Author Archives: Bethan Flood

What you need to know about the new shutdown rules for awards

Many awards will have new rules on temporary shutdowns from 1 May 2023, including the Health Professionals and Support Services Award. What’s changing? From 1 May 2023, the Health Professionals and Support Services Award will have updated rules on directing the taking of annual leave during a shutdown. Please be sure to review these rules […]

Your Casual Employees.….

Casual worker

There has been much interest in the latest Full Federal Court decision which has reconfirmed that casual employees who work regular (happens at set hours and normally set days) and systematic (rostered well in advance) hours, and are long term (a minimum of 6 months but normally over a period of years) indicating “predictable periods of working […]

Supporting yourself and your staff through the current challenges

Supporting each other through the current challenging times is not easy and some may find it quite daunting. Principal Dentists and their team are worried about their personal health and well-being, as well as that of their families and patients. Owner Dentists have the added concerns of the business. So how do we support ourselves […]

Updates on HR and Payroll as we move into 2020

There are regular changes with regard to HR and Payroll matters within the Australian business landscape and keeping up to date can sometimes be daunting. Here are just a few that you may have missed. All are in effect now. Please ensure you familiarise yourself and review your practice situation to ensure you are compliant. […]

Flexible Work Arrangements

The opportunity to request Flexible Work Arrangements is now available for certain employees under the National Employment Standards (NES). The Fair Work Act states: “To be eligible you must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months on a full-time or part-time basis. Long term casual employees who have a reasonable expectation of […]

Making your Practice Mentally Healthy in 2020

We all have a responsibility to provide a safe and fair workplace for our employees. Creating a mentally healthy Practice has benefits for both the Principal Dentist, the employees and the patients! A mentally healthy practice should support the mental health of the individual and the team as a whole. This should then lead to […]

Why managers should take notes?

Fair Work states that a manager will find taking notes being “useful for keeping a record of your meetings and discussions with employees. Employers are advised to always keep written records throughout the process of managing performance or conduct issues” Notes can be comprehensive, bullet points or just a diary note. The more comprehensive the information, […]

Reference Checking

Is reference checking worth the time and effort to complete? Many say that reference checking is a waste of time, but completed correctly, it can assist to confirm your decision….or confirm the red flags you had about the candidate. We recommend you complete reference checking on your final candidate. If you have two great applicants […]

Unpaid Trials

It is quite often the case within a dental practice that a new employee is requested to complete a trial. If you are requesting this at your practice……are you completing it correctly?? Trials are traditionally unpaid and should be for no more than a few hours at most. The aim of a trial is to […]

What is the Role of a Support Person?

A support person is someone who accompanies an employee into a meeting, normally a performance counselling/disciplinary meeting. They are chosen and requested by the employee as the support person. The manager conducting the meeting, must ensure that the support person is clearly aware that it is a confidential meeting and that it is inappropriate for […]