Effective Easter Holiday Planning with an automated Workforce Management System

Each year, the Easter holiday period raises a number of different workforce and payroll issues for organisations, representing a demanding time for HR and Payroll professionals across the country. 

Happy Easter from the team at Mitrefinch!

Common issues range from an increase in levels of absenteeism, a rise in the number of annual leave applications, and questions regarding the day or days that have been declared a public holiday by the respective state or territory government. 

As an employee or employer, you need to know your entitlements and obligations for public holidays during the Easter holidays. 

This year the following days are public holidays under the National Employment Standards: 

Friday 29 March 2013 (Good Friday) and Monday 1 April 2013 (Easter Monday) 
*Note: Saturday 30 March and Sunday 31 March are also public holidays in some states and territories in Australia. 

In relation to pay rates, casual employees aren’t entitled to be paid for a day off for a public holiday. Part-time and full-time employees who get the public holiday off are generally entitled to be paid their base rate of pay for the hours they would have ordinarily worked. 

Some employees are entitled to be paid a higher rate (penalty rates) when they work on a public holiday. Whether or not an employee is entitled to penalty rates depends on a number of things, including the industry and the job. 

Visit Fair Work Australia online for more detailed information. 

For Mitrefinch Time and Attendance System users we help reduce the extra pressure normally suffered by HR and Payroll professionals around the Easter holiday period with the following functionality: 

Award Interpretation: Automate all your payroll calculations, manage different pay and penalty rates associated with the holiday period, and import this information direct to payroll – reducing data entry, saving you time and reducing the potential for payroll error. 

Self Service Tools: Employees can check their Annual Leave Balances and Request Annual Leave, while Supervisors can check off anomalies and approve/reject Leave Requests via the web or a web-enabled mobile device. 

Leave Slots: Supervisors can limit the number of employees that can be off on a given day; employees cannot request Annual Leave once the limit has been reached. This feature is particularly useful in times of high demand for holidays like Easter or in the run up to and during the Christmas Break, as well as times of heightened production/activity. 

Group Absentee Profile: Allows employees to view Leave Slots and whether the allocated limit has already been reached, preventing them from generating requests for leave. Managers can also enforce minimum notice periods for absence, and set minimum or maximum length for leave. 

With all your workforce management needs automatically taken care of, all you need to do is sit back, relax and enjoy all those Hot Cross Buns and chocolate treats!

Festive Workforce Management: Managing Public Holidays

While Christmas is generally regarded as a holiday for most, there are a number of industries that will require staff to work across some or all of the public holidays. 

Image courtesy of Fair Work Australia

Managing public holidays and associated pay rates over the festive period can be quite confusing – in particular for organisations who operate nationally – as some Australian States and Territories adopt slightly different arrangements. For example, in South Australia, part-day public holidays have been declared from 7pm - midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. 

Employees also have workplace entitlements on public holidays, regardless of whether they work or not. Fair Work Australia advises that minimum wages for working on public holidays depend on a number of things, including the industry you work in and the work you do. 

Under many awards and agreements, an employee who works on a public holiday may receive a penalty rate or loading for the hours worked, be provided with time off instead of payment of penalty rates, or receive equivalent time added to their annual leave balance. 

Fair Work also advise that an employee's roster can't be changed to avoid the payment for a public holiday if the employee doesn't work. 

Useful Links: 

• What Employees Get on Public Holidays 
• Christmas and New Year Public Holiday FAQs
• Annual Shut Down FAQs

Regardless of the State or Territory you operate in, a Time and Attendance system can take the stress out of employee allowances and entitlement calculations via inbuilt Award Interpretation functionality. 

Award Interpretation enables you to 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. 

Current Mitrefinch TMS users can easily configure their Time Management System (TMS) to process Public Holidays – for assistance contact Mitrefinch Support. 

If you are still processing your payroll manually and would like to put improved Workforce Management and automated Award Interpretation on your Christmas Wish List contact us via email (sales@mitrefinch.co.au) or call +61 2 8762 7888.

Minimising the Festive Frenzy with a Time Management System (Part 3)

In this, the third and final instalment of our mini Christmas-themed series, we take a look at how an automated Time and Attendance System can alleviate panic and stress in your HR department.  

 

With the Christmas and Summer holiday season well and truly upon us, HR departments across the country are being bombarded with various requests for time off.

How your business deals with these requests can make a big difference to your bottom line - as well as your HR team's wellbeing!

An automated Time and Attendance System, with Employee Self Service functionality, empowers your staff to manage their own time and attendance in a controlled, accessible and efficient way.

Employees can also view their accrued leave, entitlements, and request updates to their personal records without having to bother the HR department.

