Looking for an update on the harmonised Workplace Health and Safety laws?

Closing down over Christmas/New Year? As an employer you must give one month's notice.

The festive season can sometimes produce challenging staff issues. It's an important time to remind all staff of standards of acceptable behaviour even at 'out of work hours' functions.

Are you aware of when to apply shut down or stand down provisions or when to suspend an employee?

Are you aware of your obligations regarding redundancy legislation? Have you considered any transitional provisions that may apply?

Find out how good HR practices can help during an economic slowdown.

Changes to the Sex Discrimination Act broaden employer obligations. Ensure you update your policies to reflect these.

Recent prosecutions by the Fair Work Ombudsman highlight that some employers are still engaging staff as contractors when it fact they should be employees and receive employee entitlements.

Keep those old State Awards handy! Whilst everyone has been busy working out which Modern Awards are relevant to their business and aligning their staff to classifications in these, don't forget that the previous State Awards are still relevant till 2014.

Are your casual employees 'true casuals'? By 2014 all casual employees will receive a loading of 25% for ordinary hours worked on top of their hourly rate.

Social networks are one of the fastest growing areas in modern communications and include networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn; microblogs such as Twitter; videosharing sites eg You Tube and other forums and discussion boards.

It's important to take steps to ensure  new employees are actively managed and assessed during the probation period and not assume that at the end of the period they will be confirmed.

Are any of your employees able to cash out annual leave?

When businesses come to recruiting employees, it’s critical to ensure that there is a really good fit between the candidate, the role and your business.