Assessment Task 1
Provide answers to all of the questions below:
1. Outline five methods of recruiting staff.
1. Know the law
Before hiring a new employee, it is important to know the responsibilities of the
employer according to FairWork Act 2009
2. Getting pay right (wages)
To work out the right pay when hiring a new employee, you need to decide on
the person’s employment status – whether they will be a full-time, part-time or
casual employee. Employees must be paid at least the minimum wage provided in
their award or agreement. If they aren’t covered by an award or agreement, they
must be paid at least the national minimum wage.
3. Hours of Work
Employers and employees should work together and agree on hours of work and
rostering in advance.
4. Pay Slips and Record-Keeping
Employers need to keep written time and wages records for all employees and
have to give employees a pay slip within one working day of paying their wages.
5. Hiring an apprentice or trainee
Hiring an apprentice or trainee can be a great investment for your business. An
apprenticeship or a traineeship is a good opportunity for on the job training while
studying for a qualification.
2. Explain the purpose of an assessment centre. in a recruitment
process.
An Assessment Centre is a series of recruitment process designed to assess a
group of candidates in a range of competencies through scenarios or any possible
methods. It is a recruitment process that combines many kinds of activities to
compare a group of candidates where employer generally utilises an Assessment
Centre as part of a broader bulk recruitment process because it provides an
opportunity to assess a candidate across a range of activities, in an simulated
environment reflecting real and possible workplace scenarios.
3. Outline three advantages of using an assessment centre to
determine a candidate’s suitability for a position.
1. Assessment Centre enables employer to compare a group of candidates with
each other, making comparing for each existing variable easier. This way,
employer can see which stong or weak point on each candidate.
2. Multiple activities in Assessment Centre provide employer the opportunity to
see candidates in a range of situations and formats, reflecting a more closely
simulated real workplace scenarios candidates might face in the future. Thus, it
helps employer see in a better perspective how their candidates handle or solve
any problem possible in the scenario.
3. Assessment Centre provides the employer and candidate a good opportunity to
communicate via a two-way process.
4. Explain the concept of human resources outsourcing.
HR outsourcing is a contractual agreement between an employer and an external
third-party provider whereby the employer transfers the management of, and
responsibility for, certain HR functions to the external provider. Many types of HR
outsourcing options are available to employers. The options can be as specific as
outsourcing one particular aspect of one HR function—such as applicant tracking for
affirmative action purposes—or as broad as outsourcing the entire human resource
department.
5. Discuss two advantages of outsourcing HR functions. You should
discuss each advantage in around a paragraph.
1. Cost Saving
Some important HR functions, for example Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
helps user (company) to get a more flexible ways of recruiting, having a specific plan,
methods, target candidate, and many more options making recruitment process
become more specific but accurate. The RPO itself turns the bigger and fixed expense
into a more manageable variable expense, these give organization a flexibility to
adapt in ups and downs of the fluctuating marketplace needs.
2. Focus on Business
With the many of HR functions an organizations has to deal with, organizations tends
to spend high investment in HR functions. Though, it might not as profitable as it
seems, especially if organizations become way too focused on HR functions and
administration alone. Having specific HR Functions to be outsourced by a third party
help organization in managing professionals human resource to focus on more
strategic and profitable efforts, maximizing their potential and focus on their job
description.
6. Discuss the functions and scope of industrial relations.
In Short, Industrial relations may be defined as the relations and interactions in the
industry particularly between the labour and management as a result of their
composite attitudes and approaches in regard to the management of the affairs of
the industry, for the betterment of not only the management and the workers but
also of the industry and the economy as a whole.
A . Industrial Relations functions :
1. Good industrial relations lead to industrial peace and increase in
production.
The labours today are more educated and they are aware of their
responsibilities and rights. Management has to deal with them not merely as
factors of production, but as individuals having human dignity and self-
respect. The objective is to change the traditional views of management and
labour towards each other and develop mutual understanding and co-
operation and work towards achievement of common goal.
