Compliance issues confuse Australian employers

Australian employers are grappling with complex and constantly evolving workplace relations and regulatory landscapes. This has triggered compliance to move up in HR's day-to-day agenda. While it is tempting in the current climate to say hybrid or flexible working is the panacea for HR, if anything, it has increased complexity around compliance.

Without proper HR compliance, Australian companies can be exposed to penalties and fines, damaging employee claims and costly backpay orders so getting it right from the get-go is really important. Julian Arndt, associate director at Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors, says that while the workplace has changed, work laws haven’t.

“When people can work, how long they work, what they are expected to do, how much they should be paid when they work a certain number of hours and the massive one: are they safe and healthy when they’re working. These are the questions that any HR departments should be asking themselves,” says Arndt.

For much more information on HR compliance, tune in to our latest HRD Talk podcast with Julian Arndt.

The problem is when you have no clear sight on people, how do you answer some of these questions and how do you calculate what they are due?

“All employers should have written contracts saying when people are meant to work and what are the conditions under which they can work,” says Arndt.

While there is flexibility in the system, an employer still needs to protect itself by making it very clear about what are their expectations of an employee.

Speaking at a recent SAP SuccessFactors event, Karen Lonergan, chief people and stakeholder engagement officer at Stockland said that the interpretation of awards is a “specialist skill” and not something that can simply be handed to payroll to sort out. A very good system of record was vital. “If you haven’t got time and attendance right, then everything flows from that,” said Lonergan.

Community expectations of employers have changed as well and payroll errors that may have occurred in the past are now called wage theft and treated accordingly, says Lonergan.

“Risk tolerance has changed significantly. This comes against a background of people working more flexibly. The complexity is how do we square that circle?,” says Lonergan.

Leah Brown, Partner Workplace Integrity, Deloitte, speaking at the same event, said among clients she has found that departments are working in silos when they need to be working across compliance together.

“Payroll and IT should be in the first meeting with senior management when, for example, a company is discussing making work time more flexible ­- so that questions can be raised about whether it can be done. What hours are people actually working? Are there systems in place to record those? What codes need to be designed to make it happen?,” says Brown.

There are no cookie-cutter solutions in compliance with very bespoke solutions for each organisation, she adds, with Deloitte involved in lots of change management training with leaders to help them understand the ‘whys’ as well as the ‘whats’ of these new ways of working.  

Brown says that she has found among clients that departments are working in silos when they need to be working across compliance together.

There are no cookie-cutter solutions in compliance with very bespoke solutions for each organisation, she says. Deloitte has been involved in lots of change management training with leaders to help them understand the ‘whys’ as well as the ‘whats’ of these new ways of working.

Regular external audits with the high-risk areas of the business are important, particularly around well-being, says Brown.

Arndt talks about the many creative ways that you can get an overview of how safely your employees are working from their home office that doesn’t involve trekking around the country. For the more difficult issues that can range from bullying to isolation to disengagement, it comes down to decent management, he says.

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“Check-ins with your employees in relation to their mental health, their workload, their connection to other employees. Some employees thrive as lone wolves, other employees really struggle and it is important as direct managers to put some thought into how often have I spoken to my team,” says Arndt.

“Again, it’s about having a plan and being diligent and doing things methodically.”

The missing element is trust

In terms of managing these issues, it’s having a level of trust that goes both ways, says Arndt.

“If an employer can trust that their employee will remain industrious at home without having everything robotically accounted for, it will be far more likely that the employee is going to want to work in that environment. Equally if the employee accepts there will be a ‘swings and roundabout’ approach to flexibility - with some days more demand on their time, some days less - if they can be flexible as well, it’s much more likely chance that it will work, says Arndt.

For much more information on HR compliance, tune in to our latest HRD Talk podcast with Julian Arndt.