Lisa Mackay - HRtoolkit - Page 10 of 17

‘Skivitis’… beware it’s catchy

Posted on 30 May 2018 - 4:23 pm by Lisa Mackay

Skiving off work, can take many forms. There are the easily recognisable moments in a working day when you know employees are not technically working – often termed ‘ low level’ skiving. Then there is the more problematic ‘presenteeism,’ where people show up to work, but are not engaged and productive. Even more serious to the business bottom line is the practice of employees taking non-genuine sick leave. A small amount of ‘downtime’ has always been tolerated, for example a quick chat around the water-cooler, we are not robots after all. However skiving should not be overlooked, as it is can be a real cost to your business.

Introducing a workplace code of conduct and clear policies on sick leave/reporting absence. Policies outlining the company’s stand on such matters, will reduce frustration and assist employees to understand your workplace culture and work expectations. Lets examine the business impacts of a couple of very common low-level skiving practices that we come across regularly. There are more scenarios covered in the HRtoolkit Quick Guide to Sick Leave

Recently, I was visiting an apartment undergoing a re-clad in the two hours I was there I saw the worst presenteeism. Three workers had 2 ciggie breaks, before their morning smoko, and another worker stood on the scaffolding, in front of me, having an argument on the phone with his girlfriend for 20 minutes. I suspect the re-clad on that particular job will not come in on-time and to schedule. Showing up to work is not enough!

What is your policy around smoking breaks? Cigarettes may take years off your life, but they can also easily steal 30 minutes or more of daily productivity from a few extra quick ‘ciggie’ breaks.

And what about the guy on the phone to his girlfriend? Mobile workers need smart technology, for productivity and safety reasons. Technology is often criticised for encroaching on our personal time, with smartphones creating an always-on culture, but the opposite also holds true. We can literally sit at our desks and skive – sending personal emails, checking our bank balance, browsing social media, or chatting to our friends overtly or via text messaging/Facebook messenger or other apps.

As an employer it would not be a useful use of your time to be continually checking on workers and it’s simply not possible in the case of remote workers. With all workers, there is a level of trust required, in addition you need to set the standards early in the employment relationship and formalise them in writing through good policies and a code of conduct).

A common misconception of employers to think they can just lead by example, and nothing else should need to be said. However, people do not share all the same values, or motivations. Our cultural and family backgrounds vary, which all feed into shaping our understanding of work. Having a code of conduct, fleshes out the day to day issues that arise in the workplace and provides suitable guidelines on what the business expects.

Smith City ordered to pay staff

Posted on 18 June 2018 - 1:35 pm by Lisa Mackay

It seems like not a week goes by without seeing yet another business being called out for their sub-par labour practices. The Labour Inspectorate has issued a stern warning to businesses which aren’t properly paying staff or abiding by the minimum requirements for employees: Fix it, because “we will be coming knocking”.

The recent ruling against Smiths City, a large New Zealand retailer, for short paying staff who were expected to come to work before their normal start time for an unpaid ‘pre-work’ 15 minute meeting, is a warning to all employers.

For at least 15 years, every Smiths City store in the country has held a meeting of sales staff for 15 minutes every morning, covering topics ranging from sales targets to promotions, staff were not paid for these meetings. As a retailer many staff were on minimum wages and failure to pay workers for these meetings meant Smith’s City were not paying at least the minimum wage for all the hours worked.

Employees need to be paid for all the time that they work. This includes the time an employee spends:

– opening or closing the business
– in training
– in meetings
– at mandatory events outside work hours.

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had to assess whether the time spent in the daily meetings was ‘work’ for Smiths City’s sales staff. These meetings, were held at 8.45 am each day, at every Smiths City store before the stores opened each day at 9.00 am. This morning meeting provided staff information for the day ahead and help them in their work. Smiths City’s practice was not pay those staff who attended.

The three factors the court used in determining whether activity was ‘work’ are

the constraints on the employee
the responsibilities on the employee
the benefit to the employer.

Employees need to be paid for all the time that they work. This includes the time an employee spends:

opening or closing the business
in training
in meetings
at mandatory events outside work hours.

