About ITEC Group

A family-owned Australian business, ITEC Group has empowered individuals since 1993 through their youth, employment, aged care, and disability support services. 

Their 290+ strong disability team operates across Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia, and New South Wales – as you can imagine, that’s a pretty big operation. 

Before joining Employment Hero, the ITEC Group was struggling with high staff turnover and time-consuming hiring processes. After trying Employment Hero’s SmartMatch recruitment tool, they’ve transformed the way they do employment.

We had a chat with Jesse, ITEC Group’s People and Culture Officer, to understand how SmartMatch helped them save time, cut costs and find better candidates faster.

The recruitment challenge

Recruitment in the disability support sector is no easy task. There’s always a huge demand for support workers, and that means from the employer’s perspective you really need to stand out from the crowd. You need to move fast and act quickly to secure top candidates – but as Jesse explains, that was increasingly difficult due to all the admin involved in the hiring process. 

“With several companies offering similar pay rates and benefits, many support workers tend to work across multiple employers,” he shared. 

“This leads to frequent movement as they look for more hours or better opportunities.”

Add to that the challenge of hiring two to five new starters every week, and the workload quickly piled up.

Before SmartMatch, Jesse and his team found that the recruitment process was a struggle.

“We had to post jobs, download resumes, save files and email back and forth for documents. It was very old-school and slow,” said Jesse. 

As he would soon find out – help was just around the corner.

How SmartMatch simplified recruitment

Jesse shared with us that the SmartMatch talent search feature was a game-changer when it came to finding and contacting candidates directly – instead of paying to post a job ad and waiting for applications to come in.

“It’s nice to know that in some locations, I don’t even have to worry about posting jobs and waiting for applications,” he explained.

Instead I can be proactive and reach out to the right people when it suits me.”

For cities like Brisbane, Newcastle and Adelaide, Jesse finds SmartMatch works particularly well.

“I’ve set up talent searches for each location. For instance, in Brisbane, I can instantly find support workers in the area and contact them immediately. If I don’t hear back within a few hours, only then do I post a job ad.”

Saving time and halving costs 

SmartMatch hasn’t just made recruitment easier, it’s also helped the ITEC Group save time and money. 

“When I started, we were spending $2,000 to $3,000 a month on job ads,” Jesse shared. “Now, it’s closer to $500.”

“Onboarding candidates is faster because they’re already familiar with the platform, having already created their profile on the Employment Hero Work app.

“It saves me about 10 minutes per person in onboarding alone, and with the number of hires we’re making, that adds up over a year.” 

Better candidates, better results

But don’t be fooled by the value for money offered by SmartMatch – Jesse also found the quality of candidates available was impressive, too. 

“The candidates I’ve engaged with have been responsive, well-prepared and easy to onboard. 

“Because they’re already somewhat familiar with the system, the process runs more smoothly compared to other platforms,” Jesse shared.

“I’d absolutely suggest giving it a try before turning to traditional job boards.” 

By streamlining these processes, Jesse and his team can focus on what they do best – connecting with people and building a strong workforce.

Ready to transform the way you hire?

With SmartMatch by Employment Hero, you no longer have to pay and pray for job board success, or review thousands of irrelevant CVs.

Instead, by using SmartMatch your business needs and preferences are all captured in one place, and used to automatically match top talent to your business.

If you’re ready to transform the way you hire just like Jesse, get started with SmartMatch now by booking a demo – and start hiring faster, and smarter.