Tanda Blog: Industry Insights

Andrew Stirling

28 May 2020    |   

The Federal Court decided, for the second time in two years, that an employee of Workpac was entitled to paid leave even though Workpac had classified the employee as a casual. The case doesn’t mean that all casual employees are automatically entitled to the same leave benefits as permanent employees. However, you do need to understand the decision to avoid the same traps as Workpac. What does the Fair Work Act say? Under the Fair Work Act, casual employees aren’t entitled to some benefits of permanent full-time or part-time employment (e.g. annual leave, sick leave, carer’s leave). The problem is that the Act doesn’t define when someone will be a casual employee. In the recent Workpac decision, the Federal Court had to interpret what the Act means by the term “casual employee”. Hasn’t the Fair Work Commission decided this already? Under virtually all modern awards, and many enterprise agreements, a casual employee is anyone “engaged and paid as such,” or some similar phrase. This expression has resulted in many employers reasonably thinking that an employee is a casual, and so not entitled to paid leave, if they are paid a casual loading and clearly engaged as a casual worker. However, the Federal Court had already decided in an earlier case involving Workpac that an employee was not a casual employee under the Act just because they are a casual employee under a modern award or enterprise agreement. When is someone a casual employee under the Act then? This is still pretty murky, just like the distinction between independent contractors and employees.  The Federal Court set out a list of imprecise factors that they use to help guide their decision. The closest a judge came to a definition of casual employee under the Act is “an employee who has no firm advance commitment from her or his employer to continuing and indefinite work according to an agreed pattern of work”. In the Workpac case, the employee was not a casual employee under the Act because: his contracts said he was a casual employee, but also guaranteed (for both his and Workpac’s benefit) that he would turn up to work 38 hours per week. The description of his employment as “casual” in the contract was overtaken by other clauses that pointed to him being a permanent employee; and practically speaking, he had a regular roster pattern in the mining industry that was set well in advance. What should I be looking for? Casual employment usually has most or all of the following characteristics: no employer promise (e.g. in the employment contract) to engage and pay the employee; likewise, no employee promise to perform work if that is offered by the employer; engagements of the casual employee that are irregular, unpredictable, uncertain, discontinuous and intermittent; employment “by the hour” (e.g. paid an hourly rate, with the employment terminable on an hour’s notice). Employers use Tanda to help identify these key considerations. Its compliance features confirm how far in advance each shift was rostered, how consistent an employee’s earnings have been, and how regular their working patterns are. Get started with a free 14-day trial account.

Roderick Schneider

17 April 2020    |   

Since the JobKeeper legislation came into effect last week we’ve had an influx of inquiries of how to use Tanda to make JobKeeper payments. We’ve found the easiest way to manage this for most clients is using an allowance.  Businesses are able to add an allowance to staff timesheets on an ad hoc basis as required to ensure that they are being paid enough for the business to be able to claim the allowance.  This marries nicely with what payroll systems like MYOB and Xero are doing. You are able to link the Job Keeper top up to the pay item or pay category and have it feed through directly.  For larger businesses we have the ability to automate these top up amounts through Webhooks. This takes a little bit longer to set up, but for clients who are still processing hundreds of timesheets they are finding it is saving them time and is worth the extra effort. To view the Help Guide on Setting up the JobKeeper allowance click here.  If you manage a large payroll and would like information on automating this allowance on staff that are still working, you can get more information here or by emailing support@tanda.co  For more information on the JobKeeper payment you can visit the government website for information on eligible employers, employees and the payment process. We encourage you to get professional advice from our wonderful Tanda Partners who specialise in Advisory, Bookkeeping and Accounting services.

