Quality employment documents

If you have read our articles about performance management then you will know how important it is to have great employment documents in place. Put simply, it’s not possible to properly manage your workforce if you have not clearly set out what you expect from them.

You set these expectations through a series of documents, namely the Employment Contract, the Job Description, the KPIs, and Workplace Policies & Procedures.

None of this is rocket science, but if you don’t have the documents in place, then you will find it very difficult to effectively performance manage your staff. If you can’t effectively performance manage your staff, then chances are you will end up before the Fair Work Commission for unfair dismissal, unlawful termination or worse. This can all be avoided with a bit of planning and paperwork from the outset.

Isn’t a template off the internet sufficient?

While it may look like we ‘sell template documents’, that’s not how we add value. We will let you in on a secret – sometimes even lawyers get templates off the internet.

But that’s not where the real value lies. The value we provide comes from:

  • Helping you choose which ‘template’ you should use in what scenario. Each industry, and each type of role within a business, has different considerations. You would not use the same template for a casual transport worker as you would with a nurse or accountant;
  • Filling in the appropriate details. For example, what award is applicable, what other employment terms are appropriate (or inappropriate), issued around confidentiality, IP and client restraints;
  • Meaningful Job Descriptions and associated KPIs;
  • Systems for monitoring performance against job descriptions and KPIs; and
  • The strategy consisting of how all of these documents work together to provide a seamless and effective performance management system.

Industry specific contracts and policies

As noted above, different industries and different roles within those industries call for different approaches to the workplace. Some industries need to focus particularly on work-health and safety issues, while others are more focused on intellectual property and commercial restraints. Some industries are dominated by fixed-term contracts and casuals, while others require complex allowances and rosters.

There is no single set of workplace documents that is appropriate in all scenarios. It is not a matter of simply putting everything in and hoping for the best. Sometimes including something in a document that isn’t appropriate causes more trouble than not having anything at all. There is actually good reasons why lawyers have survived as a profession for several thousands of years!

Over our 30-plus years in legal practice we have developed a number of workplace document sets that are tailored-made for specific industries. These documents take into account all the things we have seen go wrong in specific workplaces over this time, and have been designed with your needs in mind.

What to do next

Call us on 1300 88 23 86 for a no-obligation chat about putting in place comprehensive workplace documentation to effectively manage your team.