Mitrefinch are Auckland bound for the NZPPA Payroll Expo

Are you a New Zealand based Payroll Professional? or do you need to process pay for NZ staff from your Australian office?

If so, mark Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd June in your diary for the New Zealand Payroll Practitioners' Association (NZPPA) Annual Conference and Payroll Expo at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland!

Now in its fifth year, the NZPPA Conference is the largest payroll event in New Zealand, and Mitrefinch are once again delighted to be involved as a corporate sponsor.

The theme of this year's event will resonate with many a Payroll Professional - “Become a Payroll Whiz – Calculations, Calculations, Calculations" and will focus on all things calculations related to help ensure payroll is compliant - from the Holidays Act, Parental Leave, KiwiSaver, Superannuation, Salary Packaging, Extra Pays, ACC, and Payroll Giving, to understanding Taxable and Non-Taxable allowances. 

Determined not to be a talkfest, the NZPPA also aims to make the conference as interactive as possible over both days - with round table discussion, multi stream workshops, and real-world case studies from payroll practitioners making up a large part of the programme. 

The Payroll Expo will run in conjunction with the conference, allowing attendees to meet with vendors and learn more about the latest developments in payroll technology and available services. 

The Mitrefinch team will be on hand to demonstrate our Workforce Management solutions and data capture options for effective time and attendance management of all staff, whether they are on the factory floor, at a remote site or working from home - so drop by Booth 11 to find out more!

To register or to find out more about the NZPPA Annual Conference and Payroll Expo visit www.nzppa.co.nz 

Alternatively contact Mitrefinch directly on +64 9 363 9557 or marketing@mitrefinch.co.nz if you would like to attend the NZPPA Conference at the discounted NZPPA member rate!

Feeling the worse for wear after Anzac Day?

Receive any unconvincing sick calls this morning? Tempted to chuck a sickie yourself?

While Anzac Day is a day off for many Australians to celebrate the national holiday and raise a glass to those who serve, Thursday is unfortunately a normal working day, and employees are expected to show up to work ready for action.

Sounds good in theory, but when a public holiday falls in the middle of the week, it deosn't take an expert to predict there will generally be an increase in people not turning up for work.

However, chucking a ‘sickie’ the day after a public holiday fools no one, and does not go unnoticed by employers or colleagues – which can prove damaging to your professional reputation.

In addition, as the NSW Business Chamber advise, the impact of staff taking a ‘mass sick day’ can significantly harm a business, both in terms of financial costs and lost productivity. 

Employees who do plan on extending a mid week day off into an extra-long weekend are urged to use their annual leave or talk to their employers to come up with alternative arrangements. 

With an automated Time and Attendance Software System, Absence Profiling and Reporting, allows you to see who took a sick day, when, and if any particular pattern is forming. For example, you could check back to last year and see if there was a spike in sick days taken the day after Anzac Day or other popular public holidays – and take appropriate action. 

If you happen to work in an industry where staff are required to work on public holidays, an automated Time and Attendance Software System can also take the stress out of payroll processing – by easily calculating overtime pay and public holiday penalties, and exporting this information direct to your external payroll application. 

Leave Slots are an innovative holiday planning feature now available in the latest release of Mitrefinch’s Time Management System. 

This new functionality enables managers and supervisors to limit how many employees can be off on a given day or time period e.g. the Thursday after Anzac Day - averting potential staffing shortfalls and ensuring you have sufficient staff on hand to meet demand. 

Employees can view available Leave Slots online and they will be unable to request leave once the limit has been reached – hence HR won’t need to deal with multiple requests from staff on what days are available etc... 

If you don’t have an automated Time and Attendance Software System, maybe it’s something you need to plan on putting in place now to be ready for next year!

For more information contact Mitrefinch on +61 2 8762 7888, email sales@mitrefinch.com.au or visit us online 

Fatigue amounts to billions in lost productivity for Aussie Businesses

Yawning while reading this? Need to reach for the coffee for an extra boost? 

If you are, it seems you aren’t alone, as Australia’s largest-ever sleep census, conducted by bed manufacturer Sealy and CQUniversity, reveals some alarming data on the economic impact of sleepless nights. 

38 per cent of Aussies admit to falling asleep at work or in meetings

The Sealy Sleep Census polled over 13,000 respondents from across Australia and found that 96 per cent are waking up tired each morning, with only four per cent saying they feel refreshed. 

