HR Foundations: Managing the Full Employee Life Cycle

This transcript of Effective HR’s “HR Foundations: Managing the Full Employee Life Cycle” webinar is auto-generated and may contain errors. It is provided for general information only, does not constitute legal or industrial advice, and should not be relied on for any specific decision. For the full context, please watch the webinar above or contact Effective HR.

Corinne West: Wonderful.

Effective HR: Good afternoon, everybody. So I can see some of you joining, but we'll just, wait a minute or so to start, so feel free to quickly grab yourself a a water or whatever you need before we, get going, but we've definitely got some exciting, interesting content, to get through today, so really looking forward to… Today.

Corinne West: Fresh content as well. You won't be able to shut me up on that. Fresh content.

Effective HR: Yeah.

Corinne West: Yep.

Effective HR: Yep.

Corinne West: Amazing.

Effective HR: Hope everyone's day is going, great, wherever you are in Australia.

Corinne West: And… It's a perfect time for a webinar, that's that lunchtime session. I'm quite guilty of multitasking myself, so having a quick bite to eat while, you know, getting some knowledge bombs dropped on me, I love that.

Effective HR: Let's not… let's not leave… let's not make our, Western Australian friends feel left out.

Corinne West: Of course, of course! I've given away my location, haven't I? Oh, gosh. Another minute or so, I think.

Effective HR: Sure.

Corinne West: Certainly been a busy few weeks coming up now, then, with the, the ever-looming end of financial year. It's always the time where I think we all start looking at our due diligence and what needs to… happen in businesses. Obviously, the tax and the ATO side of things is one thing, but those changes to fair work, wage rates, all those bits and pieces, it's, it's always an interesting time, busy time for organisations, for sure.

Effective HR: Yeah, it can get a bit frantic as soon as it starts to get… hits 1st of July with immediate changes with awards and so forth, so always a… always a fun time of year. All right, let's get, let's get started. Thank you, everybody, for joining. So, pleased to say today's free webinar is covering HR fundamentals, and we've got lots of new content, to get through, and, yeah, I've, I've, familiarised myself with it, and yeah, definitely, some exciting, exciting stuff in there. It's really interesting, so I hope you all enjoy the session. Before we start, I just want to do an acknowledgement of country. So, both Corinne and I, we pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the action. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work today. And pay respects to elders past, present, and emerging. So, in terms of presenters today, obviously, you'll see on the right-hand side there, my name is Burden, I'm a service consultant for, Effective HR, so I run lots of meetings every day with. Mainly with new prospective clients, sort of gaining an understanding of their needs and their unique business, their unique business, and then sort of taking them through an evaluation process of different service offerings we have that can support their business. Corinne, she's one of our, certainly expert, lead HR consultants, and look, she's, she's a master at these webinars, she's run them for years, always makes them really, you know, engaging and, great to listen, listen to, and her knowledge is exceptional right from, you know, right across from HR, workplace relations, and industry Relations. She is an absolute expert, so you've definitely come to the right place here. In terms of what we're going to, cover today, so it really… that HR Foundations is really covering the full employee life cycle, and sort of talk through the importance of a whole range of things, from, you know, recruiting, to get that right, through to onboarding processes and documentation, and right way through to, you know, managing performance tightly. Dealing with workplace relation issues, and, you know. terminating staff, as well, in terms of the right sort of options and processes that you have to follow. So, lots of content to get through, which is great. Any questions you have? please make sure you, write them down through the session, so if you just go into the chat section and ping any questions that you have on the chat, we'll make sure at the end we get round to, having a look at those questions, and Corrine will make sure she does her best to give you some answers to those questions. I'll also, near the end, just sort of recap as well, in terms of giving you a clear idea of how our services really help, businesses across Australia, from a whole range of different industries. So, I'll join a bit later, but for now, I'm just going to hand over straight to Corinne to start the, webinar.

