Employees Matter

Aideen Gallagher is an expert in the moving and handling of people with disabilities. She is passionate about the physical and mental well-being of people with disabilities and the caregivers who support them. She has developed a number of training programmes that are changing the way health professionals think about solving manual handling problems.

Author of the #1 Amazon Best Selling book - The Manual Handling Revolution.

Director of Risk Managed and we offer WHS consultancy. They specialise in keeping health workers injury free when caring for people with disabilities.

Having established Stevens & Associates Lawyers in August 2004, Nick Stevens brings over twenty-five years' experience in advising employers and employees on all areas of industrial relations and employment law.

Nick provides legal advice on employment matters in areas such as workplace change management, executive employment contracts, enterprise agreements, and workplace policies and procedures. Additionally, Nick provides legal advice in areas including unfair dismissal, unlawful termination, general protections applications, breach of contract, and competition and consumer law claims. Nick also advises on sensitive workplace issues including bullying, discrimination, and harassment.

Nick has a broad range of employment and industrial relations experience across a wide range of industries including health, transport, manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and charitable organisation.

They talk about

- Nicks journey into Law and How he ended up where he is today

- The enjoyment that hsi job brings and the satisfaction of exceeding client expectations

- Dramatic increase of unfair dismissal cases since covid

- Running a business - what Nick likes and dislikes about running his own business

- Nick works for employers AND employees, how this point of difference shapes his outlook

- Enterprise agreements - what are they, how they work and why we are seeing less of them

- Nick's experience of working from home during COVID

- The Government's Omnibus legislation, definitions of casual employee

- Award simplification and what it means for your business

And much more ....

How to contact Nick:

www.salaw.com.au

Omnibus Legislation Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia's Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020 https://bit.ly/3bY3fV0

Hi, this is Natasha Hawker, your host of our rebranded Employees Matter podcast.

You might wonder why we changed our podcast name from HR Heroes to Employees Matter. Well, it has long been our belief that your employees are your greatest asset and also, potentially, your greatest liability and should be treated as such. That is why our company is called Employee Matters and one of our values is Employees Matter.

With COVID there is a significant shift happening in our workplaces and it is our view that those businesses that are able to build and maintain Employee Assets will outperform their competitors every time.

So welcome to Series 2, where we explore the five key themes of our New COVID World of Work:

Jobkeeper

Restructuring, redundancy and Unfair Dismissal

Population Decentralisation

Individual Contracts/Variations to Contracts / Employee demands

Mental Health and Domestic Violence

I'm Natasha Hawker and remember your employees really do matter.

Emma Walsh is the Founder and CEO of Parents At Work, a social enterprise supporting both parents and organisations to better manage the challenges that employees face when juggling work and family life. Emma is a passionate campaigner for improving parental leave and flexible work rights for working parents. She also makes significant contributions to the development of aspiring female leaders through leadership programmes. .

Natasha and Emma talked about:

* We hear how Emma ended up where she is today and started her own business

* Grappling with the challenge of balancing family and work

* Maintaining, building and leveraging a business but not at the expense of family

* Tips for managing a busy household and an equally busy business

* Parents at Work - how does it work

* Impacts of Covid to Emma's business

* Parental Leave in Australia and Parental Leave equality

* Supporting parents in the workplace and supporting a flexible workplace

* What are businesses doing to support family friendly workplaces at the moment

* Boundaries for working from home - how do you switch off?

And much more ....

Getting in touch with Emma:

www.parentsatwork.com.au

And thanks to our sponsor, RingCentral www.ringcentral.com.au

Graeme Cowan is the author of the best-selling BACK FROM THE BRINK book series and is a Board Director of R U OK? Over the last 5 years he has helped thousands of leaders and teams to be more caring, mentally healthy, and growth oriented. He is a regular media commentator on workplace resilience in volatile times, and an in-demand speaker.

Natasha and Graeme talk about :

* Graeme's story and how he came to be where he is today

* Working from home

* How Graeme managed to pivot to virtual events from traditional in person speaking events after Covid dropped in 2020

* Learning how to do different things as a result of the pandemic

* How to look after our mental health and help the people around us

* How to stay 'ok'

* Having the right rituals and habits for your own good mental health

* What have we done well and what could we have done better in the last year

* Why should you as a leader, "double down" on self care

* Some mental health stats and trends from 2020

* How to start a conversation with someone who may be struggling with mental health

And much more ...

Reach out to Graeme via his website https://graemecowan.com.au/

Ben Walker is an Author, Award Winning Accountant and Founder of Inspire - Life Changing Accountants He is a Chartered Accountant with over a decade of Experience. He is the founder and CEO of Inspire, and co-author of Cashed Up: The 7 Steps Method of Pulling More Money, Time and Happiness from Your Business. Ben was the Winner of coveted Anthill Online '30under30' award for 2014 and was named a finalist in the Brisbane Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Natasha and Ben talked about:

* How Ben got to where he is today

* How accounting is critical to business success during the pandemic

* More changes coming on Jobkeeper?