Jessica Genio-Ignacio

19 February 2020    |   

Australia has one of the most complex labour regulations in the world. Of all its industries, the hospitality sector consistently receives the highest Fair Work Ombudsman disputes annually. In the 2018-2019 financial year, 36% of all anonymous reports were made in the industry. Data reflects trouble as well. The fast food, restaurants, and cafes are leading the way in noncompliance rates. One surprise audit in 2018 netted $471,904 unpaid wages from businesses in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Compliance issues harm business. There’s the issue of litigation, as well as the direct blows to brand value. For the workforce, it’s disheartening to learn you may have been ill-compensated for your hours. One survey by hospitality job platform Barcats found of participating hospitality professionals, 40% suspected pay shortages in packets, with 33% of that number discovering suspicions were true.  How non-compliance harms business In our study conducted in partnership with Workforce, we found two of the most prominent concerns organisations have about compliance is damage to employee morale (mentioned by 58.1% of respondents) and damage to brand equity (44.2%).  Morale is key to engagement. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace study, engaged employees consistently produce better business outcomes: 10% higher customer ratings, 20% higher sales, and 21% higher profitability. Research also says that highly engaged business units reported a 24% lower turnover in high-turnover organisations. And the hospitality industry has a problem with turnover. High competition, low barriers to entry, and casual employment are major contributing factors.  Hiring replacements is expensive. In one case study on four and five-star hotels, researchers from Griffith University found that the average replacement cost was $9,591 per employee. That figure rises to $109,909 per annum per employee for executive, managerial and supervisory staff.  It doesn’t stop at that. The Fair Work Ombudsman imposes a strict set of penalties on those who fail to adhere to workplace laws, each misstep potentially costing businesses millions of dollars if they aren’t careful. Sanctions include: On-the-spot fines  Court appearances Money paid per infringement, amounts varying by severity Paying back employee entitlements plus interest Mandatory training and audits Compensation payments Some cases can go back decades. One such high-profile case is that of George Calombaris’ (of MasterChef Australia fame) MAdE Establishment group. In 2017, the group backpaid $2.6 million to 162 affected workers from three Melbourne restaurants. Two years later, that figure grew to $7.8 million and more than 500 employees. They attributed the errors to lapses in annualised salary arrangements, resulting in mistakes in overtime and penalty rates.  Watch ASBFEO Ombudsman Kate Carnell on Governance and Compliance There’s even talk of the government drafting laws to criminalise intentional wage theft. Groups believe such rulings merits greater consequences, but it remains to be seen whether harsher penalties make it into law. Why non-compliance happens With these risks, why do most businesses only learn of errors through employee complaints? The same thing that prevents hospitality businesses from correcting compliance inaccuracies immediately, and the first sentence of our article. Australia has one of the most complex labour regulations in the world. Fair Work also makes periodic amendments to industry award rules, which results in the need for detailed reviews lest an employer be liable for violations.  A payroll officer needs to take all that into account for calculations. That requires accurate timesheet and attendance records and onboarding documents, including employee information such as birthdays and qualifications. Human resource professionals have their hands full with running the daily operations, but also recruitment and processes to reduce turnover.  Less breathing room means payroll officers may not catch errors on time. According to our Workforce Management Trends study, 46.1% of HR professionals say manual errors are a challenge they regularly face with time and attendance.  How successful businesses navigate complex regulatory changes Technology helps. Hundreds of workforce software solutions exist in the market aiming to reduce this complexity. Effective solutions consider compliance as central to their system. Such systems should have an award interpretation engine that: Automatically updates base rates according to age and Fair Work standards Applies prepared allowances directly into staff wage calculations Calculates higher duty rates Provides detailed timesheet breakdowns that summarise all applicable modifiers to an employee’s wage for easy double-checking  Investing in automated solutions cuts downtime, and provides accurate employee clock-ins. That simplifies the double-checking process and can export directly to payroll as well. That puts the future of your workforce firmly in your control: as technology develops, so can the scale of your operations. Employers use Tanda to help navigate Australia’s complex system. Its powerful award interpreter, automatically-updating award templates, and other compliance features make it faster to stay compliant. Get started with a free 14-day trial account.

