A lot has changed over the last few years–while gatherings were prohibited and remote work and office policies in flux, company holiday parties moved to the back burner. However, the Christmas Party is back and arguably, more important than ever.

With the shift to hybrid and remote work, the Corporate Christmas Party may be one of few opportunities to get the entire team together in person, and to celebrate twelve months’ worth of hard work. While it’s recommended to start planning early, Peerspace has compiled a Corporate Christmas Party guide to help the nominated party planners at every small business achieve a well organised and ‘morale-boosting’ celebration, even in you’re late to the planning party, so to speak.

Picking the perfect venue

Budget and location – which came first, the chicken or the egg? While it may seem best to pick a location close to the office, your best bet is to determine your budget first. Whether you’re working with $500 or $5,000, your budget is going to steer the ship for every element of your party, including venue, theme, decorations, and activities.

Once a budget is set, move on to selecting the venue. The location may not be everything, but the atmosphere is. The venue sets the stage for your event in a big way, and the Corporate Christmas Party is a great time to branch out from a standard, plain event space that merely meets expectations.

A unique space with dynamic lighting, structure or views helps create an extra special experience. Why not opt for more unexpected spaces such as a rooftop, creative loft, or a stunning home to delight guests?There are plenty of options to suit all budgets – they can also be rented by the hour, so you aren’t forking out for unused time.

After finding the perfect venue, be sure to check the venue policies to see whether it is suitable for medium-large scale events, food and drinks.

Incorporating a theme into the venue

White Christmas. Oh, Christmas tree. Favourite Christmas character. Ugliest Christmas jumper (or Christmas shirt, considering it’s the middle of summer for Australia).

While selecting a theme for a party can be an uphill battle with all of your colleagues weighing in, the holiday season is the perfect time to deck the halls with next level decorations.

A theme contributes to the entire appeal of the party and encourages colleagues to get into the holiday spirit, so starting with table décor and lighting is a budget-friendly approach. Be sure to see what the standard decor is on the space and look at any add-ons from the host, so you can create the look and style you want without blowing the budget.

Keeping employees engaged in the venue

Incorporating an activity into your Christmas party can be the perfect way to keep everyone engaged. Secret Santa is a great option to kick off the event and make sure everyone is included. 

Music is a must at any celebration, but you need to select the right music for the corporate Christmas party. Live music always evokes more energy, so consider hiring a local band and dance the night away to live music.

If hiring a venue with a bar, enjoy a fun cocktail hour with Christmas themed drinks! Make sure you have options for everyone’s preferences – sending out a team or company survey beforehand can help ensure you have options for everyone.

If you’re looking for a more relaxed gathering, look for a venue with large dining and seating areas. These spaces are ideal for sit-down conversations and casual dining, making your annual Secret Santa gift exchange a breeze!

No matter what you’re planning, be sure to check the venue’s guidelines, Peerspace’s social event policy and community guidelines, and share all of the details with the host to ensure your event is the right fit for their space.

Story By Zachary Hill, Marketing Manager at Peerspace

Epson has launched its new EH-TW6250 4K PRO-UHD home theatre projector with superior image quality and gaming capabilities. Ideal for film enthusiasts, sports fans and gamers looking for an immersive big screen experience, the new projector brings a range of high specifications and an excellent viewing experience.

Epson’s patented 4K PRO-UHD technology enables the TW6250 projector to produce incredible brightness, enhanced colour and superb image detail.

The smarts don’t stop there as the EH-TW6250’s dedicated 4K pixel-shift processor – Epson’s advanced pixel-shifting resolution-enhancement technology – results in an exceptional 4K¹ visual experience which, combined with its dedicated HDR processor and resulting full 10-bit HDR colour processing uses 100% of the HDR source information.

Boasting an advanced 3LCD projector design and true 3-chip technology the EH-TW6250 offers an amazing 2,800 lumens colour brightness³ and 2,800 lumens white brightness.

It also can project a huge image size of up to 500 inches on virtually any wall or screen so viewers and gamers can and will be fully immersed in their entertainment.

A low input lag under 20ms², high contrast ratio up to 35,000:1, and frame interpolation for smoother, sharper and more realistic action scenes combined with captivating sound from a built-in 10 W stereo speaker all truly heighten every type of TV, movie and gaming content.

