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Why more Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders are needed in Youth Work

​Overview Endeavour Foundation is an independent, for purpose organisation that provides services to people with intellectual disability in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. As a registered NDIS provider, our Partner’s organisation offers a range of services including supported employment, supported independent living within disability accommodation, as well as adult education and community access programs. Maintaining tight quality controls, Endeavour Foundation embeds safeguards and human rights frameworks and principles throughout the whole organisation. Client Scenario Prior to engaging Edmen Community Staffing Solutions, Endeavour Foundation identified the need to enhance responsiveness and flexibility in their frontline disability support team while maintaining a stable and secure permanent workforce. Compromising on service quality was not an option, so they sought a values-aligned workforce partner that would offer more than contingent labour hire and understood the importance of customer experience under an NDIS model. Over the course of 10 years, Edmen has built a strong relationship with Endeavour Foundation's management while delivering a holistic workforce solution to support their service delivery and complex tiered pricing model. A Contingent Workforce Solution Combining industry expertise with national reach, Edmen met Endeavour Foundation's criteria for a community workforce staffing partner. Working closely with Endeavour Foundation, Edmen provides a workforce solution aligned to organisational values to acts as an extension of Endeavour Foundation's internal HR team. Core components of the partnership include recruitment, integrated training programs and after-hours rostering. Recruitment of a contingent workforce- Edmen’s dedicated recruitment team attracts and hires casual support workers to compliment Endeavour Foundation's permanent team. Competencies and skill-based assessments are mapped to internal requirements and NDIS frameworks. Reference and background checks are completed by Edmen before staff are funnelled through the training and induction program. Training and induction programs – Edmen provides training and induction processes are aligned to Endeavour Foundation's internal processes, resulting in a seamless and consistent experience for candidates and a value add for our client. Once equipped with the skills and knowledge, support workers are integrated into the Endeavour Foundation's team for continued development opportunities. 24/7 - After hours responsiveness – Endeavour Foundation operates residential care facilities that require support staff at different times of the day. Outsourcing after-hours recruitment to Edmen enables them to quickly respond to customer requirements around the clock, while optimising labour costs. Client Benefits Temp-to-perm opportunities: A key value driver in the workforce partnership is the option for Endeavour Foundation to transition casual Edmen Support Workers into permanent roles after they have worked a level of hours at no cost. This allows for increased workforce agility and maintains Endeavour Foundation's commitment to quality through retaining workers that provide long-lasting benefits to both customers and the organisation. An agile workforce solution: A consistent percentage of Endeavour Foundation's support services are delivered by the contingent staff through Edmen’s workforce partnership. Utilising a blended model of both permanent and contingent workers, Edmen’s workforce supports Endeavour Foundation to meet strategic objectives under a complex NDIS tiered pricing model that is subject to frequent change. This has helped our Partner optimise labour costs while maintaining high standards of support to customers. Workforce planning and regional recruitment: A core benefit of the partnership is the planning workforce initiatives undertaken with Edmen to identify and fill staffing gaps. Particularly in regional areas where staff scarcity is a challenge, Edmen’s national reach and values-aligned approach support Endeavour Foundation to attract and find quality staff to meet their workforce needs. With a 10 year history, Edmen continues to work with Endeavour Foundation. We are proud of the long-standing relationship we have built and the workforce initiatives that have contributed to our Partner's ongoing success. ​ Need a staffing partner for your community service organisation? Get in touch to learn how Edmen’s workforce solutions can help optimise your service delivery and grow your organisation.

