Free HR Advice

Occupational Health and Safety is a key area of any business. The difficulty seems to be implementing it in a manner in which employees will embrace and adhere to it. It can be a time consuming process to create and implement a complete OHS system but one that is vital given the high fines that can cripple a small business if a serious incident occurs.

The process map for DOING OHS on HR Shed is the best place to start. If you aren't a member of HR Shed here's some helpful tips:

Key areas to consider
1. What are the risks in your industry and organisation?
2. How are you going to control these risks and what codes of compliance and standards do you need to comply with?
3. Implement overarching guidelines for doing OHS and controlling your risks through your OHS policies and procedures
4. How are you going to incorporate safety into your work? You need a system of doing things guided by your OHS policies and procedures. Many organisations use standard operating procedures (which detail every step involved in a task and the OHS controls are outlined in the steps) OR if you operate in a high risk environment (namely construction) you must have Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS). These are tools to use to train your staff in working safely
5. How are you going to check that OHS is being adhered to?
a. quarterly you should check: training, incident reports, hazard register and inductions are being carried out appropriately and regularly
b. weekly you should do a general walk through of your site to check that everything is being adhered to
c. annually a formal inspection should be carried out following our Inspection Checklists

There is no absolute answer here however it is usually recommended that you wait at least one year to re-employ in the role that was made redundant. If your business goes through a downturn and you can't afford to keep a particular role, then you can make them redundant. If within the next few months business picks up you can't advertise to place that position without having already offered the previous employee their position back.

Many business managers try to use redundancy as a way of protecting themselves from unfair dismissal claims. The government is very strong on ensuring it is a genuine redundancy. For more information on redundancy and to check whether it applies to your situation see our redundancy checklist at the HR Shed or visit Fair Work Australia.

Having clear policies and procedures for all areas in your organisation is a must and performance management has Industrial Relations implications in that your organisation may be fined for Unfair Dismissal if a performance management issue leads to termination. When you have clear procedures for handling performance issues it means your line managers are less likely to make an IR mistake during the process. They will be more confident that they are following the correct method and it is clear to employees that there are procedures in place to deal with these types of instances.

In a word 'no'. Texting has a place in society however, using it to inform work that you are sick doesn't seem to be the appropriate method of notification. However, some organisations may be happy with this. We find that managers would prefer a phone call so they can assess how long you might be away sick and also so they feel personally contacted. Texting can seem to be a cop out. If you are legitimately sick you won't want rumours to circulate that you weren't sick as you 'texted in'. We always advise that form of notification is written into the organisations Leave Policy to make expectations clear.

Modern awards commenced 1st January 2010 and they apply to most positions with the exception of management roles, accountants, human resource professionals and some other professional roles.

You must adhere to the modern award if you are an employer without an enterprise bargaining agreement that states otherwise and you are an incorporated company.

To find the right award for each of your staff click on the Fair Work link on HR Online's home page. Then go to awards and agreements. You will be able to view a long list (alphabetically) of awards that are available. Your employees may have previously been under a different award as the government has reduced the number of awards available from thousands down to about 40. If you need help you can either call us or call Fair Work Australia and speak to a consultant who will help you work out which award applies. Remember that you could have more than one award apply to your business. For example one our clients operates in the agribusiness area and they have four awards that apply including Horticulture award, Professional Employees award, Clerks award and Manufacturing and Associated Industries award.

It is wise to have a mobile phone policy if you issue staff with mobile phones. It also wise to outline in a general phone policy what your expectations are of staff taking personal calls during business hours. Mobile phone usage is at an all time high and I am pretty sure you don't want your staff to spend endless hours texting or phoning their friends from work. Whilst most staff members won't take advantage of you in this way, their will be some people out there who either don't have enough to do or think it is their right to be on the phone all day. Therefore it is best to clarify your expectations at the beginning of the employment relationship and get your new staff to read and sign off on all your important policies and procedures.

Induction is when you induct a new employee to your organisation. It helps them get up and running really quickly and it protects your business from safety risks, in that everyone is inducted with the same information at the beginning and therefore will follow the correct policies and procedures from then on. If you, as a business manager, don't follow the procedures then no one will. If this is the case, we suggest you only include those procedures that you intend to follow and support.

Using our employee signoff checklist at the HR Shed, you can select the appropriate policies and procedures for the employee to view on our online induction. This way they won't be ready information that is meaningless to your business.

From an OHS perspective you need to be able to prove that the employee had enough knowledge to be able to safely perform his/her job. Providing this basic knowledge at induction and including a test to show they have passed will help you to provide the right evidence should your workplace be inspected.

Online inductions mean you have a complete record of all your employees who have been inducted and evidence that they have completed a test.

If you require staff to wear a uniform it is best to outline the specifics of the uniform in a policy. If you want to make sure it is well maintained state this in the policy. I have written policies on personal grooming that include specifications for where piercings are allowed and what nail polish colour is allowable. You can get quite specific and it is best to think of all possibilities at the beginning rather than keep updating and re-releasing your uniform policy.

Also, consider how you will distribute uniforms, how staff are to notify you when they need a replacement item. Do they need to purchase certain parts of the uniform themselves i.e. black shoes etc. Will you require them to return the uniform in full upon termination?

A policy and procedure for staff and HR professionals to follow is always a good option for streamlining activities and making expectations clear to all.

Policies and procedures provide a guide to your employees on what the organisations expectations are. They can help deal with difficult issues such as use of company phones, social media, drug and alcohol use, wearing a uniform etc. When you have a professional policy that the new employee agrees to on commencement then they are unlikely to go against policy and you will find your whole organisation changes to a very professional culture once policies are introduced.

HR Shed provides a huge selection of OHS and HR policies and procedures for you to use as your own. Please download the document, choose "save as" and save to your desktop. Then you can make changes and upload the document onto your letterhead. If you choose not to include letterhead, make sure you mention the company name somewhere in the document.

Any content written in bold red means it is important for legal or compliance reasons and you shouldn't remove it from the document.

Make sure you do take the time to customise the policies and procedures to be relevant for how things are done in your business. If you have some procedures in your manual that aren't in use, staff will start to think the whole thing isn't relevant and then it will be left to collect dust instead of being used.

We have recorded a very informative video on writing workplace policies effectively. If you visit the following link you will find out about correct formatting, what is essential in a policy, making sure you get your message right, including definitions and linking to important forms and documents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjrpvUOeHqI

At InciteHR most issues we deal with can be covered by an organisational policy. As we work exclusively with small businesses we can confidently say that you are never too small for a workplace policy. In fact the smaller the business, often the more difficult it is to deal with sensitive HR issues. For example, one of our clients felt that a staff member might have been coming to work drug effected. The said staff member had a reputation for liking a party and it was well known in the small office of 4 staff that she occasionally took social drugs. However, when she started acting quite erratically at work it was of great concern for the business owner. She didn't know how to handle the issue. We referred her back to the drug and alcohol policy that she had access to on the HR Shed and coached her through having a conversation with the employee regarding the policy. As the policy clearly states that employees who do not adhere to the policy may face dismissal, little else needed to be done.