The Hidden Financial Risk in Rostering: SCHADS, Compliance and Margin Leakage in NDIS

This transcript of Effective HR’s “The Hidden Financial Risk in Rostering: SCHADS, Compliance and Margin Leakage in NDIS” webinar is auto-generated and may contain errors. For the full context, please watch the webinar above or contact Effective HR.

Emma Dawson: Hello, everybody. Welcome to this afternoon's webinar. We'll start in about 1 minute, and we'll just wait for everybody to join our session this afternoon.

Laura Cowling: Afternoon to everyone joining us. Exciting topic today, Emma.

Emma Dawson: Yes, we love this topic. All things Rostering, Payroll, Compliance. And all about our favorite topic, which is the SHADS Award. Some people's favourite topics, other people's not so much. It could be a love-hate relationship.

Laura Cowling: It can, absolutely. That's what we're for, though, isn't it, Emma?

Emma Dawson: Exactly. Keeps us busy. Keeps us in the job.

Laura Cowling: Okay.

Emma Dawson: Alrighty. Well, I think we've got a lot to cover today, so we might get started. Today's webinar is being recorded, so for those who were not able to join, or might be joining a little bit later throughout today's session, the session will be recorded, and we will be issuing the recording shortly after the meeting… after the webinar. So, we'll get started. Afternoon, welcome everybody. Today, we will be talking about the hidden financial risk in rostering under the SHADS Award, and When we talk about rostering risk, we're not just talking about whether you have enough people on shift, we're talking about what that roster actually triggers from a payroll perspective. Things like minimum engagements, broken shift allowances, overtime, penalties, travel time. Sleepovers, and in some cases, accidental technical breaches, even where employees are still getting that total correct pay.

Emma Dawson: And this is an area where we see small decisions become very expensive for a business. One additional break, one shift that falls outside that ordinary span, or one agreement that wasn't in place can repeat across employees, across shifts and pay cycles. And it's where that exposure can start to build. So today is all about helping you look at a roster a little bit differently. Not just from that operational perspective, but from a compliance and cost perspective as well. Now, before we get started, Effective HR acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work, and the lands of everyone joining us today. We pay our respects to elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here with us.

Emma Dawson: For those who don't know us, I'm Emma Dawson, one of the HR and IR consultants at Effective HR, and joining me today is Laura Cowling, our lead HR and IR consultant. Laura has worked extensively with providers on SHADS award interpretation. Classifications, rostering, payroll compliance, and gosh, the list goes on. And a lot of that work really does involve taking what can be a very technical and complicated modern award and working through what that actually means in practice. We've got quite a bit to cover, but we're going to keep it practical. We'll start by looking at the hidden cost of roster design and why payroll exposure often begins way before payroll even sees that shift. From there, we'll be looking at SHADS sectors, classifications, and worker types, because if you don't get those foundations right, everything that follows can be wrong as well.

Emma Dawson: We'll then be moving into some of those roster issues we see often most, including broken shifts, minimum engagements, rest periods, and where employee buy agreement is required. We will also be unpacking technical breaches and finish with some practical controls. the upcoming SHADS changes and some time for questions at the end. If you do have questions throughout, please pop them in our Q&A, and we will, aim to answer as many as possible throughout the session, and at the end of the session as well. I'll hand it over to Laura to take us through the technical content today.

Laura Cowling: Thank you, Emma, and thank you for the introduction. So the hidden cost of payroll errors, such an exciting topic for today. So when we think about payroll errors, our first instinct is to often look at payroll itself, you know, the pay run, the payroll system, the person processing it. In many cases, the problem actually starts much earlier in the roster. So the roster is where a lot of the decisions that ultimately affect pay are made. 8, Things like, as Emma just touched on, those minimum engagements, breaks, travel time, sleepovers, you know, ordinary hours, and the way shifts are structured can all have a direct payroll consequence.

