They say when it rains it pours. No business wants to be caught without a sturdy umbrella or raincoat! Launched recently, the Victorian Chamber’s HR Partner offering is here to support you through challenging times, offering operational HR expertise and stepping in to be an extension of your business, ensuring HR matters are managed seamlessly according to your bespoke needs.

Our experienced Workplace Relations Consultants can operate as an extension of your internal capability and capacity, especially in a market where talent can be difficult to secure and legislation changes rapidly.

Not only can your Victorian Chamber HR Partner act as your external independent sounding board, they can also enable you to meet your business objectives, focus on continuous improvement and support compliance.

HR Partner support

Key areas of support the Chamber offers in the ever-changing HR landscape include:

• building HR strategy
• strategic responses to legislative changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 and other workplace laws
• performance management, disciplinary matters and conduct issues
• capability frameworks and succession planning
• flexible/hybrid/remote work arrangements and a new way of working
• workplace investigations and mediations
• enterprise bargaining and award interpretation
• recruitment assistance, workforce training and development, talent mapping
• restructure and redundancy, organisational change management
• advice for equal opportunity, equity and diversity, bullying, harassment and discrimination, gender equality and wellbeing
• reward and recognition, salary queries and benchmarking, compliance and wage auditing
• fitness for work, return to work plans and WorkCover advice
• review of policies, systems and procedures.

The Chamber has experience across a variety of sectors to establish priorities quickly and make a meaningful impact with members.

Enhancing your team

Here are three different ways that we can enhance your team with HR Partner support.

#1: Pay upfront for a discounted rate and bank of hours

Purchase a bank of hours upfront and distribute them across each working week to be used within a defined period (typically 12 months). This arrangement allows you to move with the ebbs and flows of your business and give you a direct line to all the HR/IR and ER support when you need it.

Paying upfront allows you to plan your business costs and tap into this service when needed at an overall fixed cost. The arrangement can be used to access credible, experienced and responsive consultants to complete specific project work, ongoing BAU or a combination – all at your direction.

#2: Pay as you go

This option relieves the anxiety of not having internal expert advice. This could be to support a new HR professional, support a small business or work with a part-time HR team who may not have the time to be across everything in the HR space.

This type of arrangement is beneficial for consistency in internal communication, empowering leaders, using data to influence decisions and strengthening company culture and employee experience with set projects and work.

You can access our consultants to provide the HR tools, templates and strategic advice you need to meet ongoing obligations and deadlines precisely when required. This arrangement operates at our usual hourly consulting rates with no set cap on the number of hours, and we only bill you for the amount you use.

#3: Embedded partnership or secondment

Instead of going through the challenge, cost and time of end-to-end recruitment and onboarding for your HR vacancy, the Victorian Chamber can provide a HR consultant to be onsite with your business two to three days a week (or more) as part of your team.

Having a skilled HR professional to immerse themselves in your business, provide visibility for walk-in conversations, embrace your culture and values in your environment and be able to support across all HR functions will ensure that no matter goes unresolved.

On top of this, our consultant will have the support of experienced and expert Victorian Chamber consultants at their disposal with a wide range of skills and backgrounds. Your HR Partner can provide an objective perspective on each issue, considering all external factors, understanding the challenges quickly and efficiently and proposing a range of solutions tailored to address each matter at minimal risk and maximum output.

Applying best-practice approaches, your HR Partner will be across recent IR/ER developments and relevant legislative requirements in your sector to help ensure you are compliant and future ready. This is the ultimate partnership!

More information

Industry superannuation fund Vision Super is among the members that have benefited from the Victorian Chamber’s services: “Vision Super has grown to become one of Australia’s leading profit-to-member super funds. We have a lean generalist HR team, and have appreciated being able to use the Victorian Chamber’s Workplace Relations Consulting team for their employee relations expertise – whether as a sounding board in case management, to answer to a tricky employment question, or to provide strategic options.”

To sign up, or for further assistance on our HR Partner packages, including a discussion around any urgent or future needs, please contact our Workplace Relations Advice Line on (03) 8662 5222 or visit our website at Services | Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry