Episode 581 - It's Almost Time for the ITAs 2026 - are you ready? With Kelly Murphy

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Speaker C: Get ready. It's Tarpod time. We talk talent recruitment and everything in between. So strap in and prepare yourself for a dose of knowledge tied up in a ribbon of fun. Now, please join your hosts and industry leaders, Lauren Sharp and Craig Watson.

Speaker B: Hi, everyone, and welcome to Tar Pot. I'm Craig.

Speaker A: And I'm Lauren.

Speaker D: How are you, Craig?

Speaker B: I'm well, how are you?

Speaker A: I've got a wee bit of a head cold post item still, but other than that, I'm all good. But we've got a wonderful guest on today. We have the wonderful Kelly Murphy, talent acquisition manager from Story House. Early learning Kelly. Welcome aboard, babe.

Speaker B: Welcome.

Speaker D: Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: Now, you walked away with two meat trays at the ITAs this year.

Speaker D: Yes, I did. Very exciting one last year, two this year. We're on a roll.

Speaker B: But only one of them this year made it home, didn't they?

Speaker A: That was the one death we had at the items.

Speaker B: Yeah, we did have a death.

Speaker A: So let's start off with that. What the fuck happened, babe? I even gave you a padded box.

Speaker D: It was so embarrassing. And there isn't really, uh, an amazing story to tell. There was no fight happening. There was no murders, there was no nothing too extravagant. I was just really excited. I'm a very excitable person.

Speaker B: Yes, as we saw on the stage.

Speaker A: Oh, I know you are. I got a lot of hugs and I got told how wonderful the event was on the night with lots of hugs and very exuberant.

Speaker D: So I do get a bit excited in these situations. Um, and we partied the same as everybody else. And I got to the end of the night and I needed to put on my ballet shoes that we were kindly given. So that meant I had two trophies, a bag, a phone and a pair of shoes. So I guess I snuck away a little bit early and I didn't have Any help. And I bundled it all under my arms and I was walking up the street and got to the hotel, realized I had no free hands to push the button to the lift and it just fell out of my hands onto the floor. Literally. The story, like it was very embarrassing.

Speaker A: Oh my God.

Speaker D: And um, yeah, it just. I just saw it bounce and I.

Speaker A: That was the best careers website. Didn't make it home.

Speaker B: Didn't quite Nelly did. Made it all the way to the lift. Well, but it's interesting. I'm thinking, Lauren, maybe we're going to have to go with plastic trophies next year. Especially if Storyhouse win one, we'll just give them a plastic one.

Speaker A: I did hear a story of someone getting told they weren't going to be taking it through airport security because it so sharp. And they insisted that I was getting on the plane with them weapon.

Speaker B: Um, wow.

Speaker D: I ended up. I. I stole quite a lot of tissue from the hotel and I stuffed it as tight as I possibly could around the other trophy because I was

Speaker A: so nervous with the foam and padding in it.

Speaker D: Didn't you? I did, yes. But I was very nervous. I could not go back to the office.

Speaker A: An item trophy break. Did it just sn half or did it shatter? Huh. What happened?

Speaker D: But just the long stick.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Snapped off from the base.

Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.

Speaker D: It's actually resting on my shelf at the moment in my office looking sad. I've managed to balance it. So, yeah, hopefully there's no deaths from that because it could fall and land on my head.

Speaker B: There is a replacement coming your way.

Speaker A: Craig has gotten onto that for you. He is a, uh, man. So when you're in Melbourne next month, we'll catch up for lunch and we will hand deliver that for you and you can super glue the other one and take it home.

Speaker D: I was going to put a bow around it. Just super fun.

Speaker A: Yeah, I'd put a band aid. So as we mentioned, two awards went to Story House this year, which is fantastic. Best careers website brought to you by Page up and Excellence in Onboarding bought to you by Encore Services. So well bloody done to you and the team over there. So how many people in your team now? Sure.

Speaker D: So I've got three talent acquisition partners and I have a recruitment marketing specialist as well. So there's four in the team.

Speaker A: Okay. So that's a nice size.