Overview EBL Disability Services is a registered not-for-profit organisation that provides quality lifestyle support and accommodation services to people with disabilities. Operating across South Australia, EBL offers services designed to support individuals and their families from childhood through to adulthood in line with the NDIS practice standards and code of conduct. Client Scenario For EBL, the need for a contingent staffing solution became apparent nearly 10 years ago when a senior manager approved leave for nearly 50% of frontline staff at the same time. As a disability support provider, they faced the challenge of finding quality staff at very short notice familiar with the intrinsically complex and nuanced work. When EBL engaged Edmen Community Staffing Solutions, the Client Service Management team recognised the importance of creating an end-to-end staffing solution that would deliver work-ready Support Workers to compliment EBL’s permanent frontline workforce. This needed to be aligned to EBL’s internal processes, support their EBA and built on a foundation of trust. An Integrated Workforce Solution Edmen worked closely with EBL to create a bespoke solution that would meet their staffing requirements. This was tailored to EBL’s requirements around preselection, agency staffing and rostering, 24/7 on-call processes. ​ Pre selection of frontline workforce: Edmen’s dedicated team of Recruitment Consultants source, recruit and onboard frontline workers on behalf of EBL. Selection and induction processes are mapped to EBL’s requirements, core staff competencies and workforce frameworks. Once onboarded and screened by Edmen, staff are vetted by EBL, then embedded and treated as part of the wider team. Competent workers identified as a good fit at EBL are often transitioned into permanent roles. ​ Agency staff and 24/7 On-Call: Edmen provides a streamlined process for EBL to access Edmen staff 24/7 hours a day. By dealing directly with Edmen’s Afterhours team, EBL can request staff for last minute shifts or for emergency cover. Edmen Support Workers now make up approximately 30% of EBL’s entire workforce. Maintaining this contingent portion enables EBL to increase organisational responsiveness and ensures they have the right staff to respond to client’s requirements. ​ Roster management: A core component of the workforce partnership is roster management. Edmen rosters both EBL’s casual and permanent frontline workers on a monthly basis. Prior to partnering with Edmen, EBL would roster staff a week in advance which was time-intensive process that saw the Operations Manager take up to 80 phone calls a day. ​ Client Benefits Through the partnership with Edmen, EBL has been able to scale their service delivery to meet growing demand customer demand. This has contributed to their impressive growth over the last 10 years – with headcount expanding from 20 to 200 and annual turnover increasing from 1.4 million to 19.7 million. ​ “Edmen has been able to provide the human resources to enable us to scale quickly and help meet growing demand”. ​ Low staff turnover Central to the success of the workforce partnership has been EBL’s commitment to integrate Edmen staff as a true extension of their team. When orientating Edmen staff, EBL makes it a top priority to ensure they are made to feel welcome and part of the broader ELB team. CEO, Wendy says “Edmen staff come to us well trained and with very clear expectations. It’s important they recognise that they are part of our team and our community. That’s why we have Edmen staff that stay with us for a very long time.” This approach has been central to EBL achieving an impressive 92% staff retention rate. Risk and compliance management Edmen’s contingent staff that come to EBL trained and available as-needed have been a great benefit of the workforce solution. EBL’s CEO, Wendy, says they have a very thorough approach to worker screening and training given the complex nature of the work and due to the fact EBL takes responsibility as the licensee. As well as frontline worker screening, hiring and training, Edmen supports EBL with staff performance management. If there is an incident, Edmen can respond quickly to carry out independent interviews and put individual performance plans in place. This has helped EBL shape and implement best practice procedures to reduce risk and reinforce their commitment to safety across its contingent workforce. Improved operational efficiencies Through outsourcing the pre-employment selection, onboarding, rostering and other contingent staff functions to Edmen, EBL has help streamline HR processes and removed the need for EBL having to undertake non-core tasks – something Wendy says has helped with both cost savings and quality. Since partnering with Edmen, Wendy says EBL’s Operations Manager phone calls has gone from 80a day to around 10-15 calls a day. With less time spent on administrative staff related tasks, EBL can dedicate more time to client service delivery to provide the best possible support. “ If it wasn’t for the relationship and trust we’ve built with Edmen, we wouldn’t have handed over our business like we have. There’s been a lot of effort been put in by Edmen to build that trust and that’s about being responsive when there is an issue”. Edmen is proud to work alongside EBL and boast a genuine workforce partnership that has helped our client scale to support more people with disabilities to live meaningful lives. Edmen continues to work with EBL Disability Services today, a relationship that now stands at nearly 10 years. ​ Need a staffing partner for your community service organisation? Get in touch to learn how Edmen’s workforce solutions can help optimise your service delivery and grow your organisation.