An Aussie tradie has gone viral on TikTok as he faces an enormous challenge in the busy lead-up to Christmas.
A tradie has resorted to desperate measures in a bold attempt to get young people to apply for a job with him in preparation for a busy festive period.
Matt Austin runs building contracting business AustoBuild in Perth, Western Australia, but has been struggling to meet increasing demand due to an industry-wide lack of available labour.
Despite requiring no qualifications or prior training, and being open to hiring people of any age and gender, Mr Austin has had no luck in finding anyone to help him out.
That was until the 36-year-old on Wednesday took a fresh approach to his hiring mission, uploading a video to TikTok showcasing the “perks” he has on offer, hopeful to catch the eye of his future employee.
Mr Austin filmed as he gave viewers a tour of his work set-up, which included an Esky he described a “fridge” and a seat on the back of his car he said was “basically a sofa”.
“Just so you know, we’ve got a fridge, you can put your soda pop or whatever it is in there to keep it fresh, a microwave [for] sausage rolls [to] warm them up, a coffee machine, if you’re young you probably don’t drink coffee so you can heat up your minute noodles,” he said.
Mr Austin explained that prospective employees shouldn’t be the least bit concerned about keeping their phone battery full, given he had three available outlets.
He also said there was extra high protection sunscreen available, so his employee could “look fresh for The Lookout on Sundays”.
The Lookout is a beachside club in Scarborough, west of Perth, that hosts a popular Sunday session.
The tradie told news.com.au he had been looking for a labourer for weeks before someone suggested he upload an appeal to TikTok, which is largely populated by young users.
Within hours of uploading his video, Mr Austin was recognised at his local Bunnings and began getting messages from people he knew saying they had seen it.
“I just didn’t realise the actual power of social media to be honest, to that extent anyway,” he said.
Mr Austin said while he could only offer junior level wages, he would provide on-the-job training for anyone willing to learn the tricks of the trade.
“I’m building patios mainly, so I’m offering to teach them how to do it, they’ll learn heaps of skills that could help them find a job in the building industry,” he said.
“It’s more a fact of whether they have good work ethic and they want to be here, and someone who’s willing to give something a go and wants to learn.”
The hours would mostly be 7pm to 3pm Monday to Friday, and the occasional Saturday.
Since the online call-out, Mr Austin has agreed to give someone a trial starting on Monday, but as a result of his video going viral, has plenty of backups if they don’t work out.
He said the company he contracted to, Classic Granny Flats, agreed to pay the wage of a new employee if Mr Austin could find someone suitable.
Originally published as Tradie appeals to TikTok in bold move to find worker in industry-wide labour shortage
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