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, it's not too bad.

Speaker A: So how many employees at Story House and how many recruits do you do a year?

Speaker D: Yeah. So we have just over 1800 employees and we are growing every Minute. Um, and I would say hires per year, including permanent and casual. I think probably around about 700.

Speaker A: Holy moly. With only four of you.

Speaker D: Yeah. So it's pretty. We've got some pretty good efficiencies in

Speaker B: place before we start talking specifically about the awards. With your workforce, is there a level of contingent or are they. Or is it mainly perm? What's the mix?

Speaker D: It's mainly per. So I think. I think we've got about 300 casuals and then the rest are permanent. Yeah. So a majority of the recruitment that we do is based around the growth of our services. So we're driven a lot by occupancy. So more children in the service, the more educators that we need to then recruit. And then obviously the casual pool as well. And then we have new build services, which obviously requires a whole. Whole center to be recruited for. And then any acquisitions that we onboard as well, we generally will build on their casual pools when they come on board with us.

Speaker A: So how many centers do you have around Australia at?

Speaker D: Uh, the moment We've got 57.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker A: Okay. And growing. So that's pretty big. Yeah.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker A: Wow. Okay, so let's go straight into your careers website because I'm actually on that right now having a look at what vacancies you've got.

Speaker B: She's going to apply. She'll apply for something.

Speaker A: No, I can't. I, uh, I don't do children.

Speaker B: No, you're not.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: You're not great with.

Speaker A: I'm allergic to children. I love children, but I don't have much patience for them. It's not something that's in my life a lot, so it's not. It's like cats. I like them, but I'm allergic to them.

Speaker B: Kids and cats.

Speaker D: I love it.

Speaker A: It's the only way I can put it. I like them, but I am allergic to them. So you've got a pretty robust website here from what I'm looking at. It's got. You've got some benefits pages here. You've got all your current vacancies and your benefits list goes on and on right into career development. Well, being so how. This is a bloody great site. How long have you had this in development? How. What are the changes you're making over time and talk to us about that.

Speaker D: Sure. So when did we go live? I think we went live with this new site probably 18 months ago now. I'm dreadful with time. It just disappears from us, isn't it? So I think it was about 18 months ago.

Speaker A: A trophy out of your hand.

Speaker D: I'm never gonna hear the end of that.

Speaker A: Oh, no, babe, every time I see you, you are gonna cop it.

Speaker D: So I guess it was a really intentional launch for us. Our old website was pretty boring and we wanted to create a space where we could showcase who we are and our culture as much as possible. Our values at Storyhouse are, uh, very much at the foundation of everything. And, um, celebration is one of those core values. I thought that it was really a great opportunity to create this platform where candidates can come and experience what it's like to work at Storyhouse. But then as we were developing the site, we realized actually it's a fantastic opportunity to think about some of those things that candidates are looking for when they're looking for a job, as well as looking at the team. And I think that given our size, we probably are a reasonably mean sized team. So how can I ensure that we can utilize the website to minimize that kind of workload for the team as well? And what I mean for that, I like those general FAQs that are coming through. What do I wear to an interview? Or where do you have services? What vacancies have you got? What benefits do you offer? Huh? All of those key information pieces. So we just built the site out with individual pages so that you can go and easily find that information.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's very easy to cruise around this website, I've got to say.

Speaker B: Speaking of easy, in your submission you said, we've even added a secret page. Why don't you tell us about that? What's the secret page?

Speaker D: Secret page. I love the secret page. So that's our culture page and it adds a little element of fun. And, um, yeah, so as you're scrolling through the pages, if you're looking at the vacancies or you're looking at the benefits or professional development, there's an opportunity to look for our secret page. And if you find the secret page, you get to experience what it truly is like to work.

Speaker B: Did you find it?

Speaker A: Oh, I'm on it.

Speaker B: She's like a bloody Sherlock Holmes over here.

Speaker A: I tell you, I am one Google search away from an avo.

Speaker D: You are you. So, yeah, so we've got videos on there, we've got information about our onboarding, we've got information about our conference, our social media presence. Yeah, just life at Story House.

