Hello and welcome to Episode 291 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today's episode we are talking about using AI in your workplace, and how it can be valuable for you and your team, but where you may need to be cautious.

The reality is your team is likely already using it, even if you haven’t officially introduced it. And while it can be an amazing productivity tool (I love it myself for getting past blank pages, speeding up thinking, and yes - it’s replaced Google for me!), it also raises real questions for business owners:

How do we manage AI use at work?

What are the risks and rewards?

And what do we do when our team isn’t on board?

In this episode, I’m diving into what I’m seeing with clients around AI in the workplace, how to use it well, and what to do when team members resist or misuse it.

What I’m seeing right now is team members using AI for internal comms (and business owners being surprised—or concerned), AI-written job applications, ads, and emails: how to spot them and decide what’s acceptable and a growing concern from business owners around privacy and misuse.

So how can you use AI well in your business and your team? Consider embedding AI into the tools you’re already using (like Canva’s Magic tools or Microsoft CoPilot). I love the use of custom GPTs or Chrome extensions to fast-track SOPs and admin.

But what about when team members are resistant or reluctant to use AI? You really need to get down to what’s causing the fear to implement and addressing it head on.

What about you? How are you and your team using AI?

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello and welcome to Episode 290 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today's episode we are talking about why DIY HR might be holding you, your team and your business back.

As business owners we often think we need to figure all the things out for ourselves, but just like you take your car to a mechanic, and see your accountant for tax advice, HR is one of those areas where going it alone is not always the best approach.

When you rely on DIY HR, your team feels the gaps—uncertainty, confusion, no clear path forward. People leave more often when feedback isn’t consistent, or when their role feels vague. That’s lost momentum for your business.

On the business side, the financial cost of misclassification or non‑compliance isn’t just about fines—it’s about the time, resources, and stress it takes to clean up. And in a tight SME, that clean‑up eats into profit or growth that could’ve been reinvested.

As the owner, when you’re constantly firefighting HR, you can’t lead. Your energy goes to fixing issues, not setting direction. That’s when burnout sets in, and your capacity to steer the ship gets compromised.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello and welcome to Episode 289 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Most small business owners are stuck doing HR in bits and pieces: a contract here, a policy there, some software that never really gets used. But at the end of the day, they’re still chasing staff, second-guessing decisions, and carrying all the pressure.

In this episode, I’ll share:

Why HR still feels hard, even when you think you’ve “ticked the boxes.”

Why expensive HR software isn’t the fix for small business teams.

The real missing piece that changes everything - a simple HR framework designed for small business.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing “something” with HR but it’s still not working, this episode will show you what’s missing - and how to finally get it right. Feeling stuck? Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au and let’s chat.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello and welcome to Episode 288 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Running a business with a team is hard enough - and when it comes to HR, most small business owners admit they’re just “winging it.” A contract here, a policy there, figuring it out when problems pop up.

The trouble is, winging it only works for so long. Eventually, it costs you time, money, and stress, and leaves you stuck chasing your staff instead of leading them.

In this episode, I’ll share:

• Why winging it feels fine at first, but always backfires in the long run.
• The hidden costs you’re already paying (even if you don’t realise it).
• How “making it up as you go” keeps you stuck in the day-to-day.
• What to focus on instead if you want your team to step up.

If you’ve ever felt like HR in your business is messy, ad hoc, or just one more thing on your plate, this episode will show you why winging it isn’t the answer. Feeling stuck from winging it? Email me at hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au and let’s chat.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello and welcome to Episode 287 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

We’ve spoken about our employees rights a lot lately, specifically most recently about our employees right to disconnect from work.

Posting in our People Powered HR members community about these changes and a member asked ‘does that apply to us too’? And it’s a good question.

Because often as business owners we are bad at disconnecting, at setting and upholding boundaries and at protecting our self care when things are busy.

So today we will discuss the real technical answer to the question as to whether these new rules apply to us.

But more importantly this is a conversation about the need to set or re establish boundaries with our teams, our customers and ourselves, and to protect our energy and look after ourselves to show up as the best leaders we can be.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello, Kristy-Lee here and welcome to Episode 286 of the People Powered Business Podcast

I’ve been having some great conversations about leadership – team leadership, business leadership, self leadership, thought leadership and I wanted to explore common threads that I've been seeing.

We are all leaders, CEO of our business - You are a leader if you listen to this podcast - so let's talk leadership.

Firstly I want to start with why it’s important to consider yourself a leader (even if you only have contractors, VA’s or casual staff).

Then I'll share 3 common traits of people powered leaders.

Finally I discuss why this is a skill anyone can (and should learn), and why you don’t need to go it alone.

Want to work with me on this? Just email hello@peoplepoweredbusiness.com.au

Hello and welcome to Episode 285 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we’re bringing you a tech tip episode – but I’m not recommending a system – in fact the opposite. I’m sharing how you can use what you’ve already got to solve your HR admin headaches and why you don’t need a HR system or expensive software subscription to do that for you.

To start with I encourage you to do an audit of what you already have, what those systems can do for you, and then really looking at where you do have gaps, and what specifically you need to solve them.

We then look at using your existing workspaces, whether it’s MS Office, Google Suite or something else and leverage and that more effectively. Are you using the integrated AI in those programs to shortcut things and create tools such as spreadsheets to support you?

And of course we touch on AI and I share how I’m using Chat GPT and Chrome Extensions to help with HR tasks in my business and to support members of our People Powered HR Community.

The truth is – a HR system is often unnecessary, they are hard to set up effectively and time consuming to manage. You can often achieve everything you need using the systems that you have.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Hello and welcome to Episode 284 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

I have a bit of a theme going at the moment which I’m calling ‘Compliance Quarter’ and today we’re taking a look at the looming deadline for small business to comply with the new right to disconnect laws.

In this episode we unpack what the right to disconnect is and what it actually means, we discuss the implementation, pathway and why this matters for small business now and we take a look at what will it actually mean for your businesses in practical terms.

I also share some real life examples of what I am seeing play out with the clients I am working with and how they are implementing the right to disconnect.

An Invitation:

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, The People Powered Community, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia