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

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

The recent debacle at Toyota which has seen the company lose a reported $155 million per week has been widely reported. With continuing product recalls around the world, the losses are estimated to have caused an astonishing $30 billion loss in Toyota’s valuation on the stock market.

At HRwisdom we always focus on ideas and practices that can actively improve or protect a business. Today, we refer you to an excellent analysis of how poor HR policies and staff management practices potentially led to the $30 billion loss at Toyota.

The Eight Bad Staff Management Practices

In his excellent analysis, John Sullivan lists the eight bad staff management practices that contributed to Toyota’s massive downfall.

1. Rewards and recognition — The purpose of any corporate reward process is to encourage and incentivise the right behaviors and to discourage the negative ones. It’s important for the reward process to incentivise the gathering of information about problems. It’s equally important to reward employees who are successful in getting executives to take immediate action on negative information. Key questions — Were rapid growth (sales have nearly doubled recently) and “lean” cost-cutting recognized and rewarded so heavily that no one was willing to put the brakes on growth in order to focus on safety? Were the rewards for demonstrating error-free results so high that obvious errors were swept under the table?
2. Training — The purpose of training is to make sure that employees have the right skills and capabilities to identify and handle all situations they may encounter. Toyota is famous for its four-step cycle — plan/do/check/act — but clearly the training among managers now needs to focus more on the last two. In addition, in an environment where safety is paramount, everyone should have been trained on the symptoms of “groupthink” and how to avoid the excess discounting or ignoring of negative external safety information. Key question — If Toyota’s training was more effective, would the managers involved have been more successful in convincing executives to act on the negative information received?
3. Hiring — The purpose of great hiring is to bring on board top-performing individuals with the high level of skills and capabilities that are required to handle the most complex problems. Poorly designed recruiting and assessment elements can result in the hiring of individuals who sweep problems under the rug and who are not willing to stand up to management. Key questions — Did Toyota have a poorly designed hiring process that allowed it to hire individuals who were not experienced in the required constructive confrontation technique? Were their hires poor learners that did not change as a result of company training?
4. The performance management process — The purpose of a performance management process is to periodically monitor or appraise performance, in order to identify problem behaviors before they get out of hand. If the performance measurement system included performance factors to measure responsiveness to negative information, Toyota wouldn’t be in turmoil today. Key questions — Was the performance appraisal and performance monitoring process so poorly designed that they did not identify and report groupthink type errors? Did Toyota’s famous high level of trust of its employees go too far without reasonable metrics, checks, and balances? Did HR develop sophisticated metrics that produced alerts to warn senior managers before minor problems got out of control?
5. The corporate culture — The role of a corporate culture is to informally drive employee behaviors so that it closely adheres to the company’s core values. Because these errors occurred under difficult driving conditions, it’s hard to blame the production group, which has a well-known reputation for Six Sigma quality in its construction. The negative reports came to functions like government, risk analysis, corporate and customer satisfaction. As a result, it is the culture within the corporate offices that need to be more closely monitored rather than assuming that the culture was aligned. It appears that the corporate culture created leaders so concerned with “saving face” and so adverse to negative publicity, that they for years postponed making the announcement of a massive recall. Key questions — Did HR’s failure to measure or monitor the corporate culture contribute to its misalignment? Was the corporate culture (the Toyota Way) so biased toward positive information that employees learned not to make waves, in spite of their professional responsibility to be heard on safety issues?
6. Leadership development and succession planning — The purpose of leadership development and succession planning processes are to ensure that a sufficient number of leaders with the right skills and decision-making ability are placed into key leadership positions. It is likely that the leadership development and the promotion process both failed to create and promote leaders who were capable of confronting problems and making difficult decisions. Key question — Was the leadership process at Toyota so outdated that it produced the wrong kind of leaders with outdated competencies, who could not successfully operate in the rapidly changing automotive industry?
7. Employee Retention — The purpose of a retention program is to identify and keep top performers and individuals with mission-critical skills. Key question — Did the retention program ignore people that brought up problems and as a result, did these whistleblowers often leave out of frustration?
8. Risk assessment — Most HR departments don’t even have a risk assessment team whose purpose is to both identify and calculate risks caused by weak employee processes. Clearly HR should have worked with corporate risk management at Toyota in order to ensure that employees were capable of calculating the long-term actual costs of ignoring product failure information. Key question — Should HR work with risk-assessment experts and build the capability of identifying and quantifying the revenue impacts of major HR errors, including a high hiring failure rate, a high turnover rate among top performers, and the cost of keeping a bad manager or employee?

