Many small business owners begin their company with a dream that they will remain a small cosy company with caring owners and equally caring employees, and that problems will be sorted out with warmth and understanding.

However, something goes wrong along the way and the best of intentions are lost. The employer misunderstands an employee’s behaviour or vice versa, a member of staff does not respect the owner or other staff members, or an employee’s behaviour or attitude to the workplace is not the same as the owner’s.

It is at this point that many small business owners realise that there is a broad range of legislation that they have not known about or incorporated into company policies. At the Anti-Discrimination Board, we find that anti-discrimination legislation often falls into this category.

How many small business owners have felt things going really well until they took a break or holiday, and then came back to an almighty mess?

Within small businesses, the owners are also usually the people within the organisation who will deal with any personnel issues that arise. This quite often results in a great deal of the owner’s time being taken up in dealing with complaints that someone with management capacity could deal with.

In some cases the owners are unable to take even short breaks of leave because there is no-one else in the organisation who has the knowledge to deal with these matters. Small business owners must therefore identify, and if required train, someone else within the organisation to handle urgent personnel issues if the owners are not there.

Small businesses also need policies and procedures for equal employment opportunity, discrimination, victimisation, harassment prevention and grievance resolution. These policies will help to ensure that you are able to follow a process that can stand up under industrial relations legislation as well as anti-discrimination legislation, if it comes to that.

The policies also show your employees that there is a consistent procedure for all employees and you will be fair in the process. The procedure needs to be available to all staff, and staff need to be educated on their rights and their responsibilities.

The Anti-Discrimination Board has standard policies and procedures available for sale.

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