A web-based interface could be customised to suit the needs of your complete workforce, handling remote clocking in from desktop PCs, laptops and the latest smart phones. This would allow staff to clock in/out and on/off tasks, appointments and projects, regardless of their physical location.

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 - averting potential staffing shortfalls and ensuring you have sufficient staff on hand during times of increased demand – think December 26^th for those in the hospitality and retail sector!

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...  

In a nut (cracker) shell, Employee Self Service is ultimately designed to make your business more profitable and your HR team more efficient.

To find out how, please visit www.mitrefinch.com.au or call +61 2 8762 7888 and put improved Employee Management on your Christmas Wishlist today!

Minimising the Festive Frenzy with a Time Management System (Part 2)

In the second instalment of our three-part series looking at how a Time Management System can help ease your festive stress, we reveal how you can effectively manage public holidays and holiday pay rates.

In Australia, each State and Territory has slightly different arrangements for public holidays over Christmas and New Year, which can result in much confusion, particularly for companies with numerous sites across the nation. As a result, Fair Work Australia (FWA) have put together a list of the public holidays for each specific State and Territory for the 2011/12 holiday Christmas period – view list here.

So now you know the public holiday dates what pay are your staff entitled to?

According to FWA, if a full-time or part-time employee’s ordinary hours of work fall on a public holiday, and the employee does not work on the day, the employee is entitled to their base rate of pay for their usual hours of work on the day.

If the employee does not usually work on the public holiday, the employee is not entitled to payment.

If the request is reasonable, an employer may ask their employees to work on a public holiday. If the employee is required to work on a public holiday, their entitlement to penalty rates is determined by their modern award, industrial agreement or contract of employment.

In addition to the specified national public holidays, State and Territory governments can also specify other public holidays. These can apply throughout the State or Territory, or only in a specific region e.g. Melbourne Cup Day.

A State or Territory government can also substitute another day for the public holiday. For example if a public holiday falls on a weekend, a State or Territory government may either declare a ‘substitute day’ for the public holiday, or declare an ‘additional day’ to the public holiday.

Regardless of the State or Territory you operate in, Mitrefinch's Time Management System (TMS) 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.

For more information contact Mitrefinch Sales on 1300 884 831 (+61 2 8762 7888) or visit Mitrefinch Online

Sources: Fair Work Australia

Minimising the Festive Frenzy with a Time Management System (Part 1)

With the festive season almost upon us, many organisations are beginning to feel the effects of increased pressure and activity. In addition, resourcing challenges, managing multiple requests for annual leave, and allowing for public holidays and penalty rates, can all contribute to high levels of stress within your Operations and HR department!  

Over our next three blog posts we will look at the different areas where an effective Employee Time ManagementSystem can help ensure that you have a hassle free run up to the holidays!

First up is employee scheduling and ensuring you have the staff on hand to meet customer or production demands.

An automated time and attendance system, with scheduling capabilities, enables you to roster staff to fixed and flexible shifts according to predefined budgets. Any subsequent roster changes will trigger a notification if the shift is in danger of exceeding budget. By looking back over previous year, you can also schedule staff numbers to mirror forecasted customer numbers over the holiday period, or ‘on-the-fly’ to meet emergency requirements.

A number of workforce management systems also allow you to create groups or pools of available employees to help with scheduling multiple departments or stores. Casuals or agency staff can nominate themselves as being available to work for certain times of the week, and can be rostered on by supervisors to assist with filling positions or vacant shifts. A notification is then sent direct to the employee so they are aware that they have been included in the shift.

With many organisations (particularly in Retail and Hospitability), relying on casuals to provide the extra manpower required to operate effectively over the holiday period, they will need to be closely monitored to ensure they are serving their purpose. If they are late, taking long breaks or chucking sickies, you run the risk of having to pay permanent employees overtime as they may be required to cover and work extra hours. An automated Time and Attendance system, provides supervisors with an insight into how their casuals are performing, enabling them to address any issues before it affects your bottom line.

If you’d like to find out more about how an automated Time and Attendance system can help contain your Festive stress levels  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 to download online.

How a Time and Attendance System could help you implement a Salary Sacrifice Scheme

A city council in the UK has revealed that they've made savings of up to $230,000 by implementing a salary sacrifice scheme which allows employees to buy extra annual leave.

The ‘Holidayplus’ plan at Nottingham City Council gives employees an option to sacrifice part of their monthly salary in order to increase their holiday entitlement, and they also have the option to spread the extra holiday cost over 12 months.

Staff can choose to purchase additional annual leave whilst making savings of up to 41% on tax and national insurance. This also benefits the council with savings on its national insurance employer contributions, which has resulted in a reduction of the overall annual salary bill.

