People Smartz Blog

It is becoming more and more apparent, that no matter how small your business is, you can not avoid your obligations in regards to meeting your employer obligations.

Many thanks to our great friends at Brands Law for this great example of the line of thinking to which our courts are dealing with breaches of the Fair Work Act:

"Back in April 2011, in a case involving underpayment of penalty rates to employees, Magistrate Hawkins said there was a need to "send a message to the community at large and small employers particularly, that the correct entitlements for employees must be paid and that steps must be taken by employers (of all sizes) to ascertain and comply with minimum entitlements (as opposed to ignoring those obligations).

"Compliance should not be seen as the bastion of the large employers with human resources staff and advisory consultants (accountants, consultants, lawyers) behind them"."

In a speech in May 2011, the Fair Work Ombudsman made a point that it "was not sufficient for companies to turn a blind eye and hope that they are meeting their obligations".  He particularly made the point that companies need to make sure that they are resourcing their obligations appropriately.

With this type of language coming from our courts and the Ombudsman, it is very evident and important that all businesses, regardless of size have in place a system for ensuring compliance with their awards, the Fair Work Act and the National Employment Standards.

Our experience with small to medium sized businesses has shown that business people are finding it more and more difficult to manage these obligations.  As we have said in our blog posts before - the system itself is not built for small business.

Unfortunately, it appears that the message from our courts is that small businesses need to manage their obligations similarly to the way they would be handled in big business.  However, small businesses do not have the human resources staff etc to do that!

Understanding your obligations can be difficult and managing them can be time consuming. The place to start is to ensure you are compliant now!

Why not book one of our People and Business Reviews where we can help you identify the actions you can take to ensure you are meeting your obligations.

Book your review today!

The HR Coach Research Institute has released its latest quarterly index.

The latest information coming out of the business sector indicates a significant drop in business confidence and a unique situation developing in terms of a two speed economy.  

The following summary is provided courtesy of the Institute:

"Alarmingly, this data was compiled before any firm Carbon Tax plan was released by the federal government, thus does not account for the affects of the proposed tax. In light of this, confidence and sentiment in the business sector will most probably not improve in the coming quarter.

Furthermore, job advertisements fell, as did job creation in the past quarter.

The multi-speed economy in Australia is presenting the business sector with the unique situation that has the economy growing whilst at the same time making business owners retreat into survival mode. As a result long term planning and strategy are suffering.

Interestingly employee satisfaction levels within the business sector are higher than those of business owner's satisfaction with their own business. This could exacerbate already strained relationships."

You can download a copy of this latest research from our website - HR Quarterly Index

With Queensland in the midst of one of the great natural disasters, nearly every business we are speaking to is effected in some way. Some are under water, or commencing the clean up after being under water, others are not but have staff and team members effected.  This scale of this is just incredible.  Our thoughts are with each and everyone of you.

Over the last couple of days we have begun receiving queries about issues regarding employment and the floods.  If you would like information on employment issues such as leave, standing down employees etc, visit our Queensland Floods page.

We have also created a forum topic where people can go to ask questions - The People Smartz Forum.  It you have any questions regarding employment and the floods, feel free to post them so everyone can see.

I have met with a potential client in the last couple of weeks, who was not concerned over the level of turnover he was experiencing in his business.

His turnover levels were around 50% a year and he had managed his business on this sort of rate for many years - his comment to me was that it was just what happened in his industry.

Well a little bit of research did tell me that turnover was high in this particular industry, but 50% was almost double the industry average!

Unfortunately for this gentlemen I needed to point out to him the cost of this turnover to him in time, effort, experience and, of course, profit.  When they were calculated, to say he was shocked is an understatement! 

The actual cost of replacing an employee can be calculated at somewhere between 50% and 200% of an employees salary.  This amount is a result of the time and effort required for recruiting (advertising, shortlisting, interviewing, time for all of the above), the loss of productivity, the cost of training new employees and many other, incidental, factors.

But high turnover can also be an indicator of other problems with your business - and with the cost of replacing employees, these can not be ignored!

Some hints for improving your turnover rate are as follows:

1. Hire the right people - not just in terms of qualifications or experience but also in terms of motivations and values.  Attempt to ascertain the drivers of your potential employee prior to employment and make sure you can meet them before offering them a job.
2. Remember those motivators as you deal with them during their employment - these are the things that are going to keep them interested. For example - people who are goal/career motivated need to be treated differently to people seeking security.
3. Our workforces today are more mobile - acknowledge this and find ways of making it work for you.  If a person feels it is time to move on, then find ways to make it easy on you and them. 
4. Find ways to improve communication and continuously improve the workplace.  Keep your employees engaged by involving them in developing their own goals and targets.  Communicate your goals and targets for the business - don't keep them in the dark!

Reducing turnover is a long term goal but worth it in terms of your time, effort and profit.  If you require assistance, People Smartz can provide you with a number of services to improve your results.  Contact us today!

The HR Coach Research Institute has released its latest quarterly index of business in Australia.

The HR Quarterly Index provides a summary of employment confidence in the business sector. The Report identifies a rebound in business confidence; however businesses need to be aware of management fatigue.

The 3 critical issues for business has remained the same over the past 3 quarterly results – Lack of work or sales, cash-flow and economic climate. Participation rate of employment is being upheld with the increase in part time employment – indicating that businesses are shedding hours, not jobs. This is a healthy indicator for long term sustainability of knowledge and skills in hope of a turnaround in the market.

Businesses are in need of clear communication strategies internally and management structures. This is placing pressure internally on the employment relationship in the current market.

Employers are concerned about employee focus on the job at hand. Employees are looking for direction and clear planning with communication relating directly to the individuals future.

Management fatigue is currently critical for both employers and managers as they navigate through managing in uncertain times.

All these factors combine to provide business with a great opportunity to create a competitive advantage through their people. Contact us today!
> Download the HR Quarterly Index July 2009