How healthy is your workplace? Is your business fostering healthy workplace policies and a supportive environment for your employees?

Australia, like many other developed nations, is currently seeing an increase in the burden of chronic disease. A 2010 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare study  found that 96% of working-age Australians had at least one chronic disease risk factor and 72% had multiple risk factors. Many of these risk factors are preventable and small changes to our lifestyle can make a big difference.

The ACT is no exception to this! A 2011 ACT Health study  reveals that there is plenty of work that Canberra workers can do to become healthier:

• 20% of ACT workers reported as being smokers
• 46% of ACT workers have inadequate fruit and vegetable intake
• 23% of ACT workers consume harmful levels of alcohol
• 65% of ACT workers do not undertake in sufficient levels of physical activity
• 56% of ACT workers are overweight

You don't need to pay employees for time spent opening or closing your store or attending training outside of normal work hours.

You can send your employees home without pay if there isn't enough work on.

Employees must work for you for 12 months before they can take leave.

What do all three of these scenarios have in common? They’re all common workplace myths!

The reality is you must pay your employees for all the time they are required to work, you must pay employees their normal working hours, even if there isn't any work, and all leave starts to accrue as soon as employees commence work!

In terms of rights and obligations, there’s a lot you need to know about when employing staff. As an employer though, it’s your responsibility to make sure you are aware of these - a breach in your employee's rights can mean potential penalties for your business!

To help you out business.gov.au  in partnership with the Fair Work Obudsman  have put together some common workplace myths and busted them for you.

View the list of common workplace myths .

You can also sign up for the Fair Work Obudsman’s eNewsletter  to receive regular updates on workplace laws.

SkillSelect is an online system which provides Australian employers with access to a pool of skilled workers who have expressed their interest in working in Australia, either on a temporary or permanent work visa.

This new system is part of a suite of major reform changes introduced by Department of Immigration and Citizenship on 1 July 2012, in an effort to ensure that skilled migration is responsive to changes in the Australia’s labour market.

Employers can easily search for suitable candidates across a number of key selection criteria such as experience, qualifications, language skills and/or willingness to work and live outside major metropolitan centres like Canberra. In their EOI, skilled workers can indicate an interest in employer sponsorship and the states and territories within Australia where they would be willing to live and work.

Once a business (employer) identifies a suitable potential skilled worker, they are able to send a message in SkillSelect to the skilled worker notifying them of their interest in discussing employment and sponsorship opportunities with them. When sponsorship arrangements have been established, the skilled worker’s EOI details are seamlessly transferred from SkillSelect to final assessment and processing systems.