The HR GURU

Top Tips for Preventing Employing Toxic Employees

2011-02-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

Recently I was asked by a reporter at BRW Magazine how Small Business Owners could prevent employing toxic employees. This is interesting topic and one that costs small businesses literally thousands of dollars and not to mention the additional stress for the manager/owner. The actual and hidden costs of a real toxic employee can be crippling, especially to a small business. It is not uncommon for a toxic employee to cost a business $50,000!

So how do you prevent employing toxic people in the first place. Well this is a big subject, but here are the top 7 tips for you! These tips are valid for all managers and sizes of business.

1. Ensure you have a clear resourcing strategy. The investment of getting a qualified HR expert to assist you in the design of this could quite literally save you thousands!

2. Know what values you have and want for your business. Define successful behaviours for your business, the culture you want to create and successful behaviours for the role you are recruiting for.

3. Design and conduct strong behavioural interviews for all interviews to ensure you can establish strong experience and behaviours in line with your organisational culture and expectations. Well designed behavioural interviews, specifically designed to the organisation strategy, culture and role are highly effective. The premise of behavioural interviews is, past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. This premise has held well for me for 25 years in the HR game. The questions also need to identify true learning and behavioural changes. Therefore these questions ideally need to be designed by someone with strong behavioural understanding.

4. Make sure all managers are fully trained on behavioural interviewing. It is not good enough to just ask behavioural questions. Managers need to learn to leave subjectivity at the door, need to learn to spot areas that require significant delving. Managers need to learn the true art of reading body language whilst behavioural interviewing and taking in ALL the details the candidate is providing them.

5. Investing in a powerful profiling tool designed specifically for recruitment** increases the chances of spotting someone with key issues. We have a very powerful tool that is amazingly accurate and it is worth every cent of the $400 cost. It is important to remember that the minimum cost of recruiting a $50k employee is estimated to be $12k and most suggest it is more like $20k. So $400 is a very sound investment to ensure you are getting the right type of employee! The tool needs to be used as part of a sound recruitment process.

6. Make sure you do thorough reference checking. The reference checking most companies do is poor and provides them with little or no useful information. Make sure you talk to the person’s ex manager (accept nothing less) and make sure you ask behavioural questions. Remember there is more information in what is not said that what is said! IF IN DOUBT, DECLINE THE CANDIDATE. The biggest mistake managers make is recruiting when they are desperate to fill a gap – in my experience managers in this situation make very poor decisions, which cost them 10 times what it would have taken to do things properly.

7. Ensure you have a strong on-boarding process with a good behavioural assessment tool in the probation period. Closely monitor behaviour in the whole period. If any concerns arise in the period address them immediately and if they are not rectified do not confirm employment.

Above all, move quickly to nip any behavioural concerns in the butt immediately! In my experience most managers ignore the problems until they are significant and then the employee is generally in control of the situation and getting the right outcome can be very costly and a very time consuming exercise!

My performance coach is offering readers of this blog 10% off our consulting and training fees to help you get this right! Contact us now for a free, no obligation discussion.

** Profiling tools in recruitment can be legally problematic. Make sure you get independent advice before using a profiling tool in recruitment!

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR SERVICE

My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and HR issues. We ensure you have effective protection whilst ensuring we use pragmatic and straightforward processes. My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR strategy giving you a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. We also offer Coaching and training service for Executives/Managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively!

This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

Employment Law Changes for 2011

2010-12-19T21:06:00.000-08:00

Hello all,

Firstly I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and fabulous 2011!
I know I promised to do a piece on toxic employees, and I will do that in January. However, it occurred to me that some business owners and managers, may not be aware of the changes happening at 1 January 2011, so here is an overview.

Paid parental leave -

The government parental pay scheme comes into effect from 1 January 2011. There are a number of things employers need to know. The Paid Parental Leave scheme:

o Government funded at the minimum national wage rate for up to 18 weeks
o Eligible working parents of children born or adopted on or after 1
January 2011
o can be transferred between parents
o can be taken any time within the first year after birth

From 1 October 2010, claims can be lodged by parents (up to three months in advance of the expected birth or adoption) and employers can register to provide Parental Leave Pay (through Centrelink Business Online Services). Payment under the scheme will not be available to employees until 1 January 2011.

Though parental leave pay is funded by the Government, with eligibility determined by the Family Assistance Office, once approved, it is administered by the employer. That means you need to ensure as an employer that: -
o Ensure your parental leave policy is up to date with current
legislation
o Communicate your policy and its requirements to all your staff in a
timely manner
o The employer’s role is being phased in over the first 6 months -
decide whether to commence voluntarily administering payments from
January 2011, or wait till it becomes mandatory in July 2011.
o Ensure you have adequate payroll systems and processes in place to
administer the payments

Key dates for employers:

o 1 October 2010 - you can opt in and pre-register; first Parental
Leave Pay claims for employees can be lodged from this date.
o 1 January 2011 - first payments commence for children who are born or
adopted from this date. You can opt-in to provide Parental Leave Pay
to your eligible long-term employees.
o 1 April 2011 - first claims for Parental Leave Pay can be lodged for
children due to be born or adopted from 1 July 2011. The first
mandatory decisions will be made for you to provide Parental Leave
Pay to your eligible employees from 1 July 2011.
o 1 July 2011 - you are required to provide compulsory Parental Leave
Pay to eligible long-term employees, for babies born or adopted from
1 July 2011.

You can more about the scheme for Parental Leave here

New definition of small business employer:

From 1 January 2011, the definition of small employer will change from a business with less than ‘15 full-time equivalent employees’ to ‘a business with less than 15 employees by head count’. Employees of small employers need to be employed at least 12 months before they can take an unfair dismissal action. This affects organisations that are sole traders, partnerships, other unincorporated entities and non-trading corporations in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

As a result of a recent decision of Fair Work Australia, employers who are covered by a Division 2B State Award are required to continue to comply with the terms of the Division 2B State Award (the State awards that covered these employers before 1 January 2010) until the start of the first full pay period to commence on or after 1 February 2011. From 1 February, employees will be covered by the relevant modern award and must receive conditions that are at least equal to or better than the minimum entitlements in the National Employment Standards (NES) and the national minimum wage.