It was determined that Smiths City staff who were asked to attend the morning meetings was considered work. Smiths City could have been up for back payments to all staff who attended these meetings, however the ERA ruled that there was no set rule for these meetings across the branches, and inadequate attendance records, therefore Smith City did not have to back pay for the previous 6 years. Smith City argued against the decision stating employees were not performing work at the meetings and they paid staff commissions which made up for the unpaid meetings. Smith City also implied that the time for these meetings was offset by the flexible approach the company offered to allow employees time off to attend appointments or if the shop was quiet.

The Labour Inspectorate appealed this ruling in the Employment Court and were successful.

Judge Ingles overturned the original ERA decision and ordered the retailer Smiths City to pay its employees for unpaid pre-work meetings. Judge Ingles stated the meetings were run on a standardised template provided by the company, and while the meetings had an informal tone, workers were expected to attend, and were admonished – and in some cases issued formal warnings – if they skipped them. In addition, commissions are not a substitute for the retails obligations to pay the minimum wage and keep adequate time and wage records.

Smith’s City has agreed to pay and pay they will! Judge Ingles estimates each full-time worker would miss out on approximately $800 per year, because of the meetings and has ordered Smith City to work out how much is owed to their workers and pay it back by 8 August this year.

Since this case has been publicised there have been hundreds of calls from retail employees who say they have experienced similar treatment. The most common complaint being

It is important to ensure you paying your workers correctly, especially those workers on a minimum wage.

Subscribe to HRtoolkit or give us a call on 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 86 65) to chat with our experts about how what you need, to be legally compliant.

Cleaning company ordered to pay $160,000

Posted on 18 June 2018 - 10:50 pm by Lisa Mackay

The Employment Relations Authority ruled that Food City Limited must comply with the minimum employment standards and pay their employees their full wages including sick leave and annual leave entitlements. Food City also failed to provide employment agreements.

The Labour Inspectorate was called to investigate Food City over concerns about the hours and conditions staff were working under. Some staff had to stop working because their health was failing, and Food City did not provide sick leave entitlements. The inspectorate said Food City took advantage of vulnerable workers, who were older and did not speak English.

Cleaners are considered ‘vulnerable workers,’ under the ERA. It was found Food City’s cleaners at the Northcote Shopping Centre food court, were working 12-hour days up to six days a week but only being paid only the minimum wage for 40 hours.

The Employment Relations Authority ruled Food City had breached the Minimum Wages Act, and had to pay $126,000 in arrears owed to the workers, and $37,000 in penalties.

Ensure your employment contracts are legally compliant. Subscribe to our DIY Employment Toolkit or give us a call on 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 86 65) to chat with our experts about how what you need, to be legally compliant.

Increase in Paid Parental Leave

Posted on 1 July 2018 - 9:14 am by Lisa Mackay

The Labour Government has made key changes to Parental Leave Law in New Zealand and we have updated two documents in our document library to ensure you have legally compliant documents and templates covering all aspects of your employment relationship. You can download the new documents here.

Changes to the document library include:

Paid parental leave has increased from 18 weeks to 22 weeks from 1 July 2018.
The number of “keeping in touch days” is also set to increase. From 1 July 2018, when paid parental leave is increased to 22 weeks, an employee will be able to work up to 52 hours without losing their entitlement during the period of paid parental leave.
Although parental leave payments are administered by the IRD, employers should ensure that their policies and/or information sheets are updated to reflect the changes.

Paid parental leave is available to casual, seasonal and fixed-term employees, and those with more than one employer
Paid parental leave can be taken by any primary caregiver of the newborn baby
Paid parental leave will be available to people who have recently changed jobs
Paid parental leave will offer more generous benefits to parents of babies born pre-term
Parents are able to resign their positions without losing their entitlements
Unpaid parental leave will be able to be taken more flexibly
Employees are now able to go back to work for up to 52hours during their paid parental leave

Keeping in touch

The changes also allow people to work up to 52 hours during the 22 weeks of paid parental leave. These hours can be used to keep up with skills development, training, handover or help the parent ease back into work. Keeping in touch days are not compulsory, and can only be used in mutual agreement between an employer and an employee. Additionally, they cannot be used in the first four weeks of a babies birth. This is to protect the baby and mothers health.

