nursing talent handbook
Employment Basics
Workplace Policies
Employee Code of Conduct
Compensation and Development
Benefits and Perks
Leaving uPaged
Contact Us
Welcome
Hello and welcome!
Thank you for joining uPaged Pty Ltd (uPaged) – where we strive to raise the standard of on-demand healthcare so that healthcare practitioners just like you* are recognised for your incredible skills, experience and expertise, and rewarded for your unique contributions. We can’t wait to see what you will achieve with uPaged..
This talent handbook defines what uPaged is and how we work together. We do everything possible to create a fair and productive platform, but we need your help. We’ve created this handbook to guide you.
This handbook isn’t a contract or a guarantee of employment – it’s a collection of our expectations, commitments and responsibilities. Please read this talent handbook carefully and consult it whenever you need to.
When working in a healthcare facility, it is their policy and guidelines that always take precedence over guidelines in this Talent Handbook.
*referred to in this document as ‘talent.’
Our Mission
To transform the delivery of on-demand healthcare worldwide by empowering practitioners and enabling healthcare facilities to seamlessly connect the right talent, to the right shift, at the right price so that patients thrive.
Our Vision
A world where on-demand practitioners are empowered to deliver high-quality patient care.
Our Values
Our culture is driven by respect, transparency and true ownership of our roles. We’re passionate about change and creating value. We have zero tolerance for discrimination in any form. We’re nimble and responsive, and we’re big on collaboration – we listen and we learn from each other – and we know that makes us stronger as a team.
We’re adventurers. We’re trailblazers. We’re compassionate, and we’re kind. We are clever and we’re generous. We are honest and considerate. We are authentic and we’re different. We’re proud of our skills and qualifications. We choose the way we work. We are because uPaged.
Getting to Know our Company
uPaged was founded by Zara Lord; an 8th-year registered nurse who worked on both sides of on-demand nursing – in a busy Sydney ICU and through recruitment agencies – and, while doing so, identified a fractured system that did not honour or recognise the expertise of on-demand nurses. Meanwhile, on-demand nursing was costing Australian healthcare billions of dollars every year. What started as an idea in December 2016 became a 52-page business plan by June 2017.
For hospitals, the high cost of on-demand nurses was a crippling problem – some hospitals were spending up to $3M per annum on agency fees alone – for a workforce they had no choice over. Zara truly understood the opportunity when she surveyed 500 agency nurses, who cited workplace bullying, mismatched levels of responsibility compared to their experience, and frequent last-minute shift cancellations when working agency shifts. These nurses rated their agency nursing experience with a net promoter score (NPS) of -37*. (Think of NPS as a calculation that is made by asking one question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/company to a friend or colleague?) She figured technology could knock that out of the park.
Zara had a prototype built, and before starting any development, acquired two hospital customers – Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and Nexus Hospitals Bondi Junction Private Hospital.
Software development began in April 2018. In May 2018, uPaged was awarded a grant from the NSW State Government and by the end of that year, uPaged launched a select few healthcare organisations.
In April 2019, Zara hired her first in-house developer. She then won a position on the Tech Ready Women accelerator program (sponsored by the City of Sydney) – the first of five similarly high-profile programs Zara has since been selected to participate in. In 2020, COVID-19 hit and uPaged swiftly adapted to rapidly evolving workforce demands from healthcare organisations by creating new job opportunities outside of on-demand hospital shifts.
Since 2021, uPaged has grown to include an in-house team of software developers, customer support, business development, finance, marketing and product management. uPaged now has over 25 healthcare organisations regularly booking healthcare practitioners for shifts, with an average of 500 shifts posted on the platform each month.
In October 2021, uPaged expanded beyond Sydney by launching in Melbourne, and in November 2021, Zara was honoured by Telstra Health as one of Australia’s inaugural ‘Brilliant Women in Digital Health’. uPaged continues to grow and evolve to accommodate new healthcare organisations and their needs and continually advocates to raise the profile of exceptional nursing talent like you across Australia.
Definitions
Talent, Healthcare Practitioner/s, Employee/s – refers to you
Company / Our Company – refers to uPaged
We / Us – refers to Talent, Healthcare Practitioner/s, Employee/s, uPaged and/or uPaged internal staff
Organisation / facility: refers to the healthcare organisation or hospital that you may be employed by uPaged to work at and/or have an employment contract with.
