Jess from Aussie Gardening & Cleaning talks about diversity in the workplace.

This video can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgf9AY-5-JI

Title on video reads “Meet Jess, owner of Aussie Gardening & Cleaning, and one of atWork Australia’s employer partners.

My name is Jess and I’m the Director of Operations and one of the owners of Aussie Garding and Cleaning. The business has been established since 2011 however we started full-time in April 2017 and from there it’s gone boom!

Title slide on video reads “What roles are available within the business?”

So, we hire two main roles at the moment, the first role is a cleaning role. The cleaning role is really flexible, it’s based on around the availability of the person who is looking for a job. They need to have their own car and their own driver’s licence to be able to be successful for the job. Most of our cleaners are mums and they work school hours so 9 till 2 or 9:30 till 2, close to home or within a reasonable distance to get back in time to get their kids in the afternoon. We have others as well who work full-time so 8: till 4: 7 till 3 those are for cleaning clients who usually have a service early in the morning, before their clients are there for the day, or are a morning person – the complete opposite to me.

Our gardening roles are not as flexible unfortunately as the cleaning roles. They’re a bit more rigid, our gardeners work 7:30 to 3:30, five days a week and most of the time they meet here in the office in the morning because they travel in pairs for safety reasons. We usually don’t let them go out by themselves, they’re always working with somebody else which is quite good for upskilling but also to support people’s mental health so they’re not working alone in the workplace and they travel all over Sydney. With gardeners we require them to have experience driving a manual vehicle because all of our utes are manual and then we support them to use the tools that we have available.

Title slide on video reads “What are the benefits of hiring a diverse team for your business?”

So the benefits of employing people from a diverse background for us have been the ability for our clients to have people that they can relate to. The majority of our clients are either on the NDIS or through My Aged Care or have an injury through Insurance claim, that kind of thing and so our team coming from a variety of backgrounds have been able to support our clients the best because they understand what it’s like to live in the real world. So we all have barriers, we all have things that are going on, and to be able to have job providers who provide information to us as the employer and ensure that the candidate is supported as best they can in the workplace that’s been really successful for us.

Title slide on video reads “What are some of the workplace modifications you make for parents?”

Our parents that work for us the modifications that we make for them is we allow them to work within the time frame that they’re available for. So we don’t want to set anybody up to fail if they’re not available to work from 3:00 onwards why would I schedule them a job. We provide them with work between 9 till 2: or 9 till 1:30 whatever they’re available, close to home and usually with somebody else so that they have that connection during the day because sometimes it can be quite lonely. The other thing that we help support them with is during school holidays is if they are not available to work then we take their services or take their clients out of their calendar but also if they are available to work longer because their children are in vacation care or supported by other people in the family then we provide them with more work to help fill their schedule up.

Title slide on video reads “What have been some of the advantages of hiring employees through atWork Australia?”

The support from atWork Australia has been terrific in terms of especially for our candidates so having someone who’s in your corner and supporting you as you’re returning to the workforce or starting a new job like that in itself is a really scary experience for anybody, and to have people who they know and trust that’s an added benefit for them which then in turn helps us because they continue to stay employed in meaningful employment. It’s also encouraged our business to grow as we now offer traineeships for team members coming through for both cleaning and gardening, if they meet the criteria that we have, then successful atWork Australia candidates can then get a qualification as well as a meaningful job with us.

Video closes with a slide that reads “Connecting people and business, so both can thrive”