Final Thoughts from John Sullivan

Toyota’s problems are not the result of a single individual making an isolated mistake, but rather due to a companywide series of mistakes that are all related to each other. So many corporate functions were involved, including customer service, government relations, vendor management and PR, that one cannot help but attribute the crash of Toyota to systemic management failure. Unfortunately, in this case, the famous Japanese saying is true. “The nail that stands out” was not encouraged to be different, but instead it was “pounded down” to conform.

The key lesson that others should learn from Toyota’s mistakes is that HR needs to periodically test or audit each of the processes that could allow this type of billion-dollar error to occur.

For more staff management advice and HR ideas you can join our mailing list or get your HR templates and Employee Retention information now.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

Yes, we know it is only November but at HRwisdom we are always encouraging our members to be proactive . . .

So, in today’s HRwisdom blog post, we are sharing with you – how to be smart when it comes to preventing headaches of the legal and management kind after the work Christmas party.
 
Festive season functions are great for team-building and rewarding staff. However, when staff let their hair down in the spirit of the season – especially when alcohol is added to the mix, anything can happen – and unfortunately sometimes does.
 
Harassment
 
Employers can be liable for inappropriate statements and conduct that occurs at work-related Christmas celebrations. Such conduct can amount to sexual harassment or other forms of harassment (such as racial harassment). Particular danger areas include ‘Kris Kringle’ gift giving, joke staff ‘awards’, and skits/performances that may offend certain groups.
 
Occupation Health & Safety
 
Employers also have responsibilities to ensure the safety of all employees at work-related Christmas functions by taking steps to prevent inappropriate conduct, including:

• Hnsuring responsible service and consumption of alcohol together with appropriate quantities of food and non-alcohol beverages.
• Having a code of conduct and drug and alcohol policy in place prior to Christmas functions and reminding employees of those policies before the function.
• Training employees and managers in relation to the standard of conduct required at work functions- making appropriate transport arrangements if alcoholic beverages are served.
• Having appropriate monitoring and supervision at the party.
• Having a complaints process- taking appropriate action if issues arise.

These steps promote compliance with OH&S obligations and can help to minimise workers compensation claims, breach of OH&S obligations, and other legal claims such as sexual harassment.

It is also important to have clear policies and procedures governing the conduct, behaviour and expectations of employees at Christmas functions to enable the employer to take disciplinary action against non-complying employees in appropriate cases.
 
For the above reasons it is of the utmost importance for employers to prepare for Christmas functions because it is easier to take appropriate steps before the function to avoid Christmas party fiascos than having to deal with any aftermath.
 
How can HRwisdom help?
 
The HRwisdom Library includes a number of documents which can assist members to minimise the risks associated with work Christmas functions. Those documents include Christmas Party Letter to Employees, and a number of policies such as the Drug and Alcohol Policy; Code of Conduct; Anti-Discrimination & Equal Employment Opportunity Policy; and the OHS General Policy.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom, our focus is on sharing practical, useful staff management information and tools.

In today’s HRwisdom blog, we’ll share with you some excellent advice from the Harvard Business Review which may help you in difficult work situations. This will help you build upon the recent release of the 30 scripts to manage difficult employees.

The difficult employee scripts have proven very popular with HRwisdom members as they now have the exact words to use in a variety of situations with difficult staff such as the employee who:

• Is constantly late
• Keeps talking and interrupting others
• Is insecure about their job
• Is overly emotional at work
• Is producing poor results
• Has a bad attitude that is affecting other team members
• Is reluctant to delegate
• Makes offensive comments
• Can’t seem to learn from their mistakes
• Says Yes, then does nothing
• Flatly refuses your request
• Does not respond to you at all
• Acts inappropriately
• Has been technically careless
• Is struggling with project planning

In today’s HRwisdom blog post, we refer you to an excellent posting from the Harvard Business Review blog which may help you in difficult work situations.