* Jobkeeper eligibility and the uneven playing field

* Success stories of 2020 - what can we do as businesses to do better ?

* Ben explains the concept of the "war chest"

And much more ...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwalkerca/

https://inspire.business/

Nicki Hutley Is a highly experienced economist with over three decades of practice in financial and investment markets and in economic consulting. Formerly with Deloitte Access Economics, she is now an independent economist. Nicki develops social impact programs and finance solutions. In 2020 Nicki was appointed as a Councilor for the Climate Council she is particularly interested in the intersection of economy in society and environment and her research covers both macro and micro economic policy across a broad range of issues. Nicki is a regular guest on programs The Drum and The Project amongst others.

Natasha Hawker and Nicki discuss:

- Social equity - making sure that we don't leave those who are most disadvantaged behind, has been working on modern slavery, council of social services , indigenous support programs

- Making an impact that matters - Delloitte's effort to make a difference, leave the world better off then when we started

- Definition of a small business - what is it ?

- What Nicki loves about what she does

- Economic policy and how it affects you and why you should always look at the big picture

- Methods for small business to become more productive

- Has Jobkeeper run its course?

- What are zombie firms and why they are doomed to fail

- Redundancy and how it is being underutilized with businesses letting go their employees unfairly and suffering the consequences

- The workplace of the future and how Covid has shaped it

- AI, Automation and more are changing the modern workplace

- Is your business prepared for another lockdown

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-hutley-b6411812/

https://socialoutcomes.com.au/

https://www.singularityuaustralia.com/faculty/nicki-hutley

Kate Carnell, AO is the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and a Non- Executive Director of the Climate Change Authority. She has held numerous Chair and CEO positions across a wide variety of industries. Kate was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2006 for her services to community through contributions to economic development and support for the business sector, knowledge industries, the medical sector and medical technology and advances. Kate fights tirelessly for Australian Small Business owners, which has never been more important than during this Covid crisis.

In this episode Natasha Hawker and Kate Carnell talk about:

The current tough times for Australian business owners and the opportunities that exist in this environment

Kate's role as the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and what success looks like for her - and why she loves the role she plays in the Australian business landscape

- The importance of the small businesses who make up 99% of businesses in Australia

- What we need to do to make the SME sector fire up and thrive

- Childcare - and the need to focus on this as it is currently a major barrier to small business success. Even with billions of dollars spent on childcare and subsidies the obstacles are still there and it is a disincentive to grow your business as a young person. We invest heavily in education of women but there are mechanisms in place that impact their success in business such as childcare.

- Mental health - Kate's advice to small business owners to stay mentally healthy and Kate draws on her own experience.

- Small business viability review program - what is it?

- Unfair dismissal cases and the huge spike seen in 2020

- The Fair Dismissal code

- What can we learn from Australian businesses that are doing well right now

- Small Business Award

https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/my-business-health/home

https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-carnell-24ab4a15/

https://www.employeematters.com.au/podcast/

•What was the JobKeeper Scheme trying to achieve

•What is the reality of 'one in all in'

•JobKeeper enabled direction

•What are the changes that an employer can make to the way an employee is directed to work

•What are the risks for employers and employees & how can you protect yourself

•What is happening to the numbers of complaints with Fair Work

•Why should you get advice

•Extension of time to the enrolment date & extension to 8th May to back pay employees

•From an accounting perspective what do business owners need to do

•Why is the government looking to extend times

•What are the practical realities from an accounting perspective for business

•Alternative tests for eligibility & special considerations or appeals for business

•What are the penalties for illegally claiming JobKeeper benefits

•Employee / Employer attitudes and behaviour around JobKeeper

•What can you do if an employee refuses to return to work

•What changes can you make to the way that you have employees work

•What is the one thing from a legal, accounting and HR employers must do

•What is the greatest opportunity for business, the economy, employees or society

•What will work look like after COVID-19

https://businessreliefpackage.com/

https://dannykinglegal.com/

inspire.business

https://www.employeematters.com.au/

Episode Notes

- Using this crisis to your advantage

- What does the new world of work look like?

- Well Being was the No1 goal

- How to move to Working from Home successfully

- Communication Strategy

- How to survive COVID-19

- Training is the opportunity

- Authentic leadership impacts

- How culture is important

- What are the biggest mistakes that employers make with their employees?

- Working remotely = trust

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-pearce-24750764/

www.maigroup.com.au

https://discordapp.com/

https://zoom.us/meeting