Corinne West: Amazing, thank you so much. I'm really looking forward to piecing together all of the elements of HR and what we do. It's quite often, I don't know if we have any other HR discipline professionals on the call here today, but you'll know that often people are not quite sure what we do. If it's related to people, they'll come to us. And it can cause a little bit of confusion. So, when we think about HR, that human resources, I like to look at it as a bit of an umbrella term that's going to cover every element of managing the people within our organization. So, that can be summed up best by looking at what we have on the screen here being our employee life cycle. So, it's a term that's used regularly to describe the different stages of managing employees. When it comes to… to HR functions. So, in summary, we've got those, the key, five stages being recruitment. onboarding? Managing, developing, and offboarding. So, we're going to go through each of these stages in detail, and workshop some key tips and takeouts, so that you can walk away from here feeling confident about your processes and understanding what you need to be set up for success. I think what's really interesting, you, you may notice for those touching base with HR, we often have a lot of acronyms thrown in the mix. You might have heard ER, Employment Relations, or IR, Industrial Relations. What's the difference between ER, IR, HR? This is where you start to get a little bit technical, looking at the nuances and the differences, but I guess for the relevance of going through today's presentation and feeling comfortable with the terminology? HR is… he's that really umbrella-net term for managing all people functions. When we talk industrial relations, myself specifically as a reference point, I'm calling on my legal background there, so looking more at specifically what legislation and what compliance, is applied to the organization. So that might be our Fair Work Act, our modern award systems. Looking at, employment contracts compliance and matters such as that. And then we have employment relations, that ER framework. So, that is when we're really starting to talk about managing specific matters, be it an investigation, be it a complaint, a work health and safety issue, could be a question of entitlements, performance management, misconduct. That's when we're really having those, employee-facing negotiations or conversations. So, it's good to have that as a bit of a… an understanding as to how we use our terminology throughout the presentation as well. So, let's jump in straight into recruitment. So, for me, what I see, I work with clients every day in the recruitment space, and it feels very easy to get into a pattern when it comes to staffing. That is, an employee quits, or we've had to let an employee go. What do we do? We need to get another employee, we copy-paste the old job advertisement that we may have had up, we dust off the position description, and we just get a bum on the seat as quick as we can, right? Sometimes that's enough. You know, I'm not here to reinvent the wheel if it works for you, but a lot of the time, what I see is employers really missing a window that is, quite frankly, a crucial opportunity to actually reassess the organization's needs and be a bit more strategic with how we recruit. It will come as no surprise that recruitment, it's expensive. In time, in money, in resources to filter through candidate applications, correspond… pardon me, building training, onboarding processes, the people that they're shadowing. All of this is a really expensive process for an organization. So, before you find yourself moving into that copy-paste pattern with recruitment. I say take a moment to actually review and be clear and intentional before moving forward. So. what that might look like, if I take the example, say, of an NDIS provider that has a support worker resign, and we need to fill their shifts. Are we just looking for a support worker to fill those shifts that are currently available, or are we actually going to use this as a time to audit and maybe rejig our roster? You know, other people have been asking for certain shifts, so there's a lot to balance and weigh up here. Are we actually looking for a support worker in that instance that has a different experience level or different qualifications, maybe a different background to complement the existing team's skill set? So, you can see how taking a step before that copy-paste is actually a really good way to make sure we're getting the right people in the right seats at the right time. That, for me, is crucial. So, we say role clarity first. Very much important that our selection documentation is really good to have in mind, A, so that you've got a structured process, but B, mitigate risk. For me, that's what it's all about. I don't want any risk as a business. So, developing and updating position descriptions is what is going to form the basis of that job advertisement. So, we're not putting a whole position description in a job advertisement. I think a lot of people would, you know, fall asleep or would lose candidates' attention before that. We certainly want to base it on that. We also want to look from a documentation perspective in recruitment at pre-screening, so that's questions and processes there. For me, pre-screening is something that's often overlooked, but it's a really easy way to understand if someone's going to be right for interviewing and progressing through the process. without wasting too much time and resources. So, you know, a quick 10-minute phone call to make sure that person has the right availability for the shifts that are on offer, or hours of work, making sure they've got the right licenses, certificates, qualifications, you know, getting just a real understanding of why they applied for the role. Before moving to interview and offering interview is a great way to make sure we're not wasting time with interviewing people that are straight away not suitable for the role, based on those really basic requirements. Something that we really recommend is looking at developing and documenting the selection criteria for how the decision maker in recruitment will actually choose the selected candidate. This is an important step that's often overlooked, and in terms of why it's important. Fun fact, candidates in recruitment processes actually do have jurisdiction to make a general protections claim in the Fair Work Commission. So, General Protections Claim, you may have heard of them. They're there for uncapped compensation claims that have a reverse onus of proof, as on you as an employer to prove that you didn't discriminate against that candidate for whatever protected ground, is essentially come up in a claim. So. That documentation equals protection, right? To make sure that we are clear on who we're selecting and why we're selecting them for legitimate business reasons. Facilitating interviews, I feel like everybody's got that down pat. I always recommend a mix of different sorts of questions, so not only focusing on candidate, past experience, but also maybe potentially looking at hypothetical, case scenarios or behavioural-based questions, I think it's good to test in an interview both your value and capability, because that's the only way we're going to really understand if they're the right fit for the organization. When it comes to making an offer, certainly we're looking at employment contracts and supporting documentation to have someone onboarded into the organization, correctly. I wonder what… number one tip for interviews, though. I love to be honest and upfront about the expectations of what it is like to work in a particular organization. I am talking about the good, the bad, the ugly of the role. Warts and all. Tell your candidates the worst part of the role. Tell them about the company politics. Why? Well, you're not going to be able to hide it for long. Okay, if someone's going to step foot in the door, you know, they're going to be able to see what the workplace culture is. They're going to know what the job that they actually need to do, they signed up for when they start doing it. So, setting those expectations up front really helps the successful recruitment, because if they step foot in your door, and the job, the organization doesn't meet their expectations, they're just going to leave you. And then you are back to step one. And then we're doubling the associated costs. We're going to have reputational impacts as well with this continual recruitment cycle. So, really important that we're setting very clear expectations in interviews. So that employees, you know, as they commence, are going to be understanding the