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melbournebusinesscoach.com.au

A guide for managers in Victoria, and the coaches who work with them

Melbourne business coach: the rules a manager works inside

Coaching a manager means coaching someone who already works inside written rules: how a performance problem is raised, how a request is answered, what must be prevented and what must be kept private. This guide, published by Dotto, sets out five of those rules for managers in Victoria, each from the law or the official body that keeps it.

General information about employment and discrimination law, not legal advice. The official places to check are named in each guide, and every source is listed at the foot of its page.

The fiveOne conversation each, with the rule it sits inside

Five conversations, and the rule behind each

  1. Managing underperformance

    The Fair Work Ombudsman’s best practice guide says underperformance should be dealt with straight away, in five steps from identifying the problem to monitoring and review.

    Kept byFair Work Ombudsman

  2. Requests for flexible work

    Section 65A of the Fair Work Act 2009: the employer “must give the employee a written response to the request within 21 days”, and may refuse only on reasonable business grounds after set steps.

    Kept byFair Work Ombudsman; disputes go to the Fair Work Commission

  3. Victoria’s positive duty

    Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act 2010 gives organisations a positive duty to eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, measured against five minimum standards updated in November 2024.

    Kept byVictorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission

  4. The Commonwealth positive duty

    Section 47C of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984: an employer or a person conducting a business or undertaking “must take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible” the conduct it lists, sexual harassment included.

    Kept byAustralian Human Rights Commission

  5. Family and domestic violence leave

    Section 106A of the Fair Work Act: 10 days of paid leave in a 12-month period, available in full to part-time and casual employees, with the notice and evidence kept confidential under section 106C.

    Support: 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, which the Fair Work Ombudsman calls “the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service”.

    Kept byFair Work Ombudsman

The joinsWhere one rule leads into another

Where the rules meet

The five are not separate drawers. An employee experiencing family and domestic violence is one of the people section 65 of the Fair Work Act lets ask for flexible working arrangements, so a leave conversation can become a flexible work request. The Fair Work Ombudsman lists personal issues, such as family stress or health problems, among the common reasons an employee’s work slips, so a performance conversation can turn into either.

The two positive duties overlap too. Victoria’s binds every person with a duty under Part 4, 6 or 7 of its Equal Opportunity Act not to engage in discrimination, sexual harassment or victimisation; the Commonwealth’s applies to all employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking in Australia that have obligations under the Sex Discrimination Act, whatever their size. An employer in Melbourne can carry both at once, with two regulators and two sets of standards.

And the Victorian standards reach into ordinary management. Among the actions under standard 3, the Commission lists “encouraging leaders, including managers and supervisors, to role model respectful behaviour, for instance through codes of conduct or performance review processes.”

For a sessionQuestions a coach and a manager can work through

Questions to take into a coaching session

  • Before raising a performance problem, is it written down with examples, and has the employee been told what the meeting is about? The five steps
  • If a flexible work request were refused tomorrow, could the letter set out the business grounds, how they apply, and any other change on offer? What a refusal must hold
  • Which of Victoria’s five minimum standards does the team already meet, and which has nothing behind it yet? The five standards
  • What would the Commonwealth’s “reasonable and proportionate” look like for a business of this size and with these resources? How compliance is measured
  • If an employee gave notice of family and domestic violence leave, who would see the evidence, and where would it be kept? What a manager keeps private