Rogue employees a headache for SMEs

Let’s face it. Just as there are some rogue employers there are rogue employees. And I see several problems with the new National Employment Standards and the Modern Awards that come into effect on January 1, which set down the minimum conditions that an employer needs to provide.

The one big change is the legislated right for employees with school age children to request flexible working arrangements, such as part-time work, different working hours or working from home.

The problems for small businesses that will arise are these. Firstly, in a small business a lot of knowledge is in the heads of employees. It is not documented. It is not set down in processes. It literally resides in the heads of those who walk around the office every day. Yes, we all know about modern communications, but nothing beats that 10 minute exchange in the corridor. Or that quick stand up meeting that can be called at five minutes notice.

A lot of small businesses are built on that type of productivity which comes from employees literally brushing up against each other every day and moving at super quick speed to provide better service and products than their cumbersome larger competitors.

Secondly, how many of these requests will be genuine? How do you know that the bloke who says he wants to leave work twice a week to pick up the kids is not shooting off to footy practice?

We all know employees who play the odds in their favour, who don’t care less about the interests of the company and who can never make the connection between themselves and the firm doing well.

Now, businesses apparently can refuse on “reasonable business grounds” but exactly what “reasonable grounds” are isn’t exactly clear. How does one argue that you are dealing with a bludger and don’t accept their request is genuine?

Smart small businesses know that we are in an era where employees don’t have to be chained to the desk and indeed put in hours at home. As the skills shortage gets worse and worse – and weren’t the figures yesterday on unemployment just a reminder of what employers now face – businesses will use flexible work hours to try and attract good staff.

But it is the lack of choice over who gets what that is bothering me. Good employers know that their staff are everything – but they also need to manage staff who don’t play the game. Add the unfair dismissal laws to these new laws and there is no doubt about it: while the employee has more flexibility, the employer has less. Yet it is the employer who carries all the risk. And the employees who will have increasingly more power as the skills shortage that we faced this decade gets far worse next decade.

Getting the employee/employer balance right is the old perennial. But if it just gets too hard to employ people – then no one benefits.