Speaker A: It is pretty darn good. And I love the fact that you've got little photo walls up there as well from some of the one events you've been to. None of the artist Ones, though I'm

Speaker D: sure they will be put up there. Yeah.

Speaker A: And there is one thing on your careers page that's not up to date, though.

Speaker B: What'?

Speaker A: That. Our awards. You've got an awards tab. You haven't got this year's items up there yet.

Speaker B: She only happened a week ago.

Speaker A: No, you got your Internal Talent Awards 2024 winner, but not your 25 winners up there. Babes.

Speaker B: Don't you worry, that'll be done by the end of the day. One of the other things I love, not only about winning the, the Website Award, but also the onboarding is, and this is something that, that I think both Lauren and I are really proud of, is that Storyhouse Early Learning is not one of the largest companies that submit for the awards. And you walked away with too right. You're not a. You're not a Big Four, you're not one of those massive companies. But you've shown that your submission and in terms of both onboarding and careers Website is the best in Australia. Right. So that is a huge piece of recognition and something you should be incredibly proud of.

Speaker D: Thank you very much. I think you're right. We're not one of the larger players and it has taken us a little bit of time to figure out how to write a decent submission, but I think it's just about being genuine. I think that our website and our onboarding reflect that as well. I'm, um, not this prim and proper head of Talent Acquisition and I, I just genuinely just care about what I do. Yeah. Um, and my team genuinely care about what we do. And I think that even during interview processes, when people come into the office and I'm sat there interviewing and I forget the question that I want to ask them or I go off on a complete tangent. So now what? Welcome to Story House. This is who we are.

Speaker A: But that's human. That makes it really human. And that's what I wouldn't want to work for a company that's that clinical and that rehearsed. Because I think unless you, if you take out that human element, it's not the culture you want to be in. And that's your secret page shows that culture about the fun dedication of the people doing the job there. But let's talk about some stats and some data, because that's really what we're finding is getting winning, uh, entries across the line. And that's what our listeners want to know about as well. So your content on your Career Path page, now, that is what really 90 hires and helping drive 205 internal promotions. That's huge for a company of your size. And 44 of them went into leadership.

Speaker D: Yeah. And that's grown since the submission as well. Just year to date. I think we've promoted. I think it's something like 50% of the vacancies were internal promotions and um, 67% of those were leadership roles.

Speaker B: Wow.

Speaker D: As in two IC and above. Oh, wow. So, yeah, it's, it's improving year on year.

Speaker B: And that speaks to culture too, doesn't it? You're not getting statistics like that if you haven't got a culture that's supporting people internally.

Speaker D: Exactly. Yeah. And um, the website, it, it has a break off to the internal, internal website as well. So obviously, um, you guys can't see that. But again that's something that we intentionally built so that we can encourage more and more internal applications because we do really want to grow our people and give them the best career opportunities that they can have.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And Talking about engagement, 29.2. So just under 30% return visitor rate. So you had people coming back to the website, which is, that's really something to be proud of as well. 30% of people who've jumped on come back.

Speaker D: Yeah. How exciting. No, that's so great.

Speaker A: I've got to say, it's a bloody good looking website. And it's fun.

Speaker D: Yeah, it's really fun. Yeah. Honestly, I'm so proud of the website and I think on the night I did say a big thank you to Gabe Gabriel, who is the recruitment marketing specialist. He worked with me on the website. So he did all of the, I guess the design pieces, said, hey, this is the content that we need on there. This is what I'm doing, the pages that we want to create. But actually he really helped me bring all of that together. So I think without him the pages wouldn't look as good as they do.

Speaker B: And there's a lot of video there that you're using to specifically to engage with Gen Z and maybe younger candidates.

Speaker D: Absolutely, yes. And um, I think we did quite a lot of research on our candidates and what they, the demographic and the age of the candidates and the content that, that they relate to. And I think one of the great things about the website is that we've got all of the data behind it so that we can constantly monitor what is working, what isn't working and we can change and we have full control of the website so we can change it really quickly. Like putting up the awards at the end of the day today. Okay.