To find out more information about the Small Business Code, click here

Merry Xmas!

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR SERVICE

My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and HR issues We ensure you have effective protection whilst ensuring we use pragmatic and straightforward processes. My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR strategy giving you a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. We also offer Coaching and training service for Executives/Managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively! My Performance Coach is delighted to assist you with implementing your strategy. We will assist you to develop an appropriate policy for your business and conduct training. Contact us to discuss your specific needs.

This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

Part 3 - Preventing Sexual Harassment and a $37 million dollar law suit!

2010-10-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

In this blog I will conclude this series by discussing an overview of implementing complaint processes, how to monitor your organisation and how effective performance management and great leadership reduces your risk of complaints.

Complaint Processes

I recommend having two types of complaint processes. If you are a small business without a HR director I would also recommend a board member (with the assistance of external HR support) be a contact officer.

The Informal Process

In my experience when people understand when and how to use the informal process and it is activated in a fast, proactive and effective manner this significantly lessens serious issues and reduces formal complaints. It also creates a positive, open and respectful culture and environment.

The informal process is designed to “nip behaviour in the bud” before it becomes a problem. It is not to determine whether harassment, discrimination or bullying has occurred or not. It is simply designed to highlight offensive behaviour and for that person’s personal boundaries to be respected. In order for this process to work exceptionally well, the company culture needs to be seen as respectful, inclusive, open and supportive. As a basic overview, all employees are trained on how to deal with issues informally, whether raising the issue or the recipient of the process.

An example of the informal process in a nutshell is encouraging staff to immediately highlight to the other person that they found whatever they said or did inappropriate or offensive and to please not do it again. The perpetrator is then expected to apologise for any upset caused and to refrain from such behaviour in future.

The Formal Process

This process is quite complex and I cannot detail it appropriately in a blog. However, here is an basic overview to enable you to understand the process.

The formal process is instigated either because the matter is serious enough to make a formal complaint or where the informal process has failed. In some cases, employees choose to use the formal complaint process as a first stop and this should be respected. Please be aware they as a manager YOU DO NOT need to have a formal complaint if you witnessed highly inappropriate behaviour. You are required to act under the law regardless!

It is your responsibility to ensure a safe and appropriate environment for your employees. You may feel this is unfair as you employ adults and adults need to manage their own behaviour! I can’t agree with you more! Training goes a long way to putting the responsibility squarely in the hands of the employee. However, the law is designed as always for the lowest common denominator and being in business that employs people, this comes with some parental type supervision requirements by law.

As this process is not part of criminal law, the onus of the investigation is to determine (based on a full investigation of the facts), the probability of those facts as to whether the accusation occurred. This can be a very complex process and emotional process, affecting whole teams and sometimes departments. This process needs to be conducted with an objective stance and with someone who has had many years of investigative interviewing. The outcome of the process determines the most appropriate action to be taken.

The process needs to be designed to gain a clear understanding of the complaint, the behaviour, who was involved and any witnesses. Sometimes as in the DJ case the investigation needs to be broadened to identify if the behaviour has occurred previously. This goes to assist the determination of whether harassment/bullying was likely to have occurred.

Monitoring and Evaluation the policy and organisational behaviour

Having a policy is all very well and good, but if you don’t assess the policy and how it is working, then you too could end up with the DJ style case against you. The key thing about the DJ suit is that the company failed to live up to, and enforce their policy properly.

The five best ways to know if your policy is working and being managed well –

1. Observe behaviour in the office and outside the office. Do not ignore inappropriate behaviour. Ensure any inappropriate behaviour is dealt with quickly.

2. A big clue and one that is often ignored by senior managers is high sickness levels and turnover in a team. More often than not, exit interviews will highlight leadership issues with the manager and often people will reveal that they have been bullied/harassed but choose to leave as they don’t believe anything will be done about it. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this in my 22 years of HR!

3. Conducting relevant leadership 360 degree feedback helps the manager and the coach correct perceptions of behaviour or inappropriate behaviour quickly before a problem occurs. Managers often get into bullying behaviours simply because they don’t have the right skill sets or tools to help them deal with problems effectively. The behaviours in a Leadership Assessment are geared towards high performance, best practice leadership standards and hence enables very individualised training and coaching.

4. Conduct an Employee Engagement Survey once a year which specifically asks questions related to the matter as part of the overall survey.

5. Ensure that you have an effective Performance Management process in place and that all managers are facilitating the process correctly and effectively. This also nips problems in the bud quickly whilst ensuring high performance and growth!

I hope that this has been useful. Please see below for a special offer if you do not have your own HR Professional, we can assist you to get an appropriate and effective process implemented in your business without fuss and excessive costs!

Until next time – When I’ll discuss Toxic Employees (who hasn’t come across one of those) and what you can do about it!

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR SERVICE
My Performance Coach is delighted to assist you with implementing your strategy. We will assist you to develop an appropriate policy for your business and conduct training. Contact us to discuss your specific needs. As a special offer, we are offering Readers of this Blog a 20% discount on Training. Acceptable Behaviour training starts from $69 per person (min participant requirement). Costs include training, handouts and an online test. We can also assist you in investigating and managing complaints.

My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and HR issues We ensure you have effective protection whilst ensuring we use pragmatic and straightforward processes. My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR strategy giving you a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. We also offer Coaching and training service for Executives/Managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively!

This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

Part 2 - Preventing Sexual Harassment and a $37 million dollar law suit!

2010-09-15T03:44:00.000-07:00

Preventing Harassment in the Workplace – Part 2

Today I will discuss Communication and Training, which is often significantly underdone in many organisations. I do a great deal of Acceptable Behaviour Training for organisations and approximately 65% of people say they have never had proper training on this matter! This astonishes me as training is a major factor in risk mitigation for organisations, particularly as all employers are required by law to train their staff on these matters.

So where to start?

It depends on the size of your business. I have tried a number of ways to ensure communication and training is done appropriately and the only way to ensure 100% that it gets done and gets done well is by having a HR Professional deliver the training at the beginning of employment.

You may be thinking of course you would say that! Well here is my rationale. As a HR Director for over 22 years, I found from real life experience that delegating the task to local managers meant that communication and training becomes patchy, as managers are busy managing the business and often uncomfortable about doing the training. Often too Managers are motivated to deprioritise training to get people on the tools as soon as possible. This generally results in an increase in complaints and general behavioural/performance issues.