Employment Basics
When you accept shifts, you may be engaged as a casual employee of a healthcare facility and/or as an employee of uPaged, depending on the employee engagement model chosen by the facility. Your signed Employment Agreement specifies the contract type by which you are employed, and who your employer of record is, and sets the expectations of hours, remuneration, termination and other important employment conditions.
Irrespective of the employee engagement model, the expectations, commitments and responsibilities outlined in this talent handbook apply to you, in addition to any specific policies determined by each facility.
Equal Opportunity Employment
uPaged is an equal-opportunity employer. In line with our terms and conditions, we don’t tolerate discrimination against protected characteristics (including gender, age, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, disability, or veteran status). All employees are expected to treat others with respect and professionalism. In practice, this means that uPaged:
- Hires talent based on skills, experience and/or potential to eliminate bias in every process (eg: through structured interviews)
- Makes accommodations to help people with disabilities use our products, services and equipment
- Uses inclusive, diversity-sensitive language in all official documents, signs and job ads
- Conducts diversity, inclusion and communication training within our organisation
In addition, we commit to penalising every instance of discriminatory, offensive or inappropriate behaviour. To do this properly, we ask you to report any discriminatory action against you or your colleagues to uPaged HR and/or the HR Department of the facility/organisation you are/were working at where the incident occurred. uPaged will not retaliate against you if you file a complaint or discrimination lawsuit. Any employee who retaliates or discriminates will face disciplinary action and may lose access to the uPaged platform.
Recruitment and Selection Process
Our hiring steps might vary across roles, but we always aim for fair, transparent and effective hiring and to attract people with the skills and experience best suited to the roles on offer. We value the time of both healthcare practitioners and the facilities and healthcare organisations we serve, and we aim to foster a delightful user experience for all.
We’re a marketplace, so we rely on the criteria set by healthcare organisations to match them with practitioners, and do our best to communicate and manage their expectations and those of practitioners like you.
The final step in the recruitment process is a 15-minute interview and a background check.
We are committed to your success throughout this process, and we aim to keep candidates informed and with equal opportunity at each stage of the process.
Attendance
uPaged is designed to offer flexibility and allow you to pick and choose the shifts that suit your availability. Once booked into a shift, we ask that you honour your commitment for the hours scheduled by that facility as detailed on the shift card in the uPaged app. We understand as a casual worker there may be times that you need to cancel depending on your own personal circumstances and we ask that you always do so using the uPaged app as soon as practically possible.
The uPaged team works hard to build long term relationships with our users. It is against company policy to cancel a booked shift to book into another higher paying shift. It will be at the company’s discretion as to whether or not this requires disciplinary action.
Last-minute cancellations (within 48-hours of shift start time) will affect your Reliability Rate (RR). Your Reliability Rate is just one of several metrics facilities use when selecting the right nurse for a shift. If you have a genuine reason for the cancellation, and you are able to provide documented evidence of this reason, we will be happy to consider removing the impact of a cancellation on your reliability rate. Assessment of the genuine reason will be at the company’s discretion.
Workplace Policies
This section describes policies that apply to everyone at our company: employees, contractors, volunteers, vendors and stakeholders alike. These policies help us build a productive, lawful and pleasant working environment.
Confidentiality and Data Protection
We want to ensure that private information about facilities, employees, patients and our company is well-protected. When working on-site at healthcare facilities/organisations and using the uPaged platform, you may be given access to information that may not be in the public domain. We expect that you act responsibly and ensure all confidential information is kept in strict confidence, and not disclosed to any other person without the explicit consent of all parties involved.
As part of your employment contract, you will have signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). We are committed to:
- Restrict and monitor access to sensitive data
- Provide transparent data collection procedures
- Retain secure networks to protect online data from cyberattacks
- Retain data protection practices (eg: secure locks, data encryption, frequent backups, access authorisation).
You must:
- Lock or secure confidential information at all times
- Make sure you view confidential information on secure devices only
- Only access confidential information when necessary to do so for professional purposes
- Only disclose information to other employees when it’s necessary and authorised
You must not:
- Use confidential information for your personal interest, benefit or profit
- Disclose confidential information to anyone outside of uPaged
- Replicate confidential documents and files and store them on insecure devices
- Share or fail to protect systems passwords
This policy is important for our company’s legality and the protection of our reputation. If you are unsure how to handle company information at any time, we ask that you first liaise with your uPaged contact. If you feel there has been a breach of this policy, by you or another person, you must notify uPaged and your healthcare organisation/facility employer ASAP.
We will terminate any employee who breaches our confidentiality guidelines for personal profit and we will remove any access to the platform.
