How To Survive Holiday Down-Time as a Labour Hire Worker

While working for a labour hire company is a blessing in many ways, one instance where planning ahead should be noted is the two week period during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.  Most recruitment agency clients will have a hiatus during these two weeks, so there will most likely be a period of downtime to be prepared for and that includes the everyday items you may not have considered.

First and foremost, plan ahead where your pay is concerned.  In all likelihood there will be no income for this two week period so plan ahead where expenses are concerned and these are the regular expenses you encounter each month for housing, monthly bills, groceries, etc.  But, with the holidays upon us, planning for those extra expenses is important as well.  That’s where a budget comes in and although most people find them difficult to work with, during this time a budget will be your best friend as it will enable you to still meet your requirements but also allow for allotted funds for gifts and holiday celebrations.

If you plan to do some work around the home, it’s important to remember your personal safety.  According to experts, most accidents occur in or around the home and a large portion of those are related to home repair and maintenance.  Most recruitment agencies actively ensure their employees are well-trained in safety-related matters whilst in the workplace, and this is a great opportunity to take that training and apply these same measures in the home.

Some things to keep in mind are to use proper safety equipment, eliminate distractions, safety check all equipment before use, lift with your legs not your back, double check all cutoffs, and observe all recommended safety rules.  When working with electricity always double check to see the main switch is off and the number one thing to remember is to use common sense and never be in a hurry as haste creates accidents.

Maybe there’s no to-do list waiting for your attention and you will be enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation.  If that’s the case here are a couple of tips to help you get the most out of the sun-filled days ahead.  First, remember it is the holiday season and there will be more foot and vehicle traffic during this period.  Plan ahead and give yourself a little extra time in order to cut down on the headaches of holiday shoppers and traffic which can only decrease your enjoyment. 

Second, don't forget to pack the sunscreen and plenty of water.  Nothing can kill the enjoyment of Christmas quite as much as a sunburn creating pain and discomfort and hydrating will reduce the effects of the sun as well.  Enjoy the beautiful weather and the beaches, but just use caution to protect yourself.

If you will be traveling over the holidays, maybe to visit friends or family, remember social media may be fun in sharing your memories but it may also be an invitation to strangers.  Be sensible about what you post on social media because not all those watching or following have your best interests in mind.  Be smart about posting travel plans as potential burglars could be watching, waiting to know who will be home and when, reducing their chances of being caught in the act.  It is also likewise when it comes to photos.  Use caution posting photos of Christmas trees and gifts as it acts as an invitation and may make you or your family a target for holiday crime.  Enjoy the season with friends and family, just be cautious when sharing with others you may or may not know for your own protection.

Naturally a part of this season involves shopping and it may be a large portion of your time will be spent purchasing gifts for loved ones.  If you will be spending much of your downtime as a jolly elf, there are some suggestions which could be helpful to you, especially if you are not a happy shopper and do not enjoy the crowds or high-stress situations.  Try to purchase your gifts online to reduce the amount of time to be spent in the stores; you may find much of what you are looking for is available from the comfort of home.  Plan the hours of the day you will spend shopping as there are times, even during the holidays, when the crowds are thinner.  Don’t wait until the last minute to take care of the folks on your list, start early and shop in increments to reduce stress and last minute panic. 

Finally, plan to spend time if you will be out on the road doing your shopping.  There will be crowds and queues and long waits and planning ahead will reduce stress as well.

Two weeks to relax and enjoy the holidays can be a blessing but a curse as well.  Although these tips may not cover all the possibilities; using these and more than a dose of common sense will carry you a long way and help you survive the holidays.

Recruitment Agency Consultants (Sharing A Day In The Life Of)

Being a recruitment agency consultant might conjure up various images in your mind. Some of them may be preconceptions, misconceptions and some may be even partially true. The fact remains: recruitment is unrivalled in its rewarding of effort.

Here is what a typical day in the life of a recruitment consultant is like:

My day begins typically at 8 am

With coffee-loads of it!  This is the time to check emails. We generally receive hundreds of applications overnight and additionally we also have the usual lead generation, online/social media groups and job boards. I generally do a quick scan to see if there is anyone with a profile our clients may be looking for. It is very important that a recruitment agent deals with sensitivity with applicants because it is a tough and competitive world out there. I generally like to share advice where I can!

Team Meetings

We usually have a team meet around 9 am. As such, recruitment can be a very solitary line of work and most of us are working alone all the time. These meetings let us brainstorm ideas and even cross reference clients. Although each of us is a specialist in a particular area of work, it is quite possible that we are working with the same client to provide them with people of varying skill sets. So it is even more important that we understand who is dealing with which organisation and also assess the processes being developed for them.

Phone Calls

The phone calls start at about 10-10:30 where both applicants and clients are vying for our attention. Time management is crucial to ensure making the most of the day. I like to touch base with candidates that I am handling making sure they are ready for their interview, providing feedback and confirming availability, etc. I believe it is very important to build a good rapport with both the clients and the applicants so they are open and honest with me.

The noise levels start rising in the office by mid morning. I like to profile applicants with clients where there can be value addition for both. It is important that every recruitment consultant forge new contacts and make at least one arrangement to meet a new or existing client. This strengthens the rapport and also helps me know their business better so I can better help them.

Not Just a ‘Cold-Call’

I pride myself in being a part of All Force Labour Solutions. We are increasingly well-known in the Perth recruitment market and have a great profile. We work across a large client base and have developed a great rapport with our local clients which in turn means they talk about us which leads to more clients and happy customers.

Market Conditions

Yes, market conditions are tough and I cannot guarantee a job to anyone. But the moment I get a new role to fill in, adrenalin kicks in! My mind immediately scans through names in the database. Within a few minutes I am on the phone calling candidates explaining about the role and the opportunity.

Lunch

I often like to meet candidates and clients in lunch hour. If I have met the candidate, it greatly helps me represent them to the clients. It also makes for better long-term relationships. Once I am back from lunch, the afternoon goes with even more calls. If there is a new role, then we have the job of advertising it in detail all across different platforms so we can engage the right candidates.

I Love My Job

As clichéd as that might sound! But at the end of the day, I like to look back at a productive day. People often forget one thing about recruitment: that we actually make people happy for a living. It is wonderful to hear that happiness in their voices as we offer them a new role. It is indeed a fantastic feeling. We work hard and the sense of achievement is great and so are the rewards!

So if you’re looking for a recruitment company - and more importantly a recruitment consultant - who would be delighted to find you that next exciting role, then don’t hesitate to give me a call!  You can either visit our website at www.allforcelabourlaboursolutions.com.au to check out our latest roles available and also register directly here.

And, to get your CV to the top of the pile read my article on CV Tips and Tricks - definitely recommended!

I look forward to being able to help you with your employment needs.

The Nature Of Family Friendly Employment

Exploring the meaning of family-friendly employment, what it means for employers and employees alike, and how to create that win-win balance in the workplace.

Click here to read the full article.

How Leading Employment Agencies in Perth Can Help Your Business Grow

Manpower is a foremost concern for many construction companies. Other industries may not be as demanding in terms of labour needs as construction, but they still need skilled workers. In almost any industry, though, it can be challenging to get the right people at the right time. This is where employment agencies like All Force Labour Solutions in Perth can prove invaluable.

Find workers with ease

Whether your company needs to fill temporary, part-time, or even full-time positions, you can trust reputable recruitment agencies such as All Force Labour Solutions to help you find the right people. The recruitment process, after all, encompasses several tasks. From posting a job advert to conducting interviews, background checks, and exams, the whole process requires tremendous time and effort. You’ll also need to allot a considerable amount of resources in-house for every successful hire.

By outsourcing recruitment functions to a reliable third party firm, you can focus on your core business functions and be able to fill in vacancies much more efficiently. Recruitment agencies maintain a database of qualified candidates that they can match to potential openings. These candidates would have been cleared and vetted; you may even specify your preferences, such as prior experience in a similar job or specialised training, to narrow down your choices.

Have someone to handle all the paperwork

Getting new employees on board is just the beginning, though. As an employer, you will of course need to take care of all the paperwork, particularly as regards to taxes, insurance, and other requirements for employment. All of these can be time-consuming, even if you have a relatively small staff. Consider the logistical nightmare you may face you’ve got hundreds of people on your payroll. Fortunately, employment agencies can also assist in this regard. If you’re hiring part-time or contractual workers, for example, the agency can shoulder the burden of the paperwork for you for a small fee.

Reduce your worries

With the above benefits, it should be no surprise that contracting a dependable employment agency is a crucial step towards ensuring your company’s success. Good employees are the lifeblood of your company, and with a dependable third-party recruitment firm to back you up, you can keep your workforce robust and sustain successful operations.

Outsourced Labour Solutions for Perth and Beyond

The construction sector in Perth has always been a lucrative field for those who are seeking employment. With over 56,000 registered job seekers and an unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent (as of 2012 data), Perth’s construction industry has a wealth of opportunities to match untapped labour. However, it’s not always smooth-going to get the right information to the right job seekers. Fortunately, online employment agencies have become effective tools to connect employers and those seeking jobs.  

How Small Businesses Can Benefit from Employment Agencies in Perth

Small businesses looking to hire new employees know that this is a tall task, especially if they want to fill their needed positions as soon as possible. They want to look for employees that have the specific skillset that they are looking for and not just anyone. While they can certainly do the search and hiring themselves, sometimes it’s best to outsource HR tasks to Perth employment agencies.

Employment agencies can get top talent

When it comes to getting top-performing talent, employment agencies help employers who cannot compete with their larger counterparts. They have a larger buying power and this transfers to their clients, meaning that small businesses will have access to talent better suited to the job. This is important because when the business is just starting out, it’s best for it to make the most of its resources and so hiring through an employment agency would reduce the chances of making a bad hire.

Save on costs

Compared to hiring its own personnel, relegating the task to an employment agency will actually save a lot in the long run, and in a number of ways. First of all, the whole hiring process takes a lot of time and effort, not to mention resources. Small businesses don’t exactly have the luxury of these things, and so handing over this task to someone who does, like the agency, will reduce the time and expenses spent on it. In addition, recruiting top talent takes advertising dollars which the business may not have much of just yet.

When it comes down to it, small businesses want to make sure that they are getting the best talent they can get with the still limited resources they have. What’s more, they have a choice of keeping their hire or letting them go if they are not needed anymore. This means that during slow times of the year they can choose to downsize and during the busy periods they can get great hires who can fill their vacancies.

Labour hire in Perth can be done through agencies such as All Force Labour Solutions, who have years of experience and a comprehensive recruitment process that ensures their clients will have the best talent.

Employment Agency Tips: Ensure a Good Workforce

As a construction company, you’ll be needing a lot of manpower. Though some firms often have a stable of ready workers ready to do the job, there are times when you’ll be needing some extra help, especially when you are facing a big project. The best way to get a workforce up to scratch is to contact an employment agency. Here are a few tips on how to better work with the employment firm:

Determine What You Need

Just asking for “a couple of electricians and several bricklayers” is a rather vague way of putting things. Look at the project and check your current staff. What particular fields of expertise are needed to complete the project? You may want someone who can wire an office building or help with installing plate glass windows. Knowing exactly who you need to hire makes it easier for everyone.

Employment Agencies in Perth: Outsourcing Skilled Labour Hire Workers

A relatively young construction firm has its challenges to surpass in its life, but recent achievements can inspire you to hire more workers for future expansion. As a private employer, the typical strategy of posting openings online might have given you your current workers, but it takes time before you have enough to start expanding.

For a large number of construction firms, it’s better to seek the help of employment agencies in Perth to present you with the most suitable workers. These agencies, otherwise known as labour hire companies, provide host companies or organizations with outsourced workers who have already been screened and trained by the agency. Basically, labour hire services relieve their clients or hosts of most direct hiring responsibilities and assign their employed workers to perform job responsibilities for the hosts.

In your case, an employment agency like All Force Labour Solutions would be the one to hire suitable construction workers for your firm. However, you are not obligated to perform most employment relationship functions including payroll and superannuation. Labour hire workers, are also covered by minimum wages and conditions or modern awards of the National Employment Standards (NES) that hosts have to provide, which applies to the respective work type.

As labour-hire workers are not wholly involved with your firm, any corporate arrangements you have with those you have directly hired will not have any effect on their employment with the labour-hire agency, termed as on-hire business in Australian law. It is the responsibility of the on-hire business to adhere to minimum NES entitlements even if it creates its own arrangement or agreement with their contracted labourers.