 
A smart media player (SMP) is also included so you can watch your favourite content from a wide choice of apps and on the practical side, lens shift enables installation flexibility with a range of up to ±60% on the vertical axis.

The EH-TW6250 with its sleek new curved design at an affordable price means users can enjoy the latest movies, sporting events and gaming releases anywhere in the home making them ideal for film fanatics and gamers looking for resolution of up to 4K PRO-UHD picture quality.

For TV and movie viewers looking for a flexible easy to use solution which can be moved and gamers who want to take their gaming to a new immersive level or are even considering a replacement for a TV, the EH-TW6250 ticks all the boxes.

The EH-TW6250 is comes with a two-year projector warranty for peace of mind and is available now from Epson Australia (RRP AUD$2099) and all authorised Epson retailers and resellers.

Key features of the EH-TW6250 include:

· Amazing colour brightness³ – 2,800 lumens colour brightness and 2,800 lumens white brightness
· Large image size – project up to 500” on virtually any wall or screen and be fully immersed in your entertainment
· Dedicated 4K pixel-shift processor¹ – Epson’s advanced pixel-shifting resolution-enhancement technology results in an exceptional 4K visual experience
· Lens shift – lens shift enables installation flexibility with a range of up to ±60% on the vertical axis
· Low input lag – heighten your gaming experience with an input lag of under 20ms²
· Smart capabilities – a smart media player (SMP) is included so you can watch your favourite content from a wide choice of apps
· Detail enhancement – enhance standard definition content to make your entertainment come alive
· Frame interpolation – for smoother, sharper, and more realistic action scenes
· Captivating sound – a built-in 10 W stereo speaker for lifelike sound

Are you super stressed at work before holidays? Burnout and overwork can sometimes feel synonymous with the leadup to the holiday season time of year. But how can you (and your work) go about reducing this?

December arguably, should be the most wonderful time of the year.   

This is particularly true when you are lucky enough to live in Australia and the annual festivities of Christmas (as well as both the Gregorian and Orthodox New Year’s, Hanukkah and Lunar New Year later in January to name a few), line up with what is often stunning summer weather. (At least, when La Niña is not visiting Down Under.)  

Time off is vital for resting, recharging, gaining new inspirations and experiences, spending time with our friends and family and undertaking other activities that contribute to our overall wellness. Yet when it comes to watching that clock for your clock-off at work, it can sometimes feel like time is both speeding up and slowing for work that needs to be done to ‘cover’ the fact you are going on annual leave, to do so.  

Given that companies often ask employees to take annual leave over this time period, it can seem like an odd arrangement when the amount of hard work you feel you need to do sometimes feels like you need to ‘make up’ for this.  

Dr Andrew Dhaenens, Lecturer at UNSW Business School’s School of Management and Governance says this can sometimes be because of individual’s ‘drive’ to ‘finish up’ for the end of the year and celebrate that achievement.  

“End-of-year celebrations and similar rituals are reflective of that. In short, being able to shake off the events you would like to leave behind and celebrate what you have done well as a team.”  

“When workplaces have positive cultures, everyone understands the rhythms of the business and shares in the celebrations and challenges together,” explains Dr Dhaenens.  

But what happens when your to-do list at work is as long as your holiday shopping list, and the longer hours mean you feeling more burnt out than celebratory? Dr Dhaenens explains.  

What is holiday burnout and why do we experience it?  

The Black Dog Institute defines burnout as ‘a form of emotional exhaustion that can occur in response to persistent and unrelenting stress’.  

If you feel ‘exhausted, unable to concentrate and want to withdraw and disconnect from the world and those around you’ it could mean you are heading for burnout.  

According to Dr Dhaenens, while the holidays away from work is recognised as a valuable time to practice self-care, the lead-up can trigger people to experience these feelings of burn out. He says this is because, in part, people naturally compartmentalise our identities between ‘work’ and ‘life.’  

“The rush we put ourselves through before the holidays is our way of making sure that we have the space to rest, recharge, and detach” he explains.  

“People spend time on holidays working on their mental health with rest, relaxation, and reflection alongside their hobbies and travels, and they don’t want any leftover work to interfere with this.”  

Dr Dhaenens also points out that often work pace can match up with pace of the industry you have chosen to work in.   

“The reason behind these rushes is the nature of our work,” he says. “Different industries will have different deadlines and expectations around dates in the calendar. For education, it is around the school year, whereas for finance it might be separate fiscal year.”  

