I’ve worked for Fetch for 1 year now and have been in the labour hire business for 2.5 years. Over these years I have dealt with a lot of the same questions and spend a lot of my time debunking common myths. Whether it is a client myth or a contractor myth, there always seems to be the same misconceptions around the topic. I thought it would be beneficial to lay out the common myths and use my knowledge and experience of the industry to bust them.
Client Myths
1. “The guys only work in labour hire because they can’t find full time jobs”
This may be the number one misconception around our workers, or any casual tradesmen. Our clients assume that since our guys are on a contract position, that it must mean it is because they can’t secure a full-time position.
The truth is: Our job as a consultant is to find candidates that are available for immediate positions. Most of our tradesmen are either between full-time jobs or are wanting to work on a casual contract up until a holiday/leave they have planned. In quite a few cases, working through an agency can actually produce a higher income than working on a full-time salary, especially when they factor in casual loading and overtime rates.
2. “Labour Hire quality is not up to scratch”
A common myth/misconception about labour hire is that our tradesmen do not complete a job to a high standard.
The truth is: I can’t speak on behalf of other labour hire companies, but at Fetch we don’t just take any old tradesmen on board – we only work with qualified tradesmen with solid experience, a proven track record of completing projects at a high standard, and decent references from previous employers. Most of our tradesmen come with between 5 to 10 years’ experience under their belt and have exposure to different sites and duties each week meaning that they have a vast knowledge of all types of jobs.
3. “Labour Hire is too expensive”
We sometimes hear this comment after clients initially see our hourly rate.
The truth is: If you compare labour hire rates to standard subcontractor rates they are often less, here at Fetch we usually come up approximately 10 – 20% less. When comparing our rates to the cost of a full time staff member after factoring in things like workers’ compensation, liability insurances, superannuation, payroll taxes, sick days, annual leave and redundancy it usually works out more cost efficient with no commitment if project tenders don’t go their way.
4. “We only contact companies when we want to place our tradesmen”
The truth is: Our aim is to add benefit to any company we are dealing with by updating our companies on the best available candidates and keeping them informed about the market. We put a large amount of time into mapping out projects in our market and will send through tender & project awarded reports giving our clients a jump on the upcoming work in their industry.
Contractor Myths
5. “Recruitment agencies restrict labour hire staff going onto a permanent basis”
The truth is: The sole purpose of recruitment companies is to find a perfect match between our experienced candidates and our loyal clients. It’s in our best interest to have our labour hire staff transitioning into permanent positions as this only strengthens our relationships with existing clients. If a client is in the market for a permanent staff member, they tend to prefer to use labour hire as more of a “trial period” and most successfully candidates usually transition after 4-12 weeks.
6. “Your consultants aren’t tradesmen, so they don’t know what they are talking about”
The truth is: All the labour hire consultants at Fetch work within specific niche markets in order to be experts in their trade. We individually speak to over 100 candidates and companies a week in relation to existing projects and duties, so we are constantly expanding our in depth knowledge of the market.
7. “Labour hire electronic time-sheet systems are too complicated”
The truth is: This misconception could not be more wrong in terms of the way we do our time-sheets; while most labour hire companies use paper or e-time-sheets (sometimes both), here at Fetch our time-sheet portal is as easy as logging into your emails or Facebook. All of our workers are provided with a username and password to log in and input weekly hours. Once the hours are submitted this is then sent directly to the time-sheet approver’s email which will prompt a simple ‘approve’ button to action. We even offer a pay run on Tuesday & Thursday for any forgotten time-sheets.
8. “Once a project is finished that’s the end of work through the agency”
The truth is: We are often notified a week prior to the completion of any placement which gives us a period of time to ensure a smooth transition into a new site for our workers. We have a huge reach within our specific industries which makes it easy to keep or labour hire staff busy 40 hours a week, even with the odd Saturday. The companies we deal with can offer a huge variety of work and we often find that when one of our client’s projects is finishing another one is starting!
So whether you’re a company looking for an edge on your competitors or a trades-person looking for the perfect role, I hope your beliefs about these myths have been debunked and you now won’t hesitate to give labour hire a go!
