How to use these policies

Policies and procedures have an important role to play in managing your business, however they can expose you to legal risks.  For example, if it is a term of an employee’s contract that they comply with a policy and your business does not follow the policy, you may be at risk of a breach of contract claim if the employee suffers damage as a result of your failure to follow the policy.  Other legal risks associated with the contents of policies and the implementation of policies include: OHS prosecutions, discrimination, unfair dismissal, unlawful termination, Trade Practices Act claims etc. These legal risks can be significant. If a claim is brought, depending on the damage suffered by an employee, the amount of compensation awarded can be very high, with some awards of millions of dollars.  For this reason, it is important that your business takes steps to reduce these legal risks.

Steps to Reduce Legal Risks

Your business can reduce the legal risks associated with its policies and procedures by:

*     Ensuring your policies and procedures are clearly drafted, clearly indicate who they are to apply to (eg employees, independent contractors etc), are not unduly prescriptive and provide you with sufficient discretion when administering your policies.  The policies contained in HR Advance are drafted with these aims in mind.

*     Ensuring your contracts of employment, independent contractor agreements and workplace agreements clearly indicate that the policies and procedures of your business do not form part of these agreements.  The HR Advance Engagement letter , contract of employment, independent contracting agreement, AWA and Collective Agreement, all clearly indicate this.

*     Checking that your policies and procedures are consistent with the industrial instruments (eg. Awards, workplace agreements, notional agreements preserving state awards, contracts of employment, AWAs etc) which set out the terms and conditions of your employees’ employment. To the extent your policies and procedures are inconsistent, the terms of these industrial instruments will prevail. As such, it may be necessary to include a term to this affect in your policies and procedures.

*     Ensuring you comply with your policies and procedures and administer your employment and other workplace agreements in accordance with their terms.

*     Reviewing your policies and procedures at regular intervals to ensure they stay up to date with current laws and continue to meet your business needs.  Employees should be notified of any amendments to the policies and procedures and be provided with further training if required.

*     Ensuring employees are made aware of the policies and procedures which pertain to their employment and are trained in relation to their obligations.  This training should be provided on induction and refresher training provided every 1-2 years, or more regularly, depending on the requirements of your business.  Your employees’ comprehension and understanding of the training should be tested. You should keep a written record of the training undertaken by each employee and what this training involved.  Testing records should also be kept.

*     Ensuring that each employee signs an acknowledgment that they have been provided with a copy of or access to the particular policy and have had training in relation to it.  An appropriate acknowledgment is included with the HR Advance policies.

*     Ensuring your managers and supervisors are properly trained in your business’ policies and procedures so they can effectively administer them in a timely and efficient manner.