How a Recruitment Company Can Work from Anywhere With 8×8 Phone System

Bayside Group, a four-decade-old company in Australia, has served clients across the country, with over two hundred staff in eleven locations. It is a recruitment company that offers a portfolio of services they grew for years, including recruitment, human resources, workforce management, and workplace relations.

In this article, let us go through how a leading recruitment company and how their staff work from anywhere with the use of an 8×8 phone system.

Understanding the Recruitment Industry with Bayside Group

Company Background

In 1976, three young draftsmen in their twenties started a company in an unusual place – a modest bungalow in Melbourne’s southern suburbs. The goal was to recruit engineering and technical professionals – that became one of their specialist recruitment brands.

Four decades later, it has grown into one of the country’s leading recruitment companies. The Bayside Group set the industry standards, and they are known for their specialist brands built on their dedicated consultants that consistently provide unique insights and expertise. This has enabled Bayside to deliver the essentials in a recruitment company: comprehensive employment, industrial relations, and workplace safety services.

During the recession in Australia in 1981 that caused the unemployment rate to rise above 10%, and with an inflation rate of over 10%, the recruitment industry went through tough times. Bayside survived despite one-third of the recruitment companies in Australia disappearing from the Yellow Pages directory.

A year after, the company started Bayside Office Supplies and then an asbestos removal company in 1983. In 1984, they also started a personal computing service, with offices expanding into Western Australia. The company also entered the wine industry recruitment brand, CozWine 1998.

Bayside has always strived to increase its capabilities, which results in building and maintaining long-term partnerships. The company continued to expand. In 2009, Bayside founded NineWire to provide IT business solutions to their clients.

Currently, the specialist recruitment brands include the following:

• Automotive and Emerging Technologies Recruitment
• Health and Social Care Recruitment
• Trades and Industrial Recruitment
• Engineering and Technical Recruitment
• Regional Food and Wine Recruitment
• Administration and Executive Recruitment
• Scientific and Technical Recruitment
• Workplace Relations Services

Expansion and Recognition

Upon entering the new century, Bayside continued to diversify its business from acquiring two more recruitment companies to taking over Reed Global’s operations in Australia. Their awards in the past years proved that the company still has a long road of success ahead of them:

• Top 25 LinkedIn Most Socially Engaged Staffing Agencies in the Asia Pacific Region 2017
• Ford Australia Proactive Supplier, Relationship and Distinction Awards, 2008 – 2010, respectively
• Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (RCSA) Client Service Excellence Award 2015
• RCSA name McLean Award for Workplace Safety after Bayside Group employee Malcolm McLean 2007
• RCSA Outstanding Contribution Award, Founding Director Robert Blanche 2011
• Victorian Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) Award for People Management 2006

Challenges that the Bayside Group Was Facing with their Office Phone System

As the company expanded in the past decades, its office phone system also expanded to support its busy staff. Over the years, and as the needs arose, the telephone infrastructures installed different systems and services, adding capacity whenever it is needed.

John Wilson, the Bayside Group founding director, stated that although the infrastructure met the company’s demand for years, it encountered more complicated issues such as performance, where they need to apply different strategies every time.

It had become frustrating, especially when they reached the point that the telecommunication system no longer delivered the level of support as needed by the growing company. Their fleet of aging PABXs in their offices also lacks flexibility.

PABX or Private Automatic Branch Exchange is a system that makes it possible to have multiple lines of access with the use of few connections to the public network. It has a backbone of inter and intra-organization voice communication. Think of a private network within an organization that has many lines and stations. It worked great for the company in the past decades, but it could no longer evolve and so became obsolete for an expanding business.

With the use of PABX, there was no easy way to route calls between locations or for staff who were working remotely. Bayside Group was also facing the problem of losing access to its copper phone line connections. There was no choice but to seek an alternative office phone system that will solve the problem quickly.

