Happy HR - 7 steps to avoid costly mistakes in HR

© 2015 Happy HR PTY LTD www.happyhr.com

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7 common costly HR mistakes and how you can avoid them.

This is the quintessential guide for all employers looking to avoid the 7 most common mistakes that cost tens of thousands in productivity loss and potential growth! You’re busy - yep we get it. You need staff, and you have interviewed a bunch of people and believe you have found a candidate that can assist you in in managing the day to day of your company. Your business relationship is just starting. However, to optimise your business for growth you know you need to ensure you have the right HR processes and performance management procedures in place. This is not only a smart way to begin a business relationship, but is actually required by the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). So where to from here? We all know that happy staff = happy customers which equals increased productivity and growth for you. Very few business owners know how to achieve this nirvana, which is simple enough if you focus on strengthening your HR policies, performance management framework, and employment brand. The 7 insights below will help set you on your path to HR enlightenment and achieve success for your staff and for your business. 1. Get Compliant! - Why you need legally compliant Human Resource (HR) polices Fact: The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) requires all employers to have legally compliant HR policies and procedures in place. HR policies allow an organisation to be clear with its employees about what is expected of them. By having HR polices in place you will have a reference point to enable you to effectively govern the values and goals of your organisation. Not having these documents in place could make an employee feel that you are unjustly performance managing them, and you could end up in hot water or in Fair Work. So what’s the solution? Happy HR enables you to have up to date HR polices that are legally compliant. We make sure that our policies are being constantly updated as legislation changes to ensure that you are protected from any changes in the law. We keep you up to date.


2. Be clear on PD’s! - Why having clear and concise Position Descriptions that are aligned to your strategic goals is vital to your HR policies. Most companies have wishy washy position descriptions that list a whole bunch of roles and responsibilities but no real metrics around what success looks like in the role. In most cases people start in a role and never see or review their position description again! Most businesses have a range of goals, and to achieve them it is necessary for your employees to undertake certain activities, or they will not assist you in reaching your strategic objectives. By ensuring your company’s Position Descriptions cover all the activities required to achieve your goals, you have a greater much chance of reaching your company’s strategic objectives. Great advice – but can you show me what this might look like? Example:

Performance indicator Measurement of Performance Indicator

1. 100% accuracy in CRM 1. Ensure that all correct details of the client are in the company CRM. The Client name, Main contact, Email, Phone, Address, detailed notes and all activity is logged in the CRM.

Happy HR ensures there are no grey areas in performance management as you are able to create a performance indicator within a position description and assign a measure of success to the individual performance indicator. This makes the performance metrics clearer to staff and will ensure that success is more easily achieved as employees know what they are aiming for. The performance indicators are visible on the employee and manager dashboards, and they are used to assess your employees when reviewing an employee’s performance as part of regular review cycle. 3. Make your first impression last! How to get your Induction right, from Day 1, and why it’s critical to the ongoing success of your business. As the saying goes you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and this also applies to inducting new staff into your business. New employees should understand and agree to their position description, employment contract, and HR policies before their first day at work so there is no question around what is expected of them. By not inducting staff according to best practice HR principles you risk starting the relationship off on the wrong foot. Research shows that the cost of new recruits not working out is extraordinarily high and can cost a business up to a minimum of 35% of an employee’s annual salary once you take into consideration salary, training costs, replacement costs and lost sales as a result of the displacement. It is critical to get this right. Employers need to remember that they have an obligation to their employees as they do to their customers to get the experience right. For customers it’s called brand loyalty and for employees it’s called your employment brand.


There are many great businesses with fantastic employment brands competing in the same space as you for quality staff. For this reason it is essential that if you are looking to employ and retain talent, you must provide your staff with a great employment experience, as great staff drive results. By providing you with a central, easy to access hub for your necessary induction documents, Happy HR ensures that you can set these expectations well before day one ensuring that you make a step in the right direction when it comes to inducting in your new employees and offering an exceptional employment experience. 4. Set Goals and review them! - What are S.M.A.R.T Goals and how they pay for themselves 10 times over! S.M.A.R.T is an acronym for: Specific, Measurable, Action-orientated, Realistic and Time bound. S.M.A.R.T goal plans should be used to develop an individual who is not meeting the performance indicators as stipulated in the employee’s Position Description. As a manager you have an obligation to provide your underperforming employee with the opportunity to improve, and to assist them in achieving success. By establishing a S.M.A.R.T goal plan you are able to clearly outline what the employee needs to do to develop further and achieve their personal goals. Both parties must mutually agree on the S.M.A.R.T Goals plan so both parties are aware of what their obligations are to ensure this is achieved. Working closely with your employee to ensure that they achieve the set out S.M.A.R.T goal plan will result in improved employee engagement, optimised business performance and significantly reduced employee turnover. Remember having to replace an employee can cost up to 35% of an employee’s annual salary and can significantly impact workplace culture. The Happy HR software enables you to create performance improvement S.M.A.R.T goals and behavioural S.M.A.R.T goals which are time stamped and managed in line with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Managing performance in this fashion will ensure that you have a far more engaged employee, that is not only committed, but enthusiastic about their work, and the organisations best interests for present and future success front of mind. 5. How to increase employee performance & engagement without a pay rise At Happy HR we have conducted a lot of research into what employee engagement means, and what it takes to have an engaged and committed workforce, and all our research can be summed up in one word – Development. Many companies lose great employees because they do not offer them a career path or a path for professional growth. People want to be a part of something, but if they are not challenged and are not developing their skills they will eventually leave and can leave behind pessimism and negativity, which is a cancer to any business.


Happy HR allows you to establish clear Development Plans to ensure that you are engaging your employees and working with them to develop their skills. Applying this framework into your business will not only increase the performance of your employees, but will also allow you to clearly demonstrate to them that they are valued, and that their activities are vital to the business reaching its strategic goals. On top of this they will work to a culture of continuous improvement, and help the business to improve its capabilities. 6. Data is king! Why you need to have employee performance data at your fingertips. Having staff performance data at your fingertips anytime, and anywhere is important to manage a modern workforce. Having a company dashboard to see how managers are running their departments and how the employees within those departments are going is vital to keep your business on track. Having access to this information at the click of a button will enable you to track employee performance and ensure that you can work towards achieving your company’s goals and objectives. Happy HR enables you to view and create your organisational chart so people can clearly see who reports to whom. Via an easy to use individual dashboard, management and employees can see their own information, what performance indicators have been or need to be achieved, historical information, S.M.A.R.T goals and development plans. Individuals will also see all updates to company information and will be able to accept or discuss changes if needed. It’s full transparency for employees and Management. 7. The law is no joke! - Why you need to take HR seriously Last year, over 30,000 business owners and managers ended up at Fair Work Australia because they did not have legally compliant HR policies or performance management procedures in place. These types of scenarios cause anxiety to employees, damages company culture and significantly reduces employee engagement. With today’s HR legislation constantly changing it can be really hard for organisations to keep up. This is where our cloud-based software can be used by your organisation to eliminate HR anxiety.


Don’t roll the dice.

Don’t get caught out. If you answer ‘Yes” to any of the below you may not be legally compliant and may be exposed. Contact Happy HR to have an obligation free discussion around how we can help you.

1. I am not sure if I have legally compliant HR policies? Most companies have old polices that are not legally compliant or in line with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

2. I don’t think I am up to date with all the legislative changes?

Legislation is constantly changing and it costs a fortune in legal fees to keep up. You will continue to save as we constantly update these polices with each and every legislation change which will again result in you saving thousands in legal costs each year in order to remain current and legally compliant.

3. I am not sure if my business manages staff in line with Commonwealth Fair Work

regulations? Simply put if you don’t manage and document your staff performance management process in line with the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) you may be exposed to a claim in Fair Work Australia.

4. I don’t have any performance management processes documented

You might be managing your staff but how do you make sure that your managers do? Using standard documentation and having a process to ensure that it’s done right means you eliminate HR risk in your business.

5. I don’t manage my staff to clear KPI’s that are relevant to the employee’s job description?

If not, then you may be exposed to an unfair dismissal claim for not being clear with performance expectations should you need to fire your staff due to underperformance!

6. Is you HR administration taking you too much time and costing you too much?

Reduce you ongoing HR cost by up to 80%. Correctly performance managing staff, and keeping your HR program up to date can take a significant amount of time and money. Happy HR can ensure that you are up to date and significantly reduce your HR admin.

7. Is your HR creating some level of anxiety at present? Many business owners and managers have a lot of HR anxiety because they know how to run their business but are not qualified in HR. HR is constantly changing and administration and compliance is on the rise. Happy HR alleviates all this stress and costs less than half a coffee per day.

8. Would you like to have access to a simple and easy to use software that allows you to

manage staff more efficiently? Don’t get caught out - We welcome you to please contact us on 1300 730 880 or email us at [email protected] to have a no-obligation demonstration of the Happy HR platform today!

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Happy HR - 7 steps to avoid costly mistakes in HR