This week's top stories in brief
Friday, 11 September 2020 11:46am
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With R U OK? Day this week prompting conversations about mental health, AccessEAP clinical services director Marcela Slepica has shared some do's and don'ts for what can be challenging discussions. She says it's important to prepare in advance, and warns against crossing the line into presumptive behaviour when offering support.
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Employers' approach to employee benefits has improved during the pandemic, but more opportunities remain to boost program effectiveness. Mercer principal consultant Jessica Balcombe says taking a data-driven, employee-centred approach will ensure their investment has the greatest impact while removing benefits that aren't used or valued. Also in this article, workers are feeling peer pressure to be "always on", and most workers want to maintain COVID practices.
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Financial uncertainty is weighing on employees' minds, but employers are largely in the dark about its impact on wellbeing and productivity, according to Wisr head of partnerships Kat Mills. She stresses the importance of normalising conversations about finances and debt, and shares practical steps for HR leaders in managing this issue.
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An employer constructively dismissed an employee when it accused her of misconduct and conducted a "bizarre" and "humiliating" investigation. The Fair Work Commission said investigating the allegations in a proper and careful way might have otherwise resulted in a defensible reason to sack her.
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What constitutes fairness when standing down employees is "becoming clear", but there are certain things employers should consider when making workplace changes, regardless of their JobKeeper eligibility, HWL Ebsworth partner Brad Swebeck says.
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A 15-minute "catch up" that morphed into a performance discussion was a major contributing factor to an employee's psychiatric injury, but it was not "unreasonable", a commission has ruled. It noted a better approach would have been for the manager to avoid being drawn into a discussion about performance matters, but managers and supervisors "are not always perfect".
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Taking an 'interest-based mediation' approach to workplace restructures could help employers avoid many of the disputes that will otherwise arise in coming months, according to Immediation executive director Nick Northcott. In organisations with a "lower trust environment", proactive mediation can build stronger relationships with employees by finding compromises in disputed workplace changes, and result in a "situation that's closer to a win-win".