What is happening in the world of HR for small businesses?

Spring is in the air – the home stretch for 2023

Spring is days away, and I don’t know about you, but I look forward to nicer weather!

At Strawberry Seed, we think now is also the best time to consider your staffing levels for the rest of 2023.

• Will you shut down over the Christmas break, and for how long?
• What public holidays are coming up?
• Do any of your team plan on taking leave?

Christmas Shutdowns

Here is your reminder to not leave this to the last minute. Start planning for this now, especially if you plan to shut down for a period.

As we outlined in the March Punnet, there have been changes to the provisions on temporary shutdowns across 78 Awards. In summary:

• Employers must give affected employees 28 days’ written notice of any temporary shutdown period or any shorter period as agreed between the parties.
• Employers may direct employees in writing to take paid annual leave if the employee has an accrued annual leave entitlement, providing the direction is reasonable.
• Should an employee not have sufficient annual leave to cover the whole shutdown period, by a written agreement, the employee may take leave without pay or annual leave in advance during the temporary shutdown.
• Employees can no longer be required to take leave without pay if they do not have sufficient annual leave or leave in advance to cover the whole shutdown period.

Contact our team if you need help navigating this for the 2023/24 Christmas period.

Public Holidays

Almost every state in Australia has at least one public holiday between now and Christmas (if you are in Victoria, there are two). Christmas Day and Boxing Day are a Monday and Tuesday in 2023 so there will be no requirements for substitute days.

In the April Punnet, we told you about a new Federal Court decision that now requires that Employers “request” employees to work on public holidays rather than simply roster and allow the employee to decline the shift.

If you are going to be rostering employees to work on Public Holidays, we highly recommend that you have a method of requesting the employees to work the public holiday shift as a step before the rostering process. 

Contact our team if you need help navigating the upcoming public holidays.

How are you tracking with the 2022/23 Secure Jobs, Better Pay changes?

Since December 2022, there have been multiple changes in Australian Workplace Laws that have been rolled out. With most of the changes now in place for small and large businesses, we thought it was worth a reminder to ensure you are still compliant.

Prohibiting Pay Secrecy

Changes to Pay Secrcy were effective from the 7th of December, 2022. The Fair Work Act now gives employees and future employees new workplace rights to share or not share information about their pay and ask other employees about their pay. Employees can’t be forced to give this information to another employee if they don’t want to.

The six-month grace period is now up. Fines may apply if you provide employees with new or updated employee agreements that still contain a pay secrecy clause.

Family & Domestic Violence Leave

Entitlements under the National Employment Standards have changed. Family & Domestic Violence Leave has been amended to 10 days paid leave per year. These changes are now in effect for all businesses around Australia.

You need to ensure that your policies are up to date. There are also updates to the Fair Work Information Statements you must provide new employees, so ensure you have the current version from Fair Work.

Prohibiting Workplace Sexual Harassment

Since March, the Fair Work Act now prohibits sexual harassment in connection with work, which includes in the workplace. This protection applies to employees, contractors, work experience students, volunteers, future workers, and anyone conducting a business or undertaking.

A person or company will also be liable for sexual harassment committed by an employee or agent in connection with work unless they can prove that they took all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. The FWC can now hear disputes and has expanded its powers to deal with disputes about sexual harassment, including arbitrating disputes by consent.

Employers must be able to demonstrate they are taking ‘all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment’. This means being more proactive in your approach. Update your policies. Talk about it in the workplace. Think about how you are promoting positive behaviour in your workplace.

At Strawberry Seed, we have been delivering Workplace Conduct Training for many of our clients this year as part of their strategy. This is an excellent way to be proactive and set the standards for your workplace. This training can be delivered nationwide via video, with many clients choosing to record it for new employees.

If you would like to explore this training for your team, call us for a quote at (03) 4216 5200.

Upcoming Training and Development

Free Upcoming Webinars 

Difficult Workplace Conversations – Practical tips and strategies for people managers

The next of our free webinars will be held on the 4th of October 2023, at 7.30 pm.

At Strawberry Seed, the most requested topic for training is how to have a difficult conversation with employees.

Ideally, everyone is looking for a magic bullet that will make it easier. The reality is that it will always take work. Fortunately, we can help you understand how to plan and approach these conversations to allow for more productive discussions and better outcomes.

Join our Director Carli Saw as she shares her experience and insights from more than 25 years of coaching people managers through challenging employee issues.  As we understand small business people have busy days, we have scheduled this session for the evening (so you can enjoy it with a glass of wine if you wish)!

Bookings can be made here, and please feel free to pass this on to other business owners. Don’t worry if you can’t attend on the night. You will receive a recording to watch at your convenience.

Coming Soon: The last topic for 2023 will be ‘101 of HR for Building and Trade‘. Hosted by Helen Dodd, our Principal HR Advisor, this is part of our ‘101 webinar series, designed to get into the nuts and bolts of managing employees in specific industries, allowing us to go deeper into the details that matter. Click here for more information.

Mental Health First Aid Training

Undetected mental health issues have a long-term negative impact on your staff and the wider workplace. Recognising the signs and symptoms of mental health issues is the first step to supporting a struggling employee or workmate.

Our Principal HR Advisor and Mental Health First Aid Instructor, Frances Orr, is an accredited MHFA trainer who has delivered in-house MHFA training for many clients since 2021.

We now have a regular schedule of public face-to-face and blended online MHFA courses, and we currently have spaces available for courses in September and October.  The public courses allow businesses to send a smaller number of their team to attend the course.

Blended Online Workplace Course

The blended online course is split into two components.  In the first component, your team will undertake a self-paced eLearning component (4-6 hours online directly with MHFA).  This is followed up by component 2, two 2.5 hour instructor-led webinar sessions. Each attendee will receive an MHFA manual and a certificate of attendance and can gain mental health first aid accreditation. During this course, we can address current industry issues or concerns you are experiencing in your organisation. This public delivery is limited to 12 participants in each webinar session.

The cost of this course is $250 plus GST for each attendee.

The dates for the upcoming instructor lead webinar sessions can be found here.

Face-to-Face Standard MHFA Course

The face-to-face course is conducted over two full days.  All attendees will receive an MHFA manual and a certificate of attendance and can gain mental health first aid accreditation. During this course, we can address current industry issues or concerns you are experiencing in your organisation. This public delivery is limited to 20 participants; refreshments, lunch, and afternoon tea will be provided.

The cost of this course is $350 plus GST for each attendee.

The dates for the upcoming face-to-face sessions can be found here.

Why is Mental Health First Aid training important?

As a manager or business owner, you will likely have been confronted with mental health issues at your workplace. Do you know how to talk to a team member who’s struggling? Maybe you hold back because you don’t know what to say or worry about saying the wrong thing.

Mental Health First Aid training teaches practical first aid skills to help a team member or co-worker experiencing mental health issues. We’ll teach you how to approach someone struggling, ask the right questions and help them access professional help.

To learn more about our in-house training options, click here or contact Frances for an obligation-free customised quote at mhfa@strawberryseed.com.au.

Upcoming Leadership Training Workshops – Sydney and Melbourne