Benefits of Australian Apprenticeships

Business owners can transform their business by employing an apprentice or trainee – as skilled staff are key to performance and success. It is also an investment in your business, your community and your industry to ensure you are ready to take advantage of whatever the future marketplace has to offer.

It is important for businesses to learn from the past and ensure they don’t suffer future skills shortages.

The Australian Government encourages employers by helping make apprentices an affordable option to invest in skills for the future of your industry and business through employment of Australian Apprentices and for upskilling existing staff.

The Australian Government offers a variety of financial incentives for business owners wishing to employee Apprentices and Trainees. With the support of a good Australian Apprenticeship Centre (AAC) national employers can stay abreast of differing education requirements in each state.

The AAC National Business Development team will help you (at no cost) to navigate the complexities of the different state jurisdictions. Paperwork and processes for national clients is streamlined and user friendly to make it easy for businesses with offices in different parts of Australia to manage their employment of Australian Apprentices.

The online web portals service most provide allows employers to keep track of the status of each Apprentice, provides incentive claim forms for downloading and information on when incentives are due to be paid.

Financial incentives for training staff and for employing apprentices or trainees

The Australian Government provides a variety of financial incentives for eligible employers and Australian Apprentices. These incentives can change from time to time and eligibility criteria applies in order to receive them. AAC’s are able to advise which incentives are relevant to your industry and business and for which you may be eligible.

State and Federal governments also provide other financial incentives as an encouragement to employ Australian Apprentices. This funding varies depending on market needs to stimulate the economy.

Incentives for training new staff (employed less than 3 months on a full time or 12 months on a part time basis): if you directly employ an Australian Apprentice, your business may be eligible for government financial incentives of up to $4,000 and a range of additional incentives for eligible employers.

The incentive programs for training existing staff (outside the above criteria): employees can access training and financial incentives in certain circumstances only.

Additional incentives included:

• payroll tax rebates in selected states/territories
• workers compensation insurance premium exemptions
• support for Adult Apprentices up to $7800 payable for 1st year fulltime apprentices and up to $5200 payable for 2nd year full rime apprentices (payable as a wage subsidy where the apprentice is over 25 years old at the commencement of their apprenticeship)
• up to $5500 Tools for Trade payments to the apprentice (at 3, 12, 24 & 36 month milestones and on completion)

There are many other State Government financial incentives that may be payable to your business. AAC’s assists you with all the processes required in employing an apprentice or trainee, providing advice on training options and assisting with Training Contract sign up and incentive lodgements.

What is your workplace culture like?

What does your company do?

This question is usually asked to gauge your organisation’s industry and the product or service you create. It’s a simple enough question to answer, it’s usually asked casually…and followed by more significant questions. Why not cut to the chase?

Perhaps a better question to ask: Why does your company exist?

Now we’re getting somewhere….

Can you recite your company’s core values or mission statement? Is there a story to tell about your founding principles? Has the mission changed over the years?

Workplace culture has been a buzz phrase in 2012. We affiliate the term with ping pong tables, office parades, and roof top happy hours. But, what if your company doesn’t have the intention of playing ping pong?

How does your company create alignment?

Some companies are committed to customer service, other companies have a daily mission to keep their employees safe, and there are other companies who promote a world class sales organization. You don’t need super hip employees or an informal dress code to have an effective workplace culture. All you need is a “purpose” that aligns your organisation’s founding principles to the goals of the individuals that serve it!

How are you promoting your Mission and Values?

What are your core business drivers?

Are you celebrating the individual?

Why Do You Care?

Accountability is high and mighty term to use in everyday business. How can we attach an extended meaning to accountability that makes sense to those in the trenches? To act with accountability may mean staying late on a Friday to finish reporting for an absent team member. This extra effort showcases an employee’s dedication to their department, the organisation, and an extended purpose. In this case, the A word is not an “or else” but the “the right thing to do”. People are always willing to do the right thing! If communicated not as an expectation but a common goal, the accountability to any effort seems reasonable.

So what if the person who stayed late on Friday received a personal message on Monday explaining how their actions exemplified accountability. Formulating a nomination program in accordance with the aforementioned scenario creates alignment. Someone put similar effort into founding the company 100 years ago. It’s good to know people still care…and what mattered then still matters now.