2. Joint consultation between employees and management paves the way for
industrial democracy and they contribute to the growth of the
organisation.
3. Conducive industrial relations motivate the workers to give increased
output.
Problems are solved through mutual discussions, workers’ participation,
suggestion schemes, joint meeting, etc. Good industrial relations, increase
labour efficiency and productivity.
4. With increased productivity, the management is in a position to offer
financial and non- financial incentives to workers.
B. The scope of industrial relations includes:
a. Relationship among employees, between employees and their superiors or
managers.
b. Collective relations between trade unions and management. It is called union-
management relations.
c. Collective relations among trade unions, employers’ associations and
government.
Scott, Clothier and Spiegel remarked that industrial relations has to attain
the maximum individual development, desirable working relationships between
management and employees and effective moulding of human resources. They
have also asserted that either industrial relations or personnel administration is
primarily concerned with all functions relating man effectively to his environment.
Thus, the scope of industrial relations seems to be very wide. It includes
the establishment and maintenance of good personnel relations in the industry,
ensuring manpower development, establishing a closer contact between persons
connected with the industry and that between the management and the workers,
creating a sense of belonging in the minds of management, creating a mutual
affection, responsibility and regard for each other, stimulating production as well
as industrial and economic development, establishing a good industrial climate
and peace and ultimately maximising social welfare.
7. Outline the purpose of an employment contract.
An employment contract is an agreement between an employer and employee that
sets out terms and conditions of employment. A contract can be in writing or verbal.
Employment Contract usually consist of these outlines :
1. Summary of job role
2. Remuneration
3. Probationary Period
4. Leave
5. Staff Code of Conduct
6. Termination
8. Explain the purpose of a modern award, as well as to whom it
applies.
A modern award is a document which sets out the minimum terms and conditions of
employment on top of the National Employment Standards (NES). Moderns awards
came into effect on 1 January 2010. Modern award provide entitlements such as pay,
hours of work, rosters, breaks, allowances, penalty rates, and overtime.
Modern awards apply to all employees covered by the national workplace relations
system.
9. Explain the purpose of a registered agreement.
Minimum conditions at work can come from registered agreements, awards or
legislation. When a business has a registered agreement in place and it covers the
work that the employee does, then the minimum pay and conditions in the
agreement will apply.
If there’s no registered agreement that applies and an award covers the employer
and the work the employee does, then the minimum pay and conditions in the award
will apply. Employees who aren’t covered by an agreement will most likely be
covered by an award. Where no award or agreement applies, the minimum pay and
conditions in the legislation will apply.
10. Outline the 10 minimum workplace entitlements for a permanent
employee of an organisation outlined in the National Employment
standards.
The 10 minimum entitlements of the NES are:
1. Maximum weekly hours
2. Requests for flexible working arrangements
3. Parental leave and related entitlements
4. Annual leave
5. Personal/carer's leave, compassionate leave and unpaid family and domestic
violence leave
6. Community service leave
7. Long service leave
8. Public holidays
9. Notice of termination and redundancy pay
10. Fair Work Information Statement
11. How long must employees’ records be kept for according to the Fair
Work Act 2009?
According to Fair Work Act 2009, Employee records must:
1. be in a form that is readily accessible to a Fair Work Inspector
2. be in a legible form and in English (preferably in plain, simple English)
3. be kept for seven years
4. not be altered unless for the purposes of correcting an error
5. not be false or misleading to the employer's knowledge.
12. Outline the information must be kept for each employee according
to the Act above and the Fair Work Regulations 2009? List at least four
examples.
1. General records
General employment records must include all of the following:
1) the employer's name
2) the employer's Australian Business Number (ABN) (if any)
3) the employee's name
4) the employee's commencement date
5) the basis of the employee's employment (full or part-time and permanent,
temporary or casual).
