Happy Clients

Young Regional School of Music delivers a music program to approximately 800 students in Young, NSW. There are 3 permanent staff and 23 casual staff on contracts that range from 4-30+ hours per week.
 
After leaving his job as a senior science teacher to become the CEO of Young Regional School of Music, James Cronin was on a steep learning curve when it came to running a small business.

James says: “There are so many different entitlements, pay rates and compliance issues that apply to casual staff. Everything depends on what type of contract they’re on.

“I was constantly running into issues with existing contracts and entitlements, which meant I had to keep returning to grassroots legislation to check my obligations. Often the conclusions I came to were not clear-cut, so it was difficult to be entirely confident in them. Not to mention that wading through the information was so time consuming!

I found big gaps in some of our existing contracts. It had been a real ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants’ HR set-up, which I knew was potentially dangerous.

When I joined Workplace Assured, they conducted a massive audit of my documentation and contracts.
They identified exactly what needed to be changed or, in some cases, completely overhauled. They had HR templates and documents ready to go that had been drawn up by workplace lawyers. It was a relief knowing the documents were compliant and that I was doing the right thing.

My favourite part of the service is the Workplace Advice Line team, who I call with all my HR questions. They sit with the lawyers who represent you in the event of a claim (Australian Business Lawyers and Advisors). This means that if an issue is escalated, it stays in house and is not outsourced. The team already knows your business and so can put their best foot forward when advising you.

A great example is when I had a difficult staff member and had to commence performance management. Knowing everything had to be by the book, I sought guidance from the Advice Line.
They told me exactly what I needed to do before and after each conversation. They instructed me at every step so I was able to navigate the process in a compliant way that wouldn’t land me in hot water (which it didn’t).

The cost of Workplace Assured is offset by all the time it saves me, plus I have access a team of employment experts, advisors and lawyers on hand whenever I need it.
If you don’t have a strong background in HR and are running a business that’s not big enough to have a dedicated HR person, I’d recommend a professional HR service like this.

Because if you do fly the by the seat of your pants, when something goes wrong it’s usually too late to get help. That’s when you’re hit with hefty fines, payouts and countless hours spent trying to manage the situation while running your business.” 
 

Techcellence is a computer consultancy in Wodonga, Victoria with 5 technicians, 1 general manager and 200 customers. 

Sonya Fitzsimmons is the General Manager of Techcellence. Since setting up the business with her husband 8 years ago, Sonya has worn as many as 12 job hats and has navigated her fair share of tricky staff situations. Here’s why she no longer uses Fair Work for her employment relations advice.

Sonya says:

“As a small business with several employees and hundreds of customers, we definitely need rigid systems in place to manage workloads.

In my role, I handle the HR, marketing, admin, payroll, invoicing, you name it… I don’t have a background in HR, so when I’m not sure about something I just call Workplace Assured. Previously we didn’t have any real policies, procedures or documentation. Having access to those templates means I now have a suite of compliant documents.

In the days before Workplace Assured, I’d either Google my questions or call Fair Work. The problem with Fair Work is they don’t have an interest in my business or how to help me. The advice is very much geared to the employee.

I signed up with Workplace Assured because the advice comes from a team who sits with the employment lawyers who represent you (Australian Business Lawyers and Advisors). The advice is not generalised – it is specific and bespoke to my business. For anyone looking to use a HR service, I definitely recommend you find an integrated team like this.

Now I don’t have to worry about anything HR related. If I need new documentation or templates, it’s already done for you. If I need a direct answer to a question (like checking a pay rate), I can just call the team and don’t have to spend hours checking Google for what may be the wrong answer. It’s a HR lifeline!

I had a situation where a staff member misled us in the interview process. We had to let him go on the first day. It was worrying because he demanded a full week’s pay! The team walked me through the process and drew up the exit letter. I felt really knowledgeable about my choices and the risk level associated with the exit.

It’s money well spent – I save countless hours searching and worrying that I’ve done the right (or wrong) thing.

My advice to small business owners? HR is not just hiring and firing employees. It can be a legal minefield ­– especially if you’re new to it! You are liable for all HR compliance issues, whether you know about them or not. For example, super payments and payroll have to be made on certain days depending on the award. There are so many little things to be aware of.

If you’re in an industry where it’s challenging to find great talent, you absolutely need to do the right thing by your staff. We have fantastic retention rates and it’s imperative to keep staff happy for the long-term success of the business. Staying compliant is one way to do that.

With Workplace Assured, I get access to a whole team of employment relations experts and it’s cheaper than hiring an in-house HR resource. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have a full-time workload for them anyway. I mean, we’re a 6-person business! This way, I can access a 20+ team of experts for a fraction of the cost.”

