Preparing for the end of the financial year (EOFY) can sometimes feel like a never-ending to-do list for even the most experienced of HR practitioners.

As well as preparing for BAU tax-time tasks, such as supporting business unit leaders to determine FY25 budgets and enabling them to conduct fair performance and pay reviews, HR practitioners also need to stay abreast of a host of upcoming legislative changes. Failing to do so can open your organisation up to unnecessary risk. 

The infographic below can be used as a handy checklist for HR to work through this EOFY. Plus, HRM shares some tax deductions HR practitioners can claim for their business.

Download a PDF of the checklist here.

AHRI members can access a range of useful templates, guides and more via AHRI:ASSIST. Learn about more practical member benefits here.

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For Powers the connection between what he does (his behaviour) and who he is (his character) is a connection he recognises, but it’s not one he is keen to live up to.

That connection was an idea that was alive in the minds of our HR colleagues whose inputs through the recent ‘What is good HR?’ survey were largely responsible for the new AHRI Model of Excellence.

The survey respondents were asked to state behaviours that they believe are a necessary part of being an HR professional.

The character traits strongly endorsed include being credible, being courageous, being solutions driven, being future oriented, being a critical and enquiring thinker, being collaborative, and being a person who understands and cares. While these don’t cover all the traits listed, you can see that people who are all those things are not just well-rounded individuals but are also likely to be leaders among their peers.

You might conclude therefore that we are aiming too high in setting the bar at a level commensurate with what it means to be a professional person who is simply engaged in practising HR in a business context.

Yes, the bar is set high but I would contend that it needs to be set high.

In saying that, not all occupations require the same behaviours from their practitioners. Finance managers, for example, aren’t really required to demonstrate that they are being collaborative. But at times they are required to be courageous. If asked to engage in financial practices that are irregular or unlawful, they need to be able to speak to power. That may or may not take skill, but it certainly takes spine.

Many professionals in business deal with inanimate assets: operations managers, IT managers and building managers tend to deal with fixed assets that function largely in accordance with the laws of physics.

HR managers, by contrast, deal with human beings who are known to act occasionally in the most unpredictable ways and who cannot finally be controlled or owned. They need to be lead rather than simply managed, and they therefore need to respect the people who are doing the leading.

Mindful of that background, behaviours become a critical professional factor in the lives of HR managers, especially when HR is doing what it often does and setting behavioural standards for others. It doesn’t mean HR practitioners are required to be saints. That would be silly. But it does mean that they need to be people of integrity who, within reason, behave in private as they do in public. As a friend said to me recently, when we make a choice as car drivers to speed or not to speed, that decision should not be made simply in accordance with whether a speed camera is in sight.

Please take the trouble to have a look at the Model of Excellence and have your say below.

This article is an edited version. The full article was first published in the December 2014/January 2015 issue of HRMonthly magazine as ‘Oh behave!’. AHRI members receive HRMonthly 11 times per year as part of their membership. Find out more about AHRI membership here.

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One in five adults, or 3.2 million Australians, will experience mental illness in any given year and the cost to theAustralian economy of mental illness is put at $20 billion annually through lost productivity and lost labour participation, according to Professor Allan Fels, chairman of the federal government’s National Mental Health Commission.

Moreover, 45 per cent of the Australian adult population will experience mental illness at some point in their life. “This means that for businesses with more than 10 employees, there’s a good chance that at least one of your colleagues is living with a mental illness. And if you’re in a larger workplace, the figure is probably closer to one in five,” adds Fels.

Given these figures, intervention is crucial, both from a health management and bottom line perspective, with Disability Employment Australia noting businesses lose $6.5 billion each year by failing to provide early intervention and treatment. That slow response can also be attributed in part to lack of information, with recent SANE Australia research revealing only 43 per cent of managers have an understanding of mental illness.

The remaining managers need to get up to speed, as Australian employers must fulfil their legal responsibility to provide a “psychologically safe workplace”, and, under occupational health and safety legislation, create a mental health friendly workplace. Under Commonwealth industrial law, a workplace must not take any adverse action (such as disciplinary action) against a worker because of their mental illness, and both federal and state privacy laws ban employers from disclosing an employee’s mental health status.

What does a mentally healthy workplace look like?

“Mentally healthy workplaces prevent harm to the mental health of their people, make sure people who experience mental health difficulties are supported, and have positive cultures that are conducive to mental wellbeing,” says Fels. “With almost half of Australians likely to experience a mental illness in their lifetime, the importance of having mentally healthy workplaces cannot be overstated.”

