HBA Consulting Pty Ltd

09/10/2024

Read our latest blog about the role of communication in successful workplace policy changes 🖊️

Share your thoughts below 👇

Opal Packaging's recent attempt to revise its Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) policy was blocked by the Fair Work Commission due to a lack of proper consultation…

22/02/2022

Happy Tuesday 😀

Hopefully your week has started off great!

HBA is about to release a new model in our business line … what could it be?

Follow the link below to read this months newsletter where we reveal something very exciting! 🎉

https://mailchi.mp/hbaconsulting/februarynews2022

If you would like to subscribe to our regular newsletters and stay up to date with all things HR and IR please send an email to [email protected].

23/08/2021

The period between now and the election next year is likely to be an industrially challenging one for many APS Agencies. See why at

All our highly experienced consultants have worked as HR and IR practitioners in senior roles in the private and public sectors before joining HBA Consulting.

08/12/2020

Gary Champion from the HBA team was recently interviewed for an article in the CPA members magazine INTHEBLACK. The following links take you to the article on 'Virtual Work Perks' . https://www.paperturn-view.com/?pid=MTI127540&v=2.1&p=18

https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2020/12/01/work-remote-employees

Our new digital magazine brings you the same quality content every month, in a new interactive and sustainable format you can enjoy on a PC, tablet or mobile.

21/09/2020

We've recently begun a very interesting piece of work for one of our new clients. As well as creating a contemporary Position Description for a very senior role, we are working with them to also develop a new set of business KPI's and related performance agreement for the role. When finalised, this will provide an integrated performance framework that provides the new recruit, and the Executive team that they report to, a clear picture of what is expected of the role, why and how it will be measured over time. From our perspective 'being told what a good job looks like and being given the chance to deliver it' enables great employees to thrive and good business to build into great ones.

31/08/2020

HBA Consulting has been working in partnership with ELMO Software for more than 12 months. Recently, we were invited to contribute to a podcast on 'HR - the past, the present and the future'. It was released recently by ELMO and can be accessed via
https://elmosoftware.com.au/resources/podcasts/. Our thanks to the ELMO team for the opportunity - they are a great business to work with.

Breaking down stereotypes and changing behaviours in the workplace, with Matt Tyler (Part 2) Emily WightmanAugust 2020Season 01 Episode 07 Breaking down stereotypes and changing behaviours in the workplace (Part 2) Changing behaviours is tough,... Featured Content Stream: PEOPLEPOD Listen

17/08/2020

Important High Court Decision for all Employers
What has happened?
On Thursday 13 August, the High Court delivered its decision in relation to how employers should accrue all employees personal leave. The decision reverses the decision of the Full Federal Court in Mondelez v AMWU [2019] FCAFC 138, and several earlier decisions of the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Court, which have been ‘problematic’ for employers seeking to comply with their obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and National Employment Standards (NES) and created inequitable personal leave outcomes for employees.
The previous decision fundamentally altered the long-standing way in which personal leave was accrued and debited for employees working shifts greater than or less than the standard daily working hours. In its decision last Thursday, the High Court rejected the previous decision entirely, recognising the impossible situation it placed employers in and the inequitable and unfair outcomes it produced for employees.
This means that employees will accrue 10 days of personal/carer’s leave based on their hours of work, not days. 10 days of personal leave can be calculated as 1/26 of an employee's ordinary hours of work in a year. Deductions for any approved absence is then based on their ordinary rostered hours for that day.
What does this mean for employers?
Following the decision of the Fair Work Commission and the Federal Court, employers were required to accrue 10 days personal leave per annum regardless of the ordinary hours of work for their employees. This decision meant that most employers to needed to create manual work arounds in their payroll systems to enable the interpreted personal leave accrual calculations to be made, with many of the calculations being made post the leave being taken (particularly for those employees who work irregular shift lengths during the week).
While many employers opted to implement these measures only for those employees with low levels of accrued personal leave credits or for employees who work irregular shift lengths, the reversal of the previous decision does raise a residual question. How should the adjusted accruals now be managed?
As most employers can appreciate, there is no single ‘right’ answer to this question and requires consideration of both the workplace and the need to meet the minimum standards consistent with the clarity now provided by the High Court decision. However, it is critical that all employers first identify what accrual issues they need to address and how their employees are impacted.
Therefore, the first step will be to assess your potential risk exposure by auditing the relevant employee files, determine the various effects on employee entitlements based on their individual working and leave patterns since implementing the previous Federal Court decision and then consider the possible options to deal with any anomalies before deciding on the best way forward.
With 23 years in workplace relations and human resources, HBA Consulting have conducted numerous audits of employee entitlements, the development of associated cost modelling and analysis and identification of available options. If you are unsure where to start or what to do next, you can contact us on 02 62474490 or via our website www.hbaconsulting.com.au