Laura Cowling: And the important point for businesses is that a roster error isn't necessarily a one-off error. If you get one rule wrong, and that rule is built into the way you roster, the same error can be repeated across multiple employees, multiple shifts, and multiple pay cycles. That's where the financial risk starts to become significant. So, when we are talking about the hidden cost of payroll errors, we're not just talking about the amount that was missed on someone's payslip. No, we're potentially talking about Underpayment and back pay, claims for entitlements or penalties, the administrative cost of going back through historical rosters and payroll, employee dissatisfaction and loss of trust, and ultimately that reputational damage as well.

Laura Cowling: So, if the roster is designed incorrectly, payroll may simply be paying, you know, exactly what the system has been told to pay. But that doesn't necessarily mean the employee has been paid correctly. So, the question isn't just, is our payroll working? It's also… Are we building compliant rostering rules into the process before the hours even reach payroll? So if the risk often starts in the roster, what does that actually look like in practice? So there are a number of common points where we see rostering decisions create that payroll exposure. One of the biggest is getting the award sector or that classification wrong. If an employee is placed under the wrong classification level, that can flow through into their base rate, their penalties, allowances, and overtime. So one classification decision can have a much broader financial impact.

Laura Cowling: The failure to comply with part-time guaranteed hours is another example. So, you know, for example, a part-time employee may have guaranteed hours in their employment contract that aren't being properly reflected in the roster. A common misunderstanding that we see quite often. When we look at minimum engagements, you know, they might be missed because someone is rostered for a short shift without considering the applicable award requirements for those minimum engagements. That can also come into play when we look at things like client cancellations as well. You know, how… Particularly where the employees have started work and then you have a client cancel and then other rules apply for your permanent employees.

Laura Cowling: Broken shift allowances, may not be flowing through, you know, things like penalties may be incorrectly applied, particularly where an employee is, you know, classified as a day worker, when they are, in fact, a shift worker, and vice versa. you know, failure to roster that travel time correctly, so this is going to depend on how that shift is structured. When we look at things like, you know, broken shift, where potentially travel time may not be paid, you know, during that break period. Sleepover payments, you know, can be missed or incorrectly applied because the roster and potentially the time recording systems don't capture the circumstances that trigger certain entitlements. This can also be dependent on what by agreement by agreements are in place.

Laura Cowling: You know, has the employee signed or not signed an agreement to increase those ordinary hours around sleepover from 10 to 12? Has the employee agreed to reduce the break between shifts continuous with a sleepover from that 10 to 8? We also you know have overtime, you know, are they correctly flowing through? Do you do your rosterers know you know the impact that has, you know, when they roster more than 10 hours a day or 38 hours a week, you know, and this flows through to payroll, are they familiar with what overtime you know applies for those types of shift structures? If you're relying on an individual flexibility agreement or, you know, a particular arrangement with an employee, there are requirements around how that arrangement is made and documented. It's also important to understand whether this is compliant.

Laura Cowling: You know, as there are only certain provisions in the award that can be varied through a flexibility agreement, and again, while making sure the employee is better off overall. Finally, there's the payroll system itself. So if you have a payroll system that does not have the SHADS award built into it, this can expose the business. You know, also a payroll system can only calculate what it has been configured to calculate as well. So, if the underlying award rules, classifications, allowances, or roster information haven't been set up correctly, the system can potentially reproduce that same error again and again.

Laura Cowling: Let me look at the SHADS sectors and classifications here. So, this is where SHADS can become particularly tricky, because before we even get to calculating the pay, we need to make sure we have the right stream, or sector as you will, the right classification, and the right type of worker. So the first step is identifying which part of the SCHADS award actually applies. As you can see on the screen there, there are four different streams that fall within the SHADS award, and that distinction matters because the rules and classification structures aren't necessarily interchangeable. Once we've identified the correct stream, we then need to look at the classification and pain point. And this is an area where a seemingly small error can have a significant downstream effect.

