The best way to judge a labour hire company isn’t the sales pitch. It’s how they answer a short list of practical questions. Before you sign on for site staff, ask how they check tickets and licences, whether they actually know your sector, who manages the worker’s employment and WHS obligations, how they mobilise people, and what’s covered in the charge rate. A provider that answers all five clearly is worth trusting with your site.
Do they check tickets, licences and inductions before anyone steps on site?
Anyone carrying out construction work in Australia needs a general construction induction card, commonly known as the White Card, gained by completing the recognised general construction induction training. Certain higher-risk activities, such as operating some cranes, forklifts and hoists, or performing dogging, rigging and certain scaffolding work, need a High Risk Work licence on top of that.
Ask a prospective provider how they verify this before someone is placed, not after: it’s the standard behind our labour hire service, and any provider worth using should meet it too.
Do they actually know your sector?
Construction, civil and infrastructure, and renewables and energy each draw on different pools of trades and general labour, with different site rhythms and different peak periods. A crew that works well on a commercial build isn’t automatically the right fit for a solar farm or a road project. A provider that’s only ever placed people in one of those sectors will struggle to read what your site actually needs. Ask for examples of the sectors they staff regularly, not just a list of services on a website, and ask how they’d approach your specific job type.
Who’s actually managing the worker’s employment and WHS obligations?
With labour hire, the worker is employed by the labour hire company and placed on your site, not employed by you. That company should be handling the employment relationship, payroll, and the workplace health and safety obligations that come with being the employer. Before you sign, ask exactly where their responsibility ends and yours begins on your site, and get it in writing rather than assuming.
How do they actually mobilise people?
Every provider will tell you they’re fast. Ask instead about the process behind it: do they already have a pool of registered, ticket-checked workers in your region, or are they starting a search cold once you call? A provider with genuine local knowledge of the trades market in your area will be able to describe how they source people for a ramp-up, not just promise a number. It’s also worth asking what happens if a placed worker doesn’t work out: how quickly they can find a replacement, and what that process looks like.
What’s actually included in the charge rate?
Before you sign, get clarity on what the charge rate actually covers: payroll, the relevant on-costs, and who’s responsible for what if something goes wrong on site. A provider that can’t give you a straight answer on scope is one to be cautious of, regardless of how competitive the headline rate looks.
Is a labour hire company even the right fit?
If the need is a short-term crew for a defined project or a peak in workload, labour hire is built for that. If you’re after someone in an ongoing, permanent role instead, it’s worth asking whether the provider also offers permanent recruitment, since the two are answering different problems.
Bringing it together
None of these questions are complicated, but they’re the ones that separate a provider who’ll get the right people on your site from one who’ll just get you people. Ask about ticket-checking, sector experience, who owns the WHS obligations, how mobilisation actually works, and what’s included. Judge the answers, not the pitch.
If you’ve got a site that needs staffing now, tell us what you need on site and we’ll talk through it.
