The lucrative benefits of owning a temporary recruitment business are now more attainable than ever, thanks to an exciting Express Employment Professionals initiative.
Arthur McColl, Group CEO of Express Employment Professionals and the established Frontline Recruitment Group franchise, explains Express’s innovative new program.
“We’ve developed an exciting Recruit-To-Own program that provides a 12-month runway to opening an Express franchise,” he says.
“This is an accelerator program ideal for sales-driven people with a desire to start their own business. They might lack the funds or the management experience we require, and this is a way for us to access and nurture great talent.
“Candidates need a solid track record in sales or experience in recruitment. They will have excellent networking skills and enjoy building relationships with people.”
Three successful candidates are already in the program, which launched three months ago. The goal is to sign up another three recruits this year.
Recruit-To-Own program nurtures new talent
So how does this accelerator program work?
Recruit-To-Own candidates operate in existing Express Employment Sydney offices while they learn how to build a strong temp recruitment business.
“We provide franchisee and management training at the centre of excellence in the corporate agency in Olympic Park,” explains Arthur.
Recruits who successfully build the business to the benchmark level, and whose values are aligned with Express Employment, can take the exciting next step to business ownership.
“We will loan them the funds to buy their own agency, at a discount fee,” reveals Arthur. “We can work with these successful candidates to reduce the costs of opening their business and shorten the time to ROI.”
An Express Employment Professionals franchise typically requires a total $200-$275,000 investment in working capital over the first two years.
Supporting franchisees as they build their businesses
“There is an intense focus on building the business and helping the new franchisee to develop a team. After this we gravitate to a strategic focus for the business.”
While this fresh take on nurturing the brilliant franchisees of the future is new to the Australian business, it has a successful track record in the US.
The US business has been trading for 40 years. Three years ago it acquired Frontline Recruitment Group, providing a foothold and local team to support launching and growing its temporary staffing brand and model across Australia and New Zealand.
“One of the benefits of US ownership is there is lots of innovation and experimentation,” Arthur says.
This innovative strategy to drive the growth of Express will accelerate brand expansion in 2024. It will ramp up the recruitment of talented professionals, initially as employees, leading them to then open a further six or seven agencies around the Sydney area.
“Keeping a local focus to Sydney ensures we can double-down on our excellent support for our fledgling franchisees. We are literally working shoulder-to-shoulder with them in the field.”
Accelerating growth through new program
Express has about 10 available territories within Sydney. New franchisees in the Recruit-To-Own program will be generating business for the new territory they want to own.
“They will come in with a mindset of territory ownership. We have carefully prioritised areas with the right density of potential clients and workforce,” says Arthur.
Accelerated openings will reflect the fast-paced nature of temp hire.
“This is a high volume, transactional business. There are very few franchise opportunities in recruitment and our model is already world-leading.”
Express Employment franchisees effectively hold staff on their books to fill the temporary roles. Once a job is filled, it is Express who manages the wages and handles all back-end administration.
“What differentiates Express is that the US business has the funds to bankroll payroll. So as a franchisee, your job is to find clients and take job orders. To do this you need to have staff to fill the jobs. But the risk lies with Express. We deal with all the back end of the transaction.
“It would be too expensive to do this yourself, an individual could not start up in this field alone.
Express Employment’s Recruit-To-Own program a unique opportunity
“And that makes this a hugely exciting opportunity. It is a great model because we are both tied to our franchisees’ success via the split of the margin.”
The Express Employment team of dedicated field managers and services support staff shared with the Frontline Recruitment Group is laser-focused on building the brand.
“I liken it to a Formula 1 team. In racing, you have to have a great driver, but you also need a strong team behind them,” says Arthur.
Long-term, the plan is to expand to at least 100 agencies in Australia. The opening of a new Express Employment Professionals corporate agency in New Zealand next year will be the first step in further developing that market.