Michael Cosgrove

Let’s take some time to explore what areas your business can look at to achieve the productivity improvements you’ve been thinking about.

When investigating a workplace incident or situation that could have a detrimental effect on the rights, interests or expectations of an employee, procedural fairness must apply. This is especially true if the action is likely to lead to the termination or demotion of the employee. Here’s how to ensure procedural fairness factors in your workplace investigations.

We’ve all heard the rhetoric: ‘the union want this’ and ‘the union said that’, but the fundamental point that HR, media and some employers have forgotten is that the union isn’t made up of officials. It’s not the lady in the office that processes new membership applications. It’s the employees.

As with most IR topics, enterprise bargaining has taken its fair share of beatings. Employer groups continue to call for tighter controls and unions call for loosening of the chains. But what will the next era hold for this contentious industrial relations issue?

Codes of conduct are vital in the management of staff behaviours, and yet many SMBs fail to put one into practice in their organisation. This advice should help you to build a solid code of conduct, and put you on the right path to managing behaviours.

The ongoing productivity debate is on course to become a perpetual merry go round. While industry, unions and the government debates the impacts of legislation, the perceived laziness of employers and the militancy of unions, one factor stands out: Employees are stuck in the middle of all of it, which does nothing to improve their motivation.

There’s no quick-fix to creating a harmonious workplace, no one size fits all approach, but these seven steps could get you pretty darn close.

Workplace politics and power structures can be like walking a minefield, but it’s vital the influence they have on performance management is kept to a minimum, or eliminated altogether, if employee performance is to be measured properly.