December Case Study: The Right Fit

It is amazing how one individual can so greatly impact a business, particularly if they are not the 'right fit'. One distributor of personal products I have been working with recently experienced this first hand, as they employed someone who didn't fuse well into the culture of the business.

Whilst  teamwork was such a strong part of this business' culture, the new employee seemed to cross the boundaries, treating other team members like their own personal assistants, including the business owners. Working cooperatively with the owners, I developed a time management strategy to review, improve and boost the new employee's performance. Unfortunately, only two weeks into the implementation of these strategies, the employee resigned, after causing havoc within the business for nine months. 

When recruiting new employees, always identify the prospect's characteristics and skills, and consider how they may fit within and enhance the business. Note that a transition from a major corporation into a small business may be difficult; but whilst it is certainly possible, it may require some assistance and investment on the employer's part. It is crucial you ask questions to the new employee, and make your expectations of them clear. 

My client was amazed at the effect the employee had on the business, and how the energy returned following their departure. As an owner or employer, always aim for prevention rather than management and, address issues at their immediate appearance. Be patient enough to wait for the right fit, rather than settling for the first in. 

End2End Business Solutions can help you find the right employees that fit your business! Contact Annette on 8977-4002 for assistance.

An Employer’s Guide to Annual Leave Obligations Over Christmas

Christmas is a season to be enjoyed and celebrated, and for many, a season to unwind, recuperate and reset for a new year. It is important that in this season, employers are aware of and meet their obligations to employees regarding annual leave. 

As a part of the National Employment Standards [NES], under the Fair Work Act, employers are required to pay all employees [except casuals] their normal rate of pay based on their normal hours of work; this includes public holidays such as Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year Eve [if these days fall on a working day].

In the case an employee does work on these public holidays, employers will need to review their award or agreement, as penalty rates may be due. The NES entitles employees to a minimum of four weeks annual leave. In some cases for shift workers, the entitled period of annual leave may increase to five weeks.

It is generally standard that an agreement between an employee and employer would allow the employee a period of paid annual leave during Christmas. An equitable shutdown period may be from at least Christmas to the New Year.

 In order to ensure an employer meets their obligations to employees over a period of annual leave, a few key factors must be considered:

• Agreements in place 
• The combined needs of the employee and the business 
• The normal trading habits of the business over Christmas, i.e. does it normally shut down for a two week period, or does it operate as normal with the exception of the public holidays? 
• Whether the period notice given for annual leave is fair and well timed for employees [i.e. a couple of days’ notice would be unmerited, as opposed to a couple of weeks to a month] 

Employers may encourage employees to take paid annual leave, so long as it fits their agreement, however in the case the employee does not have enough annual leave accrued, unpaid annual leave may be advised.  

If you are unsure of your responsibilities as an employer around the festive season and New Year, End2end Business Solutions can help you identify the obligations – call Annette on 8977-4002.

What is the difference between bullying and harassment?

Whilst neither bullying nor harassment should be tolerated in the workplace, many employers often fail to see or acknowledge the difference between the two, and effectively, they often tend to deal with both matters in the same way. 

Bullying can be identified by its repetitive nature; it is unsolicited and irrational behaviour towards an individual or group of employees that results in a risk to health and safety. It is the responsibility of an employer to ensure the safety of the workplace and prevent bullying from occurring, as failure to do so may result in investigation and prosecution.

Harassment on the other hand is also unsolicited behaviour that may demean, upset or intimidate a person, and victimizes them through such behaviour on the basis of their physiognomies such as sex or ethnicity.

Bullying expert and author of Bully Free At Work, Valerie Cade, explains that bullying has “the intent of hurting someone else”, whilst harassment  “violates people's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment".

