Recruitment tips from an award winning company

4 recruitment tips from an award winning maintenance company

Last year, Premium Gutter Cleaning & Lawn Care in Coffs Harbour were named ETC’s Mid North Coast Employer of the Year for their commitment to helping disadvantaged job seekers in the region find work.

ETC chats with owners Ash and Dave to find out their top recruiting tips and how it felt to win this award!

Tips:

1. If you’re planning to grow your business, it’s important to invest in the RIGHT team.
   
2. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to find the right team of staff – build a partnership with a recruitment agency that understands your needs. Not only can you save time and money on advertising – but there may even be incentives (like Wage Subsidies) for you as an employer.
   
3. When looking for staff – we think the most important aspect is someone’s willingness to work. We want our staff to succeed, so we’re happy to train and support them along the way.
   
4. For us, utilising a recruitment agency helps to keep things streamlined. This makes a big difference, especially as an employer who is new to the recruitment process. For example, after we give ETC our requirements, they screen, interview and reference check potential candidates for us. Then only send on the most suitable shortlist of applicants.

Q&A: Premium Gutter Cleaning & Lawn Care

How does it feel to be nominated ETC’s Mid North Coast Employer of the Year award?

Ash: “I honestly feel privileged that we have been noticed for the way in which we try to help our employees.”

This award recognises employers for their excellence in recruitment and commitment to making a positive impact on peoples’ lives. How did it feel when you won?

Ash: “It was very unexpected. It’s a very positive and fulfilling feeling that works on two levels, I believe. We are able to not only help people find employment opportunities, but we are also now able to help a lot more customers in our community than we were able to when I was working in the field solo”

Can you tell us a bit about your business? What is involved and how long have you been operating?

Ash: “We have been operating for about 2 years now and about 6 months ago decided to start expanding. The idea was eventually to create a large team of workers due to the amount of work requests we were having to turn down on a regular basis. This area is in short supply of people who are in the service industry and take pride in each job they complete. Our aim is to help as many people in the community as we can with reasonable turnarounds from quote requests to work completion.”

“We work closely with major real estates in the area and strata companies from Woolgoolga to Nambucca and out to Bellingen. It’s a large area so we need a large well-trained team. Our aim is to provide a ‘Premium’ level finish on every service we complete. Our business provides gutter vacuuming, pressure cleaning, solar panel cleaning, major and minor yard overhauls and lawn maintenance. We have a dedicated customer liaison who speaks with all our customers and schedules all our work for us, so we are always on track.”

How did your relationship with ETC come about?

Ash: “After deciding to expand and train more workers, I asked Dave to reach out to recruitment providers as a first step. Together we agreed it would help save us the time, costs, and efforts of advertising for workers. Once we found there were subsidies involved also, that made it an easy decision. With the subsidies, it can help us develop quicker by being able to invest in the costly future of new workers.”

Can you tell me about your relationship with ETC Recruitment Advisor Pete? How has he helped you recruit staff for your business?

Ash: “Pete has been amazing in helping us by going above and beyond. Once we worked out who we needed for the business and could give him our requirements – he was always dedicated to finding us the right applicant. The most important thing he does is not bombard us with every available person. This has been a massive time, stress and money saver.”

“On our journey together, we didn’t always get our choices right with the team we selected, unfortunately, but Pete never gave up. He helped us to push forward like we wanted, with more positive replacement options. The effort Pete and the team at ETC put in behind the scenes to arrange training and education for our workers has really given opportunities to people who may have otherwise missed out due to costs and time. I feel that we now have a very good understanding of how we can help each other so we will hopefully have a long business relationship with Pete and ETC.”

What has your overall experience been like with ETC?

Ash: “It has been quite simple and straightforward from the first phone call and email to the many correspondences we’ve had since. Everyone at ETC is polite and quite efficient in returning correspondence to us. Keeping things streamlined makes a big difference, especially for an employer who is new to the recruitment process through an outside organisation. It has been such an advantage to have Pete and the other team members at ETC working in the background supporting our business. We are very grateful to ETC.”