It is not always about the money

Time off in Lieu has been extended by the Fair Work commission into the Modern Awards.

It is not uncommon for workers to want to enjoy the rewards of their hard work with something other than cash.  

For many, time off in lieu for overtime worked (TOIL) can be put towards creating a long weekend or used for family and personal activities.    This can be a greater motivator than money.  

For business it can be a win-win arrangement as it can save a owner money and also good workers will use this time for person reasons, rather than taking a “sickie”.
  

83 of the 122 modern awards already provide for (TOIL).   Of those, 60 provide the TOIL is calculated at the ordinary rate and the remaining 23 modern awards provide TOIL at the overtime rate.   

The Fair Work Commission has ruled that the TOIL should be inserted into the remaining awards.   

What steps do you need to take in implementing a TOIL arrangement?

1)  You may agree in writing to the employee taking time off instead of being paid for a  particular amount of overtime that has been worked by the employee.

2)  A TOIL agreement can also be made by an exchange of email or SMS messages with you.

3)   The period of time off that an employee is entitled to take is the same as the number of overtime hours worked e.g. three overtime hours = 3 hours of TOIL.

4)   TOIL must be taken within the period of six months after the overtime is worked at times agreed by the employee and employer.

5)  Copies of any TOIL agreements must be kept as an employee record.

6)  No undue influence or undue pressure is to be exerted onto an employee to make or not make a TOIL agreement.

7)  An employee may request a TOIL agreement as a flexible working arrangement. You cannot refuse the agreement except on reasonable business grounds.

8)   A policy outlining the TOIL and how it works should be developed and all employees made aware of what the agreement will include.

9)   You must pay out the overtime if:

(a)   TOIL is not taken within six months;

(b)   The employee requests it to be paid out; or

(c)    The employee’s employment ends

You must not knowingly or recklessly make a false or misleading representation about an employee’s entitlements under a TOIL agreement.   

You should know what the modern award that applies to your business has in terms of a
TOIL arrangement.  

Help is available

End2end can help a business get ahead of their competitors with tailored staff management strategies, call us on 02 8977 4002 to see how we can help you.  

Presenteeism costing employers

This is a great article from HR Daily which highlights the hidden costs of unproductive workers...

Presenteeism costing employers 11 weeks per worker

Employees are unproductive for a "staggering" 57.5 days per year, but employers can slash this amount by addressing the underlying causes, global research has found.

Based on a survey of nearly 2,000 employees, and validated against the World Health Organisation's workplace health and productivity questionnaire, the Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) study shows the cost of presenteeism is more than 10-times higher than the cost of absenteeism.

GCC data scientist Dr Olivia Sackett says the study clearly shows the "major culprit" of lost productivity is not, as many assume, absenteeism.

"On average, employees in our sample group took about four sick days off each year but when they reported on how many days they lost while on the job, that number shot up to a staggering 57.5 days per year per employee," she says.

GCC chief medical officer Dr David Batman says there are many reasons employees at all levels of an organisation might not be fully productive, including stress and fatigue caused by personal problems.

"Everyone will face tough challenges at some stage in their lives," Batman says.
"Some of us will lose a loved one or suffer the breakdown of a relationship. We may experience a financial disaster or be bullied at work. We may be victims of crime, have a car accident [or] contract a serious illness."

Employers should expect these struggles, and work to "create a supportive culture and build a resilient team" that can effectively deal with them, he says.

A key to this is ensuring managers are attentive to their people.

"I want managers to recognise that if something has changed – whether it's at work or at home – there could be a problem," Batman says.

"They should quietly take that person aside and say, 'Are you okay? Something has changed and I'm concerned about you. Can I do something to help?'"

Specifically, managers should notice if employees start to:
• lack attention and become easily distracted;
• seem uninterested in what they're doing and unconcerned about outcomes;
• let their performance deteriorate;
• come in late and leave early; or
• have more accidents or altercations with colleagues.

The good news is that while studies show there's no quick fix for absenteeism, which needs long-term solutions, "presenteeism responds well to short-term action", enabling employers to quickly achieve dramatic positive change.

The key is to realise presenteeism is only a symptom, and to focus on the cause. The critical element is balance, Batman says.

"Balance is about how you manage your life – at work and at home – and it's just a series of simple steps.

"It's how you exercise, eat, drink, whether or not you smoke, how well-rested you are and whether you find time for yourself, family and colleagues."
Batman says these principles can be simplified and delivered in a workplace setting with surprising ease and effectiveness.

