Who is Robert Watson and how can he help your business?

If you have not yet taken advantage of the excellent information shared with you for free by Robert Watson – now is the time.

Robert is a highly experienced management consultant and executive coach who has literally travelled the world examining the management systems of some of the most successful companies in the world.

Robert has the knack of taking high level business best practice and turning it into practical, simple systems and actions that businesses can apply everyday for better results.

Knowing that Robert has helped many businesses achieve tremendous business improvements by focussing on the quality of the people they bring into the business, HRwisdom has managed to get Robert to share some of his business secrets in the area of recruitment & selection.

These special insights are available to you now for free as our way of saying thank you for being part of the HRwisdom community.

Robert Watson – First Free Resource

To begin, every business can benefit from having well-prepared questions to learn more about your job candidates. We asked Robert to come up with his Top 10 Interview Questions to help you find the right person for the right role. Not only will you get the well thought-out questions, you’ll also get the exact type of answer you would expect from the type of person you want contributing to your organisation. Click here for Robert’s Top 10 Interview Questions.

Robert Watson – Second Free Resource

Most businesses spend thousands of dollars every year on print and online advertisements to find job candidates. In this special online video presentation, Robert walks you through the Four Mistakes In Job Ads. This one presentation has the potential to save your business thousands of dollars and vastly improve the quality of candidates you bring into your selection process. Side Note: When a major Australian business site recently published the link to Robert’s video it actually crashed the video server due to the sheer demand. So, do make sure you see the presentation while it is still online. Click here for Four Mistakes In Job Ads.

Robert Watson – Third Free Resource

At HRwisdom we have over a thousand different businesses, large and small, in our community. One of the most popular topics has been how to manage Gen Y employees. We asked Robert for some comments and simple tips that could be applied at any type of business, large or small. This short article gives you some excellent ideas to use when managing Gen Y staff.

As mentioned earlier, Robert has the knack of taking high level business best practice and turning it into practical, simple systems and actions that businesses can apply every day for better results.

Robert works as a freelance management consultant and executive coach. If you’d like to contact Robert, you can reach him on his private email address at: rgw2005@optusnet.com.au

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

As the world awakens from its economic slumber, talk in the Australian business community is gradually turning to the familiar topic of the skills shortage.

As you probably know by now, at HRwisdom we are very much focussed on businesses taking a proactive approach to skills shortage issues. This means we regularly encourage our community members to take positive action when it comes to employee retention and reducing staff turnover.

In today’s HRwisdom blog post we have some excellent free HR resources to help you be even more proactive with your employee retention planning.

Employee Retention – Why Is It So Important?

Put simply, an organisation that is bad at retaining talent:

• Loses a lot of new recruits
• Loses a disproportionate percentage of high performers
• Loses an increasing percentage of all staff
• Experiences increasing grievances
• Fields increasing customer complaints
• Records increasing compliance breaches
• Sees an increase in staff sick leave
• Records increases in safety problems
• Takes longer to fill vacancies
• Pays higher recruitment costs
• Attracts lower calibre candidates

To help you become a high-performer in the area of employee retention, we have called upon our friends at Retention Partners who have kindly agreed to share some of their powerful employee retention tools with you.

Click on the following link to download (for free) the highly informative Retention Success Guide: Guide

Click on the following link for free access to the powerful Employee Retention Calculator Tool: Calculator

Finally, if you have friends and colleagues who would benefit from this information, please feel free to share the following link with them: Employee Retention Blog

The link: http://blog.hrwisdom.com.au/2010/07/employee-retention-new-tools/

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

Whilst the mining companies may be breathing a sigh of relief after the government’s backdown on the resources super tax, many Australian businesses still face uncertain times.

An recent article in The Australian newspaper described the potential threat of a GFC 2 resulting from the debt-ridden economies of Europe.

At HRwisdom we are very much focussed on being proactive and taking positive planning steps (and we’ll talk more soon about some excellent employee retention tools you can use).