Laura Cowling: If someone is placed at the wrong classification or pay point, you're not just potentially getting the base hourly rate wrong, it can flow through to penalties, overtime allowances, and other entitlements. Then we need to consider, you know, the worker type and how they're actually working. For example, is this person a day worker, a shift worker? Are they a disability worker or a non-disability worker? Those distinctions can affect which rostering and payment provisions are going to apply. You can also see on the diagram the difference around minimum engagements and broken shifts. So, for disability workers, the award has specific provisions that need to be considered when constructing the roster. A minimum engagement or broken shift requirement isn't something that we can just leave for payroll to work out at the end. And this is why we describe

Laura Cowling: the classification and you know stream decisions as foundational. If we get the first decision wrong, every decision downstream can potentially be wrong as well. So, when we're reviewing SHAD's payroll, you know, we wouldn't start by asking, is the hourly rate correct? You know, we start further upstream. Are we in the correct stream? Is the employee correctly classified? Is the pay point correct? And have we correctly identified the worker type, being that day worker or shift worker? Once those foundations are right, we can then look at the more detailed rostering and payroll rules. So as I mentioned, the same hours can produce different payroll outcomes depending on the employee's status. So, on the screen here, you can see we've got a day worker versus shift worker. The example is we have a day worker that works 2pm to 8pm, and then a shift worker that does the same hours.

Laura Cowling: If we look at day workers, we know that a day worker is someone who is engaged to work between the ordinary hours of 6am and 8pm. In the instance where they work outside those ordinary hours, overtime applies. So, in the first example on the screen there, we have a day worker who will be paid 2pm to 8pm at their ordinary hours, and then 8pm to 10pm At time and a half. If a shift worker was to do that same shift, 2pm till 10pm, then they're entitled to that afternoon shift penalty, so, which is that 12 and a half loading, on their ordinary rate. So you can start to understand, you know, where we get these classifications wrong. It can have a potential, potentially a big impact. So, if classification is foundational, where do providers commonly come unstuck? So, one of the biggest issues we see is copying classifications from somewhere else. So.

Laura Cowling: A provider might look at what another organization is paying someone with a similar role and assume that same classification applies to them. But classifications aren't determined by what another provider is doing. They're determined by the actual business activities, the duties, responsibilities, skills, you know, the relevant award criteria. And job titles alone don't determine classification. So two employees might both be called a support worker, but that doesn't automatically mean, you know, they're both performing work at the same classification level. You know, we need to really, you know, dig deep and unpack what they're actually doing. Another common issue is simply not reviewing classifications over time. So besides interposition descriptions, you know, that no longer reflect the actual duties. Roles evolve.

Laura Cowling: Employees can take on additional responsibilities, their duties change, they may obtain new qualifications, and the organisation itself may change the way that the role operates. So that means that classifications shouldn't necessarily be that set-and-forget exercise. Qualifications are another one to watch, so providers can forget to revisit an employee's classification when they've obtained a relevant qualification, particularly where the award links classification or progression to qualifications or other criterias. So a really important one to, to flag. Pay point progression, it's always a hot topic in this industry. So progression through SHADS classifications or pay points isn't necessarily automatic just because an employee has been there for a certain amount of time. We need to consider the specific criteria that applies to that classification and progression pathway.

Laura Cowling: You know, there are certain classification levels of pay points where an employee, you know, is entitled to move based on, you know, potentially the hours worked or their qualification and other situations where they may just become eligible. And why does all this matter? So as I mentioned earlier, a classification error doesn't just mean you've got the wrong hourly rate. It can flow through into penalty rates over time, you know, leave payments and superannuation, and ultimately into the calculation of any back pay if the employee has been underpaid. So a classification review can actually be a really important financial risk control exercise rather than simply an HR administrative task. So, the key takeaway here is, you know, don't classify the title, classify the work, and the worker doing that work. And don't assume a classification remains correct forever.

Laura Cowling: So a classification difference can compound quickly across employees and unions. So we can see with the example on the screen here, if five employees, for example, were incorrectly classified as a level 1.3 and they should have been a level 2.1, we can see the potential impact here. You know, there is a potential weekly underpayment, you know, based on the example on the screen there of$268 per employee. So, there is generally a 6-year statutory limitation period for pursuing underpayment claims through courts. So, as an example, the potential exposure in this example is almost $420,000. Another example here,

Laura Cowling: So, it may seem like, you know, a small broken shift allowance of $21.81. If you have a, let's say, staff base of 30 employees, and this was a missed allowance, you know, it wasn't picked up in payroll, again, you could be exposed to over a million dollars in back payments over that six-year period. Broken shifts. So another example here, was more along the lines of the considerations that come into play when rostering a broken shift. So, whether it's, you know, your rosterers or your schedulers that are completing these rosters for your staff base, they need to have, you know. a strong knowledge base of the SHADS Award to make sure they're considering, you know, all these aspects, particularly for broken shifts.

