When Sound Advice on Employment Law is Critical

Employment law covers myriad practices and interpretations, statutes, rulings, legislation, as well as federal and state laws. Companies, regardless of size, are expected to be not only updated regarding these prevailing labor laws but also fully compliant. This is by no means an easy task. Some organizations have an in-house legal department or an in-house team of lawyers and assistants to handle all their workplace law concerns. Smaller companies, however, typically don’t have a legal department. That’s why for most of these companies, hiring a human resources service provider that can provide them with a team of experts on laws regarding employment.   

Handling an Enterprise Agreement

An Enterprise Agreement (EA) is a negotiated agreement between the employer and the employees or their representatives. This agreement is company-specific. It is drafted to suit the needs of both parties. For the agreement to be valid and for it to eventually take effect, a ballot process must show that it has been approved by a majority of the employees who have valid votes. 

Some of the benefits of an Enterprise Agreement, also referred to as enterprise bargaining agreement, include stability for your business. An EA can help you have stable workplace conditions and wages set for even up to four years. An EA can also help you provide more work and career opportunities for your employees; and also, an EA can help you provide a range of non-monetary and monetary benefits. 

At the same time, an enterprise bargaining agreement should be flexible enough to help you and your employees arrive at a win-win agreement that lets you achieve your operational requirements and lets your employees achieve some measure of their work/life requirements.

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Effectively Navigating Laws Affecting Employment Relations

Employee relations, sometimes also called industrial relations, addresses the need to successfully balance corporate management with taking care of employee needs to gain commitment and optimum performance which would in the end be beneficial to both employer and employee.

This field involves many issues and a number of laws and procedures that can be quite complex and thus requires expertise, education and experience. To effectively navigate laws affecting employment relations, you need to understand that there are three main parties involved in these issues: your company, your employees and their trade unions or representatives and the state or federal government through existing laws and the tribunals where complaints or suits are heard.

Their interactions, conflicts and resolutions, often in issues such as collective bargaining or enterprise agreement, carer’s leave, personal leaves, annual leaves and parental leaves, termination of employment, redundancy, maximum hours, among others is what industrial relations is all about.

Outsourcing Staff Administration

Staff administration, also often interchanged with the term human resources administration, is one of the main services provided by human resources consulting firms. This usually includes the tasks and responsibilities handled by the human resources department which is typically composed of a team of HR specialists and headed by the HR director.


The tasks and responsibilities often include rostering, workers’ comp, administering payments for the staff, employee self service, comprehensive wages reporting, online payslips, online employee dashboard, time and attendance system, and superannuation; all of which are under payroll services. Other tasks and responsibilities under human resources administration are HR core fields like mergers and acquisitions, representation and advice on employment laws, human capital, health, benefits and retirement and communication. Human capital covers recruiting, inducting and onboarding new employees, training, rewards and incentive programs, migration processing and advice when hiring employees from abroad and management. Most human resource services providers also offer advice and assistance on HR management and strategy and also on compliance.

Looking for HR Administration Specialists

An offshoot of early 20th century studies in people’s behavior in groups and studies on organization development, HR administration, also called human resource administration, has become increasingly vital for businesses. That’s because it’s about managing one of the organization’s most valuable assets – its people.

Typically handled by a department or division made up of several human resources professionals and headed by a human resources director, human resource administration includes payroll and benefits administration, various employee relations functions, recruitment and onboarding, training, assessment, and rewards for employees. Also typically under human resource administration are organizational leadership; serving as the company's representative and working with the labor union representative during collective bargaining agreement or drafting of enterprise agreements; building and maintaining the company culture; and ensuring compliance with federal and state employment laws.

Finding an Effective Human Resources Solution

Human resources solution is a service provided by HR consulting firms. This kind of service may include a number of tasks and processes typically handled by the human resources department like recruiting, onboarding and inducting new hires; advice and processing for migration when hiring employees from abroad; payroll processes; compliance; HR management and strategy; and employee benefits and recognition.

Making the Most of Human Resources Services

Human resources services cover a wide range of processes and tasks. Some of the core fields include human capital, health, benefits and retirement, mergers and acquisitions, representation and advice on employment laws and communication. Included in human capital are talent acquisition or recruitment, training and incentive programs, management, rewards and remuneration. Health and benefits, on the other hand, include the processes involved in employee health plans. Communication includes aspects such as surveys on job satisfaction, employee attitudes, behaviors, engagement and overall climate survey. Analysis of cross-company culture fit and transaction costs of mergers are part of the core field called mergers and acquisitions.

