Tag: employment lawyers australia (Page 3 of 3)

How To Avoid The Nasty Side Of Employee Relations

November 30, 2012 / HRwisdom

Most people have seen the nasty side of employee relations gone wrong at work.

Examples include:

Being caught out by government inspectors for using an incorrect pay formula after misinterpreting an industrial pay award or agreement.
Underperforming staff members claiming “harassment” or “bullying” by their manager or supervisor who has been clumsy in their attempts to apply the company’s performance management policy.
Employees leaving the company and then poaching key staff.
Facing backpay claims by not being clear enough on the Employee vs Contractor issue.
Not having solid employment contracts in place.
Botching staff terminations and redundancies (creating a terrible working atmosphere for those who remain).
Not knowing how to handle unions in the workplace.
Discrimination claims made and eventually costing the business time and money.
Strikes or threatened industrial action poisoning a previously positive workplace relationship with the employees.

What Proactive Organisations Do

To save themselves the headache, proactive organisations tend to tick the following four items off the To Do list as soon as possible:

Have all employment law documentation (including HR policies, procedures, letters and forms) in place.
Train all staff in the existence and the proper use of these human resources documents.
Provide good employee relations training to all supervisors and managers.
Have independent legal advice assess the documentation, processes, training before, not after, things go wrong.

Smart businesses add a 5th item to their list . .

The 5th item is to keep up to date with good workplace legal advisors so the business is ready for any problem that may arise.

Download Free HR & Staff Management Documents

You can download free staff management documents and details of legal advisors on a regional basis here:

Click here: Employment law advice

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New Free HR Templates Added To HRwisdom

November 21, 2012 / HRwisdom

New Free HR Templates Added To HRwisdom

HRwisdom has updated its resources and added more free HR templates and resources.

The documents are stored in State/Territory sections.

The free HR templates and resources come from a variety of sources including HR experts and government departments.

The free HR templates and management resources include:

Employee Attraction & Retention Guide
Employee Warning Letters
Unfair Dismissal Guide
Recruitment & Selection Guides
Employee Probation Letters
Employment Contract & Employment Letters
Employee Dismissal Letters
Redundancy Information & Documentation
Information on Discrimination, Bullying & Harassment
Parental Leave Information & Documents
How To Make An Enterprise Agreement
Flexible Work Information & Documents
Unions & Industrial Action Information
Best Interview Questions & Answers
Managing Generation Y Guide
And much more . . .

Get started now by using the login form on the right-hand side →
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Get Your Free HR Templates & Reports

Here are some examples of some of the additional free HRwisdom HR resources:

Employee Attraction & Retention Guide
15 Ways To Manage Staff In Uncertain Times
Sample HR Letters To Employees
How To Find & Keep Good Employees
Employee Contract of Employment Templates
How To Manage Redundancies Without Destroying All Employee Goodwill
The Changing Labour Market
Train The Trainer Course Guide

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How To Fire Someone

November 12, 2012 / HRwisdom

How To Fire Someone

The question of how to fire someone is not a pleasant one but it is one that is being asked by more and more companies of all sizes as they feel the strain of ongoing economic uncertainty.

Remember to get free HR documents & employment law templates right now (use the form on the right-hand side of this page).

Alternatively, click to create customised termination letters and other HR documents.

The question of how to fire someone has been highlighted recently with debate on unfair dismissal laws for small businesses and with announcements by large companies such as QANTAS and BHP Billiton that more job losses are imminent.

The George Clooney movie “Up In The Air” raised the profile of the redundancy process.

The film featured a corporate HR redundancy expert whose role was to fly from city to city making staff redundant as part of his firm’s outsourced outplacement service. At one stage, Clooney’s firm even explored the technical “advance” of conducting employee dismissal meetings via computer video linkups.

Perhaps more useful is the recent article published by the Wall Street Journal which shared some ideas on the unpleasant question of how to fire someone.

The article included feedback from different HR experts.

How To Fire Someone

Here are some of the suggestions on how to fire someone . . .

Say it yourself. The main bearer of bad news should be the employee’s direct manager. Otherwise, an employee may wonder whether the supervisor even supported the decision, and that could raise concerns over the merit of the termination.

Bring a witness. Having another manager or HR representative present helps to avoid a game of he-said, she-said if the employee retaliates with legal action. A third party also can ensure that the conversation remains on topic and professional.

Get it in writing. The moments after receiving bad news tend to be a blur, and the employee might not remember details such as how to get that final paycheck or when to sign up for [government support]. Have a written list of information on hand so the employee can process it later.

Keep it quick and make it less of a conversation and more of a notification. Cap the meeting at 15 or 20 minutes.

Be specific. Our imaginations can be our worst enemies, so the more employees know about why they’re being fired, the less likely they are to wonder about more nefarious motives, such as gender or age discrimination. Now is a good time to rehash some of the missteps an employee has made, such as missing sales quotas or ignoring warnings about unprofessional behavior.

Click to create customised termination letters and other HR documents.

Don’t apologize. Saying you’re sorry suggests that the manager is disappointed with the decision, which could leave the employee wondering whether the firing really was fair… Comments like “This is actually a good thing for you” are also inappropriate, since the manager offering such platitudes is still gainfully employed.

Do it on Friday. Or Monday. Or Wednesday. There is no consensus on the best day to fire someone. Fridays make the departure less dramatic but could leave the employee stewing over the weekend; Mondays allow a rapid-response job hunt but highlight that the employee’s calendar is clear for the rest of the week. The answer? Don’t dawdle. Make the notification as soon as you make the decision.

The article also made the basic but the sometimes overlooked suggestion to keep calm throughout the process and allow the employee to maintain some dignity by sticking to a private setting.

Feel free to share this article with friends and colleagues.

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Employment Law and Social Media Part 2

November 6, 2012 / HRwisdom

In this HRwisdom Blog post, we bring you the second half of our article on employment law and social media.

The post comes courtesy of Tim Capelin, a Partner based in the Sydney office of law firm Piper Alderman.

Tim has acted for leading organisations in most industry sectors including food and beverage, retail, health & hospitality, pharmaceutical, logistics, resources, construction, government, finance and insurance. He frequently presents on workplace law topics, is a regular contributor to industry and legal publications and is sought by the media for comment on workplace law issues.

[box type=”alert”]Have you attended one of our free daily online workplace law Employer Briefings yet? To attend, click here: Free Employment Law Briefing [/box]

Over to Tim for the second half of his HRwisdom Blog update on employment law and social media . . .

When drafting a social media policy, the content should be organisation specific to a certain degree, but should address the following topics:

A definition of social media.
Your organisation’s view of and approach to social media.
Who is authorised to use social media as a representative of the organisation.
If authorised to represent the organisation within social media, what guidelines should be followed.
Whether non-authorised people are allowed to identify themselves as someone connected with the organisation when using social media in their private lives.
Whether access to social media will be allowed during work hours and if so, what limits should be followed.
How the organisation will monitor usage and what it will do with information gained from such monitoring.
The need to protect the organisation’s confidential information.
Whether employees have a positive obligation to inform the organisation if they become aware, even in their private use of social media, of comments made about the organisation.
Potential ramifications of breaching policy.
Who the policy applies to, namely does it only apply to employees or does it apply to all workplace participants.

Further to Tim’s excellent advice, HRwisdom always recommends that employers be proactive and plan ahead.

Such an approach is just smart business, particularly when it comes to the new world of social media.

[box type=”alert”]Have you attended one of our free daily online workplace law Employer Briefings yet? To attend, click here: Free Employment Law Briefing [/box]

To get in touch with Tim Capelin, you can find his contact details here: employment law advice Sydney.

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