One of the major advantages of eCommerce businesses is that it has changed the physical space requirements that have traditionally constrained “bricks and mortar” businesses.

Even prior to the effects of COVID-19, the amount of businesses operating substantially or wholly online has been consistently increasing. Now, it is even more common for businesses to have many, if not all of their employees working significantly or entirely from home.

Businesses are also able to be far more flexible in their employment and contracting arrangements with the possibility of employing a mix of casual, part-time and full-time employees and adding to their capabilities with a range of online service providers for periodic contract work or bespoke “piece work” for particular deliverables.

However, with this new flexibility can come additional layers of complexity and businesses need to remain vigilant and take advantage of new technology and methods to ensure that they are meeting their obligations as employers and that any contracting arrangements are properly documented.  

If your business operates with employees regularly working remotely and engages any sort of contractors to perform work, here are some key issues to be aware of:

1. Mixed employment and contracting

Depending on the nature of your business, you may employ full time, part time or casual employees and you may also engage contractors. If your business engages people in these different forms, you must be aware of the different entitlements and obligations that can apply for employees and be aware of the impact of relevant awards. For contractors, having documentation which very clearly sets out their position is crucial so that you can reduce the risk of subsequent claims by a contractor that they are actually an employee. If a contractor claims that they are an employee, it can mean significant extra costs and liabilities for your business and can impact upon your insurance coverage, so it is important to get it right.

The best practice is to have separate agreements for contractors and employees and seek legal and financial advice if you are unsure about your obligations or an employee’s or contractor’s rights.

2. Payroll and Awards automation

Awards can be difficult to navigate with their numerous classifications that affect pay rates, overtime, and allowances and this issue is compounded if your employees are on different awards. You may also encounter difficulties in properly accounting for their hours as a result of flexible work arrangements.

Award automation programs provide valuable assistance in calculating employee entitlements so that administrative or accounting staff do not have to spend hours performing manual calculations. It can calculate pay based on employee timesheets, meaning staff no longer have to manually collate and calculate employee work times.

However, use of award automation must be approached carefully and after performing numerous tests against previous pay cycles to confirm accuracy and consistency.  Additionally, if your business has any unique or different terms that are above the award rules, these must be incorporated accurately.

Award automation and payroll systems can be integrated with other software capabilities, so it’s beneficial to take time to assess which integration systems will best benefit your business. Note that any award automation integrated with payroll systems need to comply with Single Touch Payroll requirements.

If you are considering implementing award automation, ensure you keep all employees update to date and provide any necessary training.

3. Workplace Health and Safety

Even though you may not provide physical office space for employees, you are still responsible for ensuring their workspace (wherever it may be) is safe is and does not pose a health and safety risk.  A prudent employer must, for example, ensure that an employee’s home or remote workspace is a safe work environment and there are workplace health and safety policies in place. Such policies, amongst a great deal of other things, must include directives regarding a separate workspace, ergonomic set up, regular breaks, and tidy desks/workspaces. Ensuring that your employees are properly equipped and that they have appropriate working environments can also result in increased productivity.  

4. Insurance

All employers should also check if their insurance covers events that may happen remotely and in an employee’s home. For example, if a client suffers an injury whilst visiting an employee’s house for a work related issue, or an employee’s work laptop is stolen from their home.

If you have employees that make visits to clients’ sites, you should also ensure that your insurance policies correctly take this into account.

If you engage contractors, it can also potentially be worthwhile investigating obtaining an extension of your cover to include them under your coverage. Commonly with contractors, the expectation is that they will have their own insurance, but this is not always the case and if they have failed to obtain coverage, and something occurs, it can be very appealing to attempt to claim from you, so it is preferable that your business has its own cover for this eventuality.

5. Confidential information

As your employees may likely have other people present in their workspace at home, it is important your employees are aware they must not disclose or discuss any confidential information with anyone they live with.

Additionally, a prudent employer would also ensure that any information technology infrastructure to the employee’s house or remote environment was secure and only able to be accessed to the same or better standard that would occur in an office.  For instance, if an employee is taking home additional devices that they previously would have only used in the office environment, you may want to consider adding two-factor authentication to those devices so that there will be a greater chance of data remaining secure in the event that one of these devices is lost.

6. Locations of employees

If your employees are working across different states or even countries, as well as having a robust choice of law clause in the employment contract, you also need to be aware of the employment law in each jurisdiction and stay on top of any developments. In many instances, it may be that you need to take professional advice to ensure that you are across any jurisdictional issues.

Businesses need to make sure that they are looking for technology such as payroll and awards automation to ensure that they are able to reap all of the benefits of an eCommerce business without being hampered by additional administrative burden.

While eCommerce can provide a host of unique advantages to business, it is important to remember that at the end of the day, just because a business is “online”/ remote working, it does not mean that it is immune from real world consequences and as such, employers need to remain across all of the relevant issues when engaging employees and contractors. If you would like to discuss any matters regarding remote working environments and their impact on businesses obligations and mitigating potential risks please get it touch. We are here to help. 

The information in this blog is intended only to provide a general overview and has not been prepared with a view to any particular situation or set of circumstances. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor does it constitute legal advice. While we attempt to ensure the information is current and accurate we do not guarantee its currency and accuracy. You should seek legal or other professional advice before acting or relying on any of the information in this blog as it may not be appropriate for your individual circumstances.