Changes to the Superannuation Contribution Caps

The superannuation guarantee requires employers to contribute at least 9% of an employee’s “ordinary time earnings” per quarter to a maximum super contribution base of $42,220 per quarter. This is indexed. For the quarter starting 1 July the maximum super contribution base will be $43,820.
Contributions for the quarter ending 30 June 2011 must be made to the employee’s fund by 28 July to avoid a superannuation guarantee charge.

Concessional superannuation contributions (employer contributions meeting the superannuation guarantee, award or agreement obligations; employee salary sacrifice contributions and government co-contributions for low income employees) are taxed on entry to the fund. Concessional contributions are also capped and contributions in excess of the cap are taxed much more heavily.

In 2009 the government reduced the caps to $25,000 and $50,000 for employees who are 50 and over. The $25,000 cap for employees under 50 is indexed. However, the increase to the indexing factor, which is used, is not great enough to move the cap, which remains at $25,000 for contributions made from 1 July 2011 until 30 June 2012. The $50,000 cap for employees 50 and over is not indexed and remains at $50,000.

Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions (RESC) comprise employer contributions which can be influenced by the employee (including the employee’s sacrifice contributions), but not employer contributions to meet the superannuation guarantee, or obligations under an award or enterprise agreement. RESCs made for the year ending 30 June 2011 must be included in the employee’s payment summary for 2010-2011.

For further information on human resource consultancy and outsourcing, or to sign up to our bi-monthly newsletter on the latest HR industry updates, visit www.end2endbusinesssolutions.com.au.

Human Resource Issues: The Failure of Corporate Wellness Programs To Increase Productivity

There are a number of human resource issues that most companies’ take for granted and one of it, believe it or not would be the wellness of employees, including weight gain and mental illness.

It might sound odd that issues like this should have a place in a company’ problem solving think tank but it does. Many companies all over Australia have been seeing the increase in the average weight of its workers because of sedentary jobs, bad nutrition, and lack of support for health related matters.

As a result companies have seen a rise in absenteeism, as employees take time off work due to sickness. Of course when talking about productivity, these kind of problems have even greater negative effects resulting in low team morale and poor workforce health. Absenteeism has reached such an alarming level of 7 billion a year in Australia that many companies have started providing wellness programs to all employees to address this problem.

Wellness programs range from offering employees meager discounts in fitness memberships to full 8 week boot camp programs, nutrition advice, meditation guidance and counseling. So which of these initiatives provide a real a solution to these human resource issues?

Well, over the years, many of these solutions have only shown disappointing results. As little as 10% of Australian employees are enrolled as gym members, and more often than not, those who took up the companies’ program are already past members. In total, only a measly 20% of Australians are actually members of gyms.

With regards to programs such as 8 week boot camps, only less than 1% of employees registered. Only 12 people averaged a class out of a possible 3000 targeted employees. The result is only a band aid solution for those people who don’t need it, instead of a major surgery for those people who do.

With these statistics, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that wellness programs in the corporate sector often don’t work. In many case, the blame falls on lack of knowledge, funds and other resources resulting in a highly inefficient solution with poor take up rates and longevity, a big waste of time and money on a seemingly simple problem.

Future health and wellness programs, should cater to the 90% of overweight and unhealthy employees. The program should allow people of all ages an entry to the right weight and fitness levels to participate at their own speed. Competition and education always play a great role in encouraging individuals to enter the program with a non-threatening environment. Employees can then improve their health and fitness through nutrition based programs and simple starters in fitness as basic walking.

But of course, every program needs to be sustainable, cost effective, measurable and within reach to become a success. It should work both ways, an employee will not continue with the program if they cannot see the benefits from it and an employer will not continue with the program either if they get insufficient return on investment.

With this in mind, human resource issues on the wellness of employees and the succeeding programs to address this issue should be carefully thought out.

Corporate wellness programs should identify the needs of the employees through series of questionnaires for a certain period and ongoing mentoring and support for participants. The bottom line, a combination of employer and employee contributions to this program should bring about a successful and long term program for the welfare of the company and its workforce.

To talk to a human resources consultant to help identify which human resources issues your business needs to focus on go to http://www.end2endbusinesssolutions.com.au/

Strategies on Human Resources Planning

Skills development for both employees and managers is an important factor to the growth, stability and success of any business.

Relying on its track record of strategic and operational human resources management, End2End Business Solutions emphasizes the importance of incorporating the human resource planning process right from the start-up phase of a company, through to its growth or retrenchment phases. Some of the aspects include:

• Identifying strengths and weaknesses in the current management and operational teams
• Setting up and recording the skill requirements for positions and recruitment
• Monitoring employee's current levels of knowledge and skills
• Periodic identification of skills/knowledge gaps
• Training needs assessment and training activities to bridge performance gaps

The best human resource planning tools may vary according to the specific needs of a company. However, generally, planning will include both the HR team and the senior management and allow them to have both an overall perspective and a detailed report of the performance of the company as a whole and individuals in particular.

End2End Business Solutions' services to help implement human resource planning include:

• Development of role clarity around critical positions to increase revenue
• Maintaining of staff attrition
• A good percentage returns on people assets over a 6-year period

With over 12 years experience in the field of human resources management, End2End Business Solution is an outsourced HR department that caters to the needs of Australia's SMEs and oversees business investing in the country. End2End Business Solutions provides human resources techniques and best practices ideal to building or transitioning business and effective employee relations. Visit http://www.end2endbusinesssolutions.com.au for more information.

