Fresh HR Insights Pty Ltd

Call Directions Website

Fresh HR Insights Pty Ltd As a business, Fresh HR Insights Pty Ltd have made it our mission to protect business owners from su SKYPE: paulette.freshhrinsights
www.freshhrinsights.com.au

Employment Relations Specialist, Human Resource Consultant, University Lecturer. As a business, Fresh HR Insights Pty Ltd has made it our mission to protect business owners from such circumstances and get them compliant and their teams productive. We are working to empower every business by setting solid foundations and ensuring that when faced with difficult employees, facing a claim or working to build workplace culture we have you covered. How do we do this
>Contracts of employment – we work with you on why employment contracts are important, what they should and should not contain for your business and set about to make sure you have the correct ones in place

>National Employment Standards – we help you understand the minimum standards underpinning the employment of your employees

>Awards – These can be a minefield and knowing which one your team fall under can be hard. We clear up this confusion and make sure you are under the right one and paying all the right rates and allowances.

>Policies and Procedures – We work with you to not only have the core policies for your workplace but also the one’s that reflect your culture and how you work. Our handbooks are customised to your workplace and not the “off the shelf option” sold by so many.

16/10/2026

You mortgaged the house. You trained them from nothing. You introduced them to every client you have.

And from 2027, you may not be able to stop them setting up across the road.

Draft legislation released on 7 September will ban non-compete clauses for anyone earning $190,100 or less, and for every casual. Clauses stopping ex-employees recruiting their old workmates will be banned for everyone. The old “12 months, or if not 6, or if not 3” cascading restraint will fail completely. And simply having a banned clause in a contract will carry a penalty.

Most small business owners I talk to have no idea this is coming.

So I recorded a short video on the questions I keep hearing. Are you still entitled to protect what you built? What can you actually do? And why the time to fix your contracts is now, not during a resignation.

Watch below, and tell me: did you know this was coming?

Following on from Wednesday, here's a simple way to sanity-check your pay rates in an afternoon. No special software, ju...
16/10/2026

Following on from Wednesday, here's a simple way to sanity-check your pay rates in an afternoon. No special software, just a bit of focused time.

Start with a list of your people and their roles. For each one, find the modern award that covers the work they do (the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool is a good starting point). Match the role to a classification level, and note the current minimum rate.

Then compare. Put the current rate next to what you're actually paying. Do the same for casual loading, weekend or evening penalties, and any allowances that apply.

Anywhere the numbers don't line up, flag it. You're not fixing everything today, you're just getting an honest picture.

• Keep your working notes. If a question ever comes up, being able to show you checked, and when, is worth a great deal.

It's not glamorous work. But an hour now can save a very stressful conversation later.

A dangerous assumption: "They have only been here three months, so there is no risk."The minimum employment period keeps...
14/10/2026

A dangerous assumption: "They have only been here three months, so there is no risk."

The minimum employment period keeps someone out of the unfair dismissal jurisdiction. Twelve months if you employ fewer than fifteen people, six months if you employ more.

But it does nothing at all for general protections or discrimination claims. Those have no minimum service period and no cap on compensation.

A short service dismissal handled badly is not a safe dismissal. It is just a different claim.

A quiet question worth asking before the year runs away from us: are you certain your pay rates are still right?The nati...
14/10/2026

A quiet question worth asking before the year runs away from us: are you certain your pay rates are still right?

The national minimum wage and award rates went up on 1 July, by 4.75% for award-covered employees, taking the national minimum wage to $26.44 an hour. Most owners know the increase happened. Fewer are completely sure it was applied correctly to every person, on the right classification, with the right allowances and loadings.

That gap is where underpayments quietly grow. Not through bad intent, almost never that. Through busy-ness, an award that's genuinely hard to read, or an assumption that last year's setup still holds.

The good news: a pay check-up is very doable. Confirm the right award and classification for each role. Check the current rate against what you're paying. Look at loadings, penalties and allowances. Write down what you find.