Why Are You In Business?

Rewarding employees for ‘above and beyond’ behaviour keeps them feeling appreciated! Attaching ROI to such behaviour can be difficult. So, we look at the reasons we are in business and create incentives. This often takes the shape of a trophy for someone who doesn’t value it…

Why can’t we award project managers for finishing a project ahead of time? Why can’t we reward an IT team for performing a disaster recovery test in a timely manner during operating hours? Show us the metrics for effective customer service and when we perform to them…how about some perks?

Every member of the team is responsible for driving revenue: some save time, some save money, and other save lives….incentivise accordingly and create a workplace culture that nurtures everyone!

Who Are You?

A team is a collection of individuals and no individual is more important than the team. But that doesn’t mean we can throw a tarp over a dynamic group and call it leadership. Every member of your team has distinct personal preferences and those preferences align with your organisational goals. How can we prove it to them?

You hire people first for their common sense. It makes sense to people to do things like show up for work, answer the phone, and to perform to minimum requirements. When we get past the minimum we start creating workplace culture. We get past the minimum by asking for accelerated effort in accordance with personal interests. So, when John gets to the office and learns that Jennifer affiliated his use of creativity with the “making a difference” company motto….he feels like he is at home!

No one works for just a pay check. Everyone appreciates it when someone tells them that the work they do makes a difference. To learn that the office you sit in was built by a woman (your grandma’s age) that cared about the same things you do…..gives your life purpose!

Managing Ill and Injured Workers

Every employer must have a system in place for managing ill and injured workers. This is usually a motivating staff and workers compensation policy for every employee earning more than $7,500 in wages per year, whether they are an employee, apprentice or trainee. Insurance can be obtained through the Workers Compensation Scheme, SICorp, through self-insurance or through specialized insurers.

The Workers Compensation Scheme is funded by the premiums paid by employer and is based on the employers industry; wage amounts; costs of any claims made; the dust diseases levy and the mine safety premium. The target premium collection rate for the scheme this year is 1.68% of wages.

“As at 31 December 2011, the Independent Scheme Actuary calculated the Scheme’s deficit at $4,083 billion, a deterioration of $1,720 million in six months. Its funding ratio is 78%, a deterioration of 7% in six months. This is the worst financial result incurred since the Scheme commenced in 1987.”

The current state (financial stability) of the scheme is expected to worsen with time with the largest three contributors to the Scheme’s outstanding claims liability are said to be weekly payments, medical treatments and work injury damages liabilities.

The current projections for the cost of the scheme in 2012-13 are estimated at $2,601 million, which means that the collected premiums will not be enough to cover the ongoing costs.

Seven reform principles have been set to address the issues raised and attempt to reduce the premiums paid by NSW businesses when it comes to managing ill and injured workers:

1. Enhance NSW workplace safety by preventing and reducing incidents and fatalities.

2. Contribute to the economic and jobs growth, including for small businesses, by ensuring that premiums are comparable with other states and there are optimal insurance arrangements.

3. Promote recovery and the health benefits of returning to work.

4. Guarantee quality long term medical and financial support for seriously injured workers.

5. Support less seriously injured workers to recover and regain their financial independence.

6. Reduce the high regulatory burden and make it simple for injured workers, employers and service providers to navigate the system.

7. Strongly discourage payments, treatments and services that do not contribute to recovery and return to work.

The reform aims to counter the findings that state a correlation between: “[E]arly return to work and improved health outcomes. Long term absence and work-disability are harmful to physical and mental health and well-being which is an obstacle when managing ill and injured workers. Recovery and return to work should be the key objects of any workers compensation system.“ Other major aims are to reduce the amount of ‘red tape’ involved with the workers compensation process and improve on the low rate of payments to injured workers, as they currently bear no relation on the salary the employee has lost.

The proposed reform is looking at the measures adopted by other states to manage ill and injured workers and taking on the ones that look to be the most effective, the wish is to simplify the calculation process, make the entitlements more clear to understand, with greater encouragement to return to work to workers who are less seriously injured and improved benefits for those more seriously injured. The proposed changes also covers plans to encourage the return to work and the rehabilitation process, as the paper states that these issues are not addressed well in New South Wales, it is claimed to cost New South Wales far more to get an injured worker back to work than it does in Queensland or Victoria, and this cost will continue to increase.

