The government’s $50M support package is a start, but survival will come down to strategy. Here are five strategic recommendations to help mitigate risks and future-proof your agency operations:
1. Diversify Your Client Portfolio
Why it matters:
Industry-specific exposure can be risky. Sectors like manufacturing, construction, and heavy industries are likely to be directly affected by trade volatility and supply chain disruptions.
Ideas to help you get started:
- Identify and engage sectors that are more resilient to global shocks, such as healthcare, technology, aged care, education, logistics, and government services.
- Develop marketing and outbound campaigns that target these sectors with tailored service offerings.
- Build credibility in new sectors by showcasing your success - use client testimonials and NPS data to prove performance.
2. Upskill and Reskill the Temporary Workforce
Why it matters:
As certain industries contract and others grow, the demand for transferable skills will increase. Labour hire agencies that can rapidly pivot their workforce to meet new sector needs will hold a competitive advantage.
Ideas to help you get started:
- Partner with training providers like TAFEs and RTOs to offer short, subsidised upskilling courses to temp and contract workers (e.g. safety certs, digital literacy, trade crossover skills). Negotiate subsidised or co-branded options and offer these as part of your agency’s value proposition.
- Create skill profiles for your candidates that highlight cross-sector readiness. Tip: Use your ATS or CRM to tag candidates by skill level, certification status, and redeployability potential.
- Promote “ready-to-deploy” pools of labour with high adaptability to emerging needs.
3. Strengthen Relationships with Clients
Why it matters:
Clients are no longer just looking for a recruitment agency that can "fill roles fast." They're looking for a partner who understands their industry, can anticipate disruptions, and will stand beside them as a strategic advisor.
Ideas to help you get started:
- Conduct proactive workforce planning sessions with clients to understand how their staffing needs may shift. This includes agreeing on contingency plans in case of delays, budget cuts, or regulation changes.
- Offer flexible hiring models (e.g. on-demand labour, shared risk contracts, hybrid placements).
- Be transparent about market conditions and bring market intelligence to the table:
- Sharing monthly updates or “Labour Market Pulse Reports” with key clients.
- Offering guidance on emerging hiring challenges, visa changes, or compliance trends.
- Hosting short client webinars or roundtables to unpack sector-specific impacts from macro events (like tariffs).
4. Stay Ahead of Policy and Support Programs
Why it matters:
The Australian government has pledged assistance packages, low-interest loans, and incentives to help affected sectors. Recruitment agencies that understand these changes, not just react to them, can become valuable strategic partners, guiding clients through uncertain terrain and helping them capitalise on these programs.
Ideas to help you get started:
- Monitor updates from the Department of Industry, DFAT, and Austrade on support grants or strategic market access programs.
- Share relevant insights with clients—especially in exporting industries—so they can make informed workforce decisions.
- Position your agency as a “compliance-aware” partner that can adapt quickly to regulatory changes.
Tip: Set up Google Alerts, RSS feeds, or subscribe to newsletters to get real-time updates without manual searching.
5. Invest in Automation and Operational Efficiency
Why it matters:
When growth is uncertain, operational efficiency becomes a core advantage. Agencies that continue to rely on manual, paper-heavy processes across onboarding, compliance, payroll, and rostering face higher costs, slower placements, and greater legal risk.
Automation isn’t about replacing humans—it’s about freeing up your team to do more valuable, strategic work while letting tech handle the repetitive, error-prone admin.
Ideas to help you get started:
- Audit your agency’s internal processes for inefficiencies and bottlenecks - Where are you losing time? What’s still manual? Which steps generate the most candidate or client complaints?
- Adopt recruitment tech that streamlines onboarding, compliance checks, rostering, and payroll. Avoid juggling multiple tools—choose an all-in-one platform that integrates ATS, onboarding, compliance, payroll, and rostering in one system.
- Highlight automation as a client value-add (e.g. "“We can onboard and deploy compliant workers within 24 hours—fully certified, with digital audit trails you can access at any time.”).
Tariffs may be out of your control—but how you respond isn’t.
Stay agile, double down on efficiency, and back your clients with smart, strategic moves. The agencies that adapt now won’t just survive—they’ll lead.
Ready to streamline onboarding, compliance, and payroll in one powerful platform? Schedule a consultation with Access Recruitment and see how automation can future-proof your agency.