I’ve been doing some interesting research into job service providers and here are a couple of startling facts.
In the Northern Rivers region ( from Kingscliff to Grafton) there are no less than 20 registered recruitment agencies (other than SilverTemp) and 18 of them have websites. Most have multiple offices in the state.
It is interesting to note that none, yes none, of them mention any service to assist seniors or mature age people to find work.
At SilverTemp we are the lone service provider trying to find employment opportunities for mature age people so I’m going to start a campaign with our Federal Member to do something about it. We need to have a conversation Mr. Hogan.
With so many people over 50, 60 and 70 looking for part time and casual work surely we should be able to get our government to take action and help them out.
If you’ve had a less than satisfactory experience with a government funded job service provider we’d like to hear from you. Most of the 80+ seniors on my register have told some incredible stories about their job searches.
Talk soon…Art Beavis – SilverTemp-Managing Director

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Following its seventh successful year in the Northern Rivers Region, SilverTemp has seen an opportunity to expand the temp agency to the Tweed Valley in response to positive business trends in the region. The recruitment of mature age job seekers began early in January and already a database of 20+ experienced women and men have been interviewed.

Promotion of the Silvertemp service to local businesses has already begun with lead articles in local newspapers announcing the Employment for Seniors concept. “Economic conditions in the Tweed area appear stronger than in the Northern Rivers so, there is every reason to believe the business will thrive there too”, according to Managing Director, Art Beavis.

SilverTemp has appointed Mary Gudgeon, a very personable local lady to manage the agency in the Tweed Valley and she has already been very active within the community interviewing applicants and attending networking functions. SilverTemp has joined the Tweed Chamber of Commerce and Industry and is looking forward to building a strong business client base in coming months.

The benefits to business of employing casual staff through SilverTemp are numerous. In particular, the flexibility of only having to purchase the actual hours you need is attractive combined with the fact that all SilverTemp staff are highly experienced and very reliable making it a cost effective choice for most businesses.

Mary Gudgeon can be reached  on 0408 186 381 for more information about the service or to register for employment.

Email info@silvertemp.com also or visit our website at http://www.silvertemp.com

If you find it difficult to get all the administrative work done, like bookkeeping and updating customer records and inventory, SilverTemp can provide highly experienced, mature age, casual staff for a few hours at a time so you can get on with building your business…doing what you do best.

SilverTemp has been providing part-time, labour hire staff in the Northern Rivers for the last 6 years. We have reliable people who can do most any office job. Our rates are reasonable and we take care of the wages, super and workcover insurance. All you pay is an invoice for the actual hours worked.  Simple and cost effective.

Call me, Art Beavis on 0448 244 111 or email to:   info@silvertemp.com

It only costs $68 to lodge an unfair dismissal claim so any employee who feels badly treated can initiate an action against their employer…..and 75% of dismissal claims result in compensation payments.

The Fair Work Act imposes so many exacting procedures that must be followed when dealing with staff that many businesses find it difficult to keep on the right side.

Performance reviews and appraisals need to be documented and carefully worded warning letters must be written to ensure the employee is fairly treated and still the employee’s perception may be that they have been discriminated against and this weighs heavily in their favour with the Fair Work Commission.

Not only is the claim expensive and time consuming for the employer, it is also disruptive to the entire business operation because it implies the employer is wrong even if they’re not.

The rules applied when a claim is lodged are complex and often the penalties severe which is why professional help should be accessed.

Frequently a decision to re-instate the employee is not a desirable outcome and compensation can be awarded up to 26 weeks of pay…a heavy burden for a small business so, beware.

Is it any wonder why an increasing number of small business owners (and even some large businesses) are shying away from employing new staff and dreading the time when they must counsel employees on poor performance in the job? Heaven forbid they ever have to terminate an employee’s services; they could easily end up in the Supreme Court.

Even if you feel you’re ‘doing the right thing’ by your employees, they’re people with unpredictable emotions and personalities and often disputes are triggered by the action of another employee. Legal fees can range from $2000 – $4000 a week.

