It is the employer’s responsibility to pay superannuation (super) to their workers to provide for their retirement. 

First, as a general rule, the employer has to contribute 9.5% of an employee’s  regular earnings, whether they are full-time, part-time or casual employees.  The term “regular earnings” refers to what the employee normally earns for his/her hours of work, including sales commission, over-award payments, shift loading, allowances and bonuses. Overtime, on the other hand, does not attract super.

Super is only payable on earnings up to $206,480 pa (or $51,620 per quarter). In some cases, super is not payable at all:

• If an employee earns less than $450 per month
• If an employee is under 18 years of age
• If an employee is a private or domestic worker (a nanny or a housekeeper, for example) working less than 30 hours per week.

If you are employing non-residents outside of Australia or if you are yourself a non-resident employer, we recommend you check out the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) page on this matter: https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/working-out-if-you-have-to-pay-super/employees-working-overseas/

Note that you need to pay super at least 4 times a year. If you don’t pay your super on time you may be hit with some extra charges.

For any additional questions regarding your super obligations, we recommend you get in touch with the ATO for more tailored advice via their superannuation infoline at 13 10 20.

If you have any questions about this sometimes complex topic please be sure to consult with your HR or legal adviser.

 

Check out today’s (10th January 2017) Australian Financial Review (online article) for Lucille Keen’s article on expense rorting in high places, following on from the recent Sussan Ley story.

It’s also published in the Wednesday January 11 edition of the AFR appearing on p.4.

 

 

 

Further to our update last month employees are now able to cash out annual leave subject to the following conditions:

1. The agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties and the employer must keep the agreement in the employee’s HR file
2. The written agreement must specify the amount of leave to be cashed out, the payment to be made to the employee and the date the payment will be made
3. Annual leave cannot be cashed out if it results in the employee’s remaining entitlement falling below 4 weeks
4. Employees can only cash out a maximum of 2 weeks’ accrued annual leave in any 12 month period.

Employers will be able to direct employees to take annual leave if their leave balance is in excess of 8 weeks from July 2017.

 

Employers will be able to direct employees to take annual leave

A direction by an employer to take annual leave will be permitted where an employee has accrued 8 weeks’ annual leave (or 10 weeks if the employee is a shift worker with a 5 week annual entitlement). The following conditions apply:

1. The direction must be in writing and must not result in the employee retaining less than 6 weeks of paid annual leave after the directed annual leave is taken
2. The minimum period of leave to be taken is one week
3. The leave cannot commence less than 8 weeks or more than 12 months after the date of the direction

Employees will be able to cash out annual leave under certain circumstances

An employer and an employee can agree to the employee cashing out an amount of accrued annual leave, subject to the following conditions:

1. The agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties and the employer must keep the agreement in the employee’s HR file
2. The written agreement must specify the amount of leave to be cashed out, the payment to be made to the employee and the date the payment will be made
3. Annual leave cannot be cashed out if it results in the employee’s remaining entitlement falling below 4 weeks
4. Employees can only cash out a maximum of 2 weeks’ accrued annual leave in any 12 month period

 These changes are imminent – we will update you when they become official.

Here are some useful numbers for you and your HR team, all effective 1/7/16:

1. Minimum wage – $672.70 per week (2.4% increase)
2. Unfair dismissal threshold – $138,900 (max payout is $69,450)
3. Maximum salary employers have to pay super on – $206,480 ($51,260 per quarter)
4. Super guarantee – still 9.5%, no change scheduled until 1/7/21 (then .5% yearly increase to 12% from 1/7/2025)

1. Write a 30 second spiel about yourself. Practice this out loud in front of a mirror. Focus the content on how you help clients achieve their goals.
2. Write 2 or 3 sentences about each job you have shown on your resume with a strong focus on things that are measurable e.g. deadlines you met, numbers of words you had to write, people you had to coordinate to complete a particular project, challenges you identified and fixed, etc.
3. Be prepared to explain in detail what you will do in the first few months of the job and how you will measure whether you have been successful after 12 months in the job.
4. Have a short story prepared about each of the following 5 incidents that have happened to you at work (in the last 12 months) using the following STAR model:

Situation which arose requiring you to do something

Tasks that needed doing

Action you took

Result

•  Where you had to deal with a uncooperative team member
• Where you had to deal with a difficult customer
• Where you had to prioritise a number of different projects
• Where you devised a new process to improve the way certain things were done at your work
• A mistake you made and how you fixed it

5. I hate this question but it’s often asked: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” You need to have      something prepared. The best way to answer this question is to be extremely honest. Demonstrate to the panel that you have good self-awareness.

6. Prepare a short (no more than 2-3 minutes) closing statement. You will use this when you sense the interview is about to close and they ask: “Do you have any questions for the panel”? You ignore that question and go into your prepared spiel on why they should choose you. This leaves them with the lasting impression of your voice in their head.

7. Remember that they want to have you on board. Your sole concern at the interview should be to make them feel good about choosing you. Take control of the interview without being arrogant. Make it clear that you’re considering working with them just as much as they are deciding about you.

8. Above all, be honest in your answers – it will make you look and sound so much more appealing.

Well, it’s that time of year again and some of us turn our minds to the year ahead while quietly reviewing the year that has been. How was your year? Better than you had expected? Worse? Or pretty close to what you thought it would be?

