Small business giving back to the community

Kelly Powell is the owner and co-founder (with her husband James) of Kapow’s Cleaning Service, based on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Her commitment to giving back is reflected in the hiring practices of her small business. She is simply an amazing woman….
“At Kapow’s, we give back to the community a little differently. I actively hire people with challenges and work closely with agencies like Epic and Steps to ensure we have the right support available to set up the staff we hire for their success. To date, I have been only impressed with the work ethics and effort that my guys bring to work every day.
I am incredibly proud to say that we will build off this platform and I know it will be successful and fulfilling for all involved. In fact, my 3 year goal is to have at least 40% of my workforce sourced from these agencies. I think it is absolutely critical to involve as many people with challenges as I can, as not only does their self worth and confidence soar…but I get genuine ambassadors representing my business proudly and effectively.
I hire people without challenges as well and I set the expectation that if they can’t be flexible and support people in general…they can’t work for us. I can proudly say that we have an incredibly close team who focus on each others strengths…not weaknesses.

There is also a misconception by employers I think, that people with challenges are hard work. I have not found this to be the case. There is full support from the agencies I go through and the people I have hired are driven and enthusiastic. It also makes good financial sense as there are financial incentives offered by most of these agencies which for a small business is gold.  ….. What more could you want!

Obviously I could bang on about this topic for ever, because quite frankly it is my number one passion…and it all simply stems from my belief that life where possible should be fair……And given that I control the decision making in my business I think employing people with challenges that other employers might not look at, is about as fair as you can get.

I’d like to leave you with one last thought.  About three weeks into his new job, I asked an employee how he was going and what he thought of his job. He had been unemployed for a considerable amount of time (in fact I doubt this 40 yr old gentle giant has ever had a long term paying job)

Anyway he stood very tall and said that he was proud of himself. He has changed his diet and is going for walks so he can be fitter so he can do his job better. I said that was great! I knew he lived with his elderly father so I asked him what his dad thought. He stood tall and proud again and replied “my dad has called all of his friends and told them that his son had a real job where he gets paid”.

That for me was close to the best moment ever…I still get teary thinking about it…and that was the moment when I really realised what it’s all about.”

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