We may also discipline any unintentional breach of this policy depending on its frequency and seriousness. We will terminate employees who repeatedly disregard this policy, even when they do so unintentionally.
Harassment and Violence
To build happy and productive working environments, we need everyone to treat others well and help them feel safe. Each of us should do our part to prevent harassment and workplace violence.
Workplace Harassment
Harassment is a broad term and may include seemingly harmless actions, like gossip. Workplace bullying is a repeated pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes physical or emotional harm. an exhaustive list, but here are some instances that uPaged considers harassment or bullying:
- Sabotaging someone’s work on purpose
- Engaging in frequent or unwanted advances of any nature
- Commenting derogatorily on a person’s ethnic heritage or religious beliefs
- Starting or spreading rumours about a person’s personal life
- Ridiculing someone in front of others or singling them out to perform tasks unrelated to their job (eg: bringing coffee) against their will
Sexual harassment is illegal. uPaged will investigate every report of sexual harassment. If an employee is found guilty of sexual harassment, they will be terminated.
If you’re being harassed, whether by a colleague, employer, patient, or vendor, you can choose to talk to any of these people:
- Offenders: If you suspect that the offender doesn’t realise they are guilty of harassment, you could talk to them directly in an effort to resolve the harassment. This tactic is appropriate for cases of minor harassment (eg: inappropriate jokes between colleagues)
- Your shift supervisor/manager: You may wish to reach out to your shift supervisor or manager. They will assess your situation and advise appropriate action and may contact HR at the facility or healthcare organisation or uPaged if appropriate.
- uPaged: Feel free to reach out to uPaged HR or any member of the uPaged team in any case of harassment, no matter how minor it may seem. For your safety, contact uPaged HR as soon as possible in cases of serious harassment (eg: sexual advances) or if your shift supervisor or manager is involved in your claim. Anything you disclose will remain confidential.
Management action – from uPaged or that of the facility/healthcare organisation you are employed by or engaged to work with – that is carried out reasonably is not considered bullying and may include:
- Ongoing meetings addressing underperformance
- Developing a performance management plan
- Counselling or disciplining you for misconduct
- Modifying your duties by transferring or re-deploying you
- Investigating alleged misconduct
Workplace Violence
Violence in any workplace is a serious form of harassment. This includes physical and sexual assault, destruction of property, threats to harm a person or property and verbal and psychological abuse. We want to avoid those incidents altogether, but we also want to respond if needed.
For this reason, we ask you to:
- Report to uPaged HR, or your shift supervisor/manager when uPaged HR is not available if you suspect or know that someone is being violent. Your report will be confidential, and we will investigate the situation with discretion.
- Follow the local policies and procedures of the facility/healthcare organisation, and where appropriate, call security/police if you witness incidents of severe physical violence (eg: ones that involve a lethal weapon). For your safety, avoid getting involved.
Get Help Early On
Seek help from others early on to mitigate conflicts. For example:
- If you experience conflicts with a colleague, ask your shift supervisor/manager for advice before tensions escalate. If these conflicts persist, you may consider HR attending conflict resolution seminars with your colleague. Please get in touch with uPaged HR for further advice.
- If you are experiencing personal or work troubles, ask for help from a mental health professional. Check with your insurance provider to determine whether they cover any mental health services or ask uPaged HR or the facility/healthcare organisation for information on Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). Your discussions will always remain confidential.
The foundations of the uPaged relationship with you are cemented in mutual respect and we won’t allow this foundation to be compromised.
Domestic Violence
uPaged has a zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence and is committed to ending domestic and family violence.
Family and domestic violence mean violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by a close relative of the employee that seeks to coerce or control the employee and causes them harm or fear.
A “close relative” for the purposes of this entitlement is a member of the employee’s “immediate family” (as defined above) and those related to the employee according to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kinship rules.
Any requests for leave or cancellation of shifts/ contracts will not affect further work opportunities with uPaged and will treat any requests for unpaid family and domestic violence leave with confidentiality, as far as it is practicable to do so.
