It is essential you get your employment contracts right. It is a breach of the Employment Relations Act in New Zealand to commence employment without a signed employment contract between the Employer and Employee. But amazingly there are still thousands of companies that do not provide employment contracts for their staff, or they are using agreements that are out of date or no longer relevant. 

What companies tend to forget is that a good employment contract can aid employment relations. It is of tremendous assistance for both parties i.e. the Employer and the Employee. Employment law can be a tricky area. A well-written employment agreement can help resolve employment relations issues quickly and save considerable time, effort and pain when any questions or disputes are raised by either party. 

If there is ever a time when you are in the unfortunate position of finding yourself in mediation or the Employment Court  the question always is: what it written in the Employment Agreement? Of course, if there is nothing in the agreement that covers the particular situation you are dealing with then the answer is open to interpretation by all parties concerned in the mediation or in the case of the Employment Court, the Judge.

A good employment contract is a comprehensive document.  You should never be afraid of having a large document dealing with all areas of employment relations. The more topics that are covered the less opportunity for misinterpretation. Below is a list of headings that should typically be covered in your agreement. Some may be optional depending on your industry and the position but they are a good guideline.

Of course, you may find writing something like this a very daunting prospect. We know employmwnt law and can supply tailored employment agreements that are clear and accurate. This will ensure that all eventualities are covered and both you and your employees are clearly aware of your responsibilities and accountabilities to each other. Employment contracts are a safeguard for all parties. If it is not spelled out clearly in an employment agreement then it is subject to any interpretation under employment law and can cause headaches for those involved further down the track. Call or enquire online now for further information click here

Salaries and benefits are a key component in attracting and retaining good staff. There are some companies that naturally attract people because of who they are and what they represent.  These companies rarely have to compete for good people. However, this type of company is in the minority and the greater percentage of companies have to compete with many others to attract the best people.

  

While it is acknowledged that money is not always a motivator it should never be ignored as a key drawcard when you need to find a great person. Having a good knowledge of what the current salary rates are and what benefits are being offered as further inducements is always useful when you are looking to attract a new talent.

This doesn't mean you always need to be ahead of the game but having the knowledge of where you sit in the general marketplace will assist you in determining where you need to be to get the right people applying to work in your company. 

  

SourceHR can supply you with up to the minute salary and benefit survey information and advise on the changing trends of benefit packages to enable you to maintain your competitiveness. This information can be used to benchmark yourself across many organisations either by industry or geographically in similar environments. This allows you to be as flexible as you believe you need to be to achieve the results you want.

  

Performance management is a topic, which is regularly discussed in HR circles.  Some HR professionals believe that performance management is a waste of time while others believe that it is an integral part of a company’s process and not enough emphasis is placed on it.

In reality, a performance management system is only as good as the people who are using it. Our experience with performance management systems is that companies generally have a system, which is too complex or not relevant enough and therefore does not get the care and attention that it is due.

Additionally, there is often very little (if any) training given to managers and team leaders in how to give feedback and conduct a good performance review. In these cases performance management becomes a millstone around the managers necks and as a result become meaningless.

A good performance management system should be easy to manage and should not take a large percentage of the managers and team leaders time to complete. The old agade of 'keep it simple, stupid' works every time.

Another common misunderstanding, which is prevalent amongst the Employees of a company is that performance management is linked to pay adjustments. This is simply not true and whenever we speak to companies regarding performance management systems we always recommend that they do not combine them with any sort of pay reviews.

Performance management is about an individual's job performance and not about rewards. It is not good policy to link the two together and create the expectation that good performance means more money. Many companies may not be in the position to be able to continue to increase salaries and wages but they still need to get the best performance from their Employees.

  

While there are lots of performance management systems available off the shelf, a large percentage of them cannot be simply introduced into a company without some modifications. SourceHR can develop a tailored solution to ensure that the performance management system that you use is relevant and covers all aspects of your industry. In addition, we will train your managers and team leaders to deliver a great performance review and have the confidence to deal with any issues that may arise.

  

Our solutions are both easy to install into your company and cost effective. Call or enquire online now for further information click here

Disciplinary procedure is never fun.  But from time to time it is necessary to have to deal with staff members that may not be performing at the required standard or who have problems or issues that need to be dealt with. Good disciplinary procedure is absolutely essential to ensure that you are able to carry out the necessary actions within acceptable guidelines to solve any issues before they escalate.

Your disciplinary procedure needs to be developed with a sound understanding of employment law. It should always be included in your employment agreement. It should also be fair and clearly understood by all parties to the agreement. The agreement should also detail how the disciplinary procedure will operate, what guidelines will be followed, how decisions will be made and what possible outcomes there could be including dismissal.

Example:

Before entering into a formal disciplinary process, the Employee will be given a reasonable opportunity to improve. This may be in the form of an informal verbal reprimand. The intent is to encourage the Employee to behave in a manner that is appropriate to their employment. In some cases it may be more appropriate to move directly to the formal procedures.

Before considering any form of disciplinary action employment law states an investigation into the alleged misconduct must be carried out promptly.

Prior to any disciplinary meeting, employment law requires the Employee be advised of the specific allegation and of the likely consequences should the allegation be found to be true. The Employee will also be advised that they are entitled to have a support person at the formal disciplinary meeting. During the meeting the Employee will be given an opportunity to explain or deny the allegation. The Employee's explanation and any mitigating circumstances will be considered before a decision is made on the appropriate course of action.

If the Employer decides to issue a warning, this will be formally and clearly issued and confirmed in writing. The Employee will be advised of any corrective action that is required and the consequence of continued or further instances of misconduct or substandard job performance.

There are 4 steps in the formal disciplinary procedure that will generally be followed:

Warnings are not limited to repetitions of the same or a similar offence but may be applied to offences of a different nature.  All warnings remain effective for a period of 3 months.

Where misconduct or substandard work performance is considered serious enough, a written warning, final written warning, or dismissal, may be issued without a verbal or written warning preceding it.  This is a clearly written disciplinary process and is procedurally fair and simple to understand.

If your employment agreement has this process in place then you should never go wrong. It is important to keep in mind though that if you have a process in your employment agreement then you must follow it to the letter! Lots of companies get themselves into trouble regularly because they don’t follow a good process and end up in either mediation or the employment court and find themselves in the wrong because the process they followed was deemed to be unfair to the employee. 

There are many other traps that you can fall into when undertaking a disciplinary procedure. Call or enquire online now for further information click here

While companies more often than not have a vision, mission statement, marketing strategy and a strategic plan, they very rarely have an HR plan or strategy. Strategic planning session are held and major decisions are made, which will have a significant impact on the company and how it operates in the future with little thought given to what sort of people and skills will be needed to assist the company in achieving its goals.

Having a good HR plan or strategy, which complements your strategic plan makes sense. If you know where you are going and how you are going to get there then you should also know who is going to help you along the way.

  

Stay one step ahead by determining and planning for your future HR needs by developing an HR plan in conjunction with the overall plan for your organisation. We can provide strategic HR planning advice as well as helping you to come up with the right plan to suit your organisation.

The advantages of strategic HR planning are many.  You can easily factor the costs of recruitment, training etc into your organisational budget. And it helps you to keep up with social, economic, legislative and technical trends that can impact on the human resources in your industry.

In short HR Planning and Strategy Development ensures you have the right people with the right skills at the right time.