Workplace Assured provides me with confidence that we are receiving a reliable source of specific guidance, both verbal and written, for each individual employment situation that we need to deal with. It’s like having a personal lawyer and it truly offers peace of mind.

Within days of signing up to Workplace Assured, we had contact with various people to assist us with understanding our gaps and generating the policies and contracts we needed. Our small business now has direction and the support we need.

Workplace Assured makes sure you have contracts in place, policies and procedures in place, and makes sure that if you do have all of these in place, that they say the right thing. 

Even if you think you are completely in the right as an employer, little nuances that you don't understand can gravely change the outcome of a potential claim.

I could have been stubborn because I thought I was right, and to this day, I thought I was right. But to have someone in your corner to tell you that if you go in there with that attitude you can blow yourself up is very important.

It is not a large uplift in costs, and it is well worth it.

 

It was really a helping hand. We could call anytime because we don’t have the capacity at the moment ourselves to be handling it. We really needed help so having somebody there that we could contact every time to help us with things that we didn’t have time for is what initially attracted us to Workplace Assured.

We actually went through with Workplace Assured and they helped us discover what awards our employees actually are on. Currently with our staff we’ve got them into two different categories – we’re on two different awards here within the group – so that was one of the first things they helped us establish.

The ‘phone call away’ thing is what’s best. There’s probably been a number of situations since we first signed up where we’re not sure and we go ‘let’s make the call now’, so it may have been where it was myself making a phone call, or our payroll officer who does all our account managing here, or there’s been a group of us where we’ve been talking about something and we’re actually not sure, so we rang up for the advice and got put through to someone straight away.

You just can’t really put money on that kind of support level when it’s there instantly, and I think that’s what’s a big thing for us here.

One thing that stood out to us as well was we don’t exactly have the expertise ourselves on proper employment contracts – we may think that we do and we can easily write one, but we don’t know if it’s legally compliant. So that’s the thing is then you need to arrange yourself with either a lawyer or whoever it is to review that for you, so knowing that now you can have a list of templates that you’re fit for all sorts of things like employment contracts, policy and procedures, codes of conduct, and that they’re all legally compliant – having that is invaluable to us. It’s been one of the best things so far.

You can worry less about those little things that take up a lot of your time so that you can continue working on your business and within your business.

I think something else important to note on that is though then there’s very clear lines set for employees – so delivering someone an employment agreement means from day dot they know exactly what is expected of them, so that that stuff is all established and knocked over so you can get straight into the actual ‘what is the job’ and getting runs on the board, rather than worrying about trying to set all of that formal stuff up.

Watch a video here.
 

“Workplace Assured have researched and written employment contracts, policies and procedures which you can stand by. Not having to create these myself means that I can get on with business and manage what’s important.”
 
Nyree is the Human Resources and Compliance Manager with Fuji Xerox Business Centre in Hobart, which specialises in digital printing and the sales and service of Fuij Xerox machines. The company has been operating for the past 30 years and has just under 50 employees.
 
Recently employed within the business, Nyree identified various HR policies and procedures that required updating.
 
Nyree discovered Workplace Assured after doing some online research. She particularly liked the product offering and services that were offered as part of a monthly subscription.
 
“It stood out as being very comprehensive and easy to use, particularly as it provides access to a 24/7 advice line. With the assistance of Workplace Assured, I have been able to roll out a complete new set of policies and procedures over a six month period.”
 
Comprehensive desktop audit
In the first instance, Workplace Assured conducted a desktop audit of Nyree’s HR function, reviewing all current policies, procedures, payslips, rates and awards.
 
“This highlighted a couple of areas that needed to change so that all our employees were under the appropriate award and receiving the correct pay and entitlements.”
 
Workplace Assured then assisted with updating over a dozen policies covering areas such as induction, motor vehicle, drug and alcohol, EOI, harassment and grievance.
 
“Completing this task would have easily doubled my workload – time which I just didn’t have available.”
 
Cost savings
Nyree said that Workplace Assured had already saved the business considerable costs.
 
“If we had developed these procedures internally, we would have had to engage/contract someone  specifically for this task”.
 
“In addition to this cost, we would be paying fees for an external solicitor to advise on specific HR issues. This is no longer necessary as we have access to the highly qualified legal team at Workplace Assured.”
 
Peace of mind
“For the owner of the business, it has provided him with great peace of mind in the knowledge that everything is being properly handled. He is very appreciative of seeing everything standardised and correctly in place.”
 
Nyree said that their employees had also welcomed the new policies and procedures, as they provide a clear framework and structure.
 
