Op-ed

Aussie businesses are transforming their offices into comfort zones as staff return to work – bringing with them a new era of office quirks. COVID has changed the way many people experience their working life at the office. Offices are no longer just places of work, they have become comfort zones with break-out areas, fully stocked kitchens, pet havens and even places to hold extracurricular learning activities like cooking, dancing and language classes.

This year has been a bumpy road for businesses, and as employees shift their priorities from surviving to thriving, companies must maintain best practices to retain a skilled workforce. Here are six considerations for Australian businesses as they move into the new year, predicting that employee burnout, skills shortages, and an increased interest in flexible and asynchronous working, will continue to drive Human Resource and employment trends.

Australia has seen a 13% increase in cybercrime reports, with this continuing to rise well into 2023. This is a massive increase and a tell-tale sign that cybercriminals are becoming more agile and adaptable than ever. As a wealthy country, Australia is an attractive target for global ransomware groups, with many industries taking a big hit by criminals in Q3 of 2022.

Healthcare data breaches in Australia have reached record levels. According to the OAIC, the health sector reported 83 data breaches, and is the highest reporting industry sector. Health service providers also reported an equal number of breaches resulting from malicious or criminal attacks and human error (47% each). With healthcare under the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act (SoCI Act), there’s clear recognition that the sector is of key interest.

In the past year, research indicates that nearly a third of organisations have accelerated their plans to automate key security and IR processes, whilst another 85% plan on automating them in the next 12 months. Despite the positivity of these statistics, many organisations struggle to change to a more automated process. This was highlighted at a recent webinar we held with a panel of senior cybersecurity experts from a multitude of sectors.

The Labor govt will retain planned income tax cuts for the wealthy. In line with a barrage of demands from corporate media editorials, Aussie PM Anthony Albanese ruled out the reversal of Labor's pledge to implement tax cuts for high-income households in 2024. That means an unparalleled windfall for the rich, on top of two past tax cut packages. CEOs in the finance, fintech and education sectors gave insight on what they'd like to see from the first budget. 

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver and viral hepatitis is caused by one of five strains of hepatitis viruses named A to E. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 354 million people worldwide live with hepatitis B or C, both of which are blood-borne, and which together are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and viral hepatitis-related deaths. While there is a vaccine to prevent hepatitis B, there is none for hepatitis C. 

Like most businesses in Australia and New Zealand, financial services organisations have been through major digital transformation and innovation over the past three years. Rapid changes in customer and employee behaviours, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have created a need for new and more personalised experiences. The shift to hybrid work in particular has required the adoption of new tech that enable employees to collaborate from any location.

With horror stories of cyber attacks in the headlines everyday, the risk of a cyber breach has moved from the hypothetical to being a very real and ever-present threat to Australian enterprises and their clients. In fact, according to Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA), 84% of organisations globally have experienced an identity-related breach in the last year.

Equality Australia expresses disappointment at further delays to urgently needed protections for LGBTQ students and staff in religious schools, following the extension of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) anti-discrimination inquiry. The Commonwealth Attorney-General revealed ALRC will have until the end of 2023 to hand down recommendations into religious exemptions for institutions under federal anti-discrimination and employment laws.