So, how do you get the extra work done efficiently without putting on extra staff? Labour hire casuals, that’s how. You can hire in casual staff for as many or as few hours as you like…and be as flexible as you like with their hours on a week to week basis…and when the work dries up you can simply terminate the labour hire contract…just like that. No penalties, No court cases, No official enquiries.

Here at SilverTemp, we have literally dozens of mature age staff with many years of valuable experience in almost any administrative role…and they’re only seeking part-time work, a few days a week in most cases. Labour hire rates are very reasonable when everything is considered; SilverTemp pays the employee award rates, provides workcover insurance and professional indemnity insurance and pays the 9.5% superannuation guarantee. Your business only pays one invoice for the actual hours worked each week, plus GST.

If this staffing solution appeals to you, call us on 0448244111 of email info@silvertemp.com for an OBLIGATION FREE quote.

Have a nice day!  (source data:workplaceassured.com.au)

In August I wrote to our local MP, Kevin Hogan expressing concern that the government Restart subsidy for employers to hire a mature age worker did not make any provision for part time employment (which is what a lot of mature age workers are seeking)

Today, two months later, I received a letter from Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, Minister of Employment, signed by her Chief of Staff, advising that the Restart subsidy will change from November 2015 so that employers will be eligible to receive the full $10,000 subsidy over a 12 month period instead of the previous 24 months..HURRAH !!, that’s a little progress isn’t it.

The bad news is that it still makes no provision for part time work and the employer has to take on a mature age worker (50 years of age or older) for at least 15 hours per week for 52 weeks to get even a partial Restart subsidy. Many small business employers just cannot make this kind of commitment for extra staff and $10,000 does not go very far towards the wages of an extra full time person for a year.

The letter continues to deliver bad news too. If the mature age job seeker does not receive income support from our government then they are not eligible and an employer cannot receive the subsidy for them, even if they are the best person or the job.  Question, “How serious is our Federal Government about encouraging employment of more mature age workers when such pitifully inadequate subsidies like Restart are offered?”

The Minister also tells me that the “Job Active providers are paid on the basis of outcomes and receive a modest fee to cover administration.”  If this is true how are they able to support so many staff, offices and cars and still not find jobs for mature age workers? If the Job Active network is so effective and paid on placement of people into jobs, why are our unemployment figures in the Northern Rivers still so high? The Job Active providers network costs us many millions of dollars, nationally, each year but we’re never told how many new jobs it creates….Why is this so?

Personally, I’m tired of our government paying lip service to employing mature age job seekers without putting anything meaningful in place to make it happen so, it’s time to mobilise the mature age job seekers into action. If you agree more needs to be done, please write a letter to your local MP and/or to the Minister and ask them to divert some of the “modest fees paid to Job Active providers” into an incentive program for employers that actively supports ALL mature age job seekers.  The address for the Minister is Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, Minister for Employment, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600.

Your comments to this post are also welcome.

Every business manager has those days when you wish you could call someone to come in and do a few hours work, just so you can catch up…but you don’t need them every day.

Sound familiar? In uncertain times when the volume of business ebbs and flows you certainly can’t take the chance of committing to hire someone for a set number of hours each week. You may not have enough work to keep them busy all the time, but you’d still have to pay them and that could hurt your bottom line.

Here’s an option you may wish to consider:  (tailored to your specific business needs)

Why not buy some small parcels of time from SilverTemp? We have a ready-made team of very experienced, very reliable, mature age men and women who are available on short notice for very flexible hours, for as many or as few days as you need.

Need a bookkeeper of 5 hours this week but maybe 7 or 8 next week? We can handle it…no problem.

Here’s how it works. You call us and tell us what you want. We match your job description to someone on our register and send them to you. They do the work you need, you sign off their time sheet and we invoice you an all-inclusive hourly rate, plus a little GST and it’s done. If you need them again the next day or the next week, just book them in for the estimated number of hours you need and we do it all over again.

