PROFILE: SIDEKICKER
The horticulture workforce in a post-COVID landscape Introducing the NGIV’s new partner, Sidekicker Backed by SEEK, Sidekicker is the leading innovator in labour hire across Australia and New Zealand – using technology to dramatically improve how businesses source, hire and manage casual and temporary workers across a growing number of industries. With the horticulture industry booming due to COVID-19 lockdowns sparking massive consumer interest in home gardens, Sidekicker has provided workforce solutions that have enabled nurseries such as Mansfield’s, Ball Australia, Oasis Horticulture, JD Propagation, and Tesselaar to respond quickly and capitalise. We are excited to be sharing with you how in this month’s Groundswell Magazine – exploring the impact COVID-19 has had on the workforce, and the opportunities for horticulture businesses in a post-COVID landscape.
What we learnt about the horticulture workforce during COVID-19 Sidekicker employs 10,000 workers and provides millions of hours of work each year across several industries, uniquely positioning us with workforce data and insights. At the outbreak of COVID-19, the impact on the workforce ranged from a reduction in casual hours to large scale standing down of employees across sectors. Conversely, some sectors saw unprecedented demand for workers. As the charts below show, in a matter of days during March as lockdowns were announced, we saw hospitality and events hours decrease by 560%, contrasted sharply with businesses in essential services like supermarkets, as well as at-home
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meal delivery services and customer service teams, who scaled their workforces by as much as 5X in a single week to support unprecedented and rapid increases in order volumes. Specifically in horticulture, nurseries hiring on Sidekicker experienced increases in orders as much as 3X on normal volumes due to consumers’ heightened interest in at-home gardens, plants and veggie patches. Whilst the industry boomed, this increased demand exacerbated the existing limitations of the horticulture frontline workforce – that being, businesses being unable to find staff with the required skills and experience fast enough to react to production upflow in real-time, and risk leaving orders unfilled or waiting months to replant and replenish stocks. COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a better solution that allows flexibility and enables horticulture businesses to thrive and not be constrained by labour limitations.
What's next as the industry moves into peak season? Horticulture has traditionally struggled to source casual labour caused largely by skills for many roles taking time to cultivate and learn, yet staff churning quickly due to the high levels of seasonality and fluctuating demands in individual nurseries.