Incident Reporting
We hope that your overall experience with uPaged is pleasant and that you don’t encounter any situations where an incident occurs, however, we understand that incidents are a fact of life. Any incidents that occur on shift should be immediately discussed with your supervisor, team leader or a manager who you feel comfortable speaking with. If you feel uncomfortable speaking directly to any of these people, you can raise any issues with the uPaged team and we will facilitate the communication between you and the facility/healthcare organisation in a way that is comfortable for you.
uPaged encourages direct communication between practitioners and healthcare organisations and our platform allows a two-way feedback loop with ratings and testimonials for both sides. uPaged encourages constructive feedback to be given on completion of every shift during timesheet sign-off. It is uPaged policy that any rating of fewer than 3 stars will trigger a manual follow-up on either end to investigate the issue and to see if uPaged can offer any support in the mediation of the issue. If a reliability rate or star rating continuously drops, after a formal warning, uPaged reserves the right to remove any employee from the use of the platform.
Workplace Safety and Health
uPaged is committed to creating a hazard-free workplace. To this end, we will ensure workplace safety through preventative action and emergency management, and we will ensure that all facilities are compliant with relevant legislation and requirements. When working with uPaged you may be required to work at multiple worksites, each with its own policies and procedures, including those for Workplace Health and Safety. Please always follow the local policy of the facility/healthcare organisation and ask any questions during orientation on your first shift.
Preventative Action
Preventative actions are any actions uPaged takes to avoid injuries or illnesses related to the workplace. uPaged will periodically conduct risk assessments and job hazard analyses to uncover health risks to employees and will establish preventative measures to address risks accordingly.
At a minimum, uPaged, facilities/healthcare organisations will:
- Hold employee training sessions on safety standards and procedures
- Make sure employees who work in dangerous locations are safe
uPaged expects you to take safety seriously. Always use protective equipment and follow the local policies of each facility whenever necessary. If you deliberately disregard guidelines, uPaged or the facility may terminate you for your own and others’ safety.
Emergency Management
Emergency management refers to uPaged’s plan to deal with sudden catastrophes like fire, floods, earthquakes or explosions. Each facility will have its own emergency management plan that may include:
- Functional smoke alarms and sprinklers that are regularly inspected
- Technicians (external or internal) are available to repair leakages, damages and blackouts quickly
- Fire extinguishers and other fire protection equipment that are easily accessible
- An evacuation plan is posted on each floor and online
- Fire escapes and safety exits that are clearly indicated
Smoking
Please follow each facility’s policy for smoking, ensuring you only smoke in designated smoking areas, balconies, open-air verandas and outer premises, like gardens and sidewalks.
We also advise you to:
- Extinguish your cigarettes and discard them in outdoor ashtrays, cigarette urns
- Avoid smoking near flammable objects and areas
Drug-free Workplace
uPaged is a drug-free organisation and this is applicable to all facilities you work at as an uPaged practitioner. Whether you are an employee, contractor or visitor, you must not bring, use, give away or sell any prohibited drugs. If a colleague, patient, or facility raises suspicion that you may be under the influence of a substance, you may be required to undergo drug and alcohol testing. If you are caught with illegal drugs or you are found to be under the influence of a substance while at work, you will face disciplinary action up to and including termination and may be reported to the relevant authorities and healthcare registration bodies. A list of prohibited drugs and substances includes, but isn’t limited to:
- heroin/cocaine/methamphetamine in any form;
- marijuana.
Alcohol
When working as an uPaged practitioner, employees are prohibited from consuming alcohol during working hours. If you are suspected to be under the influence of alcohol during your shift, you may be required to undergo testing and if positive, will be subject to disciplinary action including termination and mandatory reporting.
Prescription Drugs
If you take prescription medication and feel that a prescription drug (eg: an anxiety medication) unexpectedly affects your senses, thinking or movement, do not attend your shift, cancel your booking on the uPaged app as soon as possible, and inform the relevant parties following the cancellation policy for that facility. If your shift supervisor/manager suspects substance abuse, you may face disciplinary action.
You must not use medical marijuana in any workplace. uPaged has the right to terminate you if your off-duty use of medical marijuana makes you unable to complete your job duties correctly.
uPaged may remove you from the platform if it is determined that prescription drug use creates severe safety risks. If you need to use prescription drugs for a limited time and you think they may impair your abilities, please do not apply for any shifts for the duration of the prescription and only apply for shifts once cleared by a medical professional.
Dealing with Addiction
Substance addiction that results in violent, offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated by uPaged or healthcare organisations/facilities that uPaged serves.
Employee Code of Conduct
As an employee, all uPaged policies mentioned above apply to you. We have some additional expectations about your behaviour at work, which we outline here. We can’t cover every single case of conduct, but we trust you to always use your best judgement. Reach out to your shift supervisor/manager or uPaged HR if you face any issues or have any questions.
