CATEGORY AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST 111 COLUMNISTS Pam McKean is the Director of AB Dental & Medical Employment Agency. The company has been in operation for over 22 years. In that time, AB Dental & Medical has grown into the country’s leading recruitment agency for the dental industry, servicing all sectors from government, corporate and private practice. Currently, AB Dental & Medical services over 3,000 businesses with recruiting services including supply of temporary, contract and permanent employees. As professional recruiters, AB Dental & Medical can manage as much as little of the recruitment process as required, even if only providing advice. a regular and systematic basis, many of the same rights apply after a 12-month period that you think you may be avoiding by keeping them ‘casual’. Allowing employees to use ABN’s is another hot topic. A simple check on the ATO website will tell you if someone can use an ABN. You might be interested at what you find. Not having policies in place A policy handbook should be one of your first priorities once your business. Even businesses with as few as two individuals may benefit from some actual concrete documentation. The policy handbook should cover everything from sexual harassment to code to mandatory casual to permanent conversion. Having these policies clearly defined before an issue arises will allow you to avoid many of the typical showstoppers in the first place (and deal with them smoothly, should they occur). By having written policies and procedure it provides employees with an understanding of expected behaviors and performance standards while providing rules for decision making across your business. Ignoring workplace harassment and bullying Harassment comes in many shapes and forms. Firstly, you need to know what harassment is and defining it remains one of the biggest difficulties the law has, given its inherently subjective nature. If you read the statistics, bullying and harassment at work are on the increase. Many studies suggest a figure of 1 in 5 to 6 people experience some form of bullying or harassment in the workplace. It’s unlikely that human behaviour has changed that much, but with an increased awareness of what’s considered to be acceptable in the workplace, there are more incidents being reported that may be constituted as bullying or harassment. Behaviour must generally occur on more than one occasion and is subject to a “reasonable person” test. This is where the ambiguity comes in play. A recent finding by the Productivity Commission estimated the effects of workplace bullying to be costing between $6 billion and $36 billion annually. Minimising the risk of bullying and harassment requires good grievance procedures that aim at a fair, confidential and timely resolution of complaints. However individual complaint-based mechanisms or policy documents are never enough to change the culture of a workplace. As a business owner, your role is to remain approachable to all your staff. You must be seen as fair, impartial and responsive (not reactive) on matters of behaviour in the workplace. This means when ‘things go wrong’ people will seek your assistance. Remember you are judged on your ability to handle the situation, not on the behaviour that has taken place. u
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