Simplifying Your Industrial Relations Challenges
Every industry or area of expertise has it’s fair share of myths and misconceptions. For better or worse, industrial relations is no different.
As with most myths, they have some foundation in truth. Then end up getting blown out of proportion or distorted by time.
In no particular order are some of the most common myths about industrial relations
Aren’t company policies wonderful and divisive things?
Some organisations swear by them. Believing that it isn’t possible to have too many of them.
Yet, there are as many who have had enough of them. Considering company policies to be the bane of a competent managers existence.
Does an excess of company policies show poor management or employees?
Once the plethora of policies are in place, are they there for good, or can you get rid of them?
I do not believe that having a large number of policies is good for anyone.
What it does tend to show is that a) the wrong type of people are being employed, or b) management has lost the ability to manage their staff members.
If the wrong type of people are employed, then that process MUST change.
In this episode I talk about the cost that sick leave has on the economy, and that we need to move away from the archaic way that we very personal/carer’s leave. It’s time we stopped this allocation of limited days and moved to unlimited sick leave. You can join the discussion on LinkedIn, in the … Read more
While I hope that you never have to do one, there may come a time where a workplace investigation is needed.
Workplace investigations come about for any number of reasons, though the most common are due to a complaint from a customer/client about a staff member; a complaint from an employee about another employee; or even from a stocktake/audit.
As a manager or business owner, you will need to make the decision as to whether the investigation is handled internally or given to an external investigator.
As every investigation/complaint should be assessed and worked through individually, it is often difficult to know when it should be handled internally, and when it should be given to an external investigator.
Your business has grown and employed a number of additional staff members. With this growth comes the additional challenges of deciding which tasks/duties to outsource, and which ones to handle in house.
One of the most common for small business to outsource or ignore altogether is industrial relations.
Both in house and outsourced management of industrial relations have their benefits and drawbacks, though how do you decide which ones to handle yourself and which ones not to?
Even though I am of the belief that any competent manager should be able to adequately handle a majority of industrial relations challenges, there may come a time where outsourcing it, is the best option for the company.
On one side of the coin, you have business groups, and those pandering to that agenda telling anyone and everyone who will listen how Australia’s unfair dismissal laws are restrictive and holding business back from employing more people.
Then on the other side of the coin are the unions and The Greens who say that the laws don’t go far enough to protect workers.
With both sides getting time in the press, who is the business owner to believe?
Do you know what workplace bullying looks like?
Could you easily define it as behaviour x?
Or, does it depend on the workplace, and who is involved?
Consider for a minute the two clips below, from the Channel 10 program Studio 10, with both featuring Sarah Harris and Joe Hildebrand.
Clip #1, titled Joe Gets Creamed shows Joe having an ice cream shoved in his face a number of times by Sarah.
In this episode of the IR Simplified Podcast I dispel some of the most common myths surrounding industrial relations. * Industrial Relations is all about fighting with unions * The Fair Work Act is the enemy of business * Without a degree you are wasting your time * The unions are out to shut businesses … Read more
There has been a bit of a discussion of late around the requirement for ‘independent workplace investigators’ to be licensed as Private Investigators under relevant security providers legislation.
Whist some within the IR/HR profession do believe that it is required, there are others who are not so sure, and some who steadfastly refuse to even consider the possibility. This is made even more confusing by the recent article by Josh Bornstein in the Australian Financial Review where he claims that the field of workplace investigations is largely unregulated.
It isn’t unregulated, there is legislation governing investigations, it just isn’t enforced.
Whilst it is my belief that in Queensland, workplace investigations fall under the Security Providers Act 1993 and that those doing the ‘investigation’ need to be licensed, he does raise some interesting points about the quality of the investigation provided.
Licensing requirements aside, there appears to be a bizarre level of resistance by those from a Human Resource/Industrial Relations background to obtaining the minimum standard of training required to become a licensed investigator.