As 2016 comes to a close, we’ve been reflecting on the year gone by – and what a year it’s been!

We hope you’ve taken away some great ideas that made an impact in your organisation, and that have helped your organisation to make an even bigger impact in your community.

We’re looking forward to bringing you more awesome ideas to help you attract, manage, train and retain the very best people in 2017 – but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy taking a look back at our 10 most popular posts of 2016.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday break – we’ll see you in the new year!

1. Could chocolate be the key to working smarter in your office?

Far and away our most popular post of the year – and it’s not hard to see why!

In May, peer-reviewed research journal Appetite found that habitual chocolate consumption is linked to improved mental performance – and in this post, we broke down why your next office afternoon tea should include a bar or two of the dark stuff.

2. Six steps to creating a strong, empowering and inspiring work culture in your organisation

An unhealthy culture can filter down through an entire organisation and poison everything in its path. So is your culture as strong as it could be?

US-based culture thinktank Culture Labx published six key pillars of workplace culture and how to put each one into action, and we shared them here.

3. The easiest thing you can do to be a great manager (and it doesn’t cost a cent)

If you’re a manager in an Australian NFP, it’s quite likely you haven’t received any formal leadership training. Indeed, one study found that leaders on average only received leadership training a full decade after they started managing people.

So what one, simple thing you could do now that would dramatically increase your success as a manager and leader?

4. Making burnout history: Bravehearts’ Pamela Weatherill explains what ‘radical self-care’ looks like

Leading up to her presentation at the 2016 Not-For-Profit People Conference, Bravehearts’ Director of People and Culture, Pamela Weatherill, shared her insights on ‘radical self-care’ – including why it’s particularly necessary in the not-for-profit sector.

5. Want to avoid hiring toxic staff? Do this

According to a 2012 CareerBuilder survey, a toxic worker could cost your organisation up to $50,000. Beyond lost productivity and rehiring costs, rude, immoral or subversive staff can also affect a team or even a whole organisation by spreading their toxicity to other staff, lowering morale or upsetting clients.

So how can you ensure your next new hire isn’t toxic?

6. Seven steps to creating a strong employee value proposition for your NFP

A well-thought-through employee value proposition (EVP) can help your organisation drive engagement, inform recruitment messages and communications, and highlight strategic HR priorities.

Every organisation already has an EVP in some form. But is yours strong, deliberate and well communicated?

This is how to get started.

7. Google shares its surprising secrets to building the best teams

What makes a good team? It’s a hard question to answer, and one that’s becoming more and more important given the increasingly collaborative nature of work.

Google has some unique and valuable insights, and we shared them in this post.

8. Three questions to ask when interviewing and assessing serial job-hoppers

Have you ever hired someone who ended up quitting after a year or less on the job? There’s no doubt about it: having your time, money and energy wasted in this way can be frustrating.

But before you write off every candidate with a meandering job history, there are three important things to look out for to ensure you don’t miss out on a star recruit.

9. Giving feedback can be tough. These assumptions make it even tougher

According to US-based leadership development consultancy Zenger/Folkman, the challenging conversations that managers might need to have with their staff are often harder than they need to be.

That’s due to some common assumptions that might be getting in the way of having constructive conversations. So what are they?

10. NFP managers: Do you struggle to have difficult conversations? These three things can change that

Giving constructive criticism in the workplace is hard – and so is receiving it. As a result, the conversations that need to be had the most often go unspoken.

Click through for three simple steps to help you open up your workplace culture in order to have better conversations.

 

What was your favourite post of the year? We’d love to hear your thoughts below!