Automated whole-of-workforce right to work compliance

Jim Berwick

HR Workforce Administrator

About the Business

Founded in 1985 in Glasgow, Scotland, City is one of the world’s largest privately-owned facilities management companies.

Since opening its doors in Australia in 2009, City has delivered a suite of facilities management services to organisations in the retail, health services, and commercial industries.

Trusted by some of Australia’s biggest brands, including Coles, Kmart, Target, Bunnings, Guzman Y Gomez, Australia Red Cross Lifeblood and more, City’s services include buildings maintenance, facilities optimisation, project management, construction, grounds and gardening, technical procurement and cleaning services.

The Australian division of the business has approximately 2200 employees.

Pain Point

A large number of City’s workforce hold different visas in varied positions. As an example, part-time workers are employed on student visas, requiring monitoring of work hours to ensure they remain within fortnightly limits set by visa conditions.

Also employed are technicians and maintenance workers on various visas, and with other visa types across the organisation, a one-size-fits-all approach to checking and rechecking visas wouldn’t be adequate.

Due to the nature of their work, some segments of the business hire students and foreign nationals, so the HR team needed a solution to ensure ongoing accuracy in visa compliance in a high volume and high turnover environment.

Solution

The HR and recruitment teams at City use the CheckWorkRights and Dayforce integration to complete their pre-employment right to work screening during recruitment, and to automate ongoing VEVO checks for employees on visas.

The team uses the employee self-onboarding workflow for candidates, triggered from the recruitment module in Dayforce. When they have narrowed down their top candidates for a role, these individuals receive an automated email from CheckWorkRights. This email asks the candidate to consent to data collection and use, make a declaration of Citizenship, and provide evidence to support the declaration they have made. Once information is provided, verification is conducted, and VEVO checks completed for all Foreign Citizens. Personal data is securely housed or deleted, and the status of the employee is automatically updated in Dayforce.

Managers at City sites are involved at the final stage of the process when a line manager verifies the person’s identity and compares it to the evidence that was submitted electronically. Managers are responsible for verifying their own employees, and they receive a secure link to do so via email once evidence has been submitted. Sensitive employee data is collected, stored, and deleted by CheckWorkRights according to the Privacy Act, and Australian Privacy Principles.

Ongoing VEVO checks for employees on visas are scheduled and run automatically, with updated status pushed directly to the employee’s profile in Dayforce.

Result

Integrating CheckWorkRights with Dayforce has given City the ability to automate right to work and visa checking processes from start to finish, eliminating the need for significant manual work and increasing both the accuracy of data as well as compliance.

Jim Berwick, HR Workforce Administrator said, ‘CheckWorkRights has us covered on both the technical and legal aspects of right to work checks. It means we can stay compliant with minimum manual input.’

The staff also realise how having visa conditions listed in Dayforce enables them to comply with the legislation around employing visa holders. Employees holding student visas are no longer at risk of breaching conditions of their visa, because the hours they can legally work are clearly visible in Dayforce.

Jim said, ‘remaining compliant in a time when the government is constantly changing visa conditions would be nearly impossible if we didn’t have CheckWorkRights. Having a Registered Migration Agent on hand is invaluable.’

Ready to see how CheckWorkRights can integrate with your existing systems to save you time? Book a demo today.