Cade also provides some key identifiers on the difference between bullying and harassment:

•     Harassment is intrusive and invasive and, has a very physical aspect to it including disrespecting a person’s space and/or damaging their possessions
•     Harassment is recognizable by its explicit nature
•     Harassment can be inclusive of aggressive and offensive language
•     Victims of harassment are usually aware of the injustice being done towards them
•     Victims of bullying may not recognize such injustice that is being done towards them until the damage is done
•     Bullying is more likely to be concealed and to occur in private, where it cannot be seen or witnessed by fellow employees
•     Workplace bullying is often psychological. 
•     Bullying is often linked to staged attacks on individuals

When dealing with harassment, policies should be implemented to ensure positive resolution for all parties involved, and protects the relationship from suffering in the workplace. Bullying on the other hand requires immediate action via policies that eliminate the source of bullying and prevent it from recurring. Whilst there may be cases in which a victim of bullying wishes to avoid reporting the issue, the responsibility of an employer according to their workplace health and safety obligations, is to investigate and reconcile the issue, and prevent them from recurring.

To minimize your risk as an employer, you should consider developing proactive bullying and harassment policies that will ensure that your workforce is safe, engaged and productive. Contact Annette at End2End Business Solutions on (02) 8977 4002 for advice on establishing workplace policies for your business.

What Gets You Out Of Bed In The Morning?

Who is really responsible for the development of my career?
With statistics reporting more than 35% of people waking up wondering how on earth they ‘got here’, it seems that we live in a world, of which a large proportion of people tend to fall into their careers based on circumstances rather than a passion or dream.

According to research from Right Management; over 90% of HR managers feel their organisations are under performing and that almost half of all employees are wrongly fitted in their careers. It’s no wonder employees are left uninspired to perform at their optimum capacity in their career of, well, chance.

Career management practice leader of Right Management, Tim Roche, recently stated that half of the 146 000 participants in his survey, aiming to challenge and bring awareness to their true career motivators, effectively made some career change.

 No longer in the age where an employee would spend their lives in one occupation and/or in one company, there are a few grey areas regarding who’s responsibility it is to motivate and develop an employee’s career.

 It is unfortunately not yet typical of a business to integrate both career development and business strategies, although doing so might increase the company’s performance, productivity and overall focus from employees, whilst decreasing turnover.

There is a need for managers to be bold and courageous enough to tackle career management, so that employees are not only strategically motivated and empowered in the present, but also for the years to come. Managers must learn to seek and embrace friendly, personal conversations with employees about the direction of their careers.

 Common misconceptions prohibiting managers from stepping up in this area, rather than avoiding completely or redirecting matters to the company board, are that such conversations will be an expense or that employees may be unrealistic in their expectations or capabilities. In order to engage employees in a positive way, managers must be secure in their own understanding of what drives and motivates both themselves and their fellow employees, and how to implement principles and strategies to encourage this.

 Lizzy Allen of Right Management, adds that career management should involve tripartite commitment, in which the individual, the leader and the organisation equally commit to enable, discuss and promote career development. It is the tripartite commitment that allows active and personal relationships to ensure the success of all parties.

December Case Study: The Right Fit

It is amazing how one individual can so greatly impact a business, particularly if they are not the 'right fit'. One distributor of personal products I have been working with recently experienced this first hand, as they employed someone who didn't fuse well into the culture of the business. 

Whilst  teamwork was such a strong part of this business' culture, the new employee seemed to cross the boundaries, treating other team members like their own personal assistants, including the business owners. 

Working cooperatively with the owners, I developed a time management strategy to review, improve and boost the new employee's performance. Unfortunately, only two weeks into the implementation of these strategies, the employee resigned, after causing havoc within the business for nine months.

When recruiting new employees, always identify the prospect's characteristics and skills, and consider how they may fit within and enhance the business. Note that a transition from a major corporation into a small business may be difficult; but whilst it is certainly possible, it may require some assistance and investment on the employer's part. It is crucial you ask questions to the new employee, and make your expectations of them clear.

