GMC Member, Direct Recruitment Geelong, has successfully provided staffing services to the business community for more than two decades and says recognition is emerging that it is a local specialist in manufacturing.
Business Development Manager Adrian Henry tells GMC the team recently added two new recruiters and is targeting small to medium businesses in the manufacturing space.
“We’re carving a nice little niche in the manufacturing industry,” Mr Henry said.
“I joined the business three and a half years ago with the specific instruction to increase our footprint in Geelong, in the manufacturing industry in particular. We continue to become a specialist in our field.”
Mr Henry, whose father and grandfather were managers at the Ford Motor Company and is “unashamedly born and bred Geelong,” says the COVID pandemic boosted recruiting demand at manufacturers, in particular for short term labour, doubling requests.
“We were still manufacturing. A lot of them were essential services so they still needed staff,” he said.
“We’ve been able to put on a few engineers. Direct Recruitment also helps with the supply of production and process workers, and warehouse and logistics staff.”
Direct Recruitment was founded 22 years ago by MD Jamie Croft, who splits his time between Aireys Inlet and Melbourne. It expanded to 14 outlets headquartered in Camberwell, before Croft sold all but the Pakington Street premises three years ago.
“He kept Geelong, his favourite son,” Mr Henry said.
Branch Manager Simon Heffernan, formerly from Terang, has been based in Geelong for over two decades. He is a self-declared “massive Geelong Cats fan,” participates in the annual Great Ocean Road Marathon and says you “can’t beat a linguine ai frutti di mare at Two Sugars on Pako”.
“When Alcoa closed, he was able to help some of the candidates that lost their jobs and did sessions on upskilling, trying to help them find roles in Geelong,” Mr Henry said.
The agency works with clients to develop individually tailored employment solutions and has placed thousands of candidates into roles across a range of industries in the past 20-plus years, expertly matching candidates to roles.
“We compete for talent on our clients’ behalf. We understand your business is different. Timeframes need to be met,” he says. “We work day in, day out to ensure this region is one of the best-staffed regions in Australia – this is our personal mission.
“We find the right person, not just the first one who walks in the door”
Direct Recruitment has a large talent pool of active job seekers across its databases and industry platforms, and completes pre-employment checks and tests on the employers’ behalf, prioritising accuracy and full confidentiality.
“We take on the difficult, time-consuming work for you. This allows you to attend to and focus on your daily workloads,” Mr Henry says.
Week-to-week, Direct Recruiting says it employs multiple temporary staff across a range of industries in Geelong and surrounds, meeting all costs including salary, superannuation, WorkCover and payroll tax.
“We have a strong, local pool on our extensive database made up of skilled candidates that are motivated, reliable and ready to work.”
Mr Henry says recent years have seen more movement in employment.
“It’s brought in some people that may not have considered manufacturing as their employment choice. They might have come out of hospitality, which struggled, and might have come out of the health sector.
“We believe that we really can help them and we’ve been able to place quality staff who are still there to this day, that’s where the successes lie.”