When training is done well and in a timely manner by a professional who can explain the obligations and rights in plain and easy to understand formats, I have found that there are a lot less issues and complaints! In fact in every organisation I have implemented such a process, complaints dropped by more than 70% and those that did get raised got resolved quickly and effectively. In my 22 years, I have never lost a harassment case (that's got to say something right)?

Anti-Harassment/Discrimination (or as I like to call it Appropriate Behaviour Training) can be delivered effectively in a classroom style environment or via a live webinar. Highly effective training including a knowledge test can be done in approximately 90 minutes. I would strongly recommend you investigate a HR Professional conducting this training for you. See below for a special offer if you do not have your own HR Professional.

What and when should you communicate?

Communication and Training is critical. It is not only a legal requirement but it helps to ensure your business doesn’t end up in DJ’s situation! And above all, it just makes good commercial sense to develop a strong values based culture, being open and honest and encouraging respect and professionalism! Employers that achieve this type of culture, have less complaints, less turnover and higher levels of employee engagement! The facts speak for themselves!!

Communication

Once you have an appropriate policy for your business, this should be distributed to all staff and ensure that they read the document (by signing a copy and returning to you) and then attend training. For new staff, you should include the policy in an offer package or on the first day of employment. In addition, I ensure all staff must pass with 100% a scenario based test. This ensures you know they get it and is strong evidence if a complaint is ever made.

But beware! As the DJ case highlights, having a policy and not ensuring you implement it could be very costly! Not having a policy and not training however can be even more costly as you then don’t have mitigation for any potential claims! This is not optional. You need to have a policy that is in line with the law and you need to ensure you manage it too! Above all, as the DJ case highlights, paying lip service or pretending that everything is ok, or having a culture of secrecy or lack of challenge is potentially very costly indeed!

Communication is an ongoing process. Specifically staff need to be reminded of the policy and when it applies to appropriate behaviour at particular times of the year – example Christmas parties and off-sites. In my experience, these two types of work situations create the highest level of complaints!

Training

Training falls into two categories.

The first type of training is for all staff. Everyone needs to attend the training and it specifically needs to ensure all staff understand the law, their responsibilities and rights and when and how to use the complaints procedures. At My Performance Coach, our training is customised to your situation (e.g. if you have staff working at other sites), includes examples of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, how to deal with any concerns quickly and all attendees have to achieve a 100% pass mark on a knowledge test.

Secondly, Managers, including ALL Senior Managers/Executives need to know what their obligations are, the organisations expectations of them, what to look for, when to act, what the consequences of failing to act are and how to deal with complaints appropriately. In my experience, most managers are generally unaware that they can be personally sued by an employee for failing to act or acting inappropriately. In the DJ case, McInnes is being sued for 5% of his personal income.

More importantly Managers at all levels must understand their responsibilities in creating the right culture. This training should also include effective behaviour management and how to deal with difficult employees effectively. In addition, managers need to know how and when to act and when to get a HR professional involved!

At my performance coach we have course ranging from ½ day to 3 days (which incorporates all skills and knowledge for organisations to create and managing high performing environments and manage employee behaviour effectively).

Until next time, keep smiling and remember -
Life is not about finding yourself it's about creating yourself :)

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR SERVICE

As a special offer, My Performance Coach is offering Readers of this Blog a 20% discount on Training. That means that you can ensure highly effective Acceptable Behaviour training for your employees starting from $69 per person (minimum requirements apply). Costs include webinar training, handouts and an online test. We can also assist you in investigating and managing complaints.

My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and HR issues We ensure you have effective protection whilst ensuring we use pragmatic and straightforward processes. My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR strategy giving you a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. We also offer Coaching and training service for Executives/Managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively!
My Performance Coach is delighted to assist you with implementing your strategy. We will assist you to develop an appropriate policy for your business and conduct training. Contact us to discuss your specific needs.

This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

DAVID JONES – SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE – IMPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS

2010-08-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

Harassment in the Workplace

Given the David Jones case involving Mark McInnes and Fraser-Kirk, the headlines today and following recent discussions with a couple of reporters, I decided to write a couple of blogs to assist Front-Line Managers, Executives and Business Owners to avoid having their business and brand splashed across all the major media!

This case is interesting because it is actually being bought under the TPA instead of anti-discrimination laws (the traditional approach). If this case succeeds, it will put an end to companies having policies as lip service or not enforcing them effectively (which is often the case). Often managers and business owners lull themselves into thinking that because they have a policy they are ok, and this case clearly shows that it is not!

Can any employer be sued for $37m for this type of behaviour? You betcha! And of course, DJ's could be up for more as more people get on the claims list.

The bigger your perceived pockets the bigger the suit. Whilst it is a large amount, most business would struggle in the current economic environment to deal with a $1m case. AND that’s just the pay-out claim! Not to mention the fees for lawyers, investigators and Barristers. And that’s before we add the months of management/board time dealing with the issue, business and brand damage and the list goes on! Before long a SME size company could be damaged irreparably. SME’s are the most at risk with these situations as they often do not have access to highly quality, competent and experienced HR Professionals.

How can you prevent this from happening to your business?

Delighted you asked! Over the next three blogs I will help you understand what is required to implement a successful strategy. The key elements are:-

• Developing a clear policy that outlines appropriate behaviour in the workplace, that meets legal requirements and what is acceptable at your organisation

• Communication and Training is critical – Specifically understanding the law, responsibilities, rights and complaints procedures. Managers, including Senior Managers need to know what their obligations are, the organisations expectations and how to deal with complaints appropriately. More importantly Managers at all levels must understand their responsibilities in creating the right culture

• Implementing a clear process and a highly proactive, fast methodology for executing the process

• Monitoring and Evaluation the policy and organisational behaviour

• Ongoing effective Performance Management and Leadership

So let’s start with the key definitions and practical examples. Please be aware that each state has its own laws. However, in this blog I am giving examples of a top line approach to cover a business with operations around Australia. The content here is an overview and is not intended to form a full and appropriate policy. Please ensure you seek professional advice if you would like to implement an appropriate strategy.

