Partnering with Weeding Hire to find COVID-19 solutions.

IF THIS STORY APPEALED TO YOU, AND YOU’RE EITHER A CASUAL WORKER WHO HAS LOST EMPLOYMENT, OR A BUSINESS THAT HAS STOOD DOWN CASUAL EMPLOYEES, PLEASE CONTACT US, AS THERE ARE TWO ROLES AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE START.

When major events started to be cancelled across Tasmania, from Dark Mofo, to V8 Supercars, Agfest, Relay for Life and a swag of wedding postponements, Weeding Hire were left with a massive hole in their calendar. They are the major supplier to all of these events, and whilst they still have needs for industrial cover (and even infection control marquees), it’s obvious they’d have too many in their Winter workforce.

Through a mutual community contact, KEEN and Weeding Hire were introduced, and on the same day James Weeding and Ray Mostogl discussed the skillsets of their casual employees had found new placements for them with George Town Council.

But this wasn’t just normal short term labour hire. We weren’t simply ‘trading humans’. By working directly with an existing employer, we were able to deliver high quality, skilled workers to a fellow employer in need.

We connected on the Thursday, and the first two placements began on the following Monday.

This initiative then expanded beyond Weeding Hire to placing a child care worker with George Town Council and reaching out to the tourism industry to place hotel cleaners with heightened cleaning needs in the Bell Bay Manufacturing Zone.

KEEN did these placements at ‘cost of employee’ as a community service to ensure employers could maintain access to their staff as the recovery begins and needs change back to a relative normal.

But most importantly it wouldn’t have happened if employers such as Weeding Hire didn’t care enough about their employees to look for an alternative, and if we didn’t have Employer partners open to the idea of what KEEN offers.

That’s a true spirit of partnership, and we hope to see more of it, even as the COVID-19 crisis passes behind us.