How New Changes to Federal Sex and Age Discrimination Laws will Affect Your Business

In 2010, the Australian Federal Government passed the Sex and Age Discrimination Legislation Amendment Act, with the act coming into effect as of July 1, 2011. The changes refer mainly to the Sex Discrimination Act (1984) and the Age Discrimination Act (2004).

The Sex Discrimination Act has been amended to include an extension of protection relating to sexual harassment, family responsibilities and breastfeeding in public. The Age Discrimination Act has been amended to include the appointment of a stand-alone Age Discrimination Commissioner in the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The extension of protections from discrimination will extend the scale of protection by forbidding direct discrimination on the basis of family responsibility for both men and women in all areas of employment. Prior to this extension coming into effect, discrimination on the grounds of a person’s family responsibility was limited, and some have suffered termination of employment because of family commitments and responsibilities. Under the new act, termination of employment due to ‘family responsibilities’ will be prohibited, defined as responsibilities of an employee to care for and / or support a dependent child or immediate family member.

Another extension of protections has been issued for breastfeeding mothers. It will be discriminatory to impose, propose discrimination and to disadvantage women who are breastfeeding. This Act also covers the act of expressing milk, single acts of breastfeeding, and breastfeeding over a period of time.

The third extension of the Sex Discrimination Act is greater protection from sexual harassment. Before passing on this new act, sexual harassment is taken to have occurred if a person “would have anticipated” that the person being harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated by their uninvited sexual conduct. The new act broadens this, so that a person need only anticipate “the possibility” that the person being harassed would be offended. This new act also makes it illegal for sexual harassment to take place within a work place including customers and clients of your business.

The final amendment is the appointment of an Age Discrimination Commissioner. This act includes a provision that a stand-alone Commissioner will be established within the Australian Human Rights Commission, and will address age discrimination by enlightening the community and contesting the attitudes and stereotypes, which contribute to discrimination on the basis of age.

What You Need to Do to Ensure Your Business is Prepared for the Changes

· Take sexual and age discrimination seriously.

· Ensure you do not treat an employee who has family responsibilities any differently to how you would treat someone without them, regardless of their sex.

· Make sure your workplace has been updated with relevant workplace procedures and policies in relation to these updated Acts.

· Do not discriminate against a female breastfeeding employee, or limit their right to express milk during work hours

Visit www.end2endbusinesssolutions.com.au for HR solutions.

Benefit From the Opportunities Created With HR Outsourcing

In the corporate world, there is a very important role played by business human resources. The human resource team plays a key role in the recruitment process, induction of new staff, managing the evaluation process of existing associates, and the dismissal of employees who have below average performance or those who consistently fail to comply with company policies. When you are unable to rely on an in-house human resource team to manage your employees, the best course of action would be to outsource these services.

Some businesses make the decision to utilize in-house human resource solutions and this can often be a mistake. Unless you are a very large corporation, the hiring of a full-time human resource staff will often result in the decrease of revenue, since these services are very limited. If you represent a small or medium-sized business, it would be ideal to go for the advantage of acquiring the services of HR outsourcing, rather than making the poor investment decision of hiring a full-time individual to work for your company.

There are many opportunities that you can benefit from when you make the decision to invest in HR outsourcing, in order to meet your company's employment demands. These opportunities include utilizing quality services, meeting your business expectations, and saving your company a significant amount of money.

One of the benefits that a company will be able to take advantage of outsourcing business human resources is the utilization of quality services. By hiring an individual outside the company, you will be able to take advantage of highly qualified individuals who are best equipped to deal effectively with your employment demands. These involve hiring new associates, managing your existing associates, as well as identifying opportunities to terminate unproductive associates.

Another benefit that comes with HR outsourcing is the meeting of business expectations. Every business has a desire to grow and this will require constant changes in staffing, as well as company policies. Through the utilization of an outsourced HR service, such as hiring professionals and performance management policies, you will be able to focus on the efforts of expanding your business as you achieve financial success.

The third benefit that appeals to every company when investing in an outsourced HR service is by saving your company money. Hiring a full-time human resources manager can be incredibly expensive and a waste of money, especially when you have a very limited staff to support. Through outsourcing, you will be able to identify the exact critical areas you want to concentrate on and save money by only investing in these demands.

In order to identify what areas of your business you want a human resource specialist to focus on check the solutions found at http://www.end2endbusinesssolutions.com.au/

Changes to the NSW Workplace Health and Safety Legislation

Recently, the NSW Government passed a new workplace safety bill harmonising with the federal government's workplace health safety legislation. Until now, each state has had seperate workpalce health and safety laws with NSW being the first state in Australia to fully integrate at a national level.

It makes sense to cut the red tape and unify the state laws into one single set of national legislation but the advantages go further than just simplifying the legislation; workers and businesses will benefit by:

* maintaining the state's strong work, health and safety framework
* keep businesses accountable
* reduce compliance costs and red tape for employees
* regardless of where you do business in Australia, the same laws will apply

In addition to the benefits outlined above, the new nation-wide laws will continue to protect the rights of the Work Health and Safety representatives. Representatives will still be able to entre workplaces in order to investigate health and safety issues while for the first time they will have the power to take action over safety breaches.

Despite the implementation not taking full effect until 1 January 2012, the Government has fast tracked aspects of the legislation to align with the federal model. For more information on Workplace Health and Safety, visist www.workcover.nsw.gov.au.

OHS Laws Harminsation January 2012

Are you ready for the latest changes to the OHS laws. They will be coming into effect from January 2012. NSW has passed a bill effective from June 7 to mirror the new national laws.

Use the following link to familiarise your business with the latest changes www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/newlegislation2012/whatsnewfornsw/ .

End2end can help you with the new changes, so give us a call today to be ready for 2012.