However, for those businesses in Australia which may be suffering or trying to manage their costs very closely, we have put together an excellent free HR resource which explains:

How To Manage Redundancies Without Destroying All Employee Goodwill

In this HRwisdom resource, we have turned to industry expert Jacqui Alder to offer practical advice to businesses facing this difficult issue.

In this redundancy information we look at:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of offering voluntary redundancies versus conducting forced redundancies/involuntary redundancies?
• What are the steps involved in the redundancy process?
• How to select people for involuntary redundancy?
• How to communicate throughout the redundancy process?
• Should you march someone out immediately when making them redundant?
• How can you implement redundancies without destroying all employee goodwill?
• A case study.

You can access the information here:  redundancy information

Kind regards,

HRwisdom

Here are a few quick questions to ask yourself as a business manager or an HR professional:

• In your professional career so far, how many job ads have you run in newspapers and/or online?
• On average, how much does each sort of job advertisement cost?
• Over your whole career, how much have you spent on job ads?
• What’s been your return on investment for all those job ads?
• Have your ads ever attracted poor quality candidates or even none at all?

If you’re like most business managers and HR professionals (yes, even us here at HRwisdom), at some point you’ll have run at least one job ad that generated zero interest from job candidates.
 
Chances are you’ll probably also have paid for at least one job ad that only attracted dud candidates for your vacancy.

Avoid The Four Big Mistakes When Writing Job ads

In today’s HRwisdom blog post, we’ll help you avoid making the four big mistakes in writing job ads.

We’ll do this by sharing with you a simple model used by professional consumer products advertisers to sell their products and services all over the world.

What is the model and how can it help you attract and hire better quality employees?

You may have heard of the advertising model known as the AIDA model:

A = Attention
I = Interest
D = Desire
A = Action

An acronym based on a few short words may sound silly but with the economy improving and the return of the global skills shortage starting to loom on the economic horizon, it makes good sense to follow the model to dramatically increase your recruitment hit rate – not to mention your return on investment.

Learn From Real Life Recruitment Examples

To explain exactly how to use apply the AIDA model in your recruitment process, we’re going to walk you through some real life examples via a special online video presentation right here on the website.

Not only will the video explain the four big mistakes made when writing job ads but you’ll also get to see examples of ads that work well and those that don’t work so well. You’ll see examples of photographic ads, text ads, and even a two-line job ad.

HR Video Presentation

To get started, just click on the following link to watch the video presentation.

Click here: Writing Job Advertisements

As always, we’re keen to hear your thoughts – just leave a comment below here.

Remember to visit the HRwisdom home page to access more great free resources to help you find, keep, and manage your employees.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

ps. Don’t forget to share you thoughts and ideas below…

HR professionals and business managers are often asked for advice on how to get better results from new projects being established. Today’s HRwisdom post comes from Executive Coach, Robert Watson, a regular expert contributor to HRwisdom.

One of the great things about work teams or small businesses is that everyone gets to know each other very well. They can be friendly workplaces where most workers happily accommodate the various strengths and weaknesses of their colleagues. But have you ever seen a project as simple as organising the Christmas party turn into a fracas of frustration?

Unfortunately we assume that people who work together cooperatively will somehow make a great team to tackle a project.

HR Advice: Importance of Structure

In the normal work environment, there is a strong structure which exists. People know which department they are in, they know each other’s roles, they know how to go about their own work. These things might be contained in Organisation Charts and Standard Operating Procedures, and would be reinforced through training. Even in places where these things are not formalised, there will always be a strong informal structure prevailing in the workplace.

If people are formed into a team to work on a project, suddenly things fall apart. One person will be over enthusiastic and another totally bored. One will try to issue actions to people, and those people will fail to act. Meetings become places where missed Milestones get slipped even further, frustration sets in—quietly at first—then tempers boil over and the project starts to sink fast.

HR Advice: Strength comes from Structure

When pulling together a project team, typically it will be made up of a variety of good people who have not worked so closely together before. The nominated Project Leader needs to take a few steps to set the working relationship up the right way.

Project versus People: It is critical to talk about the job which needs to be accomplished. The Leader then uses the Project as the common ground which binds the team together. From time to time, the team is sure to have some infighting or personality clashes, but the Leader simply redirects the focus back to the task at hand.

