Despite the crippling effects of COVID-19, many Incubator residents have reframed the narrative and expanded their teams during this unprecedented time.
YourLink joined the Macquarie University Incubator in 2019, with a purpose to help seniors build their digital skills and give them access to a quality of life that includes happiness, a sense of connection and the feeling of being valued.
COVID-19 has pushed the team to scale-up their operations to geographically cater to clients in Victoria and South Australia. As a growing business that is, at its core, human-focused, YourLink is constantly looking to expand their workforce.
Recently, they have hired 2 Digital Coaches who will act as first points of contact to seniors receiving home care or staff in residential aged care and community care. They have also hired a new Trainer who will take lead on training delivery and teach seniors essential digital skills.
Unchained Business Services is committed to helping Australian companies address the issue of modern slavery and develop a culture change around ethical sourcing of goods and services.
From June to August, 3 staff members were employed on a part-time contractual basis as an Operations Manager and the Leads for Risk Assessment and Social Impact Strategies. 5 new staff members also joined the team in a volunteer capacity.
Crewmojo is a collaborative and intuitive performance management platform that helps make performance employee owned.
Last month, they hired a new sales team member - and as a remote employee she currently resides in Perth. She will be introducing Crewmojo to organizations looking to create a fair and unbiased performance process (even in remote teams).
This is a unique working situation as training new staff members in person remains challenging. It also presents an interesting experiment to see how Crewmojo might increase the velocity of new customers onto the platform.
Generous and Grateful supports survivors of homelessness and harm starting over by sourcing and supplying great, pre-loved household furniture and white goods to turn a roof over their head into safe, lovely homes. Since the beginning of COVID-19, demand for their deliveries of bulky household necessities has only increased. The team initially faced the logistical challenge of protecting their staff members as they directly deal with second-hand goods. During the first lockdown, they protected their team and recipients in 3 ways: isolated donations for 10 days in an empty warehouse, which slowed down their delivery timeline; had their contractor handling orders and stocklist as well as transport, and provided cleaning equipment and PPE to their staff.
They have also recently hired a part-time experienced Warehouse Supervisor to help design their systems and processes to be more organised, safe and efficient – these gains will help them assist more vulnerable people more quickly. A virtual assistant has also been employed to help with inbox management every morning for the co-founders who wear too many hats to do it all and stay sane.
The Crossroads 2020 annual report points to global evidence that high-level development jobs typically remain where start-ups are founded, highlighting the value of supporting Australian businesses. The Macquarie University Incubator aims to continue facilitating job creation by championing start-ups as they push forward in the current uncertain climate.