Laura Cowling: So on the screen here, this example is three periods of work, so two unpaid breaks. So as a starting point, we are making sure we have that agreement in place with the employee to work a broken shift with two unpaid breaks. When we look at that considerations list on the screen there, minimum engagement. So, we need to make sure that each period of work for that broken shift is meeting that minimum engagement. So, for a disability worker, say they're casual, the minimum there is 2 hours. Ordinary hours, you know, are they being correctly applied, depending on, you know, when the work is being performed? Afternoon shift penalty is another consideration. So if there was a shift worker performing this broken shift. If they perform an aspect of that broken shift or a period of work during that broken shift that finishes after 8 p.m, and that afternoon shift penalty is going to apply.

Laura Cowling: The span of hours is a big one, so when we look at broken shifts that exceed that 12-hour span, we have that double time penalty that applies. Travel time, you know, we need to understand where, you know, when travel time applies. Are they required to travel with clients, you know, during that period of work? What does it look like when they finish that period of work during that break period? The kilometre allowance as well. Also, other considerations are around, you know, meal and tea breaks, rest periods post that shift. So we want to see those, you know, minimum 10-hour breaks between shifts and work and safety obligations as well. So, you know, if a shift does expand 12 hours, you know, what does that look like for the employee? We can see with the example on the screen here, so this shift starts at 6.30am, and goes through, to 8.30pm.

Laura Cowling: So we can see the first part of that shift, which is 6.30 till 10.30 is paid at ordinary hours. They've got a break of 1.5 hours. They come back, and do 12 till, 1.30. So potentially an underpayment there if you're not paying that two-hour minimum engagement. We have another break in the afternoon and then they come back at 5pm and do through to 8.30. So, as soon as that employee hits 6.30pm, they start working outside that 12-hour span, so that's when that double time penalty comes into play. So you can see a lot of considerations just for rostering, you know, what may seem like a simple broken shift. Back-to-back sleepovers. Something that pops up, you know, quite often with our clients is, you know, when and how does overtime apply, particularly in instances where providers aren't meeting that minimum break between shifts. So, if you have that agreement in place.

Laura Cowling: to reduce the break between sleepovers, from 10 hours to 8 hours? What happens if you, you know, can't meet that? So the shift example on the screen is where this employee has had a six and a half hour break between a sleepover shift. So this is, when we look at, you know, payments and exposure and REIS, it's going to depend on how the shift is structured or, you know, how the shift is interpreted. So this is an example on the screen of an approach that can be taken when an employee does not receive a minimum break between shifts, in which case this example on the screen, it's treated as a broken shift, this scenario. So… In the event that you do not provide that minimum break between shifts and it's not a broken shift, this would result in a technical breach of the award, which can expose the business to penalties.

Laura Cowling: So on the screen, we have an example of a shift where the minimum break was not provided. So, it was treated as a broken shift. So, we want to explain how this would then need to be paid. So, we can see on our screen there, this employee starts at 3pm on the Wednesday. So, essentially, that's the beginning of the broken shift. They work 8 hours, 3pm till 11pm, do the sleepover, which is 11pm till 7am, then wake up, on the Thursday and do another 2 hours, 7 till 9. So, if this is treated as a broken shift. The shift started at 3 p.m. So from 3 a.m, work is outside that 12-hour span. So that's why the example has double time at for the hours between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. the employee wasn't… didn't receive that minimum break, we've got a six and a half hour break, so they continue into that double time when they come back for their 3.30 shift on the Thursday.

Laura Cowling: So again, a few things just to be, you know, mindful of when we're looking at, you know, how shifts are structured, particularly when you can't meet the requirements of the award. This is another area where the roster can create payroll risk, because sometimes the award gives you flexibility, but that flexibility is conditional on agreement with the employee. So a common mistake is to look at the roster and think, you know, we've always rostered them this way, so it must be okay. But where the award says by agreement, that agreement is part of the mechanism that allows that flexibility. For example, under the SCHADS Award, ordinary hours can generally be worked in shifts up to 10 hours by agreement between the employer and the employee.