Potential impacts include:

Workers no longer being covered by a policy whilst on the way to and from work.

(Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania already do not count the journey to work.)

A step down point after 13 weeks of recovery period, including medical bills.

(Looking to bring the operations more in line with other states, who calculate payments according to average earnings and then introduce work capacity tests beginning of the 13 weeks mark, with the belief that the longer workers are away, the less likely they are to return.)

Removing “pain and suffering” as a separate compensation category.

(This category is the measure of the financial impact of the worker’s injury remitted as a lump sum; the proposed removal of this category claims to reduce administration costs and disputation.)

As soon as more information is available on managing ill and injured workers there will be an update you via the news site.

Staff Motivation Programs

Staff motivation is a world-wide issue that is common to every industry. Staff turnover is affected by several external factors and there is so far no exact method to measure its impact. However, we believe the key to retention is engagement.  

Staff motivation has little to do with money or salary packages and more to do with company culture and values being lived out on a daily basis. Employee engagement results in effective and productive staff that love what they do, ultimately increasing staff loyalty.

Recruiting to replace an existing staff member is a costly exercise and can decrease productivity levels for up to six months, until the employee is up to speed with the role they have taken on. Therefore, it is particularly crucial for SME’s with unfamiliar brands and formal hierarchal structures to get a handle on how to appeal to valued workers that they wish to retain. 

The best solution to lacking employee engagement involves reward and recognition programs such as Power2Motivate and Accumulate. These online rewards programs provide cost effective incentives for all employees of SME’s as well as large firms of any industry and can be customised to match your company’s values, themes and colours. 

Reward and recognition programs are by far the best approach to boosting employee consistency as they allow performance targets to be set by managers and employees themselves through KPI’s. Employees can earn points when targets are met or when performing “over and above” their requirements. Points are then redeemable against rewards including entertainment, electronics, gift cards etc. 

Throughout the rewarding process it is crucial to ensure recognition takes place within the team in order to increase the likelihood of eliciting such behaviour again in the future. Recognition, most importantly will make staff feel valued and important which is essential to improving employee performance and staff motivation.

Other approaches which can improve your company culture to attract long-term, quality staff members are to maintain a flexible workplace environment. Employees have commitments throughout their lives and it is important to create an atmosphere where working flexible hours is not frowned upon or deemed as  not working to one’s full capacity.

Introducing incentives for mothers to be able to work from home, job share arrangements and return to work bonuses are also solutions to establishing an inviting workplace atmosphere.

On-going training, coaching and mentoring as well as making sure each staff member has a career plan set in place is invaluable to staff motivation. A positive environment that fosters growth and future potential within the company will be valued by all employees on their journey to success. 

It is vital for each business leader to communicate their ‘BHAG’ with all employees so as to share a large common goal and be able to transition through the phases of success as a team with the same perspectives and aims. By building business acumen you are ensuring to realise employees responsibilities allowing their skills and abilities to be placed within high regard of the overall company and its goals.

Profit share, virtual employee share Options or Equity gaining strategies can be used for those who are more financially minded. By giving these employees a stake out of the company’s profit you are increasing their participation in the business and sharing the common goals and aims of the company’s top leaders which is often infectious. This will in turn encourage staff motivation. 

Lastly, it is imperative to emphasise the social, fun side of work. This can be done by implementing quarterly themes alongside your quarterly targets in order to keep everything in perspective. We encourage you to organise quarterly celebrations for the company to participate in as a team. Whether quarterly targets have been met or exceeded should be irrelevant so as to keep encouraging persistence, but will only determine how ‘fun’ or how ‘big’ the celebration should be.

Now that you know the secrets to staff motivation, make sure to implement them within your company and live out your positive company culture and values on a daily basis.

Motivating Employees through Reward and Recognition

Engaging employees in your workplace is important to ensure that they are productive and give you their best every day.  Engaged employees are more productive and less likely to leave their current employers and staff retention is something that every employer is concerned about in today’s employment market.  It is important to know that if you have employees that are not totally engaged in your workplace, you need to put in place ways of motivating them and having them aspire to better performance, effective reward and recognition programs.

