Australia’s right to disconnect: a guide for employers and employees

Steph is a Managing Director at Scyne Advisory and the company’s Managing Director Succession and Engagement Lead. Steph is a HR and workforce transformation expert specialising in supporting clients through complex change.   

With over 20 years of global experience across the private and public sector, Steph excels in developing tailored workforce solutions. Steph is passionate about the future of work and believes that employee experience is integral to innovation.     

Steph is an AHRI Fellow Certified Practitioner Human Resources (FCPHR) and an active member and former State President of the Australian HR Institute.  

Dr Tim Harrison commenced as Chief Executive Officer of Ararat Rural City Council on October 1, 2018. Tim also holds an Adjunct Professor appointment from Federation University

Tim comes to the CEO role at Ararat Rural City Council after a diverse career. Previous jobs have included senior roles in local government in Victoria and Queensland, developing social enterprise organisations in the community sector, as well as leadership, research and engagement roles in higher education.

Tim holds a qualification in engineering, a Master of Business Administration and a doctorate where he explored relationships between social policy and community engagement. He is the author of government-funded reports on regional social service delivery and regional population dispersal and he has undertaken a range of significant economic development projects in regional communities. Tim established the Regional Incubator for Social and Economic Research (RISER) and remains passionate about working with communities throughout rural Victoria.

Tim enjoys life in rural Victoria and is very much a regional person having grown up in rural Queensland, the Wimmera and Ballarat, and has spent almost all of his working life in rural and regional Australia. In his spare time, Tim is a total Rugby Union tragic, having played and coached the game over the years, although he has a very soft spot for the Western Bulldogs and gets to their games whenever he can.

Frances leads a team of lawyers delivering workplace relations and occupational health and safety advice to government and the Victorian public sector. Frances is an experienced workplace relations lawyer with a proven track record of success. She has 30 years of workplace relations experience, initially in South Africa where she was a director of a major law firm and head of the Cape Town workplace relations practice, and in Australia where she relocated in 2001 to continue her legal career. Frances’ experience in Australia includes working both in law firms and in-house and across multiple business sectors.

Frances has most recently been Lead Counsel, Industrial Relations, at GM Holden Ltd (Holden) where she had responsibility for providing legal support and strategic advice on all aspects of workplace relations. While at Holden, she worked closely with the business and other key stakeholders on a wide range of matters, including significant enterprise agreement negotiations, achieving optimum outcomes and positive results for the business.

Frances also has advocacy experience, having represented Holden and numerous other clients in various courts and tribunals.

Frances has particular expertise at workplace change and restructure, managing workplace disputes, providing strategic and tactical advice, working in culturally diverse, complex and highly regulated organisations and in advising and managing risk in organisations with heightened political and legal sensitivities.

She has written on workplace relations topics of interest for various publications and has presented at national and international seminars and conferences.