Information Centre
Practitioner briefings for Australian employers.
Practical guidance on workplace advisory, investigations, psychosocial safety, mediation, training and governance, risk and compliance. Written by the AWS Editorial Team for HR, safety, legal and executive readers.
Workplace Advisory & Compliance
13 articles
Workplace Advisory & Compliance
How to conduct a wage compliance review
An end-to-end guide for employers on governing, scoping, calculating, verifying and acting on a wage compliance review.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
How to determine award coverage and classification
Coverage, application and classification are three separate questions, and job titles, salaries and payroll codes answer none of them. A step-by-step method for reaching a position you can stand behind.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Preparing for enterprise bargaining: an employer's roadmap
Making a single-enterprise agreement is a statutory process with fixed steps and deadlines. This roadmap follows the pathway from scoping and notification time through to approval and payroll implementation.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Redundancy, restructure and job redesign: documentation and consultation
Restructure processes are an area of repeated regulator and tribunal scrutiny. We outline the consultation steps and documentation employers should prepare.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Performance management and procedural fairness in workplace processes
Performance management decisions are routinely challenged. A structured, well-documented process protects both employees and employers.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Employee social media conduct: when should employers respond?
Personal social media use is not automatically a workplace matter. This guide sets out how Australian employers assess employment nexus, screen protections, preserve evidence lawfully and respond proportionately.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Updating workplace policies: notice, consultation and documented consent
A practical Australian employer guide to changing policies, rules, directions and contract terms — what consultation is actually required, how to set notice and effective dates, and why acknowledgement is not consent.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Accessorial liability for underpayments: who else can be personally liable
An underpayment starts with the employer, but section 550 of the Fair Work Act asks a second question: was anyone else knowingly involved? This guide explains the test, the evidence courts look for, how section 557A, section 558B and the criminal offence differ, and what to do on finding a suspected underpayment.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Personal leave disputes: notice, evidence and practical employer responses
Personal leave disputes often escalate when notice or evidence is unclear. This briefing outlines a measured, employer-facing approach.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Employee communication during restructures and workplace change
Communication is a control, not a substitute for lawful process. This briefing sets out how employers map consultation obligations, fix decision status, sequence messages and record feedback through restructures and other significant workplace change.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Managing termination risk through fair and documented processes
Contested dismissals are usually lost before the final meeting. This guide sets out the decision system behind a defensible termination — classification, claim screening, evidence, procedural fairness, proportionality, mechanics and records.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Responding to compliance notices: practical steps for employers
Receiving a compliance or improvement notice from a regulator is a critical moment. This briefing outlines the practical steps employers should take: reading carefully, meeting deadlines, assigning responsibilities and tracking implementation.
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Workplace Advisory & Compliance
Genuine redundancy: consultation, redeployment and documentation risks
Genuine redundancy is an area of sustained tribunal and regulator scrutiny. This briefing outlines the consultation, redeployment assessment and documentation practices that help employers meet their obligations.
Read briefing →Workplace Investigations
6 articles
Workplace Investigations
Managing a workplace complaint: the employer's guide after triage
What employers should do once a complaint has been received and triaged: confirming the pathway, interim measures, scope, procedural fairness, findings, communication and follow-through.
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Workplace Investigations
When should an employer appoint an external workplace investigator?
A decision guide for choosing between an internal investigator, an external appointment or a hybrid model — external is not automatically the safer choice.
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Workplace Investigations
Early triage of workplace complaints: the first 24–72 hours
Before allegations are framed or a process begins, someone has to decide who owns the matter, what needs preserving and which pathway fits. This guide sets out that early assessment.
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Workplace Investigations
Managing discrimination and harassment complaints: an employer guide
Discrimination and harassment complaints turn on characterisation, risk control and fair process. This guide sets out how Australian employers map the issues, choose a pathway, make defensible findings and meet the positive duty.
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Workplace Investigations
Sexual harassment prevention: policies, reporting pathways and manager training
A practitioner guide to preventing sexual harassment before a complaint arises: the positive duty and concurrent WHS duties, risk assessment and consultation, policy and reporting design, manager capability, and the monitoring that shows whether controls work.
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Workplace Investigations
How Long Should a Workplace Investigation Take?
An employer guide to planning, monitoring and defending the duration of a workplace investigation once fact-finding has been chosen as the pathway.
Read briefing →Psychosocial Safety & WHS
7 articles
Psychosocial Safety & WHS
Psychosocial hazards: practical steps for Australian employers
Model WHS amendments require employers to identify and control psychosocial hazards. We outline a practical, evidence-led approach.
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Psychosocial Safety & WHS
Managing psychological injury, rehabilitation and return to work
Psychological injury claims require careful coordination across HR, safety and operations. We outline a practical approach to rehabilitation and return to work.
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Psychosocial Safety & WHS
Managing drug and alcohol risks in the workplace
A practical guide to managing drug and alcohol risk at work: the duty map, when testing can be required, what a result proves, privacy, interim removal and disciplinary decisions.
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Psychosocial Safety & WHS
ISO 45001 and psychosocial safety: where WHS systems meet workplace risk
ISO 45001 provides a recognised framework for managing WHS risk. This briefing explores how the same system can be extended to identify, control and assure psychosocial hazards.
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Psychosocial Safety & WHS
Managing psychosocial risk during organisational change
How Australian employers manage psychosocial risk across the lifecycle of a restructure, technology transition or workforce redesign: the duties that apply, the change footprint, work-design controls, consultation, verification and review.
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Psychosocial Safety & WHS
Psychosocial risk management: what employers should be reviewing now
Psychosocial risk is a work-design and governance question, not a wellbeing add-on. This guide sets out how Australian employers identify hazards, consult, assess risk where warranted, choose controls that change the work, and verify that they hold.
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Psychosocial Safety & WHS
Online workplace conduct and psychosocial risk
A practical guide to managing conduct and psychosocial risk inside work-controlled digital channels, from channel design and the right to disconnect through to digital evidence and lawful monitoring.
Read briefing →Mediation & Conflict Resolution
2 articles
Mediation & Conflict Resolution
Workplace mediation: when facilitated resolution is appropriate
Mediation is not the right tool for every workplace conflict. This article describes the situations in which structured mediation tends to produce the best outcomes.
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Mediation & Conflict Resolution
Workplace mediation: resolving conflict before it escalates
A practical employer guide to workplace mediation: triaging suitability, running a safe and fair process, coordinating it with other obligations, and documenting and reviewing outcomes.
Read briefing →Governance, Risk & Compliance
4 articles
Governance, Risk & Compliance
Building a well-documented workplace compliance framework
A workplace compliance framework should be coherent across HR, safety and operations. We outline the building blocks employers should put in place.
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Governance, Risk & Compliance
How GRC technology supports workplace risk and assurance
Spreadsheets and inboxes do not scale for modern workplace risk and assurance. We outline what GRC technology should do for a workplace-risk-focused organisation.
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Governance, Risk & Compliance
Building a workplace compliance framework that can be monitored and evidenced
Designing a compliance framework is the easier half. This guide covers operating one: the monitoring chain, evidence architecture, testing, exceptions, verified remediation and governance reporting.
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Governance, Risk & Compliance
Business continuity planning for workforce disruption
Workforce disruption is one of the most common and least planned-for continuity risks. This briefing outlines how business impact analysis, scenario planning and tested response plans strengthen resilience.
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Discuss a workplace matter with AWS
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