Professionalism
As a uPaged practitioner we expect a high level of professionalism and respectful behaviour at all times. We ask that you be aware that when you book any engagement through uPaged, you will be representing uPaged and our reputation. As much as we respect your reputation, we ask that you respect ours too. Simple gestures, such as going around to the rest of the team and asking if there is anything you can help with at the end of a shift, can go a long way to demonstrate your professionalism and leave a lasting impact.
Dress Code
Each healthcare organisation will have its own uniform requirements. Information about the required uniform will be specified in the facility profile. It is expected that you check and read the important information for each facility before you start your first shift. If you are ever unsure, plain navy scrubs for hospital shifts or dark pants and a plain white professional top will be expected as a standard uniform for any organisation. We respect and permit grooming styles, clothing and accessories dictated by religious beliefs, ethnicity or disability.
Your ID card
uPaged ID cards will be issued once you have applied for your first shift. Your ID card will be posted to your mailing address.
ID cards should be worn at eye level and attached to your uniform.
Please note that some facilities have a ‘no ID, no shift’ policy.
If you lose your ID card, please contact hello@uPaged.com ASAP.
Replacement cards cost $30 to replace and will only be reissued on receipt of payment to uPaged.
Cyber Security and Digital Devices
This section deals with all things digital at work. In general, each healthcare organisation will have its own policies and procedures for using computers, phones, internet connection and social media. We ask that you abide by the policies set by each facility, and if ever unsure, ask your supervisor or manager on shift.
uPaged Platform
As a uPaged employee with access to the uPaged platform. it is expected that you conduct yourself on the uPaged platform sensibly and appropriately. It is your responsibility to keep your uPaged profile up-to-date. Any changes to your profile that affect your employment will be passed to the relevant members at each organisation (eg: updated mandatory training). If you have any issues with your profile or suspect suspicious activity whilst using the platform, please inform the uPaged team as soon as possible so we can investigate immediately.
Mobile Phone
First and foremost, please follow the direction and policies of each facility. uPaged understands that the use of mobile phones may be necessary to help you carry out your duties and obligations (eg: looking up the name of medication) and for such uses, uPaged allows the use of mobile phones at work. Please ensure that your devices won’t distract you from your work or disrupt any workplace. Please follow a few simple rules:
- Use your phone in a manner that benefits your work (business calls, productivity apps, calculator, calendars)
- Keep personal calls to a minimum and only when absolutely necessary (unless on a break)
- Avoid playing games on your phone or texting during shifts
- Avoid using your phone for any reason while driving a vehicle
- Don’t use your phone to record confidential information
- Don’t download or upload inappropriate, illegal or obscene material using a corporate internet connection
You must not use your phone in areas where phone use is explicitly prohibited (eg: laboratories).
Social Media
The following is practical advice to prevent the careless use of social media at work.
This addresses two types of social media use: using personal social media at work and representing uPaged through social media.
Representing uPaged through Social Media
Word of mouth is very important to uPaged and can have a major impact on the uPaged brand and reputation. We welcome the positive promotion of the uPaged brand and the promotion of the unique opportunities you have as an uPaged practitioner. If you wish to post your own opinions on your personal social media accounts, we ask that you:
- Be respectful and polite
- Avoid speaking on matters outside your field of expertise when possible
- Follow uPaged and facility/healthcare organisation confidentiality and data protection policies and observe laws governing copyrights, trademarks, plagiarism and fair use
- Contact uPaged before you share any major-impact content
- Correct or remove any misleading or false content as quickly as possible
- Follow the facility/healthcare organisation’s procedures for promoting any content that may be directly linked to them.
Using Personal Social Media at Work
Please do not access your personal accounts whilst on shift. Leave any updates to when you are on break or after your shift has ended.
Conflict of Interest
Conflicts of interest are a serious issue for all concerned. When you are experiencing a conflict of interest, your personal goals are no longer aligned with your responsibilities towards uPaged. For example, accepting a bribe may benefit you financially, but it is illegal and against the uPaged business code of ethics. If uPaged becomes aware of such behaviour, you may be removed from the uPaged platform and may face legal action.
Each facility will have a local policy, and it forms part of your duty of care to report any conflicts of interest as soon as you are made aware. .uPaged expects you to be vigilant to circumstances that create conflicts of interest. Follow local policies and always act in uPaged’s, facility and healthcare organisations’ best interests. Whenever possible, do not let personal or financial interests get in the way of your job. If you are experiencing an ethical dilemma, talk to your shift supervisor, manager on shift or the uPaged team and we will try to help you resolve it.
Employee Relationships
When relationships between employees are appropriate and harmonious, everyone wins. Employees who work together may naturally form friendships either in or outside of the workplace. We encourage this sort of relationship between peers, as it can help you communicate and collaborate. If you find yourself working with someone that you have a relationship with, it is important to keep any personal disputes outside of the workplace and not let them affect your work. Relationships that may present a conflict of interest (eg: within direct reporting lines) should be disclosed to uPaged. uPaged reserves the right to investigate and re-deploy a practitioner at our discretion, if a conflict of interest is found.
Non-consensual relationships constitute sexual violence and they are explicitly prohibited. You are obliged to respect any colleagues who date each other. Sexual jokes, malicious gossip and improper comments will not be tolerated. If you witness this kind of behaviour, please report it to uPaged HR, or your shift manager or supervisor immediately.
Workplace Visitors
As a standard, you should follow the procedures and policies of each facility if you need to invite a visitor to the workplace. Please do not invite any guests or visitors to a workplace unless it is specifically required for your role. If or when you have workplace visitors, you also have responsibilities. You should:
- Always tend to your visitors (especially when they are underage)
- Keep your visitors away from areas where there are dangerous machines, chemicals, confidential records or sensitive equipment
- Prevent your visitors from proselytizing your colleagues, patients or employer, gathering donations or requesting participation in activities while on workplace premises
Solicitation and Distribution
Solicitation is any form of requesting money, support or participation for products, groups, organisations or causes (eg: religious proselytism, asking for petition signatures). Distribution means disseminating literature or material for commercial or political purposes.
- You should always follow the policies and procedures regarding solicitation and distribution of the facilities you work at. This includes activities such as: Asking colleagues to help organise events for another employee (eg: adoption/birth of a child, promotion, retirement)
- Seeking support for a cause, charity or fundraising event sponsored, funded, organised or authorised by uPaged or the healthcare facility/organisation you work at
- Inviting colleagues to employee activities for an authorised non-business purpose (eg: recreation, volunteering)
- Asking colleagues to participate in employment-related activities or groups protected by law (eg: trade unions)
In all cases, you should not disturb or distract colleagues from their work.
Compensation and Development
This section outlines uPaged guidelines for compensating employees according to their employment status. Performance management and employee development policies are also described.
Remuneration
As a marketplace, we offer dynamic pricing to attract nurses to hard-to-fill shifts. You will be paid the rate on the shift card booking, as was advertised at the time of you applying to the shift. Applying confirms that you accept the rate on offer.
As per the Nurses Award, shift loading is applied in accordance with shift start time. A double shift constitutes an extension of your current engagement. Eg, a consecutive AM and PM shift will be paid at the AM rate (based on shift start time), plus any applicable overtime.
In addition to shift loading provisions, rates may vary depending on the specialty, facility, location, proximity to start time, year level and many more factors. Please keep this in mind when discussing rates with other nurses.
Superannuation
For employees, it is a condition of your employment that a contribution is paid towards a superannuation (Super) fund. The Superannuation Guarantee is a statutory requirement, and does vary from time to time in accordance with national legislation from the Australian Taxation Office.
If you already have a Super account, you can nominate to have Super earned from uPaged income added to this account. If you are unsure if you have a Super account, or you don’t know who your provider is, you can check your Super account online using myGov.
We recommend that you do your own research to select a Super fund that suits your individual needs. In the event that you do not have a Superannuation fund, and you do not wish to elect one of your choosing, you can elect to use uPaged’s choice of fund. This means uPaged will create a new superannuation account on your behalf and process all Super payments to this new account.
Overtime
Occasionally, a facility may request that you work hours longer than specified in your booking, and you may agree to do so. We ask you to consider if there is any risk to your health and safety or adverse impact on your family responsibilities by accepting overtime.
Employees are not obliged to work overtime if the demand is unreasonable or not agreed upon between you and the healthcare organisation. Please refer to your employment contract for any overtime allowances related to each employer. (This may be either the facility OR uPaged).
Meal Breaks
Any shifts worked greater than 5 hours entitle you to an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes. Meal breaks should be taken between the 4th and 5th hour, where possible.
You must make all possible efforts to take your meal break in a timely manner. Not taking your meal breaks at the appropriate times can put pressure on the rest of the team. It is at the facility’s discretion as to whether they feel it is reasonable to agree to removing the unpaid meal break from your timesheet.
