Introduction

For small to medium businesses, comprehending and adhering to complex modern awards can be a challenge. Employment Hero addresses this by incorporating over fifty modern awards directly into the payroll platform, simplifying award interpretation.

The Manage Awards feature provides a convenient solution to search for and install the required award onto your payroll platform. Moreover, this feature allows you to manage the installed awards effectively, including applying award updates, uninstalling irrelevant awards, and unlocking data for rule set customisation. With these functionalities, handling modern awards becomes more accessible and streamlined.

Employment Hero uses rule sets (automations) to manage time earned by employees in compliance with the award conditions. A rule set is a set of predefined configurations that dictate how various aspects of an employee's time and attendance are calculated, tracked, and managed within the platform. These rules make sure that time worked, leave taken, and other related factors are accurately recorded and accounted for, based on the specific provisions of the award or agreement.

Key Dependencies

To install awards in Employment Hero, it's essential to be subscribed to the Plus plan, which provides access to the award installation feature.

Award Interpretation and Rule Build Rule

Set Period

The rule set period plays a significant role in determining different shift periods based on various factors. For instance, when calculating overtime over a 4-week period, you can set a specific date to mark the end of this initial 4-week duration. Alternatively, for weekly pay schedules, you have the flexibility to designate a particular day of the week as the basis for calculating the number of hours worked in a week. The same principle applies to a fortnightly pay period.

1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Payroll Settings > Pay Conditions > Rule Sets.
3. Select the award from the dropdown list.
4. Click on the ruleset name (ie Casual, Shiftworker).
5. Select the appropriate option from the Rule Set Period drop down.
6. Change the day or date accordingly.
7. Select Save.

To assess whether changing the rule set period is appropriate, refer to the help article specific to each award, as it may provide guidance on this matter. Additionally, make sure to thoroughly review and test the impact of any modifications to the rule set period to avoid any unintended consequences.

Getting Started

Installing your Award

Shows you how to Install your award as well as lock/unlock as well as uninstall awards

Managing Work Types

This feature allows you to add a work type, specify where this data point will map to, and choose the employee type the Payroll platform will enable this data point for automatically. You can also use this feature to edit any previously created work types and remove the information if it is no longer required.

Managing your Organisations Tag’s

As an organisation, you can use tags to group employees and identify specific scenarios within pay condition rule sets. If your organisation has installed a pre-built award, tags are provided automatically, reducing the time spent ensuring correct pay conditions and effective award interpretation.

Employment Agreements

The advantage of employment agreements is that it combines rule sets, leave allowance templates and pay rate templates. Also, pay increases will happen automatically on employee birthdays and/or anniversary dates for employees assigned an employment agreement. The employment agreements feature allows you to add customised agreements, edit award components and delete your own customised agreements along with any non-required pre-built award component.

Create and Manage Rule Sets

You can use rule sets and rules to automate the calculations of different employee pay conditions. For example, rule sets can be used to apply the correct overtime modifiers when an employee works past a certain number of hours; set shift conditions to trigger at the right hour, and so on.

More Handy Tips and terminology below on Disabling Rules, Testing your rules as well as Custom rule builds

Disabling Rules

For customers utilising pre-built award packages or their own Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBAs) or custom rule sets, there might be a need to deactivate certain rules that are not relevant.

For instance, let us consider the General Retail Industry Award, where the Laundry Allowance may not be applicable if the employer already provides facilities for washing the employee's uniforms.

You have the option to disable rules either across all employees using a specific rule set or for specific individual employees.

Before making any changes, apply any necessary award updates to your business if prompted to do so.

1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Payroll Settings > Manage Awards > Actions > Unlock Award Rules.
3. Navigate to Business > Payroll Settings > Pay Conditions > Rule Sets.
4. Select the award from the dropdown list.
5. Click on the ruleset name (i.e. Casual, Shiftworker)
6. Select Edit Rules.
7. Click into each rule and if you do not require this to be applied, select Disable. This will mark a red icon noting “disabled” next to the rule.

Custom Rule Build

Pay conditions refer to various scenarios, such as allowances, overtime, Time in Lieu (TIL), and more, under which employees are entitled to specific payments. These conditions can be automated using rule sets and are applied during the pay run when timesheets are imported. The utilisation of rule sets streamlines payroll calculations, making sure accurate and timely payments while minimising manual effort and potential errors.