Project Team Members: A good way to prevent clashes down the track is to acknowledge why each member has been selected for the project. Some will bring valuable experience, others might be good at communication, others might be significantly influential in the workplace—but the Leader is basically showing the team how each person has a special reason for being there.

Project Plan: Now that the members know what the project is about, and they know why each of them has been selected, the Leader can further bond the group by getting them to design up the Project Plan.

Here are the key elements:

• Project Title (or a Team Name)
• The major components of the Project, listed in a logical order
• A timeline, showing the entire Project and dates for any Milestones
• Protocol around how often the team will meet and how long each meeting will last
• On many workplace projects, there also needs to be a communication plan.

Action Plans: Finally, the components of the Project have to be broken down into discrete, manageable tasks assigned to particular team members.

Role of the Leader: The above points are the scene-setting parts, but once underway the Leader has to ensure progress and maintain momentum. A good way to do this is to touch base with each member in between meetings. Use the Action Plan as the tool to ask how the member is going. Be pleased about things happening well, and listen for roadblocks. If there is a problem, it is much better that the Leader discovers this outside of – and prior to – the meeting. This gives the possibility of catching up before a Milestone slips.

HR Advice: The Bottomline

Although most people see structure as constraining, for Projects structure becomes the backbone which greatly increases the likelihood of Project success.

Today’s HRwisdom article comes from regular expert contributor, Robert Watson.

Robert coaches Business Owners and senior managers in leadership, people development and recruitment. For readers of this article, Robert will provide short simple answers to short simple questions sent to him by email to: robert@managingwell.com.au.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

HRwisdom have added a new Contract of Employment template to the HRwisdom Library.

The 21 page document includes explanatory notes to help you create a written employment contract to suit your requirements and circumstances.

We have also included additional employment contract information on this HRwisdom Blog post to help you understand some of the key issues.

The employment contract template can be used by all employers throughout Australia, except the following excluded employers:

• non-constitutional corporation employers in Western Australia
• State public sector employers; and
• Local Government employers — except in Tasmania

The contract is suitable for full-time and part-time employees of all employers who can use the contract. The contract is not intended to apply to casual employees or independent contractors.

Employment Contract Coverage

The contract considers coverage of the following matters:

• nature and status of employment
• reason for the contract
• commencement date
• employer details
• employee details
• position
• general details
• probationary/qualifying period
• reporting relationship
• location of employment
• hours of work
• remuneration
• return of property
• deductions
• confidential information
• policies and procedures
• superannuation
• period of notice and
• termination.

You may also consider amending your contract to reflect your position on optional clauses concerning:

• compensation for all legal entitlements
• guarantee of annual earnings
• annualised salary
• intellectual property
• reporting lines
• non-cash benefits
• bonus and incentive payments
• performance review
• salary review and post employment obligations
• company credit card
• mobile phone
• laptop
• performance
• driver’s licence
• drugs and alcohol
• uniforms
• continuing education
• leave
• public holidays; and
• resignation from offices held.

Particular matters to consider:

Circumstances for making the contract

The reason for making a contract of employment will differ depending on the circumstances. This will, in turn, affect a number of clauses. So, for example, a new employee will be entitled to either accept or reject the contract of employment. However, an existing employee who does not receive any benefits from signing the contract (eg additional remuneration) may decline to enter the contract.

An employer who is using the contract for award covered or enterprise agreement covered employees may wish to supplement the contract with an Individual Flexibility Agreement (IFA). Those employers may also give consideration to utilising optional clauses such as:

• compensation for all legal entitlements
• guarantee of annual earnings
• annualised salary

HRwisdom Library members should be aware that it is not possible to ‘contract out’ of an industrial instrument using a contract of employment. Accordingly, if an employee is entitled to minimum conditions of employment in accordance with an industrial instrument, an employer should comply with the relevant industrial instrument.