Fatigue / 10-Hour Breaks
You must not book in for a shift without a 10-hour break between shifts and you are not obliged to remain on shift longer than the requested period. When you are on a shift, you must not accept a shift extension that reduces the break before your next shift to less than 10 hours, unless you email us (hello@uPaged.com) and express that you wish to waive your 10-hour break reducing it to just 8 hours. We must receive the email from you before the end of your shift, and for each and every instance that you wish to reduce your break to 8 hours. You then must not reduce your break period to less than 8 hours.
If you choose to remain on a shift and there is not sufficient break time (10 hours ordinarily, or 8 hours with a break waiver email), then you MUST cancel your next shift to ensure you adhere to this obligation.
Failing to adhere to this may result in disciplinary action.
Payroll
Payroll is managed either by uPaged Payroll or the individual facility/healthcare organisation. You can find information about the employer of record, pay frequency, payslip delivery and contact details in the facility profile > employment details. Please make sure you diligently use uPaged timesheet software and sign off your actual hours on the completion of each shift. You must also follow any local policies for signing on/off at each facility so your payment can be accurately calculated.
You will always receive a payslip no matter what facility you book into, so if you don’t receive one, the information on who to contact will be under “important info” in the facility’s profile. If you; ‘re expecting a payslip and cannot locate it, don’t forget to check your junk mail inbox in case your payslip goes there in error.
Upgrading Yearly Increments
It is your responsibility to inform us and update your uPaged account when you are eligible to increase a grade, year or pay point. You must include new evidence of year level alongside the increase, in the form of a) a Statement of Service, b) a Payslip clearly stating the new increase, or c) a Statutory Declaration, as proof of working sufficient hours per annum as per the Award.
Increases will then apply to all future unbooked shifts.
uPaged cannot back pay you for shifts already booked or worked at your previous grade, year or pay point.
Performance Management
uPaged supports the exchange of transparent and constructive feedback to help with the professional development of all uPaged practitioners. This is encouraged through the two-way feedback loop of ratings and testimonials on the completion of each shift. When signing off your timesheet, you have the invaluable opportunity to rate a facility and provide comments about the facility and your shift.
Similarly, the facility can provide feedback about your time management, competence and communication. Please note that all ratings and testimonials are public and your ratings of the facility can be seen by other practitioners seeking to book a shift at that facility. Similarly, all ratings and testimonials about you are visible to facilities wanting to book you into a shift.
uPaged encourages the good behaviour of practitioners and facilities through the use of a Reliability Rate (RR), which is applied to both practitioners and facilities. Cancelling a shift within 48 hours of start time will affect a reliability rate, and your RR will be visible to a facility when you apply for a shift. Similarly, the RR of a facility will be visible to you to help you decide if you wish to apply for a shift at that facility.
Please note that a higher reliability rate will increase your chances of being booked into a shift. Should your RR drop below a certain level, a warning will be given, and should this continue to drop, uPaged reserves the right to remove you from the platform.
Benefits and Perks
In this section, we describe what uPaged offers to employees. Each facility/healthcare organisation will come with its own benefits and perks which can be viewed on the facility profile.
Flexibility
You are always in control of the way you work. uPaged will never allocate you to shifts, nor will uPaged ever penalise you for not accepting shifts.
As the facilitator of on-demand work, uPaged offers all practitioners the control, choice and flexibility to decide where, when, and how often they take shifts. This gives you the option to organise your work schedule around your lifestyle and take shifts that suit your individual needs. Whether you want to take 1 shift a week, 1 shift a month or 1 shift a year is completely up to you.
Given this flexibility, please only apply for shifts that you can commit to. It is expected that you honour all bookings unless exceptional circumstances occur.
Employee Health
Your health is important to uPaged. We don’t discriminate against people with disabilities or health conditions, and we want to do everything possible to help employees stay healthy. At a minimum, we have established non-smoking and substance abuse policies to help protect your health. Facilities may enforce fatigue provisions between shifts and we support this initiative to ensure you get adequate rest between shifts.
Workers’ Compensation
Employees who are injured at work (by accident or disease) may be eligible to receive wage replacement, medical care and rehabilitation benefits according to workers’ compensation laws, when appropriate. If you do get injured at work, please contact your employer of record to determine the relevant policy and procedures.
