Mapien Blog

Federal Parliament has passed the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021 (often referred to as the Omnibus IR Bill) (‘the Bill’).  The Bill outlined proposed changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Read more here & join us at our webinar on 30 March to find out what is included, what was removed and what action employers should take?

Gender inequality continues to be a pervasive issue within the workplace despite the tremendous efforts of many. Women supporting women has long been the strategy to tackle the gender-based barriers, however the brunt of responsibility should no longer be placed on women to solve a system that is structurally biased against them. By ignoring the importance of men’s role in closing the gap we are ignoring the systemic nature of gender inequality.

These days workplaces expect to accommodate women who are parents. However, this norm also impacts on fathers who would like to be equal or primary caregivers. There are too few voices currently “choosing to challenge” the status quo.  Until this changes it will be difficult to reach more equitable outcomes for both women and men at work.

There are millions of women throughout history and present day that are silently working and silently succeeding in male dominated industries – many of which will not be known, have no Wikipedia page, have no social media following, but who are choosing to challenge the norms and expectations which in turn paves the way for future women.

When red flags start to appear in the workplace the challenge of knowing where to start will often create avoidance or no action. So how do you target your focus toward the moments that matter most to strengthen culture & therefore performance? How do you ensure a psychologically safe workplace?

Mapien are proud to be sponsoring the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance (NATSIWA), IWD Breakfast event in Perth this year. We've also been fortunate to collaborate with one of the breakfast organisers, Christine Ross on a project in the past year! Christine is empowering Aboriginal women & forging change. Read her profile here!

On the 1st of March 2020, the Fair Work Commission inserted a model clause relating to annualised wage arrangements into a number of Modern Awards. One year on, some Employers may be due to conduct an annual reconciliation of their annual wage arrangements against the entitlements provided by their relevant Modern Award. Even companies with sophisticated payroll systems and who are aware of compliance requirements, are susceptible to underpayment of wages. Is it time to review your annualised wage arrangements?

A normal Tuesday drive to work, listening to a funny segment on radio. Until it's no longer funny... Why is sexual harrassment still happening today? Why is it not reported? Is it a workplace issue or a societal one? From challenge comes change #choosetochallenge #IWD2021

Balancing two jobs can be challenging, especially when both are on the same day and when they are completely different from each other – both in thought and action. Mapien’s Beth Herrell gives a personal account of how she seeks out challenges in two very different areas of her life in the second of our International Women's Day articles.

The alleged assault in Parliament House raises questions about the norms of workplace culture - and we know there are comparable stories in many types of organisations. In the spirit of IWD and “choose to challenge”, we're challenging some undiscussable norms in workplaces that can influence the actions of management and bystanders.

What happens when you’re overrun with high quality candidates for the role you're recruiting? While the temptation might be to assume you simply cannot make a bad decision (so why run the full suite of selection steps); in order boost confidence and likely long term success, testing is in fact critical to add as much information as you can to the decision making processes.

Recruitment is back on the agenda in 2021. However 2020 has created two seemingly opposite, but deceptively similar scenarios: some are overrun with high quality candidates for their roles, while others are experiencing a talent drought. In part one of this blog series, we discuss what happens to the recruitment process if there’s a talent shortage & the importance of psychometric testing & a consistent selection process.

Employers need to mindful that the requirement for casual employment to be regular and systematic does not require a regular pattern of engagement in relation to the number of days each week, days of the week and duration of shifts. It is the engagement that must be regular and systematic, and not the hours worked pursuant to the engagement.

It's with a mixture of sadness & appreciation we announce long term Mapien Executive Assistant, Sue Richards is retiring. An extremely loyal and highly trusted member of the team for almost 17 years, Sue will be greatly missed. We wish her all the very best for the future. Thank you Sue!

Over the years our Migration team have assisted eligible applicants who have an internationally recognised level of outstanding achievement in a sport, the arts, a profession or in academia & research, receive permanent visas. The Global Talent Independent stream was launched to invite highly talented, entrepreneurial applicants to Australia. Mapien’s approval rate success is an indication of our expertise in this area & puts us in a strong position to assist potential candidates for the GTI visa.

With unemployment at an all time high, the Australian Government has now introduced an additional advertising requirement for applications being submitted for permanent employer sponsored visa applications.

A new Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL) has been announced, designed to assist with priority processing of visa and travel exemption applications for key health workers and specified skilled migrants.

The Morrison Government proposed the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020 (Cth) (the ‘Bill’) in parliament this week. The Bill comes after the Minister of Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, conducted a review into Australia’s industrial relations system, with discussions in working groups comprising business groups, unions, and the government.