If awards make your head spin (you're in good company), this is exactly the kind of thing worth a second set of eyes before it becomes a bigger problem.



Check out our Wage & Award Sprint link ($695 GST, credited to your first month). https://freshhrinsights.com.au/hr-support-packages/

You finally have the conversation. Kindly, quietly, no letters, just "things aren't where they need to be and I want to ...
13/10/2026

You finally have the conversation. Kindly, quietly, no letters, just "things aren't where they need to be and I want to fix it with you."

Two days later a medical certificate arrives by text. Then another. Then a third.

If you run a small business on the Coast, you probably know exactly how that feels. Cornered. You can't raise the performance, you can't ask what's wrong, and you're doing their job at 9pm.

This week's Backed into a Corner piece walks through what the Fair Work Act actually asks of you here (less than you fear, more than nothing), the step-by-step path, and three recent decisions that show where the lines are.

You can do a lot of this yourself. You just shouldn't have to work it out alone.

Read it here: https://freshhrinsights.com.au/stress-leave-after-performance-talk/

A small business in Queensland just lost an unfair dismissal case without ever saying a word in its own defence.A worker...
13/10/2026

A small business in Queensland just lost an unfair dismissal case without ever saying a word in its own defence.

A worker sacked by text. The Commission rang, posted the papers, sent them again with tracking. Nobody answered, for more than a year.

What stays with me is not the dismissal. It is the silence. None of this needed an HR department. It needed one phone call.

My full thoughts are in this week's HR Musings: https://freshhrinsights.com.au/gold-coast-outsource-human-resource-fair-work-help/hr-musings/

When something hard lands in your inbox, what makes you open it today instead of next week?

Two things make a dismissal defensible, and you need both.A valid reason. And a fair process.A valid reason with a rushe...
12/10/2026

Two things make a dismissal defensible, and you need both.

A valid reason. And a fair process.

A valid reason with a rushed process still loses. So does a beautiful process with no real reason behind it. Most of the cases I see going badly are not businesses acting in bad faith. They are businesses that had a genuinely good reason and were so sure of it that they skipped the steps.

Tell the person what the issue is. Let them respond. Actually consider what they say. Then decide.

A big aged care provider just repaid $1.39 million, and it all started with flexibility agreements that looked kind on p...
12/10/2026

A big aged care provider just repaid $1.39 million, and it all started with flexibility agreements that looked kind on paper.

If you have ever said "sure, start early and finish early, we'll skip the penalty rate", this one is for you. The agreement has to leave your team member better off overall compared with the award, it has to be in writing and signed, and it can't be a condition of getting the job.

We've put a short guide together on what to check before anyone signs (link in the blog). And if you would like a second pair of eyes on your payroll and awards, our Wage & Award Sprint is made for exactly this.

Read the full article https://freshhrinsights.com.au/individual-flexibility-arrangement-better-off-overall-test/ and see our packages: https://freshhrinsights.com.au/services/

Have you reviewed your flexibility arrangements lately? Tell us below.

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day, and October is Mental Health Month. It's a good prompt to check in with your team. ...
11/10/2026

Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day, and October is Mental Health Month. It's a good prompt to check in with your team. Not with a survey or a program, just a real conversation.

The trouble is, “How are you?” has become something we say without stopping for the answer. So here's a simple way to make it count.

•Ask, then actually pause. Let the silence sit. People often say “fine” first and the real answer second.
•Ask about something specific. “How's the workload felt this week?” invites more than a yes.
•Listen to understand, not to fix. You don't need a solution ready. Being heard is often the thing.
•Follow up. A short “I've been thinking about what you said” the next day means more than you'd expect.

You won't get it perfect, and you don't need to. Caring enough to ask, and to stay for the answer, is most of it.

Who could you check in with today?

Address

Morning Tide Lane
Gold Coast, QLD
4209

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 7am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 7am - 5:30pm
Thursday 7am - 5:30pm
Friday 7am - 5:30pm
Saturday 9am - 12pm

Telephone

+61452471960

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Fresh HR Insights Pty Ltd posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category