Strategies - leadership style, job design, recruitment, training and development, performance management, rewards - monetary and non-monetary, individual or group, performance-based; global - the costs, skills and supply of labour; workplace disputes - resolution of disputes through negotiation, mediation, grievance procedures, involvement of courts and tribunals

What this dot point is asking

NESA wants you to know the HRM strategies a business chooses (leadership style, job design, recruitment approach, training, performance management, rewards), how rewards are structured (monetary and non-monetary, individual or group, performance-based), the global dimensions of HR strategy, and the Australian dispute-resolution framework from negotiation through to the courts. Section IV extended responses on HRM commonly ask you to evaluate a business's reward strategy or its dispute-resolution approach.

The answer

HRM strategies

The syllabus names a set of strategies a business deploys across the HR function.

Leadership style

Autocratic, persuasive, consultative or participative. Different styles fit different contexts - autocratic suits emergency or compliance-critical environments; participative suits knowledge-work and creative environments.

Job design

General or specific tasks; job enlargement (more breadth); job enrichment (more depth and autonomy); cross-functional teams. Well-designed jobs match the worker's capability and motivation to the business need.

Recruitment strategy

Internal v external; targeted talent pools; employer branding; diversity-targeted recruitment. Discussed in detail in HR processes.

Training and development

Current-skill training v future-skill investment. Continuous-learning culture v role-specific training. Modes covered in HR processes.

Performance management

Developmental v administrative; annual v continuous; objective-based v competency-based; 360-feedback. The trend is toward continuous, OKR-based, and outcome-focused systems.

Rewards

Covered in depth below.

Global HR strategy

Sourcing skills internationally, managing expatriate assignments, and aligning HR policies across countries.

Rewards

Monetary rewards

Direct cash and cash-equivalent payments.

• Base salary. The fixed annual or hourly pay.
• Performance bonuses. Variable pay tied to individual, team or business performance.
• Commission. Pay tied to sales volume or revenue - common in real estate (Ray White, Belle Property), financial advice and B2B sales.
• Profit-sharing. Distribution of a share of business profit to employees - common in some Australian co-operatives and partnership models.
• Allowances. Specific payments for specific costs (tool allowance, vehicle allowance, working-from-home allowance).
• Share-based remuneration. Employee share plans, performance rights, options. Atlassian, Macquarie and most ASX-listed businesses use share-based incentives for senior staff.
• Superannuation. Statutory minimum 12 percent from July 2025 (post the 2024 increase schedule). Above-minimum super is a real benefit.

Non-monetary rewards

Everything else.

• Recognition. Formal awards (Employee of the Month, peer-nominated awards), informal recognition.
• Career development. Promotion paths, secondments, training investment, mentoring.
• Work-life balance. Hybrid and flexible work, additional annual leave, the right to disconnect (now a NES entitlement post the Closing Loopholes 2024 reform), purchased-leave schemes, sabbaticals.
• Wellbeing. EAP access, mental-health-first-aid programs, wellbeing budgets, on-site gyms.
• Workplace environment. Office quality, equipment, technology, social events.
• Purpose and culture. Pledge 1 percent (Atlassian), Reconciliation Action Plans (BHP, Wesfarmers, Telstra), volunteering days.

Individual v group v performance-based

• Individual rewards target individual performance. Strong incentive for individual effort; risk of unhealthy internal competition.
• Group rewards target team or business-unit performance. Encourages collaboration; risk of free-riding.
• Performance-based rewards (variable, conditional on hitting targets) at either level. Aligns pay with results; risks distorting behaviour if metrics are poorly chosen (the "Wells Fargo problem" - tellers opening fake accounts to hit sales targets).

Most modern Australian businesses use a mix. Senior executives at Coles, Woolworths and Macquarie are paid significant variable rewards (short-term cash bonus, long-term share-based incentive) tied to a balanced scorecard of financial, customer and risk metrics.

Global HR strategy

For Australian businesses operating internationally:

• Costs of labour. Direct cost (salaries) and indirect cost (relocation, benefits, expatriate allowances). India and the Philippines have lower wage costs but rising rapidly; the US is significantly higher than Australia for tech roles.
• Skills supply. Where the talent is. Atlassian's Bengaluru engineering hub exists because of India's deep software-engineering talent pool. BHP's Houston petroleum office exists because of the deep oil-and-gas-engineering talent in Texas.
• Cultural and regulatory differences. Local employment law, union landscape and cultural norms must be respected.

Workplace dispute resolution

The Australian system is a ladder from direct discussion to formal litigation.

1. Negotiation

Direct discussion between the parties. Fastest, cheapest, lowest-stakes.

2. Internal grievance procedures

Most Australian businesses have a formal grievance procedure - the employee escalates the issue through their manager, then HR, then a senior leader. Provides documented evidence and a structured pathway.

3. Mediation

Neutral third party facilitates discussion without making a binding decision. Useful when direct negotiation stalls.

4. The Fair Work Commission

Australia's national workplace relations tribunal. Handles:

• Unfair-dismissal applications (lodged within 21 days of dismissal).
• General Protections applications (adverse action for a protected reason).
• Enterprise-bargaining facilitation and approval.
• Industrial action applications (protected action ballots).
• Award reviews.

5. The Federal Court. Hears appeals from the FWC and significant employment cases. The 2023 Qantas baggage-handler outsourcing case (Federal Court found unlawful outsourcing) went to the High Court, which upheld the original ruling in 2023.

6. The High Court. Final appeal court; hears matters of constitutional or major legal significance.

Worked Australian examples

BHP BMA enterprise-agreement renegotiation (2023-2024)

Direct negotiation between BHP and the MEU; bargaining facilitation by the FWC; the new agreement passed the BOOT test and was approved. Negotiations covered base pay, rosters, and the use of labour-hire workers under the "same job same pay" reforms.

Coles Supermarkets retail enterprise agreement (multiple cycles)

Negotiated between Coles and the SDA (Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association). Covers around 100,000 retail and DC workers. Disputes have included contested clauses around penalty rates and casual conversion.

Qantas baggage-handler outsourcing

Negotiation, internal grievance, FWC application, Federal Court, High Court. The High Court's 2023 decision upheld that Qantas's 2020 outsourcing of 1,700 ground workers was unlawful because it was motivated by a desire to prevent future industrial action. Damages settlements reached approximately $120 million.