It’s a very cost effective solution to getting the work done, getting your invoices out, getting your money in sooner and it frees up your time to do the important things like chasing more business which is your specialty.

Simple…effective…economical…because we take care of their wages, PAYG, super contributions, work cover insurance and you don’t have to add to your payroll.

If you think a small parcel of time makes sense for your business then give us a call on 0448 244 111 and ask for Art Beavis.

It has been said that a day without a little laughter is time wasted so, follow the link below for an hilarious  look at the old people situation with Kitty Flanagan

http://www.vision6.com.au/ch/7618/2d98dkw/2303648/1ccf7bm6z.html

…and you have a nice day too.

In support of “old people… who don’t have a use by date”

Art Beavis – Managing Director of SilverTemp

Age and Disability Commissioner Susan Ryan has begun work as the Ambassador for Mature Age Employment, a newly created role to help build greater awareness amongst employers of the business benefits of hiring older workers and to improve the labour force participation rates of older people.

The appointment was announced by Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey and Assistant Minister for Employment Luke Hartsuyker on 24th June at the relaunch of the government’s Restart program for mature age workers. The launch was held at the Koomarri centre in Canberra – a not-for-profit organisation with more than 60 years of operation in the ACT and NSW.

The new Ambassador position will help build on the Government’s streamlining of the Restart program, which provides subsidies for businesses hiring older workers. “I am pleased that the Government is improving the Restart programme to make it even more attractive and easier to access, and I am looking forward to promoting Restart to businesses around Australia,” said Commissioner Ryan.

“Older Australians are the nation’s fastest growing age group, as well as being fitter and more actively involved in our society than ever before. While they are contributing significantly to the community and the economy in a wide range of ways – there are nevertheless major barriers for older Australians in trying to extend their careers and in particular, re-enter the workforce.”

According to the 2015 Intergenerational Report, projections indicate that by 2055, life expectancy at birth will be 95.1 years for men and 96.6 years for women in Australia, so there is a growing urgency in addressing the need to keep workers aged over 65 in the workforce for longer.

Commissioner Ryan, who has been a powerful advocate for mature aged job seekers during her career, sees the new position as a natural extension of her role as Age Discrimination Commissioner.

During her watch, the Commission has begun a National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination against Older Australians and Australians with Disability. This inquiry, which opens for submissions and consultations on Friday June 26 (see details below) will address findings from the Commission’s National Prevalence Survey of Age Discrimination in the Workplace. The survey showed that over a quarter of Australians aged 50 years and over have experienced some form of age discrimination in the last two years.

In addition, the Commission has spearheaded a public awareness initiative through the “Power of Oldness’ campaign, and a Good practice Good Business” resource for employers to help prevent workplace discrimination.

“These activities complement the Government’s drive to encourage business to change their views and to hire more mature age Australians through programmes such as the Restart Wage Subsidy,” said Commissioner Ryan.

Ms Ryan says one of the biggest challenges ahead will be convincing employers to change their attitudes towards older workers.

“Many employers have in their head beliefs that  once people are over 50 it’s downhill all the way, that they can’t be retrained, that they’re not going to fit in, they’re not going to be productive. All of those ideas are wrong – wrong, wrong – and we have to change them.”

“It’s about changing attitudes And this is why Restart is such a good, well-targeted project, because it says to employers: have a  look, if you’re running a business and  you need extra employees, you might be a bit worried about taking them on because they might need retraining if they’re older. Here is $10,000 to assist you with that; you can use it for retraining, or for making other accommodations.”

Information about how to access the Restart program is on the Australian government website: www.employment.gov.au/restart-wage-subsidy

The Australian Human Rights Commission has released two Issues Papers for Willing to Work: National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination Against Older Australians and Australians with Disability.

To read the Issue Paper Click on the link below

http://humanrights.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f64cd1da1ba6a894b8d5ee6df&id=e9dab53f58&e=d447d3b9ff