J. Barbor, Guest Writer

27 August 2019    |   

Technology as a business necessity In 2017, nearly half of all Australian innovation-active businesses spent on new equipment or technology, making tech the most common innovation expenditure — and rightly so. Technology has become a necessity for businesses everywhere, and the most competitive companies are always looking to upgrade theirs to improve productivity. However, it’s important to keep in mind that investing in innovative technology means more than just purchasing it. Often, the most crucial steps to maximise its benefits are what comes afterwards, when it is integrated into everyday business operations. Businesses must consider how new technologies will affect their employees, and although it might sound obvious, it’s a little more complicated than simply deploying them. Indeed, there are a lot of factors to think about, particularly with regard to how the technology will affect your frontline employees. They play a huge role in customer satisfaction, and the alienation or intimidation they may feel towards new tools will most likely affect their interactions with clients. Rosie Ramirez wrote that the smallest interactions with frontline employees can shape people’s opinions of your brand, meaning that even the small instances of bad customer service can make or break your company in the long run. That’s why getting frontline workers to engage with and accept new technology is essential in keeping them and your customers happy. That said, we’ve listed down some tips to make this adoption of new tech possible with your invaluable frontline workers. Choose user-friendly tech Frontline employees already face a lot of pressure at work — customer service workers know this more than most, and understand how stressful it can be to handle customers well. Adding new and complicated-looking technology can be frustrating (and terrifying) to those who already have a lot on their plate. Remember that there is a myriad of options for functional and user-friendly tech these days, so simply lining them up to compare your options will make a world of difference for your busy frontline workers. Think about day-to-day operations Considering how new technology will affect day-to-day operations is not a one-man job, and at this stage, it’s important to actually talk to your frontline employees who are likely affected by any changes made in the back office. For instance, if you change tracking systems for stock that will benefit your operations managers, how would this affect sales teams on the ground who rely on this information on a daily basis? Don’t assume that you know how everything works, and ask different departments how new tools might change operations from the ground up. That way, you and your workers know exactly what to expect and how to prepare for it. Be transparent about new tools Change can be intimidating, especially when employees don’t know exactly what is changing. It’s important to spell it out for frontline employees who are most likely going to be affected by the new tech. Verizon Connect’s guide on how to get employees to use new technology points out that it’s crucial to constantly repeat the benefits of new tools to employees until they’re integrated into the existing company culture. Resistance can be expected at first, but by being transparent about the new technology, you’re making frontline workers feel confident and included in the change. Guarantee effective training When you invest in new technology, it’s best to invest in effective trainers as well. This can make the adoption of new tools easier for both you and your workers. Staff won’t have to juggle trying to learn the new tech on their own while meeting with clients, since you will give them the one- or two-day training they need to understand it. Of course, follow-ups are key to knowing if additional training is necessary for certain employees, particularly the less tech-savvy ones. Data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies confirms that older generations are less likely to interact with new technology and often require extra training courses to improve basic skills for online activities. Listening to what individual workers need will help everyone gain the skills needed to operate new technology. It goes without saying that more changes should be expected in an increasingly digital world, and it’s critical to think about the individuals working on the frontlines when implementing these changes, given that they are the faces that drive brands forward. After all, what use is shiny new machinery to improve operations if your staff don’t know what to make of them? Ready to adopt a frontline-friendly technology platform? See how Tanda can make rostering and payroll more efficient when you start your free trial today.

Rosie Ramirez

10 June 2019    |   

Superannuation underpayment is a significant problem in Australia. An estimated 2.85 million Australians are being short-changed. On average, they have 50% less in their super balances than those who are being paid correctly. Further, analysis of ATO data has shown that the average underpayment is $2,070 — that’s $80 per fortnightly pay. Young, blue-collar workers are especially vulnerable to underpayment. So how do you make sure that superannuation contributions are accurate for your employees? Trade in your pen and paper for a super calculator Superannuation is important because it applies to almost every type of worker in Australia. Thus, employers must pay super for any work casual, part-time, and full-time temporary resident employee who falls under the following: Employees over 18 years of age, who earn $450 or more every month (before taxes); and Employees under 18 years of age, who earn $450 or more every month (before taxes), and work at least 30 hours a week. Employers must pay a minimum of 9.5% of the employee’s ordinary time earnings into super. But this is set to gradually rise over the coming years. However, you won’t need to worry about any of this when you use our free superannuation calculator. See correct superannuation contributions for multiple employees Figuring out the correct superannuation for your employees is effortless with our free super calculator. This free super calculator shows you the correct contributions for multiple employees at once. Follow the steps below to see the correct superannuation contributions. Don’t forget to check all the data before June 30! Step 1: Input. Input the first employee’s details in each field using our switch system. Step 2: Add. Click the “add employee button” to input another set of details. Repeat as necessary. Step 3: Calculate. Click the “calculate” button to see results. Avoid being charged fees and interest for unpaid superannuation contributions Employers who do not pay the correct superannuation may face fines, penalties, or charges. Additionally, you may lose your tax deduction for super contributions. If you are a small business that pays employees in cash, you may be more vulnerable to making mistakes in filing superannuation contributions. Don’t take the risk. Use a superannuation calculator that eliminates human error from your administrative work. Switch to complete workforce management system effortlessly Calculating correct super contributions is just one small part of our full range of services. Upgrade your free superannuation calculator to our full range of services and you will also be able to: Search and consolidate all employees’ superannuation contributions Accurately track time and attendance Manage leaves, shifts, and unavailability See real-time staff count and wage spending Connect to your existing payroll system Produce reports for strategic planning Ready to take advantage of technology to make sure your superannuation contributions are spot on?  Start your free trial now and get one step closer to workforce success! Disclaimers: You should only use the results generated from this website as a guide. They may not be completely accurate for your business. If you have other eligibility criteria not covered by this calculator, please refer to the ATO’s superannuation guarantee eligibility decision tool.

