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Steven Threlfall... I'm the proprietor of Trelly's Tackle World
in Shepparton. And as Tackle World, we're part of one
of the largest retail groups in tackle in Australia.
So, and we're looking for people with user-friendly
qualities with the public. So, and another thing too is
once we make contact, as an employee, so you just
don't want to make things too hard and tie things up
in red tape. So basically, I said, well if you work out
the logistics as far as paper work, wages, subsidies,
what I'm going to, you know, what I'm going to actually,
at a bottom line, at the end of the day, what we're going
to get out of this, they did it all for me. So it was just
made easy. And that's just what we want to hear. As far
as the employees perspective on doing these things,
you don't want to complicate it. It gets too hard.
So making things easy, which CVGT did.
It's just, it just makes things easy.
The last thing we want to do is to tie ourselves up with
paperwork: Which bit do we fill in? Do I put my name
there? You know, and all this type of thing. So, pretty
much at the start of the negotiation, I just asked it to be
simple and make it easy and that's what's happened.
So, and it just means that the person you are trying to help
out and get back into the workforce just has to turn up.
Everything else is done. You can get on with your job
and work on these people and get them meaningfully
employed again without all the logistics that goes on
in the background which is great. Because they came
in and they said, "Oh, look, we're from...
and I didn't even recognise the name...from an
employment agency and we've got some people
who are...with some disabilities in some certain
manners or forms. And I said OK what's this guy?
Has he got no legs or no arms?
Or has he been hit by a car and whatever?
All these scenarios run through your head. So then one
of the particular chaps that came to me was a reformed
alcoholic and I thought, yeah, I could probably relate to
that. So, I said look, yeah, I'll meet the guy. So, actually
they brought the chap along to the shop and look,
he had a nice user-friendly face and I had a chat to
him for a while. He was very switched on,
he was easy to talk to, he was good with people,
his people skills were very good - in his own, little shy way
and I thought, I reckon this is going to work. So, that's
how we sort of sparked up the first sort of relationship
with him on a very low level of communication.
And away we went from there. So yeah, I had a few,
bit of a few different pictures in my head as far as
disabilities go, but ah, yeah pleasantly surprised as far
as some of the people involved and the people behind
the scenes was yeah, good.
Probably a little scared to actually go and put their neck
on the line as far as employing some people. One of the
guys that we've actually been through the system with us
had a bad back. So you know, the alarm bells go off
and things like that as far as employing people
and you think the easiest way out is to say no.
Probably the hard way out is to probably put someone
on and give them a go and give them duties that don't
relate to heavy lifting and things like that which,
in our circumstances, in our shop, there's a lot of things
that can be done without lifting things. So, that worked
out quite well. And the guy has completed a couple of
certificates. So, as far as an employer looking to put
someone on,there are certain gaps there that can
certainly can be filled with people out there who are
classed as disability which I probably beg to differ,
that you know, probably should be classed as that
in some circumstances.
Yeah, this particular chap who manages my site in
the fishing tackle in my store was basically housed in
one of the government housing schemes.
He didn't have particularly any money to his name.
He started off on very basic hours to get him into the
system and get him comfortable. Like I say before, he
grew, as an employee dropped off, he grew and took
on more and more roles within his duties.
And now, like I say he's the manager of my fishing tackle side.
And I've seen the person grow, he's got more self-esteem.
He's got more confidence in himself.
He can now go and negotiate deals as far as in my
buying section and conducts himself very, very well.
So, I'm... you feel pretty proud about that. That someone,
you know, you can actually take from certainly a situation
that was very, very bad, and with his commitment
and given him some confidence back,
has been a real success story.
Yeah, I think it was when I got the last payment on the
car which I bought for him, actually. He actually,
he had no money. He didn't even have a car and look
I had the real confidence in this chap.
So he had to get himself around, so I bought him a car,
so he was travelling around in that. And, look it wasn't
a particularly expensive car but it was in good nick
and he made the conscious effort to pay that off as
quickly as he could and I think that he was just as
stoked to get something back that he owned and it
gave me the confidence that he could actually pay
something back and get him back on track.
So yeah, it was good.
It's where human nature, trust, all that type of thing,
sort of comes back to you. And then you realise that there
is a lot of good people out there and as far as their
circumstances in life and where they take them,
they can certainly turn themselves around given the
right circumstances. So yeah, look it's... the overall
thing has been a really good experience...
yeah, very happy with it.
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