Pro Kiwi hires on demand
with PICMI
“If we get to a point where a couple of workers drop off, or we need to hire more—it's been really easy to just flip the switch, hire and then move on.
— Mark Ballantyne,
Finance Manager, Pro Kiwi
A bit about Mark and Pro Kiwi
Like many kiwis living overseas, Mark Ballantyne chose to leave Canada in 2020 and return home. He joined a family-run business Pro Kiwi in June as their Finance Manager and turned his attention to reducing inefficiencies so they could focus on the work that mattered.
“We were just wasting so much time to get the workers here. We wanted to be spending that time with the guys out training them and picking. Nobody was making money with this process.”
Mark knew from experience that the back and forth of finding workers was time-consuming and often frustrating work. But his experiences with recruitment in Canada had shown him that timely responses to jobseekers were critical.
“People are applying to 10 different places and if you don't hire them quickly, they're going to the person who responds first.”
In previous years, labour shortages had meant they needed to supplement their picking force with contractors resulting in a loss of margin. And to top it off, one of Mark’s admin staff left at the start of harvest, doubling his workload. He knew he needed a solution.
How did PICMI solve the problem?
With PICMI, Mark was able to get set up for hiring within 2 weeks.
“It felt like we were probably throwing a few curveballs at you guys here and there and you guys were smacking it out of the park every time.”
Starting with the PICMI templates, they customised their application flow, induction material and employment agreement.
Now they have a link in their job ads which jobseekers can follow to see the details of the job, fill in their personal information, watch an induction video and answer questions. Then, if they meet the critical hiring criteria, they can electronically sign a contract.
What results have they seen?
This season, Pro Kiwi has been able to hire people as they’ve needed and this has seen them reduce from four contracting teams last year, to only one—which all adds up to a positive impact on their earnings per bin.