Laura Cowling: From 1 June 26, there is also a specific provision allowing up to 12 ordinary hours, where the shift is worked immediately before and immediately after a sleepover, again by agreement, with a maximum of 8 ordinary hours, you know, on one of those sides of the sleepover. We also have the 8-hour rest break around a sleepover, which we've touched on. So, the normal minimum break between shifts is 10 hours, but the award allows that to be reduced to 8 hours in a specific circumstances by agreement between the employer and the employee. And then there's the broken shift. So for disability services and home care employees, the award permits a broken shift with two periods of work and one unpaid break. If you're wanting to roster three periods of work with two unpaid breaks, that's the difference. You know, the employer and employee must agree to that arrangement.

Laura Cowling: So from a practical risk management perspective, putting the agreement in writing is really important. You know, if six months later someone asks, you know, why was this employee paid 12 ordinary hours around a sleepover? You know, instead of receiving overtime after 10 hours, you want to be able to demonstrate exactly what was agreed. When it was agreed, and what that arrangement is related to. Because otherwise, you know, what looked like a legitimate rostering flexibility can become a payroll compliance issue. So a message here is don't rely on the roster to demonstrate an agreement. If the award requires an agreement, make sure you have that agreement and make sure the roster reflects. What was actually agreed? That was not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Laura Cowling: This is particularly important because, you know, an informal practice, a manager's instruction, or, you know, an employee simply continuing to work that arrangement isn't necessarily the same thing as satisfying an award provision that requires agreement. It's a good topic to look at is you know, technical breaches of the award. So not every award breach creates an immediate underpayment. So, for example, if a casual employee does not receive the minimum break between shifts. You know, they're not necessarily entitled to monetary payment because of that, but it can still create significant exposure. So, when we look at the screen here, you know, what is a technical breach? An award rule that has not been followed, even though the employee may still have been paid correctly. The issue may be the roster, agreement or the process.

Laura Cowling: So common SHADS examples is that insufficient rest break between shifts. Something we see, you know, quite often the 10 or 12 hour shifts without agreement, those three periods. of work with the 200 unpaid breaks without agreement for that broken shift, you know, roster, notice or documentation requirements not met. And, and why it still matters. So it's still a breach of the award. So civil penalties can apply even where there is no underpayment. So, for example, you know, if for an organization with, 15 or more employees, penalties can be up to, sort of, half a million dollars per contravention, and serious contraventions can attract penalties of up to, you know, over $5 million. per contravention. So, really important to… to understand that, you know, we want to see those ROSs being correctly executed to avoid this type of exposure.

Laura Cowling: So, who actually owns payroll compliance? It's an important question, because it's very easy for payroll compliance to become… the payroll team's problem. But payroll is really the endpoint of a much bigger process. So the reality is that payroll compliance is a shared accountability across leadership, operations, rostering and payroll. Each level has a different role to play. The board has an important, you know, governance and oversight responsibility, you know, if your business has a board. Making sure the organization understands its payroll compliance risks. And that appropriate systems and controls are in place for managing that. Executive leadership, you know, may generally be responsible for making sure there are appropriate resources, processes, and accountabilities around payroll compliance.

Laura Cowling: They're also the people who need to understand when a payroll issue represents a broader organisational risk rather than an isolated payroll error. Operations, is generally where many of those practical decisions are made about how the workforce operates. How services are delivered, how roles are structured, and how employees are deployed. So, those decisions can have a direct impact on award entitlements. The roster team, so this is where, you know, a lot of the risks we have talked about today can actually start. The roster determines things like, you know, when employees work, how shifts are structured, breaks, travel, sleepover, minimum engagement, and other factors that can trigger different pay outcomes. We want to be, you know, making sure that we're upskilling and training

Laura Cowling: these, you know, different departments, different roles in the organization to make sure they're equipped with the skills to be able to, you know, fulfill a rostering role, particularly, you know, under the SHADS Award, which is, you know, the one… one of the most complex, awards out there. So, if… whilst, you know, rostering can seem like an easy job. You know, just feeling the shifts. You'd want to be making sure they have that understanding and that background of those award provisions and how they apply in practice. And payroll, so payroll has, you know, an incredibly important role. Payroll is often, you know, working from the information and rules provided to it. So if the classification is wrong, you know, the roster is wrong or an allowance hasn't been identified, that payroll may simply process just the information that's that it's given.