Rosie Ramirez

16 May 2019    |   

Managers juggle different roles throughout the day. They set goals, coach employees, monitor performance, and control budgets and expenses. When they don’t do it effectively, employees become frustrated and can’t perform their best. In fact, a worldwide survey revealed that 40% of employees are dissatisfied at work due to a lack of help and support from their boss. Uncertainty about the workplace’s vision or strategy and heavy workload also factor into employee dissatisfaction. You can bet that this is because of an ineffective manager who doesn’t spend time on the frontline with employees. There are a couple of reasons why this is bad for any business. When managers aren’t on the frontline as often as they should be, they’re left guessing about day-to-day operations. They miss out on observing team dynamics and employee satisfaction. Engaging customers or responding to complaints about products and services is harder. And they become increasingly out of touch with both their team and customers. As a consequence, they don’t see why costs blow up and can’t figure out how to increase sales. The bottom line is that managers need to spend a significant amount of time on the ground. Few problems in service-based industries can be solved from behind a computer. So how can you keep your managers on the frontline? 1. Keep your managers mobile Don’t let your managers get stuck behind a desk. Keep admin tasks short by bringing it right to their smartphones. Tanda’s employee scheduling app gives managers the information they need to run a shift through their mobile device. It features automatic notifications and tools to respond to changes throughout the day. Managers can see who’s coming in for the day and when they start work. They can edit shifts without needing to sit down at a computer. They can even notify staff when new schedules are published, or when there are vacant shifts to fill. It doesn’t matter how many teams and venues a manager is handling because they can all be accessed from a mobile phone. They will be able to adjust rosters based on the flow of customers and other observations on the ground. Read more: Peak Season Rostering: How to use data to meet demand and raise profit 2. Keep an eye on staffing in real time Monitoring late staff and breaks, substituting unavailable staff, and calling in extra help are all part of running a shift. That’s where Key Alerts comes in. Key Alerts helps you make sure that staff stick to their rostered hours. It lets you know who clocks-in or out late, doesn’t take breaks, or takes breaks too long. Key Alerts, which comes for free with Tanda’s mobile scheduling app, also flags managers if staff are approaching overtime. Managers don’t have to sit at their desktop or constantly check their app to see who’s not in. The alerts come automatically every time. All bases are always covered with Key Alerts so managers can focus on helping employees identify ways to improve the business. 3. Lessen paperwork with Time Clock Questions Are employees clocking in too early without informing their supervisor? Are they consistently staying back into overtime without a known reason?  Instead of manually contacting staff about this and clarifying why, Time Clock Questions does this automatically. The feature asks staff relevant questions about their shift when they clock-in and -out of their rostered hours. You can customise questions and answer options to facilitate the process. Now there’s no need to call up staff manually to verify their reasons. The faster managers can complete timesheets or timecards, the faster they can get back to the frontline. Free download: Overcoming Employee Challenges in Shift Work Industries 4. Stay ahead with Shift Replacements Absences are inevitable, and good managers know that every unfilled shift adds burden to other team members and compromises overall performance. With Shift Replacements, managers can see which employees have indicated they won’t be able to work a shift. Once a replacement has been requested by an employee, the manager can go into Shift Replacements on their app. The number of replacements that need action is shown as a red bubble. Managers can offer these shifts to all available people on that team or just to specific people. Overtime, hours, and other information is shown to managers so that they don’t get any nasty surprises in payroll. With calling for replacements out of the way, managers can devote time and effort to other more important tasks. Keep your managers on the frontline Managers need reliable data to get their work done. Looking at the numbers after a day’s work is good. But looking at what’s behind the numbers is better. Ideally, managers should be able to address issues in real time rather than at the end of the day. Rosters, sales, demand, and staff engagement all affect how well the team does. But many managers are swamped with paperwork. They’re spending more time in the back office than on the frontline with their staff. Managers who are unable to spend time training employees and engaging clients will not be able to have a clear idea of how to improve the business. Indeed, time spent in your office as a frontline manager is wasted time. Tanda helps keep managers in the frontline with several features made with shift work in mind. Gone are the days when managers are burdened with hours and hours in the back office. And the less time you spend on paperwork, the more time you have to pay attention to things that really matter. Managing staff, engaging customers, and growing the business are easier with the right technology. No matter how competitive the business landscape is, managers on the frontline will make a difference. Investing in workforce management technology to empower your managers gets you closer to cementing your place in your industry. Want to eliminate tedious tasks and keep your managers on the frontline? Start your free 14-day trial with Tanda today! No credit card required.

