Inspire Success

If your employees are covered by a modern award, you are able to make an agreement with one or more of these employees to vary the application of modern award terms dealing with:

• working hours and days;
• overtime rates;
• penalty rates; and
• allowances and leave loading.

The flexibility agreement allows for variations to modern awards in order to meet the genuine needs of employers and individual employees while ensuring minimum entitlements and protections are not undermined.

Here are 5 things your award flexibility agreement must include to be considered legal:

1. It must outline exactly what has been agreed to, and how the terms of employment have been varied.
2. It must demonstrate how the agreement does not disadvantage the employee in their terms and conditions of employment.
3. It must state the date that the agreement will commence.
4. It must state that the agreement can be terminated by either party by giving 4 weeks written notice of termination.
5. It must be signed and dated by both you and the employee.

It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the employee is better off overall than if there was no award flexibility agreement. The employer’s ‘better off overall’ assessment will usually involve comparing the employee’s financial benefits under the flexibility agreement with the financial benefits under the applicable award or enterprise agreement. The employee’s personal circumstances and any non-financial benefits which are significant to the employee can also be considered.
After you have made an award flexibility agreement with an employee, you must keep a copy of it on file and also give a copy to the employee.

Remember, you cannot make the signing of an award flexibility agreement a condition of employment and you can only make an award flexibility agreement with an employee covered by a modern award. However you can't make an award flexibility agreement with an employee who is covered by an enterprise agreement.

With employees working long hours and a focus being put on maximising the efforts of the workforce pressure is inevitably felt, pressure which we all call stress. For those whose work week has been stretched to the limit work life imbalance is created and work eats into personal time. Sacrifices are made to keep the wheels churning at work. With results from surveys such as fivefootfour and redballoon showing us that a number of employees are not happy in the workplace it is important to ease the pressure cooker of stress at work. Here we look at stress management tips in the workplace for the individual and the business owner ...

Some stress can be a positive thing.... stress can be a motivator, some of us enjoy working under pressure or feel we work best when we have some pressure or stress. However, when stress is having a negative effect on your wellbeing it’s time to look at ways to get the balance back. Finding ways to manage workplace stress is not about making huge changes to every aspect of your work life or rethinking career ambitions. Stress management requires focus on the one thing that’s always within your control: you.

Tips on managing job stress:-

• Take care of yourself – when stress is adversely impacting your health or interfering with how you do at work or on your personal life it’s time to make changes. When you take care of yourself you are stronger and more resilient to stress. Even small changes can give you back control and make you feel happier and more energetic. Changes can include small but positive lifestyle choices and ensuring you stick to them – an exercise class, yoga, meditation, listening to music, a weekend away etc whatever helps you unwind, enjoy it. It’s a very important way to improve your physical and emotional well-being.
• Reduce job stress by prioritizing and organizing – create a balanced schedule, don’t over commit and plan regular breaks. If you have too much on your plate list what “must” be done and what “should” be done and push the to do items that are not essential to the bottom of the list. Take breaks during the day to clear your mind. Stepping away from work to briefly relax and recharge will help you be more, not less, productive.
• Reduce job stress by breaking bad habits – resist being perfect, reduce clutter, rule out negative thinking. No project, decision or person is perfect so don’t set unrealistic goals or expectations of yourself. Aim to do you very best and be happy that you have done that. Reduce the clutter, tidy your desk, file documents, get your emails organised and stick to your to-do list and cross off items as achieved. These will all help you to feel less overwhelmed every day. Focus only on the things you have control over and don’t stress or worry about the things out of your control.
• Connect with others at work – listen to your colleagues, communicate with them, enjoy some social time with colleagues after work hours. Being part of a supportive team can really help relieve stress and make you happier in the workplace.