role, understanding what they signed up for, and really getting on board with the company and the vision. Speaking of onboarding, onboarding, it does set the tone for performance, behaviour, and engagement. So this is, once we've recruited, and once we have selected a candidate. When they are coming on board, it's really important to make sure we're structured in our processes here to set them up for success. We obviously know that we don't want to have to rush back to recruitment too soon, so having an onboarding plan is going to be essential to ensure those employees are set up for success. So, the sorts of tasks we support our clients on when we're looking at pre-day one. Pre-new employee, walking through the door for the first time, what do we need to have sorted? I hope we've already got a signed employment contract on file. And having all of… all of that completed, as well as if we have any necessary certificates, licenses, qualifications for the role, such as first aid, driver's license, it might be, worker screening cards, making sure all of them are… they are on file, ready for day one. Making sure someone is set up in your system, so be it payroll system, rostering system, CRMs, so that they can access all the information they need, maybe your SharePoint folder. That might be your job, you might be able to delegate that to one of your leaders in your organization, but having all of that ready for day one really makes for a smooth onboarding experience. Making sure that we are confirming any, upcoming rostered shifts, if we are working in the rostering pattern or cycle, that someone has access to that, they know when they need to turn up, and where they need to turn up to. And then making sure we're completing our onboarding checklist to show What we've done, what we've set up, what we've got ready to issue, including our asset register for employees. When we start to look at that week one integration, this is where we're looking at, obviously introducing all of the people in the organization, meaning interacting with clients, customers, stakeholders, other staff members, contractors. we're setting expectations, so for me, a lot of that is carving out time for meetings, for training, for document reading and acknowledgement. It might be online training modules, going through our work health and safety induction as well, so that we can ensure that we're compliant. That's a big thing that we do as well there. When it comes to working out what training each role needs, you know, you may be hiring, skilled and experienced workers, but there is still learning the your way of doing things. So, for myself, when I'm onboarding consultants, I consider it the effective HR way. You know, you can be the most skilled and qualified consultant in the world, but you still need to learn how we do things and how our service delivery works. So never overlook that training and development piece, because that's what sets us up for success, sets us up for great client service as well. That could involve, you know, training period of a week, a month, three months, depending on the complexity of the role. It could include, you know, what a lot of people commonly refer to as buddy shifts, or supervision shifts, and making sure we're providing that routine feedback, which we'll look at shortly. With those regular check-ins and feedback opportunities, they are great to capture any, minor issues before they escalate. And from a probationary standpoint, I always like to look at conducting one, three, and six-month reviews, for any new starters to make sure that we're… we're capitalizing on what is technically that minimum employment period under the Fair Work Act, as opposed to a probation period, which is a HR term we've quite frankly made up. When we start to talk about employee management, you know, it's not always about those formal reviews. It is just about those consistent, daily, proactive steps to support and guide your team. So, employee management for me, it's not always about formal reviews, but it can look like informal actions, such as regular check-ins, coaching and guidance conversations. And this isn't just for where someone isn't performing, but also giving space an opportunity to recognise and reward positive behaviours to encourage that continuing into the future. We also have more of a structured HR administration function when it comes to employee management. Which may include probation reviews, which I touched on before. Performance appraisals, anniversary checklists, which are really important for our ward-covered employee, to ensure and document compliance. Your regular review of our training register and qualifications review will be important there as well. When it comes to those one-to-one check-ins, it's something I always recommend that we have scheduled regularly, and we have the discipline to stick to it and make sure they're done. It is often overlooked and dismissed by time-poor managers. You're not alone there if you're saying, this isn't me, but I highly recommend it. And it does not need to be difficult. You know, in terms of how often these meetings should be facilitated. It really depends on how often the worker is working, it depends on how fast moving the organization is. As an example, if I'm a support worker that's working 5 shifts a week, then it may be appropriate to have weekly or fortnightly catch-ups. If I'm a casual that's coming on to do a shift once every one or two weeks, then certainly I'm not going to catch up after every single shift. A little bit excessive, right? So… Finding a balance that works for you, then a structure that you can keep to, it's going to be really important, because when we're giving feedback in those, those informal, supportive coaching settings. It's building our feedback muscle. So it's just like going to the gym and building our fanny muscle, but the more often we receive feedback, both positive and constructive, the more likely we are to receive that well. And the more frequent we are receiving that feedback, the more we can grow from it. You know, if we're doing annual performance reviews, and you're waiting 11 months to talk about all the issues in relation to my performance. I've sat stagnant for that whole time, whereas I could be continually growing and evolving and developing my skills if I'm receiving that feedback regularly. So, it's only a positive for the business, and for the employees as well, for their own career and their own development. It keeps their employees supported, it keeps your goals on track, it keeps them engaged, which again is going to lower our turnover and our associated recruitment costs. So we don't want to slip into complacency there. Who is the best person to facilitate these regular one-to-one sessions? I think it's always best to come from a direct leader or supervisor. Having that direct line manager, I think, is important to have a strong relationship and foundation there. That leader can also seek feedback from other people, so be that from other stakeholders in the organization, be that any customer interactions or client feedback is really important as well to help guide these conversations. Wow, that… I think it's reasonable to put this on… onto our frontline leaders to complete, and assisting them in giving them the skills and confidence to be able to complete these sessions. In terms of what topics would need to be discussed, In this regular one-to-one format. I recommend really simple, structured questions, so two formats I've worked with previously that I find work. The first one might just be 10 minutes and 3 questions, and those questions might be, was your win of the week? What was your learn of the week, and what's your goal for next week? So, both reflecting and looking forward, and looking at both constructive and positive feedback. Another way to frame that, and one that I find is great for a deeper exploration as well. Is the idea of saying, what are we, in our role, going to… What are we going to start? What are we going to continue doing, and what might we do differently? Again, giving the opportunity to flesh out every element of feedback there is going to be super helpful. These one-to-one meetings, for me, are differentiated from a more structured and set performance review process. Because it is more focusing on that operation day-to-day, week-to-week. Whereas our performance appraisals are going to be more structured on that maybe quarterly or biannually basis, which is looking holistically overall at someone's performance, not just on a particular day or shift or week. And it's looking at their own, you know, again, more holistically growth and development there. When we are looking at performance