Employment Law & HR Advice

Great question. Employing staff requires some homework and groundwork to get started. Here’s five top tips to help you.

 1. Visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website: It has some basic templates and tools for employment arrangements. Business Victoria and www.business.gov.au are also great sources of information.

2. Put employment arrangements in writing: Employment contracts set out if your employee is full time, part time or casual. It also specifies pay rates, leave entitlements and notice provisions. Engage a legal professional to assist with employment contracts, so you can minimise grounds for disputes.

3. Pay the right rates and superannuation. Don’t become the next George from Masterchef! Most jobs are covered by an Award and you can calculate them by using the P.A.C.T calculator on the Fair Work Ombudsman site. Don’t forget, Award rates change on July 1 every year and you need to keep good payroll and leave records (use a payroll app), and also provide payslips. Pay superannuation at least quarterly.

4. Workplace policies. Have key policies so everyone knows the rules they need to play (work) by. Code of conduct, OHS, bullying and harassment, social media and leave policies are a great start. A legal professional can help you to draft workplace policies.

5. OHS and Workcover. Visit the Worksafe site to make sure that you know your obligations as an employer. Noone wants to see a person injured at work and as a business owner, the responsibility rests with you. Also speak to your insurance agent or accountant about Workcover insurance, which is compulsory.

Having great staff is really rewarding, but employing staff can sometimes get a bit tricky. Chatting with an employment lawyer and human resources advisor is a worthwhile investment. At Robertson Hyetts, we love getting to know our local small business owners and providing practical and cost-conscious advice to avoid setbacks and help your business grow.

Whilst you can have a verbal agreement, we recommend you record the main terms and conditions of employment in an employment contract.  The contract should include a start date, whether the role is full time, part time or casual, the place of work, any probationary period, pay rates, penalties or loadings, leave entitlements, hours of work and termination notice provisions.

Any change to an employee's employment contract should be confirmed in writing either by a new contract, or a contract variation which is signed by the employee as evidence of their agreement to the new terms.

Minimum rates of pay can be found in an Award or Enterprise Agreement. The Award finder and P.A.C.T calculator on the Fair Work Ombudsman site can help you to work out if an Award applies to your staff. The Award Pay Guide for the Award will tell you the minimum Award rates, penalties, loadings or allowances you need to pay. As Award rates change on 1 July every year you need to keep your Award Pay Guide up to date

There are strict rules about keeping good payroll and leave records and you must provide all staff with payslips. We recommend you use one of the many payroll apps available to ensure compliance with these rules.

Policies which set out the rules you expect your employees to abide by and the processes that need to be followed are a great idea.  As a minimum all businesses should have a general Code of conduct and we recommend workplace policies for OHS, bullying and harassment, leave, flexible working arrangements, as well as something that safeguards against the misuse of IT, internet, email and social media.

Visit the Worksafe site to make sure that you know your obligations as an employer. No one wants to see a person injured at work and as a business owner, the responsibility rests with you. Workcover insurance is compulsory so speak to your insurance agent or accountant about this.