New Year's Resolutions for your Business
The start of the New Year is the perfect time to make sure your business is prepared for the year ahead! We have put together our top 5 tips for setting your business up for HR success in the New Year:
1. Policies and Procedures
Check that your policies and procedures reflect your businesses current circumstances and amend them, where necessary, to reflect any changes in your practices, legislation and/or industry standards or guidelines.
If your business does not have policies and procedures, now is the time to put them in place! Every business should have policies and procedures to ensure they meet their legal requirements and reduce their legal risks.
Policies and procedures offer many benefits, including to set the standard of behaviour and performance expected of employees and to help employers apply a consistent approach when dealing with workplace matters, for example complaints, disciplinary and performance management issues. Some important policies that every business should have relate to conduct, discrimination, bullying and harassment, workplace health and safety, grievances or complaints, internet and email use, leave, performance counselling and discipline.
When you implement (or amend) policies and procedures, you should ensure that:
your policies and procedures (and any changes to them) are communicated and accessible to your employees;
you provide regular training to your employees about your policies and procedures where necessary; and
good practice is to have your employees confirm in writing that they have read and understood the policies and procedures and will comply with them.
2. Employment Contracts
If you are using template employment contracts for your employees, you should have these reviewed to ensure they are compliant with any changes to law, including changes to any applicable Modern Award/s. Employment and Industrial Relations law is an area which is always changing, so it is important to ensure you keep up to date with changes and ensure your contracts are compliant. If you need to vary an existing employment contract, make sure you consider any contractual variation requirements.
Businesses often find themselves in trouble when they have not implemented changes relevant to their business (such as minimum wage increases), resulting in them breaching the law (for example for underpayment of wages) and facing significant penalties even where this was a simple oversight.
If you do not have employment contracts, you should put contracts in place to provide protection for your business. An employment contract helps to ensure that the rights and obligations of each party (the employer and employee) are clearly understood. It can also provide additional protections to employers and employees in regard to agreeing on specific terms, for example, in regard to confidentiality, intellectual property, certain benefits and imposing restraints on solicitation of clients and employees, as well as engaging in competition with your business.
3. Position Descriptions
Over time your business may create new positions or make changes to existing positions. It is good practice to regularly check if any changes should be made to your position descriptions, for example if you need to create a new position description for a role or you need to change an existing position description because certain duties are no longer required or additional duties are required.
If you do not have any position descriptions in place, we recommend putting these in place. They make it clear what duties an employee is expected to perform and can assist you when you wish to manage performance, as it gives you a reference point for the standard/duty that was expected and allows you to demonstrate how the employee has failed to meet that standard.
Remember to consult and communicate with your employees about any changes that may affect them.
4. Mental Health
There has been a significant focus on mental health in recent times and we have seen many legislative changes in this area, including in relation to managing psychosocial hazards at work.
Businesses should proactively review their employee’s mental health and identify any issues and how to address them. For example, consider asking your employees to voice any concerns they may have in relation to matters which may be affecting their mental health at work. This is one way to be more proactive in resolving any issues and ensuring a healthy and happy workplace. This could have great outcomes for the productivity of your business given happier and more satisfied workers generally perform better.
5. Set Goals
Finally, consider what goals you want the business and employees to achieve in the New Year. Goals are an important part of running a successful business. They can give you a clear focus, motivate employees and set targets for you and your employees to work towards.
Consider for example, setting goals related to profit you wish to achieve, improving customer service to retain and build on your existing customers, improving culture in the workplace etc. The scope is broad - think of what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it and work towards making it happen! It is helpful to put in place SMART goals which are - specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
The McKays Solicitors – Employment and Industrial Relations Law team can provide legal advice tailored to your business to ensure your business is off to a great start in 2024! This could include drafting or reviewing your policies and procedures, employment contracts and position descriptions and otherwise helping you to understand your employer obligations. The team can also conduct a full audit on your business to identify any gaps in compliance and provide associated advice. If this is something you would be interested in finding more about, please contact our experienced team.