Unfortunately, dealing with allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace is an issue for many employers. Sexual harassment can take many forms, and cases are rarely "open and shut".

Once allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct have been made, they must be appropriately investigated and dealt with. However, prevention is always better than cure.

Let's take a look at employer…

Will the real agenda please stand up!

One of the biggest contributors to mistrust between a staff member and their manager is the belief by the staff member that the manager has a hidden agenda.

The staff member doesn’t know what the manager’s hidden agenda is but they have such a strong suspicion that one exists they can almost become consumed by trying to work out what…

Every professional in Australia at some point in their career needs to turn to an HR professional. This is exactly why the HR industry is a high-involvement one and the demand for jobs in it continues to increase. The good news is, we live in the age of technology and…

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, many companies found themselves in a situation they were completely unprepared for. In the chaos of the crashing economy, CEOs and other leaders were forced to make some hard decisions and, under the pressure, many of those decisions turned out to be wrong, especially those…

Employers understand that it is their responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Yet unlike physical health safety concerns and hazards such as lifting, tripping, sun exposure and dust reduction, many employers find themselves uncertain about how to support the mental health and wellbeing of their staff.

The first and most powerful antidote to this uncertainty is becoming informed. For business owners and managers,…

When considering claims of adverse action under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FW Act) a key focus of inquiry is the actual reasons of the decision-maker for engaging in the action.

The Federal Court of Australia recently considered this point in determining whether a major law firm engaged in adverse action in contravention of the FW Act when it dismissed a lawyer who had publicly criticised the law firm’s clients, being two Commonwealth Government…

One of the National Employment Standards (NES) under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) is the entitlement for employees in particular circumstances to request a flexible working arrangement with their employer. Such requests can only be refused by employers on reasonable business grounds.

An employer’s refusal of a flexible working arrangement request was recently considered by the Fair Work Commission (the FWC) in Phillips v…

A bottle shop attendant in Cairns was recently awarded compensation in excess of $39,000 after she was dismissed for being pregnant (Leutton v Sheralee Hotels Pty Ltd Trading As Imperial Tavern & Ors [2019] FCCA 2471).

The employee was working in the drive through bottle shop of a tavern when she was informed by her doctor that, because of her pregnancy, she should not lift more than 5kg.

Following her visit to her doctor, the employee attended a meeting with the…

For many businesses, one of the critical HR questions is whether investigations into alleged employee misconduct or misbehaviour should be outsourced or conducted in-house.

Depending on the nature of the business and the complaint, it may not always be appropriate or cost-effective for investigations to be referred externally.

However, in other circumstances, particularly when the allegations…

Often organisation’s make the move to the total cloud environment primarily for systems and cost savings reasons, but promotional products company, Legendlife.com.au, migrated to a total cloud environment to help solve staff frustration with lack of productivity as a result of poor IT solutions.

Legendlife.com.au CEO, Allan Murray said that they were facing staff resignations as result of the frustration with their IT systems.

“Even basic services such as email and printing…

On occasion, police will become involved and/or need to be involved in the allegations from a workplace matter. In this situation, it's important for employers to know what their obligations are, and to be aware of some of the challenges that can arise. 

So, let's take a look at when police are or may need to be called in and what should happen once they are. 

WHAT MATTERS REQUIRE THE…

A company is only as good as the employees it keeps. No matter how good your equipment is, no matter how strong your marketing efforts are, you need people to run things. Good electronics and software won’t mean much if you don’t have people who can use them. And the best…

A NSW scaffolding business has been convicted and fined after it pleaded guilty to an offence under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) (WHS Act) (SafeWork NSW v Sydney Hoist and Scaffolding Pty Ltd [2019] NSWDC 442).

The Sydney-based scaffolding business pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its primary duty under s19 of the WHS Act, when it exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury.

The incident that resulted…

To have a successful organisation, there are a lot of factors business owners and managers have to pay attention to, from having all the finances in place to make sure their product/service is top-notch and exactly what the customers need. However, one crucial aspect that cannot be forgotten under no circumstances are the employees.

The staff is what keeps the operation going and running smoothly. To attract top…

The workplace is a melting pot of people with different personalities, personal values, past experiences and levels of maturity in self awareness and emotional intelligence. This means that each colleague will react to situations in different ways according to their fears and subconscious protection mechanisms.

Unfortunately this means that some of your colleagues will react inappropriately and this will be demonstrated in various ways. Some reactionary behaviours can be very subtle…

While 1 in 8 is the official figure for the number of Australian employees who are carers, it is likely that this is an under representation as many carers don’t identify as one. This is particularly so for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and for Aboriginal Australians.

It is important that…

A growing number of employees, especially millennials, is taking their dogs to work because there are more companies today offering pet-friendly working environment. Pets are actually good for the mental health of the employees but it's necessary to train your dog for the office so…