With the 3.5% minimum wage increase now in effect from 1 July 2025, this isn't just a pay bump - it's your perfect opportunity to press pause and review your HR setup. Compliance isn't just about ticking boxes, it’s about protecting your business, supporting your staff, and staying future-ready.

To make it easy, here’s a practical checklist split into Essential HR Tasks and a Proactive Employer Checklist, because you don’t just want to be compliant, you want to be a workplace people love being part of.

Essential HR Tasks

1. Rate & Salary Reviews
Make sure all employee wages are now aligned with the 3.5% increase - check awards, agreements, and individual contracts. Don't forget to adjust allowances or overtime rates if they’re award-linked!

2. Signed Employment Contracts & Updated Job Descriptions
If your staff are still operating on handshake agreements or outdated roles, now’s the time to formalise and clarify expectations. Updated contracts help you avoid misunderstandings and protect your business legally.

3. Casual Conversion Offers
Are your long-term casuals eligible to convert to permanent employment? Fair Work has strict timelines for this, and missing them can result in penalties or disputes.

4. Handbook Review & Updates
Your employee handbook should reflect current legislation, workplace expectations, and culture. Update sections on pay, leave, behaviour, and grievance processes - especially if it hasn’t been touched in the past 12 months.

5. Mandatory Training (Harassment & Bullying)
Training isn’t just a tick-box. It helps you create a respectful and safe workplace. Ensure everyone knows what’s appropriate - and what’s not - before it becomes a bigger issue.

6. Psychosocial Risk Register Updates
Under WHS laws, psychosocial hazards must be managed just like physical risks. That means reviewing risks like fatigue, workload, isolation, or conflict - and documenting how you're managing them.

7. Workplace Safety Compliance
Use this wage change as a prompt to revisit safety plans, incident reporting processes, PPE compliance, and emergency procedures. Even low-risk environments have obligations.

Proactive Employer Checklist

1. Review KPIs & Bonus Structures
Do your performance indicators and incentive plans still make sense with your current structure and goals? If they’re out of step, they could be demotivating rather than motivating.

2. Conduct Performance Reviews
Regular check-ins build trust, identify opportunities for development, and help you retain good staff. If it’s been more than six months, schedule one in.

3. Refresh Business Values
Have your workplace values evolved? Do they still reflect who you are as an organisation - or are they just words on a wall? Aligning values with everyday behaviour strengthens culture.

4. Plan Professional Development
Training boosts productivity and retention. Consider what upskilling, mentoring, or leadership development your team might benefit from this year.

5. Set Up HR Activities Calendar
From policy refreshes to wellbeing weeks and training rollouts, a simple calendar helps keep HR tasks on track (and off the panic pile).

6. Run Staff Surveys
You don’t know what you don’t ask. Whether it's engagement, wellbeing or ideas for improvement - surveys give you insight into what your team really needs.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Not Sure Where to Start?

You're not alone - HR can feel like a lot, especially when compliance updates land on your desk alongside everything else.

If you're not sure where to start, get in touch with us.
We’ll help you make sense of what needs attention now, what can wait, and how to protect your organisation moving forward.

Let this wage increase be the reason you finally tackle those lingering HR to-dos.

📩 hello@hrdynamics.com.au

📞 1800 877 747