2. Pay records
Records of pay must include all of the following:
1) the rate of pay paid to the employee
2) the gross and net amounts paid and any deductions from the gross amount
3) the details of any incentive-based payment, bonus, loading, penalty rate, or other
monetary allowance or separately identifiable entitlement paid.
3. Hours of work records
Records relating to hours worked by employees are to include the following:
1) A record of the hours worked by that employee
2) For any other type of employee, the record must specify the number of overtime
hours worked each day, or when the employee started and finished working
overtime hours
3) A copy of the written agreement if the employer and employee have agreed to
the employee taking time off instead of being paid for overtime worked
4) A copy of the written agreement if the employer and employee have agreed to an
averaging of the employee's work hours.
4. Leave records
If an employee is entitled to leave, the record must include both:
1) leave taken, if any
2) the balance of the employee's entitlement to that leave from time to time.
13. Explain when a pay slip must be provided to an employee and what
information must be included in the pay slip under the Fair Work Act
2009?
Pay slips must be issued to each employee:
within one working day of pay day, even if an employee is on leave
in electronic form or hard copy.
A pay slip must include all of the following:
the employer's name
the employer's ABN (if any)
the employee's name
the date of payment
the pay period
the gross and net amount of payment
any loadings (including casual loading), monetary allowances, bonuses, incentive-
based payments, penalty rates, or other separately identifiable entitlement paid.
For example, a note could be included on a pay slip that the hourly rate
incorporates the relevant casual loading.
14. How much notice must be provided to an employee who is to be
dismissed?
When an employer dismisses an employee, they have to give them notice. The notice
period:
starts the day after the employer tells the employee that they want to end the
employment
ends on the last day of employment.
Minimum notice periods
An employer has to give the following minimum notice periods when dismissing an
employee:
Period of continuous service Minimum notice period
1 year or less 1 week
More than 1 year - 3 years 2 weeks
More than 3 years - 5 years 3 weeks
More than 5 years 4 weeks
Minimum notice periods for employees over 45 years old
An employee has to get an extra week of notice if they’re over 45 years old and have
worked for the employer for at least 2 years.
15. Who is and who is not covered by unfair dismissal laws?
To be eligible (covered by unfair dismissal laws) you must:
be an employee within the private sector in NSW
be covered by the national workplace relations system
have been employed for at least 6 months in a large business or 12 months in a small business,
and
have been earning less than the high income threshold.
Some workers are not currently covered by unfair dismissal laws. They include
employees who are:
employed for less than six months
contracted for a fixed term
contracted for a specified season
on probation for a reasonable set period
casual workers engaged for a short period
trainees at the completion of their training contract
earning over $142,000 annually and not covered by an Award or Agreement (as at 1 July
2017- 30 June 2018)
genuinely made redundant because of operational changes.
16. Explain why is important to advise potential employees of the terms and
conditions of employment during the recruitment process?
Overall terms and conditions are important as these give employers and
employees where they stand. Dispute and argument can happen less due to what is
on the terms and conditions such as basic pay, hours worked etc. It is also important
to carefully draft the employee's statement of terms and conditions.
This gives proper notice to the contract documents and employer can help himself
with numbers of important right which could be an important value later on in the
employment relationship. Finally employers need to know if they are fully utilising
their statement of employment which will help them to their benefits.
17. Explain the purpose and relevance of psychometric tests in
recruitment.
Psychometric testing can measure a number of attributes including intelligence,
critical reasoning, motivation and personality profile. An interview process can be
fairly subjective and although employers will normally assess skills and experience
fairly accurately.
A psychometric test aims to provide measurable, objective data that can provide a
better all-round view of a candidate’s suitability. It perhaps provides a more fair and
accurate way of assessing a candidate, as all applicants will be given a standardised
test.
18. Explain the purpose and relevance of skills tests in recruitment.
Skill testing in recruitment process can assist companies in achieving the proper
job fit between the applicant and the job companies are hiring for. Matching the right
applicant to the right job leads to increased employee satisfaction, increased
productivity, and reduced employee turnover, which can be costly for any company.
