The workforce both in Australia and New Zealand is growing rapidly, and research has found that 34% of ANZ’s labour pool is actually working flexibly.
Trends show that more and more people want to have control over when and where they work.
SEEK revealed that the third most searched term on their platform was ‘part-time work’, after ‘manager’ and ‘graduate’. With a 6% YOY growth in job views that are focused on short term work, there has also been a 15% rise in the number of temp job ads.
This trend towards flexible work is being fuelled by technology solutions that have made finding jobs, and managing talent easy and more accessible.
Businesses too are recognising and capitalising on the value of flexible workers. Consistent use of specialised workers with certain skill sets on a recurring short-term basis has freed up company resources, eased up HR processes, and made finding a good culture-fit simple.
To hear how flexible staffing has changed how businesses work, we’ve collected for you the 10 BEST quotes from company leaders on why flexible staffing is the way to go…
Simon Rossi, General Manager at Uber
Uber and ‘aggressive growth’ is almost synonymous. They are always looking for strategies and hacks to scale rapidly.
In ANZ, Simon Rossi- General Manager at Uber- looked to use temporary staff to scale up their promotions and customer support team quickly and efficiently.
He stated, “Having access to temporary staff has helped Uber grow rapidly in Australia and New Zealand while keeping our core team lean but well supported.”
Taylor Dean, Marketing Coordinator at Brisbane Heat
We all know how important it is to have staff that’s the right fit for a project. For Brisbane Heat, finding enthusiastic staff that create the best experience for fans was top priority!
Taylor Dean, Marketing Coordinator of Brisbane Heat, said he was experiencing several such issues before they switched to a temporary staffing solution. Not only did it hold workers accountable for their performance due to a rating system, but it also allowed Dean to stress less and focus his attention on other critical areas.
He said, “I’ve been able to reclaim around 5-6 hours a week, that I could put back into preparation and making sure my teams were the best they could be.”
Imagine rostering shifts for 9 restaurants and 22 bars at one of Perth’s prime entertainment venues…
That’s a day in the life of Eddie Soto, the HR Advisor of Gloucester Park. The use of a temporary staffing platform gives him access to a prescreened pool of casual staff, making it easier for him to select applicants and roster shifts without the hassle of checking CV’s or doing a skills test.
Temporary staffing comes with two BIG perks for Eddie,
1. Staff show up on time and are reliable because they have opted in to come in for the shift
2. Eddie isn’t chasing up casual staff, and saves a full day a week which lets him focus on senior staff development in that time.
He explains how temporary staff made his job easier, “It was so simple. I could see exactly who I was getting and the ratings they’d received from other venues. They arrived ready to get things done and we were wrapped with how they performed.”
Michael Swan, Hospitality Manager at Spark Arena
At Spark Arena, the staffing problem was a little different.
Fluctuating staff due to churn meant that the arena was frequently either overstaffed or understaffed, leading to an unhappy workforce, and as a result? Unhappy customers. The amount of time and money Michael Swan and his team spent on admin and recruitment tasks to tackle this was substantial, and often unsustainable.
Michael explained that switching to temporary staff ensured that the arena was always optimally staffed, with little effort.
He said, “We realised that we were spending a lot of time recruiting, yet recruitment wasn’t our core business. We wanted something that could free up our team to focus on workforce optimization, rather than being constantly buried in admin.”
Aron Lewin, Head of Customer Service at Jayride.com
A flexible workforce is almost inherent to Jayride.com’s business model.
Jayride.com is a airport-transfer comparison and booking platform, and their dynamicity with frequently evolving strategies and consistent growth in operations calls for a workforce structure that is foundationally built around diversity, flexibility, and agility.
Having temporary staff allows the company to save resources on HR, and instead plough it back into investing in and developing their business.