GCC's 12-month health and performance program, for example, helps employees improve their relationship with exercise, nutrition, sleep and psychological wellbeing to instil renewed personal responsibility, self-belief and resilience.

Sackett says participants from the 2015 program reported substantial improvements in sleep, stress levels and overall happiness, and on average gained the equivalent of 10 days in lost time.
"Employees were spending more of the time they were at work actually working – and they were enjoying it more," she says.

Batman adds that by investing in their people, and shifting the needle on the key metrics of sleep, stress and happiness, employers can make measurable improvements in productivity, and reduce the phenomenon of lost time.

Source HR Daily Tuesday, 15 March
https://www.hrdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&nav=1&selkey=3893&utm_source=daily+email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily+Email+Article+Link

Poor Leaders are Costing Employers

One of the most important qualities a leader can possess is the ability to inspire trust in the workplace, however, it is something that appears to be on the decline within organisations. When trust declines in a workplace relationship, so too does productivity. Everything will take much longer and costs will increase, all to make up for that lack of trust.

Stephen M.R Covey, author of The Speed of Trust; the one thing that changes everything, calls the extra effort that goes into checking and validating employees work by leaders the “low trust tax”.
In the same way that when there is a lack of trust productivity goes down and costs go up, when there is a high level of trust, productivity increases and costs go down.

Covey believes that the need for trust in the workplace is obvious and it is a “financial, not just social requirement”. “"You can put a value on it," he said. "The ability to create trust is the number one competency of leadership needed today, more than any other”.
Trusting your employees, as a leader, makes you better at everything else that you need to achieve at work.

The thirteen behaviours that high trust leaders possess, according to Covey, are;

1. Talking straight – They say what is on their mind, and don't hide their agenda. Most employees don't believe their bosses are communicating honestly.
2. Demonstrating respect – Actions show leaders care. They should be sincere. People will notice if an action is motivated by a lesser reason.
3. Creating transparency – Leaders should tell the truth in a way that can be substantiated. Transparency is based on principles of honesty, openness, integrity and authenticity.
4. Righting wrongs – To right a wrong is much more than apologising. It involves making restitution. With customers it might include that free gift along with the sincere apology.
5. Showing loyalty – Leaders need to give credit to the individuals responsible for success. A leader should never take credit for the hard work of others.
6. Delivering results – The fastest way to build trust is to deliver results. 
7. Getting better – When others see leaders continually learning and adapting to change, they become inspired to do the same. Covey suggested two ways to get better. First, seek feedback from those around you. Second, learn from your mistakes;
8. Confronting reality – If leaders are honest about the difficult issues and address them head-on, people will trust them. 
9. Clarifying expectations – It is important to focus on a shared vision of success up front. When expectations are not clearly defined at the beginning, trust and productivity both decline. A lot of time is wasted due to leaders not clearly defining expectations.
10. Practising accountability – Leaders must hold themselves accountable, and take responsibility for poor results. It is a normal response to blame others for failure, but when leaders fail, they need to take responsibility for themselves.
11. Listening first – Actively listening builds trust. Leaders need to learn not to go through the 'mechanics' of listening and give the impression they are listening when really they are not.
12. Keeping commitments –This is one of the most important components of inspiring trust in the workplace. When leaders keep a commitment they build trust. Leaders must be careful when making commitments, and make only those they can keep. 
13. Extending trust - Leaders should extend trust to those who have earned it and are still earning it, but show caution to those who have given reason to believe that they are not capable of being trusted.

Do you need to fix your culture so leaders can thrive?

If you have invested a lot of time and money into developing your leaders but are still not seeing the results you had hoped for then maybe you are focusing your attention on the wrong area. It does not matter how talented a leader is if they are working in a place where the culture towards them is negative. This may mean that you have to work on your culture in order to get the most out of your leaders.

How do you know if there is a culture in your workplace that is negative towards leaders?

Here are a few common signs:

• Staff have an “us against them” attitude with leaders and clearly view them as the enemy.
• Team members have not actually ever met their senior leaders and do not recognise them or know their names.
• Staff are often trying to catch out their leaders and belittle them
• There is often negative talk amongst team members about leaders
• Team members deliberately creating problems or testing their leaders to see how they will cope.

If you have noticed this kind of behaviour within your organisation then it might be time to work with your senior leaders to form better relationships with team members before investing any more time, money or effort into developing new leaders.