The Harvard Business Review post by Jodi Glickman Brown offers help on an interesting angle: how to ask for help without looking stupid. This is important because:

Jodi Glickman Brown: “…learning how to ask for help – and how to do it right – is critical to doing your job well and setting yourself up for success.

You may be afraid of looking dumb, but to be afraid to ask for and get the help you need is inexcusable, especially when the stakes are high. Asking for help in the workplace is a good thing. In fact, asking for help the right way can show how smart you are: it demonstrates that you’ve got good judgment and shows that you know what you know and what you don’t know. Moreover, getting help up front saves endless time, energy and resources on the back end; in the Madoff case, it could have saved billions of dollars and immeasurable heartache.

Of course, it’s not just asking for help — it’s asking the right way. I recently coached a young man in commercial real-estate who relayed a conversation he had with his boss about starting a new regional initiative for his firm’s brokers. Several times he asked, “How should I do this?” or “How should I think about this?” I cringed every time.

Instead, think about the following strategy to get the best answer — and show how smart you are — the next time you ask for help:

Start your question with what you know. Do your homework first. Get enough background information to put your issue or problem in context. Give the other person an idea of what you’ve completed to date or what you know already and then proceed to explain what’s outstanding, where or how you’re struggling, or what you need help with.

Then, state the direction you want to take and ask for feedback, thoughts or clarification. Form an opinion on what you think the answer should be. Don’t just ask, “How should I reach out to the brokers?” Instead propose a course of action and get your boss’s feedback: “I’m thinking of sending out a mass email to the brokers but I’m not sure if that’s the most effective format…what do you think of that approach?”

If you don’t know the direction to take, ask for tangible guidance. Instead of asking “What should I do?” ask specifically for the tools you’ll need to make that decision yourself, such as a recent example of a similar analysis or a template for a given task. Or, ask for a referral to someone who has worked on a similar initiative or project in the past.

In the vast majority of cases, you’ll get a lot further in your career by asking the tough, smart questions.”

 Scripts to manage difficult employees.

HRwisdom Support

The Fair Work Act has led to many headaches and concerns in businesses all over Australia. The clock is ticking and the countdown has begun for the major changes to employment law which will directly affect you and your employees.

As part of our ongoing commitment to helping Australian employers manage their staff even better during these challenging times, we recently provided our free subscribers with the opportunity to ask your own specific Fair Work Act questions to our guest expert, Ron Jones.

As a very experienced and knowledgeable management consultant, Ron is heavily involved in resolving IR and HR issues for organisations struggling to cope with the ambiguities of the Fair Work Act changes.

Ron has studied the changes and believes there are two major areas of concern: a new set of National Employment Standards and the award modernisation process.

Specific Fair Work Questions Answered

You may want to know:

• Does the Fair Work Act apply to us?
• We already have an employment agreement in place – can’t we just keep using this?
• Does this mean that our letters of offer and employment contracts no longer apply?
• What exactly do we need to do before 1 January 2010?

What Were The Questions Answered?

To see the Fair Work Act questions answered by Ron, all you need to do is to scroll down to the Comments section of this specific blog posting (if you can’t see the Comments section at the bottom, you may need to click on the top title of this post first).

Share Learnings With Colleagues

Do let your friends and colleagues know about this set of questions and answers. They’ll benefit from Ron’s insights and the whole HRwisdom community can learn from the online HR discussion. The link is:

http://blog.hrwisdom.com.au/2009/10/fair-work-act-questions-ask-an-expert/

Remember that there have been many additions and updates made to the HRwisdom HR documents for the Fair Work Act. You can access the documents now here: HR Advice.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

Something unusual has us a little worried here at HRwisdom and it relates to workplace bullying and workplace harassment: Why Your Business Can Be Sued Because Your Employees Listen To The Radio (Anywhere – Anytime)

NOTE: Find an answer for nearly any staff management issue in the HRwisdom Library.