What is Discrimination? There are two types of discrimination: -

Direct Discrimination: is any action that specifically excludes a person(s) from a benefit or opportunity (e.g. employment, promotion, training), or significantly reduces their chances of obtaining it, because of a characteristic, that is irrelevant in the circumstances and protected by law (e.g. race, colour, sex, pregnancy, disability). A practical example of this is not offering a role to a 55 year old because you have a young business. All recruitment decisions must be justified!

Indirect Discrimination: is where an unreasonable requirement or condition is placed on a role that is not obviously discriminatory, but if applied, has the affect of discriminating against a person or group of people, protected by law. A practical example here is a requirement to travel extensively. If the requirement is justifiable and occurs as part of the role, then there is no discrimination. However, if the employer purports this and it is not true, they may be held to be indirectly discriminating against women (as women are less likely to be able to meet the requirements).

What is held to be protected by law?
This is state based, but most have the following:- Age, Gender, Physical features, Disability (physical or intellectual), Marital status, Race, Religious or Political beliefs, Pregnancy, Parental or Carer status, Union membership or non-union membership and Sexual orientation.

What is Harassment?
Again there are various definitions, but this is the best - Harassment is any unwanted, unwelcome or uninvited behaviour that has the effect of making a person feel humiliated, intimidated or offended (this includes race, sex and disability). The significant thing to remember about harassment, is that it is not the intention of the perpetrator but how the behaviour affected the other person.

Some examples of harassment include, but are not limited to: abuse of one’s authority, uninvited physical contact, inappropriate jokes or comments, teasing or abuse, persistent questions or insinuations about a person’s private life, displays of offensive or graphic material.

What is Bullying?
Bullying is any behaviour that makes a person feel humiliated, intimidated or offended and could put that person, or someone else’s health, safety or welfare at risk.

Examples of bullying include, but are not limited to: Aggressive or threatening behaviour; Shouting or swearing at someone; Threatening to make, or actively making, someone’s work life difficult; Putting someone down in a nasty or derogatory way in front of others; Baiting or teasing; Nasty practical jokes; Sniggering or gossiping about someone behind their back, in a way that is obvious to them or will get back to them; inappropriate micromanagement, Ignoring or isolating someone.

What is incorporated in an effective policy?
• Clear and realistic statements about how the policy applies to all employees and fits with the corporate culture and nature of the business (ensure you appoint a custodian of the policy)
• Clear definitions of unacceptable behaviour
• Clear explanations of what is unlawful behaviour
• Clear examples of when the policy applies (e.g. at off-sites)
• Clearly explain employee's responsibilities under the law and any code of
conducts that are relevant (be specific to each level of employee)
• Clearly explain potential consequences of breaches of the policy
• Clearly explain employee rights
• Clearly explain expectations of managers and their responsibilities
• Clearly explain the complaints procedure – which should have an informal and
formal procedure. Make sure that each procedure is clearly explained and how
each work. Ensure there is a process for complaints against senior executive
(i.e. a board member or is responsible for investigations)
• Clearly explain the possible consequences of breach of the poicy

Until next time...

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR SERVICE
My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and HR issues We ensure you have effective protection whilst ensuring we use pragmatic and straightforward processes. My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR strategy giving you a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. We also offer Coaching and training service for Executives/Managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively!

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/six-more-harassment-claims-made-against-david-jones-ceo-mark-mcinnes/story-e6freuy9-1225911798590

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/former-david-jones-boss-mark-mcinnes-returns-to-fight-sexual-harassment-allegations/story-e6frg8zx-1225905425330

This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

Employee Engagement and Labour Turnover

2010-08-12T03:31:00.000-07:00

A recent Hays Survey found that 33% of the Aussie workforce is looking to move jobs and 25% have every intention of doing so in the next quarter! It also appears from recent research that there are a growing number of people who are moving jobs to get a pay increase!

This is way above European and USA workers. This indicates that the Australian general public seems to be under a misguided view that the rest of the world’s problems is not going to impact us here. Given that most of the governments in Europe are near bankruptcy and most of the rest of the world governments are in huge deficits and struggling to figure out how to pay their debts, Australians would be wise to be very wary of the good times spin and pay close attention to reality.

Of course Corporations are heeding more notice and with this type of economic environment, most companies are wisely managing their finances tightly. This includes not paying bonuses and/or pay increases.

This is now however a catch 22, because whilst there is a cost involved in paying bonuses and increases, people are choosing to move if they aren't getting them. This causes additional significant costs to a business in increased labour turnover and lower engagement levels. For some businesses, this could outweigh the costs of paying out (see calculations later).

If the survey is somewhat indicative of the general public, you should assume that labour turnover will increase soon. Turnover over the last 6-12 months has been lower whilst people have been concerned about the affects of the economy.

But it seems we no longer care too much! Of more concern, I have heard a number of companies assume their low turnover of recent times has something to do with their management (even though they haven’t done anything in particular or different)!

As a HR Expert I have had over 22 years of observing and understanding employee mindset and behaviour in organisations. If there is one certainty that I can rely on in 90% of cases, is that management’s view of how things are and their general workforces view will differ (sometimes a little, more often than not quite substantially).

So what can you do? The best any organisation can do is work very hard at truly engaging their people at all levels of the business!

That is why an Engagement Survey is a hugely powerful tool and can assist management be highly proactive in managing their workforce.

Our Engagement Survey is highly cost effective and customised to your needs, which enables management to take key proactive action to improve the engagement of their people and ultimately positively affect their bottom line though motivated employees who are planning to stick around. The link between employee engagement and customer satisfaction and bottom line profits is proven beyond doubt now.

That is why all the most successful, top performing companies in the world invest hundreds of thousands on this stuff a year! They truly understand the power of high employee engagement – it is the driving force of their performance outcomes. They treat engagement as a key strategic cornerstone of their business.

Did you know that the minimum cost of replacing a $40,000 per annum worker is estimated to be at least $20,000? Depending on the skills/competency of the role, the average cost to replace is 50-75% of annual salary.

Roles that have a rare skill requirement can now cost up to 150% to fill!
So if you have 100 employees earning an average of $50,000 per annum, turnover of 10% costs your business’ bottom line at least 250,000, 20% 500,000 and 30% 750,000 minimum! That there is a fair amount of dosh! Given that the average benchmark for turnover is 25%, then this is a substantial hit to any businesses bottom line!

