Sourcing and training new talent for success
Increasing health and safety for students at Property NSW in Australia meant scaling up the cleaning staff by 45% in just five weeks.
“As we’re working in a school environment, there was a heightened concern around the children’s safety. I had to ensure that this was communicated clearly and that all our new staff were properly trained in infection control practices,” says Sue Pilgrim, Regional Support Compliance Officer.
While the onboarding was a great success, it did not come without its challenges.
“Managing our new staff during the training sessions was difficult as we needed to consider social distancing. We even had to close down our warehouse and conduct training in there to ensure people kept the 1.5m distance,” says Sue.
For Vicki Garrett, Talent Coordinator, a significant portion of her time was spent doing comprehensive background checks on new staff as part of her focus on sourcing new staff, managing EPAC clearance and inputting employee data into the client system.
“I had to make sure all the background compliance was in order as our client always put child safety first,” says Vicki.
Together as a team
Vicki and Sue are two of the longest-standing employees at ISS Australia. Vicki joined us as a cleaner in 1988 and has since worked her way up to find herself in her current role as Talent Coordinator. Sue has worked at ISS since 1994, starting in training and now working primarily in compliance-based work. Vicki and Sue’s contributions to the success of the Property NSW contract have not gone unnoticed.
“Our clients were very appreciative of us upscaling our workforce by 45% in such a short space of time,” says Sue. “This was a real team effort and it was really great to see us all band together to get the job done.”
“Our contract with Property NSW is longstanding – and it makes me proud to be a part of it,” says Vicki. “Our local on-site team are great and always go above and beyond to help the community.”