What should I do about holiday burnout?  

Dr Andrew Dhaenens says when it comes to solving the issue of feeling overworked in the lead-up to the ‘silly season,’ it is definitely a problem to be solved by both employees and managers working together to figure out clear goals and define end-of-year deadlines.  

“If you feel like your work rush is not sustainable, you should talk about expectations with your supervisors and co-workers in your developmental network,” he says.  

“Busy seasons and holidays are really a product of our relationships at work and our reactions to these can be impacted, improved or even worsened, by conversations with others.”   

As he explains, holidays provide natural distance to rest and recharge: “In closing off stretches of work, everyone is forced to determine which tasks are most important. Upon reflection, it may be a product of poor planning or limited resources. The relationships we maintain are key to our own support and success.”  

“Take the opportunity with holidays to sit down and have these conversations, about what you can and cannot do now and into the future,” he suggests.  

And it is not just for employees. If you are a manager, Dr Dhaenens also advises taking the opportunity to debrief, discuss non-negotiables and celebrate accomplishments with your team through social activities and more, in order to mitigate employee burnout during this time. 

How has hybrid work impacted holiday stress?  

With working from home and hybrid work set to continue for many of this, how will it continue to impact stress levels when we sabotage our own set boundaries? Many can relate to wanting to quickly check ‘just one work email,’ or respond to that notification, before disrupting our much-needed downtime.  

“When it comes to tools such as electronic calendars and IM platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, it does suggest limited options for conveying (and signalling) where we are and how we are working (or not).”  

“‘Busy’ does not always mean Busy,’ and ‘Out of Office’ is our only real signal that we are away on holidays or annual leave, as therapeutic as the ‘pink and plaid’ may be,” says Dr Dhaenens  

“While there has been lots of discussion around flexibility in workplaces, this can reflect a real issue as people work in different places at different times.”  

“Considering the “everything, everywhere, all at once” sort of year we have all had, it can be very tempting to fall back into work cycles. Yet, there is so much evidence on benefits of taking time away on our wellbeing.”  

But Dr Dhaenens – who has co-founded the Hybrid Work Leadership research and knowledge centre, which operates out of UNSW Business School – says balancing considerations around work arrangement preferences is an issue companies continue to be concerned with alongside turnover.  

It’s one of the reasons he and co-founder Professor Karin Sanders, UNSW Business School are continuing to work with industry to research the area, such as the impact of micromanagers on workers in a hybrid workplace.  

“Our ongoing research continues to show that your perceptions of wellbeing at work – for example how much support you think your manager is giving you, and how much learning and connection you feel is occurring, is a major factor in creating work-life balance and liking your workplace,” says Dr Dhaenens.  

“From the manager down, your team should know the rhythms of work, the rest and reward after the busy times needs to be there. Take the opportunity to connect and celebrate together.”  

“Remember, 2023 will be a challenging, but exciting year, as managers and organisations really think about who they are, and who they want to be for employees.”  

At the end of the day, you don’t always have to stick around  

“Work is obviously a big portion of our lives but is not everything,” says Dr Dhaenens.   

“If your workplace leader takes the time to know their reports, and their challenges, and work together to make their life better inside and outside work, everyone is going to get better results.”  

If not (and if you have the flexibility), it might be worth seeking employment elsewhere.   

“While it is important to balance the fact that sometimes you need to ‘do the tough work,’ not only to climb your career ladder, but to learn and grow, if the rewards are not there, it is simply not something that will be sustainable,” he says.   

“Sometimes you get through to the other side of the holidays, and it really is a dusting off with a ‘Phew! Glad it is done.’ Other times, it may be an ‘I’ll never do that again.’”  

“Because at the end of the day, taking time for annual leave gives us space to consider what is important. And sometimes, when you go on leave, that might mean you begin to reconsider if that environment is the right one for you to continue in.”  

Shared storage environments are critical to the successful operation of all modern-day education institutions. At the top of that tree are some of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious universities, including the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), both of whom use EditShare storage solutions supplied by Digistor.

The University of Sydney’s Manager, Media Production, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services, Tom Cavdarovski, explained, “Our media team has grown over the last few years and our postproduction workflow has changed to meet the growing demands. We use EditShare systems and find them particularly suitable for a growing production slate.”

