HR, safety and compliance for professional services

It depends on Award coverage and the terms of your employment arrangements. Under the Professional Employees Award, overtime is payable when employees work beyond ordinary hours, unless a compliant salary arrangement is in place that genuinely covers all entitlements for the hours worked. A salary that exceeds the minimum base rate isn’t automatically sufficient. If actual hours worked generate entitlements beyond what the salary covers, the difference is an underpayment. 

Employees subject to other modern awards may have different overtime entitlements, and salaried staff are not exempt from Award conditions simply because they’re paid a salary. If you’re unsure whether your current arrangements are compliant, our advice line can walk you through it. 

The High Court’s decisions in CFMMEU v Personnel Contracting and ZG Operations v Jamsek (both 2022) shifted the contractor/employee test toward the written terms of the contract. However, subsequent Fair Work Act amendments in 2024 moved the pendulum back toward a multi-factor test that includes how the relationship operates in practice. 

This means that if someone is working primarily or exclusively for you over an extended period, with little practical control over how they do the work, they may have a strong claim to employee status, regardless of what your contract says. The consequences of misclassification include unpaid superannuation, leave entitlements, payroll tax exposure and Fair Work claims. If you rely on contractors in an ongoing capacity, a classification review is worth doing proactively. 

Since the 2023 WHS Regulation update, you need a documented process for identifying, assessing and controlling psychosocial hazards. In law firms, consulting businesses, accounting practices and financial services, common hazards include high workload, role ambiguity, client-facing pressure, interpersonal conflict and poor change management. Acknowledging the risks isn’t enough – you need documented risk assessments and evidence of control measures. 

Safe Work Australia has published specific guidance on psychosocial hazard management, and regulators have flagged increased scrutiny of office-based and professional environments. Our WHS consultants can help you conduct a hazard assessment, document your controls and ensure your framework meets current regulatory expectations. 

The most commonly pursued certifications for accounting firms, engineering consultancies and management consulting businesses in Australia are ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 27001 (information security management) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety management). 

ISO 9001 is particularly relevant for firms tendering for government contracts or enterprise clients where quality management credentials are assessed. ISO 27001 is increasingly required or preferred by clients in finance, legal and consulting sectors where confidential data handling is central to the business. ISO 45001 supports your obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and provides an auditable framework for your safety management system. Our ISO team can advise on which certifications align with your current business development goals. 

Yes. foundU is built to manage payroll across mixed workforces, including where different Award rates or arrangements apply to different people. For accounting firms, consultancies and similar businesses, the platform supports annualised salary reconciliation tracking, superannuation calculation and remittance, leave management and Single Touch Payroll (STP2) reporting. 

Digital onboarding captures employment documentation, contracts and right-to-work information at the point of hire, and payroll is processed directly from approved timesheet data, removing the manual re-entry that creates errors and underpayment risk. Multi-entity support makes it suitable for firms operating across multiple offices or corporate structures.