A popular radio station recently ran a competition which, in a nutshell, is asking listeners to nominate the most annoying person in their workplace.

Here’s the promotional text from the radio station:

“Has someone done something stupid in your workplace? We want to know why one of your workmates is a dead set tool!

They might have an annoying trait that drives you up the wall…or tell stupid jokes and stories that aren’t really funny… or they might have done something…well very embarrassing.

Now’s the time to dob in your workmate – so tell us why you think your workmate should be the *RADIO STATION/SPONSOR* Workplace Tool of the Month.

YOU could win a $1,000 PRODUCT PRIZE TYPE A or PRODUCT PRIZE TYPE B thanks to *SPONSOR*…plus the Workplace Tool won’t go empty handed either…he/she gets the crown of being Workplace Tool of the Month winning a $100 gift voucher…plus being popular at work…NOT!”

Here’s a question to ponder: Is the employer accountable under Australian EEO (Equal Opportunity) law?

The law says that the employer, whether an individual or company, will be liable for discrimination or harassment that the employer causes. This is called Primary Liability. Primary liability will be incurred either through the actions of the individual employer, or in the case of a company, through the actions of its chief executive officer or managers.

An employer can also be liable where he or she, or in the case of a company, the managers, ignore discrimination or harassment that is happening in the workplace.

The employer will also be liable for the discrimination or harassment caused by its employees.

This is called Vicarious Liability.

There can be huge fines and penalties for liability and such claims tend to become more common during down economies as employees become nervous about job security.

If the employer can show that it took reasonable steps to prevent the discrimination or harassment occurring, then the employer may not be liable.

Next Question: Do any of your employees ever listen to the radio at home, at work, in the car, on the train, etc?

If so, we strongly urge you to ensure you have taken reasonable steps to prevent employee discrimination, workplace harassment and workplace bullying in your organisation right now.

Sounds silly? Not if you’ve saved yourself a legal headache when a claim arrives…

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

ps. Remember, You can always find an answer for nearly any staff management issue in the HRwisdom Library.

As a follow-up to our recent HRwisdom blog post (Compliance Changes Required For Fair Work Act) we wanted to remind all HRwisdom members that we have been busy updating the HRwisdom Library documents to comply with the new Fair Work employment laws, particularly those that took effect from 1 July 2009. During this process, we have also taken the opportunity to fine tune many of the documents to improve their look, feel and content.

Please also note another recent HRwisdom blog posting (HR Links and HR Web Sites) we shared a useful list of HR links for HR web sites and sites for human resources staff and employers in general.

Below are some more details on the recently updated employment templates, employment letters, HR policies, HR forms, and other such human resources documents.
 
HR POLICIES
 
Anti-Discrimination & EEO Policy
This Policy has been updated to: fine tune the document; comply with the Fair Work Act; and include additional references to associated documents.
 
EEO for Women in the Workplace Policy
This document has been updated to: clarify purpose, commencement and application of the policy; include additional references to associated documents; and revise the commentary to ensure consistency with suggestions made by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA).
 
Emergency Evacuation Policy
The Emergency Evacuation Policy has had a format change for enhanced user-friendliness and the commentary has been revised.
 
Employee Input Policy
The Employee Input Policy has been updated: to note it’s not to be used for EEO or harassment complaints; to refine its wording; and to add reference to associated documents.
 
First Aid Policy
The commentary to the First Aid Policy now includes references to associated documents, and the Policy has been updated to clarify that it does not form part of the employee’s contract of employment.
 
Induction Policy
This document and its commentary have been updated to: clarify the commencement date and application of the Policy; revise content with respect to mentoring of new employees; comply with the Fair Work Act; and include additional references to associated documents.
 
No-Smoking Policy
The layout of the No-Smoking Policy and commentary has been updated and is now a clearer and more useful tool in assisting employers to implement a no-smoking policy in their workplace. The Policy has also been updated to comply with the Fair Work Act and now includes additional references to associated documents.
 