The survey concluded that this is having a serious impact on the nation’s businesses, with sick days, lost man hours, and reduced productivity, all contributing to a combined loss of millions of dollars in lost productivity every year. Not forgetting the increased potential for workplace injuries and safety concerns. 

According to the poll: 

• A third of Australians have called in sick to work due to lack of sleep; 
• 70 per cent of Aussies admit their professional productivity is negatively impacted from feeling tired; and 
• At least 167,000,000 man hours are lost every year as a result, equating to almost $5 billion in lost productivity. 

“The study gives us valuable insight not only into the sleeping habits of Australians but how sleep issues can impact directly on Australian commerce, with some alarming findings,” Sealy’s spokesperson Ross Gage says. 

Perhaps the most shocking result from the Sealy Sleep Census is that 38 per cent of respondents said they have fallen asleep at work or during a work meeting. 

If you are experiencing excessive tiredness at work it is important to identify the factors that are contributing to the fatigue (e.g. workload, roster, personal circumstances), discuss these issues with your employer, make changes as required, and seek professional help if necessary. 

An automated time management system can also assist organisations in implementing an effective Fatigue Management plan. 

By tracking and monitoring employee time and attendance data, a time management system allows you to analyse the amount of time your staff are spending at work, overtime hours, and associated productivity levels. Alerts can be set to notify Supervisors or HR when a particular employee is approaching their work hour limit, enabling them to adjust rosters and shifts accordingly. 

A time management system also automates compliance with current workplace legislation and modern awards, as well as any organisation-specific work rules, and can easily accommodate any new changes. This ensures that employees are only permitted to work if they satisfy all the associated rules, providing you with ‘peace of mind’ that they are alert to perform their duties in a safe manner. 

In addition, by automating annual reporting and maintaining a complete audit trail, a time management system ensures you have all the required information to hand in the unfortunate event of an accident and subsequent legal action. 

For more information on how an automated time management system can assist with effective fatigue management contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 831 (+61 2 8672 7888 outside Australia), email sales@mitrefinch.com.au or visit us online. 

Source: My Business: "Lack of sleep costing business millions in lost productivity"

Click here for more information on the Sealy Sleep Census

Avoid a HR Nightmare over the Easter and Anzac Day Holiday Period

Before the majority of us clock off on Thursday afternoon to enjoy the extra long holiday weekend spare a thought for your frazzled colleagues in HR and Payroll!

Chocolate and Hot Cross buns aside, the Easter holiday period can raise a number of different workforce management issues for HR and Payroll departments across the country – particularly for those who manage employees across different states.

Avoid a HR Nightmare over the Easter and Anzac Day Holiday Period

Common issues they must contend with include; a spike in the number of annual leave applications, increased absenteeism and lost productivity in the days leading up to and after the long weekend, a bombardment of enquiries regarding the day or days that have been declared a public holiday, as well as trying to manage all the associated entitlements and awards.

To help minimise some of the confusion around penalties and public holidays the NSW Business Chamber has put together the following information:

Public Holidays

In summary, the National Employment Standards (NES) entitle employees to take declared public holidays and to be paid their base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked on the day. The NES also entitle employees to reasonably refuse to work on a public holiday.

Easter Public holidays for each State and Territory are as follows:

NSW 
Friday, 6 April 2012 (Good Friday)
Saturday, 7 April 2012 (Easter Saturday)
Sunday, 8 April 2012 (Easter Sunday)
Monday, 9 April 2012 (Easter Monday)

QLD, VIC, SA, NT and ACT
Friday, 6 April 2012 (Good Friday)
Saturday, 7 April 2012 (Easter Saturday)
Monday, 9 April 2012 (Easter Monday)

WA and TAS
Friday, 6 April 2012 (Good Friday)
Monday, 9 April 2012 (Easter Monday)

ANZAC day is a national public holiday and is observed on Wednesday 25 April 2012.

Penalty Rates

The applicable penalty rate for an employee undertaking work on a public holiday will be derived from the relevant industrial instrument. Where an employee is covered by a modern award, the transitional penalty rate should be applied, where applicable. Some modern awards also have additional provisions about public holidays.