UTS’ Client Computing Manager Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Simon Prowse, agreed saying, “The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) runs courses in communications including journalism and production. These courses include sound production, film and animation. In the past FASS used a different shared storage solution but decided to move to a more open environment for production workflows. UTS has now been using an EditShare solution for around 9 years has recently acquired new EFS storage and FLOW licences for student off site usage for editing.”

For the University of Sydney, the requirements were centred around a secured, robust, 4K editing storage solution with Cavdarovski adding, “We have huge amounts of 4K data that needs to be accessed across multiple editors. Our content is captured on country with drones, C300 and DSLR cameras. We also produce multicamera live stream events, so having a post-production system workflow that integrates with creating pre-packaged content, is an important part of our workflow.”

In UTS’ case the university required a sizeable amount of storage capacity and bandwidth to handle up to 60 concurrent connections for editing from personal and group project spaces on the server.

Prowse said, “This time around we chose 10GB Ethernet with 20GB link aggregation to a 10GB switch. Since COVID there is more need for flexibility and a need for more students to work remotely. We also have students studying remotely overseas so the need for working from the server remotely was important. As most of the editing is done with Adobe, the Premier plugin was desirable.”

It’s clear for both universities that the EditShare solutions for education shared storage environments are a vital part of their courses and day-to-day operations as Cavdarovski explained, “The EditShare system Digistor installed has RAID redundancy, integrates with existing university infrastructure and allows our editors to work in various 4K resolutions seamlessly.”

Prowse echoed this sentiment saying, “It’s a flexible arrangement for constantly changing circumstances. Openness and flexibility of the solution is important and EditShare meets this perfectly. Courses and requirements change and we can easily add capacity, bandwidth or capabilities with plugins.”

The University of Sydney uses a 98TB EFS 300 system with 8 clients PC connections. These are both Mac and Windows computers, all connected via 10Gb network ethernet connections and all editors are able to open Adobe Creative Cloud projects at any time.

EditShare’s cloud platform EditShare FLEX has evolved to a suite of turnkey, ready-to-go solutions for remote collaborative workflows and video editing in the cloud. Users of EditShare FLEX choose the modules they need – including edit in the cloud and multi-premises synchronisation – and implement them in their own cloud account. This gives users an easy opportunity to implement cloud solutions which education institutions often consider the best way to utilise a combination of on-premise and cloud storage and editing. 

There are many on premises and cloud solutions at UTS. They run an animation render farm for the faculty that is on server blades in the data centre and processing of jobs is distributed to around 300 lab computers. UTS also has an HPC environment as well an Isilon which is widely used across the university. The faculty EditShare EFS can backup to Isilon which represents a cost saving to leverage other products in the EditShare solution.

Workflows are obviously at the core of these solutions as Cavdarovski explained, “We have a mix of projects throughout the year, some are quick turnaround with a single producer and editor, while others are 12 months in post and up 50 individual videos with shared resources across multiple editors.”

Prowse added, “We keep our workflows reasonably basic. EditShare is the file server for students’ media work. The workflows involve group spaces for group projects and these have a set folder structure. Students also have personal scratch space with quotas. Class materials are in spaces accessible to students from either the lab and suite facilities or on their BYO devices accessible from home via the client and VPN or on campus.”
 
A UTS shared storage workflow may also involve students borrowing faculty sound, lighting and video equipment and doing a shoot. They will then upload content to EditShare via a lab or studio computer.

It’s clear that both Cavdarovski and Prowse are big fans of the EditShare solutions for education shared storage environments they purchase from Digistor as Cavdarovski highlighted, “We have used smaller storage solutions in the past, but found they are very limited and lacked performance beyond one or two concurrent users compared to the EditShare solution we now have. We really like the FLOW application that we purchased as part of the EditShare package. It allows the team of editors to log content easily, accurately and create proxies for working offline and working flexibly. FLOW helps to ensure that we can always store, retrieve and broadcast the appropriate content.”

Whilst Prowse said, “We feel that EditShare has a flexible and futureproofed product that is not proprietary or rigid. It’s modular so we are not paying for capabilities that we do not need now but have the option to add capability, licences or services going forward. Lots of storage capacity in the EditShare solution is important and being on premise, we can leverage the fast network for connections, transfers and backup.”

