2020 will see three key changes in the employment law space:

1. On 1 April the minimum wage increases to $18.90. We are encouraging our clients to think and plan for wage increases for their team now, even if the increases don’t kick in straight away.

2. On 27 June, new legislation around triangular employment relationships will come into force. This will largely affect our clients who hire labour through agencies and/or have third party labour hire relationships. If you are in this category, we encourage you to get better acquainted with this important change to employment law as it may have consequences for you.

3. From 1 July this year, government funded parental leave payments will increase from 22 weeks to 26 weeks.

We’ve themed 2020 – now’s a great time!

And now is a great time to focus on ticking off some of those items on your HR job list, starting with thinking about your overall approach to wages this year.

Now’s also a great time to get some of those policies in place you’ve been thinking about – our top 5 recommendations:
• professional development support
• personal presentation standards
• drugs & alcohol in the workplace
• smoking & vaping
• GPS in your vehicles

Now is a great time to update your staff hand book (or put one in place if you haven’t got one). We recommend keeping it simple and having more detailed policies to refer to when the need arises.

And last but not least – now is a great time to review your employment agreements, especially if you haven’t looked at them for 2+ years (as they will now be out of kilter with the legislation). The clauses our clients most frequently asked for in 2019 included:
• clearer wording around annual leave requests with a focus on prior approval
• flexible hours clauses to help manage business demand better
• protection of intellectual property
• restraint of trade provisions
• plain English wording

We can assist you with anything HR, and especially with any of the above, so give us a call (07 823 3250) or send us an email ([email protected]).

And until the 29th of February, we have a special offer to help you get started. Our starter Professional Development Support policy is just $125 + GST.

At People in Mind, we’re big supporters of spending locally so it’s great that we can participate in the Totally Locally programme – an initiative just launched this month by the Cambridge Business Chamber.

Totally Locally is about supporting our local businesses and making a difference to our town. If each of us spent just $10 extra a week in our home town of Cambridge instead of somewhere else, the flow on effect is big! When we spend local, we help create new job opportunities and more importantly we give businesses a lift and Cambridge becomes even more of a great place to live, work and play!

Our Totally Locally Cambridge offer for employers with recruitment on their mind is …..

We also like to support our local community in other ways…

• We believe it’s important that all businesses and not-for-profit organisations should have access to HR. That’s why we sponsor these amazing community organisations…
– Cambridge Chamber of Commerce
– Cambridge Swimming Club
– Cambridge Safer Communities
– Destination Cambridge
– Cambridge Lifeskills

• We offer a discount off most of our services for not-for-profit organisations.

• And this year we’ve created a summer internship opportunity for a Uni student looking for some real-world HR experience. We have welcomed Paige Frampton to our work family, working one day a week over the summer. We love Paige’s enthusiasm and here’s how she sums up the experience so far… “The variety that HR offers on a day to day basis is compelling, and I am so eager to learn more and more!”

What can you tell by the way job candidates interact (or don’t) when you contact them to book an interview?

For me, it tells a lot.

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Winter is my favourite time of the year, but with winter usually comes the winter ills. For some businesses, managing absences can be challenging. Even trickier is managing a sick employee who comes to work when they shouldn’t!
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Most people know I set my HR clock by the full moon. Is it some mystery of the universe, or just by pure coincidence, that when the full moon rolls around, we seem to have a few tricky workplace problems to help our clients resolve? I’m not sure why they come to the fore at full moon time; they just do.

There are a number of things that can be the root cause of employment problems but, in my 18 years in HR, I’ve found some key themes. Here are my top five, in no particular order.
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