Parents of babies born pre-term are eligible for additional Keeping in touch hours, up to an average of three hours per week and don’t need to wait for their baby to be four weeks old before using these hours.

Learn more

Down load the MBIE maternity leave table which clearly explains parental leave entitlements here, please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 86 65). We don’t charge for those quick questions, and often a few minutes with our experts is all you will need.

Yippee, death to Trial periods… and I bet you never thought you would hear me say that!

Posted on 16 July 2018 - 12:36 pm by Lisa Mackay

January saw great headlines about the end to trial periods and return of the workers right. But since then there has been radio silence, so what is actually happening?

Where is the Bill?

The Employment Relations Amendment Bill has been put before parliament. However, it is still with the Select Committee after the first hearing, and they are not due to report on it until September 2018. And then there are another 2 readings, before it finally gets Royal Assent (i.e. final approval). And then there are another 4 months before any changes come into effect. So, there is no need to panic, nothing is going to change for a while yet!

What are the proposed changes at this point?

Obviously, this is not law yet, however the proposed amendments, in summary are:

Trial periods will only apply if you have fewer than 20 employees
Rest and meal breaks will return to what they previously were
More rights for Unions (no surprises there with a Labour Government)

Are trial periods toothless?

Very sadly, the trial period legislation has proved to be exceedingly toothless, with the courts not strongly upholding the legislation as it is written.

The key bone of contention lies around the apparent removal of the “good faith” requirements of the employment relationship, i.e. apparently giving the Employer the right to fire at will and without risk of recourse within the first 90 days. In general terms, the case law is showing that, whichever party is acting in bad faith, will lose. So, if the employer gets to day 89 and says “thanks, but no thanks” without any prior discussions, then they will lose. Equally, if the employee has been talked to regularly about issues and give a chance to improve within the 90 days, but they still try to push a personal grievance claim, then they will lose.

What we have long advised…

Because of this, our advice has always been to make sure you raise issues early, and, if you are considering a 90-day trial period termination, then do go through a formal process. NB, we do have template trial period termination letters and invitation letters for our members, however these are deliberately not on the website as there is a high risk to you of incorrect use. But if you do ever have need for them give us a call and we will talk over your risks and send you the templates if that is appropriate to your situation.

Yippee, Death to Trial Periods!!

But, I opened with the statement “Yippee, death to trial periods!”, surely, I was not serious?? Actually I am.

The Employment Relations Act has long held a provision for Probation Arrangements, and how these compare to trial periods are as follows:

Both have to be in writing in the employment agreement
Trial period is for a maximum of 90 days, but a probation period can be as long as you like
With the Trial period an employee is not supposed to be able to raise a Personal Grievance (but there is no mechanism to stop them doing so, it is only a legal defence), a probation period doesn’t hold any such protection
A probation period can specify a fast track performance management process which makes it very clear to everyone what is going to happen if they don’t come up to scratch.

The most common mistakes that employers make are:

Thinking they have a legal protection against a Personal grievance, whereas they only actually have a legal defence, and they still have to pay to defend themselves
Thinking that a new employee will get there “with a bit more time”, or “a bit more training”, but before they know it, they are at day 89 and they haven’t actually given the employee any direct or honest feedback
People raise grievance because they are angry, because they don’t understand what they have done wrong, and the employer has not articulated this well.

As such, Probation Periods (as opposed to trial periods) can be for longer periods, can provide a lot more clarity to both parties, and, though they don’t provide the legal protection against a Personal Grievance, the reality is that the Trial Period doesn’t provide much either!

So, where to now?

The current legislation still stands, until such time as the Employment Relations Amendment Bill is closer to completion, we will hold off making any significant changes to our templates until that time. NB if you do download templates at this time, don’t worry, as part of our service to members we will send out a communication with any amendments you need to make to templates you have downloaded. In the meantime, Probation Periods can be included in addition to Trial periods, and this may be something you wish to consider…. And our next HRtoolkit Service tips will be all about how to include them, so follow-us on facebook and/or watch out for our newsletters to find out more.

