Longer negotiations, harder lines, and a new arbitration pathway offering relief from prolonged industrial deadlock – but not without cost. Once a rarely used mechanism, intractable bargaining workplace determinations are now arising more frequently where enterprise bargaining stalls and agreement proves elusive, bringing protected industrial action to a halt while transferring control over the remaining contested issues to the Fair Work Commission.

In this special episode of The Legal Brief, produced in partnership with Kingston Reid, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Kingston Reid partner Lucy Shanahan about how intractable bargaining workplace determinations are reshaping enterprise bargaining strategy, and what organisations need to be thinking about to manage their exposure, right from the beginning.

In an industrial relations landscape that is becoming more complex and contested, organisations that recognise the implications of these shifts and proactively manage bargaining risk before positions become entrenched will be better positioned to retain control over outcomes. Those that do not may find that the endgame is decided for them.

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With nearly one in two workplace leaders experiencing severe stress week to week, there is an urgent need to build leaders' sense of self and have them embrace self-care, so they are better placed to identify and support workers who are struggling themselves.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with R U OK? founding director and author Graeme Cowan about what his career has taught him about leadership and wellness, the urgent need to improve leaders' health in the workplace, the prevalence of severe workplace stress, how difficult it is to be a manager right now, what leaders must be asking of themselves moving forward, what it means to care in the workplace, the three arms of care, and how HR teams can better support leaders' holistic wellbeing.

Ensuring the workforce is engaged does not simply bolster team culture; it also strengthens the collective focus on the business's objectives. Here, we unpack how to strike the right balance.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Ensign Laboratories head of human resources Grant Wyatt about his journey in the HR space, concerns around workforce engagement, whether engagement is harder to come by than ever before, what constitutes a strong workplace culture, navigating generational differences, what works and doesn't work in bolstering culture and a focus on objectives, meaningfully prioritising optimal culture in a time of voluminous change.