Employment Relations: Assessing a workplace

Ariana and Pieter are friends who have been in business together for five years. Their company, Naturally Baking Limited, specialises in supplying organic baking ingredients to retail outlets. Initially, their business supplied only the local market, but demand has increased and they are expanding to supply retailers nationwide.

Until now, the business has employed family and friends to repackage the ingredients, put orders together, advertise and market their products, and distribute the packed orders. But Ariana and Pieter realise they cannot continue to operate as a family business as demand for their products increases. They have decided they need to employ more packers and pickers of packed products, a delivery driver to deliver orders in the company truck, a warehouse manager and staff, and some administrative assistants.

Ariana will manage product sourcing and ordering, the office, and warehouse operations. Pieter will manage marketing, sales, orders, and customer relations. Pieter’s father, Dave, will manage finance and human resources.

Pieter, Dave and Ariana meet to discuss recruiting new staff. They soon realise there is more to being an ‘employer’ than they thought, and that they do not know much about the legal requirements. They are unclear about holidays, health and safety requirements, and employment relations law.

Ariana remembers a friend of hers, Tu, recently set up a human resources consultancy and would be able to give them professional assistance. They agree to approach Tu for help.

Watch the first video scenario to see what happens.