Solution: A Modern Cloud-Based Phone System

The founding director stated that in 2019, the management team decided to adopt a ‘cloud-first approach for all of its IT requirements. The strategy was to migrate all applications and data stores from the data center to the cloud.

There was also a chance to investigate the potential of shifting from the traditional PABX infrastructure to a cloud communications platform. The recruitment company evaluated a variety of options until they landed upon 8×8. They decided to implement the new office phone system by January 2020, then to roll it out over the next few months.

However, the pandemic happened, and COVID-19 lockdowns were implemented. The company was forced to move fast and acted on its plans so that everyone can work from home, which was crucial at that time.

The company worked closely with 8×8, who immediately arranged training and equipped the staff with softphones that can allow them to make and receive calls while working remotely. 8×8 was used on their computers and smartphones, and eventually, the aging PABXs retired. The Bayside Group successfully switched into a thoroughly modern, cloud-based phone system infrastructure, making the call flow improved and smooth.

Why the Bayside Group Chose an 8×8 Phone System?

Because of the pandemic, like millions of businesses worldwide, Bayside had to close its offices. This was the time when the benefits of the 8×8 phone system became more apparent.

In the words of John Wilson, the phone system worked like a glue that kept the company together. It became their backbone. Without the 8×8 in place, the company wouldn’t have survived the pandemic.

“We now have in place a flexible and scalable cloud communications platform that will meet our needs during the coming years.”

The Benefits of an All-in-One Communications Call Flow

In summary, here are the reasons how 8×8 helped the company regardless of the lockdown:

• 8×8 offers a flexible and scalable future-proof platform.
  

  8×8 allowed the staff to make and receive phone calls while they are working at home as if they were working in the office. Whenever there is a need to transfer incoming calls to the appropriate person or when group calls are needed, all it takes is a touch of a button. It has increased the company’s responsiveness immensely.

• 8×8 supports remote working and management.

The staff only require their mobile phone, computer, and an internet connection to connect to the team. There is no need to travel from their home to the office, especially as the pandemic is still surging. With a stable connection, the management can monitor and support their staff who are working remotely.

• 8×8 is easy to use.
  

  The staff embraced the new phone system capabilities. Video conferencing, for example, makes it easy to work efficiently. Because it is easy to collaborate on documents using the screen share feature, workflow became more productive.

• 8×8 support is unparalleled.
  

Upon knowing the challenges of the lockdown ahead, when the company immediately require the need to implement the new phone system, 8×8 responded promptly with their proactive team.

• 8×8 saves the company a lot of costs.
  

  Once the restrictions are lifted, Wilson expected that with the use of 8×8, the staff travel costs would be reduced. In-state manager meetings conducted monthly will instead happen quarterly, while the rest of the sessions will occur with the use of 8×8 instead. Now that Bayside has shifted from having multiple telecommunication carriers to just having one for all of their offices, they also expect to have considerable reductions in management overheads. This means a sizable saving in their communication expenses. Upon estimate, the company will likely save around $20,000 a year on their telecommunication costs too. And when you count the other benefits 8×8 brings such as better productivity and reduced travel, the financial impact is even more significant, John Wilson added.

After settling the issue of their phone systems, the company will aim for other ways on productivity. Once operating conditions settle down, and after the COVID-19 disruptions, John Wilson plans to focus on Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint’s deployment. These apps can easily be integrated with 8×8. This strategy will drive even more efficiencies and improve productivity for all the staff.

Key Takeaways

With a company that continues to expand and with huge potential, 8×8 saved the day by being a reliable partner to businesses worldwide. Both the Bayside Group and 8×8 will continue to innovate, evolve and expand. Despite the recessions and the pandemic, these companies will continue to serve Australia.

Call Flow Solutions is a proud partner of 8×8, working with them through the years. Is 8×8 the right phone system for your business? How can 8×8 help your business expand and reach its target productivity? Get in touch with us with our free discovery call. Let’s get over your options and recommend which will work best for your business!