reviews, when managing employees, I think KPI setting is really often overlooked process as well, so having what we call SMART targets. We love an acronym in HR, so we're talking about specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive. Setting those targets for roles, which could be anything from a frontline support level, support workers level role, through to a head of department role. There are relevant and appropriate targets that we can set, and we can work with you to develop what they are. generally speaking, that structured performance review process, for me, it shouldn't go for more than 30 or 45 minutes. Again, I'm not looking to really cripple your workload as managers. I think it should be a really, a really simple process. If it's not. for me, that's a bit of a red flag, that our current process isn't working. So, if they are going through extensive periods of time, or if it is something that you're putting off, because you know it might not be a positive or constructive experience. Let's have a chat about that one, because we can certainly look to improve that for you. The sorts of questions we're asking in that more structured performance review setting. I hinted at it before, but for me, it's all about assessing capabilities and values. Again, right person in the right seat in your organization. It's all well and good to have a star performer hitting sales targets. But quite frankly, if they're a punish to work with as part of a team, well, that needs to be reflected and given space in this review process also, because it's not just about… not about getting the job done, it's how you go about doing the job as well that's going to make those employees valuable assets to your organisations. What we all know is that if we are avoiding feedback, or we're inconsistent with how we give our feedback, those small issues, they simmer away, and they grow into bigger problems that then become harder to manage and resolve, and quite frankly, more expensive, because they're going to be a drain on your resources. And increase your risk profile as well. So, if we continue on this train of thought around managing our employees. What's going to happen if there's a gap between what you expect an employee to do. And what they're actually doing in practice. You know, this is where we start to get into our performance management processes, and it could also be where we look at off-boarding employees. Before we take any action in engraving the issue with an employee. I believe it is crucial to complete an analysis of your concerns to truly understand what the root cause is in this gap or inconsistency between expectation and reality. So, only then can we answer what is, quite frankly, a really simple question of Is the issue or the problem I have with this employee, is it a matter of skill? Or is it a matter of will? Okay, so if we're talking about a matter of skill. This is indicative of a performance gap or a performance issue. Someone that might be trying their best, but they don't have the necessary training or resources or support to succeed. On the flip side to that, this idea of will, it's indicative that there's a choice here from the employee. It's indicative that there's a behavioural or a conduct concern. And this is really important to correctly diagnose whether the issue you have is of skill or of will. Because we can't actually work out the right solution to your problem until we actually understand the problem itself. Another key reason why this is important is when we start to put our IR hat on and look at unfair dismissal in accordance with the Fair Work Act, the requirements for how employers manage employees based on a performance issue versus a misconduct issue, that itself is actually differentiated under the legislation. So again, really important that we're correctly diagnosing this problem, because this is actually going to be a legislative requirement when we start to take action to improve performance and improve standards here. So, what might this action, or what might this employee management process look like? Certainly correct identification of the root cause of the issue. If nothing else, keep asking the question, why, until you get to, okay, this is a matter of skill, or this is a matter of will. Once we fully understand the problem, we certainly want to meet with the employee, okay? So, we're starting to talk about more of the informal, conversations where someone hasn't met expectations, as opposed to a straight-up termination. We can look at that shortly. We want to actually think about the appropriate logistics to meet with the employee. So, is it appropriate to just quickly grab them for a quick phone call or a quick chat off the floor? Or may we need to look at a formal invite to meeting letter? Do we need to look at offering a support person? Are we going to have this meeting via Teams, or video conference, or are we having it face-to-face? Have we considered what psychosocial hazards may be in place as a result of commencing this process? I know that can sound a bit confronting to business owners on the call, but there is actually important and recent case law in this space pointing to a requirement to do so. So making sure you're confident in understanding that. Not to say you can't do it, but you need to give consideration here. Get the experts in to help you with that. We want to be making sure in that conversation we're setting clear expectations of what we do expect. We know they haven't met our expectations, but what does… what does done look like? What does success look like? And it's being able to provide the employee support to get there. making sure we're noting the conversation. So, noting that on the employee file, issuing any correspondence to follow up in writing, as you've determined that's relevant and appropriate for part of that process. We want to make sure we're monitoring and reviewing that as well. So, when we start to talk about things like performance improvement plans or kits. There's something that we want to make sure we are regularly reviewing and monitoring so that the employees do get to the required level of performance, or if not, we are taking further action. To ensure that we're effectively managing our staff here. One thing's for certain, when it comes to managing employees, process matters. As I mentioned, process is a key part of a defense for an unfair dismissal claim. these are actually on the rise as well. So, there's a pretty alarming statistic that's come out recently that the Fair Work Commission is set to experience and is expecting a 70% increase in their workload hearing claims over the next 3 years Due to AI-generated claims from applicants and responders. I personally am already seeing this in the work that I'm doing with the clients we support. We are regularly seeing AI creep into these employee relations matters. So, putting processes in place now are going to be the best defense to any future claims. Hopefully, I've sold you on the importance of having these feedback conversations, but I understand that a lot of listeners are going to feel immediately uneasy about the idea of having some of these difficult workplace conversations. They're probably already thinking in your head there's two or three that might be outstanding that you've been meaning to do. Say, eat the frog, let's get it done. It comes with no surprise, our advice is obviously address these issues early, in a clear and consistent measure. How you deal with one issue should be consistent with how you deal with another employee, and this is going to support our success. So, another way this comes up when it comes to these difficult conversations, we've spoken about it from a performance perspective, we've spoken about it from, you know, that serious, structured feedback perspective, but What about issues of employee welfare? I see this increasingly as well, you know, it is a tough economy, and it is a tough state of affairs out there, and a lot of employees may be struggling personally, outside of work. It might be financially, it might be with something that's happened in their personal life, losing a loved one, or a change in circumstance, whatever it might be. These situations can have a profound impact on someone's well-being, which you would know from your own personal lived experience. And it's not related to work. But it very quickly feeds into their performance at work. And it can leave a lot of employers feeling uneasy of wanting to do the right thing and wanting to support an employee, but not knowing where the lines are here, not knowing what the best way to practically support our employees are. I think it is important in these scenarios to lead with