May 27th, 2022

Last week I spent four days on the road catching up with Personnel Group team members across our footprint.

I always enjoy the opportunity to hear about the successes and challenges they are facing in each labour market, and to reconnect with the wonderful people working in this business.

I love the individual personalities and the team cultures that are slightly unique to each area, but that all still connect to our values and purpose.

We are currently preparing to rollout our 2022 – 2027 Strategic Plan, and annual initiatives, and it is heartening to see that many of the strategies we have developed will have a real and immediate impact on our team members working at the front line.

I feel that this is something we have always done well – we seek the feedback of our team and use it to develop strategy that makes a tangible difference for our team members and our clients.

While travelling, I’m always curious to see what other providers of employment services are up to, and it was sobering to see so much of our industry reeling from both the Workforce Australia tender and from fear around the future of Disability Employment Services. Many long-term providers are closing offices, others struggling to retain or recruit staff, while some are laying staff off in droves.

While competitive tendering and performance-based contracts make absolute sense, I can’t help feeling that this constant flux of providers is a bad thing for our industry, and creates confusion for clients, employers, and service providers.

The Personnel Group is one of the highest performing, most experienced disability employment services in the country and we attribute much of our success to the generational relationships we build in the communities we serve.

Our clients want and deserve the best service possible, but this doesn’t come from a constant revolving door of employment service providers.

John Gibbons,
CEO, The Personnel