Rosie Ramirez

6 May 2019    |   

Think back to the last in-store purchase you made. Were you promptly welcomed or was the store too busy for you to get their attention? Did staff assist you while you were looking for items, and given advice on deals or discounts? Was the cashier polite or uncommunicative? These small interactions with frontline employees often shape their opinion of a brand, regardless of how good the product is. They perform all kinds of customer service roles. This includes answering phone inquiries, assisting clients who visit a store, performing consultancy work, and fulfilling installation or maintenance jobs. At the end of the day, clients remember the experience that staff create. Frontline workers are vital to any business. But as the face of your organisation, they face high levels of pressure and stress. They juggle time pressure and quality of work to deliver the customer promise. If frontline employees are highly motivated, they are able to provide great customer experience, increase customer retention, elevate the brand, and grow the business. That’s why at this year’s Workforce Success Conference, we are inviting students to propose ways to motivate frontline employees. Read on to know more about why frontline employees matter and sign up for the student cup today! Providing Great Customer Experience Making sure the customer experience is stellar should guide all business decisions and methods regardless of industry or size. When businesses, especially large ones, go out of their way for customers, it doesn’t go unnoticed. Businesses need to leverage their ability to deliver the customer promise and surprise the customer with extra care and support. In fact, consumers are willing to pay up to 16% more for better customer experience. This underscores the fact that customer experience isn’t just a small part of the sales process, it’s a genuine gamechanger. Conversely, PwC suggests that globally, 60% of consumers would stop doing business with a company due to unfriendly service. Many consumers (46%) also would not patronise a company with poorly trained employees. Due to this, companies are increasingly relying on chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) to answer customer concerns. But the same survey suggests that a balance between human interaction and automation is what customers actually desire. It seems the verdict is in: consumers still value the human element, perhaps because great customer care is hinged on empathy — something AI cannot emulate. Read more: Keeping up with the Customers: Why feedback matters for every business Elevating the Brand According to a survey by PwC, 65% of respondents find great customer service more influential than great advertising. Getting customer service right is actually a better investment than spending millions on ads, because it becomes an advertisement in itself. In the age of social media, interactions with sales staff, cashiers, customer support, and other frontline staff make their way onto posts, stories, and tweets. This becomes even clearer when we consider that 84% of millennial consumers do not trust advertisements anymore, especially when making an online purchase. Instead, they seek third-party validation, whether through reviews left in the comments or through mentions on social media. Unsurprisingly, many comments left on websites are not about the product, but about the company’s customer service. When reviews about customer service are positive, they can create advocates out of customers. At this stage of the customer journey, they are already a valuable ally in maintaining the popularity of the brand. When negative, however, it can result in boycotts and massive losses in profits. Consider the United Airlines incident, where musician Dave Carroll saw baggage handlers damage his custom-made guitar from his airplane window. His band made a song about it which went viral, and reportedly cost the airline $180 million (10% of share value) in 2009. Social media has given consumers the power to be heard instantly around the globe. Harnessing it makes a successful modern business; failure to do so means losing out to more tech-savvy companies. Free download: Empowering Frontline Staff with Modern Technology Increasing Customer Retention “The most important customers are those that come back consistently and invite their friends,” says Michael Barnard, Workforce Success Champion and General Manager of consultancy firm Customology. Customer retention, or the ability of a company to retain its customers over a period of time, is impacted by how many new customers are acquired, and how many existing customers churn. It is important because it costs 10 times as much to obtain a new customer as it does to retain an existing customer. According to a survey by PwC, 73% of global respondents say that a positive experience is among the key drivers that influence their brand loyalties. The phenomenon is intuitive — why would you go back to a company that didn’t treat you with urgency, empathy, and importance? That’s why businesses need to invest just as many resources in retaining existing customers as in selling to new customers. A big part of this is making sure that frontline staff is empowered to deliver the best services so that customers feel they are a priority. Putting customers first through excellent customer service allows brands to make a lasting connection with them. Read more: Michael Barnard’s Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Customers for Life Expanding the Business Frontline staff have access to a wealth of information when it comes to understanding your customers and how the business is really doing. Owners and managers don’t always make time to converse with frontline workers, but they should. Being the first point of contact, they have unique insights that can improve how business is done, whether it’s about the product or the way stores are constructed. Keeping the lines of information open is not something all businesses currently do. According to a Gallup study, only 17% of workers strongly agree that they are able to freely voice their concerns and suggestions. Leveraging the knowledge, experience, and skills of frontline staff are key to expanding businesses. Without them, managers will not have a real pulse on the clients and what they want. The impact frontline workers have on customer experience, business branding, and customer retention cannot be understated. They can make or break your reputation. Managers on the frontline are also allies in growing the business and training new staff members in the company’s values and goals. When frontline workers cater to customers’ interests, they are contributing to the success of the overall business for years to come. Ready to forge the workforce of the future by motivating frontline employees? Form a team of 3-5 students and sign up today. A cash prize and internship awaits!