Call us to talk this through

Feel free to give us a call on 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 86 65), we don’t charge for those 10 minute queries, and often that is all it takes to solve your HR nightmares.

Restrictions on the use of the 90-Day Trial Period from 6 May 2019

Posted on 11 April 2019 - 10:28 pm by Lisa Mackay

If you are a company with less than 20 employees – there is no change. You are able to continue using the 90 day trial period with confidence, with one note of censure – your 90 day trial period clause must be compliant with the latest legislation. Unfortunately, we have had several companies phone us wanting to enact a 90-day trial termination, but when we review their 90-day trial clause it is not legally compliant. Don’t get caught out, ensure you have a proper trial period clause.

Companies with MORE than 20 employees – If your trial period starts on or before 5 May 2019 it will continue to apply.

From 6 May 2019 if you have more than 20 employees – you are no longer able to use the 90-day trial clause. You will have to alter your employment contracts:

You will need to remove the 90-day trial clause from your employment contracts by 5 May 2019.

From the 6 May employers can use the probationary period clause in their employment contracts to assess new employee’s skills, fit and their skills and performance.

Under a probationary period, you will need to follow a fair process before potentially dismissing an employee. Unlike a trial period, an employee who is dismissed in accordance with a probationary period clause can raise a personal grievance or other legal proceedings in relation to the dismissal.

Therefore, employers need to actively manage the performance of their employees and ensure that any references to procedural elements contained within the employment agreement (such as a monthly review, or a review at the completion of the probationary period) are followed as agreed.

There is no fixed period for a probationary period and can be of any length but should not be too lengthy. A period of 3 months would be normal. The probationary period clause should be inserted in place of the trial period from 6 May 2019.

Need a probationary clause for your employment contract?

Call us to talk this through

Feel free to give us a call on 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 86 65), we don’t charge for those 5-minute queries, and often that is all it takes to solve your HR nightmares.

Ensuring you have a robust recruitment process is essential to gaining the right staff for your business. Making the right recruitment decisions is critical. A wrong hire can cost you 6months wages plus the extra cost of recruitment and re-training a replacement staff member If you haven’t already, take a good look at the recruitment section of the HRtoolkit document library.

Help for Victims of Domestic Violence – New Employment Law 1 April 2018

Posted on 11 April 2019 - 10:56 pm by Lisa Mackay

The Domestic Violence-Victims’ Protection Act came into effect on 1 April 2019. It aims to enhance legal protections in the workplace for people affected by domestic violence.

This is a significant piece of legislation reaching across the Employment Relations Act 2000, the Holidays Act 2003 and the Human Rights Act 1993. All companies are required to have a comprehensive policy which provides the necessary support to the affected family member (employee) and responds to the payroll, privacy and employer obligations required by this bill.

Similar to sick leave, once an employee has been employed with an employer for 6 months of continuous employment, the employee becomes entitled to up to 10 days (per annum) of paid domestic violence leave. This entitlement is not cumulative and does not roll over after each 12 months following entitlement.

This entitlement is not payable upon termination. The purpose of this leave is to allow an employee to deal with the effects of domestic violence.

It is important to note, an employee may make a request irrespective of when (or how long ago) the domestic violence event occurred and regardless of whether the employee was employed by you (as the employer) at that time.

If an employee is impacted by domestic violence, they can request leave or make a request to temporarily variation to their working arrangements for a period of up to two months with the intent of dealing with the effects of domestic violence.

MBIE states ‘The law also explicitly prohibits an employee being treated adversely in their employment on the grounds that they are, or are suspected to be, a person affected by domestic violence’.

An employer may require proof of domestic violence prior to paying domestic violence leave or making changes to their working arrangements. There are grounds upon which leave and/or flexible working arrangements can be denied. We will draft further communication around this as these details become available.

Where employment agreements specify the types of leave available to employees, a provision will need to be included identifying the entitlement to domestic violence leave. Employers should also consider updating their ‘flexible working arrangements’ policies to reflect the changes to legislation.

It is our view that Employers should be proactive and communicative with their employees in agreeing to leave arrangements when a request is made. Ideally, employers will be discussing how much leave is requested, whether the employee anticipates taking more leave in the future and whether there is any other support or assistance that the employer can provide.

