Up to 173,000 Aussies planning a sick day today - things may be a little quiet around your workplace!

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!

With Australia Day falling on Saturday this year, Monday is regarded as a public holiday. And as a result the NSW Business Chamber, warns that this Friday (today!) employers will encounter some additional 173,000 sick days, at a cost of $36 million, as many employees plan on enjoying  an unofficial extra long weekend.

As reported on HC Online, the peak business body advises employers to take a tough stance on the act of “chucking a sickie”, and communicate that such unplanned absence can have a detrimental effect on productivity. 

“It's amazing how many people get 'sick' the day before a long weekend, but it's an obvious stunt that only serves to damage personal reputations and morale in the workplace," CEO Stephen Cartwright said.

Employers are encouraged to communicate a willingness to approve leave requests either side of the long weekend where possible, he said, as this can greatly reduce ‘sickies’ taken. 

Generally when employees are aware of their annual leave entitlement and if they have a substantial number of days stockpiled, they will be more likely to use this rather than feeling like they need to use a sick day instead.

An automated time and attendance management system, with EmployeeSelf Service (ESS) 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.

In addition, by maintaining a central repository of all employee leave records, a time and attendance management system monitors and record patterns of absenteeism, sick leave, and productivity, enabling you to identify any particular patterns or sudden unexplained changes.

A time and attendance solution can also help you to effectively manage your organisation’s leave and holiday planning processes by:

• 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

So if you want to enjoy your Australia Day festivities without having to worry about the effects of unplanned absence, contact Mitrefinch on 1300 884 831 or visit www.mitrefinch.com.au to find out more about effective Absence Management and Time and AttendanceTracking.

Source: HC Online

Are you on holidays? Are your employees on leave?

In Australia, January is usually regarded as peak holiday season with many taking full advantage of the summer sun, school holidays, and enjoying an extended break from work. 

However many employers and employees can be unsure of their annual leave rights and obligations.  

Annual leave entitlements form part of the National Employment Standards (NES) with all employees (except casual employees) paid annual leave based on their ordinary hours of work. 

Fair Work advise that an employee’s entitlement to annual leave under the NES accrues progressively during a year of service according to their ordinary hours of work and accumulates from year to year. 

On termination of employment an employer must pay an employee for any untaken annual leave which has accrued. Leave continues to accumulate while employees are taking paid annual leave and paid personal leave. 

For more details on the NES and Annual Leave Rights and Obligations visit Fair Work online.

A time and attendance software system can easily manage and track absence and leave. Web-based self-service functionality also enables employees to check their own attendance information such as flexi-time balances and entitlements, absence history and planned leave etc…without having to consult HR 

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

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

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 (+61 2 8762 7888) or email sales@mitrefinch.com.au

Festive Workforce Management: Leave and Absence Management

In Australia, the combination of Christmas, the School holidays and Summer generally means HR departments across the country are being bombarded with various requests for time off. 

Give your HR Department the gift of Employee Self Service!

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

A Workforce Management 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 view their accrued leave, associated entitlements, and request updates to their personal records without having to bother the time-poor 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 smart mobile phones. This would enable staff to clock in and out or on and off tasks, appointments and projects, regardless of their physical location.

In the event that department managers are on leave, they can ‘escalate’ their responsibilities regarding approving/declining holiday requests to other supervisors. This ensures that any holiday-related issues are resolved without delay.

Absence Management functionality allows managers or supervisors to enforce minimum notice for absence, and enforce minimum or maximum length for absence – which can be particularly relevant for this time of year – as you need to ensure you have sufficient staff on hand to manage production or customer demands.  

To facilitate improved Absence Management, Mitrefinch have introduced “Leave Slots” into their Time and Attendance System (Mitrefinch TMS).

Leave Slots give managers and supervisors the ability 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 – like the  January Sales period for those in the retail industry.

Employee Self Service allows staff to view available Leave Slots online – they will be unable to request leave once all available Leave Slots have been allocated – hence HR won’t need to deal with multiple requests for leave availability etc... 

To find out more about Absence Management, Leave Slots and Employee Self Service visit Mitrefinch online or call 1300 884 831 (+61 2 8762 7888) and put improved Employee Time Management on your Christmas Wishlist today!

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.

Festive Workforce Management: Managing your Casuals

Hasn't December just crept up on us once again! But alas before we can kick back and enjoy the festive season many of us are already feeling the effects of increased pressure as we count down to the holidays.

If you work in Operations or HR you are more than likely facing numerous scheduling and rostering challenges, while trying to manage multiple requests for annual leave, in addition to a possible increase in unplanned absence (with some staff possibly chucking a suspicious sickie to get some last minute Christmas shopping out of the way or recover from the staff party!)

Meanwhile, our friends in the Pay office will be busy calculating award entitlements, and allowing for the various public holidays and penalty rates (which can differ from state to state) - ensuring we all get paid correctly, and in time to spend it just as quick!

Our next three blog posts will look at different festive-related workforce scenarios and how an effective Workforce Management System might provide a hassle free run up to the holidays!

First up....Managing Casuals

Similar to Santa and his elves, many organisations (particularly in Retail and Hospitability) rely heavily on casuals to provide the extra manpower required to operate effectively over the holiday period.

A casual workforce needs to be closely monitored to ensure they are serving their purpose. If they are consistently late, taking long breaks or failing to come into work, you run the risk of having to pay your permanent employees or contract staff overtime to cover particular shifts.

Within a Workforce Management System, time and attendance tracking provides supervisors with a real-time report on a casual workers working time. In addition, when linked with project information or cost centres you can easily identify how they are performing against specific tasks, and address any issues before productivity is affected.

Scheduling or rostering capabilities allow you to create groups or pools of available workers to help with scheduling multiple sites, 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 accordingly by supervisors to assist with filling positions or vacant shifts.

Mobile messaging functionality can send an automated SMS text message direct to the employee so they are aware that they have been included in the shift. Likewise if a shift becomes available a SMS message can be sent out to the entire group to see if anyone is available to work.

I bet you can feel your festive headache easing already!

If you’d like to find out more about how Workforce Management tools like Employee Time and Attendance, Labour Tracking and Rostering can help you manage your casual workforce visit Mitrefinch online or call us on 1300 884 831 (+61 2 8762 7888 if outside Australia)