Reducing stress of your employees:-

Happy people are more engaged with their work, build better relationships with colleagues and clients, have less sick days and tend to remain in a role longer. It's in your best interest to keep stress levels in the workplace to a minimum. Managers/ leaders can act as positive role models, especially in times of high stress. If you can remain calm in stressful work situations, it is much easier for your employees to also remain calm. Here are our top three tips to reduce stress in your workplace:-

Improve communication

• Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs, questions, futures
• Clearly define employees’ roles and responsibilities
• Make communication friendly and efficient

Consult with your employees

• Give your employees opportunities to be involved in decisions that affect their jobs
• Ensure your team’s workload is suitable to their abilities and resources
• Avoid unrealistic deadlines
• Show that your employees are valued
• Offer rewards and incentives
• Praise good work performance, both verbally and officially, one example would be having an employee of the month award
• Provide opportunities for career development
• Promote a work culture that gives employees more control over their work.

Have a friendly social climate

• Provide opportunities for social interaction among your employees
• Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment
• Make management actions consistent with organizational values.

Also see our previous article on tips for managing stress in the workplace

Getting organized and being productive are often on our New Year’s resolution lists. Productive people ensure their time is spent working towards their goals. They prioritize what must be done to reach them, recognizing when an activity ultimately delays their success. Being productive means steering clear of distractions and not succumbing to procrastination. Here are some tips to help you get 2012 off to a productive start and make the most of your time every day at work.

1. Set goals – setting goals at the start of the year is important and tracking the progress you make towards your goal ensures you keep on track. Setting goals keeps you focused and motivated. By considering whether the things you do are carrying you closer to meeting your goals, you’ll be able to focus on genuine productivity.
2. Manage time and improve your time management skills. Time management requires discipline but gives you a greater degree of control over what you do during the day.  Good time management makes you more efficient and can make improvements to your life at work and at home.
3. Get organised – make a to do list, keep track of due dates and long term reminders, manage interruptions and work on one task at a time are some ways to help get your organised. Being overwhelmed by a lack of time, space or energy won’t allow you to set goals. Breaking the process down and being organised at every step will see you setting goals in next to no time.
4. Keep meetings to the set time – schedule meetings for a set time, ensure the meetings start on time and don’t go over the time allocated 
5. Manage your inbox – email is essential for businesses but managing your inbox can be hugely time consuming.  It is important to think about how you organize, reply to and even think about your emails. Some tips include setting a time frame on how long you spend on email every day, act upon an email with a response, save it or delete it, prioritise/use folders for emails, have a separate account for personal and work email and unsubscribe from excess email subscriptions. Email is a fantastic tool when managed well but does take some work to get them under control
6. Manage time on mobile phone –The use of smartphones is on the rise and this means we can now use our phones for a lot more than calls and text messages. We can now check emails, use the internet, open documents, work on different software etc. On the plus their usage can help increase your productivity, you are accessible 24/7, you never miss emails, messages or updates. The downside of this is the risk of burnout and constant distraction. It’s important to manage the time spent on them and not be completely dependent on it.
7. Stamp out stress – stress has many causes including long hours, heavy workload, job insecurity and work conflicts. If stress is excessive and going on for some time it can lead to physical and mental ill health. Learn about methods to prevent and reduce your  job stress
8. Go paperless - Get things done efficiently (and save the environment) by going paperless in 2012. Going paperless can save money, reduce clutter, save space, keep your data safe and allow documentation and information sharing. Just ensure you back up the information and documents!
9. Be productive while working on your PC – are your systems out of date, slow or problematic – improve your PC systems to increase your productivity. Upgrading your systems (when required) enhances security and helps increase productivity and decrease costs
10. Have fun - finally, all the above mentioned tips are meant to make you productive enough to take time out now and then, and enjoy time away from your desk.  Getting to know your team/colleagues and enjoying social events with them can help to make people more motivated. And what better way than the upcoming Christmas parties...Have fun!

Are your employees happy.....

As 2011 comes to an end it is good for everyone to look back on the year that was. As a business owner it is very important to learn from the good times during the year, the accomplishments, the growth but also to look at any difficulties and challenges faced in the last 12 months and learn from them. A critical thing to monitor and be involved in is your organisation culture and to have a think about the general “feel” within your organisation as the year ends. As we have discussed in recent newsletters a happy workforce is a productive workforce. The surveys recently completed by fivefootfour and redballoon provide interesting reading on the happiness or unhappiness of Australian employees currently.

According to the fivefootfour survey the Australian workforce is largely unhappy. The report on the Australian workforce released by fivefootfour revealed some interesting results and certainly some food for thought. They wanted to look at how happy Australian employees are in work and the key things that motivate them.

The top 5 findings were:

1. Only 54% of Australian workers are happy at work, 25% feel depressed most of the day once a week.
2. 60% of the Australian workforce is bored.
3. The three big issues behind workforce unhappiness are flexibility, creativity and the misrepresentation of Gen Y.
4. 35% of Gen Y's will be looking for a new job in the next 12 months.
5. The ideal workplace composition consists of a mix of employees motivated by the following 7 drivers:

*Flexibility and balance (27%).
*Knowledge for growth (23%).
*Ambition to progress (16%).
*Creativity and freedom (16%).
*Mentoring and learning (11%).
*Variety and momentum (4%).
*Collaboration and interaction (4%).

Workplaces stressors such as lack of work life balance and a lack of job satisfaction are taking a toll on the health and well being of Australian workers. The report also found that 25% of Australians feel ‘blue’ or depressed most of the day once a week and 49% once or twice a month; 60% of the Australian workforce is bored in their current job; and that creative thinkers are jumping ship.

Trudi Sampola, co-founder of fivefootfour, commented:- “Australian businesses need to get more flexible and start recognising the importance of understanding their employees’ values and motivations on an individual level,” says Trudi. While a flexible and engaging workplace is a priority for many employees, 78% of Australian workers want a job that allows them to think creatively.“Businesses that identify the creative thinkers within the team, and give them the opportunity to integrate this value into their role, will reap the rewards,” says Trudi. 35% of Gen Ys (who make up 23% of the Australian workforce) in the survey said that they are likely to look for a new job in the New Year.

Trudi points out the German workforce have more worklife balance and flexibility and as a result are more productive in her comments -“Germans are very clearly output focused versus placing a currency on the number of hours spent in the workplace. Australia needs to change the workplace game, less emphasis on clocking up the hours and more emphasis on getting the job done,” says Trudi.

The Insync Surveys (http://www.insyncsurveys.com.au ) and RedBalloon 2011 Dream Employers Survey (http://www.redballoon.com.au/corporate/articles/google-wins-again) attracted over 7100 responses from the general public. According to the results from this survey the top three drivers that make a Dream Employer in 2011 are:

• pay, benefits and conditions (38 per cent) - up 11 percentage points from sixth position in 2010
• work-life balance (37 per cent) - up nine percentage points from third position in 2010
• culture (36 per cent) - down three percentage points from second position in 2010

This is a shift from last year when the top motivation was brand or company reputation, dropping from 41 per cent in 2010 to 27 per cent this year.

The high income threshold increased from 1 July 2011, along with modern award and minimum wages. The high income threshold affects how a modern award applies to an employee, and affects their ability to access unfair dismissal.
From 1 July 2011:

• the high income threshold increased to $118,100
• the compensation limit under unfair dismissal increased to $59,050.

The high income threshold is indexed annually on 1 July.

Why is the high income threshold important?

The high income threshold affects three main entitlements:

• employees who earn over the high income threshold, and who are not usually covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement, cannot make a claim for unfair dismissal
• employees who have agreed to a written guarantee of annual earnings by their employer, that is more than the high income threshold, no longer receive their modern award entitlements. However, they are still entitled to unfair dismissal.
• the maximum compensation payable for unfair dismissal is capped at either half the high income threshold, or the equivalent of six months of the dismissed employee’s wage, whichever is lower.

So, it is important to calculate exactly how much employees are earning from 1 July 2011. The increase in the high income threshold could mean a major change to an employee’s workplace entitlements.

What’s counted under the high income threshold?

To find out whether an employee is earning above this threshold, the following are included in any calculation:

• wages
• amounts applied or dealt with in any way on the employee's behalf or as the employee directs (e.g. superannuation top-ups, salary sacrifice)
• the agreed monetary value of non-monetary benefits (e.g. personal use of a company car, mobile phone or laptop).

The following are not counted:

• commissions, bonuses, overtime, and any other payment where the amount can’t be determined in advance
• reimbursements
• employer contributions to superannuation.

Employers and employees should review their wages to determine if the change affects them.
For further information you can review the Fair Work Act website http://www.fairwork.gov.au/media-centre/latest-news/2011/06/pages/20110627-high-income-threshold-rises-to-118100.aspx  Contact Inspire Success if you would like to discuss how this affects your business.

What is 360 degree feedback

360 degree respondents can be the employee’s peers, supervisors, managers, team members, other staff members, customers, suppliers – anyone who can provide objective feedback on the employee. Sources should be chosen on factors such as their knowledge of the employee’s performance, the importance of their relationship with the employee and their ability to provide objective feedback and use examples to back up their opinions.  The process for identifying respondents should be clearly set out with employees having some opportunity to input. The feedback is typically provided on a form (paper or online) showing job skills/abilities/attitudinal/behavioural criteria and some sort of scoring or value judgement system. The employee should also assess themselves using the same feedback form. In order for the 360-degree feedback process to be effective, it is important that it be designed and used correctly. The confidentiality of everyone involved should be respected at all times and the feedback should be summarised and delivered to the employee by individuals trained in feedback techniques. Employees should always be offered support to act on feedback.

Why use 360 feedback:

360 feedback can help to identify strengths and development needs for the employee and also help managers by providing insights into their management and leadership role. 360 feedback can open up communications about performance because the process involves giving and receiving feedback from all directions in the organization. Understanding ourselves and how we interact with others helps us understand the impact we have on those around us. 

Companies typically use a 360 feedback system in one of two ways:

1. 360 feedback as a development tool to help employees recognize strengths and weaknesses and become more effective
When done properly, 360 feedback is highly effective as a development tool. Employees can gain insight into how others perceive them and have an opportunity to adjust behaviours and develop skills that will enable them to improve / excel at their jobs. It can tell you where the development is needed for your employees so you don’t end up wasting a huge amount of money on training that people don’t need.

2. 360 Feedback as a Performance Appraisal Tool
360 feedback focuses on behaviours and competencies more than on basic skills, job requirements, and performance objectives. These things are most appropriately addressed by an employee and his/her manager as part of the annual review and performance appraisal process. The 360 feedback can enhance your performance management system, by incorporating 360 feedback into a larger performance management process, but only with clear communication on how the 360 feedback will be used.

What does 360 Feedback measure

• 360 feedback measures competencies – for example leadership, decision making, problem solving, customer service, motivation etc
• 360 feedback can identify underlying attitudes and thinking patterns that drive behaviour  and even help resolve what is causing counter-productive actions
• 360 reviews provide feedback on how others perceive an employee
• 360 feedback addresses skills such as listening, planning, and goal-setting
• A 360 evaluation can identify and measure areas such as customer service, teamwork, training needs, work environment and leadership effectiveness. The feedback can then be used to create development plans to increase capabilities and performance.

Rewarding and recognising your staff can be as simple as a pat on the back to a more structured salary review process. What is important is that your employees feel valued and know they are recognised for the contribution they make to your business.  While it is true that people often do not move jobs for money alone, the remuneration on offer can play a significant role, both in attracting a candidate to join your firm, or leading a current employee to “look around”. Here we look at the salary review process.....

Why do a salary review
You can keep your salary review and performance review separate but it does make sense to bring the two together and allows you to reward your high performing staff. If you are managing both processes it is best practice for the salary review to happen immediately after the performance appraisals. For those who manage these processes they believe that being paid appropriately is a form of recognition and sends a message to staff regarding how much they are valued. Whilst money is by no means the sole motivating factor at work, if you underpay, it is a definite de-motivator, and in this employment market this is likely to lead to staff moving to firms who will pay them the recognition they feel they deserve.

In general, salary reviews are about two things:

1. How the employee performs their job.
2. Where that employee fits relative to the external job market.

Getting the right information for your salary review
It’s important when managing a salary review to look at what the market is paying. You can get information from contacts in your network, from industry information gained through salary surveys from various organisations and from Human Resource and recruitment professionals. Finding out what it would cost to replace an employee in the current market is revealing and valuable information.

Salary reviews are an important process and require care and preparation in order to meet your employees’ expectations and ensure that the review is a valuable process. It is also important that full explanations are offered as to the reasons and criteria behind why salaries are reviewed. Not everyone may receive a salary increase or at least an increase at the level they were expecting, so it is important that their expectations are managed correctly by fully justifying and preparing prior to undertaking the review. Likewise, you may be in a position to offer someone a pay increase at a higher level than they were expecting. Here, it is important that you fully utilise this situation by praising and congratulating on excellent performance or contribution.
Although companies have different approaches to reviewing and remunerating employees, simple considerations can help you make the process become more effective:

Tips for your salary review process

• Have a good understanding of the objectives of your performance and salary review processes prior to beginning e.g. to align your business and employee goals, to recognise and reward well performing employees etc
• The process should be carefully planned and documented from beginning to end
• Ensure all your Managers are trained in the process being used and understand how the review should be conducted. Have template documents that are used so that employees are all treated in the same way and so fairly
• Ensure feedback and decisions are objective and based on your benchmarking criteria and that they are clear and easily understood by your Managers and employees
• Make sure your rating system is fair and easy for employees to understand. Have each rating translate into what the raise in salary will be (if performance unsatisfactory then there would not be a raise)
• Ensure pay is reviewed in line with the Modern Award rates of pay

In recent newsletters we have discussed the importance of finding and employing the right employees, their induction and their probationary period. Hiring employees is just a start to creating a strong work force. Next, you have to keep them. High employee turnover costs you in time and productivity. Here we discuss ways to reward and retain those employees, the importance of showing employees why they should stay working for you and also how it can improve your reputation with future employees. Salary increases and bonuses are ways to reward and retain employees but in this article we will focus on non monetary ways for retaining that key talent in your business......

Why put so much effort into keeping them?

Retaining employees is a good measure of how healthy your business is. If you are losing key employees chances are that other employees are looking also.

There are a lot of benefits to retaining your employees and these include:-

• Cost savings – the cost of staff turnover is very expensive as well as time consuming
• Improved productivity – continued work efficiency and customer service. It also ensures a reliable knowledge base about your business processes, policies and procedures
• Positive staff morale
• Happy clients – clients have continued relationship with same staff members
• Allows employees to build on their knowledge base and make career development
• Positive culture for your business which is good for current employees and new recruits

Ways to reward and retain employees
It is important for your business to keep your employees motivated and engaged and in return retain them. As the saying goes; “A happy worker is a productive worker”.

Salary is not the only way to motivate staff. There are a number of non monetary ways to  help your staff feel important and rewarded and keep them motivated and happy. These include:-

• Incentivise your employees – there are low and no-cost incentives you can use to make your staff feel valued e.g. an afternoon off, cinema tickets, breakfast morning etc
• Meet your employees regularly to talk about their work, what motivates them, their professional development and discussing the long term vision for them with your business
• Good quality supervision of employees – supervisors have an important role in the retention of employees. Its very important the supervisor does not make the employee feel undervalued. Examples of good supervision include providing feedback about performance, having regular meetings and being clear about work expectations.
• Allow employees to offer ideas, have open communication and give feedback – let employees feel comfortable doing this and encourage their involvement
• Having a fair and equitable company – treating employees equally is very important in retaining them
• Giving employees the opportunities to learn and grow in their knowledge, skills and career -   coaching employees by Managers, attending seminars, training, conferences etc
• Promoting from within whenever possible, having clear paths of advancement for employees

To retain staff you must make them feel rewarded, recognised and appreciated. It is good to be creative in (non monetary) ways of keeping employees happy and choose whatever works best for your business, even the simple act of saying “thank you” can go a long way…….