Rosie Ramirez

30 April 2019    |   

Successful workforces always have an effective HR team at the helm. They are responsible for everything from recruitment to training and development. This entails many processes and paperwork that can be too much to keep up with. In fact, creating and tracking documents is difficult without templates. Templates let you save valuable time so you can focus on more important tasks. Tanda’s free HR templates for workforce planning cover a variety of tasks and situations across industries. They provide a basic framework that you can customise them to your needs. Check out the list below to learn more about free templates for workplace planning! Position Descriptions Hiring the right candidate starts with a position description. You can use it to establish expectations and screen applications. Recruiters often underestimate how important the position description is. If the description is too abstract, both employer and applicant may have a hard time assessing it. If it’s too specific, qualified applicants may be discouraged from applying because they lack one or two requirements. Use our free HR templates as a baseline and edit them for your organisation. We have templates for several occupations like retail store manager and public relations coordinator. You can pool the best candidates faster with a great position description. Then you can offer them roles that best fit their personality. Read: 5 Restaurant Hiring Mistakes You Should NEVER Make Interview Kits Conducting an interview is crucial to finding the best talent for a position. CVs only tell you a part of the story. Ultimately, personality and culture fit will determine a candidate’s success in their role. Asking the right questions during an interview will help avoid wrong decisions in the hiring process. The position description, along with the candidate’s CV, will provide the context you need. But whether you’re hiring for a telesales agent or a hotel manager, you need an interview pack that will guide you through the interview process. A successful interview is a two-way conversation between the employer and candidate. Structure your interview so that each has a chance to learn from the other. Read more: 5 Rules for Hiring “Perfect Fit” Employees Employee Handbook Content An employee handbook is typically given to a new employee during the onboarding process. It contains employment information like working hours and leave policy, duties and performance reviews, and dismissal and resignation procedures. The handbook, along with the rest of the onboarding process, has a great impact on how the new hire will approach their role. It helps ensure retention and productivity not just for individuals but also for entire teams. The employee handbook is something the employee can keep going back to, so it’s important to make sure that it contains the right information. Read more: Onboarding: The Employer’s Checklist Employee Performance After the employee is welcomed to the organisation, it is the manager’s job to make sure that the right mechanisms are in place to monitor performance. Part of the onboarding process is involving the new hire in setting their own short- and long-term goals. Goal setting in the workplace is an important part of individual, departmental, and company-wide success.  Make sure that the goals are easy to measure, set against specific tasks, and aligned with personal aspirations. Continuously monitoring employee performance helps ensure that every employee is empowered to contribute to the organisation. Read more: Giving Employee Feedback: 7 Ways to Constructively Deliver Bad News Employee Letters Finally, there are many documents used throughout the work week in any organisation. Any warnings or changes in the nature of someone’s employment must be officially communicated. This is to protect both the employer and employee from any liabilities down the line. However, crafting letters for these situations can become tedious. You can use our late attendance warning letter to address tardiness or absenteeism. You can also send notices of promotions or changes to working hours as the case arises. For shift workers, use the shift swapping form to adjust rosters according to the availability of your employees. Read more: Should you approve shift swaps at work? Unlock more HR Tools with Tanda Free HR templates are a good way to streamline your HR processes. However, they have proven unsustainable for growing companies. The more employees you have, the more administrative work it takes to keep up. Besides, free HR templates cannot provide the data you need to optimise your workforce.  Many companies today invest in workforce automation to free up their managers’ time to focus on more important tasks. Whether it’s onboarding, rostering, or payroll integration, automation does all the work and more at a fraction of the cost. The right workforce automation software takes you one step closer to increasing profits and growing into new markets. Ready to discover how to take the work out of running your growing workforce? Start your free trial today!

