Employees being kept in the game
THE pain of seeing employees losing their jobs because of cancelled or deferred contracts motivated Gold Coast entrepreneurs Tim and Katie Walmsley to develop a solution.
Mr Walmsley, an exAustralian Army major, and his wife formed start-up Bench On last year.
The company, based on the Gold Coast but with a presence in Sydney and Canberra, revolves around a technology platform that matches idle or “benched” staff to short-term contracts from other reputable companies.
The idea intially came from Mr Walmsley’s experience working remotely from the Gold Coast as a procurement specialist in the aerospace industry.
“I loved that job but I saw this issue in the industry where people were losing their jobs and businesses were shutting down. When I went to my boss I said: ‘Why is it like this?’ and he said: ‘Look, this is just the way industry is’.”
All businesses have peaks and troughs, and managing staffing during these periods is a constant struggle.
“I thought the way it is handled does not make any sense. I saw companies losing employees simply because con“He
tracts were lost or deferred or cancelled and companies then lay off staff because they can’t afford them any more.”
The lay-offs meant companies not only lost staff, but experience, skills and capabilities that were costly to replace when staff were needed again.
“Replacing people is the one thing that will always cost you more than the last time,” Mrs Walmsley said. “If you lose that person you need to pay recruitment fees, training, everything costs more.”
Mr Walmsley said he knew there was a problem but did not know how to address it.
“I was at a large organisation trying to win some work. I heard their boss slamming the table, angry, because he just got a call asking for a systems engineer by 10am the next morning.”
Mr Walmsley said the executive’s response was his lightbulb moment.
said: ‘Who do they think we are? We don’t just have a bench of people sitting here doing nothing, waiting for them to call’. I thought, I know where they are. They are sitting at other companies waiting for these contracts.”
Mrs Walmsley at first dismissed her husband’s enthusiasm for the idea because he was “ranting” but when she considered the human side, the loss of jobs and the impact on families, she decided it was worth a shot.
The pair were accepted into the BlueChilli accelerator program where they were able to build a platform for the business without spending millions.
They kept waiting for an “aha” moment, the discovery of why their concept had not been rolled out before, but it never came.
Bench On was launched with 12 corporate clients and has facilitated $25 million worth of contract work across a wide range of industries.
“It does not cost anything to sign up and if you need people it does not cost you a cent. The company with the under-utilised employee (fulfilling the contract) pays our rate but only once they have been paid for the work. So there is no upfront cost,” Mrs Walmsley said.