Being the host company, your obligations for on-hire employees fall under the Fair Work Act of 2009 that specifically protects them from any form of work discrimination or harassment. Meanwhile, both host companies and Perth recruitment agencies are required to maintain a healthy and safe workplace environment for the workers duly regulated by local authorities.

Similar to independent contractors, labour hire workers have adequate skills and potential to benefit your firm for being able to work with other companies that gained their work experience. Besides an effective solution for urgent hiring, on-hire labour would also cut down your costs in the complicated hiring process.

A Primer on Employment Agencies

In Australia, increasingly, job seekers and employers alike connect with private employment agencies to help them with their respective needs. In a year, recruitment agencies are able to provide work for over 100,000 people, and many large companies are turning to them for all their recruitment needs.

Types of Agencies

Mainly, there are four types of private employment agencies, namely personnel consultants, labour hire contractors, student employment services, and employment agencies. Personnel consultants generally handle executive, managerial, and professional positions, while labour hire mostly focuses on giving jobs to skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled manual workers.

Why Your Business Could Use a Labour Hire Company

In the world of business, your company cannot afford to stop moving; it needs to get up to speed and maintain its pace if it hopes to stay competitive in the market. For that purpose, you will need extremely competent workers to staff your business; after all, your company is only as good as the people you hire. It can be a backbreaking process, however, to find the right people. 

It is a good thing, therefore, that you have the option to bring a labour hire company on board. A labour hire company can help you secure the right people for the job, whether for a long or short term project. Although this does not sound any different functionally from a typical human resource department in any large business, there are advantages to using a labour hire company instead.

Blue Collar Jobs From Perth Employment Agencies: How Are They Defined?

When talking about job classifications, only two categories come to mind: white collar jobs (the so-called “9-to-5”), and blue collar jobs which are usually offered at the likes of local Perth employment agencies like All Force Labour Solutions. For the purpose of this article, blue collar jobs will be the main focus: namely, how they are defined and how they differ from white collar jobs.

First, let’s look at the origin of the terms “blue collar” and “white collar.” Traditionally, white collar occupations are so-named because these jobs don’t get an employee dirty in a literal sense, hence they were required to wear a white shirt with or without a tie. Blue collar jobs are the complete opposite; the workload often requires more physical effort, which in turn gets employees dirty and makes darker clothing a necessity.

In other words, blue collar workers perform mostly manual labour jobs with their hands. The skills required for more field-based blue collar work vary greatly by occupation, with several positions requiring highly skilled personnel with formal certification and training. Welders, road repair crews, factory and construction workers, miners, loggers, and other types of labourers are all considered blue collar—most of which gain employment through the likes of trusted Perth labour hire agencies. 

Educational attainment is one of the major differences between blue collar and white collar workers.. In comparison, white collar work generally requires formal education (workers usually have at least a high school diploma, though most complete a bachelor’s, master’s, or post-graduate degree). On the other hand, blue collar jobs also typically require at least a high school education, but most mandate either a two-year vocational program, an apprenticeship, or some other related course.

Earnings also play a major part in differentiating blue from white collar. Unlike their counterparts who earn salaries, blue collar workers are usually paid by the hour (though several trade professions earn salaries). Through the years, it has been believed that white collar workers earn more; though this assumption is now teetering into the grey area since more industries are now willing to pay well for manual labour that requires a high skill proficiency.

While there are clear-cut differences between blue and white collar employment, neither is really above the other. The needs of the world’s major industries are changing by the minute, and aren’t likely to slow down anytime soon.

Pros of Hiring Through Employment Agencies

Finding and hiring a new employee can be an arduous task and hours can be spent on trying to look for candidates that would best suit the job opening. For this, there are employment agencies that can help speed things up. They would have a wide selection of qualified applicants who go through a number of tests to ensure that they have the necessary abilities.

Hiring through an agency saves a significant amount of time because it takes care of the beginning phase of the hiring process. It runs background checks on the candidates and conducts interviews to get a feel of the person. This means that, in the end, the agency will have a pool of the best talents. If the applicant works for the employment agency, his/her services may be used for as long as required. What’s more, there is the possibility of keeping the applicant as a long-term employee.

Once there is an established relationship with a particular employment agency, any future open positions can be filled much faster because the agency would know the qualities that the company is looking for in an employee. It would lessen the time it takes to present a list of candidates to the company. Companies that have open positions which need to be filled should definitely consider working with an employment agency.