That’s before we even discuss DISENGAGED EMPLOYEES! The world class organisations achieve less than 10% disengagement. We have worked with businesses that have 80% of their workforce that are somewhat to strongly disengaged! These businesses are struggling to keep their head above water and it’s no surprise why! Actively disengaged employees seriously erode a business’ profitability. Not to mention the virus they create amongst the troops (these are the people who are deeply negative, yet stay anyway)! I’m sure you can recognise these folks. USA estimates the cost of disengaged employees to be costing in excess of $300 billion in lost productivity alone!! So any more than a 10% actively disengaged workforce is costing you serious money and you don’t even know it!

Imagine if you could take proactive action to improve your business’ performance! Increasing your employee engagement levels directly correlate with a positive impact on your bottom line and key business metrics, even if you could reduce your labour turnover by 5%! That would equate to substantial ROI on your bottom line! The Employee Engagement process is highly cost effective and will identify key issues for your management team to address, to both reduce your turnover and improve your profitability, not to mention improve your customer satisfaction score.

You may be wondering what employee engagement is all about? Well a number of differing views on what it means! Please do yourself a favour and ignore those companies(and there are many these days) that have jumped on the bandwagon and simply renamed their opinion surveys, employee engagement surveys! Make sure you deal with a company that has had substantial HR experience or you may find the ROI won’t be delivered for you!

Employee Engagement is essentially, a quantifiable hard measure that relates your employee’s engagement level with the profitability of your business. Therefore, it is more than a simple employee opinion survey. It is all very nice to know what opinions your employees have, but that is a small part of engagement and individual opinions do not help you improve your business substantially!

What is really critical is an understanding of the hard core motivators, both intrinsic and extrinsic. Understanding how engaged your employees are (i.e. how engaged their minds and hearts) are with the business. I.e., how positive your employees are (and what they say and do) when talking about your business, what their intentions are (whether they intend to leave or stick around) and how prepared they are to exert their discretionary effort to the betterment of the business.

Our Employee Engagement Survey provides you with a quantitative score as well as powerful qualitative information to enable proactive corrective action.

My Performance Coach works with all types of organisations up to 300 employees to assist them in establishing powerful world class people management practices in a highly pragmatic way. We customise our approaches to each business to ensure maximum value add. We work with you from inception, through to communication, strategy design and even change management implementation if you require it. We are experts in driving performance and customer experience and therefore your bottom line.

We have helped one company achieve a phenomenal Net Promoter score of 71%! We have helped other organisations reduce their employee turnover by 8-15% in six months, whilst improving overall organisational performance and engagement amongst the workforce.

Contact us for a no obligation discussion about your business and how we can help you create better results!

Performance Appraisals - YIPPEE!!!!

2010-07-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

Performance Appraisals/Reviews – Part One

It’s that time of year when managers need to be getting ready for the new financial year and are running around trying to agree budgets etc for the financial year ahead.

Then someone in HR says, hey it’s now time to get your Performance Appraisals done! I can hear the sighs from here! Every year it’s the same thing! Most Managers drag their heels on appraisals/performance reviews. Many managers view it as a thing HR make them do so they can give people pay rises or bonuses. They see it as something they are forced to go through! And what’s worse, if there are no pay rises or bonuses on offer, many managers can’t see the point of the review at all. Me thinks they are missing the point!

Think about it, if you don’t really buy into an idea, are you going to give it your upmost – no. Will you do the best job and be inspired to do so? NO! So then you get what you expect! Often managers tell me their people don’t value appraisals. And my response is always – that’s because you do not! I know this to be true. I have spent 25 years observing managers/leaders and their effects on their people/team.

As a manager, if you approach Performance Reviews / Appraisals as a necessary evil or some mundane task that needs to be done, then SO will your people and the whole thing will become a disappointment to everyone concerned. I will guarantee that! I have seen it way too many times to know that it is true!

It has always puzzled me how many managers don’t understand the power of feedback. I am often bewildered at having to ‘convince’ a manager to do performance reviews. In fact, EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK IS the manager’s BEST & MOST POWERFUL MANAGEMENT TOOL!

Research project after research project over the past 30 years holds the same outcome - Effective and Regular Feedback drives and motivates employees!!! So it is baffling why many managers have to be forced to do it through a HR process!

The best EXCUSE I hear from managers is that they don’t have time for Employee Appraisals/Review because they are TOO busy trying to get results! I often giggle to myself about that. They can’t see that the best way to get the most powerful results is to have your people outperform on expectations. And the best and easiest way to do that is to utilise the most powerful tool in the world to change behaviour – EFFECTIVE CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK!

If these managers just stepped back a moment and observed highly respected, highl performing and achieving leaders, they would see what I just said is true!

So, if you only provide feedback at times HR tells you to, you really are not a leader and probably should reconsider your suitability to the role. Shock horror I know!!

All poor managers/leaders I’ve worked with in 25 years have some common failings - poor communicators; poor leaders in terms of leading by example (i.e. do what I say, not what I do); have no vision or realistic, inspiring goals; they fail to know what affects performance of their people and they fail to provide powerful constructive feedback to assist their people to succeed!

A well designed Appraisal/Review Process is designed to ensure everyone gets the best out of the performance management approach. It ensures everyone is able to perform to their best ability. But please know that an annual appraisal is not good performance management. It is but one element of a highly effective Performance Management Approach.

Now, to say that you don't have an effective process/paperwork is also no excuse. That's just trying to blame someone else or something else. Regardless of whether your company has a well designed approach or not, it is incumbent on every leader and more importantly, central to your success, to ensure you and your team can deliver exceptional performance! At the end of the day, it is not about the paperwork or process, it's about facilitating a great review.

My Performance Coach can assist your organisation develop a highly effective, highly customised Performance Management Approach, following world class, best practice principles that get RESULTS! We provide pragamatic solutions that have been proven to work. We also provide powerful coaching and training programs for managers to assist them in becoming more effective leaders.

