By Charlotte Wooldridge | posted on March 28, 2020
IT IS no secret businesses in WA are suffering as COVID-19 spreads across the state, but some employers are doing what they can to support their community.
Small Change store in Katanning is one of the fortunate small businesses in the state to have had a boom in sales due to shoppers stocking up on supplies.
Instead of having to stand down staff, owner Amy Richardson has taken a different approach, and hired more casuals in the scenario either herself or her current employee have to take time off due to illness.
“I was talking to some small business advisors in Katanning about how to help small businesses through this time, and it just got me thinking about what I could do,” she said.
“I only have one staff, so if neither of us can work then we’d have to shut the shop.
“So I just thought it was an option if I pay some people to train up then we have back-ups if we need them.”
Using social media to advertise the new positions, the store had an immediate response from the public.
“In less than 24 hours we had 10 applications from just our Facebook post,” Ms Richardson said.
“We conducted six interviews and found three people to work for us so it was very successful.”
While the new employees won’t be receiving regular shifts, they will undergo two paid training sessions per week, each three hours in length.
“I think people are really grateful for having something to do,” she said.
“It’s just so much limbo for us though, we were very clear to those people that we can’t guarantee you work, but we will pay you to train and make it worth their while without people feeling like they’ve been let down.”
Small Change will also begin offering a delivery service to those who can’t make it to the store.
“We’re going to start offering free delivery to people who are isolated,” Ms Richardson said.
“We’ll also be doing trips out to the regional towns to do food drop-offs as well.”
While the business is safe now, Ms Richardson said she is not taking for granted how quickly things could change.
“We’re hoping to continue to do well, if we are classified as providing an essential service, but it’s so hard to predict what’s going to happen that we’re just going to keep going day-by-day like everyone else.”