Speaker A: So you're running this in house. You've not outsourced this to anyone? Um.

Speaker D: M. No, we haven't outsourced anything.

Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, that's even better. My God, for such a small company, you've done such a good job. So you've refreshed your EVP and you really made that reflect in this brand. And, uh, what did. What were some of the challenges with the website?

Speaker D: Challenges? I think actually it was probably more about challenges with me and not getting too much information on there.

Speaker A: So you're the challenge?

Speaker D: I'm the challenge.

Speaker A: We found the special needs employee at Story House.

Speaker B: Gee, Kelly, she's come after you, hasn't she? She's just given you a big whack.

Speaker D: That's fine.

Speaker A: She'll get me back.

Speaker D: She'll get me back.

Speaker B: One of the things here that I noticed is it drove the websites driven 67 student placements over the past year and 29% of them converted to employees.

Speaker D: Yes. Yeah, I'm just. My brain is going 100 miles an hour at the moment because we've got so many different initiatives, but they all link back to one place. So our EVP is where the pieces fit together. That's our lead line. And we redeveloped the EVP initially and then created these pillars underneath it. The, uh, supporting you, the developing you, celebrating you and so forth. And then from that we created the website, but then we've then created these additional kind of initiatives around driving more student placements, driving more trainees, driving the onboarding. Lots and lots of things that are just really. They come back to that where the pieces fit together. They're all different individual puzzle pieces that join together and create this amazing experience at Story House.

Speaker B: Just a question off topic for a moment in the background there. Is that a crow or a duck?

Speaker D: Oh, sorry, let me close the door.

Speaker B: It's lovely. It's great. Sounding like it feels like you're out in the country.

Speaker A: It's all right. We get a dog.

Speaker B: Yeah. Sometimes the dog gives us barks that

Speaker A: we encourage wildlife, embrace the personal touch here at tarpod.

Speaker D: For sure. I'm chaos. This is.

Speaker A: I just invite everyone to go and have a look on this page because. And just have a cruise around. And one of the things that really struck me here, uh, you've got a whole entire tab dedicated to inclusivity. And what I really enjoy about this, because I know that DNI and inclusivity has really taken a battering in the last 12 months with the global climate out there and some of the shit coming out of America. And, uh, you guys really, you've embraced the healthy families, the generation gaps, the reconciliation pride, cultural celebrations. So I just. And capability as well. And I just find that you've just. You've covered everything. You've ticked every box. Absolutely everything.

Speaker D: And these are the things, aren't they, that people are looking for? I interviewed somebody just last week who asked me more about our take on the LGBTQ community and, um, how we support them within our workplace. So the. All of these, the masses that you just discussed there, they're important to people. And again, it comes back to our culture and what it's like to work at Story House and what's important to us. And I think that when we. We developed the website, we really wanted to make sure that we were showcasing, hey, these. No matter where you come from, no matter the journey that you have been on, there is a place for you here at Story House. You have something. You've got your own story to tell.

Speaker A: And I just think that, yeah, it's one of those things that people. You're embracing the humanity in early learning. And I think that's. It's great to see because there's so many people steering away for any fear of offending someone or trying to remain neutral when remaining neutral is not the stance to be, in my opinion.

Speaker D: I think it's okay to not know the answers as well. Just ask questions, go and do some research. And, um, I think if you're genuine and you really do want to know the truth or you want to know how you can help others, then you can't be doing anything wrong. But I'm not an expert in all of these matters, but I do genuinely want to ensure that we're providing an inclusive workplace. I'm, um, open to asking questions, and also I go to our Story Houses as well, the people that are already employed at Story House, and I ask them for help. I say, hey, I want to make it a better experience for our candidates. Uh, what information was readily available for you? What was missing? What can we do better? Uh, we're constantly asking questions. And actually, off the back of that proudly inclusive page, we have now got a new program which is highlighted on the page. It's called a you belong Ambassador program. So we have ambassadors within our services that are essentially promoting all of these different, dear, uh, D, E and I avenues.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's amazing. But the one thing that really struck me, M. And some of the things on this page that you've relied. Your reliance on paid job boards has dropped by 50% because you've got a really robust careers site now. You've increased your social media presence, your referral programs up for 4 to 4% now, where I'm assuming it was bugger all. Yeah. And you've improved your quality of hire by 10 year on year with a reduction in turnover. That's really incredible. The fact that you actually. People want to stay. It's not just getting them through the door. They want to say, and you've got a 93% acceptance rate.