1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Payroll Settings > Pay Conditions > Rule Sets.
3. Click on the ruleset name.
4. Click on Create Rules.
5. Click on Add a rule.
6. Complete the following fields: Name, When, Then

Conditions

• Always:
  • This condition always returns the entire shift and is useful for rules that should be executed without exception. For example, "Always apply a break of 30 minutes for every 5 hours+30 minutes worked."
• Or:
  • This condition returns the combined shift segments for all the added sub-conditions. If, for instance, one sub-condition returns Sunday 9 pm - Monday 1 am and another sub-condition returns Monday midnight - Monday 3 am, the result of this combined condition would be Sunday 9 pm - Monday 3 am.
• And:
  • This condition returns the intersection shift segments for all the added conditions. If, for example, one sub-condition returns Sunday 9 pm - Monday 1 am and another sub-condition returns Monday midnight - Monday 3 am, the result of this combined condition would be Monday midnight - Monday 1 am.
• Shift Duration:
  • This condition checks the overall duration of the shift. If the duration exceeds the specified parameters, the entire shift is passed to the action (not just the part that exceeds the parameters).
• Public Holiday:
  • This condition checks if the shift (or part of it) coincides with a public holiday based on the business's public holiday calendar. The matching shift segments are passed to the action. Additionally, there is an option to match when most of the shift falls on a public holiday, which includes the entire shift if 50% or more of it is on a public holiday.
• Day of Week:
  • This condition matches the parts of the shift that occur on specified days of the week. The matching shift segments are passed to the action. There is also an option to match when most of the shift falls on a particular day, which includes the entire shift if 50% or more of it is on the chosen day.
• Time of Day:
  • This condition matches the parts of the shift that occur at the specified time of the day. The matching shift segments are passed to the action.
• Hours Worked:
  • This condition matches specific hours worked in a shift. For example, it could be configured to return hours 0-3 (the first 3 hours of a shift) or hours 8+ (all of the shift after the first 8 hours). The matching shift segment is passed to the action.
• Time Worked in Period:
  • This condition handles pay conditions that apply when an employee works beyond a specific number of hours within a defined period (e.g., weekly, fortnightly, or monthly). Only the part of the shift that exceeds the specified amount will be passed to the action.
• Time Since Previous Shift:
  • This condition tests if the time since the previous shift is less than or greater than a specified amount. If the condition passes, the entire shift will be passed to the action.
• First Shift of the Day:
  • This condition checks if the shift is the first one of the day, useful for rules that apply only once per day. If the condition passes, the entire shift will be passed to the action.
• Work Type:
  • This condition checks the work type associated with the shift. If the condition passes, the entire shift will be passed to the action. It can also be used to test if a work type is linked to a pay category or leave category.
• Location:
  • This condition checks the location associated with the shift. If the condition passes, the entire shift will be passed to the action.
• Employment Type:
  • This condition checks the employment type of the employee performing the shift. If the condition passes, the entire shift will be passed to the action.
• Pay Category:
  • This condition checks the pay category associated with the shift segments. Any segments with the specified pay category assigned will be passed to the action. Note: Rules checking for a pay category should be placed late in the rule set to allow earlier rules to assign the pay category.
• Preferred Matches:
  • This condition will prioritise matching shifts that have the specified feature and, if unavailable, will then consider those without the feature as an alternative.
• Shift spans midnight:
  • When a shift extends beyond midnight (e.g., 9 pm - 4 am), this condition will match the part of the shift occurring after midnight (in this case, from midnight to 4 am).
• Tags:
  • This condition examines whether an employee has one or more tags associated with them. If the condition is met, the entire shift will be considered for the specified action.
• Time worked:
  • With this condition, you can execute actions based on the amount of time an employee works in a day, week, or shift period, depending on whether it exceeds or falls short of a specified duration.
• Split shift:
  • This condition checks for split shifts, which are shifts on the same day with less than a specified time gap between them.
• Shift start time:
  • This condition matches the entire shift if the shift's start time falls within the specified parameters. For example, if the rule is "Shift start time is between 4 am and 7 am," a shift from 6 am to 12 pm would match, while a shift from 2 am to 12 pm would not match.