All employees appreciate receiving reward and recognition for the contribution they make to the business. Recognising good performance or positive behaviours (like customer service or having a positive work attitude) is a good way of building a positive and collaborative team culture.  Performance recognition can happen in many ways, the overall objective should be to create a culture of recognition. The most common is the provision of a commission or “tips” to employees for sales or service. With a highly competitive labour market, it is becoming more important than ever for employers to consider more consistent and sophisticated methods of motivating and rewarding their employees.

For most employees money is a welcome reward for performance, but it may surprise you to learn that over 78% of employees would spend their bonus money on paying bills and other debts – hardly a lasting reminder of their good performance.  To provide employees with a longer lasting reminder of their performance, many employers are now considering rewarding employees with adventures, products and services that are tailored to the specific tastes of the employee.  For example, several hotels that have high levels of university students working for them have introduced performance incentives around paying for those employee’s HECS fees if they meet service and sales standards.  Other businesses are offering employees holidays, bridge-climbs, books, facials and spa retreats, in order to motivate them.

 There are several keys to effective reward and recognition:

-          Establish some clearly defined performance measures, or key performance indicators, that are tangible and measurable

-          Communicate clearly to the employees what is expected of them and the desired level of performance of their duties

-          Ensure that employees understand what rewards are available to them for meeting or exceeding their performance goals

-          Undertake regular performance reviews with employees so they know how they are tracking against their targets (you may want to consider quarterly reviews)

Don’t forget, performance indicators do not have to be individual, you can establish business goals, team goals and individual goals to ensure everyone understands that their role contributes to the overall organisational performance. Reward and recognition should also be given to employees who display desirable behaviours that link to company culture and objectives; this will help to cultivate the behaviours you want your employees to repeat.

Celebrate the wins openly with all employees.  This will allow those who miss their performance rewards to aspire towards being celebrated in the next round, as well as providing public reward and recognition of the great performance of those who are hitting their targets.

Employment Benefits and Retention

Employment benefits are compensations, apart from the regular wages, that, in quite a number of cases, help employees decide to stay on with a particular company. These benefits are also often among the deciding factors for highly skilled candidates to consider joining the company.

Raising Retention

A good employment benefits program can, to a certain extent, help keep employees highly motivated and must improve employment relations. And, particularly if the program is developed, implemented and communicated properly, can definitely help raise retention or the ability of the company to keep its employees, particularly the quality ones. 

These employee perks – a number of them are required by laws on the state, local and federal levels; while the others are optional or left at the discretion of the employer – are also intended to provide additional economic security to employees.

Benefits such as workers compensation, social security and unemployment insurance are typically mandated by legislation; while benefits that companies may implement on their own typically include pension or retirement plans, dental plan, paid vacation leaves or vacation time, health care or insurance plan, disability insurance, sick pay or paid sick leaves, education reimbursement, food allowance, clothing allowance, life insurance, and flexible compensation. Some organizations also have employee discounts, recognition and reward programs, employee contact center, employee surveys, flexible work schedules and arrangements, and employee self service under their benefits program.   

Communicate Well

To build and manage an effective employee benefit program, you should be able to communicate well. You need to effectively spread the word about the program’s goals. The program should not be about merely complying with the law; it should be about letting your employees know that you are looking out for them, too. Communicate regularly – use traditional and the newer channels; use intranet, email, face to face, social media and even the traditional letter format – so that you can give employees a better idea of the benefits that the company offers.

If you’re planning on adding new benefits, you should definitely get to know your employees well so you can find out the benefits that they would appreciate more. You can also gain insight on the benefits that most employees consider important through the human resources team. The statistical data or the demographics of your workforce might also be able to give you an idea of the kinds of benefits that the majority would like.  

Implementing the employment benefits that most of the employees consider very important is what makes for a highly competitive benefits program. Among the employee perks that are considered very important are the health care plan or the health insurance. While most organizations have health care plans that cover just the employees, some companies have plans that also include the employee’s dependents. Another benefit that’s considered very important by most employees is the retirement plan or pension plan. You might also want to consider non traditional perks like wellness or fitness programs, parking privileges and loans for the purchase of computers or similar equipment for personal use.