Speaker B: It's amazing.

Speaker A: So well bloody done to you and the team, my friend. Bloody done.

Speaker B: Hey, just before we go on to onboarding, I just wanted. There's one more thing on the career side I want to touch on and you just briefly touched on it there. Lauren, where are you getting your traffic from? So the site's now overtaken Google as your number one source and your third source or top traffic source now is social media. And you mentioned, specifically mentioned, TikTok and Facebook maybe. Just obviously who you're targeting is you try to target people where they live. Right. So it might be in a TikTok environment or Facebook or Insta, whatever. But what are you doing on TikTok?

Speaker D: Really interested TikTok. So we've just put that back out to our story houses and say, hey, go for gold, right? What trends are out there? What music are you liking? What's happening within your services? You just come up with the content for us and, um, be genuine and, um, send it back through to, to my team just so that we've got a little bit of an oversight and then we manage the posting on TikTok, but we don't, we don't probe or give them the content. It is, uh, yeah, authentic material. This is what they want to do.

Speaker B: Wonderful, wonderful.

Speaker A: That's just incredible because then the next step after they've clicked that applying on that offer is moving into their onboarding St, which is your next winner? That's right, the next bloody meat tray. I tell you, we're going over to Kale's for barbecue. Craig, all these meat M trays, she won't fit it in the freezer.

Speaker D: No, I'm k, I'm chaos. I'll probably serve you uncooked sausages.

Speaker A: Off to Bunnings we go.

Speaker B: So new highs. Receive a welcome box. Tell us about that.

Speaker D: Yes, absolutely. Okay, so they get this beautifully wrapped welcome box that is covered in wrapping paper that has all of our values over it. Oh, wow. Purposely designed wrapping paper. And as they open the box, it's

Speaker A: doves Fly out doves, fly out angels sing.

Speaker D: Wouldn't that be great? No, it's a. It's a box of goodies for them, but again, intentional. So lots of sustainability happening within the box. So we've got sustainable confetti. So we do have confetti. Lauren, just to add that.

Speaker A: Are there dancers?

Speaker D: No, no dancers. I should put those little. The butterflies. You know, those boxes that you can open.

Speaker A: I'll just come for the onboarding. Just put me through.

Speaker B: You'd love it.

Speaker D: It's a celebration of them. It's, hey, welcome to Story House. We see you, we hear you. You are valued. So have some gifts. But things like a water bottle, they're outside with the children. We've got services in Queensland. You need to stay hydrated, you need to stay healthy. Bottles are, uh, important. But the water bottle that we have, there is money from those bottles that then go to saving the turtles. There's nice little pieces like, ah, that we have. We have a program we partner with the Stephanie Alexander kitchen, uh, garden program, which is. She's a, uh, m. We all know.

Speaker B: Do you ever use them?

Speaker A: No. I've got all these fabulous cookbooks sidebar here that I don't use anymore because I just bloody Google a recipe and put it on my iPad and sit it up in the kitchen. Nowadays, it's just like life's change. But I can't part with some of these fabulous books now.

Speaker B: They look good.

Speaker D: They're in a cupboard.

Speaker A: No one sees them. They're shoved in a cupboard next to an air fryer. I, uh, don't use

Speaker D: Alexander kitchen garden program for the educators and the children.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: But to coincide with that, we then have little packets of seats, seeds that are in the welcome box, so you can go take them home and grow

Speaker B: your own herbs again, something against something that Laura would fail at miserably.

Speaker A: I kill mint. She kills the weed. My dad told me.

Speaker B: Unkillable. She kills.