Tips for a mentally healthy workplace

• Organise for an inspirational guest speaker to talk to your staff.
• Arrange for your managers to attend AHRI’s short course mindful employer: mental health in the workplace.
• Plan a themed barbecue for lunch and encourage staff to socialise.
• Bring in a masseuse for stress relief.
• Facilitate a mindfulness-based stress reduction workshop on-site.
• Contact the beyond blue initiative Heads Up to implement the right workplace programs and processes, customised to your work environment.
• Read up on workplace wellbeing in the AHRI:ASSIST resource centre.
• Make a mental health promise for your workplace.
• Review your OHS policy at AHRI:ASSIST and ensure it addresses mental health.
• Ensure your management staff are equipped with the right skills and training to identify and mitigate mental health concerns at work.
• Remind your staff about their free right to the Employee Assistance Program and how to access it, or engage a provider if you don’t have one.
• Do a cultural survey of your workplace through an independent consultant and take action to implement the recommendations following the review.
• Encourage healthy behaviours, good nutrition, exercise and proper lunch breaks at work.

Read up on further mental health strategies and World Mental Health Day initiatives.

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Scope of the project

• New types of jobs will be created.
• The skills required from employees will change.
• Both of the above have implications for workforce and career planning.
• Opportunities for working remotely will expand, with implications for how those employees will be managed and motivated. Organisation policies such as relocation may need reviewing.
• The customer service playing field will become more level, so gaining a competitive edge in this respect may become harder.
• Relationships with educational institutions may need to be strengthened
• Outsourcing functions may become easier to arrange, notably the outsourcing of IT functions.

• health care
• education and training
• transport and logistics
• banking and finance
• media and entertainment
• technology and telecommunications — the first sector to be significantly affected.

• online developers and designers
• digital analysts and strategists
• online marketing professionals
• user-experience experts.

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Let’s explore some of the arguments for both sides.

Why are some companies deciding to ban Facebook at work?

The popularity of Facebook is irrefutable. In December 2010 it surpassed google.com for the first time as the most popular site on the world wide web. Millions of us are hooked and there’s even a descriptive term coined for it – Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD).

Concerns around lost productivity generally drive management decisions to ban Facebook. It’s no surprise that managers don’t want their employees spending hours on the platform when they should be working.

Celebrity businessman and Dragons’ Den panellist Theo Paphitis banned Facebook at his workplaces and strongly advocates this move. Writing for a national newspaper in the UK he explains,

“The explosion in online activity has resulted in an orgy of self-indulgence and exhibitionism. Businesses might have been helped by the ability to promote themselves on the internet, but they have also been hit by the web’s encouragement of time-wasting by their staff.”

Other arguments supporting the case for banning Facebook revolve around upholding brand reputation and removing the need for staff discipline.

With users unable to access social media sites at work, management limits the possibility of messages being sent during work hours that may dilute their brand.  And if you’ve invested valuable time and money in staff training, you’ll want high retention rates without the need to exert discipline around too much Facebook browsing.

Yet a blanket Facebook ban as advocated by Theo ignores some of the benefits that Facebook can bring to a business.

Why allow staff access to Facebook at work?

A blanket ban on Facebook can quickly prove a nightmare for HR managers and line managers. It can give the impression that staff are not trusted, resulting in lowered morale and resentful team members if the reasons for monitoring Facebook usage are not communicated adequately. After all, a happy workplace is more likely to be a productive workplace.

Facebook may have started out as a very personal tool that was not intended for corporate communication but that line has blurred dramatically in recent years.  It now offers a number of business benefits.

It’s common for business to take advantage of Facebook’s gargantuan 800+ million user base to spread knowledge of an organisation through their networks quickly, easily, at a low cost and to drive revenue generation. It can be a great way for staff to keep up with industry news and provides an avenue for employees to monitor useful discussions occurring outside company walls.

So what’s the right decision on Facebook?

There’s no right or wrong answer.  One useful option could be to focus on developing an Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) specific to the company and designed to promote an engaged and productive workplace. An AUP is a set of guidelines that outline just how web browsing operates at the workplace.

In the majority of cases, a blanket Facebook ban does not work. The simple “allow” and “deny” functionality offered by firewalls or web security solutions is inadequate.  You cannot resolve the problem of excessive Facebook activity without sacrificing the numerous benefits offered by the platform.

Enforcing an AUP can be a challenge for HR managers and line managers, but it’s probably achievable through the use of judicious web monitoring solutions that are customised to meet an organisation’s needs. For instance, access can be controlled on an individual user basis, granted by department, or even be set based on times of the day, such as lunch times and after hours. Alternatively, line managers might want to have Facebook accessible at all times but let their employees know that they need to use it sensibly and that the web usage is being monitored as a standard IT practice.

In this way, organisations can ensure they reap all the business benefits Facebook can bring.

Rhondda King is  HR/Relationships Manager at MailGuard.

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