If you’re a business owner employing people on on a 457 visa you need to maintain your Standard Business Sponsorship obligations if you wish to continue employing them.
When the time comes to renew your Standard Business Sponsorship you need to demonstrate that you’ve spent enough on staff training in the previous years.
If you have neglected to meet your training obligations for your employees, you may find yourself in strife.
Although changes are coming in March next year you still need to maintain your obligations while sponsoring your 457 employees.
There are 2 ways for a business to meet this training obligation:
- Make payment to an industry training fund of at least 2% of payroll
- Expend at least 1% of payroll on training of employees.
Your business must show recent expenditure at the required level, and commit to maintaining this level for each 12-month period after approval of sponsorship.
So how can a business go about meeting the requirements for the second option? There are a variety of approved ways to achieve expenditure of at least 1% of payroll on training. Have a look at the following potential options which may help you decide how you’ll meet your training obligations.
- Funding tertiary education: Can you provide TAFE or university scholarships or course funding for your employees? If there is a relevant qualification for an employee in your business, you can contribute to the course fees.
- Software: The cost of training programs or software can be included in this 1%. This could include online courses and other eLearning options.
- Training officer: The employment of a training officer can be included as part of your training costs.
- New junior staff: Consider taking on new graduations, trainees, and apprentices.
- Conferences: Research relevant conferences and professional development retreats. If there are appropriate seminars that will contribute to the professional development of your staff, the cost will go towards your 1%.
So, when the time comes to renew your Standard Business Sponsorship so you can keep employing staff on 457 visas, don’t get caught out, make sure you can demonstrate that you’ve spent enough on staff training.