Standard Requirements in E-Recruitment On Boarding New Staffs

The easy step in determining your employee’s legal rate of pay is to establish whether the employee will fall within the company’s Collective Agreement, if it has one; whether they are covered by a Modern Award, or whether they are Award – free. Modern Awards are wide-ranging in their scope and they cover a vast number of occupations and industries. If you do not have a Collective Agreement, determining coverage can be a complicated process of evaluation. The instrument that covers the employee will determine the rate of pay that they are legally entitled to receive, and the consequences of getting this wrong can quickly result in a claim for underpayment of wages – a costly and time consuming exercise for any business.

 

Once the correct rate of pay or salary level has been ascertained this should be communicated to the employee together with the other terms and conditions relevant to the position. This can be communicated either verbally or in writing, however for the sake of clarity we would recommend that the details be conveyed in writing.

 

Depending on the position that the employee is fulfilling a short letter of appointment may be sufficient to set out the main details of employment when implementing e-recruitment or onboarding new staff a more comprehensive contract of employment may be required. What should be included in those is in the second article in this month’s newsletter.

 

The Fair Work Information Statement:

The National Employment Standards (known as the NES) contained in the Fair Work Act 2009 compel an employer to give a Fair Work Information Statement to a new employee upon them taking up a position with a company. We suggest that the FWIS be attached to the letter of appointment or the contract that is sent out to the employee, or alternatively it could be handed to the employee upon or as soon as practicable after the employee starts employment. Fair Work Information Statements can be accessed on the EI Advantage website.

 

It should be noted that once a candidate has accepted and/or signing the offer of employment the contractual relationship of employer and employee begins, which may be before the employee’s first day of work.

 

Specific Employment checks:

Other compliance matters that should be considered are whether any specific checks need to be carried out when on boarding new staff. Whether any checks need to carried out will depend upon the industry and the particular position that the employee is fulfilling. For example;

 

-          Criminal records check may have to be completed by an employee, particularly in the childcare sector;

-          Medical examination arranged, if applicable;

-          Working visa checked if the person is not an Australian Citizen;

-          Copy of a Forklift licence, if the employee is going to be required to drive a forklift ;

-          Responsible Service of Alcohol training or certificate if the employee will be serving alcohol; or a Gaming Industry Licence, if applicable;

-          Drivers licence, where the employee will be required to drive as part of their duties

-          Employee Records

-          Once an employee has started working for you there are additional compliance requirements that need to be completed. On the employee’s first day or within their first few days with the company, there are obligations on the employer from the perspective of completing what is known as the ‘Employee Record’.