Unlock more work happiness: tackle Psychosocial Hazards

by Rob Sheppard [Approx 3.5 min read] Does your workplace experience heavy workloads, have unclear roles for its people or little to no communication between managers, teams and individuals? If it does, then we just identified some of the criteria to suggest you have ‘psychosocial hazards’ in the workplace. In this article, we’ll expand on last month’s article [Right to Disconnect Puts the ‘Off’ in Office Hours.] that touched on psychosocial hazards and dive into what they are, how they …

Right to Disconnect Puts the ‘Off’ in Office Hours.

by Rob Sheppard and Taylah Cooper [IMPORTANT NOTE: this article has been updated as at 06/03/24] [Approx 3.5 min read] The balance between work and life has become an almost continual topic of conversation in the post-Covid SME business world. With the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023 (the ‘amendment’) passing into law, there is now a legal ‘right to disconnect’ for Australian workers established. This amendment to the Fair Work Act 2009 is an attempt to place …

Compliance and conversation – the keys to 2024

by Rob Sheppard [Approx 3 min read] 2024 marks the year for businesses in Australia to be more aware than ever of how they operate – both in terms of the suite of new employment laws they face and the way businesses attract and retain their workforces. It is especially crucial for SMEs to be aware of the changes in employment conditions and entitlements as they continue to expand their operations (issues impacting 2-3 team members will be exponentially worse …

Building better businesses from the lessons of 2023

by Rob Sheppard [Approx 3 min read] In Australia, workforce management for SMEs has witnessed a transformative [perhaps even ‘seismic’] shift in both legislation and the way office and technology-based roles now work. Looking back at our articles over the year, it was evident that the journey to this transformation has been marked by both significant changes and opportunities to grow. Here is a snapshot of just some of the year as we saw it: The flexible [hybrid] work revolution …

The Flexible Work Revolution: Embracing Change in a Business World

by Rob Sheppard [Approx 4.5 min read] SME business owners face many challenges in today’s constantly changing employment landscape. A growing challenge that is not going away post-Covid, is the demand for flexible work arrangements from teams who have enjoyed the positive impact this has had on their lives. It is also a legislated area of the workplace – as many business owners are finding out. While compliance with laws is obviously essential, I thought I’d shed some light on …

Subcontractors: What EVERY business owner needs to know.

by Taylah Cooper [Approx. 2-minute read] Have you heard the term ‘sham contracting’? Hopefully you have and are therefore also aware of the other laws that might apply when engaging independent contractors (aka ‘subbies’). For everyone else, this mini-article aims to shed light on THREE of the common rights and protections that contractors hold. 1. Sham Contracting ‘Sham contracting’ is when a business tells or tries to mislead a worker to believe that they are an independent contractor, when they …

Workplace laws are scary, right?

by Rob Sheppard [Approx. 4-minute read] Unless you’ve been off in that time-travelling DeLorean again, you will have come to the realisation that Australia’s (ongoing) workplace reforms are an issue for your business you can no longer hide from. Labor governments in WA and Nationally have made no secret of their aspirations to raise working conditions / experience and address a ‘perceived’ imbalance in worker lives…. and this is a driving force behind most of the recent reform. Let’s recap …

Mandatory Vaccinations and your Business

Approx. 5 minute read – updated 24-12-21 The following information has been sourced with reference to the websites of the Fair Work Ombudsman, WA Government, Safe Work Australia and the Department of Health (National). Links to these bodies can be found at the end of this article. A quick disclaimer is unfortunately needed before we get to the bulk of this article. The following information is relevant to Fair Work System employers and you must seek independent advice before acting …

IR Reform 2021

IR Amendment 2021 – What did we actually get?

2020 saw many challenges and opportunities for Australian businesses thanks to the effects of COVID-19. One of the more significant in our opinion was the promised amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (the ‘FW Act’). The Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021 finally passed both Houses of Parliament on 22 March 2021 – but not before Parliament made several amendments that significantly stripped it to back (for a full list of what was being …

When it’s not always black and white – the Art of Workplace Investigations

If you receive a complaint related to the workplace, how you successfully investigate the claims can be the difference to resolving them internally or the basis for how you defend the position you took before a court or tribunal. To make it even more challenging, many complaints are also not black and white. For example, it is about behaviours that are *felt* and not seen, there are no witnesses or no concrete proof exists that the events ever took place. …