Speaker A: Yeah, I told dad I killed the mint. And he goes, lauren, it's a bloody weed. How'd you kill them? Anyway? Another sidebar.

Speaker D: And then we have a. A little welcome booklet in there that kind of links back to wellness. So there's some tips around reflection and getting to know yourself a little bit. And just, you know, how you see those gratitude books and, um, you write down things to do each day. It's just got some things like that within the book. So it's focused around wellness. So as I said before, it's very much a celebration, a welcome to Story House. But the pieces within the welcome box are, uh, linked to sustainability, they're linked to wellness, they're linked to your journey within story house and the initiatives and programs that we have within story house.

Speaker B: And they get a handwritten welcome card from the CEO and celebrated on the social media platforms. They might feel like a celebrity the day they walk in.

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Our exec team are, ah, very connected to the business and, um, it's something that's really important to them. And our CEO, he started this quite a few years ago, actually. I think I had asked him to do it not long after I started and we didn't have 1800 employees.

Speaker B: He's got writers cramp now, hasn't he?

Speaker D: But he enjoys it. And he actually will come to either myself or the managers and he'll ask some questions about these new people and say, what room are they working in? Or how long have they worked in the sector? And he'll write something personal in each card. I did recommend or I did suggest that I write it for him and he just signs it and he pushed back on me and said, kelly, that's not part of our integrity value.

Speaker B: Fantastic.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker D: Yeah, he's happy to write them. Don't know how much longer that will last.

Speaker B: This is a real little thing on your onboarding, but it's so good because I would suggest not many companies at all do it. But you've got 100% of your offers are digitally signed. Right. And how. We all know how hard it is to go signed your offer, then bloody scan it and then send it back. And all those sorts of things that really stuff up an onboarding process have been simplified here, which is great.

Speaker A: No, I think the highlight of this is what's your favorite song? Because they've got a staff playlist. Hello. Get to the important stuff. Favorite song shared in the application processes are added to a staff playlist. Post commitment, commencement. What was your favorite song, Kelly? Oh, no,

Speaker D: it depends on what day of the week it is and what mood I'm in. But I think if I really want to get up and dance, it's probably, uh, Rhythm is the Dancer by Snap.

Speaker A: Oh, stop right there. Uh, thank you very much.

Speaker B: Was that what yours would be?

Speaker A: I am the sixth Spice Girl. Menopausal Spice.

Speaker D: What about you, Craig? What was your favorite?

Speaker B: Let me just see. It was to get up and have fun. It'd be Things can only get better by the room.

Speaker D: Yes, I like that.

Speaker A: Oh, that is a good call, Craigo.

Speaker D: I love it.

Speaker B: Back in the day in the club. Should have seen Me go, oh, I

Speaker A: could imagine bopping away with your mullet.

Speaker B: Yeah, back when I had hair. The good old days. They're never coming back.

Speaker A: So you, as we said, your awards page isn't up to date yet, but it will be by the end of the day. You also have one great place to work for quite a few years now and you certified in those areas. So you've got this onboarding stuff. You've pretty much nailed it.

Speaker D: We are trying and um, I think the important thing, and I've said this a few times, is, is don't just stay still. Yes, we've won these awards, but keep, keep tracking what's working and what's not and make sure you're making changes. And I know you, you mentioned before, Lauren, you were looking at the benefits page and we've got this endless list of benefits. But actually last week I've started to work on some different benefits and a uh, different layout of that page. So it's just in, it's in drafts at the moment. Over the next couple of weeks there'll be a new published page on the benefits page on the website. So nothing stays the same at story House.

Speaker B: Always evolving.

Speaker D: Always evolving.

Speaker B: Fantastic. So you've, you talked to us about some changes to the benefits. What else have you got planned over the next year? Are there some things that you can let us in on or is it just that you will make some changes?

Speaker D: Oh, I am m working on a new uniform, a suite of uniform which I'm very excited about. And again, just bringing back to our values and trying to incorporate them a little bit more within the uniform. And also we, as part of our reconciliation action plan, we commit to every single year we have a different artists. Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander artists create a piece of work for us that we then put onto uniforms that every year is different. However, I do have a. I'm not going to share too much, but I've got a little secret that, that will be released with the uniform.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: That I'm very excited. I don't know how to.

