I was recently at the doctors. I had not been for a long time. The truth is I hate visiting doctors. I am just not good dealing with the fear that the doctor might find something wrong!
I waited for what seemed like an eternity flicking through outdated women’s magazines and counting the bricks on the wall.
Finally I was called in…“How long has it been since you had a blood test?”. After a pause I recalled it had been almost 10 years.
My doctor was horrified “how can you expect to stay healthy if you don’t come and get checked more regularly”.
Filled with guilt I hurried off to have the blood test and returned to the doctor for the results – A vitamin deficiency! A quick jab of a needle and a few tablets and I was back to full functioning.
It occurred to me as I drove back to work that our businesses are a bit like us! How so? Well every now and then they need a health check to make sure they are efficiently running and compliant with all the changes in the law.
Take for example the employment framework. In recent times we have been through the Industrial Relations Act, the Workplace Relations Act, Workchoices and the Fair Work Act, not to mention the changes from state awards to federal awards with NAPSA’s, AWA’s, Enterprise Agreements and any number of other hybrids and acronyms thrown into the mix. And that is just the employment side of your business! Don’t forget recent changes to the Personal Property Securities Act and Consumer Laws.
Many business owners shy away from having the ‘health’ of their business checked in fear that either ‘something will be wrong’ or that it will be too costly to fix. The answer is the same for a business as it is for our health – better to have it checked out and fix the problems when they are small… A quick jab might be all that is required!
For further information, please contact the Workplace Law Team.
