Are you Australia's Best Payroll Professional?

Does this sound like you or one of your colleagues? If so, it's time to stand up and be recognised!
The Australian Payroll Association have announced that the Inaugural 2012 National Payroll Awards are now open for entries.

The awards will recognise both individuals and teams for their hard work and dedication to the payroll function in their organisation. The outstanding work undertaken by an organisation's Pay Office is often overlooked, and the Australian Payroll Association aim to rectify this through their nationally recognised awards. 

The total prize pool is $5,500.  Winners of the team and individual categories will receive a beautiful trophy in recognition of their achievement and acknowledgement in the Payroll News eNewsletter

Entries close on 23 March and the payroll community will have until the end of National Payroll Month to view and vote for the most worthy winners.  The winners will be announced on Thursday 5 April 2012.

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to be recognised as a team or individual for your immense contribution to payroll in your organisation.

Prizes include $2,500 for the 2012 Payroll Professional of the Year and a prize pool of up to $3,000 for the 2012 Payroll Team of the Year. 

To enter, CLICK HERE or visit the Australian Payroll Association online for more information.
See terms and conditions for more details.

Confident that your staff are being paid correctly?

Maybe it's time you checked your payroll reports as yet another company has been caught out for allegedly underpaying it's employees.

This time, the operator of a Gold Coast pizza shop is being prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman for allegedly underpaying 27 employees almost $20,000.

The employees in question were aged from 20 to 37 and several are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, employed as cooks, kitchen-hands, customer service attendants and delivery drivers.

The workers were allegedly underpaid their minimum hourly rates, overtime rates and weekend penalty rates, with one staff member allegedly underpaid evening work allowances.

It is also alleged that the outlet owner, Mr Murphy, failed to comply with a Notice to Produce documents issued by Fair Work inspectors during their investigation.

Under the Fair Work Act, employers must comply with requests from the FairWork Ombudsman to provide employment records relating to employees and former employees.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said the decision to prosecute was made because of the involvement of vulnerable workers and the employer's failure to rectify the matter.

Read the full article online at Payroll News

How can you safeguard your organisation from a potential Fair Work investigation?

Ensuring that you are compliant with different pay scales, penalty rates and modern awards can represent a major headache for many organisations, with other recent workplace cases such as Toys 'R' Us, highlighting the importance of effective Award Interpretation and Time Management processes.

An automated Employee Time Management System takes the stress out of employee allowances and entitlement calculations via an in-built, fully customisable Award Interpreter.

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

Reports and Employment Records can also be generated quickly and easily should you be asked to produce them as evidence by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

If you would like discover how your organisation can benefit from more efficient Award Interpretation and effective Employee Time Management contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 931 or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Excessive Overtime may be linked to Depression

The current economic climate is forcing many white-collar, public sector workers to spend more time at work than the typical 9-5. 

However, this could have a damaging impact on their mental wellbeing, with a recent study finding that working 11-hour days on a regular basis can more than double a worker’s risk of depression compared to employees who typically work an eight hour day. 

More than 2,000 British civil servants who had no mental health problems were researched when the study began in 1991. Six years later, 66 cases of major depression were found in the workers after they received mental health screenings. Men and women who worked more than 11-hour days had a more than twofold increased risk of depression, compared to employees who spent less than eight hours at the work. 

Marianna Virtanen, a study researcher at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health believes that a variety of genetic, physical, and emotional factors can make a person vulnerable to depression. At the workplace, the prolonged stress felt by people with long hours is one of the contributing factors to depression. 

Dr Virtanen believes that: “Long working hours are likely to be related to less time to relax and less sleep. It is also possible that excessive working hours result in problems with close relationships, which in turn, may trigger depression”. 

Signs of depression can be found in trouble sleeping, feeling stressed, being irritable and dissatisfied, or lacking pleasure in those things that usually make you happy. A depressed person can also be less efficient at their job, make more mistakes than normal and have trouble getting organized or concentrating. 

It is important that managers use the data collected by their time and attendance systems to monitor not only the contracted hours of their staff but also the extra hours that employees put in to complete projects. 