Employee Expenses
Some roles, such as term contracts, may include provisions for travel and accommodation if agreed upon at the time of booking. These expenses may be paid directly on your behalf (eg: hotel rooms for work-related travel); subsidised with an allowance, or the direct cost may be reimbursed to you. Please keep track and report on those reimbursable expenses that you pay yourself, which can include:
- Travel
- Relocation
- Education and training
Not all travel expenses are reimbursable. For example, we may pay for your transportation to an airport for work-related travel, but not to a museum for a personal visit. Before committing to a booking, please make sure that you understand exactly what expenses are reimbursable within your particular booking.
Please keep receipts for all reimbursable expenses and submit them according to the instructions in your booking.
Leaving uPaged
This section describes procedures regarding the resignation and termination of uPaged employees. We also refer to our progressive discipline process that may result in removal from the uPaged platform.
Progressive Discipline
This outlines the steps uPaged will take to address employee misconduct. We want to give employees a chance to correct their behaviour when possible and assist them in doing so. We also want to ensure that we thoroughly investigate and handle serious offences.
The progressive discipline process has multiple steps of increasing severity which may include but are not limited to:
- Verbal warning
- Written warning
- Formal reprimand
- Removal from platform
Different offences correspond to different steps in the disciplinary process. For example, minor, one-time offences (eg: breach of dress code policy) will trigger Step 1. More severe violations (eg. sexual harassment) will trigger step 4.
Pointing out a performance issue is not necessarily a verbal warning and may be part of your regular feedback. uPaged may skip or repeat steps at our discretion to reflect the seriousness of the situation. Our company may treat circumstances differently from that described in this policy, however, we are always obliged to act fairly and lawfully and document every stage of the progressive discipline process.
Resignation
uPaged offers flexibility on the level of engagement you wish to have on the platform. We encourage practitioners to keep their uPaged profile for life, even if only to store all their professional documents. It’s free for life and is a great way to keep your documents handy. If, however, you do wish to stop using the uPaged platform and/or stop receiving uPaged communications, please let your uPaged contact know. While we’d hate to see you go, we will deactivate your profile and delete your information if you request this.
The level of engagement on our platform is completely up to you, however, if we do notice a long period of inactivity, we may make contact with you to check in and see if your circumstances have changed and see if we can help in any way. We encourage your feedback at all times and welcome suggestions to help improve the platform and uPaged services.
Please take note of any terms specified in your employment contract regarding any terms of resignation and any applicable notice periods.
Forced Resignation
You can resign at any time of your own free will and nobody should force you into resignation. Forcing someone into resigning (directly or indirectly) is constructive dismissal and we won’t tolerate it. Specifically, we prohibit employees from
- Creating a hostile or unpleasant environment
- Demanding or coaxing an employee to resign
- Victimising, harassing or retaliating against an employee
- Forcing an employee to resign by taking unofficial adverse actions (eg: demotions, increased workload)
Termination
Terminating an employee is always unpleasant but sometimes necessary. If that happens, uPaged will act lawfully and respectfully.
uPaged may terminate an employee either for cause or without cause:
- For cause termination is justified when an employee breaches their contract, engages in illegal activities (eg: embezzlement), disrupts our workplaces (eg: harasses colleagues), performs below acceptable standards or causes damage or financial loss to uPaged or the healthcare organisations/facilities we work with.
- Without cause, termination refers to redundancies or layoffs that may be necessary if operations are ceased or job duties are re-assigned. uPaged will follow applicable laws regarding notice and payouts.
Where applicable, severance pay will be offered to eligible employees. uPaged may also help employees terminated without cause, to find work elsewhere, if possible.
References
Throughout your time as an uPaged practitioner, you may be working with other practitioners who may be able to act as a referee. A referee should always be someone who is a supervisor to you and can comment on your clinical skills. Please make sure you always discuss this with them first and seek their agreement to be used as a referee.
Statement of Service
As an uPaged practitioner, we will be happy to provide a statement of service at your request. This will be a summary of the hours you have worked at any facility where uPaged payroll is the employer of record. Should you work at multiple facilities where uPaged payroll is not the employer of record, you may need to contact the relevant departments in each facility to consolidate all your hours worked.
Policy revision
We will always strive for fairness and equal opportunity, and we will penalise offensive and illegal behaviours. As laws and our environment change, we may revise and modify some of our policies. We will notify you of changes and new version releases, and you must ensure that you review and adhere to the most current policies at all times.
We also ask you to contact uPaged if you spot any inconsistencies or errors in our policies. And, if you have any ideas about how to improve our services, we welcome and encourage your feedback.
Contact uPaged
uPaged HR: hello@uPaged.com or 0480 028 835