Such a clause seeks to offset an employee’s total remuneration against any entitlement the employee may have under any law or industrial instrument. Adopting this approach will not extinguish an employer’s obligations under an industrial instrument or alter the fact that technically an industrial instrument was been breached, nor can it protect an employer from prosecution and imposition of a penalty for that breach. However, it does give the company good grounds to argue that an employee has been compensated in full for all entitlements and the employee should not be permitted to ‘double recover’ the amounts.

HRwisdom Library members should therefore carefully consider whether to use such a clause and whether full compliance with the award, use of an IFA, enterprise agreement, giving a guarantee of annual earning or complying with an annualised salary provision of an award is a better option.

Guarantee of annual earnings

Rather than complying with the terms of an award, an employer can instead provide a written ‘guarantee of annual earnings’ to an employee. Such a clause can only be offered to employees who are covered by a modern award and earn more than the high income threshold (presently $108,300 per annum), but doesn’t include certain remuneration elements.

The guarantee means that the employer agrees to pay the employee no less than $108,300 per annum (indexed annually and exclusive of superannuation and contingent elements such as bonuses and commissions) during the ‘guarantee period’ and in exchange for that guarantee, the relevant modern award that covers the employee ceases to apply.

The ‘guarantee period’ must be for 12 months or more, unless the employee is employed for a period which is less than 12 months. No more than 14 days can elapse from the date the guarantee is offered to the employee and the employee agrees to accept it and:

(i)  the day the employee commences employment; or
(ii) a day on which the employer and employee agree to vary the employee’s terms and conditions of employment.

Annualised salary arrangement

Alternatively, some awards include a provision which allows an employer to offer an annualised salary to an employee which takes into account award payments such as overtime, penalty rates, and allowances. Where an employer offers an annualised salary as permitted by an award, the employer is then exempt from the obligation to comply with the award terms which have already been compensated for in the salary.

Post-employment restraints

Depending on the nature of the duties being performed by the employee who will be subject to the contract, it may not be necessary to require an employee to agree to a post-employment restraint. You should seek to customise the restraint to relate to the specific employee.

In order for a post-employment restraint to be enforceable it must be ‘reasonable’ in the circumstances of the particular employee’s employment. Specifically, the restraint must be reasonable in relation to the activities sought to be restrained, the geographic area, and the duration of the restraint. The courts will not enforce restraints that impose an unreasonable restraint of trade on an employee, or that extend beyond protecting the legitimate business interests of an employer.

The particular restraint clause included in the contract includes provisions enabling a court, if it is to review the contract, to read down the covenants in relation to the employee if they are found to be void, invalid or otherwise unenforceable. ‘Reading down’ the strict wording of an unreasonable clause means to modify it until the clause is expressed in a way that is legally enforceable.

Link to policies and procedures

There is an increasing willingness of courts to incorporate policies into employees’ contracts of employment. Contracts of employment that do not expressly exclude such incorporation may cause problems for employers. While the contract contains an express exclusion, it is important that employers both comply with and broadly word their policies and procedures, to further reduce this legal risk.

Other leave

The ‘Other Leave’ clause in the contract indicates that long service leave, parental leave, and compassionate leave entitlements will be made in accordance with legislative requirements.

Withholding amounts from employees

The employment contract template indicates that the employer can withhold remuneration from the employee where the employee fails to provide the employer with adequate notice when terminating their employment, or fails to return employer property in a fair condition (including tools and uniforms). The general rule is that these types of clauses are not enforceable unless the employee specifically authorises the deduction. As such, the clauses allowing the employer to withhold remuneration for these reasons have been drafted to contain such an authorisation.

You should be aware however, that if the employer exercises their rights under the clauses, it is possible that the employee may make a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman, a court or industrial tribunal alleging the employer has not paid them their appropriate accrued entitlements or their guaranteed remuneration.

We recommend you seek legal advice if you are considering withholding remuneration from an employee. There may be other options available which can be explored.

Fringe benefits tax

A contract may allow for employees to be provided with benefits such as mobile phones, company vehicles and laptops, with limits provided for. You should seek financial advice in relation to potential fringe benefits tax liability before providing an employee with company property which the employee is allowed for personal use.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

HRwisdom have now uploaded a comprehensive new report on the Fair Work System.