Local Arrangements

A common provision in modern awards allows the employer and majority of employees to agree to substitute another day for a public holiday. This means that the substitute day is the public holiday for both the NES and the award’s penalties, but there may be special provisions in the award for specific public holidays.

How might a Time and Attendance System help?

Ensuring that you are compliant with penalty rates and modern awards can represent a major headache for many organisations, particularly those that operate nationally.

Here’s just some of the ways a Time and Attendance System can take the stress out of payroll processing, HR management, and entitlement calculations in the run up to the Easter break:

Award Interpretation: Easily calculate base and overtime pay, weekend and public holiday penalties, as well as leave loading and shift penalties, ensuring consistent application of your business rules and compliance with workplace legislation.

A direct interface to your external payroll application further reduces payroll administration and the potential for costly payroll errors.

Empower Employees: Employee Self Service functionality enables employees to check their own leave entitlements and request leave (subject to supervisor approval) without having to converse with HR directly.

Employee Scheduling: Ensure you have sufficient staff on board to cover the holiday period by limiting how many employees can be off on a given day or time period. Once the limit has been reached no further employees can request leave. This feature is particularly useful in times of high demand for holidays, as well as heightened production or activity i.e. January Sales for Retail

In addition, you can assign resources based on predefined budgets, keeping operating costs as low as possible.

Comprehensive Reporting: Real-time reports allow you to analyse any particular attendance trends or unplanned absences, as well as the commercial impact of schedules, overtime and absence. Armed with this invaluable information, management can plan appropriate action before your bottom line is affected.

So with an automated Time and Attendance System looking after all the complicated stuff, all that’s left for you to do now is enjoy some of that Easter Chocolate!

If you’d like to find out more about how a Time and Attendance System can assist with Award Interpretation and Absence Management contact Mitrefinch Employee Management today on 1300 884 831 (Australia) or 09 363 9557 (NZ).

Employers 'failing to grasp extent and cost of staff absences'

Employers could struggle to make improvements to their absence management practices by failing to recognise the true impact that staff sick leave has on their organisation. 

A study by Aon Hewitt has found that many organisations are unaware of how many working hours are lost through staff absences and how much this could be costing their business.

A poll of 185 employers in the UK, representing a combined workforce of 650,000 employees, revealed that 32 per cent of businesses do not know how many days employees are absent through sickness annually, while of those who could give a figure, 60 per cent were not very confident of its accuracy. 

Furthermore, more than half of the respondents said they do not measure the total cost of employee health issues, including absences, while 14 per cent did not know whether their organisations measured costs relating to health. 

James Kenrick, healthcare consultant at Aon Hewitt, said that employers who fail to report on these type of measures are likely to find it hard to improve on the way they handle staff absences. 

"There is a widespread lack of knowledge among the UK's employers about levels of absence through sickness and the wider costs of healthcare. This suggests a lack of focus on absence rates and on health generally," he said. 

"It is clear that there is a need for healthcare measurement and for tangible improvement on the current situation - but without an accurate picture of sickness absence and healthcare costs, employers will struggle to make and measure improvements." 

The survey also suggested that a lack of integration between absence management and healthcare strategies could be compounding the issue. With 13 per cent of those polled revealing that they view the components of their benefits programme completely separately from staff absences, while 36 per cent said they are only loosely related. 

"In our experience, once management is aware of high sickness rates and the corresponding costs, it takes only a modest degree of intervention to bring rates down swiftly," added Mr Kenrick.

An Employee Time and Attendance system is a powerful tool for analysing and managing employee time and attendance.

By recording unplanned absences, holidays and other leave (compassionate, parental etc...), a Time and Attendance system builds a complete Employee Absence Profile which can be viewed on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. While a Group Absence Profile allows you to analyse absence for a specific team, department or site.

By measuring the work absences of individual employees a Time and Attendance system can identify how these absences impact the organisation’s overall productivity, while real-time colour-coded reporting allows supervisors and managers to quickly identify potential problem areas and plan work schedules according to available resources, skills sets etc…

If you’d like to find out more about how an automated Time and Attendance system can reduce your company’s absence rates and boost productivity contact Mitrefinch Employee Management today on 1300 884 831 (Australia) or 09 363 9557 (NZ).

Our Free Guide to Choosing a Time and Attendance system is also available for download online.