My client was amazed at the effect the employee had on the business, and how the energy returned following their departure. As an owner or employer, always aim for prevention rather than management and, address issues at their immediate appearance. Be patient enough to wait for the right fit, rather than settling for the first in. End2End Business Solutions can help you find the right employees that fit your business! Contact Annette on 8977-4002 for assistance.

Draft for flexibility in employment contracts

Organisations should draft employment contracts with enough flexibility to allow for circumstances to change without requiring employee sign-off every time, says an employment law specialist.

Employment contracts are the foundation of the employment relationship, but it's important for organisations to avoid locking themselves into terms that might not always benefit their business. Businesses need to give themself the power to change at least some parts of the contract, including perhaps the employee's title, their job description, their reporting lines, their start and finish times etc. The way to do this is by including clauses which expressly allow you to make amendments. While businesses need to take award obligations and relevant legislation into account, clauses can be worded in a way that enables employers to vary them without employee agreement.

For example, you wouldn't include a clause in a contract that says 'Here is your job description. Any changes to your job description will be by mutual agreement', instead you would include 'Here's your job description. The company reserves the right to alter that position description on reasonable consultation with you'.

Ensure additional benefits are discretionary

When it comes to entitlements, such as bonuses and car allowances, employers can give themselves more flexibility if they clarify that additional benefits are granted at their discretion, which gives your business the ability to change or withdraw these entitlements if necessary or if circumstances change. This can be achieved by including express clauses that state the company may change these entitlements at its discretion... subject to reasonable consultation.

What else should be excluded?

Leaving information about standard company procedures and processes out of the employment contract will enable employers to alter them more readily. By putting those things into the contract you open the business up to risk for breach of contract in circumstances where you're not able to comply with those requirements. Instead, employers are advised to include information on procedures, such as grievance or performance management processes, or WHS instructions in their policy documents.


from the article  "Draft for flexibility in employment contracts" at HR Daily

Only one in 10 have innate management talent

From HR Daily:

Good managers are born, not made, but when people without this ability are promoted into management roles they use manipulation and politics to get by, often with devastating effects on employee engagement, says the CEO of global research company Gallup Consulting.

Gallup's ongoing workplace studies in more than 140 countries have found that just 13 per cent of employees globally are engaged with their jobs. In Australia and New Zealand, the proportion of engaged employees is higher, at 24 per cent, however 60 per cent are still not engaged and 16 per cent are actively disengaged, which some estimate is costing Australian employers $54.8 billion each year.

One of the keys to building an engaged workforce is hiring the right managers, because how employees feel about their job begins and ends with their direct supervisor. If employees feel, among other things, that their supervisor takes a real interest in their development, or offers frequent praise and recognition, they are very likely to be engaged.

Research has found, however, that just one in 10 people have the innate ability to lead and manage others, which assists them to become good managers with the right development.

A small number of employees without an inborn ability can manage people if they have the right support, but seven in 10 people should not be placed in leadership or management roles - regardless of the development they've received.  Employers should create alternative career paths for these "individual achievers" to avoid progressing them into management roles.

To ensure engagement across all levels, organisations need to reach a point where individual achievers are as highly esteemed as managers. One obvious mistake that many organisations continue to make is promoting employees to management based on their performance in their current role. The classic example of this is  the great sales person who is promoted to sales manager and flounders.

How else can we create engagement?

Gallup Australia senior client service manager Allan Watkinson outlined three other areas HR professionals can focus on to improve engagement:

-Don't leave selection to chance - Employee selection at all levels is the most important element to get right in order to improve engagement, you can never invest too much in that recruitment process.

-Lead with clarity - One of the biggest demotivators is a lack of clarity about expectations. Every employee should be able to answer two important questions: what do I get paid to do and what does success look like.  If you can get every employee in your company to answer those two questions, people will be much clearer and much more motivated

- Focus on what's strong, not what's wrong - Gallup's research shows that employees are happier, more engaged, develop faster and perform better when managers focus on their strengths.


from the article  "Only one in 10 have innate management talent" at HR Daily