The report is also available to all free and paid members of the HRwisdom community.

To access the report, simply enter your first name and email address in the free subscription box on the HRwisdom home page.

Feel free to share the report with friends and colleagues.
 
Why have HRwisdom produced the report?
 
The workplace relations system that governs Australian workplaces is commonly known as the Fair Work system.
 
The Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman enforces compliance to the Fair Work System.
 
Have you seen some of the media release headlines from the Fair Work Ombudsman recently?
 
Take a look:

• Brisbane managers face court for allegedly underpaying workers $70,000.
• Sydney company faces court for allegedly underpaying young worker almost $5000.
• Perth business faces court for allegedly failing to provide employment records.
• Two Melbourne companies reimburse underpaid workers almost $400,000.
• Court hands down $50,000 penalty for underpaying Deniliquin worker.
• Whyalla company back-pays four workers $10k.
• $35,000 back-pay for three Darwin workers.
• Tasmanian resort faces court over alleged underpayments and sham contracting.
• Random audits at Sydney Fish Market return $278,000 to underpaid workers.
• Kalgoorlie audits recover $139,000 for 26 security workers.
• Fair Work inspectors to call on northern Victorian employers.
• $6000 penalty for $629 underpayment.

Did you notice the last headline?
 
An underpayment to an employee of $629 cost an employer $6000 in penalties alone (not to mention possible legal costs, management time, and disruption to the operation of the business).
 
This is why it is so important to have at least a basic understanding of the Fair Work system.
 
In this special staff management report, HRwisdom will walk you through the major components of the Fair Work system and point out a few things to watch out for along the way.
 
As always, you can find various staff management ideas, employment documents, and HR templates in the HRwisdom Library.
 
Kind regards,
 
HRwisdom Support

In today’s HRwisdom blog post, we are sharing you the simple facts on what timesheet and employment records to keep.

Don’t forget to get your timesheet template and employment templates in the HRwisdom Library.

The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) in addition to the Fair Work Regulations, require employers to keep various records relating to their employees.
 
Many employers are uncertain as to whether or not their organisation is required to keep timesheets which detail the number of hours worked by employees over a particular period, as part of the obligation to retain employee records.
 
Do you have to keep employee time records?
 
As a legal minimum, employers are required to keep employee timesheets of hours worked by staff, in so far as an employee is working overtime hours which attract a penalty rate or a loading. A penalty rate or loading is not specifically defined, and may include penalty rates in relevant industrial instruments (eg a modern award or Enterprise Agreement), but may also include a penalty rate which is paid in accordance with an employee’s contract of employment.
 
What is the employee record?
 
Where a penalty or loading for overtime applies, an employer is required to keep a record that specifies the number of actual overtime hours worked by the employee on each day, or alternatively the start and finish times of the employee’s overtime hours which were worked. In other words, the record required to be kept under the Regulations only extends to the hours of overtime worked, rather than the ordinary hours worked.
 
However, it may assist an employer to keep staff records of the ordinary time worked by employees, whether or not they are entitled to receive a penalty or loading for working overtime, as it may assist with the employer’s obligation to provide employees with an accurate pay slip. It would also assist in helping rebut a false claim for overtime payments.
 
It is therefore important that employers consult applicable industrial and/or other employment-related instruments which prescribe a loading or penalty rate for overtime hours worked. If you are unsure of whether or not an applicable instrument provides for a penalty or loading for overtime hours worked, or you are unsure of whether or not the hours worked by an employee constitutes overtime, it is recommended that you seek specific advice to ensure that your organisation is complying with its HR record keeping requirements.
 
What other employment records should you keep?
 
You should also keep the following types of employment records:

• general employment records
• taxation
• workers compensation
• occupational health & safety
• personnel
• employment contracts
• employment status
• reasons for termination of employment
• records required by the Fair Work Act, including remuneration details, payments, deductions and leave records, and
• records required by other legislation such as the Migration Act.

