It’s Monday morning and your employee arrives at work with an injury they sustained while playing in a local football match.  You have a huge week ahead but they tell you they are fine to work and you think, well the injury didn’t occur at work, so it's not a problem, right?  Wrong!  Your business could be at risk and the health and safety of your employee could be in jeopardy. It sounds dramatic but if your employee further aggravates a non-work-related injury while undertaking their normal duties, the business could be liable for a partial WorkCover claim. 

​So how do you protect your business and ensure the health and safety your injured employee?

If there is one thing that employers dread it is that knock on the door from an employee eager to talk about their salary. Does that sound familiar? 

Sometimes the business cannot afford to increase employee salaries which is absolutely okay!  Sometimes you may have a small amount you can afford to spend, but you simply can’t increase your overall wages bill. In fact, you don’t actually have to increase the salary of your employees every year. The only obligation an employer MUST MEET is to ensure their employees’ hourly rate is at least the minimum requirements under the relevant Modern Award.

​There are plenty of other ways to reward employees, keep them engaged with the business and keep them motivated in their roles. We have listed a few creative options below that we know work! 

​As employers we know – or should know - how to keep our employees safe.  We know to keep paths clear for forklifts, to ensure our workers use the correct lifting technique, that we install safety barriers where required, tripping hazards are removed and so on. 

​But what about the mental health of our teams?  

On 1 November 2018, the Victorian Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic) will come in to effect.  It repeals the current Act that has been in effect since 1992. 
But what does it all mean and how will it affect your business?  Well, lucky for you, we’ve got a quick summary of the key changes to ensure you are on top of this important update impacting Victorian businesses.

There are very few of us who want our efforts to go unnoticed.  Sometimes it is as simple as someone saying "thank you" or "great work" that keeps us motivated and engaged.  But as a leader, recognition is a really simple thing that we sometimes forget to do and it can have a really detrimental effect on our business!  Recognising and rewarding the efforts of our teams is an important aspect of the role of a leader so here are 10 points to ponder on the how and why of Positive Recognition.

We know we bang on about it a lot at HR Staff n' Stuff but there is no underestimating the value that good leadership and management brings to your business.  How is it possible to reach your business goals if you don't have have an engaged team?  It's simple - you can't.  But if you can be a good manager who is able to engage your people then you are more likely to deliver on some of your P's - productivity, performance , profitability and people.

There are 10 things that good bosses do.......
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Communication is the exchange of understanding.  What this really means is that what you’ve communicated to an employee has been received in the way that you intended, and that you’ve gotten a response back to let you know that that’s the case. 

Anything less isn’t communication.   It’s just making noises with your mouth.

There are three  major mistakes managers make when communicating: 

As followers of our Facebook page know, we are a pooch friendly office here at HR Staff n’ Stuff, but we understand that not everyone is a dog fan,  and not every work environment is suitable for furry visitors - sometimes you just have to say no to canine guests.  But this is pets we are talking about – what about a working dog?  Is it OK for one of your employees to bring a Guide Dog in training to your workplace?  Are you allowed to say no to one of your employees? 

Without doubt, a key management tool is effective communication.  Communicating effectively prevents misunderstandings & mistakes and ensures your employees know what is expected of them and sets the tone for your business.

Deborah Peppard - HR Director

Leading and engaging employees is a key focus of the advice we provide at HR Staff n’ Stuff, but it’s been a while since we’ve talked about keeping them.  Staff attrition is really important because it’s getting harder and harder to find quality employees, and we know there’s always another talent shortage on the horizon.  So…

Dina Fergadiotis - HR Advisor

Have you ever wondered how you can understand a candidate more completely?  Do you want to make sure you have the best chance of bringing the right person onto your team?  Understanding a person’s technical skills, experience and knowledge is one thing (interview, CV and capability assessments work well here), but how do you really get to ‘know’ them and understand their personality and how they respond in different situations? 

Rest assured, there is a solution! 

Let us introduce you to our favourite personality assessment tool: McQuaig Psychometric System. The McQuaig System offers two outstanding processes which you can use alone or pop them together for absolute best results.

Amie Graham - HR Advisor

Breaches of information – sounds boring doesn’t it?  However it has the potential to do incredible damage to your business and you need to know how the changes in the Privacy Laws impact you and the obligations they impose.    
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Cyber-attacks are real as illustrated last year when 1 in 10 Australian UBER customers personal information was stolen by hackers.  What you may not know is Uber kept this security breach a secret for a year and consequently the chief security officer was terminated.  But data breaches aren’t restricted to hacking of the company computer.  Do you take USBs home that contain private information of clients or employees?  What if this USB fell out of your pocket on the train? You’ve got yourself a data breach right there. 

By Danielle Stone - Senior HR Advisor 

​As an HR Consultancy, we receive a lot of calls from our clients asking for advice relating to terminating an employee within their probation period for non-performance.  Generally, the advice we provide is very short, sweet and to the point.  You are able to terminate an employee for non-performance within their probation period without the fear of an unfair dismissal claim being lodged. 
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Recently I received such a call from one of our regular clients.  They had an employee who was simply not performing, was within their probation period and that several informal conversations had taken place between the Office Manager and the employee clearly outlining where improvements needed to be made.  I proceeded to advise them on how to terminate the employment agreement when, just for good measure, they decided to throw in a little bit of extra information that made this a curly situation…. “Oh by the way, they lodged a WorkCover claim a couple of weeks ago, that shouldn’t change anything right?” 

​Wrong!

Fair Work Australia doesn’t muck around when it comes to unpaid internships, they consider all matters very seriously and will crack down on businesses who take advantage and break the rules. Quite understandably, unpaid internships agreements can be confusing for employers and interns as interns aren’t actual employees even though they might be located in your work environment.  

Lucky for you, our HR Advisor Dina Fergadiotis has taken some time to look at this and has the answers to all your questions! 

Your business is flying!  Targets are being met, new clients are coming to you, word of mouth is fantastic and your team is a cohesive unit that keeps rising to the challenges you set for them.  How good is this you think to yourself as you ponder the possibility of having a well-earned break.   All the hard yards have been done, how could it possibly go wrong?  

What goes wrong is that one of your team starts to be difficult.  Let’s call this person Alex – a great gender neutral name - ?.  Alex has become argumentative in meetings, aggressive with responses to team members, tardy with deadlines and an all-round jerk to work with and to be around.  You can see other team members – the same staff that just keep on keeping on – becoming upset with Alex’s behaviour.  Surely this is just a blip and Alex will come back to the light soon and cut out the nonsense.  You ignore the growing unease amongst your team hoping it will resolve itself.  Right?