Performance and Misconduct Policy
The Performance and Misconduct Policy and commentary have been updated to comprehensively explain the concept of the management of performance and conduct. The updated Policy takes into account the introduction of the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code, and any applicable exclusions under the Fair Work Act.
 
Probation Employment Policy
The Probationary Employment Policy has been updated to revise the commentary, contents and terminology for consistency with the Fair Work Act; and to include references to associated documents.
 
Timesheet Policy
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents; revise the commentary, in particular to ensure that the record-keeping requirements are explained in a way that is consistent with the provisions contained under the Fair Work Regulations 2009 (Cth); amend the content of the Policy to make clear its objective; and amend the format of the policy to include user-friendly headings and provisions relating to its commencement and application.
 
EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS
 
Deed of Release
This document will help you to create a simple Deed of Release, whereby a payment of money is made to an employee to conclude the employment relationship, in exchange for the employee agreeing to settle or not to bring a claim, against the business.
 
CORRESPONDENCE
 
Letter — Advising of Future Redundancies
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents; revise the commentary, in particular with respect to the meaning of genuine redundancy under the Fair Work Act; and to reflect considerations of redeployment prior to an employer’s definite decision to terminate employment due to redundancy.
 
Letter Enclosing Deed of Release 
This document and its commentary have been updated to comply with the Fair Work Act and include references to associated documents.
 
Letter to Employee Regarding Voluntary Redundancy
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents; revise the commentary, in particular with respect to the meaning of genuine redundancy under the Fair Work Act; and revise terminology.
 
Letter to Employee — Termination Due to Redundancy
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents; revise the commentary, in particular with respect to the meaning of genuine redundancy under the Fair Work Act; and revise content to reflect considerations of redeployment prior to definite decision to terminate employment due to redundancy.
 
Notice of Meeting
This correspondence document has been updated as follows: to clarify that if the employee chooses to bring a support person (such as a union representative) into the meeting, the support person may not answer on the employee’s behalf or disrupt the meeting; amendment of the correspondence to cater for national and non-national system employers; revision of the commentary; and inclusion of references to associated documents.
 
Probation Terminated Letter
This document has had the following updates: changes to the content in line with the Fair Work Act; removal and addition of checklist content; revision of the commentary; and inclusion of references to associated documents.
 
Redundancy Letter to Centrelink
This letter and its commentary have been updated to comply with new redundancy notification requirements which apply to national and non-national systems employers under the Fair Work Act.
 
Redundancy Letter to Union
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents and revise the content and commentary in accordance with the Fair Work Act, for example, with respect to the meaning of a genuine redundancy.
Summary Dismissal Letter
This document and its commentary have been updated to comply with the Fair Work Act and include additional references to associated documents.
 
Warning Letter
This letter has been updated to refine the wording and include references to associated documents.
 
CHECKLISTS
 
Performance Management Checklist
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents; revise the commentary; and revise the steps in conducting the interview and the ongoing processes.
 
Property Return Checklist
This document and its commentary have been updated to provide a more streamlined checklist for the return of employer property upon the termination of an employee’s employment. The document has also been updated to comply with the Fair Work Act and include additional references to associated documents.
 
Redundancy Checklist
This document has been updated to: include additional references to associated documents; revise the commentary, in particular with respect to the meaning of genuine redundancy under the Fair Work Act; re-categorise and re-format the Checklist under convenient sub-headings so that the checklist reflects the sequence of tasks to be completed in the process of redundancy; revise the content to ensure employer considers options of redeployment prior to making the decision to terminate employee(s) due to redundancy; revise the content to include consideration of objective selection criteria when choosing which employee will be terminated as a result of a redundancy; and amend the Checklist to remind user to comply with consultation in accordance with any applicable award, contract or workplace policy.
 
Resignation Checklist
This document and its commentary have been updated to: include additional matters that may be attended to by an employer on the resignation by an employee; comply with the Fair Work Act; and include additional references to associated documents.
 
Termination Checklist
This document has had the following updates: format and style change; changes to the content in line with the Fair Work Act; removal and addition of Checklist content; revision of the commentary; and inclusion of references to associated documents.
 