Remember, you can get your employment records templates in the HRwisdom Library which contains all your staff management templates.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom we regularly draw upon the collective wisdom of many staff management experts and smart Human Resources practitioners.

In our last blog posting we heard from our friends at Hunter People Solutions. They’ve been busy helping businesses with the workplace impacts that have occurred as a result of the final pieces of the Fair Work Act coming into effect.

In part one, we asked guest expert Colette Simon to ask some key questions to help you consider your workplace situation and to then give you some practical staff management answers.

Last time Colette explained that if and when you receive a flexible work request, the new laws require you to do a number of things:

• You have to respond in writing within 21 days, advising the employee if their request has been approved or not.
• If you’ve refused the request, you have to provide the reasons for your refusal.
• You may only refuse if you have ‘reasonable business grounds’ for doing so.

Now let’s hear from Colette as she outlines the ‘reasonable business grounds’ component.

Colette:

While not being specific, the new laws suggest such grounds might include:

• the effect on your business of approving such a request, including the financial impact of doing so and the impact of efficiency, productivity and customer service;
• the inability to organise work amongst your existing staff; and
• the inability to recruit a replacement, or the practicality or otherwise of the arrangements that may need to be put in place to accommodate the employee’s request.

Clearly, the reasonableness of any refusal will depend on the particular circumstances of the situation.
 
Most importantly in this new workplace relations area, it is imperative that you understand and adhere to your obligations as an employer when faced with requests for flexible work arrangements. If you don’t, for example, because you forgot to appropriately respond to a request within 21 days, you may face a claim for breaching the NES.  And a maximum penalty of $33,000 applies (ouch!).

Our HR advice? 
 
‘Winging it’ is probably not the best option. 

Understand your obligations so you can be on the front foot with your employees.  We suspect this new right will soon be as commonly understood as the existing right to 12 months unpaid maternity leave that we all take for granted.

Ask for help if you need it.  An independent ear and some professional advice can really make the difference to making a solid robust decision or something a little more risky.

For more HR policies and procedure and staff management resources, remember to visit the HRwisdom Library.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom we regularly draw upon the collective wisdom of many staff management experts and smart Human Resources practitioners.

Our friends at Hunter People Solutions are looking forward to a great year – a year of new adventures and bigger challenges with a good dose of change management thrown in to the mix.  They’ve been busy helping businesses with the workplace impacts that have occurred as a result of the final pieces of the Fair Work Act coming into effect.

In part one of this blog post, we have asked guest expert Colette Simon to ask some key questions to help you consider your workplace situation. Colette will then give you some practical staff management answers.

Colette:

Do you know if your business is sufficiently prepared for the Fair Work changes?  Or are you thinking you are just going to ‘wing it’?

You’re no doubt aware that a big component of the new laws is the introduction of the National Employment Standard (NES). 

There are 10 standards and they form part of the safety net that applies to all employees who are covered in the federal system. 

The piece of the NES that we believe has the most potential to impact businesses is the right for employees to request a change in their working arrangements.   

The right is available only to employees who are parents of, or have responsibility for the care of a child who is under school age (or, if the child is under 18 years of age, who has a disability). And the change in working arrangements must be for the purpose of assisting the employee to care for the child.

So, what sort of flexible ‘changes in arrangements’ are we talking about here?

While not being specific, the new laws suggest this might include changes in hours of work, in patterns of work or in working location.  So the sort of requests that should be expected will probably include switching to part time work by working fewer days per week or fewer hours across each day as well as requests to work from home or moving to another more convenient office location.

To be eligible to make such a request under the NES, employees must have completed at least 12 months continuous service. They have to put their request in writing and set out the details and reason for the change.

If and when you receive such a request, the new laws require you to do a number of things:

• You have to respond in writing within 21 days, advising the employee if their request has been approved or not.
• If you’ve refused the request, you have to provide the reasons for your refusal.
• You may only refuse if you have ‘reasonable business grounds’ for doing so.

See Flexible Work Arrangements – Part 2 for information on the ‘reasonable business grounds’ component.

For more HR policies and procedure and staff management resources, remember to visit the HRwisdom Library.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support