Based on significant research, here are the key elements that make any Performance Review highly effective:-

► Provide a two way, open and honest discussion about your employee’s performance
► Provide a two way, open and honest discussion about your leadership and performance
► Recognise your employee’s achievements against expectations/objectives/targets
► Identify key behaviours and actions that led to the employee’s successes
► Identify areas for improvement
► Identify learning and development activities and opportunities
► Reward Good Performance and Behaviour
► Clearly communicate future performance outcomes
► Consider succession-planning and talent management initiatives (longer term)

Remember, the purpose of an appraisal is to recognise good behaviour and performance, be encouraging and inspiring and also helping the person to understand their strengths and development needs! Even if you have a significant under-performer, the best way to achieve better outcomes with them is to ensure that they too have a powerful and inspiring performance review!

Minimum Wage Increase - Effective 1 July 2010

2010-06-08T03:36:00.000-07:00

On 3 June, Fair Work Australia's minimum wage panel passed its first ever decision to increase modern award minimum weekly wage rates by $26 or an extra 69c an hour, taking the new minimum weekly rate to $569.90 or hourly rate to $15.00. Casual loading will remain at 25% and 21% for award free employees.

The new minimum wage rates takes effect from the first pay period on or after 1 July 2010 - that's less than a couple of weeks away!

The FWA panel stated that “Over the past decade there has been a relatively small growth in the real value of the National Minimum Wage, about 2 per cent, which is well below the growth in labour productivity of 16 to 20 per cent. The implication is that minimum wage earners have only shared to a very limited extent in the benefits of productivity growth”.

If your employees are subject to a State Award, and that minimum wage obligation is less than the current modern award rates, then your minimum wage obligation after 1 July 2010 may be less than the new modern award rates. Otherwise you need to ensure the minimum wage meets the new minimum standard. Contact FWA for more info.

If you are currently paying the employee above the new modern award pay rates, then you have nothing further to do!.

Don’t forget to check your operative enterprise agreement as well to ensure the rates in the agreement are not less than the minimum wage rate provided for in the modern award

Fair Work Act - Redundancy

2009-10-07T04:23:00.000-07:00

From 1 July 2009 the Fair Work Act Employers must prove they have proactively pursued all redeployment alternatives in order to avoid adverse litigation and compensation claims.

Under the new Fair Work Act, the 'genuine operational reasons' exclusion has been ommitted and this significantly increases an employers obligation to satisfy a tribunal that a redundancy is fair.

For example a ‘genuine redundancy’ will not stand up if it would have been reasonable for the employer to redeploy the redundant employee in another part of the employer's operations, or that of an associated entity. The obligation is on an employer to prove that it proactively pursued all alternative options first, including the redeployment of workers into different roles or related companies.

An employer is also legally obligated to contact Centrelink if it plans to make 15 or more employees redundant. Under the new legislation the maximum penalty is now$3,300.

Employers should also be aware of their NEW obligation to properly consult with and divulge information to trade unions when planning to let 15 or more workers go (providing at least one of the workers is a union member).

When forced to make redundancy decisions we recommended that you keep thorough records of all conversations, dates, meetings and and other correspondence that helps to show that you explored all avenues to retain staff and have followed all your consultation obligations will help to minimise and defend any subsequent litigation.

What you need to do:

Employers need to ensure they have identify all relevant stakeholders and have a well documented step-by-step redundancy process. We strongly recommend that all employers seek the guidance of a HR professional to ensure you meet all your obligations under law and to mitigate the particular risks associated with your business.

My Performance Coach will help you to ensure that you have everything you need in place to be able to operate your business effectively.

FWA 2009 - NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS

2009-10-07T04:12:00.000-07:00

National Employment Standards (NES)- due to commence 1 January 2010

The FWA introduces 10 National Employment Standards (NES) which are intended to provide a new safety net to all employees. It replaces the current Australian Fair Pay and Condition Standard. The new minimum standards include:

1. A maximum 38 hour working week. There is some provision for ‘reasonable’ additional hours. Hours can still be averaged. If an employee is not covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement, then hours can now only be averaged over a six month period.

2.The right to request flexible working arrangements after 12 months service Parents or carers of children under school age can request in writing a change in working arrangements to assist with the care of the child (including long-term casuals. Employers need to show reasonableness in refusing such requests!

3.Parental Leave - Each parent (including long term casuals) has a right to take 12 months unpaid parental leave, with a right to request up to an additional 12 months unpaid leave (employer cannot unreasonably refuse). Couples (including same sex couples) will only be entitled to take up to 3 weeks parental leave concurrently. Rules have changed on parental leave!

4.Annual leave can still be cashed out in accordance with an award or enterprise agreement, provided the employee maintains a leave balance of at least four weeks. An employer cannot exert undue influence on an employee to cash out leave.

5.Personal, Carers and compassionate leave - The amount of personal leave (including sick leave) remains at 10 days per annum. The number of days paid carer's leave that an employee can use is no longer capped at ten days a year. Leave can be cashed out under provisions in modern awards and agreements provided a minimum of 15 days remain, but employees not covered by such instruments cannot cash out this leave. Casual employees are not entitled to any paid leave but may be entitled to take two days unpaid personal/ carer's or compassionate leave at a time.

6.Community service leave - Unpaid leave for eligible community service activities, such as jury duty or voluntary emergency management must be provided. Employers will have to pay full time and part time employees undertaking jury duty for a period of up to ten days. They are to be paid at their base rate of pay for ordinary hours of work.

7.Long service leave - continues to be regulated by state and territory legislation, awards and agreements. It seems it was too difficult to nationalise for the FWA but there is an intention to move to a national system.

8.Public holidays - Payment when an employee is absent on prescribed public holidays is still required. An employee can ‘reasonably’ refuse to work a Public Holiday. The Queen’s birthday has been added as a prescribed public holidays.

9.Notice of termination and redundancy pay. Employers with more than 15 employees are obliged to make a severance payment (new scale) to an employee terminated on the ground of redundancy, after 12 months service. Employers with 15 or less employees are subject to award provisions (and most have a redundancy payment scale). The level of notice remains the same.

10. Fair Work Information Statement - Employers will have to provide all new employees with a Fair Work Statement (tbc).

Employees earning more than a guaranteed $100,000 a year (indexed), will be able to negotiate individual agreements that contract them out of the above. Those agreements will be subject to limitations and likely to be ‘no worse off’ than the basket of NES conditions.