We will keep you updated as we add more documents and resources to the HRwisdom Library.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom we are always bringing our members new ways to manage their employees in good times and bad. We have recently focussed on providing you with information on the new Fair Work Act. In this HRwisdom blog post, we will look at how to use deeds of release to avoid employment law litigation.
 

What is a Deed of Release?

In the context of an employment relationship, a Deed of Release is a written instrument which can be used to record the terms of an agreement reached between an employer and an employee in respect of a workplace issue.
 
To be called ‘a Deed’, the document must comply with certain established legal formalities. For example, the execution provisions of the instrument must state that the document will be ‘Executed as a Deed’ and must include the words ‘signed, sealed and delivered’. 

How can a Deed of Release potentially benefit your business?

You can use a Deed of Release to record the terms of settlement which have been agreed between you and an employee, about an existing claim or a potential claim (because a legal risk exists), which may be made by an employee against the business at a future date.
 
Settlement may occur in the context of litigation initiated by an employee or it may be the outcome of negotiations at the workplace without any actual litigation. As part of that settlement, the employee will agree to release your business from any actual or potential future legal claims (with some exceptions), in exchange for receiving a payment of money (or some other benefit).
 
For the Deed to be enforceable, the benefit offered to the employee, should be in addition to any entitlement the employee is entitled to receive, irrespective of the Deed. For example, offering to pay an employee their accrued annual leave entitlements (on termination of their employment), in exchange for them agreeing to and abiding by the terms of a Deed of Release, is unlikely to be enforced by a court, if the Deed is subject to challenge.
 
To increase the chances of the Deed being enforced, if it is subject to challenge, you should ensure:

• The employee is given a reasonable opportunity to obtain any advice (legal, financial or otherwise) they require about the Deed, prior to signing it.
• The employee is given a reasonable period of time to read and consider the Deed (i.e. not forced to sign it on the spot).
• The employee is not pressured or bullied into signing the Deed (i.e. is not subjected to undue influence or duress).
• No misrepresentations are made to the employee in relation to the Deed.
• No-one associated with the business witnesses the employee’s signature on the Deed.
• You carefully consider the obligations you require the employee to meet in exchange for the benefit(s) provided and ensure these are included in the Deed.
• The release(s) which will be provided by the employee are sufficient for the particular circumstances and will protect the business (and if necessary, any related entity).

How Can HRwisdom Help?

We have added two new documents to the HRwisdom Library to assist you in your attempts to resolve your workplace issues with your employees, whilst at the same time, taking steps to reduce the risk of legal claims against your business.

Deed of Release

This document will help you to create a simple Deed of Release, whereby a payment of money is made to an employee to conclude the employment relationship, in exchange for the employee agreeing to settle or not to bring a claim, against the business. 

Letter enclosing Deed of Release

This document will help you to create a ‘without prejudice’ letter to an employee, enclosing the Deed of Release. It will assist you to maintain the negotiations with the relevant employee on a ‘without prejudice’ basis.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support

At HRwisdom, we are always striving to keep our members up to date and informed of both legislative changes and clever ways to manage their staff.

We have compiled a useful list of HR links for HR web sites and sites for human resources staff and employers in general.

Amongst others, we have included such HR web sites as:

• ACT Human Rights Commission
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
• Australian Fair Pay Commission
• Australian Human Rights Commission (formerly known as HREOC)
• Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
• Department of Immigration and Citizenship
• Fair Work Ombudsman
• Fair Work Online
• Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commission
• NSW Industrial Relations Commission
• NSW WorkCover Authority
• Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission
• Queensland Department of Employment and Industrial Relations
• Queensland WorkCover Authority
• Safe Work Australia
• South Australian Equal Opportunity Commission
• South Australian Industrial Relations Tribunals
• South Australian WorkCover Authority
• Tasmanian Industrial Commission
• Tasmanian Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner
• Tasmanian WorkCover Authority
• Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission
• Victorian Industrial Relations
• Victorian WorkSafe Authority
• Western Australian Equal Opportunity Commission
• Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission
• Western Australian WorkCover Authority

You can find the HR web sites at: HR Web Sites.

Kind regards,

HRwisdom Support