Casual conversion: Australian employers’ support comparison

For casual conversion support, E-Payoffice advertises work-pattern review and payroll setup; Employment Hero offers HR Advisory and CEIS distribution automation.[4][5] Choose around the task you need help with: assessing the notification, administering the response or implementing permanent employment.

Compare support against your capability gap

E-Payoffice

• Assessment support: Advertises work-pattern review and award-interpretation capability.[4]
• Administration or implementation: Advertises an onshore payroll team and payroll setup.[4]
• Evidence boundary: These are provider-published capabilities, not independently verified performance outcomes.[4]

Employment Hero

• Assessment support: Offers HR Advisory; ask whether the engagement includes assessing an individual employee-choice notification.[5]
• Administration or implementation: Says its software automates distribution of the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS).[5]
• Evidence boundary: CEIS automation is vendor-reported, not evidence of measured outcomes or complete notification case management.[5]

On those descriptions, investigate E-Payoffice for work-pattern review and payroll implementation, and Employment Hero for advisory support and recurring HR administration.[4][5] Ask either provider to map its deliverables to the decision file below.

Use employee choice, not expired offer rules

For Australian national-system employers, the relevant NES process is employee choice: E-Payoffice describes an eligible employee’s written notification—not a service anniversary—as the trigger.[4]

The framework changed from 26 August 2024, with staged access for existing casuals.[2][4] Fair Work Ombudsman records that former non-small-business offer and request arrangements ended on 26 February 2025; small-business requests ended on 26 August 2025.[2] Do not use those expired employer-offer arrangements as today’s process.

Impact HR Group also explains that employers and casuals can separately agree to permanent employment at any time.[7]

Open a decision file and record the deadline

Save the written notification and record its receipt date. E-Payoffice and Employment Hero’s guidance describes consultation and a written response within 21 days after receipt.[4][5]

Fair Work guidance requires the employer to consult the employee before giving the written response.[1]

Use this decision-file checklist:

• Intake: Save the notification, receipt date, service calculation and business-size assessment.[4]
• Assessment: Gather contract terms, roster history and evidence of working arrangements, alongside an award or agreement and payroll-settings review.[4]
• Consultation: Keep notes of the employee’s views and discussions about proposed status, hours, effective date and pay changes.[4]
• Decision: Retain the written response. For refusal, include reasons and supporting evidence; for acceptance, record the effective date and agreed hours.[4]
• Implementation: Document changes to employment status, hours, payroll, casual loading, leave and superannuation.[4]

As a workflow aid, name an assessment owner and an implementation owner so the decision reaches payroll with clear responsibility.

Record eligibility and assess the employment relationship

E-Payoffice and Employment Hero describe minimum service of six months for employers with 15 or more employees and 12 months for smaller employers. Regular casuals count towards headcount; Employment Hero also includes associated-entity employees.[4][5] Record the calculation and the employee’s belief that they no longer meet the casual definition.[4][5]

Flag an active dispute, or a refusal or resolved dispute within the previous six months. Impact HR Group identifies these as potential notice restrictions; verify their application with current Fair Work guidance rather than treating service alone as sufficient.[7]

Build evidence of how the arrangement works:

• Gather rosters and contract terms, noting predictable hours and expectations of continuing work.[4][5]
• Record the employee’s pattern of accepting or rejecting shifts, whether continuing work is available and whether comparable workers are permanent.[4][5]
• Check the applicable award or enterprise agreement, classification and minimum-hours requirements.[4]

E-Payoffice and Employment Hero frame the assessment around a firm advance commitment to ongoing work and entitlement to casual loading or a specific casual rate—not the contract label alone.[4][5] Regular shifts are evidence, not a standalone answer.[4] Treat this bundle as an assessment file, not a prescribed list of documents the employee must supply.

Consult and write an evidence-based decision

Consult before responding, as Fair Work’s guidance requires.[1] Record the employee’s account of their work, proposed full-time or part-time status, hours, effective date and the pay consequence of losing casual loading.[4][6][7]

For acceptance, Employment Hero and Impact HR Group advise specifying permanent employment type, agreed hours and the effective date in the written response.[5][7]

For refusal, Fitz HR identifies three grounds: the employee still meets the casual definition; fair and reasonable operational grounds; or acceptance would breach a recruitment or selection process required by law.[4][8]

Use ground–evidence–explanation as a drafting aid:

• Ground: Identify the basis for the proposed refusal.[8]
• Evidence: Point to relevant roster history and facts about available ongoing work.[4]
• Explanation: Connect those facts to the ground, rather than a general preference for casual staffing.[4]

Fitz HR advises discussing a proposed refusal and its reasons before issuing it; Fair Work’s consultation guidance applies before responding generally.[1][8]

Hand the accepted change to payroll

Give payroll the written acceptance with the effective date. Under Fair Work Ombudsman guidance, the change must take effect on the first day of the employee’s first full pay period starting after the employer gives its response, unless the employer and employee agree to another day.[1] Record any agreed alternative date. If the response omits the date, correct the record and apply the applicable rule rather than leaving payroll to choose a date. Review permanent-status and leave settings from the effective date.[7][8]

• Status and hours: Record full-time or part-time employment, agreed ordinary hours and the effective date.[4][7]
• Pay: Verify classification, the permanent rate and award or agreement settings—not simply removal of casual loading.[4][7]
• Entitlements: Review leave settings and public-holiday treatment from the change date.[4][7]
• Operational records: Review roster templates, approvals, payroll records, payslips and Single Touch Payroll data for consistency with the accepted arrangement.[4]

Check hours against the applicable instrument: Fitz HR’s guaranteed-hours and minimum-engagement guidance is specific to the Hospitality Award, not a universal rule.[8]

As practical controls, record who authorised each change and check the first affected payroll against the acceptance.

Keep the file ready for a dispute

Retain the notification, receipt date, service calculations, roster evidence, consultation notes, written response, supporting reasons and implementation records.[4] An indexed chronology can help an adviser follow the assessment.

If workplace discussions cannot resolve the matter, E-Payoffice and HR Success advise that either party may seek Fair Work Commission assistance.[4][6] Confirm retention requirements for the complete decision file before scheduling disposal.[4]

What to confirm with each provider

E-Payoffice offers a free quote.[4] Ask E-Payoffice and Employment Hero to confirm fixed service prices, complete feature and advice limits, service eligibility, minimum contracts and cancellation terms.[4][5] Request written confirmation of:

• Price and included deliverables for the notification.
• Advice limits and any work your team must complete.
• Contract length and cancellation terms.
• Who approves, makes and checks payroll changes.

References

1. Flexible work and permanent employment requests | Small Business Showcase Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au)
2. Offers and requests for casual conversion before 26 August 2025 [K700612] – Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au)
4. Casual Conversion Rules: What Employers Need to Know (epayoffice.com.au, 2026)
5. Casual Employment Changes: The Employer Guide to New Rules (2026) (employmenthero.com)
6. NES Guide: Casual Employee Pathway to Permanent Employment (hrsuccess.com.au)
7. Casual Conversion in 2026: When Casuals Can Become Permanent – Impact HR Group (impacthrg.com.au)
8. Casual Conversion — Hospitality Award 2026 | Fitz HR (fitzhr.com)