Onboarding a new employee usually means a contract, a tax file number declaration and a super choice form. The step plenty of small businesses still miss is what happens when that super choice form comes back blank.
The rule
Every new employee has the right to choose their own super fund. If they do choose one, you simply pay into it, no extra step required. If they do not choose one, you are not allowed to default them straight into your business's usual fund. Instead you have to check whether they already have an existing fund that is stapled to them from a previous job, and pay their contributions there instead.
How to check
Once a new employee has accepted an offer of employment, you can log in to ATO online services for business, or ask your registered tax or BAS agent to do it for you, and request their stapled super fund details. The ATO will tell you the result, and you then pay contributions to that fund unless the employee later makes their own choice.
Only if there is no stapled fund
If the ATO comes back with no stapled fund on record, that is when your default fund finally comes into play.
Why it matters
Skipping this step and paying straight into your default fund can expose you to a choice shortfall penalty, on top of leaving your new employee with yet another small super account quietly losing value to fees. Neither outcome is one you want to explain later.
Make it part of onboarding
Add a stapled fund check to your new starter checklist, right next to the tax file number declaration. It takes a few minutes and it is the difference between doing this correctly from day one and untangling it after the fact.