Mob Days’ allow aspirants to engage with employers on the spot, including all onboarding done on-the-spot, and then training and ongoing placement support provided by Real Futures. This means aspirants go from unemployed to working within two weeks!
Australian Unity’s Aboriginal Home Care service strives to provide culturally appropriate disability and aged care services to Aboriginal people. The team includes 300 Aboriginal staff members who need to be carefully selected and trained to ensure they meet support and cultural needs, including recognising and respecting the client’s community, culture and Country.
Australian Unity (AU) have been working with Real Futures since 2017, and to date, we have placed 60 First Nations Australians in jobs at AU. However, where prospective employees were living a distance from the Real Futures offices and were trying to complete applications remotely without assistance, the process could be frustrating and very time-consuming – sometimes taking six months.
Melissa Fernando from Real Futures and Bonita Bloomfield from Australian Unity decided that they could do it better – and the idea for a Mob Day was born.
In late 2019 Melissa designed and managed a tailor-made program specifically for AU. This consisted of pre-screening and advertising; a ‘Mob Day’ including all onboarding done on-the-spot, and then training and ongoing placement support provided by Real Futures. This means aspirants go from unemployed to working within two weeks!
The first Mob Day was held in Newcastle for around 20 aspirants. The day was such a success that seven more have been rolled out and more are planned. So far more than 20 Real Futures aspirants have been placed with Australian Unity.
How does it work?
The Real Futures team advertise and promote the day, pre-screen all applicants to check they were ready to work, and tell them what the jobs are all about and what to expect.
At the Mob Days, AU’s staff introduce themselves, and talk about who they are and what AU does. From there participants break up into small groups and do all their onboarding there and then, including fit2work police checks, medicals, and anything else needed. They also run team-work scenarios, having some fun learning about co-operation, communication and leadership, to see what they were best at.
This is backed up with sessions with the Elders from Australian Unity Home Care – the type of clients that our aspirants would be working with and helping day to day. This helps AU see which aspirants has the right attitude, sense of community, and understanding of family and culture. Finally, interviews were run there and then with AU staff.
The next day the AU HR team ring the aspirants they want with the exciting news that they have jobs starting in two weeks.
But the support does not stop there and Real Futures steps back in to help.
In the first week aspirants attend a Get Ready workshop where Real Futures work with them to understand what the challenges are with balancing work will be and helping prepare the candidates and their families for the change. They also work with them to make sure they had transport and clothes and all the things required for a job.
Real Futures, who are owned by the Angus Knight Group, also team up with stablemates Angus Knight Institute: Learning Sphere Training Solutions to set the aspirants up for success on day one. Focusing on the client’s requirements, program is designed to provide key skills for aspirants’ long-term careers. Learning Sphere Training Solutions and Real Futures can secure NSW Smart and Skilled funding. The week-long program includes Work Health and Safety training, First Aid certificates, COVID cleaning and infectious disease control training, and training in how to deal with difficult clients and communications skills. Some aspirants were inspired by the training to consider becoming Assistants in Nursing and eventually Registered Nurses.
“Real Futures outperform the rest when it comes to working with aspirants” says AKI Learning Sphere’s Emma Jory. “They are meticulous with their pre-vetting and all aspirants come to us with a clear understanding of what being in employment entails, and how it will impact their lives. We find with Real Futures we get a high retention in employment rate – around 80% – because their post-employment support is so good. For example, where a new employee can’t get to work because they need childcare, they can ring Real Futures and there will be instant help”
Australian Unity’s Bonita Bloomfield says working with Real Futures has made all the difference to their recruitment strategy “Working with Real Futures is so easy, they understand Indigenous culture and people and we feel really confident working with them knowing that they will do things the right way. They care about the community and their support is second to none, for us and for aspirants. It’s inspiring and empowering for us to see the difference we – as a team – can make to job seekers and our clients’ lives”
We went from a painful 6-month process to a two-week end-to-end solution which works better for aspirants and employer alike.
We went from a painful 6-month process to a two-week end-to-end solution which works better for aspirants and employer alike.