“We don’t have to worry about finding people, drawing up contracts, or letters of offer, or how and when we’re going to pay them. We can just get staff in to get the job done.” says Aron Lewin, Head of Customer Service at Jayride.com
Claudia Martinez, Event Co-ordinator at Revel Events
Surely you’ve heard of Pinot Palooza, Game of Rhones, or the Mould Cheese Festival…
Well, Revel Events is the team behind these events. They previously used Excel to manage a national workforce of several hundreds of workers. In fact, they often called on family and friends whenever they needed to scale up their event workforce at the last minute.
Claudia Martinez, Event Coordinator at Revel Events, explains how implementing a temporary staffing solution completely transformed their staff management process.
She said, ‘Temporary staffing allows us to request who and what we need at the click of a button. We’ve also built up a stockpile of templates and talent pools which makes the whole process so simple and user friendly – what used to take us hours, now literally takes five minutes.’
Kellie Duggan, Brand & Digital Marketing at Perkii
“Empowering and inspiring everyone to feel better inside and out”- that’s Perkii’s mission.
Perkii, a probiotic drinks company sees ‘feeling better’ as a way of life, an attitude. The business values positivity and fun in everything they do- qualities that they like to see in the people they work with too. Perkii’s team consists of inspiring individuals who truly embody the ‘healthier and happier’ motto.
So…it’s only natural that they’d want their temps to reflect these company values and empower customers to feel better everyday. Using a temporary staffing platform has allowed Perkii to bring onboard people that represent their brand perfectly!
Kellie Duggan, on the Brand and Digital Marketing Team says, ‘As our business samplers are the face of the business, choosing the right talent is incredibly important. Being able to review profiles and rating prior to hiring allows us to choose qualified, experienced staff with the personality and interests that align with our values.
Victoria McNeice, Senior Event Manager at Blakes Feast
Blakes Feast in two words? Food and family.
They are another business that relies on the perfect brand image-worker value fit. Being a family-run catering business, led by one of Melbourne’s most influential chefs Andrew Blake, the team prides itself on sensational food of the best quality.
If you plan an event with them, you’ll speak to a family member at some stage. So…having values that align with the team values are so important for them when they’re looking for employees! Hiring temp staff via traditional methods and not having control over the workers that come in for shifts could mean a misrepresentation of the Blakes Feast brand, a loss of that family-feel, or an under-delivery of quality in their services.
Victoria McNeice, Senior Event Manager of Blakes Feast notes how contemporary temporary staffing has helped the family-business…
She says, “Going on demand has streamlined our staffing and made rostering a suitable team to each event so much easier. We can target the staff who work best with our brand; and create our own personalised pool of skilled staff.”
Alicia Ryan, Event Operations Manager at Comestibles
Comestibles, an established player in the event industry envisions, plans and delivers some of Perth’s most memorable events at the highest quality.
Their approach to planning events as “the art of entertaining” by telling the client’s story demands a passionate team and an artistic value. Every detail at every event is meticulously planned, and therefore Comestibles needs a workforce that reflects these exceptional values and quality.
Alicia Ryan, Event Operations Manager of Comestibles says, “Quality is so incredibly important to our brand and services and the transparent nature of a temporary staffing platform means we have total control and choice over which temporary staff we use. We’re able to view all applicants’ profiles, reviews from previous jobs, and experience before hiring”.
For a company like Bob Stewart Uniforms, demand is highly seasonal and as a result, so is staffing.
With three standing outlets, an online store, and no HR department, the responsibility of all recruitment tasks fell entirely on management staff. This included creating, posting, and managing job ads, as well as shortlisting and interviewing potential candidates.
Time and resources invested in this process, however, was drastically reduced when Bob Stewart decided to use a platform for temporary staff.
He said, “Since using on demand staffing, the cost of hiring and training casual staff has been reduced by over 20%.”
Takeaway?
The rise in tech solutions over the past two decades, has led to more and more industries requiring constantly changing niche skills and talent. Flexible workforces and staffing solutions not only reduce recruitment and training costs, but also make organising a fluctuating workforce in this dynamic environment, very simple and less stressful.