We recently spent some time with the Managing Director and owner of Elite Staffing Solutions Australia (“Elite Staffing”) Ajith Chandrasinghe. In this article we talk to Ajith about his humble beginnings as a foreign student in Australia to eventually running one of Melbourne’s leading labour hire organisations.

 

It is easy to talk about Elite Staffing with Ajith Chandrasinghe because his passion for finding opportunities for people and delivering great service to his clients shines through. Like many business owners, he has withstood the rollercoaster of running a company including challenging market conditions, pandemics, inflation, the global financial crisis, cost of living pressures and changes to industry and government regulations, and yet here he still stands!

Ajith came as a student from Sri Lanka to Australia in 1994 to study a Diploma of Business and Marketing. He knew he needed to find himself a job to sustain himself whilst he was here, and he also wanted to “play a bit of cricket”. Ajith landed himself a job at a factory that manufactured industrial plastic coils, hoses, and tubes. He worked hard as a “coiler” on a contract basis and over time began to get his fellow students, friends, and connections jobs at the same factory. As you can probably see the seed of a future business idea was sewn.

Ajith worked for several petrol stations to pay his school fees and build foundations in Australia. His strong work ethic is obvious, as is his ability to build relationships with employers that often sought to take him and his skills with them on their new ownership ventures.

 

The Early Days

Ajith’s early days in business involved working his factory shift, driving to a meeting, then getting changed out of his factory clothes in the car to make a professional impression on his prospective clients. His first casual workers were interviewed in his home at a desk that was so big it was hard to walk around to get to the kitchen. His first client wanted to hire ten workers and things have grown enormously from there!

Ajith finished his Diploma of Business and Marketing and went on to apply for residency for himself and his wife in Australia. He also studied Business and Finance, International Trade and is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. He is a continuous learner and applies this discipline and his theoretical knowledge to his business daily.

Elite Staffing credits their long-term loyal client relationships as the backbone of its successful business and the team take care of the fluctuating workforce requirements of many clients that have been with them for more than a decade.

In Elite Staffing’s early days it had only 10-15 casuals supported by a team of 3 Elite corporate staff. Now they run a payroll that can include more than 1,000 casuals every week. The business growth has been significant and shows no signs of stopping. Elite Staffing proudly supplies casual workers to more than 60+ clients Australia wide. They have helped thousands of people find work, many who might not have had the opportunity otherwise. Elite finds workforce solutions in both blue- and white-collar environments on either a casual or on a permanent basis.

 

Life Throws a Curve Ball.

Sadly, in 2013 Ajith was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. After having lived with the condition for some years, in 2019 he needed to have a Deep Brain Stimulation operation. This procedure aims to ease the symptoms of living with Parkinson’s and prolong outcomes. It was at this time that Ajith bought, as he describes, “his clever wife” Hashanthi into the business as an Account Manager so he could focus on his recovery.

Ajith lives daily with the symptoms that impact his speech and deals with tremors that effect his motor skills. The debilitating disease cannot dampen his passion for Elite Staffing, his respect for the team and gratitude to his clients for their ongoing support.

Ajith is a proud father with his daughter Jessica also joining Elite Staffing in 2019 making it a true family business. Prior to this Jessica completed a Bachelor of Science at Monash University and today she is the Account Manager for some of Elite Staffing’s largest clients.  His son Ashley is studying a Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University. He is also a full-time professional cricketer with the Victorian State Cricket Team – which makes the cricketing father within Ajith particularly proud!

 

How Things Have Changed

We asked Ajith what had changed in the labour hire industry since he started and he talks about the days of paper-based time sheets, taking orders for workers over the phone and referring to a paper-based list of available workers. These days Elite Staffing uses paperless integrated systems that connect a candidate from registration, through e-learning modules, all the way through to payroll.

Ajith says in the early days he had plenty of workers and not that many available roles. The competition to get a job was fierce and casual staff would drop everything and run towards a potential opportunity. Things have changed somewhat in today’s market and Ajith now finds that there are plenty of available roles but not so many workers happy to take them unconditionally.

The rules governing labour hire have also changed over time with government regulation, licensing and compliance and reporting obligations introduced. Ajith finds the oversight good and bad, good for the industry, but sometimes challenging for businesses to meet required deadlines.

 

The Challenges in Business and Life

Ajith says the biggest challenges running Elite Staffing have been those that relate to changes in technology and managing staff. Like many business owners he sometimes found the challenge of juggling cashflows for large payrolls across operational accounts and managing tax payments demanding. Elite Staffing’s business has grown to have great Finance, Accounts & Payroll teams with solid procedures and experience to support these demands.

His biggest personal challenge has of course been his health. Ajith’s speech and movement has now been obviously affected by Parkinson’s. Working for long hours day after day can be challenging.  Ajith says that “his head wants to work, but his body doesn’t always work fast enough”. It’s clear that he has very little interest in sitting around at home, as he likes being in his office and around his team. You can tell that he has a great support system around him from his family, colleagues, clients, and friends.

Ajith says that his career highlight is having built the capacity and infrastructure to be talking to even bigger clients with significantly large workforce demands. Some of their casual employees have gone on to grow within client organisations and become clients themselves. Ajith tells the story of one forklift driver that now is a Head of Operations at a client. It was Ajith that gave him his start and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands and has gone on to build a rewarding career.  Referrals are Elite Staffing’s biggest pipeline of business, which says a lot about the quality of their service offering.

 

Finding Workers

We ask Ajith how Elite Staffing goes about finding quality workers for their valued clients. He explains that whilst they advertise on Seek, a lot of the candidates come directly to them. Ajith praises the quality, patience and care of his Account Management team who do their best to look after each and every worker every day. The word-of-mouth reputation for caring about their staff really does help attract candidates. It also means that Elite often attracts a level of skilled candidate that they might not find via job boards. Elite Staffing’s reputation in the Australian market means that people now come to them.

 

The Future of Elite Staffing

Ajith recently hired a new CEO to help him run the Elite Staffing business and former financial services executive Brian Keogh has come on board to help steer the ship. The two have a deep mutual respect and trust.  Some early wins in this arrangement have already been made.

We asked Ajith what it is that he is most excited about in relation to Elite Staffing’s future. Ajith is enjoying client referrals evolving based on Elite’s clients continued growth and success. It has meant that Elite Staffing now deals with global brands that once upon a time would have seemed impossible to service for a medium-sized business.  They have also recently appointed Business Development Managers in QLD and NSW. Whilst they have always supported clients in these regions and SA and WA, having State Managers on the ground will help deliver further growth across Australia.

Ajith’s leadership, long term client relationships, and industry experience has grown a labour hire business that has given working opportunities to thousands of people. Whilst he has no short-term plans to slow down, his business will continue to grow because of the hard work of his team and the solid business foundations they are building on. Ajith enjoys working and sharing his knowledge and expertise. We cannot see him declaring early or retiring from this innings any time soon.

 

To find out more about Elite Staffing Solutions and how we can help you solve your fluctuating workforce contact our team here.  To stay up to date with our company news, follow the Elite Staffing Solutions social pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.