In today’s challenging market finding an employee who is the perfect fit to your workplace is utmost crucial to your business health and survival.

Signature Staff delivers solutions for your business through building business partnerships with our clients. Our ultimate goal is to provide our clients with an employee who will enhance their workplace environment and giving their business the advantage it deserves.

The benefits to our clients are within our points of difference in our values, our business ethics and our systems:

• Giving you freedom to utilise your time on your business through tapping into our inimitable 360 recruitment process
• Putting you in contact with over 1.2 mil candidates at a finger tip
• Connecting you to a unique network structure
• Making your decisions easy by offering candidate profiling, skills and psych testing
• Advantage in utilising our consultants knowledge of varied industry background offering you effective solutions
• Putting you in a strong position and giving you quality choice of talent pool by our marketing and advertising power doubled up with our revolutionary database search capabilities.
• Your needs and requirements are matched by our dedication offering you 24/7 service, delivery time, superior guarantee structure and post placement support.

Signature Staff has an outstanding success rate by matching the right talent to the right workplace and position. Our transparent and thorough recruitment processes are modelled to the unique nature of our clients and candidates.

Did you know that our services are only billed at the acceptance of our candidate and the services to jobseekers are absolutely free?

For sound and professional advice please contact our dedicated consultants.

A strengthening economy means many of our clients have an increasing workload and new projects, but with fewer admin or specialist support staff. Then you also need to think about leave periods and seasonal peaks etc.

Signature Staff can provide you with staffing flexibility, with high quality, cost-effective Temps and Contractors across all specialist work-types and locations. These may be short-term admin temps, or more specialist contractors. Time-frames and pay rates are very flexible, so please contact us for an obligation-free quote.

The benefits of temp employees remain consistent for employers in both buoyant and challenging economies:

• Reduce your salary bill, overheads and employment risks
• Adjust your business more easily and quickly to workload fluctuations eg. projects, leave periods or your seasonal peaks
• Maintain staffing flexibility in uncertain economic times
• Specialised skills for all industries and work-types
• No permanent commitment while you evaluate the performance and ‘fit’ of potential employees
• Transition high-quality temps and contractors to permanent status, with ease and certainty

Did you know we also offer a discounted Payrolling Only service? This means if YOU source and secure a temp, you can place them on Signature Staff’s payroll – and simply be charged a modest, hourly flat fee for the service and convenience.

Only a few years ago health and wellness of employees was not part of the business or companies strategies. The balance between work and life was not considered as an important issue.

However, in today’s market and in some companies one of the top priorities is the wellness, job satisfaction and general health and happiness of their employees.

Google being number 1 employer of choice in Australia and number 4 in US for 2010. Well wow, who would not want to work in the Googleplex? What an amazing work environment!!! SAS was number 1 on the list for 2010 in US and offers high quality child care and a 90% of health insurance amongst other things.

It has been proven over and over again that by having a healthy working environment any company will gain enormous benefits, such as:

• High performance team
• Greater commitment and accountability
• Customer satisfaction
• Reduced absenteeism
• Attracting right candidates to the business
• Staff retention
• Increase in job satisfaction
• Improve staff morale
• Reduction in injuries
• Increase in bottom line

Any boss, head honcho or company director would like to surround themselves with a thriving, happy and vibrant team that fill the work environment with laughter and motivation.

SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) which is Australian’s largest employer-group cannot compete with Google’s relaxing areas and the mini golf or by giving private health insurance covers for all their employees simply because they just cannot afford it.

However, there are so many ways in how you can achieve the same results with minimal or no cost associated to it.

• Involve all staff in decision making – everyone wants to be part of a successful team. Employees involved in decision making feel empowered that they are an essential link with the day to day running of the business.
• Suggestion box – Get the creative juices flowing. Creative teams make great leaders.