Rosie Ramirez

10 April 2019    |   

It’s a good start for Australia’s manufacturing sector. According to Australian Industry Group’s (Ai Group’s) Chief Executive Innes Willox, Australia’s manufacturing sector strengthened in February 2019. It faltered at the end of 2018 but indicators for production, sales, exports, and employment all improved this year. Currently, the industry accounts for 6% of Australia’s economy. While manufacturing’s share of the economy has gone down in recent years, its prospects are very optimistic. Technology is changing the game for Australia’s manufacturers, and here’s how you can take advantage of the trend. Automating labour management Labour costs can account for up to 50% of total business costs. For manufacturers, labour costs should remain closer to 30% to remain profitable. But wages are growing at a faster pace than selling prices. Last year, wage growth hit the highest level in 3 years when the minimum wage increased by 3.5%. Even so, businesses should prepare for more labour cost increases. Calls to change the minimum wage into a “living wage” will be a defining issue in the upcoming elections. Profit margins will remain tight as higher costs will be difficult to pass on to customers. That’s where tech in labour management comes in. Read more: Achieving Workforce Success: Becoming a Data-driven Workforce Using tech to manage your rosters and wage costs can result in significant cost savings for your company. Old methods of rostering, whether on paper or Excel, will not yield the insights that modern software can. With workforce software, you can control your wage spend by setting targets for labour costs. You can also use existing roster templates to predict your staffing requirements. Throughout the week, you can even see wage costs in real-time and adjust staffing levels to drive profitability. Managers can have access to all this data on one seamless platform. Transitioning to a workforce management platform can be intimidating. But there is no better way for manufacturing companies to take advantage of growth than investing in the right software. In fact, it would be hard to succeed without it. Across all industries the automation of administrative tasks, especially in labour management, is best practice. It gives you unprecedented oversight no matter where you are. It also frees up your time for more important tasks like training staff and being on top of wage costs. And all this at a fraction of the time you used to spend in the back office. Read more: Crafting Workforce Success at Windsor Alehouse Investing in the next generation According to the Ai Group, “[Manufacturing] businesses in all states remain very concerned about growing skill shortages for experienced, technical and specialist tasks.” Millennials and Gen Zs aren’t necessarily lining up for jobs in manufacturing. In fact, many younger employees want to work for industries like technology and healthcare. And with the manufacturing industry’s aeging worker population, there could be a real shortfall in employees in the near future. Businesses should attract the next generation by hiring apprentices or trainees. Encouraging the youth to join manufacturing through apprenticeships or traineeships can ensure that there is no shortage of skilled employees. But businesses need to do more to attract them to the industry. One clear way of doing this is by incorporating tech into everyday operations. Younger employees expect that tech is integrated into work. They want to see accessibility, paperless communication, and instant feedback. Explore automated rostering, employee apps with GPS clock-in, and work chat apps to cater to the next generation. Read more: GPS Clock-in: Changing the way you track your mobile workforce Seizing today’s tech opportunities The manufacturing industry is undergoing many changes. It has gotten back on track after a dip in productivity and great opportunities lie ahead. However, rising wage costs and a skills shortage can threaten the gains and possibly the survival of the industry itself. It is now up to business owners to strategize for the future. Controlling labour costs is a major hurdle but easy to get right by using tech to set limits and adjust staffing levels. In the same way, tech can be used to attract the next generation to pursue a career in the field. Investing in tech today can increase the chances of a successful place in the manufacturing industry.