29/07/2020

Organisations continue to change to meet the evolving realities of work during the COVID 19 times. As a key part of this process, they are needing to make individual and collective decisions about which people and/or roles can work efficiently and effectively from anywhere (including home) and which cant - as well as whether a mix of remote and office based work is the bets model. HBA Consulting has developed a decision-making framework that provides a way to identify the key requirements for working from home and/or anywhere including physical office needs, team and managerial approaches as well as role specific assessment criteria for determining the feasibility of working from anywhere. This has been developed to provide organisations, managers and their employees with a consistent, holistic and transparent way to assess and inform decisions relating to work from anywhere requests and needs. For more information, contact Gary Champion on 02 62474490.

05/06/2020

Has your business or company gotten itself confidently around 'Disruption Resumption' planning for its people? Have you got a decision making framework in place that enables managers and employees to have a consistently structured, evidence based discussion about the options for their role in terms of it being able to be done via 'working from anywhere', it must be done back in the workplace - or a combination of both as a possible model? The team at HBA Consulting have developed a decision making tool that can be tailored to the needs of most businesses and companies.

21/05/2020

There has been some recent interesting commentary including interviews and on-line articles dealing with the impact of being stood down due to the COVID 19 pandemic and an employees ability to access paid personal leave.
While it's clear that the recent Federal Court decision means that legally, the employee isn't entitled to personal leave when stood down, this does not rule out other options where an employer wishes to provide some form of paid leave, particularly where extenuating or compassionate reasons exist. HBA Consulting can help you work through the options and effectively distinguish between employee entitlement and employer discretion during these challenging times.

21/05/2020

Do you employ Casuals? If so, you might want to read on! Yesterday, the Full Federal Court reaffirmed that casual employees working regular and systematic hours with “predictable periods of working time” are likely to be considered permanent employees, regardless of what their contract says and regardless of the payment of a casual loading. The latest judgement (WorkPac Pty Ltd v Rossato [2020] FCAFC 84, the employer (Workpac) has been ordered to pay Mr Rossato unpaid annual leave, personal leave, compassionate leave and public holiday payments which are owing on the basis that he was a permanent employee of the company (notwithstanding that he was engaged as a casual). Further, while the company sought to be able to offset any payment of leave entitlements with the 25% casual loading paid, this was rejected. The key considerations in this case include rostering practices, the interaction of payment in lieu and minimum entitlements to leave and public holidays and the absence of a contractual provision for repayment of the casual loading should the employee be found to be wrongly classified as casual. If you would like to discuss how you can manage your possible current and future risks with casual employees, HBA Consulting can help.

17/05/2020

For our clients in the Australian Public Service, the recent advice from the APS Commissioner in relation to the easing of restrictions and the return of employees to the workplace places a clear onus on Agency Heads and their leadership teams to develop and implement a plan that works for each Agency. As we have been encouraging all employers to do since the COVID-19 restrictions commenced, there has been a need to understand what is working, what isn't, and to begin to plan for 'disruption resumption'. Accepting that it is unlikely you will go back to the same operating environment as was in place before this all began and that many employees are likely to have an increased desire for flexibility which as an employer, you have a prime opportunity to maximise. Some of the key areas that need to be considered in developing a plan for resumption include:
- the legislative and industrial obligations and parameters
- the workforce capabilities and what roles work best from the workplace and what can work effectively 'from anywhere'
- the policy and decision making framework to allow managers and employees to understand and operate consistently when making decisions about roles and whether they return to the workplace or remain operating remotely
- how this framework can be communicated to the workforce
- how any disputes about role based location decisions can be quickly and professionally addressed.