this indicate the Fourth Revolution providing a huge relief on the software industry for the pressure to supply engineers.”

Mr Escott said he understood why some people believed this would take away jobs.

“I do not however, think this is true because the bots will never achieve 100 percent for complex requirements,” he said.

“Innovation is a key component to successful business models that only humans have enough creativity to fulfil.

“But we can still find value in utilising the software bots to make a far more efficient, affordable and superior innovation process.”

Working Mouse is a 2016 Queensland Leaders Executive Member.

www.workingmouse.com.au

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