Here are a few ways to strengthen relationships between team members and leaders:

• Encourage understanding of shared goals and task. For employees to work together effectively, they must understand group and individual goals. When this understanding is poor, work inefficiencies, lower work quality and low employee morale often are the result. Lack of understanding over goals is often misdiagnosed as an individual performance management problem, when actually the team member is unsure of what the organisation expects from them.
• Provide team members with sufficient Knowledge and Resources. Managers can’t have a high performing organisation without capable and knowledgeable employees who are provided with the right resources and tools required to do their jobs. If staff are made to do work they are not qualified for, they will not be happy and their performance and the quality of their work will suffer because of it. Without proper knowledge and training, employees are likely to use resources inefficiently and become disheartened which leads to frustration and higher staff turnover.
• Communication. Ineffective employee communications lead to inefficient coordination efforts. Miscommunication causes poor information sharing and makes it difficult to get the right people involved at the right time to make the best decisions.  Effective interaction can encourage opportunities for combined learning for both manager and employee and greatly enhance employee job satisfaction. Effective interaction creates a culture of collaboration and encourages sharing of ideas and information.

Minimising Workplace Negativity

There is nothing more detrimental to workplace morale than unrelenting workplace negativity. It drains the energy from a workplace and steals attention away from work.

As a manager it is important to stay closely in touch with employees throughout the company as this will allow you to sense any workplace negativity in its early stages.

It is essential to pay attention to employee complaints, exit interviews and employee discussions and feedback to pick up any signs of negativity. This information will help you learn to identify the symptoms of negativity before its consequences damage your work environment. It will also help you prevent future negativity and cure any current workplace negativity.

Negativity is a growing problem in the workplace, it is often the result of a loss of confidence, control, or community. Understanding what people are negative about is the first step in solving the problem.

Communicating with employees will help you define the exact problems and the extent to which these problems are influencing your workplace. One of the easiest ways to do this is to identify the particular employee groups who are experiencing the negativity and the source of the issues that triggered their unhappiness.

Perhaps the organisation has made a decision which has negatively affected staff or staff are feeling threatened or neglected by management.

Whatever the reason for the workplace negativity, these issues must be addressed.
Here are a few tips for keeping your workplace a negative free zone:

• Give staff opportunities to voice their opinions about workplace policies and procedures. Acknowledge the impact of changes in work hours, pay, benefits, overtime etc. on your employees.
• Treat employees like adults with fairness and consistency. Do not create rules for all your employees to target the few people who are doing the wrong thing. Keep the number of rules directing the behaviour of adults at work to a minimum.
• Keep your staff in the loop with what’s going on within the organisation. Provide the context for decisions and communicate regularly and effectively.
• Give employees opportunities to grow and develop. Training and opportunities for promotion are visible signs of an organisations commitment to staff.
• Make sure you give your employees appropriate reward or praise and recognition for a job well done.  Reward and recognition are some of the most powerful tools an organisation can use to boost staff morale.
• Listen, often people just need a sounding board. Be present and available to staff. 

Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Age discrimination is when a person is treated less positively than another person in a comparable situation, because of their age.

It could be ‘direct age discrimination’ if an older applicant is not considered for a job because it is assumed that they are not as up to date with technology as a younger person.

It is also considered age discrimination when there is a policy that is the same for everyone but has an unfair effect on people of a particular age. This is called ‘indirect discrimination’.

It may be considered direct age discrimination if an employer obliges an older person to meet a physical fitness test –which younger people are more likely to succeed in – if the fitness standard is not an essential necessity of the job.

The Age Discrimination Act covers situations where you feel that, because of your age, you may have been:

• denied a promotion, transfer or other employment-related benefits
• given less favourable terms or conditions of employment
• refused employment
• harassed
• dismissed
• denied equal access to training opportunities
• selected for redundancy

The law includes all types of employers, including the Commonwealth and state governments and the private sector.

The recent Age Discrimination Survey conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission has found that over one quarter of Australians aged over 50 years have experienced some form of age discrimination within the last 2 years.

This report should serve to encourage employers to begin taking the issue of age discrimination more seriously.

Most people understand that it is more difficult to get a job if you are older but this report highlights the fact that this is a form of discrimination and should be treated as such.

The publicity that has accompanied the results of this survey may give older workers the confidence to take action if they believe they have been discriminated against due to their age.