What you need to do

Employers need to ensure that all their contracts, policies and processes are updated with the above prior to 1 January 2010. In particular ensuring these work for your particular business needs as well as ensure compliance with the FWA. My Performance Coach will help you to ensure that you have everything you need in place to be able to operate your business effectively.

Disclaimer
This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

FWA 2009 - Compulsory Bargaining and Industrial Action

2009-07-28T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

In this blog I will give you a brief overview about the key changes that the Fair Work Act (FWA) 2009 has enabled. Today’s blog is about compulsory collective bargaining and Industrial Action.

This is very important for all incorporated employers, but places quite an onus on small businesses who don’t have an IR specialist to assist them. From a small business perspective, these next two provisions are arguably the most significant change! The FWA gives unions back their strength through collective bargaining and right of entry provisions, and certainly cuts them a piece of the employment relationship pie! Unions will be the default representative of its members, unless employees appoint a different representative!

3.Compulsory Collective bargaining – Effective 1 July 2009

Collective enterprise agreement-making is at the heart of the FWA. The FWA provides for new types of agreements, good faith bargaining, new approval processes and new content rules. The good faith bargaining rules will require employers to collectively bargain with employees (and their nominated bargaining representatives) where a majority of employees want this. So employers now have limited choices – use a modern award or go through an enterprise bargaining agreement process. There will be no individual contracts or AWA’s for those employees under $100,000.

It will be compulsory for employers to “bargain” with employee representatives, though the legislation says that “bargaining” does not amount to reaching agreement. Alarmingly, not only will agreements be able to contain pretty much any matters relevant to the relationship between employees and employers, they are also able to contain matters relevant to the relationship between unions and employers!!

Enterprise agreements must contain individual flexibility, dispute and consultation provisions. As is currently the case, employees will vote on an agreement and it will be approved by the FWA. In order to gain approval, agreements must pass the “better off” overall test and this appears to be more onerous than the current ‘no disadvantage test’. Unions will also have the option to be covered by an agreement simply by giving notice to FWA.

The Good Faith Bargaining Provisions in the act:

• Employers must recognise and bargain with employee representatives (including union officials)

• FWA will be able to make orders requiring parties to do things that will facilitate effective collective bargaining, such as attend meetings at specified times, disclose relevant information, give timely responses to negotiating positions. give genuine consideration to proposals and reasons for responses to those proposals, and refrain from capricious or unfair conduct that undermines freedom of association or collective bargaining

• If a party is guilty of sustained and serious breaches of bargaining orders, FWA may issue a serious breach declaration. If a serious breach is declared, the FWA is required to arbitrate the outstanding matters that have not been agreed by the parties!

• FWA may also force employers to bargain if it determines that the majority of employees wish to do so.

• FWA will also have the power to declare that a group of employees to be covered by an agreement, thereby reducing flexibility and small group of employee agreements. Seemingly forcing an actual enterprise bargaining level agreement.

• Enterprise agreements can be made between a single employer and their employees or between more than one employer and their employees (multiple employer agreements).

• Unions may become parties to enterprise agreements if they represent at least one employee. This would provide unions with substantial rights at a particular enterprise!

• Mandatory clauses include dispute settlement by FWA or another independent person; a nominal expiry date of up to four years; consultation on major workplace changes and flexibility arrangements. In considering approval of agreements, FWA will consider if each employee is “better off overall” under the agreement, compared to an applicable modern award.

• There are special provisions for low paid workers in certain industries – e.g. cleaners, security.

What you need to do: Employers and small business in particular need to develop a clear industrial relations strategy appropriate for your business. My Performance Coach will help you to ensure that you understand the options open to you in order to operate your business effectively.

4.Industrial Action – Effective 1 July 2009

Interestingly, most of the industrial action provisions made by the Howard Government have been retained. No industrial action may be taken before an agreement reaches its nominal expiry date. The requirement for a secret ballot of employees to approve industrial action has been retained. Protected industrial action is immune from civil actions for damages against unions or employees properly engaging in industrial action. FWA will now have powers to order industrial action to stop.

The FWA introduces a number of new changes:

 Protected industrial action will be permissible once the secret ballot and notice requirements have been met

 Introduction of three types of protected industrial action - “employee claim action”, “employee response action” and “employer response action”

 Introduction of express “common requirements” that must be met for industrial action to be protected action. Including parties genuinely try to reach agreement, comply with industrial action orders and are not engaged in pattern bargaining.

 Employer industrial action will only be protected action where it is taken in response to industrial action taken by its employees (i.e. no pre-emptive lock outs)

 The introduction of extensive new rules regarding payments made to employees for imposed partial work or overtime bans.

The FWA will have the power to suspend or terminate the industrial action if it is causing significant harm to the wider economy, community or third parties or for the purposes of “cooling-off”. FWA will also be able to suspend or terminate industrial action if it causes significant economic harm to the bargaining participants.

What you need to do: Traditionally Industrial Action rules and strategies have been problematic for employers and caused much confusion. We will make sure you know exactly what your rights are when dealing with unions and ensure we step you through what you need to do. We’ll clarify what you can and can’t do and create clarity for you.

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR ON CALL SERVICE
My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and IR issues, through our HR ON CALL services. HR ON CALL is a fantastic service assisting SME’s to get the best out of their human resources and manage IR appropriately, ensuring effective protection and compliance with legislation.

HR ON CALL is a one year subscription service that offers personalised advice and guidance for your business and specific situations. And because we understand that cashflow is important, we bill you quarterly!

My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR and IR strategy giving them a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. My Performance Coach also offers Executive/Manager Coaching and training managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively and these significant changes in the IR landscape!

DisclaimerThis article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

Changes to the definition of a small business and unfair dismissal

2009-07-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

In this blog I will give you a brief overview about the changes that the Fair Work Act (FWA) 2009 has enabled.

1) SMALL BUSINESS DEFINITION

If you are an incorporated company, then you are defined as a 'national system employer' and subject to the unfair dismissal laws and other elements of the FWA 2009. If you are not incorporated then you are subject to the state law in which your business is located.

If you are subject to the FWA then, the first thing you need to establish is are you a small business?

The FWA reduces the definition of a small business down to 15 FTE. This is an interesting definition, because by implication a business employing 16+ employees is now a large business. Well watch out Telstra! This has come into effect at 1 July.

