New Zealand not only beat Australia in the netball last night, it took home the top human resource technology title in Australia’s premier HR awards.

Using software from Christchurch-based Pivot Software, global engineering firm Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) last night won the “Best Overall use of Technology” award at Australia’s HR Leader Compass Awards

“We are absolutely thrilled that SKM has won this award using our software,” said Phillippa Youngman, Pivot Software’s chief executive.

A seminar by the inventor of lateral thinking will go ahead in Auckland next month despite the company that organised it going into liquidation.

The half-day seminar by Edward de Bono, which had been booked by events company Red Carpet, will now be hosted by the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand.

NBR reported yesterday that Red Carpet had been put into shareholder liquidation owing $1.5 million as the recession caused a decline in attendance at its events.

One in four meetings are a waste of time, according to a new survey, and during the economic downturn this is damaging both company performance and staff morale.

But while a lack of focus is mainly to blame, there are plenty of other reasons for so much productivity being sucked up in worthless talk-fests that take up valuable work time.

The Robert Half 2009 Workplace Survey found that New Zealand’s finance, accounting and HR managers think more than one quarter – 25.7% - of their meetings are a waste of time.