Angela Probert, Nottingham City Council’s director of HR and transformation commented: “With the UK public sector facing substantial financial cuts, we need to try to reduce costs where possible, creating as little detrimental impact on our employees and customers as possible.”

“Holidayplus is the perfect example of an innovative solution which not only supports our efforts to reduce outgoings, but importantly, offers a positive benefit to our colleagues,” she continued.

“It has been well received by colleagues and we hope to make more savings in this way in the future.”

For more information see: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/43333

So how might an automated Time and Attendance system help you introduce a similar program at your organisation?

Implementing an automated Time and Attendance System with Self Service funtionality is a good first step to introducing a salary sacrificing scheme.

An automated Time and Attendance System can easily manage the increase in the number of leave entitlements and would enable you to avoid any inaccurate payments made as a consequence of errors associated with manually tracking leave.

With Employee Self-Service functionality, a Time and Attendance system allows employees to request personal leave without having to speak to their manager directly, employees can also view their accrued leave, entitlements, and request updates to their personal records without having to bother the HR department, saving time spent on administrative duties.

In addition, during busy periods i.e. the run up to Christmas, a supervisor can set up Leave Slots. This option restricts the number of people that can take Annual Leave on the same day. For example, if an employee tries to book leave on a day when 3 other people have already requested leave, they would get a rejection message and would have to change or abandon their request.

In the event that department managers are on leave, they can ‘escalate’ their responsibilities regarding approving/declining holiday requests to other supervisors so that any holiday-related issues could be sorted without any delays.

If you would like more information on Time and Attendance and Employee Self Service functionality contact us on +61 2 8762 7888 or visit Mitrefinch online today.

Easter Holiday woes for HR and the Payroll Office

Each year, the Easter holiday period raises a number of different employment issues for employers and represents a demanding time for HR and Payroll departments across the country.

Common issues experienced range from an increase in levels of absenteeism among employees, a spike in the number of annual leave applications as this period coincides with the school holiday break, and questions regarding the day or days that have been declared a public holiday by the respective state or territory government.

And as if things weren't complicated enough, this year Easter Monday and Anzac Day both fall on the same day (Monday, 25 April). Nevermind the current NAB problems that may also be reeking havoc with your payroll payments!

According to the NSW Business Chamber, an employee’s entitlement to a public holiday is derived from the Fair Work Act 2009, the relevant state or territory public holiday legislation, the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement, or the employee’s contract of employment.

Easter Public Holidays

To help clear up the confusion below are the days listed by the Act as public holidays for this Easter period, as well as the public holiday declared by the relevant state and territory government as a public holiday for that particular state or territory:

*Good Friday, 22 April - all states and territories

*Easter Saturday, 23 April – all states and territories (except South Australia and Western Australia)

*Easter Sunday, 24 April – New South Wales only

* Anzac Day, Monday, 25 April – all states and territories (except Victoria – observed on Tuesday, 26 April)

* Tuesday, 26 April (Easter Monday) – all states and territories (except Tasmania)

Easter School Holidays

In addition, the following are the listed school holidays over the Easter period in each state and territory

New South Wales and Victoria: Saturday, 9 April – Tuesday, 26 April

Queensland, South Australia and ACT: Saturday, 16 April – Sunday, 1 May

Western Australia: Wednesday, 20 April – Wednesday, 4 May

Tasmania: Friday, 22 April – Sunday, 1 May

Northern Territory: Friday, 22 April – Tuesday, 26 April

Thankfully help is at hand!

For our Mitrefinch Time and Attendance System users we can help reduce the extra pressure normally suffered by the HR and Payroll Office around this period with the following functionality:

Employee Self Service: Employees can check their Annual Leave Balances and Request Annual Leave without having to annoy the HR department

Leave Slots: Allows management to limit how many employees can be off in one day, employees cannot request Annual Leave once the limit has been reached. This feature is particularly useful in times of high demand for holidays like Easter or in the run up to and during the Christmas Break, as well as times of heightened production/activity i.e. January Sales for Retail

Group Absentee Profile: Allows employees to view Leave Slots and whether the limit has already been reached, stopping them from generating requests for leave

Absence Profile: Allows Management/supervisors to enforce minimum notice for absence, and enforce minimum or maximum length for absence

In addition, our powerful Time and Attendance system automates all the payroll calculations , managing all the different pay and penalty rates associated with the holiday period, this information can then be imported to your payroll system – reducing data entry, saving you time and reducing the potential for payroll error.

All you need to do now, is sit back, relax and enjoy all that Easter chocolate!