The FTE calculation includes all full time, part time employees and regular/systematic casuals. This includes the employee who is dismissed if there is an unfair dismissal claim. And this is per entity, so if you have several businesses under the one banner, then you must count all those employees (all related associated entities).

2) UNFAIR DISMISSAL LAWS

If you are a large employer (see above), then employees now have access to unfair dismissal remedies if they have completed 6 months service and are under the high income threshold ($108,300 per annum).

If you are a small business (as per definition above) then employees can claim unfair dismissal at 12 months and under the high income threshold.

This includes Casual employees who are engaged on a regular and systematic basis. Yes they now also have unfair dismissal rights under both definitions!

NB/. Unfair dismissal claims must be lodged now within 14 days of dismissal.

If you are a small business, you may dismiss an employee fairly after 12 months if the you comply with the Fair Dismissal Code for Small Business. The code includes the right to dismiss employees for capacity or conduct reasons after one warning.

Fair Work Aust will determine unfair dismissal claims via informal conferences or hearings. FWA will discuss issues directly with the Employer and the Employee and will not allow legal or fee paid agent representation unless in exceptional circumstances. Appeals will only be allowed in limited circumstances!

Reinstatement will be the primary remedy and compensation will remain at a maximum of six months. Courts may also award penalties of up to $6,600 for individuals and $33,000 for corporations.

Under the FWA, there are now fewer exclusions from the unfair dismissal provisions. This means that there is an increased likelihood of unfair dismissal claims against businesses. Redundancy is now the only exclusion for unfair dismissal (see redundancy in a later blog).

FWA retains the existing unlawful termination provisions. A termination is unlawful if the decision to terminate is based upon one or more of the prohibited reasons or if the termination is effected without satisfying the minimum period of notice (e.g. physical disability).

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO:

Avoiding a claim of unfair dismissal can be complex. We strongly advise you to seek the help of HR specialists like My Performance Coach or a specialist Employment Lawyer.

You need to ensure that all your contracts, policies, processes and training are updated and compliant with the FWA.

You should also ensure you have clear and strong job descriptions and performance standards (both quantifiable and behavioural) for all roles in the workplace.

My Performance Coach can help you to ensure that you have everything you need in place to be able to lift underperformance and where required, fairly dismiss an employee. Substantive and Procedural fairness is critical to ensuring you do not fall foul of this legislation. We will help you set up your system and if something goes wrong, we’ll be there to support and guide you, stepping you through the process. We can also provide highly effective training for the managers to ensure they understand their obligations and do not put your business at risk.

MY PERFORMANCE COACH - HR ON CALL SERVICE

My Performance Coach specialises in assisting small to medium enterprises with their Human Resource and IR issues, through our HR ON CALL services. HR ON CALL is a fantastic service assisting SME’s to get the best out of their human resources and manage IR appropriately, ensuring effective protection and compliance with legislation.

HR ON CALL is a one year subscription service that offers personalised advice and guidance for your business and specific situations. And because we understand that cashflow is important, we bill you quarterly!

My Performance Coach provides strategic Human Resource service enabling businesses to build a strong, integrated HR and IR strategy giving them a clear competitive advantage over their competitors. My Performance Coach also offers Executive/Manager Coaching and training managers to ensure your business is able to easily and proactively manage their human resources effectively and these significant changes in the IR landscape!

Disclaimer
This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.

Fair Work Act

2009-06-18T04:48:00.000-07:00

Hello

Welcome to my new blog! This blog will provide fortnightly updates (or weekly if I have time) on current issues relating to managing people at work. As a leading HR expert and Executive coach I am asked a lot of questions about managing people at work and getting the best performance out of people in the workplace.

I have lead large groups of people, held executive roles in large Blue Chip corporates as well as being instrumental in developing 3 start-up businesses to, so I understand firsthand the challenges that come with the space!

If you have a burning topic you'd like to know more about, JUST ASK!

In my discussions so far with business owners, executives and managers, most are completely unaware of the phenomenal impact the new Fair Work Act 2009 is about to have on them. In fact, most don't even realise it exists, let alone coming in on 1 July!

How does that happen? Well Mr Rudd is Spin Doctor Extraordinaire and apparently there’s not a lot of point having an opposition party. Rudd did such a fantastic job of getting Work-Choices hated by the mass public that Turnbull is terrified of having Work-Choices thrown up at him, coming into another election. So the opposition have done an appalling job of highlighting the real business issues associated with this law and the potential phenomenal costs that are likely to businesses.

So what is coming? Well, the FWA introduces new definition of small business, introduction of minimal employment standards, changes to unfair dismissal regulations, increased union rights, compulsory collective bargaining requirements, new transfer of business requirements and procedural and structural changes to the jurisdiction of Fair Work Australia. Assuming the FWA passes through Parliament relatively unchanged, most of the major changes come in for 1 July 2009, the remainder fully operational on 1 January 2010.

Ironically, Labor has not changed the nationalisation of employers (which previously they insisted was unconstitutional and spent a vast amount of money on fighting Howard all the way to the Supreme Court and losing). The FWA will apply to constitutional employers (Pty Limited Companies), trading corporations and the like and possibly incorporated trusts. In most other cases, all other employers are subject to state legislation/awards.

Here are 10 most impactful changes of the FWA 2009. I will discuss each briefly in the next few blogs.

1. Definition of Small Business –1 July 2009
2. Changes to Unfair Dismissal –1 July 2009
3. Compulsory Collective bargaining – 1 July 2009
4. Industrial Action process changes – 1 July 2009
5. Transmission of Business – 1 July 2009
6. Discrimination – burden of proof changes – 1 July 2009
7. Fair Work Australia (Stronger Arbitration) - 1 July 2009
8. National Employment Standards (NES)- due to commence 1 January 2010
9. New Modern Awards - due to commence 1 January 2010
10. Increased Union Power and Union Right of Entry – 1 January 2010

Disclaimer
This article is intended to provide commentary and general information. It should not be relied upon as comprehensive or legal advice. Formal legal advice may be necessary in particular transactions or on matters of interest arising from this article. My Performance Coach is not responsible for the results of any actions taken on the basis of information in this article, nor for any error or omission in this article.