When asked to explain what edge using the EditShare solutions Digistor provided gives their university Tom Cavdarovski concluded, “The EditShare system enables our team to work more efficiently, reducing menial tasks and streamlining complex workflows. This frees the team up to work in more creative and innovative space, which in this industry, is a what customers and partners want from content producers. Our experience with Digistor has always been very professional, I have been purchasing postproduction systems for over 20 years and they understand how to work with clients who work in large complex organisations, like a university.”

Whilst Simon Prowse concluded, “We have had excellent experiences with both EditShare and Digistor. This is our third renewal of hardware over 9 years and the sales and project process has been smooth each time. Any support issues are dealt with promptly and professionally too. My IT team has to be across a huge amount of knowledge to effectively manage all of the moving parts in this complex university environment.  Hence, we need to rely on good support for specialised solutions, applications and facilities. Thus, the great confidence we have in Digistor and EditShare is a very important factor for us.”

The lead up to the Christmas break is a particularly challenging time for many employees, as they feel their bosses are pushing them to their limit in order to meet business targets and end-of-year financial goals. In what should be a happy and fun season, many people are getting Christmas burnout that is going into Christmas feeling more stressed, anxious, and burnt out than ever.

Michael Bunting, a globally renowned leadership expert, believes that greater authenticity and self-awareness can resolves this issue.

Michael says, “A huge part of this problem is ‘image management.’ Image management refers to the time we waste or things like denial, saving face or masking our weaknesses. All too often, image management stops people from speaking up when they feel overwhelmed at work, out of fear that they will be perceived as being unable to do their jobs. By developing our self-awareness, we’re able to let go of the self-defeating patterns that are holding us back, allowing us to become our most authentic self at work and learn to speak up when it’s necessary.”

Heading into this Christmas season, Michael encourages people to do these 5 things to ensure they’re not feeling burnt out:

5 ways to beat the Christmas burnout

1. Develop real self-awareness by letting go of any self-defeating patterns
2. Practice radical candour with your bosses and co-workers
3. Set healthy boundaries
4. Prioritise rest
5. Make your values a daily habit

Michael is also the author of Vertical Growth: How Self-Awareness Transforms Leaders and Organisations, published by Wiley.

Tech leaders and investors from across the US, UK, Asia Pacific region, and Australia are converging on the country’s premier tech festival, West Tech Fest 2022 which will be held at Perth Town Hall next week [Monday].

One of the key events will centre around how tech startups and businesses in Perth wanting to scale-up can secure investment by seizing opportunities in South East Asia.

Australia’s National Centre for Asia Capability, Asia Link business Chief Executive  Leigh Howard says the 10 countries which make up ASEAN form one of the largest economies in the world.

“With a young and technologically savvy population, rapidly growing middle class, and with post-pandemic economic recovery taking place, conditions in ASEAN are ripe to connect to communities and potential investors,” Howard says.

“The region is considered a major destination for foreign investment and opportunities.”

“Perth businesses will be in the box seat to expand and succeed by understanding the start-up landscape in ASEAN, specifically the trends investors are looking for, what opportunities exist and how to shape their business to connect with the region.”

The event will shine a spotlight on key growth areas, discuss pathways to seek funding, share in-region experiences, and explore broader trends within ASEAN.

“Asialink Business is Australia’s National Centre for Asia Capability mandated by the Commonwealth government to work with business and industry to create an Asia-capable Australian workforce,” he says.

The panel of experts will include:

• Austrade Fintech Director, Betty Sun-Lucas.
• Blue-chip technology, finance and data entrepreneur, Neal Cross.
• Founder of payroll company Definitiv Group, Roy Mellon.
• R3i Capital General partner and the pioneer behind The House of MedTech and House of DeepTech, Leesa Soulodre. 

Event Details:

“Pre Seed to Series Funding: Leveraging Opportunities in ASEAN”

12:30pm Monday December 5th

Perth Town Hall, 

601 Hay Street, Perth.

As Australia continues to grapple with an ongoing jobs crisis making sure all members are safe from disease and sick leave doesn’t overwhelm workflows. The Philips UV-C disinfection light might be able to help.

Although Covid-19 has nearly been brought under control and offices have adapted, the likelihood of increased rainfall and renewed flooding is bringing a range of new health issues, such as rising dampness and mould. UV-C light technology could prove the difference in limiting the effects of the weather.

