The Talent Fix Recruitment Podcast with Hannah Wrixon

The Talent Fix Speakers

Talent Fix Recruitment Podcast with Hannah Wrixon

Barry Prost

Good morning, everyone and thanks for joining us on this episode of The Talent Fix. I’m delighted to be joined this morning by Hannah Wrixon, who is general manager of Wrk Wrk. The company was rebranded from Get the Shifts and Hannah is a multi-award-winning businesswoman. So welcome aboard, Hannah. Great to chat to you and I’ll pass it over to you just to tell us a bit about yourself.

Hannah Wrixon

Okay? No pressure. Nice intro. Thank you very much. So, yeah, I’m the general manager of WrkWrk. I founded Get the Shifts in 2017 and we primarily provide temporary staff on a one shift basis. So, shift by shift, we provide staff to hospitality, admin and retail primarily, but are looking at other industries that we could help and other territories where we could expand into. And we have created three apps to support our work, which allows people to work very flexibly and allows our clients to browse and Book staff. 24/7.

Barry Prost

Fantastic. And I was reading in one of your press releases, now, this might be outdated at this stage, but you have 500 workers.

Hannah Wrixon

We have 3700 at the moment who are actively working.

Barry Prost

And that’s throughout Ireland. And is it predominantly dominated by hospitality, Hannah?

Hannah Wrixon

Yeah, 80%. So, lots of volume type work. We would support Match days, we would support concerts, festivals, events. We would be in Slain every time there’s a Slain festival. But then we do really, really bespoke things as well. We would support lots of private parties to have your own mixologist on site. We would provide a lot of staff for five-star venues all around Ireland.

Barry Prost

And in terms of what I was really excited to get you on the podcast this morning, Hannah, was it’s very much the future of recruitment, the idea of the on-demand staffing platform? How do you see the industry moving and do you see it moving, the whole industry shifting this direction?

Hannah Wrixon

I think it has to. At the moment, we have such a huge candidate shortage that in order to get people who are available to work, we have to be very cognizant of what’s going on in their lives. So, it’s kind of a shift. It’s no longer, you know, you’re grateful to get a job, it’s the other way around. We’re grateful to get staff. So, I think having an OnDemand platform enables people to pick and choose when and where it suits them and allows clients to be fairly confident that the person firstly will show up because they’ve chosen it. And secondly, that they are willing and enthusiastic to do the job.

Barry Prost

Excellent. And in terms of the recruitment challenges that you believe are facing businesses today, how would you categorise them or what do you think the major challenges are that are facing employers in Ireland?

Hannah Wrixon

I think most of it is in that temporary space. It’s not full-time workers, but there are definitely industries that are suffering from lack of full-time workers. The hospitality space was particularly affected by COVID-19 and the lockdowns. Lots of people took an opportunity to upskill or look at different trades during that time in order to survive. And then, you know, they happen to come back. I think that there has been a huge shift around hospitality. So again, it’s really the owners, the managers, to think outside the box and to look at the solutions like ours, where they can expand and contract their workforce without getting into 0-hour contracts or getting into contracts in general. They’re not doing them, the recruitment, selection, induction, the training, and then losing people very quickly if they got a better offer. A platform like ours allows them to take those extra bookings to open that extra night without all of the difficulties that come along with staffing.

Barry Prost

And do you see opportunities outside the hospitality for the platform, or do you see it primarily remaining dominated within that sector?

Hannah Wrixon

No, I think if you look across many sectors, there is an appetite for this on demand staffing. There is an appetite like we’re getting into 24 hours working at this point. The eight-hour day is a kind of thing of the past. So, in order to meet the demands, then the staffing has to reflect that. So, there are definitely other industries that we’re exploring ourselves. And definitely, I think a fix like ours would be suitable in a lot of industries.

Barry Prost

Okay. And in terms of your own journey, which has been amazing to read about, COVID played a big part in your evolution of the business, I think. Was there a rebrand during COVID as well? And also, obviously joining forces with FRS? So, has that all had a big impact in terms of your own business?

Hannah Wrixon

A huge impact. Like having the security of a large parent company and the lovely budgets and dedication to innovation for a very old company and Well-established company, they’re 40 years plus. They are really, really committed to innovative and exciting developments.

Barry Prost

I saw they still picked up one or two awards at the Employment and Recruitment Federation awards.

Hannah Wrixon

Exactly. So, you know, we’re all award winners around here, so look, like FRS has been hugely beneficial for us. Our conversations had started before COVID so it wasn’t a covert conversation, which was great. There was no firehouse sale. It was really the coming together of two great cultures. And for them and their forward thinking and part of their roadmap was to look more at the space, look more at the technical development apps and just innovation in general, so that it was an easy fix for them to acquire a company like ours that was already doing it.

Barry Prost

One of the benefits, I think, was around their global outlook, I think you mentioned. So, is that innovation you have for work? Work?

Hannah Wrixon

Oh, for sure. Always has been since the day we started. If you had asked me in any of my earlier interviews, it would be world domination. So, I think this is a platform that would easily fit in any culture in any area and any territory. I think we still have designs on bringing this offering overseas and yeah, it’s definitely in the pipeline.

Barry Prost

Excellent. Can you share what markets you’re looking at first, or have you decided.

Hannah Wrixon

UK is the fabulous market. Even though it has been affected, it still is a fabulous opportunity for us. The greater European context, Canada, Australia, those are the kind of areas that we are looking at.

Barry Prost

Fantastic. Well, listen, we’re coming towards the end of the podcast. I promised you it’d be short and sweet. Hannah but just to finish up by asking you for your view on the future, and what do you think the future holds for employers when it comes to recruitment and what will you be doing differently, if anything, in the future?

Hannah Wrixon

I think it’s a time of a lot of unknowns and there’s not a lot of certainties at the moment. You know, wages are continuing to rise. I do think that companies like ourselves and companies like our FRS are actually changing the way people work. I know that FRS have changed how they are finding staff and candidates even, and down to the type of candidates for different roles has shifted. I think there’s a big shift towards flexible working, which is allowing women to progress careers up to more senior positions and the redress of kind of levels on board and balancing out any gender inequalities around the pay gap. And there’s a lot of things happening at the moment to redress things that probably have been happening for a lot of years. So, it’s a time of huge excitement. It’s a time of a lot of uncertainty and fear, but it is a time of I think there’s a lot of innovation coming out of this time. And I think people had the time during Lockdown to really kind of reflect and to think about what it was that was really important to them. I know that we definitely did that, I know that other employers are definitely doing that and I know that employees have definitely looked at what is truly important.

Hannah Wrixon

So there has been a huge shift and I think that our solution really, really answers that in that flexible working, allowing people to work around, study, college, family, children, caring commitments. So, yeah, I just I think that it’s an exciting time to be in recruitment.

Barry Prost

Lots of change and certainly worker playing a role in that. And congratulations on the growth of the platform and the app Hannah. And thanks so much for your time and coming on today.

Hannah Wrixon

Thank you so much.

Barry Prost

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Talent Fix. Please download, share and like this episode where you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify.