The Latest from Kristy-Lee

Hello and welcome to Episode 229 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we are answering another listeners question which is: what can I do when an employee is taking sick leave but I know they are not actually sick?

Sick and Carers Leave can be one of the trickiest types of leave to manage, and because it is a protected workplace right, there is often little an employer can do if they think an employee is using sick leave for other purposes.

In this episode we unpack what Sick and Carers leave is, and what the entitlement each employee has to this sort of leave. 

We discuss an employers rights if they feel sick leave is being used inappropriately.

And finally we look at what we can do to protect our businesses around excessive and inappropriate sick leave usage.

As always, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join...

Policies that support your business and team

If you run a business or an organisation, the Code of Conduct is one policy you want to invest in.

Creating policies for your business might not be the most exciting task, we get it – but some guidelines are essential, and this is one of them.

 Having a code underpins and informs almost everything your business does, from communication best practices to acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. In this blog post, we explore what a Code of Conduct is, where and why it's useful, and how it can significantly benefit your business.

What is a Code of Conduct?

A Code of Conduct is a formal document that outlines the guiding principles, standards, and behavioural expectations for all team members within your organisation. It serves as a set of rules and guidelines that govern interactions, communications, and behaviour between employees, management, and other stakeholders.

A well-designed Code of Conduct promotes ethical...

Hello and welcome to Episode 228 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today we’re chatting about something that I can’t quite believe we have never discussed on the podcast – whether an employee should work through their notice period.

Today I discuss what notice period might apply and when notice needs to be provided, I share some thoughts on what your notice periods should look like and we cover off whether employees get to make their own decisions on their notice period and what should happen during this time.

Then we shift focus to whether you should have an employee work through their notice period, or pay them out in lieu. I share my considerations when making decisions about this, and that it’s something to very much consider on a case by case basis.

As always, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be...

Understanding Motivation:

Understanding how to motivate your team can be one of the biggest challenges business owners, managers and leaders face. Finding the right people for your business is just the first step, once you have the players in place, getting the most out of them, motivating them and pushing for greater productivity and motivation is an ongoing pain point which can often feel like some sort of secret witchcraft.

Our Usual Default:

For many managers, when thinking of ways to motivate staff, our automatic default is to entice them with some form of incentive, or show them recognition with some sort of gift, reward or show of gratitude. Some people even think that the bigger the gesture, the more expensive the gift or reward, the higher the motivation should be.

Then, after outlaying the money, expecting a huge return on their investment by achieving high motivation across the team, they are disappointed, frustrated and resentful that their efforts have had...

Hello and welcome to Episode 227 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today I am sharing with you a conversation that Juliet Robinson (Big Goals) and I had over on the Grow Your Influence podcast a little while back.

Dealing with toxic employees, and navigating a workplace culture that has become toxic is something I get asked about often – and it can be incredibly stressful and challenging as a leader and business owner.

But there are things you can do to change a toxic culture, and that’s what we share in this discussion.

I’d love to hear from you, and how you have navigated challenges with toxic team members in the past. I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you might be having.

Join Here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia

Time to Pause

As we kick off a brand new financial year, it can be a perfect time to pause, and take a look at how we are tracking with our vision, goals and objectives for the year.

For many businesses the plans, goals, strategies and projects they put in place at the beginning of the year may be just gradually moving along, or in some cases things may have been switched direction, or upended more than once.

The New Year Shine

At the beginning of the year, we are typically all bright eyed and bushy tailed. We are refreshed from our traditional Christmas close down and break, we are motivated by our vision for the year ahead and excited to share it with our team.

For many of you that may have looked like a team planning and strategy day, where you got the whole team together, virtually or in person, to share the vision, get them excited and communicate clearly their role in making that happen.

That results in a great spike in engagement, as our teams all want to be part of...

Hello and welcome to Episode 226 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Well we have hit the time of year where motivation tends to be low – so today we’re talking about giving your team a mid-year motivation boost with a mid-year reset.

Firstly I’ll chat about why motivation wanes at this time of year. From the high energy and enthusiastic start to the year, post Easter we always see a decline in motivation. Coupled with that it’s cold and miserable, we’re tired and on any given day every second person is sick!

And that’s why it’s so important to give your team a motivation boost right now. You can rest assured if you’re feeling blah – your team are too! Focusing on motivating the team right now will certainly set you up for a better second half of the year and let’s face it, we all need something to focus on and look forward to.

We wrap up this episode with my sharing some of my favourite mid year motivation boosting...

At the time of writing this article, it’s smack bang in the middle of the calendar year, and the very beginning of a new financial year.

This is always a great opportunity to reset, revisit things and take a look at the structure of your team.

Maybe you’re starting to feel like the constant bottle neck…

Or like you are trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole when it comes to someone on your team and the role they are in….

Possibly everyone is feeling stretched too thin, burnt out even and you know that at any moment one of those things you’re juggling is going to come crashing down.

Why We Feel These Pains

It’s not that your people are doing a bad job, or underperforming, but simply that the skills they have no longer suit the business, or that the business has changed and needs new skills.

All businesses face these challenges as they grow and evolve. The skills that were once critical to your service delivery perhaps are now...

At the time of writing this article, the Fair Work Commission has recently handed down its decision following the Annual Minimum Wage Review process. The process involves the Commission reviewing submissions from various interested parties, including employer and employee representative groups, as well as analysing data relating to wages, such as changes to cost of living and alike.

What is The Annual Minimum Wage Review

Essentially, they are looking to ensure that the minimum wages set out in the Fair Work Act, including the National Minimum Wage, as well as al Award minimum rates of pay, is set at an appropriate level for our current economic conditions.

What Else is Changing

In addition to the National Minimum Wage and Award Rate changes, we are in the midst of a raft of changes to Industrial Relations legislation, which applies to not only wages, but various other aspects of the employment relationship.

Keeping up with compliance obligations is one of the key pain...

Hello and welcome to Episode 224 of the People Powered Business Podcast.

Today I am bringing you an end of financial year compliance wrap up.

This time of year is always an important time for finance people, it’s often less of an issue for our HR matters. But not this year!

The absolute flux of change that’s happening right now in regards to compliance obligations is unprecedented and Fair Work have made it clear that not knowing is not an excuse to fail to comply with your obligations as an employer.

So today we look at the key changes that have occurred in the last 12 months, the current important changes and what’s on the horizon when it comes to more changes in the next 12 months.

If you’d like to connect with other businesses who are also juggling the challenges of teams, I’d love you to join us inside our free Facebook Group, HR Support for Australian Businesses, so I can learn more about what’s working for you and any challenges you...