Employers also require a “Victim Protection” policy. This should outline the mechanisms for the application of domestic violence leave and ensures that the employee is adequately supported through the process and maintains dignity and privacy. The policy will identify who has access to information regarding the employee’s status and payroll information specifically related to these matters.

Your payroll system may also need to be updated to ensure that entitlements are available and calculated appropriately for those employees accessing the leave.

A Victim Protection Policy is essential, and should cover the following four areas:

The Victims’ Protection Act – Overview (explained in clear easy to understand terms)
Domestic Violence Leave Policy
Domestic Violence Workplace safety plan
Domestic Violence Disclosure guide

Call us to talk this through

Call us on 0800 HRtoolkit (0800 47 86 65) to discuss getting a policy for your workplace.

Enforced Rest and Meal Breaks – legislated from 6 May 2019

Posted on 11 April 2019 - 11:36 pm by Lisa Mackay

As of 6 May 2019, rest and meal breaks are to be more prescriptive. These are to be agreed between the employer and the employee. Where these rest and meal breaks cannot be agreed then the breaks will be in the middle of the work period (so long as it is reasonable and practical to do so).

The number and duration of rest and meal breaks depend on the length of the work period. Here is a helpful guide:

Between 2 hours and 4 hours One 10-minute paid rest break

Between 4 hours and 6 hours One 10-minute paid rest break and one 30- minute unpaid meal break

Between 6 hours and 8 hours Two 10-minute paid rest breaks and one 30- minute unpaid meal break

Over 8 hours Entitled to breaks as if the work period has started again; e.g. if they work more than 2 hours but not more than 4 hours on top of the 8 hours already worked (a twelve-hour shift), they get another 10-minute paid rest break

A work period is defined as the period beginning with the time the employee starts work (in accordance with their employment agreement) and ending with the time at which they finish work (in accordance with their employment agreement). It also includes the time where they are on an authorised break.

There are some exemptions: Some employers will be exempt from the requirement to provide rest and meal breaks as above if:

Those engaged in the protection of NZ’s national security
The employer is engaged in providing an essential service where continuity of service is critical to the public interest, including those services which affect public safety,
Where the continuity of service is critical to NZ’s national security
Where the employer would incur unreasonable costs in replacing the employee during the rest and meal breaks.

If an employer is exempt, they may agree with the employee that breaks are to be taken in a different manner. If they are unable to reach an agreement an employee is entitled to compensatory measures; for example, time off work at an alternative time during the work period and/or financial compensation.

What this means for employers:

The impact of this legislation will affect smaller business with just a few employees, to a greater degree. Cafe’s and sole operators in retail, will need to plan carefully as the burden is on the employer to ensure that the employee is able to take their rest and meal breaks.

Employers may need to adjust the way they currently work to allow for rest and meal breaks to be taken at specific times. There will likely be a settling in period in relation to getting things right, but long-term non-compliance may leave you open to the risks of personal grievance or disadvantage claims.

Employment agreement rest and meal break clauses should be checked and may need to be amended to be compliant. This may require a variation to agreement to be issued to any current employees. If you require a “Variation to Terms of Employment Letter” for this purpose click here

Coronavirus and the Workplace 16 March 8am Update

Posted on 16 March 2020 - 4:00 am by Lisa Mackay

With 8 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 (coronavirus), many New Zealand businesses are currently reviewing or preparing their infectious disease outbreak response plans, as part of their health and safety. Key objectives businesses should cover include:

Reducing potential transmission among your employees
Identifying people who are at higher risk due to health complications
Maintaining business operations – including checking stocks and suppliers
Minimising potential adverse effects through disruptions to your supply chains

Key considerations to protect and educate your workforce whilst ensuring business continuity are:

Encourage sick employees to stay home
If an employee shows up to work sick, send them home
Practice social distancing (no handshakes/hugs/hongis/hi-fives!)
Increase routine cleaning of the workplace environment especially surfaces, keyboards, desks, kitchen/eating areas
Ensure your air conditioning maintenance is up to date
Don’t forget your mobile workers – provide alcohol wet wipes in vehicles
Check-in with staff who are currently travelling overseas, and have a log of anyone returning or going overseas, including destinations
Advise employees of company protocols for employees returning from overseas travel –especially now the NZ Government has enforced a 2 week isolation for people coming into NZ from other countries (other than the Pacific Islands)
Think about work from home arrangements, what resourcing could be required.
Prepare/monitor for a possible increase in absences due to illness in employees and their family members
Explain what human resources policies, workplace and leave flexibilities you currently have or may put in place, (5 days sick leave is the minimum employment standard, you need to weigh up whether the business can sustain any more than this or will staff use annual leave?)
Implement plans to continue your essential business functions in case you experience higher than usual absenteeism.
Cross-train personnel to perform essential functions so that the workplace is able to operate even if key staff members are absent
Communicate regularly with all employees

Regarding sick leave

The statutory entitlement is 5 days sick leave per annum. If a worker is required to isolate you will need to decide as a business, what is a sustainable position for your business – given you may have several staff in self-isolation.

This pandemic is an exceptional situation, and you may have a staff member who has used all their sick leave, as an Employer you must have a conversation with them regarding whether they would have unpaid sick leave or use some annual leave – ultimately it is the employees decision

Keep communicating to your staff

Ensure you communicate regularly with your employees, letting them know there will be a series of communications as the status (spread or containment) of the virus changes.

Your safety and business plan should be adaptable to the changing circumstances and involve input from your employees as you develop and review your workplace safety and operational plans. It is important that employees have a clear understanding of the facts about the COVID-19 virus. They need to also understand what your workplace expectations are to prevent the spread of the virus and minimize the impact on the business and your protocols regarding people who are unwell. Click here to receive your free HRtoolkit letter to staff which provides a great working template for your communications about COVID-19. Click here to receive a fact sheet on COVID-19, for your staff, its important they have the correct information about the virus, our fact sheet is taken from World Health Organisation sources and the NZ Ministry of Health, current as of 8am 16 March 2020

BUSINESS TIPS TO HELP SME’S SURVIVE COVID -19

Posted on 18 March 2020 - 9:42 pm by Lisa Mackay

As businesses start to feel the pinch of COVID-19, here are some measures to assist you to adapt your current business practices, take advantage of the Government assistance, and how to consult with your employees if more serious measures are required.

As strict self-isolation measures have been instituted, we have seen tourism grinding to a halt, and knock on effects in hospitality and other sectors. Locally too we have seen thousands of planned events cancelled or postponed, which is having a real effect on businesses. In response the Government has announced suite of comprehensive support mechanisms for businesses impacted by COVID-19 health protocols. The Government support package aims to keep as many people in employment through this period as possible. This is great news, and, as business owners, we also have to do our bit to ensure we are doing all we can to weather this storm.

Measures being adopted are:

Postpone big events early – Late cancellation of events has a huge knock on effect. Keep your attendees informed of your thinking and/or postpone earlier rather than later so that everyone can make alternative plans
Postpone overseas travel
Talk to staff who are planning overseas trips – Any person leaving NZ now faces the risk that, on their return they will have to either serve a 14 day self-quarantine period, or they may find that one or more Border along their travel route has been closed and they can’t get back to NZ. Have an honest discussion with them about how you would respond if they decide to take the trip with that knowledge.

It is not available to those who can work from home during the period of self-isolation, and who can be paid normally by their employer.

Areas we are covering:

Ideas to help your business adapt
Who pays for self-isolation time?
Need to cut staff costs, at least temporarily?
Risks of reducing wages paid?
Ways to reduce Staff costs
Consultation process
Free consultation template
Need more help?

Ideas to help your business adapt –Think outside the box!

Although the business impacts will vary, one thing is for sure – we all need to be thinking how can we do business differently? Especially in the face of our requirement to practice social distancing to fight back against the spread of COVID-19.

Here are some ideas to assist your businesses maintain social distancing and keep working

Office based workers

Prepare and set up systems for remote working – though you may not need to close your office at present, businesses need to be thinking about how you can work from home, if self isolation is required, having your systems in place, will assist with your business continuity planning. Consider:
1. Cloud based systems – can your team members access work remotely?
2. Do you have enough laptops to facilitate work from home arrangements?
3. Diverting work phone numbers –to private phone numbers/mobile numbers
4. Can you issue pay as you go temporary mobile phones for workers to work remotely?
Virtual meetings – do you need to meet face to face or can the meeting be managed by phone or video conference- there are great facilities that many businesses are using already; Zoom /Skype and Facebook

Retail

If you have fewer customers coming through the door consider:

Can you offer delivery services for customers? Rather than waiting for customers to come to you and can you deliver to your customers? Remember that deliveries can be dropped off on doorsteps without having to compromise social distancing protocols.
Do sell through your website?, or could you adapt your website to allow for this? Adapting a non-e-commerce website may be expensive and time consuming, but you may be able to do ‘work arounds’ such as phone or e-mail orders with payments made by internet banking or over the phone

Tourism

With the significant drop in overseas tourists what can you do to attract the local market?

Specials for locals? Not only is this a good way of getting some business in, it is also a good way to promote your attractions to those people who live locally. Word of mouth referrals are a great way to get business, but the locals can only rave about you if they have experienced your tourist attraction. So use the quiet time to get a few more “Ravers”
Using Grab-a-deal types of online specials to stimulate your business.
Promote to the domestic market? There is a large pool of New Zealanders who have had to cancel or are in the process of cancelling their overseas trips. This is if you will excuse the pun – a “captive market”.

Hospitality

Look at your processes and service and reduce contact points– already many cafes are not accepting keeper cups (as an interim measure). Serve coffee without the lid on -giving your clientele the ability to pop the lid on themselves
Have hand sanitiser by the eftpos machine and at key areas in your café.
If your foot traffic has reduced consider offering a delivery service, or utilise Uber Eats to facilitate your food sales, consider pre-prepared meals – this has proved successful in other countries with COVID-19

Workers who go to multiple places of work (e.g. Trades)

For Tradies working on mixed sites, it is more difficult to maintain social distancing. Some ways to limit risk may be:

Have clear communications and expectations on how your tradies would like to be communicated to regarding any COVID-19 incidences (A site noticeboard)
Ensure tradies have alcohol wet wipes in their vans
If tradies are doing private work, they should phone and check if anyone is self-isolating at the residence. Check if they job can be delayed until the end of the isolation period, or there is some other way they can be kept apart from your workers?
Reinforce social distancing protocols e.g. no handshakes, Hongi’s, high-fives or Hugs , keep a few meters distance between people, use hand sanitisers
Ask if they work can be completed at a time when no-one it home

Supply chain issues?

Can you source from within NZ? Do you need to offer that particular product, or is there an alternative? Proactively preempt issues and keeping your customers informed is essential. So, look at what you provide that comes from overseas, and work out your contingency plans. Supply chain issues were felt from China long before the borders were closed because the Chinese companies simply didn’t have the workers at work to fulfil the orders.

Who pays for self-isolation?

The government has mandated everyone returning from overseas (except the Pacific Islands) has to self-isolate for 14 days. If you are required to self-isolate – who pays, when most people have only 5 days sick leave per annum?

The government’s relief packages for businesses can assist. The government will pay

$585.80 per week for a full time employee (20 hrs or more)
$350.00 per week for a part time employee (less than 20 hrs).

Wage subsidies will be available for all employers that are significantly impacted by COVID-19 and are struggling to retain employees. The scheme will be open to sole traders and the self-employed as well as firms.

Author Archives: Lisa Mackay

‘Skivitis’… beware it’s catchy

Smith City ordered to pay staff

Cleaning company ordered to pay $160,000

Increase in Paid Parental Leave

Yippee, death to Trial periods… and I bet you never thought you would hear me say that!

Restrictions on the use of the 90-Day Trial Period from 6 May 2019

Help for Victims of Domestic Violence – New Employment Law 1 April 2018

Enforced Rest and Meal Breaks – legislated from 6 May 2019

Coronavirus and the Workplace 16 March 8am Update

BUSINESS TIPS TO HELP SME’S SURVIVE COVID -19

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