Speaker B: I don't know how to without giving it away. You got to.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: But I've got some very exciting stuff happening in that uniform space.

Speaker B: Fantastic.

Speaker D: Yeah. What else? And I really want to just push a bit more on our you belong ambassador program and see a bit more training happening in that space and more events happening just to get improve on that diversity and inclusion piece. Um, so who knows, next year we could be submitting for the diversity and inclusion.

Speaker A: God, that awards page is gonna be big.

Speaker D: So there's lots happening there. There is lots and lots of things happening. But I think the key one for early next year is going to be the uniform and then expanding on that DE and I space.

Speaker B: Brilliant.

Speaker A: That's incredible. And again, coming back to the stats on this onboarding part, because everyone knows I like a good number or two. And a bit of data. Tick tock and social referrals increased by 38%. Yeah, that's tick tock and social referrals. That's really good. And your circle back initiative score is 95.4, so that's pretty good as well. Oh, um, my God, you guys are just killing it over there. We try and track happiest place to work.

Speaker B: Like the Disneyland of workplaces.

Speaker A: I know, I know. Except there's gardening involved children, the things

Speaker B: that would stop you working there.

Speaker D: Yeah, that's the thing, Lauren. Like, uh, working with children, it's hard. Oh, yeah, it is. And they're not your children. What you do at home with your children is very different to what you can do and what you would do within a child care service. And I think that, you know, we really are trying to move away from that stigma of it being a babysitting service, because it absolutely isn't. They have got so many regulations, so much compliance. They are really there to teach the children age appropriate learning. And it's a hard job. I couldn't do it. I really couldn't. I honestly put my hats off to these educators in the services. They are doing a fabulous job. And I think that for me, it sat within the people and culture, uh, team and being in a position where I can have some influence, I just want to make it a really nice place to work. And I know that the chief people officer as well, she's very passionate about ensuring that it is a great place to work and that that's why we are getting that certification every year. Because we really are trying to give back to these educators every day and reward them and show them they're valued for what they're doing.

Speaker A: I totally agree with you. It's a tough job looking after someone else's children. Yeah, it'd be hard work. Like, Craig used to be a teacher and I don't know how he did it. Do not have that patience level at all.

Speaker B: Clearly, neither did I because I don't do it anymore. Hey, Kelly, look. Congratulations on excellence in onboarding and best Careers website. So onboarding, obviously sponsored by Encore and best Careers website sponsored by PageUp. We very much thank our partners in getting These awards to people, because without them, we couldn't put on an awards. But congratulations. And we look so forward to seeing what you're going to achieve over these next 12 months and where that lands about this time next year, hopefully not with broken trophies, but with ones you can get home.

Speaker D: I'm gonna bring my own bubble wrap.

Speaker A: I'm thinking we might just pick up some bubble wrap or we might. Anything at Storyhouse win in the future is going to be plastic.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's it.

Speaker D: Thank you.

Speaker A: So I must ask, though, um, m.

Speaker D: I saw somebody else's broken one and just not told you.

Speaker A: I know of one other broken one.

Speaker B: Yeah. But that was, like, about six months after the event.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker A: Something fell off a wall and landed on the desk and hit the trophy. Knocked it onto the floor. Yeah. So that was a totally different scenario. But how proud were the team?

Speaker D: So proud. So proud. I think they just work. They work really hard to provide a, uh, positive candidate experience, a great onboarding experience. And actually, two of the people that came along on the evening were managers, so they weren't part of my direct team. And I purposely invited them because they're the ones that are doing the onboarding in real life. So, yes, we've got these great initiatives, and it's driven from people and culture, but the managers on the ground are the ones that need to make sure that this is coming to life. We invited a couple of those to come and enjoy. And I'm so pleased that we won that award because, yeah, they're the ones that are, um, putting it into place

Speaker A: because obviously they're out in the field and everything in your industry. What did they think of the awards and how our industry sort of celebrates crazy?