Monic Del Rosario

4 April 2019    |   

Whenever business owners come to the point of growing their company, they naturally begin to think about managing people during shifts they can’t be physically present. One of the first puzzles managers solve is tracking employees’ time and attendance. From the get-go, this is the most basic yet the trickiest administrative task to keep up with. Probably because every business operates differently (various employee types, industry rules, pay rates, etc.) but mostly because a lot of the existing ‘solutions’ available do not always work as expected. One of the most common ways businesses track time and attendance is through a fingerprint scanner. It has some nifty benefits for employers: it’s a fool-proof way to prevent time theft, it ensures that you’re paying the right staff, and that you’re paying them exactly for the hours that they declared they worked. But just the same, there are also some disadvantages in using biometrics to log staff attendance at work, specifically regarding privacy. Last year, a scuffle over biometric attendance tracking was reported by the Fair Work Commission, where a sawmill worker in Queensland refused to use their employer’s fingerprint scanner to log their shifts at work. Superior Woods of Imbil, Sunshine Coast opted to require employees to clock in and out with a biometric device in order to avoid time theft. However, as personal data collected from these devices are being allegedly stored in servers off-site, Lee refused to comply to the company’s policy, stating that, “I am unwilling to consent to have my fingerprints scanned because I regard my biometric data as personal and private.” A little while afterwards, Lee was sacked from his job, despite never missing a shift in more than three years of working at Superior Woods. He then filed an unfair dismissal claim to the Fair Work Commission. “My biometric data is inherently mine and inseparable from me,” Lee said. “My employer can’t demand it or sack me for refusing to give it. It’s not about this particular employer. Ownership to me means that I can refuse consent without being sacked.” The Fair Work Commission’s ruling stated that it is a legal ground to dismiss employees who refuse to hand over biometric information. They also stated that this was a breach on privacy grounds. They found that the company had a site-attendance policy that was not automatically rendered as unlawful, regardless of whether or not Superior Woods was breaching privacy laws through their biometric fingerprint scanners. Read more: Facial Recognition vs. Fingerprint Scanners for Time and Attendance Fingerprints and other biometric signatures might seem like an easy way to solve this time theft, but in reality, there have been claims that hackers are still able to access such type of data or their representation in a system where they’re stored. With the case of Jeremy Lee, important legal rights are already a hot topic of debate that has since been unresolved. Even after the rejection of Lee’s unfair dismissal claim, the commision has mentioned that upon review, the legality of firing a worker for not providing biometric data hasn’t really been thoroughly examined within the Australian legal landscape just yet. “The policy itself is not unlawful, simply the manner in which the employer went about trying to obtain consent may have constituted a breach of the Privacy Act,” they said. In this day and age where businesses are heading towards becoming fully digital in their operations, many are still struggling to even get administrative tasks out of the way, with time and attendance being one of them. Tablets and smartphones are practically the norm, which makes it easier for any employee to use. Compared to fingerprint scanners, smart devices are now being utilised for admin work in operations that have multiple shifts, different types of staff, and 24/7 operations. Some software like Tanda’s Time Clock App make use of these devices to avoid time theft in the workplace, verifying the employee’s identity with a unique passcode and a selfie-verified clock-in/out system. Read more: How to Eliminate Time Theft Business environments are moving towards automation and digitalisation at a startling rate. Software and apps are indispensable to everyday life, the workplace included. To remain competitive, businesses need to invest in software that will help them remain compliant without sacrificing the trust they build with their staff, especially ones that bring about legal discussions. Doing so will allow managers to not be bogged down by unnecessary tasks such as having to negotiate with workers for attendance policies, and instead focus on successfully navigating daily operations of their business.