One of the major findings of this report was that you are most likely to be discriminated against because of your age when you are looking for paid employment.

The telephone survey of 2109 people aged over 50 years found that almost three in five or 58% of people looking for paid employment were discriminated against because of their age.

Of those who were not employed in the last two years but would have liked to have been, one in five (18%) stated that it was because their skills were not current.

How to be a Good Manager

There is no definitive technique for being a great manager, you have to walk a fine line between constructive criticism and praise. While there are no one size fits all approaches to management, there are a few strategies to help you get the best from your employees.

• Listen more. Try to avoid talking at your employees at review time. You can often gain all the information you need by saying something open ended and listening to what your employee has to say.
• Learn your team’s strengths and weaknesses and work with them. This way you are getting the best of your employees and not wasting time having one employee fulfil a task that would take a different person half the time.
• Try to manage your team as a whole and not just as separate individuals. As a manager you are responsible for the output of the entire team as a whole. Try to team staff members with complementary skills to provide learning opportunities.
• Be Inspiring. Try and distinguish your employee’s exceptional talents and develop them further. Find work opportunities that will challenge them. Make sure that your employees talents are recognised and celebrated. This reinforces performance and makes your employees strive to perform well in the future.
• Give regular feedback. Tell your staff how they are doing at the time and not just at their scheduled 6 monthly performance review. Help your staff to realise that their efforts help the overall success of the company. This will help them to feel connected to the organisation and encourage engagement. 
• Don’t let work friendships alter your managing abilities. As a manager you are assuming responsibility for a group of people and naturally you want them to like you. It is all well and good to be friendly with your team ,  just make sure that you are still able deliver criticism or discipline when it is needed
• Be present. Being in management can keep you very busy. You are often rushing from one place to another. Be wary to not let being busy take over from the day to day management of your staff. As a manager you need to make yourself available to your staff to offer them guidance and give them the opportunity to ask questions when they need to.
• Make an effort to know the basic roles and responsibilities of all your team members. It is very hard to provide guidance and leadership if you are not exactly sure of what your staff are meant to be doing in the first place. If you have to ask your team about their basic functions it is very like that they will second guess the decisions you make.

What Motivates Employees?

Other than the obvious, money, what motivates your employees to do their best work?

Here are a few non-monetary ideas to motivate your workforce.

• Praise. If someone does a job well, let them know, give praise where it is due. This costs you nothing but it means a lot to your employees. Giving regular praise where it is warranted helps to validate your staff’s hard work and encourage them to do their best all the time.
• Communicate with employees. It may sound very basic but employee communication can often be overlooked in many organisations. If an employee has a concern or some other issue that may prevent them from working productively, they need to know that communication channels are open. Taking the time to converse with employees can make them feel more comfortable in their jobs, more settled and better-motivated to work hard for the organisation
• Ask your staff for their input. Ask for their opinion, it makes staff feel as though their opinion matters. Instead of making a demand, ask them “what do you think about doing it this way?”
• Never point fingers. Being called out for making mistakes destroys your staff’s self-esteem. Instead of blaming or criticizing your employees, have a conversation with them. Discuss the problem with them and work out how it could have been handled differently. This will help them to learn from their mistakes.
• Establish a good work environment. A clean, aesthetically pleasing workplace can go a long way to motivating staff. Make the effort to make your workplace look nice. 
• Award Leadership roles. By rewarding good performance with leadership opportunities you inspire your employees to work hard and aim high.
• Take your team out for a meal every once in a while.  This brings everyone together outside of the office and encourages them to get to know each other and bond. Having a tight knit workforce makes work a more enjoyable place to be.
• Plan some fun activities. Planning something fun for your employees to do together helps them to blow off some steam and see their workplace in a more positive light.
• Organise a friendly competition. It’s astounding what a little competition can do for your employees. Hold a weekly or monthly competition with a small prize for the winner, it can be as simple as some movie tickets. Keep track of the results and display them somewhere in the office where everyone can see them. This is a great way to motivate people to work harder.

The Importance of Staff Retention

Many companies are now beginning to view employee retention as a critical issue. High Employee turnover increases expenses and can also have negative effects on company morale.

Implementing strategies devised to retain good workers can help counterbalance replacement costs and reduce the indirect costs associated with high staff turnover such as lost clients and loss of morale.

Employee retention has become an important topic for many reasons.