empathy and provide support. So, not to ignore the fact that there's problems at home, because we know that that can seep into their work, and sooner rather than later, it will become an issue for you to deal with. So, addressing it early, A, because it's the right thing to do, and it's going to give us that sleep at night factor. But B, it makes good business sense, because when we're supporting our employees in this sense, we're supporting retention, loyalty, engagement. So we're reducing the risk of turnover, of continued absenteeism if they're not addressing their underlying performance, sorry, personal issues. And also potentially compliance risk as well. You might see someone that does have pre-existing mental health conditions, but if that does become aggravated at work. that very well could become a workers' compensation claim for you to manage. So being proactive, empathetic, and supporting of our employees, it's not just the right thing to do, it makes good business sense, right? And we're reducing risk. So, ways that you might support employee welfare that are pretty easy, practical ways to do so, checking in early and creating a safe space for open conversation. So, when you're noticing that something's off. It's okay to talk about it, and creating a space where you can get that information, because that information is powerful for you to actually understand what's happening and come up with the right solution. Offering flexibility where you can, where it's operationally viable to do so. You may look at implementing temporary workplace adjustments, just to help that employee get back on top again, where it's possible. You might allow them access to paid leave or unpaid leave, if they require some time off work. We always recommend referring to any external support, so this is an EAP, Employee Assistance Program. This is an external provider that might be able to provide personal counselling support for employees. So, service that we do also provide, I'd say look into it, if you don't already have one. And documenting any agreed arrangements, right? Following up regularly to make sure that they're getting back on track where we want their performance to be, and obviously their own personal wellbeing. At the end of the day, I love this graphic, it's all about balancing the scales, right? So, in HR, both myself as a practitioner, but also business owners, when you're making HR decisions, when you're making difficult decisions. And we start to talk about offboarding employees, that last step of our business, employee life cycle. We need to be balancing the scales of a solid rationale for the business's decision. If you are the one terminating someone's employment. And we need to be balancing that with fair process and procedural fairness throughout. when it comes to the why here, it really comes down to mitigating risk, protecting yourself against an unfair dismissal claim. So. It is actually legislated in the Fair Work Act, and we've seen it time and time again that the Fair Work Commission, when hearing unfair dismissal claims, were giving increasing weight to these procedural steps. So, you could have the best reason in the world for termination. Without their process, your defense to those claims won't stand. So, process is important. A good example is, say, a matter of serious misconduct. You know, if we're to talk about the most serious case of workplace violence or aggression, you know, this is a realm where we often hear employers talk about instant dismissal. That term is a myth. It's a legend. It doesn't exist, well, at least not without risk, okay? Because it's the process Going through that process, that you can get to the root cause of an issue. So, let's take that example of workplace aggression. Let's say we have a colleague that comes to work. And acts aggressively towards a stakeholder. Not on. Straight away. We're not okay with that. But… If we're actually going through the process. We may actually uncover more information. Say that employee that's acted aggressively. They've actually felt threatened and intimidated by this person for months and months and months, and this continued pattern of bullying behaviour. And one day, the one day you happen to see them, They snapped. You know, now knowing that information, would you change your mind on instant dismissal? Maybe, maybe not, but it shows you the importance of gathering all the information before making a decision, going through that process. Yes, to tick a box for a defense of an unfair dismissal claim, but B, having all the right information to make the right business decision. So it brings us back again to understanding the root cause. I think it's really interesting in that example as well, to note that you as an employer, and what you consider, and what you define as serious misconduct. might not actually be in accordance with the specific legal definition provided for under the Fair Work regulations. So, whether the legislation thinks it's serious misconduct versus you might be a little bit different. This is relevant that we meet the legislative threshold when determining if we are waiving out the payment of a notice period for terminations, okay? So, very important that you consider that box as well prior to termination. When it comes to offboarding, to wrap that up, as I said, it's the final step in that employee life cycle. A few things we want to make sure we are checking off on an off-boarding checklist to make sure it's smooth. is making sure we're identifying the correct type of separation and all of the surrounding circumstances. Is an employee working out their notice period? Are we paying them in lieu of notice, and that payroll needs to happen on the day of termination? How are we communicating this with payroll to make sure it gets done. Making sure we're reviewing all of our employment documentation. Confirming timing, confirming coverage and succession planning, communicating this with stakeholders as well, and making sure we are doing a risk assessment on this to, again, mitigate risk to the organization. Finally for me, when it comes to HR Fundamentals, it's the documentation that is so important to me. So, when it comes to HR documents, there's 3 key documents we want to have in place in the organization at an absolute minimum, okay? Our first document is our employment contracts. So these are legally binding documents that are covering off on the terms, conditions, entitlements, and obligations of that employment relationship. They should be in place individually and customized for each employee. The second key document for me here is workplace policies. So we're talking both HR and work health and safety policies that are to set the behavioural expectations of all employees. They're to demonstrate what reasonable management action may include, and also demonstrate compliance with work health and safety obligations. The third and key final piece there for me is our position description documents. Now, these are differentiated from employment contracts and workplace policies by bringing it back down to a role level and detailing the key duties and responsibilities for each role, and we use this to set and manage our employment and performance from. So, these documents, we need to make sure that we have in place as an absolute minimum. We also have record-keeping obligations. I find that businesses are really well versed in the ATO obligations here, but often miss the record-keeping obligations contained under the Fair Work Act. So for anyone that wants to nerd out with me, I'll turn your attention specifically to sections 535 and 536 to the Fair Work Act, which will dictate your record-keeping obligations, along with what penalties are for non-compliance here. When it comes to the storage and retrieval of our HR documentation, this is often something that is neglected by organisations, but we want to look at this as the so what factor in practice. Time and time again, we see the benefit of systemizing your employee data for so many reasons. Obviously, first and foremost, demonstrating compliance. The ease of access for any sort of auditing or remediation activities is so important. To audit our payroll, to audit our rostering, very important for ease of access here. But also strategic business making. If we have all of this data we're unable to get insights from because we haven't systemized it, then we're really missing out. We've got a big blind spot of business owners when it comes to making decisions that impact our people and our operations. Okay, I think I've spoken for long enough. I don't want to cut into your time. I'm really keen to hear about what you think it's all about when it comes to mitigating risk.

