Case studies:
InstallEx
The client
InstallEx is Australia’s #1 managed installation service, servicing the likes of Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Myer and The Australian Open.
InstallEx requires a base workforce of 200 manual labour staff across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. With seasonal spikes in demand, their labour requirements can increase to as many as 300. Sidekicker had a conversation with Miles Williams, the Director of InstallEx, about their casual labour hire.
The challenges
Before using Sidekicker as their temporary recruitment agency, InstallEx faced multiple issues with labour hire.
Hiring staff with unsuitable qualifications and skills
With a haphazard approach to sourcing, screening and onboarding, InstallEx were often working with staff that were not well suited to roles or had misaligned expectations of the requirements. This led to high churn, which was costly, time consuming, and jeopardised service delivery.
"We were often getting sent staff that didn’t have the right skills or licenses. This meant the attrition rate was extremely high, and we were constantly having to train new workers."
No visibility across national sites and projects
InstallEx operates a national business with projects all over Australia, however, had no centralised system for their staffing.
"We didn’t know what sites were performing well and not so well, it took us weeks to see our costs compared to budget, and we didn’t have transparency over whether staff had all the appropriate OH&S and Right to Work requirements."
Archaic and fragmented systems
InstallEx’s staffing was manual and paper-based. Processes like paper timesheets, allocating and confirming staff via texts, calls and emails, and rostering in Excel spreadsheets caused huge inefficiencies and high absenteeism. Reporting also took weeks or months to compile which meant InstallEx could not invoice clients fast enough.
"To put it simply – it was a mess. We knew we needed to bring our systems up to speed but couldn’t find any solutions that would cover all of our needs."
The solution
Harnessing the power of data to build a better workforce
Recruiting hundreds of manual labour personnel every month and with years of first-party workforce data, Sidekicker are the experts in identifying, sourcing and screening labour. During implementation, Sidekicker’s team worked with InstallEx to identify and understand the profiles of their ideal workers across all roles, and designed sourcing and screening methodology to acquire staff that matched.
Ratings & reviews drive staff reliability
In contrast to traditional labour hire companies where there is little accountability or repercussions for staff, Sidekicker drives reliability with all staff rated and reviewed after every shift. This means InstallEx workers are held accountable and motivated to perform, and feedback is recorded in real-time, which allows Sidekicker to quickly and continuously curate their workforce.
In-platform reporting
Sidekicker’s digital platform gives InstallEx complete visibility into their workforce, all in real-time. Through an easy to use dashboard, InstallEx are now able to see:
- Spend across sites
- Staff performance across sites
- Worker feedback and incident reporting
- Metrics like time to fill & fulfilment rate
- Qualifications, Right to Work and OH&S inductions
Digital timesheets and immediate cost reporting has eliminated 2 days per week of manual admin for InstallEx’s core team, as well as same-day invoicing of clients for improved cash flow.
The results
"Sidekicker’s superior screening processes have led to a dramatic improvement in the productivity of our crew. Staff are qualified for, experienced in, and motivated to perform the roles they’ve been hired for, which has led to a big improvement in retention. We’re no longer wasting so much time training new staff and have reduced time to fill shifts from 48 hours to 1-2 hours. Reliability is better than it’s ever been – we’re no longer chasing staff to accept shifts, and instead of constantly trying to fill shifts last minute we can focus solely project delivery."