• Get behind a community project or fund-raising for a charity –Help the local school with their playground project, volunteer to help out in a aged care facility or do the “Light the Night”- “The World’s Greatest Shave” for the Leukemia foundation.
• Plant a tree day – You can pick up trees from your local council find out where you can plant them. Make it a day of it; finish it off with a barbeque.
• Have a daily motivational, inspiring quotes or a joke – Nothing better then starting work with a smile on your face.
• Praise and encourage employees – Say thank you, great job, do the high fives or the woo-hoo sounds.
• Have an open door policy – Let the staff feel comfortable to come to you and discuss what is on their mind.
• Pay for the yearly Flu injections – Not expensive, no sick days and healthy environment all year through.
• Health Funds – Contact Health Funds and look into Corporate Cover that the employees can have a reduced package for themselves or families that is then deducted from their wages and does not affect the Company cash flow, but offers a substantially reduced amount to the employees.
• Close the office and take staff out on special days – Do it for special occasions such as Companies Birthday, Secretaries Day or Melbourne Cup day.
• Get your clients to suggest an employee of the month – by having your clients voting and not yourself will ensure the trust and honesty in your team. You might find that your clients would want to participate simply because they are contributing to something positive.
• Flexible working hours – If the business can sustain the flexibility of work, well let your staff work the hours they can to fit with their personal circumstances.
• Health and fitness check – Run a seminar for your employees or get them into a health practitioner for general health checks.
• Organise 10 min shoulder massage for your employees – Nothing better than having your employees de-stress in their working environment.
• Get to know your employees – Listen and observe your staff. Know where they at; what are their desires and goals; what do they what to achieve in life. Observe the body language and tune into your employees to observe any signs of concerns.
• Make a Birthday paid day off – It is only one day a year.
• Recognitions on their Birthdays – If you can’t afford a birthday gift a simple birthday card with a scratchie, a lotto ticket or a simple birthday cake will certainly bring a smile to anyone.
• Barbeque lunch – Do a sausage sizzle for your team. As a boss cooking for your staff, will gain you respect just because you have done something for your staff and have expected nothing in return.
• Bring a plate of food day – If possible have a communal lunch discussing the foods that everyone brought along – make it an International food day where everyone draws a nationality out of a hat and bring something from that country for everyone to sample.

Having a healthy, vibrant and happy working environment is a key to any business success.

“If you want results you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”

As of January 1^st this year, all employers and employees in the national workplace relations system are affected by modern awards. Prior to the modern awards under the federal awards or NAPSA, only the constitutional corporation needed to comply with the national system. As of Jan 1^st 2010 sole traders, partnerships and other unincorporated entities and non-trading corporations in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania join in the national system, rather than their own specific state systems have moved into the national system.

Western Australia has not joined the national system. Some employers (essentially incorporated entities) and their employees are covered by the national system, but sole traders, partnerships, other unincorporated entities and non-trading corporations and their employees will continue to operate under the WA state system (though some of these may be covered by transitional awards until 27 March 2011).

The transition of getting over 2000 awards into 122 has proven to be very confusing for most businesses. 77.6% of Queensland businesses are requesting further information kits and 69.5% businesses want further seminars, according to CCIQ recent survey. So, if you feel uncertain with our new national systems, don’t be alarmed, you are not alone.

In March 2008, Julia Gillard asked the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to simplify and consolidate our award system and to create new modern awards which would not disadvantage employees or increase cost to employers. The end result has proven to be quite different…..

Some award conditions have increased, including allowances, whilst other conditions are potentially leading to disadvantaging the employees.

Some awards extended their coverage to sectors such as call centres, IT, financial planners and insurance providers to name a few. People working in some of these sectors will be covered by awards for the first time.

Some sectors such as retail and hospitality have changed the casual loading from 20% to 25%. These industries both rely on casual employees to a large degree, so this change will have a substantial impact on costs.

Superannuation threshold in some awards has been decreased from $450.00 per month to $350.00 per month.

The changes have significantly added to the cost and complexity to being an employer and have subsequently increased the overall level of red tape impacting business, without any additional benefits being realised yet.

Due to the complexities of the new awards we advise businesses of the need to identify what modern award covers their employees, and thoroughly read through their award to ensure that they comply.

Some of the points to especially look out for are:

• Allowances
• Casual loading
• Superannuation threshold
• Overtime and penalty rates
• Flexibility on part time hours
• Personal/Carer’s Leave
• Community service leaves
• Know NES (go to our Jan newsletter to learn more)

Transitional arrangements in most modern awards mean that rates of pay and certain other conditions do not come into force until 1 July 2010 and may be phased in over time. However, not all modern awards contain these transitional arrangements. Employers should check their modern award to determine if these arrangements apply.
If a modern award contains transitional arrangements, any increases or decreases in wages, loadings and penalty rates may be phased in from 1 July 2010.

This includes:

• minimum wages
• casual and part-time loadings
• Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalty rates
• evening and other penalty rates
• shift allowances.

For further information on your rights and obligations under Commonwealth workplace laws, please contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94.

Alternatively, for information on the award modernisation process, contact Fair Work Australia on

1300 799 675.

Click here for list of all modern awards and scroll down. http://www.airc.gov.au/awardmod/fullbench/awards.htm

Fair Work online for employers http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pages/employers.aspx?role=employers

CCIQ has identified the chaos that these new modern awards and Fair Work Act has brought to the business community and are running courses. You can contact them on 1300 138 470 to make a booking.