Actions

• Apply pay category:
  • This action assigns a specific pay category to the matching shift segment. If the pay category is designated as [NONE], the shift segment will effectively be discarded and not receive any payment. This can be useful for scenarios like reallocating overtime to a 'time in lieu' leave category.
• Apply minimum time:
  • This action adjusts the effective duration of the shift to a specified amount if the shift's actual duration is less than the specified value. For instance, it could be used when a casual employee is guaranteed a minimum of 3 hours of pay, even if their shift is less than three hours.
• Apply shift breaks:
  • This action enforces unpaid breaks within the shift. For example, "Apply a 30-minute break for every 5 hours and 30 minutes worked" would divide a shift entered as 9 am - 5 pm into:
    • Work from 9 am - 2 pm
    • A break of 30 minutes from 2 pm - 2:30 pm
    • Work from 2:30 pm - 5 pm
• Stop processing:
  • This action instructs the rules engine to cease processing any further rules for this shift. For example, leave category-related rules might be placed at the top of the rule set, and the processing could stop if the work type is linked to a leave category.
• Add allowance:
  • This action adds an allowance to the shift. It can be configured to limit the number of allowance units per day or per week.
• Add leave accrual:
  • This action allocates a specific amount of a specified leave category to the employee working the shift. This can be used, for example, when employees accrue time-in-lieu instead of being paid for overtime.
• Multiple actions:
  • This action allows the application of multiple actions for a specified condition.
• Set rate multiplier:
  • This action allows setting the rate multiplier for the matching shift parts. However, it is generally not the preferred method to assign rates to shifts. Instead, pay categories should be assigned through rules, and pay rate templates should govern the rates paid for different pay categories.
• Apply tiered overtime:
  • This action allows multiple levels of overtime to apply to matching shift parts. For example:
    • For the first 2 hours, apply pay category "time and a half"
    • For the remaining time, apply pay category "double time"
    • The tiers are reset each day from the start of each shift when used as part of the 'Time Worked' condition.
• Add remaining time:
  • This action is used with a 'Time Worked' condition (and should be used with a 'less than' duration). It extends the effective time of the last shift to make up the remaining time. For example:
    • WHEN: Time Worked in a shift WHERE Work Type is Ordinary Hours is less than 8h
    • THEN: Add remaining time
• Conditional:
  • This action is enabled for the 'Time Worked' condition. It allows different actions to be applied based on specific conditions when the time-worked condition potentially matches a series of shift parts.
• Add split shift allowance:
  • This action is enabled for the 'Split Shift' condition. It allows the addition of an allowance either to the first shift in split shifts or to any of the split shifts that are over a certain duration.
• Take higher of earnings or ordinary:
  • This action is useful for shift workers entitled to receive the higher value between their shift pay and ordinary hours pay. It should only be used for shifts that have a work type linked to a leave category.
• Treat breaks as paid time:
  • This action indicates that breaks associated with a shift should be treated as paid time. All additional rules will consider the breaks as paid parts of the shift and assign pay categories accordingly.
• Convert units to start/end times:
  • This action is helpful if a work type requires entering units instead of start and finish times. It converts the timesheet into a shift with notional start and finish times, allowing the shift to be used in later pay conditions like hours worked or shift duration.
• No break recorded:
  • This rule is designed for use in an "automatic meal break" rule, where it checks the entire shift for breaks before adding a mandatory break if one has not been taken by a certain time.

Testing Rules

1. Log in to your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Payroll Settings > Pay Conditions > Rule Sets.
3. Click on the ruleset name.
4. Click on Test Rules.

Test Parameters:

1. Select the timesheet period for testing.
2. Choose to manually enter shifts or import a specific employee's timesheets.
3. Apply appropriate work types and shift conditions.
4. Decide whether to use draft or active rules for testing.
5. Cost the shifts using a pay rate template or simulate the costings using an actual employee.

Running the Test:

6. After entering the required details, click Run test.

View Test Results:

The results will be displayed, showing each day's earnings. Expand the day you want to examine and click on the question mark or the 'rules' tab at the top of the list of tested shifts.

Reviewing Triggered Rules:

• The list of rules triggered by that shift will be shown.
• Examine each triggered rule to understand how and why it has been applied to that shift.
• Remember that rules are executed in order from top to bottom, so a rule triggered earlier in the list might be overridden by another rule further down.
• Using the rules tester enables you to evaluate the application of rules on shifts and understand the outcomes. This tool helps make sure that the rule set is functioning as intended and helps identify any potential conflicts or unexpected results.