Effective HR: Thank you, Corrine. Thanks for, running through that. So, yeah, really interesting. I mean, when it comes to… When it comes to businesses managing risk, you know, I think it's a really hard… it's a really hard thing with a whole range of different situations to understand, you know, what are your rights as the employer? Am I at risk? You know, what's the right processes? It can get really complicated fairly quickly. So, going back to that whole life cycle of the employee, to run a good business, you know, the importance of Having the right documents at the start in place, you know, clear company policies around things, clear, clear contracts of employment, clear… setting clear processes and those regular reviews. Are really key to just, you know, running a compliant and fair workplace. You know, the legislation really is… Provides a lot of protection for employees, and as an employer, it's your responsibility to keep up to date with legislation, pay your staff correctly with the awards, and, you know, have the right employment framework in place so that you can, you know, prove procedural fairness and clarity when you're running through issues. I speak to businesses every day, and oft… quite often, unfortunately, for them, I speak to them on the… when they're on the wrong side of a fence, when they've… they're coming to me, they've got an issue, and… Either in a difficult situation, and perhaps they, you know, they lack documentation, they've lacked holding, you know, performance meetings with staff. Employees, for every business, are normally always your biggest cost. They're your biggest assets, and your biggest risk. So if you think about all those three areas. It's so important, really, to, set yourself up for success, and, you know, retain good staff. have strategies to monitor and track performance and exit staff that, you know, when Corinne spoke about will versus skill, if they've not got the will. and clearly they're not going to improve, you know, that's going to be a bad cost to your business, right? So, you know, running a good workplace to keep on top of these things is absolutely Vital. The good news is, you don't have to be alone, so if you're not already a client of Effective HR, we provide fantastic support to many different businesses across Australia. And we… we really give two options to clients to choose from, so we let you choose how You would like us to support you. And, it really has nothing to do with what size you are, whether you're a small business, medium-sized business, a larger business. It really depends on, you know, right now, where you see you need extra support, you know, if it's more… Quite focused and project-based, where you've got a very specific idea on a piece of work where you just want help, and that's all. For example, you just need to update your employment contracts across your business, or your policy pack, then, HR on-demand service might be suited to you, and that's really what it says on the tin. We can have a discussion with you, so I would have a discussion around your needs and your business, and work out what you need. And if it's just, a one-off matter, or a one-off piece of work that you want to help with, that's absolutely fine. We can just… quote you and build out a scope of work for you for that particular project, and there's no commitment, it's just, you know, as you go, and on an as-need basis, you can use our HR on-demand service. The other option is on our HR Partner Service. So again, it doesn't really… it's nothing really to do with the size of business. We've got small clients on this service, and much larger clients. But some clients do prefer this approach, where we… we're really acting on an ongoing basis as a sort of outsourced HR department for your business to provide you for a fixed fee with unlimited advice and support. So, you know, you'll be able to, speak one-on-one to an HR consultant, you know, someone of a calibre of Corinne's skill set, to really discuss even small issues for clarification as they pop up, so you can sort of understand, you know, how to best deal with it. It might just be, you know, for one of those difficult conversations with an employee, you want to know how to address it in the right way and how to communicate it. It might be, It might be you do need to review a particular policy that you want to change in your business to suit your operational requirements. Whatever it is, with HR Partner, you pay a fixed monthly fee, and we cover, sort of, everything end-to-end, the unlimited advice and support, updating your policies, contracts, etc, you know, managing processes with you. And whatever we… advice we give you, and that's whether you're, you know, advice, whether you're on our HR Partner Service or HR on demand. We're always there to understand the issue, and obviously, our job is to interpret the surrounding risks around that issue, of course, from an industrial relations perspective, but we're there to really understand, you know, ideally. how you'd like to deal with it, and our job is to give you some, you know, commercial options in terms of, you know, different ways to deal with this process, and the different associated risks based on how you'd like to deal with it. So, yeah, all times are better, really. Understand the business, and really give you strategic advice on, you know, how to deal with that particular matter. And of course, we also do specialise in systems, so lots of businesses every day are getting in contact with us to look at new HR or payroll systems. And we're there, really, to give you independent, unbiased advice. You know, we're not a software vendor. We're there to really, again, understand your needs, set up demonstrations for you. Weigh up the pros and cons with you, so you make the right decision with your system choices as well. We're gonna move into a… bit of a quick Q&A from some questions we've had through, which Corinne will certainly have a look at giving an answer, providing we've got the right detail there. But what I wanted to also say before we do go to that Q&A session, so this is, you know, anyone on the call now, or if you're watching our recording afterwards. Please, definitely, I'd encourage you to book in, some time with, with us, really, to have a one-on-one discussion. So that one-on-one discussion, I'd love to get the opportunity to understand your business more, understand areas where we might be able to help you, and, you know, sort of help you really evaluate our service options for you to decide whether or not you'd like to get support from effective HR. So please, you can open your camera and book the QR code, or you can… I'll send through a link in the chat for you to click on to book a meeting. If you don't have your calendar at hand right now, don't worry, I can also give you a follow-up call as well to book that in. Anyway, on to, our Q&A session, Colleen, so let me just have a quick scroll to pick a few here. So, I've got one interesting question. So, someone's put, I'm a… I'm a small business with… 17 full-time staff and 3 casuals. I've got an employee that's not really suitable and performing for the business. They've come up now for their 6-month probation review. We were supposed to sit the meeting two days ago, but the employee on Monday morning called in sick, so we've not managed to sit that meeting yet. My question is, my other director says we can't terminate, even though it's at probation time. He thinks it's more complicated than that. I spoke to my accountant this morning. My accountant's telling me, absolutely, I can terminate. It's a probation meeting. So, yeah, I'm a little bit… unclear. They're saying… so, how… what's the… how would you deal with that, Corinne?

