The Australia Wide Personnel Group has completed an audit against the StaffSure Standard and have been granted StaffSure Certification.

What is StaffSure Certification? StaffSure is a certification scheme developed by the RCSA and built specifically for providers of on-hired staff (labour hire, temps, contractors). On-hired staffing companies are independently audited against an industry standard to verify that they are a reputable and exploitation-free staffing provider, complying with all relevant workplace laws. The StaffSure audit incorporates: – Work rights & paying correctly – OH&S systems (employing people safely) – Fit & proper persons test – Financial assurance

How is StaffSure Certification different to a Labour Hire Licence?

The main difference is that a Labour Hire Licence doesn’t usually require an audit to prove that the on-hired provider is a compliant employer. BTW, we also hold Labour Hire Licences StaffSure certification in Victoria & Queensland.     

What are the benefits for our clients? – Australia’s Modern Slavery Act requires larger companies to ensure that modern slavery is not occurring within their supply chains ie the companies supplying to them. StaffSure provides assurance that staff are employed in compliance with relevant workplace laws. – In times when payroll underpayments are regularly in the headlines, an independent auditor has found that we’re compliant in paying our on-hired staff. This should give our clients confidence that by dealing with Australia Wide, they won’t inadvertently be dragged into an underpayments scandal.  

The licence is valid for a period of 3 years and covers the following trading businesses within our group:

• Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment
• Australia Wide Labour Hire
• Australia Wide Trades Recruitment
• Australia Wide Office Staffing
• Australia Wide Outplacement Services

Under the Victorian Labour Hire Licensing Act:

• All companies providing labour hire, temporary staff or contractors (collectively known as labour hire) in Victoria will be required to hold a labour hire licence. 
• Clients who use labour hire services are referred to under the scheme as “labour hire hosts”. There are legal obligations for hosts to ensure that they only use licensed labour hire providers.
• There will be substantial fines for companies which provide labour hire services without a licence, and for hosts who use an unlicensed labour hire provider.   

I genuinely believe that one of the main reasons Australia Wide is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year is our culture which revolves around respect – respect in our dealings with our colleagues, candidates & clients. I can’t hand on heart say we’ve got this right every time however I can say that it’s definitely something we continually aspire to.

Respect is so important to our culture that we have a Respect Policy – essentially treating your colleagues, candidates & clients the way you’d like to be treated. And each quarter we have a Respect Award where our employees vote for the staff member who has best lived by our Respect Policy. That staff member then nominates a charity of their choice to receive a $500 donation.

I hope that the many thousands of colleagues, candidates & clients we’ve had the honour of dealing with over the years have had an experience with Australia Wide which they’d consider to be respectful.

Cheers

Stephen Noble
Managing Director
The Australia Wide Personnel Group

We have experienced particularly strong conditions for hiring in the food and beverage industries, both in Melbourne and Sydney. We achieved high fill and retention rates for process workers, forklift drivers, machine operators and warehouse personnel. This has been in a candidate market where experienced workers have been extremely difficult to secure. It has been particularly frustrating, when after careful screening you have on average around 50-60% of booked-in candidates not attending their interviews. From our perspective, it looks like an awful lot of people apply for roles in order to qualify for unemployment social security benefits and are not serious about securing work.

The electronics and metal sectors have also continued solidly with a sharp increase seen in the back half of the quarter for higher skilled positions such as assemblers, machine operators and other light industrial roles. Clients continue to have strong requirements for permanent tradies such as fitters, boilermakers, electricians and welders as well as service technicians, primarily for manufacturing companies. We are predicting that strong manufacturing conditions will continue in the current quarter.

Labour hire demand persisted solidly throughout the second quarter on the back of what was a very strong start to the year. Market conditions continued to favour local manufacturing and export, and as such, heavy recruitment continued for the food, industrial, electronics and metal sectors.

