At Hireup, we’re building a community for people with disability to control their own supports. We know that any successful community is built on a foundation of trust, so we’ve created this code of conduct to enable you to understand how you can participate positively in our community.

This code of conduct sets out your responsibilities as a person seeking support or an account manager on Hireup and will cover you whenever you’re participating in the Hireup community, whether that’s messaging a support worker on the Hireup platform, working with your support worker or interacting with the Hireup team.

The Hireup Principles

Everything that happens within the Hireup community is underpinned by our core principles. These principles provide us with a framework to engage with each other.

This is an evolving document—we’re constantly rethinking our approach as we learn from the community. But these four principles are the heart of what we’ve learned from you so far, and we’re always working to make sure they’re enforced.

Choice and Control

We believe that people with disability should have total choice and control over their supports. We’ve designed our model to ensure that you can decide who you work with, when you work together and how you structure your supports.

Recruitment

As the person in charge of your own supports, you are responsible for recruiting your workers from the Hireup community. In doing so you should ensure you are assessing the suitability of each worker to provide your specific supports. You should be clear with your goals and ensure that you are building a team of home care and support workers who can help you achieve them.

Direction

Prior to providing instruction and direction to your home care and support workers you should consider the scope of supports that can be provided through Hireup and only ask workers to complete work that falls within the boundaries of their job description.

You must not ask your home care and support worker to complete activities that they are not qualified or skilled to perform, that they are not willing to perform, that are a breach of our standards and procedures or that are unsafe or illegal.

You should provide Hireup and your support workers with all relevant information about your support requirements and you must provide induction, training and direction to each support worker you work with on the support you need.

Management

You are responsible for providing a good working environment for your home care and support workers. You should build strong relationships that are mindful of professional boundaries.

You should respect your workers’ time by communicating clearly and in a timely manner about shift durations, periods where there may be no shifts due to holidays or absences and providing reasonable notice for any cancelled shifts in accordance with our cancellation statement. You should also ensure completed shifts are approved on time so that your support workers are paid promptly.

Dignity of Risk

We believe that someone’s quality of life is improved when there is the space to take informed and acceptable risks for themselves. This is known as “dignity of risk”. Everyone faces different risks based on factors including age, the impact their disability has on their life, the type of support they require and the environment in which this support is delivered.

Enabling Risk

We firmly believe that people with disability and/or their families are the best people to make the decisions about the level of risk they are willing to take in pursuit of their goals and aspirations. This means making your own decisions about the kind of support you receive, when you receive it and who provides it. To make this support effective and safe, it’s important to understand that while you will be making these decisions, your support workers have an obligation to find the balance between respecting your right to make these decisions and ensuring that you are both safe during each shift. We encourage all Hireup users to approach these decisions with open and clear communication so everyone is on the same page.

Risk Assessment

Just as you are enabled to make risk-based decisions, so too are your home care and support workers. You must respect a home care and support workers right to decline to provide support if they do not feel safe or qualified to do so.

Working Safely

Everyone in the Hireup community has the responsibility to ensure that quality support is delivered in a safe working environment.

Safe Environment

You have responsibilities to ensure that the work environment you provide is safe and appropriate for your team of home care and support workers. This includes maintaining equipment that will be used by your home care and support workers and ensuring that the environment is free of hazards that could cause injury to you or your support workers.

Zero tolerance for abuse and neglect

Hireup has a zero tolerance policy to abuse, neglect, negligence and violence against people with disability. You should share any concerns of abuse or neglect with Hireup as soon as you are aware of them.

You must not assault, harass or intimidate any home care and support worker or member of our community, or deliberately or negligently expose any member of our community to a risk of physical, psychological or other harm.

Security and Privacy

You must maintain the confidentiality and privacy of the personal information of any home care and support workers you engage with and of any other members of the Hireup community. This means you must not share information about the people you are working with or any other member of the Hireup community with anyone else.  You must keep your Hireup account password secret and not provide anyone else access to your Hireup account.

If you become aware of a potential or actual privacy or confidentiality breach by you or anyone else in the Hireup community, you must report it to Hireup immediately.

Inclusion

You should contribute positively to an environment that is free from discrimination, bullying and harassment, including on the basis of disability, race, age, sex, gender identity, religion, political or other opinion or affiliation, or criminal record.

Authenticity

You must not use the Hireup platform or communicate with Hireup or any member of our community for a purpose which is not related to a potential or actual shift with a home care and support worker.

You must only complete shifts that are booked through the Hireup platform.  Shifts worked 'offline' from the Hireup platform will not be covered by our insurance or payroll.

You must not provide any information that is incorrect, misleading or deceptive on your Hireup profile or in any communications you have with Hireup or any member of our community. You must not include any offensive, defamatory, derogatory or inappropriate material in your Hireup profile or in any communications you have with Hireup or any member of our community.

Reporting

You have a responsibility to report any issues or incidents that occur during or in relation to a shift to Hireup through our 24-hour online reporting tool, as soon as possible or at the very least within 1 day of the incident occurring.

You must work transparently and honestly with Hireup to resolve any complaints, issues or incidents. You are accountable for your performance and behaviour while engaging with Hireup, the Hireup community and any home care and support workers.

You should also always feel comfortable to share any concerns with Hireup, whether or not an ‘incident’ has happened.

Positive Communication

Communication is one of the strongest tools we have to build strong working relationships. Words can be powerful in shaping how we think and feel about ourselves and each other.

Respectful conversations

Disability is often talked about with sweeping assumptions, which doesn't help us accurately or positively represent the variety and diversity of disability. We expect our community to engage in respectful, nuanced and open-minded conversations.

Effective communication

You will maximise your success on Hireup by engaging in open, effective and timely communication with your support workers, the rest of the Hireup community and the Hireup team.

Other Responsibilities

Broader ecosystem of regulations

The Hireup principles should provide you with guidance on how to use Hireup. It is also important to understand that there is a broader ecosystem in our sector of regulations, standards and procedures that we all need to comply with. If you want more information on these regulations and rules please get in touch with our team.

Standards, policy statements and procedures

Hireup has a set of quality standards, policy statements and procedures to help guide our community. As a person seeking support on Hireup, understanding and committing to your role and responsibilities as outlined in these documents is vital as we all work to maintain a healthy and supportive Hireup community.