This one comes up more than you'd think, usually from an operator who's had a bad run with a staffing agency and assumes every recruiter works the same way. We don't. We're a permanent placement recruiter. We're not a staffing agency, and we don't do casual or labour hire shifts. Every role we take on is a permanent senior hire we expect to still be in the building in twelve months.
Why we drew that line
Twenty years running venues and kitchens ourselves means we've been on the other side of a labour hire relationship, calling an agency at 4pm because someone's called in sick for tonight's service. That's a real and necessary part of hospitality operations, but it's a completely different business to what we do. Labour hire is about filling a shift. We're in the business of finding someone who's going to run your kitchen or your floor for years, build a team under them, and still be there when you look back at the P&L next year.
What it means for the venues we work with
Because every search we run is for a permanent leadership hire, we screen differently. We're not trying to confirm someone can competently work a shift tonight, we're trying to work out whether they can hold a standard over time, handle a bad Saturday without falling apart, manage a team through turnover, and fit the specific culture of your venue. That takes real reference checking and real conversations, not just a resume match. It's slower than labour hire by design, because the cost of getting a permanent leadership hire wrong is so much higher than the cost of a bad casual shift.
What it means for candidates
For the people we place, it means every conversation with us is about a genuine career move, not a shift-by-shift arrangement. Candidates in our talent pool aren't picking up casual work between other jobs, they're senior operators looking for the next permanent leadership seat. That changes the tone of every conversation we have, on both sides of the table.
If you need casual staff, we're not your recruiter
We'll say this plainly: if what you need tonight is a casual chef or a floor staff member for the weekend rush, we're not the right call, and we'd rather tell you that upfront than waste your time. What we're built for is the harder, slower, higher-stakes hire: the Head Chef, the General Manager, the Venue Manager who's going to still be running your business in a year's time.
If that's the hire you're trying to make, brief the role and we'll talk you through how we work. If you're a senior operator looking for that next permanent seat yourself, join our talent pool and we'll keep you in mind.