Laura Cowling: So we don't want organisations to walk away thinking payroll owns compliance. Instead, I'd encourage you to think about it as a chain of accountability in the organisation. If one link in that chain isn't working properly, the financial risk can ultimately show up in the employee's payslip. And that's why payroll compliance needs to be treated as an organisational responsibility and not simply just a payroll function. Reducing risks. So, you know, we want to sort of finish by bringing this back to the practical question. What can you actually do to reduce the risk? So the answer isn't to wait until there's a problem, you know, and then launch a large payroll remediation project. The goal is to build controls that identify issues early. So before a small rostering or payroll error becomes a historical underpayment exercise. There are a few key areas to focus on.

Laura Cowling: So, firstly, we want to make sure we have the fundamentals right, the correct SHAD sector, classification level, and pay point. If the starting point is wrong, everything downstream can be wrong as well. So look at how the roster is actually being constructed. Is your team equipped with the knowledge, you know, to roster compliantly and efficiently as well? You know, if your rostering personnel or your scheduler is not aware that overtime applies outside 10 hours or, you know, more than 38 hours in a week, that's when those inefficiencies can come into play as well. So, you know, this is again where we spend a lot of time today because the roster is often where the financial consequence begins.

Laura Cowling: We want to be seeing those agreements in place. So our employment contracts we draft here at Effective HR have the very specific SCHADS related clauses regarding these arrangements and these agreements with employees. So again, you know, we don't want to be relying on just acceptance of a shift or acceptance of a roster for these agreements. We want to see, you know, something more formal in place with these employees. When we talk about systems or to systemise processes, once you understand the rules, you want to make them a consistent and repeatable as possible. That means, you know, you're making sure your payroll system is configured appropriately, approvals are built into the process, and exception reporting is being used to identify things that just don't look right.

Laura Cowling: We do provide a lot of payroll support to our clients, particularly where, you know, something a bit off, you know, pops up in payroll. We're here to support, you know, our clients to Educate them and… on, you know, why that's… why that's appeared. And, you know, we can then usually determine or unpack whether that stemmed from, you know, a rostering issue or… You know, a payroll issue. So I guess it means making sure your payroll system, again, is configured appropriately. So the aim is to reduce reliance on someone remembering every single award rule, every single pay cycle. And depending on your staff base as well, it may seem doable if you have a small staff base, you know, of 5 to 10 employees, but for the bigger organisations that have

Laura Cowling: Over 100 employees, someone sitting in payroll, they're gonna struggle to actively manage and identify every single SCHADS award rule, particularly for those payroll systems that don't interpret the SCHADS award. And finally, audits. So, you know, this is probably one of the most important takeaways from today, is you don't want your first compliance test to be, you know, an employee complaint, a fair work investigation, or a major remediation project. So, the Fair Work Ombudsman itself encourages employers to undertake regular wage compliance audits. And its current guidance, you know, emphasises identifying and fixing problems and putting controls in place to prevent them happening again.

Laura Cowling: They don't, I guess that doesn't necessarily mean conducting, you know, massive audits every month. It could just be sample testing. So, you know, reconciling the roster against payroll, testing particular award provisions, reviewing classifications, or you know, checking a selection of employees and pay cycles. We do have a wonderful payroll and audit team here at Effective HR who do a lot of payroll audits for clients where they just pick a handful of employees. and manage that audit process for them over a couple of pay cycles just to make sure that employers are compliant and give them that confidence that they're doing things correctly as well in their organisation. So, the important thing is that you're checking rather than assuming. If you find a small error, correct it early. Don't wait for it to become a 6-year historical problem involving hundreds of employees.

