Jobs Northern Beaches - Employers Guide to Temps
Temporary Employees, On-Hire Casuals and Short and Long Term Staffing Solutions
Northern Beaches employers and businesses can find themselves criticially understaffed for all types of reasons- when a valuable team member goes on maternity leave, takes sick leave or goes on vacation.
What happens if your business has the need of dependable short and long term staffing during a crucial sales period? How do you conquer a temporary backlog of data-entry? And how do you, the business owner, know if temporary employees or “on-hire casuals” as they are more modernly referred to are qualified, posses the skills necessary to carry out the role and are dependable and trustworthy? Who determines their viability and what criteria are used to assess their technical qualifications? Can temp workers help a company grow or develop a more efficient workforce?
Our Manly took these questions to longstanding Northern Beaches staffing specialist Lisa Bousfield M.R.C.S.A, Director at Peninsula Personnel Recruitment Services.
Our Manly: Thanks for meeting with Our Manly, Lisa, and giving local business owners a little insight into how temporary staffing works and some background into your business. You’ve been doing this for over 15 years now. What explains your longevity helping local businesses meet their staffing needs?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: I get deep personal satisfaction from finding local people fabulous jobs on the Northern Beaches with our long standing and highly respected Clients. I enjoy fulfilling the needs of both the client and the candidate be it for short or long term temporary placements or permanent part-time and fulltime employment. We’re genuinely interested in finding the right people for each role.
Our Manly: What kind of staffing positions does Peninsula Personnel specialise in?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: We provide all levels of office support staff, including accounting professionals and executive appointments. Basically anyone who works within the entire office structure from a Mail Clerk through to the Financial Controller.
Our Manly: What are the advantages of a smaller firm like Peninsula Personnel over the bigger city firms? Especially for local businesses?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: Our foremost attribute that defines who we are is that we are a personalized service on all levels. Peninsula Personnel can be defined in simpler terms as a boutique agency that has a better pool of passive job seekers. We maintain relationships with our candidates which can go on for many years which ultimately benefits the client because they can in turn request back the same employee, sometimes year after year. We have many temporary staff who have been working with us for over 5 years now and even some who have been with us since we first opened the doors to Peninsula Personnel.
The relationship with our candidates and clients is more focused. We’re aware of the cultural fit. We understand what our clients are about and how successful the right candidate can be in the right environment. It’s a more personalized service. And we can focus on long term relationships.
Our Manly: What if a business hasn’t used a temporary employment service before and wants to know what the benefits are, how it works? What if they have questions?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: We actually encourage companies we work with to think of us an advisory service regarding employment issues and to call us whenever they have any questions or need some valuable advice- so we’re not just filling that one job once a year, or that temporary need when someone goes on annual leave. We’re a great resource for our clients and want to share our Industry experience. We send them newsletters on a quarterly basis and articles of interest on a continual basis with information like “how to write job specs”, “reduce redundancies”, “how modern award changes will affect you” and information on “adverse action”. Basically anything and everything regarding employment issues.
Our Manly: How are your candidates vetted?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: We do skills tests and references checks prior to placing anyone in any assignment. Candidates have been tested in all their word processing skills, data entry and typing. And because we do know our clients so well, we send a summary to the temp before they even enter the premises, to let them know exactly what the environment is like that they are walking into. Whether it’s corporate, semi-corporate, casual, etc and encourage them to look on the Clients website to gain a deeper understanding.
Our Manly: Can your service help a company grow or become more efficient? Test the waters in effect as to the benefits of an added employee, or a reduced but more targeted workforce?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: Oh, absolutely. Many companies will have staff freezes, and take on temporary staff to fill gaps while they are working on figuring out whether or not they can take on a full time staff member. They may want to interview a temporary employee thinking they may well convert them into a permanent employee if the fit is right down the track. This can be a great way to fill both the short term and long term gaps.
Our Manly: Let’s say I’ve never hired a temp before. Give me the basics of what to expect. Who pays the on-hire casual?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: Peninsula Personnel charges the client an hourly rate from which we pay the employee’s wages each week. You the business don’t have to worry about any of that. We cover the worker’s compensation, their superannuation, issue the group certificates and we educate them in all areas of occupational health and safety. We simply send your business an invoice for actual hours worked.
Our Manly: How quickly can we get a temporary on the job?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: Call us before 10:30 AM any morning and we’ll have a temporary to you within an hour and a half. After that we still try for same day service.
Our Manly: What about our company’s private documents, the sensitive material around the office, our proprietary software? Is it safe?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: All temporary staff sign a confidentiality agreement with us. If a company is doing something very, very specific, they can provide us with a confidentiality clause which we can have the temporary staff understand and sign prior to entering their premises.
Our Manly: What exemplifies a temporary worker?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: They have to be confident since they’re walking into a strange environment every time. They are adaptable and flexible and typically highly skilled in working with many different types of systems, technologies and organizations. There are many different types of people who temp, but they are always well qualified.
Our Manly: And for the sake of argument, what if the temp isn’t the right fit?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: We have a guarantee period during the first four hours. Ring us up if someone is not working out and we’ll replace them free of charge. This rarely happens, not even once a year. I like to think we vet people very well and because we skills test them, we know what they are capable of. We never lie to a client and overestimate a candidate’s skills. This would undermine both the Clients and the temporaries confidence in PP.
Our Manly: Lastly- how does Peninsula Personnel keep up with a changing workplace?
Lisa Bousfield, Peninsula Personnel: We regularly attend Industry seminars and forums and go out and visit with our Clients, inspect their workplaces. We regularly see our clients and evolve with them- help them achieve better results from their permanent and temporary staff. We’re interested in better workplace practices and strategies, from flexible workforces, tele-commuting, part-time employees to condensing hours and working a full week in only 4 days.
Our Manly: Thanks, Lisa. You obviously are the go-to resource on the Northern Beaches for in-depth, knowledge and expertise about the real staffing needs of all types of local businesses. We look forward to more of your insights.
In fact, all employers need to check out this link on >>“How to Conduct a Job Interview”. These valuable tips for employers from Lisa and the dedicated, long term staff at Peninsula Personnel will help you hire the right individual for the job!
Peninsula Personnel
Specialising in Executive Services, Office Support, Accounting Professionals, Warehouse and Logistics needs, Peninsula Personnel Recruitment Services located in Dee Why successfully help local Northern Beaches businesses with the placement of Temporary & Permanent staff.
Call 9972 2944 today and discuss your Northern Beaches staffing needs
or
>>click here to learn more about Peninsula Personnel