Corinne West: Oh my gosh, that is a far too familiar setting. We've definitely heard this question before, so they're not alone, I'll tell you that much. Firstly. I just want to be clear that myself and the effective HR team, we are never going to tell a business owner that they can or can't do anything. You are the business owner, you are the expert. What I am here to do is help you understand any risks, any options, and advice for you to make the right business decision for you. What I look at here with this scenario, so I understand where the information that's kicking over for me here, is we're a business with 15 or more employees, which means we are excluded from the small business dismissal code. What we then look at is saying, okay, because we have 15 or more employees. We are looking at a minimum employment period of 6 months before an employee can make an unfair dismissal claim. That's relevant because the Fair Work Commission does have a limited jurisdiction for which they can hear these sorts of claims. But essentially, 6 months, 6 months and 1 day, that the gates are open here, right? So, that's not to say you cannot terminate, but it's here to, I guess, affect the so what, or the process we might follow. We now know that since we've kicked over this six-month mark, we very much need to consider process as much as we are considering reason. And making sure that we are going through that process, which might not just be a simple right, we're having your probation meeting, you're not suitable, see you later. We might need to make that a more beefed-out performance management process to mitigate risk there. Of course, you can run the gauntlet of framing that in a particular way as a probation review and see what happens, but again, understanding the underlying risk that exists, and then taking a decision or taking the path that suits your business best is what you can do, but I certainly then look at that and say this decision isn't without risk. I think what I also see happen when it comes to Probationary periods and dismissal within probation periods. hear so often people say, oh, they're in their probation period, so I don't need to, I don't need to give them a reason. I would implore you… To always give a reason. And that is because in absence of you giving them the reason for terminating, an employee may have their own reason why they think they've been terminated. And that reason could link to a protected characteristic or a prohibited ground under the Fair Work Act. So, you might be terminating because they have poor customer service, poor reliability issues, they're getting on terribly with the other team members, but they've also recently questioned their pay, and they've taken some sick leave due to their family and caring requirements. they could turn around and say, well, no, you didn't terminate me for all of these service and performance reasons, it was actually because I enforced this workplace right. That then becomes a reverse onus of proof to defend against a general protections claim, which we do not want, right? Absolute day ruiner. So it's always worth being a bit more strategic with how we manage those probation reviews to minimize Both elements of risk that occur here.