“In instances where staff have questioned their rate or award, I can confidently say that we have looked into it and that we’ve done everything correctly based on advice and consultation with the legal experts at Workplace Assured.”
 
Prior to joining Fuji Xerox Business Centre, Nyree worked as a Chartered Accountant, with 20 years experience in public practice.
 
“From my past experience, I know that some businesses are complacent about managing their people. It’s not high on their priority list and they think that paying their staff is enough. But it’s a great risk on their business if they don’t take it seriously and it’s really important to ensure that awards, policies and entitlements like annual leave, breaks and superannuation are correct and up-to-date to protect both the business and individual employees”.
 
“Even a seasoned HR professional can’t be across everything. With employment laws changing, to have access to Workplace Assured’s legal team is brilliant, as it ensures that we are doing everything properly.”
 
Whereas Nyree’s initial requirement from Workplace Assured was to update policies and procedures, other issues have arisen that have required professional expertise and knowledge.
 
“We have had several contentious issues arise in the past six months and Workplace Assured has been great at providing support during this change management process”.
 
“Their knowledge is invaluable. We use them in more of a consultancy role and whenever I need professional advice, I know that they are available to advise on legal consequences and ramifications.”
 
Nyree says that the service provided by Workplace Assured is like an insurance policy.
 
“You insure your house or your car on the basis that one day you might need it. Workplace Assured is a bit the same - it’s peace of mind knowing that it’s there whenever we need it.”

In 2008, Ory Purhonen planted the seeds of his successful web development agency Webics at 14 after developing a voracious knack of building websites from scratch. Ory pursued web development full time after being requested to build websites by family and friends, and wasn’t able to complete year 12 due to the level of interest in his venture.  

Webics grew by word of mouth, and now boasts over 600 clients and a team of over 10 staff. New recruits are planned to join the expanding team to help service growing demand. Ory has had to learn how to transition from delivering the grassroots technical know-how as his day to day role to managing a successful company with growing staff numbers as his full time role. So how does he wear the HR hat whilst still making sure the business continues to deliver to the growing client base? 

“I knew nothing about HR or the legal side of things really. I would spend hours Googling the right award, pay rates and what types of leave my staff are entitled to. This industry is still a bit of a grey area, so it’s really unclear which award could or should apply to my staff, I lost countless hours just trying to find answers.  It was taking up so much time and whenever I had a question I needed a clear cut answer on, I would reach out to my accountant or lawyer. The problem I found with that was that if they didn’t know the answer, they had to research it themselves then come back to me, and I was getting a $100 bill for each question I was asking, it really begins to add up. 

I found that I had to prioritise my time and when you’re growing a business, you need to take immediate action. I needed answers quickly to help me make decisions and progress – waiting weeks for answers can really hinder business operations. I found this a particular frustration in my area of business because we recruit niche skills sets and I need to turn around contracts of offer pretty quickly, I can’t afford to lose talent because it takes too long. 

I’ve learnt from the past that it’s cheaper and easier to get your systems, processes and operations right from the get go. In the case of HR, what I found is that if you don’t have the right clauses in your contract, you’re the one who’s at risk as a business owner. If you make small mistakes, you’re the one who is personally and professionally impacted by the repercussions. Can you imagine how much you’d have to back pay if you paid the wrong rate of pay to one of your staff? 

I found Workplace Assured through my local business chamber. I’ve doubled my business since I’ve been using Workplace Assured and it has really helped streamline the process for recruiting and onboarding new staff, this is great because we’re still growing too. The interview templates and contracts are fantastic – all I need to do is add staff names and addresses, and that’s it. I was previously using a really clunky HR contract system prior to Workplace Assured and when small details were omitted I had to start the contract all over again – another really time consuming task. 

Wearing my HR hat was a bit piecemeal before – I was contacting my accountant and lawyer for specific advice, then pulling contracts together in another system and doing a lot of the legal research myself too – now I can do all of it with one partner who does it all for me. Whenever I have a question, I just call the Workplace Assured advice line and I access a whole team of workplace advisors who give me specific answers to my exact questions within seconds. They know my business and industry - they can give me the right advice. All of the contracts are templated so I just need to fill in staff details, and the rest is done for me and the best part is that I know it’s all legally compliant and I’m protected personally and as an employer. 

If you’re looking to grow in particular, it’s worth knowing you are doing things right from the start. Unless you have the time to spend Googling, researching, liaise with your accountant and lawyer to get your employment contracts, terms and entitlements right (I don’t know any business owners who do) I definitely recommend Workplace Assured – it’s a small outlay for a huge return on investment, I’d be lost without it.”