Founded in 2010 by CEO Tony Brooks, Feynbrook started life as a Google Apps partner – helping Amnesty International Australia move email and collaboration to the cloud. Feynbrook are known for bringing NetDocuments to Australia.
Tony, why did you decide to work with Employee Matters?
I had just started growing a team, and I didn’t really know how to be compliant. The individuals were from a corporate background that had big, corporate HR departments, and I wanted to make sure that I was giving a consistent level of service and also managing my risks in employing people. I started off with Natasha’s book and then the Hire To Fire toolkit and then our first engagement was to hire an admin person.
The main problems you were trying to solve were compliance and recruitment. What was the impactful result for you of working with Employee Matters?
Twofold – Firstly we got good people – it took a little while to find a suitable project Manager, but we got somebody good. The second part is having Employee Matters help me build the team.
The Employee Expert sort of integrates into your business then?
Yes, and she knows our business very well – to the point where Helen and my Project Manager are friends almost. It’s very touching to see.
Great. What surprised you about working with Employee Matters? Maybe you want to talk about the story about Julia leaving.
I was told that my Project Manager – Julia – was going on maternity leave in a few weeks’ time. We met with Helen, our Employee Expert, about a week ago to go through the logistics of that and how it might play out. Our business is in a great spot and those outcomes could be favourable or not for Julia because it’s quite an uncertain time for her and for the company. Helen was really good at logistically managing that process and getting us both to a point where we know what might happen and we’ve got our framework in place to manage – that as Julia goes away on leave and hopefully comes back.
Julia caught me later in the day and said that Helen had given her a little gift for herself and the baby and had asked for photographs of the new baby. It was genuine – it wasn’t a customer thing. It was a genuine interest in Julia, so much so, that if it doesn’t work out for Julia, Helen said “Look, irrespective of whether you come back to us or not, just call me and I’ll help you”. I thought that was excellent.
So how did that make you feel?
It made me feel better because Julia felt better as it sort of took the sting out of the whole situation. It just makes both of us much more comfortable.
And who do you think would get value from working with either a Recruitment Expert or an Employee Expert from Employee Matters?
People that haven’t got the first clue of building a team is probably a good start. And those that want to do it quickly and in a compliant way.
Fantastic. Is there anything you think you would like to leave us with on what we talked about? Any other comments?
It’s just a really good model that Employee Matters has built up, and I highly recommend them and their experts. It’s hard to describe but it’s not a logistical model or a transactional relationship. They are part of our team model which is great!
So Employee Matters is a part of your business?
Part of the business but still at a distance. I know that I could phone Helen today with a crisis and she’d make time to meet in the next day or so, but she wouldn’t be trying to get more business – so there’s a really good, open and non-transactional relationship that’s valuable and hard to find.