These include:

• Social media networking tools such as LinkedIn make it easy to observe new job opportunities or get poached by another company
• Costs associated with hiring new staff, advertising, interviewing and hiring etc.
• Training new staff
• Loss of productivity. It can take up to 2 years for a new staff member to reach the same productivity levels as existing staff members
• Loss of engagement. Retained employees who see a high turnover often get disheartened and lose engagement

The longer staff stay with an organisation, the more productive they get .They get to know the systems, products and learn how to work together as a team.

Many high performing companies have loyal employees and each company has its own strategies for retaining their employees.

Some of the interesting things to consider:

• Compensation is a factor but does not play as big a role as you would think. Over-compensation will not offset a poor work environment
• Job fit is significantly important. Hiring the right people for the right positions by realistically advertising job positions will save you a lot of trouble in the long run. If you oversell a job you can suffer from high staff turnover. Effective retention strategies often begin during the employee recruitment process. Employees are more inclined to remain with a company that fulfils the promises made when their employment offer was extended. Companies that provide a realistic view of their corporate environment, advancement opportunities and job expectations to new hires can positively influence employee retention
• The work environment and culture matter. Staff want to feel appreciated, comfortable and included in their place of work. Employees that enjoy what they do and the atmosphere in which they work are more likely to remain employed with their company

Implementing an employee retention program is an effective way of making sure key workers remain employed while maintaining job performance and productivity.


In the end the most prosperous organisations are those that respect their employees and invest in building an engaged work place environment.

4 simple steps to HR success in 2014

1.  Make sure Everyone has a Clear Job Description

Make sure everyone is aware of what their specific roles and duties are within the work place. People generally perform better when they know what is expected of them.

Having a clear role or job description allows your employees to be accountable for their work.

Having specific tasks for each employee allows staff to take pride in their work. Jobs may get overlooked if they are not assigned to one person as everyone will assume that someone else is doing it.

2.  Be Clear when Communicating

Be careful to clarify directives. Miscommunication can lead to confusion and hostility in the workplace. Pay close attention to how your staff communicate with each other and take steps to improve communication where needed. This can save you time, money and give you a more harmonious workplace.

Ensure that all staff are aware of the importance of each members contribution and demonstrate how everyone’s roles work together to achieve their goals.

Communication is the single most important factor in successful teamwork.

3.  Have Clear Workplace Policies

Have clear policies in place that cover important issues such as:

• Bullying
• Sexual harassment
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Workplace behaviour
• Health and safety

Having clear policies in place allow staff to know what is acceptable in the workplace and what is not. Make sure your staff are aware of the consequences of straying from these policies.
Be fair and consistent when dealing with staff that have gone against company policies.
Having policies in place can make it more difficult for staff to bring claims against you.
Lawsuits fines and penalties affect the financial health of your business.
Create employee manuals that outline appropriate behaviour in the workplace.

4.  Keep employee contracts up to date

Make sure that all your employees have a legally compliant contract of employment.
Signed contracts can avoid conflict regarding a person’s employment status, wage and benefits.
Small businesses usually create formal, written employment contracts that dictate the specific terms of their employment agreements.

An employment contract helps protect the long-term interests and well-being of both parties. An employment contract provides a formal (and legal) record of both parties' expectations and agreements at the time of hire.

Employment contracts don't have to be overly long and complicated; in fact, the clearer and briefer the contract, the better. A standard contract can be created for all employees and customised for specific jobs.

Real Life Case Study - What is your 'Person Profile'?

I have recently been working with 2 clients whereby the recruitment of a senior person didn’t work out as planned.  In both cases the person was not a culture fit for the business, however were in key roles. 

Both candidates had been working in large corporate environments, they really didn’t fit into a mid sized business.  This resulted in both candidates being let go, which created a lot of stress for the owners, the candidates, and the staff left in the business.  

It is important when recruiting into a business to build a “person profile”  before looking at job descriptions, advertising, talking to people.  You can do this with online tools, however the most effective way is to sit and plan who the person will be interacting with, what kind of personality works with the business, are they able to be flexible and work in unstructured changing environments, are they still interested in being hands on. 

Once the planning has been done, then a job description can be created and the advertising can be written to reflect the person profile.  Taking extra time at the start to think about who you need in a business will reduce angst down the track when they don’t meet expectations and are let go.    In both cases and all recruitment that I conduct, I work with the business owners on the person profile before any action is taken to find a person.