Armed with this information you may be able to justify hiring additional staff or bringing in contractors at times of increased activity, or at the very least acknowledge the effort being put in by your team - perhaps introducing a Time in Lieu scheme or incentives for those that put in the hard yards? In the long run, this ultimately benefits you as a motivated and happy workforce generally means increased productivity! 

What's more, if your employees are having to frequently work extra hours without compensation you could have a potential lawsuit on your hands. (See blog Post: "Aussie Workers are being forced to work extra hours without compensation, how could a Time and Attendance System help you avoid a potential lawsuit") 

There are many more benefits of using an automated time and attendance system, visit our website to find out more or feel free to contact us directly on +61 2 8762 7888 or sales@mitrefinch.com.au 

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9038507/People-who-work-11-hours-are-twice-as-likely-to-suffer-depression.html

Tell your employees you love them this Valentine’s Day!

Did you know you can display messages, reminders or alerts to your staff as they clock in/out of work through Mitrefinch’s wall mounted Time andAttendance terminals.

You can easily set the system up to display messages to particular groups of employees, specific department, or your entire workforce.

This provides you with a quick and easy way of informing staff of upcoming company functions or training events.

In addition, boost employee morale by acknowledging them on particular days or holidays like today - Valentine’s Day! 

There are many more interesting little functions available in our automated time and attendance system, visit our website to find out more or feel free to contact us directly on +61 2 8762 7888 or sales@mitrefinch.com.au 

No Leave, No Life - Stockpiled leave is unhealthy for your business

Did you know that Australian workers have amassed 129 million days of annual leave worth up to $40bn in wages? What effect could this be having on your bottom line?

 

An article on HC Online this week warns that, excessive amounts of stockpiled leave can be a huge liability sitting on the balance sheet for employers – with Andrew McEvoy, Tourism Australia’s Managing Director, advising that it’s well worth planning for and addressing the challenges associated with accumulated annual leave.

This is particularily important when you consider that, employees who don’t take annual leave can often demonstrate higher levels of depression or anxiety-related stress compared to those who do take their holidays*.  

McEvoy advises that, “there are easy-to-implement methods employers can use to encourage a leave-taking culture, with clear benefits to be gained such as building and engaging with a productive employee community.”

The “No Leave, No Life” campaign championed by Tourism Australia, allows enables organisations to tackle the issue of stockpiled annual leave. The campaign website features an employer resources toolkit with a series of modules and practical case studies to assist with implementing a successful annual leave program. 

Some of the key focus areas include:

• Identifying challenges facing management such as pressure to meet targets, lack of reporting, competing priorities 
• Recognising the barriers to leave-taking and prioritising leave-taking policy in the workplace 
• Integrating leave-planning into current processes to ensure adequate coverage 
• Engaging employees – CEO, management and HR commitment is critical to success 
• How to set objectives and review regularly 
• Considerations to keep in mind when encouraging leave – compromise with employees on leave-taking within the context of your plan to ensure acceptable outcomes for employees and management 
• Developing a holiday-planning checklist to help staff better manage their departure from and return to work 
• Points to help managers look at how to measure the success of their annual leave policy

For more information on “No Leave, No Life” and access to employer resources visit: http://noleavenolife.com/employer/

Do you know how much leave your employees have stockpiled?

An automated time and attendance management system can help you effectively manage leave and holiday planning processes by:

• Keeping a central repository of all employee leave records, tracking all leave types such as Vacation/Personal leave 
• Calculating leave eligibility based on an employee’s hours worked and hire date 
• Generating real time absence management and vacation planning reports
• Creating work schedules that take in account employees on leave, thus ensuring you have sufficient cover to meet customer or project demands and deadlines

In addition, Employee Self Service functionality empowers your staff to check their own leave records and entitlements, and request/book leave online without having to converse with their supervisor or HR.

Want to find out more?

If you would like find out more about effective Leave Management and Holiday Planning contact Mitrefinch today on 1300 884 831 or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

* Dr Peter Cotton, Medibank Health Solutions Director