Research has revealed Philips UV-C disinfection upper air wall mount luminaires inactivated 99.99% of SARS-COV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 disease, in the air of a room within 10 minutes. At 20 minutes, the virus was below detectable levels. Further, Multiple studies have confirmed that UV-C light is an established measure for disinfection. With wavelengths between 100-280 NM, it can prevent the spread of other contagious diseases, too including tuberculosis and influenza. It’s a clear indication that UV-C light plays a valuable part in keeping Australians healthy and working. The rollout of UV-C light technology is an affordable and effective tool for protecting workers and businesses from disease-inflicted disruptions. UV-C radiation is a known disinfectant for air, water and surfaces that can help mitigate the risk of acquiring an infection. UV-C can be used in numerous applications and spaces.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has confirmed today the need for governments to focus on tackling construction supply challenges in the building and construction industry.

The release of the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), building approvals, and construction work done paints a clear picture of the flow on effect if inflationary impacts are not appropriately tackled says Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn.

“Difficulties with the supply of materials and labour has been placing pressure on new home building activity. These unfavourable cost conditions helped push new dwelling purchase prices up by 20.4 per cent over the year to October 2022.

“The large rise in new home costs is one of the main reasons why the inflation rate has risen across the economy.

“There was a 2.2 per cent increase in the total volume of construction work done during the September 2022 quarter. This was largely driven by the solid increase in civil/engineering construction (3.4 per cent) over the quarter. However, there were also gains for both residential (1.3 per cent) and non-residential building (1.1 per cent) over the same period.

“Looking ahead, newly released approvals data indicate that home building activity will move lower over coming months.

“There was a 6 per cent drop in the total number of new home building approvals during October 2022 and a particularly sharp decline (-11.3 per cent) in the number of medium/high density dwellings.

“Governments at a state and territory level must double-down on their efforts to address issues that continue to frustrate the industry like lengthy delays in approvals for land title, development and building applications, and occupation certificates.

“Government must be strategic when it comes to significant policy changes, like the proposed IR Bill, and carefully consider its impacts against a challenging economic backdrop,” said Ms Wawn.

Salary underpayments are adding to Australian workers’ financial burden, as they struggle with rising inflation and increasing cost of living expenses. Two in three workers (64 per cent) are still experiencing underpayment issues, according to new data from global payroll and HR provider ADP – up from one in two just 12 months prior.

Findings from ADP’s annual People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View, a survey of 1,400 workers in Australia, also found that one in nine workers (11 per cent) have reported that they are ‘always’ underpaid by their employers. Worryingly, this represents a doubling in underpayments in the last year alone. Additionally, over half of workers surveyed have experienced other underlying issues with their pay (57 per cent), such as failed payments or incorrect tax codes.

Australia’s growing underpayment issue is worsened by a reported lack of action from employers to correct payments quickly. More than 6 in 10 workers (61 per cent) say their employer has failed to resolve their underpayment issue within the next pay cycle.

Irina Shainsky, Legal Director ANZ at ADP, said, “At a time when inflation and the cost of living is at an all-time high, more and more Aussie workers are finding it difficult to pay their rent, bills, and basic necessities.

“It is more important than ever that employees are closely reviewing their pay and having conversations with their employers if issues arise. Employers have a responsibility to ensure they have the right systems in place to address payment issues.”

Issues with payments do not only affect employees, but have significant impact on businesses.

“Incorrect and late payments have the potential to create cash flow and staff retention issues for employers. These can also have knock-on effects on a business’ reputation,” says Ms Shainsky.

“Higher inflation impacts consumers and businesses alike. Organisations are struggling with higher inflation and increased costs across the board. As a global recession looms, their commercial success will depend on their ability to track and review business expenses as early, efficiently and accurately as possible.

“With States starting to legislate against wage theft, the focus has increasingly shifted to businesses’ legal obligations when it comes to correct payments. Employers must be aware of all relevant legislation to ensure they are compliant,” adds Ms Shainsky.

To help manage the complexity of pay, businesses are increasingly turning to integrated technology solutions to essentially ‘outsource’ payroll services. These technology solutions can help businesses pay their employees accurately and on time, while also having access to a secure portal to easily manage reporting and compliance.

“Employee salary underpayments have wide ranging implications on the Australian workforce and businesses alike, especially in the current financial climate. It’s imperative that companies source the expertise and tools required to address this issue to ensure their longevity as cash flow and employee retention continue to increase in importance for businesses,” concludes Ms Shainsky. For more information on ADP’s payroll and HR software solutions, go to au.adp.com.