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So kicking things off by far, one of the most common

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questions or objections we get from clients

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is that by saying that they’ve already had

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the professional advisor, such as their lawyer or their accountant,

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to look at their employment contracts and other documentation in the past.

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So based on this, they ask us why they should pay

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someone like On Demand HR to do it all over again.

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Do you have any thoughts or insights on this?

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Yeah, good question, Andrew.

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In my view, generalists, lawyers and accountants

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do not have the specialized knowledge in the H.R.

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And employment contracts sort of space.

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And in their profession they do not work with the mechanics on a daily basis.

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They have other competing priorities that are more aligned with their profession.

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So they may not put

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the particular detail

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into supporting the business in the way that we do

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when working directly in the specialist space.

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I would ask any business about their contracts

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and how long it’s been since they’ve last reviewed them in the last

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so many years of the employment relations legislation.

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We’ve had the most amount of changes

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just within the last two years alone in this sort of space.

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So I would ask are their documents up to date, when were they last looked at?

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And is there anything irrelevant in those contracts or are they hard to

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understand and read with a lot of jargon that your employees would not understand

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ultimately it’s about ensuring these documents suit businesses

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best interests, that they’re easy to understand for their employees

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so that when they’re needed and called upon, they can be easily understood.

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Yeah, I think that

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really good point around I guess inclusions of of clauses

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and in the employment contracts that are not necessary.

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And quite often I don’t know what your thoughts

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are on this, but we see particularly lawyers.

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If I’m honest with you, that don’t have that specialized knowledge,

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they include a lot of additional clauses

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that create some additional obligations on the business.

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For example, putting policies and procedures

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clauses inside employment contracts.

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Why do you think that’s a problem?

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Well, when it comes down to the employment contract,

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you want it to be securing the employee to work for the business.

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That’s basically what the contract is.

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It’s about the mechanics of master servant,

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basically the engagement to the business that if it’s restrictive

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on the business’s way which it operates, it’s

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going to obviously make operations harder

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when they need to change policies that are in their contracts.

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If the contract says it’s got to be done a certain way or a certain step,

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these policy or procedures in place, then the business can’t change it

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unless the employee unilaterally agrees to change what’s in their contract.

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Alternatively, if a business wants to change things and not consult

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the employee,

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they could be themselves breaching their own

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workplace standards and again could bring further

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difficulties to the business in trying to repair

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something that could have been easily sought after if it was in a handbook

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or a policy manual. So to say, rather than the contract itself.