Selecting which recruitment agency your company should partner with is a significant decision and one that goes well beyond the selection of suitably skilled candidates.
A recent decision by the Fair Work Ombudsman against Baiada Poultry highlights the damage that third party suppliers can do to your brand. In this instance Baiada utilised a system that involved various levels of subcontractors who engaged or provided labour to the company and although Baiada has agreed to repay $500,000 to current and former workers who were underpaid by subcontractors, the real and ongoing damage is to their household brands of Steggles and Lilydale. And in all of this, Baiada were not the guilty party – their subcontractors were.
As consultants to the recruitment industry, we consider our role to be multi-faceted – we take on the responsibility of sourcing quality candidates and maintaining an ongoing relationship with those candidates even after they have commenced assignments with our clients. We ensure that our on-hired employees are paid as and when they should be paid and that all other costs such as superannuation, workers compensation and payroll tax are remitted in line with legislation.
In addition though, we also consider ourselves to be brand ambassadors for our clients, ensuring that we represent and talk about their company in a positive way. All employees, whether directly employed or on-hired are in a position to provide credible, trustworthy promotion and visibility to a brand. Whether they are motivated to do so, however, depends on their experience with both the host employer and the recruitment agency.