It’s a fact that there are now quite a number of companies – from the smaller ones to larger organizations – that are employing a number of these HR services. Human resources consulting, or providing human resource services, an offshoot of management consulting, has actually grown into a billion dollar industry; with key players ranging from small to huge consulting firms.  

The industry offers a wide variety of consultancies and several aspects of your business can certainly benefit from HR services. So assess and determine which processes would be more beneficial for the company if outsourced to a firm that offers service from experts. A human resources service helps your company save on time and costs and also lets you focus on your company’s other important tasks.

Getting Good Advice on Workplace Law

Businesses, regardless of size, are covered by and are expected to comply with existing state and federal workplace law. Companies are also expected to always be updated regarding these employment laws, which is quite easy for companies with an in house team of experts on workplace laws or an entire legal department. But for smaller businesses, handling concerns regarding employment laws can be quite daunting.

For a number of businesses, getting advice on employment laws from a service provider has turned out to be a smart move. They not only save on costs, time and energy that would otherwise be expended by an in house legal team, but they also do away with the constant demand to train and update current legal department employees and to train the department’s new hires. A service provider would be able to do this for them.

Preparing an Employment Contract

An employment contract should be well drafted and reviewed thoroughly. And then reviewed some more. It’s best to get advice and guidance from experts in state and federal employment laws when drafting the contract to avoid phrases that are unclear and would lead to misunderstanding and possible legal problems. And also, to make sure that both the employer and the employee are protected. 

A contract of employment is not at all the same as a letter of employment. A contract of employment is more detailed. Letters of employment should be kept only to the most essential facts; the details should be reserved for the contract.

Making the Most of your HR Consulting Firm

A number of companies choose to outsource one or more of their HR processes to an HR consulting firm because doing so can help them save on time, money, reduce staff hours and other peripheral costs of handling the processes in house and let them focus on other priorities of the company such as sales, customer service, product launch and the like. Some companies also find that for certain issues, like those handled by change consultancy, it’s better to get the insights of experts from outside the company to get a better, more objective view.

HR service providers or consultancies handle a number of human resources, or HR, management functions like employee recruitment and onboarding, employee assessment, employee training, feedback and rewards, employee health and other benefits and other employee relations functions; as well as building and maintaining a company culture, organizational leadership, compliance and, in unionized companies, acting as the representative of the organization and working with the labor union representative during collective bargaining agreement. These processes fall under the HR consulting core fields which are typically classified as human capital, mergers and acquisitions, health and benefits, communication, outsourcing and retirement.

Making the Most of Your HR Consulting Firm’s Services

For addressing human resource or HR management decisions and tasks, you might want to engage the services of an HR consulting firm. Human Resource consulting came from the management consulting industry and has grown to become a nearly $20 billion industry.

There are quite a number of HR consultancies to choose from – from large, full-service organizations to the smaller, more specialized firms.

Start by choosing your HR services firm well. If there are particular areas or core fields in which you would need the most expert advice and assistance, you might want to consider an HR consultancy that is widely regarded as an expert in those particular fields. Some of the core fields for HR consultancies include outsourcing, human capital, mergers and acquisitions, health and benefits, retirement and communication.

Drafting an Employment Contract

A well drafted employment contract is vital for any company. This kind of contract should be prepared and reviewed thoroughly to avoid misunderstanding and possible legal issues and to protect both the employer and employee.

A contract of employment contract should not be confused with a letter of employment. They are not the same. The former should definitely be more detailed document than the latter. In fact, most experts would advise that you keep the letter of employment and the offer letter to the bare minimum. Leave the details and, of course, the carefully worded and specific terms to the contract of employment.

Effective Human Resource Systems

Human resource systems may be defined as the management or integrated use of policies, systems and procedures to attract, select, train, reward and maintain employees in order to meet company goals while maintaining compliance with employment laws.

“A Guide for Strengthening HR Systems” – produced by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Management Sciences for Health and published at The Manager’s Electronic Resource Center at erc.msh.org – mentions several benefits of an effective human resource system.

For one, HR systems can increase the capability of a company to reach its goals. Systematic planning, which supports the company’s missions, will also be encouraged. The third benefit mentioned is that an effective HR system delivers a “clear definition of each employee’s responsibilities” and how these responsibilities connect to the company’s goals. An effective human resource system also “encourages greater equity between compensation and level of responsibility.”