Create Apparel owners Mark & Tracy chat to us about diversity in the workplace

This video is also available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8agudb4iJf8

atWork Australia employer ‘Create Apparel’ from Auburn NSW.

Meet the owners of Create Apparel. Tracy and Mark.

“My name is Mark Yammin. I’m the founder of Creative Apparel.”

“My name is Tracy. My husband and I Mark we started Creative Apparel about in 2012 and we print, manufacture, design, and ship apparel sportwear, custom apparel, all around Australia and internationally.”

What were the positions you were looking to employ for?

[Tracy] “So we were looking for a warehouse team member who can pick pack in and for them it was basically we wanted someone who had good attention to detail was reliable and overall a good team player. We were looking for someone who may have had some Warehouse experience in packing and picking orders but we were always on board to to fully train them.”

How did you hear about atWork Australia?

[Tracy] “We had a colleague who introduced us to atWork Australia so we thought, well it’s a good opportunity to give someone a chance and for us to have someone that was given a chance in a work environment where they could have an equal opportunity for everyone was something that we really wanted to kind of take on board.”

How important is it to have diversity within your business?

[Mark] “When people come in, whether it’s customers come in or suppliers, they see we are a wide mix of people and I like that. I like coming in and seeing just guys and girls, different ages, races, it’s just nice to see that we are I suppose what this country is. We’re just diverse people and that’s I suppose what we represent as well.”

[Tracy] “Oh it’s important because it creates I think, it gives us a a good opportunity, to have creativity and they pick up on things that most other people would just you know look past but they’re very good at that and just being having the opportunity to do things or tasks differently.”

Have you made any workplace adjustments for employees?

[Tracy] “One of the girls initially, she was doing eight hours two days a week but we had to kind of pull that back for her, so then more work with her and her capabilities which worked out fine so now that she’s been doing that for a few months, we’re slowly creeping up the hours for her again to add additional hours. Another combination we did is task variation so instead of having them do the same task every day which would be mundane we would have to change things up for them so that one day they’d be doing picking, another day they’d do packing, another day they’d be doing kinds of things, like all an allrounder, doing different things within the warehouse helping the production team cutting up films and so that way it would give them more of a sense of variety rather than just doing the same task every day.”

Would you recommend atWork Australia to other employers looking to hire?

[Tracy] “atWork Australia gives so much assistance to start up with the vetting, getting more of a personalised service for the individual, so for them to find the right job, that fits for them and the right environment. I think is really important for them and for their work career as well.”

[Mark] “Oh Yeah. I would definitely recommend atWork Australia to other businesses it’s just about keeping your mind open, giving everybody a go and you’ll be surprised you will find some good people that you will want to stay with you a very long time.”

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