Effective HR: Thank you, Corinne. That was an interesting one. Okay, I've got another one here, so, They've had an employee that's worked for them for only 3 weeks. To be honest, they're quite rude and toxic in the workplace, they've… Raised an issue there which… it has no foundations. That they don't feel that we're providing a safe workplace, which is… Nonsense. Can I terminate them?

Corinne West: It's a very good question. Not something I would give a yes or no answer to, but I guess to point in the right direction, I really want to understand that idea of toxic behaviour. And I want to dig into the root cause, so that why. why the toxic behaviour, and I think it's only through that process of tapping the tank that we're going to understand what the root cause of this clashes are, and these behavioural, points are. Secondarily to that, I do have a really big red flag going off in my head around, I've raised a work health and safety complaint. You know, when we start to talk about our state-based safety legislation, so usually referred to as work health and safety for our friends in Victoria, occupational health and safety. we do have obligations when it comes to, investigating, reported complaints. So, that will then also form the basis of a workplace right. Which is, again, going to be one of those, prohibited grounds when it comes to future employment claims, should you take any action against that employee. So taking an opportunity to address what's right in front of us with, let's look at that immediate complaint first, and if, as you say, it is completely unfounded, then an investigation process will show that. And I'm not suggesting you pour all of your time and resources into a multi-week investigation. There can be really simple and practical ways that we can kind of close that one out before we look at potentially the performance management there. Those sorts of things can achieve what a business needs to achieve, but also by following the process, mitigating the risk attached to making those sorts of difficult decisions for businesses.

Effective HR: Fantastic. Well, listen, it's just actually hit, time here, it's 1 o'clock, so we… there's a… there's a couple more questions, but I will, reach out to those, other few questions individually to, certainly cover. For you, no problem. But yeah, like I say, thanks very much for attending today, hope you enjoyed it. Look out, go to our website, we've got more coming, so we've got more. free webinars coming up, and you're more than welcome to, you know, if you're enjoying them, please keep attending. But look, love to have the opportunity to have a one-on-one consultation with you. If you've got some questions you think of after the meeting today, write them down. I'll give you a call, set up a meeting, or book one in following the link. And bring it to the meeting. Happy to, discuss that with you and help if you think of anything. But, thank you very much, guys. Enjoy the rest of your day, and I will… we will speak to you soon.