The Iconic co-founder launches company matching stood-down staff to new jobs

The coronavirus crisis has left scores of Aussies out of work. But a new venture has already helped 350 people find jobs within days.

Heather Loxley had been an area manager at Politix Menswear for eight months when the coronavirus pandemic struck.

The brand is owned by the Country Road Group, which was forced to stand down staff due to the unprecedented shutdown period sparked by the virus.

That meant Ms Loxley was one of thousands of Australians who suddenly found themselves out of work – but within days she had been redeployed into another role after registering her interest with Hatch Exchange.

She is now working at a virtual contact centre helping people with COVID-19 questions, a position she describes as “amazing”.

“There was definitely no lag time between jobs which was pretty amazing – it meant I could breathe and it gave me a lot of comfort,” she said in a video shared by Hatch Exchange co-founder Adam Jacobs on LinkedIn.

“Reaching out takes courage … but people are given amazing opportunities to sustain work which is great for their financial needs and also their mental needs.”

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There were long lines at Centrelink before the strict lockdown measures were introduced. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

Mr Jacobs was also one of the co-founders of online fashion juggernaut The Iconic back in 2011.

Hatch has been operating and growing in the university student market since 2017, and the Exchange was launched two weeks ago to help stood down workers.

“Hiring businesses can temporarily engage experienced workers for frontline or professional roles, keeping them employed until they can return to their original company,” the website explains.

Taking to professional networking site LinkedIn yesterday, Mr Jacobs said that in the past fortnight, almost 7000 stood down staff from more than 70 companies had registered on Hatch Exchange.

Those workers came from household-name companies including Qantas, Virgin Australia, Country Road Group, Flight Centre Travel Group, Cotton On Group, Merivale and Marriott International, which is unsurprising given the travel, hospitality and retail industries are among the hardest hit so far.

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Adam Jacobs took to LinkedIn to reveal Hatch Exchange’s success.

According to Mr Jacobs, many of those 7000 employees hold “deep experience in customer support and digital skillsets”, with 40 per cent hailing from NSW, half having more than five years of experience behind them and two-thirds being stood down from a permanent role.

He added that more than 90 per cent were “keen to do something new with their skills”.

So far, more than 350 people had been “successfully redeployed into critical roles in growing customer support, data, digital, logistics teams within Government, large employers, and SMBs”.

“After a huge effort by Hatch’s design and tech team, we can now match and place thousands of stood-down staff per week to hiring organisations within 72 hours,” he posted.

“We know work won’t look the same anymore. We also know impacted Australians are talented and adaptive. This moment gives you the opportunity to draw on that adaptiveness. “This is not only relevant for the current crisis but for the years to come. I congratulate all businesses taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Hatch’s success comes as the federal treasury revealed it expects the jobless rate to reach 10 per cent in the June quarter, which means 1.4 million Australians will be out of work.

It’s a sharp increase from the 5.1 per cent the country enjoyed before the pandemic hit, leading to mass shutdowns in a bid to flatten the curve.

So far, more than 800,000 companies have also registered for the Government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy program.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the rising jobless rate as “absolutely heartbreaking”, but said the government’s stimulus measures would help to soften the blow.

“The JobKeeper program means we’ll be able to limit that devastation,” he told Nine this morning.

“We’ve also got the doubling of the JobSeeker program, which means that those who do find themselves unemployed will be able to gain access to support that we’ve never seen in this country before.”