Whatever sort of year you’ve had there are some HR issues you should consider for 2016 and beyond. Think of them as new year resolutions for your business:

• Always assume you’re being recorded whenever you’re talking to someone at work! This may seem like a strange one to start with but the number of people I know who have been stung by someone recording meetings/private conversations at work suggests that, with everyone having a mobile phone, this is becoming a big problem. Think before you speak and only speak if you aren’t angry! That’s probably good advice anyway, be it at work or at home
• Make sure you and your managers are having regular catch-ups with staff. By regular I mean at least once a month but preferably even more often than that. The catch-up doesn’t need to be terribly formal or documented. It’s absolutely vital that you don’t just rely on an annual performance appraisal process as your only means of discussing performance. Employee performance and a strong focus on improvement should always be on your management team’s agenda and you and your managers should make it the number one priority for 2016
• Get your managers and staff trained in workplace harassment awareness. Avoid the on-line versions of this type of training. They are purely a tick-the-box response and deliver very little learning. A better way is to use a skilled facilitator to conduct short workshops (around 1-2 hours) for managers and employees. Managers will learn how to handle a complaint and your staff will know you’re serious about eliminating harassment in the workplace.

Try these 3 simple initiatives – if you need help find a good HR consultant! Better still, call me on 1300 900 741.

Those of us involved in the recruitment game often get criticised for the way we operate. Lack of communication is probably the number one gripe closely followed by misrepresenting the role we’re trying to fill.

I propose a very simple code of conduct that we should try to abide by:

• Make sure the job ad accurately portrays the role you’re trying to fill – you may need to be quite assertive with your client to achieve this
• Avoid jargon and euphemistic phrases in your job ad
• Always acknowledge receipt of an application within 24 hours
• If you interview someone make sure they have directions on how to find you
• Leave at least 30 minutes between interviews
• Provide timely feedback to both successful and unsuccessful candidates
• Prepare a brief for your client listing the short-listed candidates and your reasons for presenting them to the client
• Get useful feedback from your client as to why someone wasn’t successful
• Offer to meet unsuccessful candidates to properly debrief the process and share the feedback you got from your client
• Do at least 2 reference checks on the successful candidate but only after your client has chosen that particular person. Reference checks should never be used as a way to differentiate between candidates
• Follow up regularly with your client and the successful candidate once they have started their new role
• Keep in touch with any unsuccessful candidates you particularly liked – you may be able to place them next time.

Today I’m meeting a potentially new client located on the northern beaches of Sydney. A small business in Australia (25 employees) but globally they employ over 2,000 employees with an annual turnover of nearly half a billion euros. I really want this one so spend even more time than usual researching their business and finding out as much as I can about their key stakeholders.

The meeting goes well – the MD, CFO and the payroll person all meet me together and pepper me with questions. I return the favour and complete a quick HR audit as we go along. This is a very handy tool to have and clients like it a lot. It’s very professional and helps shape the initial interview. To start with they’re looking for help on some specific HR projects with a view to a longer-term arrangement involving a regualr HR presence on-site.

I hope to get a favourable response in a few days’ time. Meanwhile, I need to get back into town for a lunch meeting with an old colleague of mine (he’s an accountant) who needs to discuss an HR problem he has with one of his clients. It turns out that my friend is being sexually harassed by a female manager who works for one of his best clients. Not surprisingly he doesn’t know what to do about it. Female on male sexual harassment is rare but when it happens it’s just as pernicious and even more difficult to deal with especially when it’s one of your client’s employees doing the harassing. I advise him that he needs to raise the issue with the MD of the Company as soon as he can. It’s clearly a very delicate situation which needs immediate attention although I suspect it won’t have a good outcome. These sorts of issues rarely do.

My afternoon is spent back in the office returning calls and preparing for the Ops Manager interviews with my blue-collar client out west. Suddenly, my day seems a bit quiet although it’s already 5pm. Thankfully, I have a networking do on tonight – not that I’m a great fan of these types of events but I’m in the mood for a bit of socialising. I remind myself that it is, in fact, a networking event and not a netdrinking or neteating occasion but it’s sometimes difficult to remember that!

I eventually get home around 10.30pm. Another reasonably early night. Big drive tomorrow out west…

 

 

Another early start as I have to drive out to a client in western Sydney where I spend a few days a month on-site. It can be a long drive depending on traffic so I leave around 7am.

Fast trip this morning so I’m in my office by 8.30am. Today I have an exit interview, a retrenchment and have to interview 3 candidates for an operations manager role. The full gambit of HR in a single day! This is a family run business where there is no love lost between the 2 brothers who run the show – one is very hands-on, the other prefers a more discrete presence but is nevertheless very quick to contribute his opinion. Despite the volatility of their relationship they run a pretty good ship with over 25 years together bearing testament to their business acumen.

I’m the only HR person they’ve ever really had. Before me one of the wives “did the HR”. I think that means they focused on personnel administration rather than anything strategic. So, I’m quite a novelty around the place for what is primarily a blue-collar work-site. Despite this, there is usually a procession of people who want to see me whenever I’m around – mainly managers and supervisors but also the occasional employee who might have a personal issue to discuss.

The retrenchment goes pretty smoothly – we’ve been consulting with the affected employee for a few weeks before today so there are no real surprises. They bring their wife in as their support person – a really good move so the spouse gets involved early in the whole process. We offer an ex-gratia payment of 8 weeks in exchange for a Deed of Release. I take awhile to explain exactly what this means – the last thing I want is for the employee to feel pressured into signing something they don’t understand. They say they’ll take it away and think about it – they have a week to decide if they want the extra money.

The exit interview is uneventful. The main reason for this employee’s resignation is no surprise – they just couldn’t get on with their manager, something we see time and time again yet somehow are unable to fix. How many more exit interviews will it take for businesses to realise that this is the number one reason why people leave yet management development is arguably the least funded and most ignored HR activity of them all.

I interview my 3 candidates for the ops manager role and select 2 to go to final interview. This will be with the 2 brothers and they’ve asked me to make up the 3rd panel member. Now to break it to the one who missed out…