Laura Cowling: If there's one message, you know, we want you to take away from this webinar, it's that, you know, payroll compliance isn't something, you know, you fix at the end of the process. You build it into the process from the beginning. The… Last slide, I have here for you, and before I throw you back over to Emma, it's probably, you know, a hot topic at the moment, and an important one to touch on regarding the upcoming SHADS changes. We have our December 1 changes that were recently pushed back from an October 1. I guess a bit of a background. So, in summary, the Fair Work Commission has been reviewing whether work in predominantly female industries has historically been undervalued. The SHADS Award was one of the… Five priority awards included in this review.

Laura Cowling: As part of the review, the Fair Work Commission found that the work covered by Schedule E, which is your home care, disability care employees. has been undervalued, and employees will increase by 15% from the 1st of December 2026, so this year. This is separate to the national minimum wage increase, you know, that we saw come into play on 1 July this year. That was 4.75%. So it's, you know, in addition to that. These changes specifically apply to employees covered by Schedule E, and do not mean that all employees covered by the SCHADS award will receive this further 15% increase. So, if your business does operate in the home care disability care sector of the SCHADS Award, it's really important that you are on top of this and implementing these changes come December 1. Another hot topic is our October 1, 2027 changes. This will impact all SHADS covered employees.

Laura Cowling: So, in addition to the pay increase, the classification structure is also changing, and there's also… changes to some of the definitions and just the wording to the SHADS Award in general. So, yeah, a lot to sort of unpack here with this one. A new classification structure will be introduced from the 1st of October 2027, which will replace the existing classification structures for Schedule BCE. So this will mean employees will need to be reviewed and mapped to the new classifications when that new structure takes effect. So a big change in that space. So, we will be supporting our clients with these upcoming classification changes. We've done, you know, a fair bit of research, into this one to understand it and unpack it and,

Laura Cowling: sort of map out what this is going to look like for our clients, and we will provide further guidance and assistance with reviewing and mapping those classifications, you know, sort of closer to that date, that implementation date of 1 October 2027. So, a lot of information for you to take on board today. I will throw back over to you, Emma, to go over our few final slides.

Emma Dawson: Thank you. Thanks, Laura. Lots covered today. If any of these topics have triggered questions, please pop them in the comments or the Q&A, and we'd be more than happy to answer those at the end of today's webinar. I think, you know, what today has really shown is that SHADS compliance doesn't just sit with one person or one team, it sits across HR, operations, Rostering, payroll, and Quite often, when we do identify an issue, it isn't because one person has necessarily done the wrong thing, it's because a rostering decision has been made in one area, a system hasn't been configured in another area, and no one has necessarily joined all of those pieces together. And today has highlighted something that you would like support with. There are two main ways in which organizations work with us at Effective HR. Our HR on-demand service is extremely flexible. It's an hourly rate. There's no…

Emma Dawson: Lock-in contracts, no minimum spend, and works really well for a business that might just need support with a particular project, or those ad hoc issues as they arise. And that could be things like a payroll audit, classification or roster review, employment contracts, remediation, or other HR or workplace matters. We also have our HR Partner Service, which is designed for organizations needing more of that proactive, ongoing support. That's where we operate on that fixed monthly rate with unlimited advice and support. So, rather than only coming to us when something goes wrong, you have that access to your consultants throughout the year. We support hundreds of providers, and I suppose one of the things that we find clients really value is having a dedicated consultant that really just gets to know your organization. You're not ringing…

Emma Dawson: A call center and starting the story again every single time. You're working with someone that really gets to understand your workforce, your history. how your service actually operates, and I think that is particularly important when you operate under one of the most complex awards that we have in Australia. So where from here, you know, if today has made you think, I'm not completely sure about our rosters or payroll. is doing that correctly, or we probably haven't reviewed that for a while, it's always a good reason just to take that closer look. Doesn't automatically mean there's a problem, but with SHADS, as we've seen, small issues can escalate quite quickly. There is a QR code on the screen, so if you would like to organise a meeting with one of our HR consultants, more than happy to provide, you know, that advice and support.

Emma Dawson: Alright, so thank you for joining us today. Any questions, please pop them through. Otherwise, have a lovely afternoon.