Speaker D: And they said, oh, I don't think I dressed up enough.

Speaker A: We are a bit crazy, aren't we, as a bunch of recruiters and talent people?

Speaker D: And I did try and warn them as well. I said, look, you know me. And, um, what? I'm like, you're now going to be in a room full of hundreds of people, the same as me.

Speaker A: Oh, how did they cope with that?

Speaker D: Yeah, I think they did really well, actually. It was very different to what they had thought. And I don't think that they realized how big it was. And it also started to spark some conversations around some of the things that we're doing within the talent team that they didn't realize that we did. So I think from my perspective as well, it was quite nice to have that exposure and for them to realize how hard we work as A team.

Speaker A: That's amazing. So obviously that feedback from having the non talent people in there with you that will get fed out to the, the rest of, of the business and up to the management chain. So what's the reaction been with your leaders?

Speaker D: I also invite the CEO this time and um, he did ask me not to swear when I got up on stage.

Speaker A: That didn't happen.

Speaker D: No, because I, I handballed instead to, to Kate to my boss because I was so nervous about speech. But Kate said, have you got a speech ready in case we went? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I did. But I got up on stage, I was like, no, I don't trust myself to Kate. And she obviously had nothing prepared, so I think she did pretty well. But yeah, the executive are really proud again of everything that we're achieving. They're just really supportive of what we're doing and, and open for us, uh, to do things differently and implement change in the future.

Speaker A: Excellent work, my dear girlfriend. Excellent work.

Speaker B: It was. And we can't wait to see you again next year.

Speaker A: We'll see her next month to give her the new trophy.

Speaker C: Oh, we will.

Speaker B: We'll make sure that we get that handed to you in a nice protective bubble wrap.

Speaker D: So you're gonna, uh, it's gonna be embarrassing, isn't it? You're literally probably gonna put it in

Speaker B: this and we'll probably have this massive

Speaker D: package to take home all night and

Speaker B: we'll film it and put it on all the socials and tag story house early learning.

Speaker C: Absolutely.

Speaker B: Hey, thanks for spending some time with us today, Kelly. It's been great.

Speaker D: Thank you.

Speaker B: And on that note, it's a goodbye for me.

Speaker A: And a goodbye for me, everybody.

Speaker B: Today's episode comes from greenhouse software companies

Speaker A: that use greenhouse surface. Real qualified candidates. Faster streamline interviewing and make confident decisions. Supported by AI built on structured hiring.

Speaker B: Visit greenhouse.com to learn more. And don't forget to tell them Tarpod sent you.

Speaker C: Thanks for listening to Tarpod. And please don't forget to subscribe. And make sure, make sure you listen to the outtakes at the end of the episode. They're uh, usually the best bit.

Speaker A: I want to hear the whole story from Woe to Go on how this trophy got smashed.

Speaker B: Why don't we do it on the thing?

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: No, no, we'll do it. We'll talk about it online.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: All right.

Speaker D: It's still an interesting story, but I'll give it a go. Yeah.

Speaker A: Uh, embellish it a little bit, babe. Embellish it.

Speaker B: Yeah, like you were in a fight and you went to stab someone and it broke off at the stem or.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's still embedded in someone's head.

Speaker D: Oh, yeah.

Speaker A: You know those things. Because you're having a good time.

Speaker D: We absolutely did have a great time. Very good time. Yeah.

Speaker A: It was such a good night. It was so good. I've still got goosebumps over that bloody Mitch Tambo performance. It was so good.

Speaker D: Like, it just got the whole. The whole audience, like, really just ready as well, I think, for the rest of the night.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: You've done it before. You know that it's not live. And if we stuff up.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: Stop and redo.

Speaker D: And luckily you're not recording this.

Speaker B: Not recording any of the video.

Speaker A: No, we're not recording video. God, no.

Speaker B: I look like shot when you said not recording this long ago. You better be her eyes looking at me. You better be bloody recording this.

Speaker A: The money shot's not in it today. The money shot's not in. Okay.