Welcome to 2023

Happy New Year from the HealthyPractice team.  We are hopeful that 2023 will be a better year for us all and that you have had the opportunity to recharge your batteries over the holiday season.

Over the holiday break we have been reviewing some of our content.

• The major change is that we have added a section that separates the content relating to contractors from the employment content. Once logged in you can find this section under HR Contractors (healthypractice.co.nz) we have left the contract for service page in it’s original place with a link to the new content.
• We have added a template letter for remuneration review outcome Remuneration review (healthypractice.co.nz) this may be helpful to you as you head into annual performance appraisals.
• On the Sample agreement page Sample agreements (healthypractice.co.nz) we have added clauses that allow for cost recovery for professional development or relocation costs.
• In the learning and development content we have added content about bonding for professional development and a template letter to record this agreement Bonding for professional development (healthypractice.co.nz)
• Receiving a resignation, when there have been issues in the employment relationship there may be the requirement to handle the situation with sensitivity, we have added a template letter to respond to this situation Resignation (healthypractice.co.nz) As always we are happy for you to call us to discuss these difficult situations and review your draft communications.

Some other tips and tricks that might help you and some things we see when document are sent to us for review:

• Always start with a fresh template from HealthyPractice, this avoids inadvertently leaving the name of the previous employee in the agreement or letter of offer (it happens!).
• Always use a HealthyPractice offer letter – which includes a date after which the offer is withdrawn if not accepted (otherwise you may have to wait until their start date to see if they turn up…).
• Track changes are a great way for us to show you changes we have made to documents that you send through for review – please remember to accept/reject the changes and stop tracking before you send to the employee/contractor.
• It is best practice to PDF documents that you are sending for signing.
• The practice shouldn’t sign employment agreements/contracts for service until they are returned signed by the applicants.
• From time to time we see black highlight used to conceal names etc – please note that depending on how this is done it may be possible for the recipient to ‘un-highlight’ – revealing the names again.  Best approach is to delete the data (saving the original version first perhaps).  An alternative way to improve privacy is to add a password layer (using a compressed folder for example) and send the password via text message.
• If you have been editing a document for some time prior to reaching an employment decision it can be best to copy and paste the full content into a fresh document – so the document information doesn’t suggest a pre-determined outcome.

And some tips for emails:

• Sometimes teams get into a habit of overusing ‘Reply to all’ on emails.  If you wish to avoid this, send the email with the intended recipients in the Blind Carbon Copy address field (you might need to go to Options and click Show Fields Bcc to display this under Cc).
• Cc or Bcc yourself into important emails (for example to staff where you want a trail for future reference) – then file the email into an appropriate folder (‘XX re performance’).  Easier than hunting through sent items (‘I’m sure I sent an email on that…’).
• If you’ve been a bit quick with the delete button, outlook has the deleted items folder.  If you have emptied the deleted items folder too, up the top is a handy function ‘Recover items recently removed from this folder’.
• If you hit send too soon, or sent an email to an unintended recipient, open the message and in the “Move” section click on actions and select recall this message.  Doesn’t work every time (if the email has already been read for example) but worth trying.

Remember to contact us if you have any HR or business-related issues you want to discuss,  email us on business@mas.co.nz  or give us a call on 0800 800 627 – we look forward to hearing from you.