Ensure ongoing compliance with relevant employment legislation
Legislation related to employment in Australia is extensive. The onus is upon retailers, with the responsibility often falling to human resources teams, to ensure the compliance of all organisational policies and procedures linked to the recruitment, selection and retention of staff with legislation. Built upon the principle that all people should be treated equally Commonwealth and state government acts have been developed to protect people from discrimination of any kind. According to the Federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act (HREOCA), discrimination happens when a person is treated less favourably than others on the grounds of Age, Gender, Marital status, Nationality, Parental status, Physical impairment, Political belief or activity, Pregnancy, Race, Religion, Sexual preference, Trade union activity.
The Federal Sex, Race and Disability Discrimination Acts, administered by the Federal Human Rights Commission, apply when your State or Territory’s Equal Opportunity and anti-discrimination laws do not provide for these categories. For more information on Federal and State anti discrimination law visit http://www.hreoc.gov.au/
Safeguard employee wages and conditions
Fair Work Australia is the primary source of information for individuals and organisations wishing to research the modern awards and conditions their employees are entitled to. The General Retail Industry Award of 2010 endorsed by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission outlines the entitlements of general retail workers. The award covers: Application and operation, Consultation and dispute resolution, Types of employment and termination of employment, Classifications and wage rates, Ordinary hours of work and Leave and public holidays.
It is however the responsibility of individual retailers to research the specific award that governs their employees and ensure organisational policies and procedures reflect compliance with them.
Some organisations employ enterprise agreements. They are collective agreements made at an enterprise level between employers and their employees. They cover the terms and conditions of employment of the employees involved.
The terms of an enterprise agreement must not be less beneficial to an employee than the National Employment Standards and overall must be better than the relevant modern award.
For an agreement to pass the better off overall test Fair Work Australia must be satisfied that each award covered employee and each prospective award covered employee would be better off overall under the agreement than if the relevant modern award applied.
Fair Work Australia can assist in the process of making such agreements, deal with disputes arising under the terms of agreements and assess and approve agreements.
For further information refer to the Fair Work Australia website www.fwa.gov.au or email inquiries@fwa.gov.au.
Analyse and make recommendations for improvements to policy
A complete record of candidate assessment and selection processes needs to be kept for future reference if challenges with employee relations occur. Effective record keeping can also assist in supporting the management of expectations held by internal stakeholders. It is good practice and advisable to keep records of the following: Person Specification, Job Description, Advertised Salary, Total number of applicants, Those interviewed, Standard Questions asked and Objective Criteria for those turned down (preferably a standard format of assessment).
Keeping extensive selection records assists in the review and evaluation of recruitment policies. The implementation of a review process at the conclusion of a recruitment program is an important step in understanding how it may benefit from future adjustment. A logical approach to managing the review is to refer back to the desired outcomes of the recruitment strategy and investigate how the assessment and selection process contributed to strategy fulfilment. Exploring in detail the challenges faced in the process and the calibre of the candidates selected through the process can help develop recommendations for future improvement.
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