Catherine, Lisa?

I was actually writing down the medical certificates.

I've got a client that's got a sick leave policy where they will not permit.

You've got to go and see a doctor.

They might tolerate it.

every now and then, but where every single certificate is something that's been pulled off a website, that's not acceptable.

And they've started to justify that as that's our duty of care to you.

So what's the advice to an executive team?

So the question is, and I might start with you, Catherine, what are you seeing out there that the biggest challenges are for employers, and what should HR be doing to prepare now for those challenges?

It's really interesting if I reflect on my career because I feel like in the last few years the pace of change has been exponential compared with when I was starting out as an employment lawyer a very long time ago.

In relation to what the greatest challenges are at the moment and how, um, we should be preparing, I think there are probably three major things in my practice at the moment, and, um, given that they're occurring across a number of different clients in different industries, I'm sure that it will resonate with at least some of you.

The first one is the Fair Work Commission and the processes.

Now, some of you may have read that last year in the annual report the exponential number of general protections claims that are facing the commission and the pressure that's putting on the resourcing.

And if you have had a general protection claim or indeed any other kind of Fair Work application in the last few months, there are several things that you will have noticed.

You will have noticed a much more truncated and streamlined- Approach, you may have noticed delays in getting to the conference point, and you may have noticed, if you've engaged any of us, um, that the once not too difficult permission to appear applications are now almost routinely being refused.

I might throw to you, Catherine, again.

Based on what you're seeing in the market right now, what challenges are organizations facing when trying to balance operational pressures with employee well-being?

Look, I think it's always a fraught issue when you're dealing with trying to improve productivity and changes in a business with individuals' livelihoods and feelings.

Unfortunately, at the moment we've got a conflation of a whole lot of issues, I think some of which you've probably dealt with in your previous podcast.

But I would narrow it down to four major challenges.

The first one is time.

One thing that I always find in my practice when I'm advising employers is the imperative to get changes effected quickly is really a high pressure that managers in HR face, and sometimes affects their ability to properly deal with employees' well-being.

So I think time is one of the greatest challenges.

Can we unpack that a little bit? What are some of the biggest risks that organizations can inadvertently create during a redundancy or a restructure process? Did we learn anything from that case, or is there other lessons that you have for our listeners?