Demand for quality skilled and unskilled staff such as process workers, blenders, assemblers and forklift drivers/warehouse assistants was persistent. Of particular note was a big increase in requirements for skilled labour such as machine operators and trades personnel, namely fitters, electricians and trades assistants. Permanent placements of operations and service personnel also rose, further highlighting the positive manufacturing environment. We expect healthy and strong demand for labour hire to continue throughout the back half of the year, which is traditionally the strongest for most manufacturing sectors.

Julie brings with her over 20 years of experience in the labour hire industry. Her background and network is broad-reaching and she is adept in building highly effective client and candidate relationships. We invite contacts new and old to get in touch with Julie and utilise her experience.

Violeta is new to labour hire but has valuable industry experience to draw upon, having spent many years in the logistics & transport sectors.

We warmly welcome Julie & Violeta to our team. Their contact details are below:

Julie Bond ph (03) 9847 6500 julieb@australiawide.com.au
Violeta Filipovska (02) 8843 1330 violetaf@australiawide.com.au

I used to fall into the trap of thinking that the longer an interview went, the better my chances of getting the job became.

This wasn’t something that hindered me exclusively in the early stages of my career, either. I had a bad habit of talking hiring managers’ ears off for as long as they could tolerate me.

Then I became a recruiter, and I realized that while some answers do require a lengthy conversation, there are plenty of others for which a short response is actually best. What’s more, I learned that there are plenty of people who think all interview questions require you to deliver an essay aloud. To clear up any confusion before you sit down for this conversation, here are a few answers that are perfectly OK to keep brief.

1. What Type of Salary Are You Looking For?

Discussing money with a recruiter is one of the most unnerving parts of any stage of the interview process. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve made some mistakes in the past when trying to tell a potential employer that you’d like a fair wage, but mostly you’d just like to be hired.

However, because it can be such an uncomfortable thing to discuss, your answers to salary range questions can get surprisingly long in a shockingly small amount of time. Unless this is the final round, odds are this person’s just trying to find out if your requirements are in line with the budget. So, the next time you’re sweating this answer, try this out:

“Based on what I made in my previous role, I’m looking for something between [a reasonable range based on your research].”

Note: The key to giving this range depends on you doing your research before the interview. Muse writer Matt Mickiewicz lays out the four steps you need to follow to figure out what you’re really worth.

2. Do You Have Any Questions for Me?

You should go into every interview with questions for the employer. However, that doesn’t mean your questions themselves should always be long-winded. In fact, some of the most difficult ones I was asked as a recruiter were also the longest. By the time the person wrapped it up, I had no idea where to begin.

Even worse for the candidate, they led to additional follow-ups that ultimately made us eliminate them from consideration. Why? Unfortunately, the questions were so long, it led them to sharing information that raised unexpected red flags. So, before you go on a tangent about your new puppy or the flickering light in the office, try this:

“So I was thinking about [something the hiring manager said during the interview], and it made me curious about [something you’re curious about]. Could you tell me a little more about your plans for that [initiative/project/challenge]?”

3. What Will You Miss Most About Your Current Job?

This was especially challenging for me to hear about as a recruiter. Sure, it’s nice to know that a candidate isn’t interested in your opening just because it would mean getting to quit his or her current job. But, going on for too long about what you love about your gig is an excellent way to make a potential employer think that you have no interest in leaving.

Here’s a secret about this question too: It’s just a way for most interviewers to wrap up a conversation. So don’t overthink it—and do your best not to wax poetic about how awesome your current job is.

Try this template instead:

“Well, my current role has allowed me to [a couple of words about personal growth you’ve experienced], and I will miss the talented team, but ultimately, the prospect of working on [a project or two the interviewer mentioned] was too much for me to ignore.”

In conclusion:

Interviews will never be fun for anyone.

However, you can make life a little less stressful for you and the people you meet with by keeping certain answers short and sweet. While it might feel strange to be brief in some of your responses, these are prime examples of questions that you’ll be asked that don’t require you to connect every dot and write the next great American novel.

Not only will you save yourself a lot of energy, but you’ll also put yourself in a much better position to get the job.