Dear Customers,
Like many Australian businesses we have taken precautions to protect our team from COVID-19 and we are now all working from home. We are fortunate that, as a cloud-based technology business, our people can easily work from home and remain productive. Many other businesses don’t have this capability or aren’t as prepared. We want to do everything possible to help every Australian business and their employees manage this crisis, so we’ve prepared the following resources to help you:
Covid-19 Resource Hub
We’ve pulled together essential resources to help employers, managers and HR specialists navigate the ongoing pandemic.
What Australian employers need to know about the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
In this blog article, you’ll find our overview of COVID-19 and how Australian businesses can best prepare themselves for (and prevent) an outbreak. If you’re worried about what you should be doing and when, read this article.
Working From Home (WFH) Policy
To access it sign into Employment Hero as an admin, click on Content Management > Policies > Add Template > Flexible Working Policy. Review the policy and if you’re happy with it, click Choose this template. Alternatively, you can clone the template in Content Management > Templates and make further changes. The template will now appear in “Policy Management” and from there, you can choose to share it with everyone, or just with specific teams or individuals (as well as decide whether to make the policy mandatory or not).
COVID-19 Policy, business continuation plan and WFH tips
You can download our COVID-19 Policy Template here, along with a COVID-19 continuation plan example and WFH tips.
Personal hygiene poster
Click here to download our own personal hygiene poster. If possible, provide your employees with the resources they need to maintain personal hygiene, like tissues and hand sanitiser and hospital grade soap. Remind employees to not touch their face and to wash their hands regularly.
InstaPay
If your employees are employed on an hourly basis or paid in arrears, it may be difficult for them to make ends meet if they are required to self-isolate. Ensure that InstaPay is enabled so they can access a portion of their earned wages for expenses including rent and groceries. From tomorrow (Friday, 13 March 2020), Employment Hero will waive the usual $2 transaction fee for InstaPay transactions. Not sure how to enable InstaPay? Email info@employmenthero.com.
My Benefits
Please remind your staff that they can access gift cards from Coles or Woolworths with a 5% discount to buy essential household items more cheaply.
Hero Points
Employees with a Hero Point balance (available through Recognition or Milestones) can also use these funds to purchase gift cards and other items via My Benefits.
Annual Leave & Carers’ Leave
Personal and carers’ leave will function as normal in Employment Hero, but we encourage employers to communicate early and clearly with their employees regarding leave.
If the office or site is closed, will employees be required to submit leave? Can they submit leave without pay? We anticipate that the government will provide support to some workers and we will ensure our system is updated in line with any changes.
As an employer, I feel a duty to my employees during this time. Not just to protect them from potential exposure to this COVID-19, but also to protect their livelihood. As much as the team and I pride ourselves on empowering small and medium businesses, feeding our families and putting roofs over their heads is just as important to me. No one can predict the future, but this outbreak has made one thing clear—the companies that can best support flexible and remote working are the best-placed to carry on with business as usual (or as close to usual as possible!).
Not just for the sake of their business, but for the sake of their employees. We will continue to support you throughout this period of transition and would like to reiterate out commitment to supporting Australian businesses. We will continue to develop features and enhancements to support remote and flexible working and are confident that when we come out on the other side of COVID-19, our customers will be right there with us. If you have any further questions or concerns, please email info@employmenthero.com and either myself or one of our team members will get back to you as soon as possible.
Best,
Ben Thompson, CEO & Co-Founder Employment Hero
