Tips For Employers. Being Organized, Compliant & Informed.
Although SA Employee Relations Laws can be a “minefield” of information, it’s useful for employers and HR Managers to first break it down into the most important underlying foundations – our Platform supports meeting these underlying foundations:
A. Employee Appointments
No business can afford to appoint staff without using appropriate appointment documents – this depends on the type of employment positions staff are appointed to. Depending on the context, some employers could use basic letters of appointment, but many employers prefer to use more comprehensive employment contracts, especially for office staff or high-level appointments.
On the other hand, employers in certain industries may need to use specific kinds of fixed-term (temporary) employment contracts – this again depends on the given context and specific operational needs of each employer. Using the most appropriate appointment documentation is critical for most employers.
Having an effective employee onboarding process (often coupled with induction) is just as important, for most employers – this helps get the right employee information into the system upfront, including making sure new employees become familiar with the employer’s organization.
B. Employment Policies & Procedures
Because human resources (people) often form the backbone of many businesses, it becomes important to ensure that your organization has certain essential ER policies in place. Secondly, it’s just as important to ensure that staff are given proper access to your organization’s policies and procedures, including a systematic method of making staff aware of applicable policies eg. a Disciplinary Code of Conduct or a Leave Policy.
C. Disciplinary Management
Because SA employment relations legislation obliges employers to comply with corrective or progressive discipline methods and pre-dismissal disciplinary hearing processes, it is vital for employers to have access to useful guidance and practical documentary templates that support the overall compliance with legislative requirements and best practice protocols. This includes having a suitable Disciplinary Code of Conduct in place, as a start.
D. Performance Management
The quality or standard of employee performance is critical for most businesses, which makes it as important for employers to adopt an appropriate system or methodology of assessing and evaluating staff performance. This also requires employer compliance with legislative procedures that apply to performance management in the workplace. Having a basic policy and procedure (with related performance assessment templates or appropriate evaluation tools) becomes key for most employers to meet their legislative obligations.
E. Poor Health Management
Staff members invariably may become unwell, from time to time, or might suffer injury or even become permanently ill – those situations need to be managed in a compliant manner and often involve serious or even sensitive situations in sometimes difficult circumstances. Employers should be in a position to investigate such circumstances in compliance with legislative principles and compulsory pre-termination procedures. This requires access to reliable guidelines and process-documents that support effective investigations and satisfy legislative requirements.
F. Employee Exit Administration
Regardless of how the employee lifecycle ends, certain administration needs to be in place, not only for legislative compliance purposes, but also from a risk management perspective. The employee lifecycle typically ends in one of the following ways:
- Resignation; or
- Dismissal* (termination); or
- End of (fixed term) contract; or
- Retirement
*Dismissal includes Retrenchment/Redundancy
On exiting employment, the following administrative processes become relevant:
- Certificate of Service
- UI-19 Form
- Dismissal Notice (depending on the grounds for termination)
- Non-renewal letter (for fixed term employment that expires or lapses)
