Our HR Guides.

Parental Leave is governed by the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987, and the legislation can create challenges for employers which, if managed poorly, can result in a personal grievance being made. Employers are not under any obligation to provide paid parental leave. By default, parental leave is unpaid, and employees are eligible to claim parental leave payments via the IRD depending on the government eligibility test, which is slightly different to the employer's eligibilit...

Employees are hired to perform their work at a certain level, as set out in their job description and their annual appraisals. Sometimes an employee's performance fails to reach that level, and managers need to be equipped to manage the performance of those employees to bring them back to the expected level. Handling these conversations badly can often lead to personal grievances, and a failure to handle them in a timely manner or at all, can lead to productivity issues, low morale and even heal...

Sometimes, a resignation is not just a simple resignation. Generally speaking, an employee will leave their employment for one of a few standard reasons: Their own choice, through resignation (no "fault" on either side) Being dismissed for misconduct or performance ("fault" on the employee's side) Being terminated as a result of redundancy (No "fault" on either side) What can happen sometimes, though, is that an employee resigns because they feel that they had no choice but to resi...

Under the Human Rights Act 1993 it is unlawful for a person in the area of employment to engage in sexual harassment towards another person. Sexual harassment occurs in the workplace when one employee, often in a position of authority or influence over another employee: Offers or requests sexual favours with a promise of better treatment/career prospects if given, or a threat of worse treatment/career prospects if not given; Behaves in an unwanted or offensive way to another employee ...

When your employee experiences the death of someone close to them, bereavement leave can give them time to step away from work and come to terms with their loss without worrying about the impact on their income. Learn more about bereavement leave entitlements, rules, and exceptions in this complete guide. Who can request bereavement leave? Bereavement leave is available to full-time and part-time employees who have been employed continuously for six months or more. When can an employee take b...

Bullying and harassment at work, is "repeated unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or group of workers that can lead to physical or psychological harm" (Worksafe, 2018) "Repeated" means the behaviour occurs more than once, but it does not mean that it has to be exactly the same behaviour each time, it just has to have the same targeted employee/s and the same harmful intention. To help with clarity, bullying and harassment are not things like: One off occasional instances ...

Every employee must have a written employment agreement, either as an individual agreement or a collective agreement.  Failure to ensure written agreements are in place can result in fines being imposed on the employer by the Labour Inspector. A collective agreement is one where the employee is part of a union that has negotiated standard conditions of employment for all its members, and an individual agreement is between a single employee and the employer. A collective agreement does not ne...

Annual holidays are provided for in the Holidays Act 2003 and allow employees to have regular rest and relaxation time.. Entitlement to Take Holidays Key elements of the entitlement to annual holidays are: An employee is entitled to a full four weeks' annual holidays after they have completed 12 months' of continuous employment. An employer can agree to allow an employee to take annual holidays in advance of this. Annual holidays are to be taken at a time agreed between the employer...