National recruitment firm ATS Recruitment Services has officially welcomed its 5000th client with the announcement today that leading heavy earthmoving equipment rental company Orionstone has joined the ATS family.

ATS Recruitment founder Leon Davies says the company – which specialises in providing white and blue collar recruitment services across the oil and gas, mining, trades and engineering, manufacturing and construction industries – prides itself on providing quality services with an emphasis on safety to clients like Orionstone all across the country.

“In this business a focus on not only superior relationship-based service but also safety is crucial, and I think our commitment to these areas is a key driver of the Australia-wide success we now enjoy,” Leon says, who founded ATS Recruitment in Subiaco (Western Australia) in 1996 when he came to the area from the UK where he established one of the country’s premier specialised recruitment agencies as a Derby University mechanical engineering graduate.

“For us, it isn’t about sending the first contractor on our database to the client, it is instead about finding them the right contractor for their needs – in the end, we would rather send no one at all than someone who is not the right fit and our clients appreciate that commitment to service quality over the desire to make a ‘quick buck’.

“We have even been known to turn-down clients after conducting a safety audit on their premises and finding they did not meet our standards and had no capability for change – that is how important safety is for us in how we do business for both our clients and our contractors.

“While today we are excited to officially welcome our 5000th client I am proud to say that to this day we are also still supplying the very first company who signed with us back in 1996, so our approach clearly resonates with our customers.”

The Mackay-based Orionstone provides large earth moving vehicles to Australia’s mine sites and comes to ATS Recruitment after finding the quality of other providers lacking.

“ATS Recruitment convinced me there was a no nonsense approach to recruitment available which held honesty up as the best policy,” Orionstone Asset and Maintenance Manager East Alec Bruce says.

“The company is run by engineers who understand mining and construction, and I am looking forward to working with them for our recruitment needs.”

It is no secret that the past 12 months have been challenging for industries across the country, and there is no exception when it comes to the business of recruitment. However Davies says stronger times now lay ahead.

“It has been a quiet period with the ‘low hanging fruit’ disappearing some time ago. While it has been a challenging 12 months for most industry sectors including recruitment and especially the resources industry which has toiled through numerous economic factors, green shoots are now starting to appear,” Leon says.

“With activity now starting to increase we are expecting our biggest year to date in 2014 with an expected 40% growth in business forecast compared to this year and at least two new locations on the radar.”

With 17 years at the helm of ATS Recruitment under his belt and 29 years in recruitment in total, Davies has seen a wide array of change in the recruitment industry and warns against the looming trend of procurement management of labour.

“Since I established this business I have seen a huge emphasis on safety and client and contractor support come to the fore with full management services added to many contracts,” Leon adds.

“There is also a lot more red tape and compliance measures required, and this has favoured the bigger staffing agencies which have the infrastructure in place while hampering new start-up companies.

“The payment terms have also spiralled out of control more recently, with larger clients using agencies to ‘bank roll’ employees; and we have started to see a lean towards procurement departments trying to manage the purchasing of labour services which are in essence relationship-based support where cost does not equal value.

“For instance, I can supply a fitter for a cheaper price, but that cheaper fitter could end up costing more to finish the job than one of my better contractors, and that is where the understanding of the construction manager or mine manager comes into play in creating an optimum arrangement.”

Sara Davis of ATS Recruitment’s Mackay office was recognised with a special award following her successful signing of Orionstone earlier this month, with this award presented to her by Davies at the Orionstone Mackay facility. Joining them was new ATS Recruitment General Manager Shayne Pollack.

“I have just taken over the reins here at ATS and the one thing that is already standing out to me as opposed to the other companies I have worked with in this industry is the high level of care for the client and the contractor alike,” says Shayne, who has a 16 year background in the recruitment industry including senior management roles for large multinational organisations in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth with national and South East Asia responsibilities.

“The emphasis on safety is clear and that helps make my job easier.”

ATS recruitment services is an Australian owned and operated business with 10 cost centres around Australia, and a Head Office in South Perth.

A national provider of labour hire and permanent staffing recruitment services, ATS Recruitment provides innovative and cost effective blue and white collar recruitment services for clients across multiple industry sectors including Oil and Gas, Mining, Trades and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction.

Formed in 1996, ATS continues to be a privately owned business with a database of 70,000 candidates which service clients from branch locations in QLD, NSW, VIC, SA and WA supported by dedicated Human Resources, Occupational Health and Safety, Quality Assurance and Finance teams.

In supporting the Company’s aim to provide recruitment services which closely align to client needs, ATS operates an ‘end-to-end’ business model which sees clients enjoy a single point of contact relationship with a Recruitment Consultant who is dedicated to their needs while delivering high quality service reinforced by accreditation to the AS/NZ ISO 9001:2008 Quality Assurance program.