Starting a new business is a hard process full of obstacles and unidentified variables. It takes a strong will, a lot of hard work, and a willingness to take risks. One can face many problems, such as getting capital, building a good team, and dealing with market competition. But a lot of the time, mistakes are what lead to success in the end. Every mistake or setback is a chance to learn and grow. The road to success may be hard, but those who keep going and learn from their mistakes pave the way for business success. Such is the story of Paul Morrison, who kept his exposure and determination after each setback and has become one of the most successful businessmen in not only Australia but the whole Asian Pacific, Singapore, China, Asia, Thailand, New Zealand, and Australia as Connect Staffing Group has ranked 199 out of top 500 fastest growing businesses among all these regions.

Paul John Morrison has been a certified chef for over 20 years and is now the Director of Connect Staffing, a firm he created in 2015 to provide competent workers to the hotel sector. In addition to being named to the AFR Fast 100 in 2021 and 2022, Paul has garnered numerous other awards for his work as a business leader and mentor. Paul’s selection as a “40 under 40 business Leader of the Year is another highlight of his career.

Paul has served as a business and culinary judge at the international and national levels, respectively, for WorldSkills, and he is now a member of the council of the Recruitment, Consulting & Staffing Association (RCSA) in Western Australia (WA). Paul is a seasoned businessman, a trained chef, and a six sigma black belt.

Inspirational Story of Paul Morrison

From 2009 until 2011, Paul worked for the Football Association of Ireland in Dublin. Following strict diets, he prepared and served hot and cold team meals and snacks on training and match days. He assisted Executive Chef David Steele in setting up the dining room to Football Association Ireland (FAI) standards and communicating with players, coaches, and the executive board. In 2011, The Labour Party asked him to cook for 120 Brendan Ryan TD supporters.

From August 2006 until September 2011, Paul was the Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events Ireland Head Chef and Craft Development Chef. His duties included hospitality and culinary management, HACCP compliance, managing weekly and monthly functions, liaising with clients and management, developing theme menus, team building/training/supervision, purchasing and stock controls, overseeing front and back of house operations, ensuring high customer service, and workplace health and safety.

He also got internal training on risk management, safe work methods, internal online accounting, margin management, waste and food safety management, and IOSH, an internationally recognized certification. He worked closely with Sodexo Ireland Executive Chef Derek Reilly as Craft Development Chef for Leinster. He collaborated with the national executive chef to conduct chef demos, seminars, and workshops around Ireland. Paul conducted Sodexo Ireland Chef Forum contests for 40 kitchens nationally. He worked with London and Scottish executive chefs Kevin Dundon, Derry Clark, and Sodexo at Sodexo.

From October 2011 until May 2012, Paul was a head chef at Sodexo JUNDEE Minsite. He oversaw eight cooks, three kitchen hands, and four waiters. He was in charge of feeding 460 people, including VIPs and everyday events, at a camp. He also planned the annual stakeholders’ dinner, which cost $1,100,000. His duties included culinary management, occupational health and safety, HACCP implementation, front and back of house operations, purchasing, and stock control, weekly and daily functions, menu development, significant event preparation, team building, training and supervision, client and management liaison, safety, sanitation, quality controls, optimum ordering system, theme night menu development, and healthy eating plans. Paul was a Compass Group Australia chef from May 2012 until June 2015.

Paul created Elite Hospitality Personnel in 2015. Elite Hospitality Personnel provides chefs and culinary workers. The company soon added cleaners, catering assistants, laundry attendants, waitresses, boardroom waiters, bar staff, food and beverage attendants, retail attendants, approved managers, and ticket and gate attendants for stadiums, sporting events, and Perth Racing race days. After failing to enter into the elderly and healthcare industries, a plan was needed.

Elite Hospitality Personnel affiliated Connect Health Services in October 2016. Connect Health Services began in 2004. Connect Health Services supplied Registered and Enrolled Nurses, Nursing Assistants, and Carers to aged care and healthcare facilities. In October 2018, Paul purchased Connect health services after a successful partnership providing hospitality employees to customers. Connect Health Services and Elite Hospitality Personnel become Connect Staffing Group in July 2022.

Connect Staffing Group Being the Best in the Business

Connect promotes flexible work. Employers and workers love the firm because it helps job seekers find secure and enjoyable work. The organization also helps Western Australians discover flexible healthcare, elder care, and hospitality jobs, regardless of their preferences.

Connect Staffing employs over 600 motivated individuals and provides staffing solutions to large Australian healthcare, aged care, hospitality, and facilities management firms under Paul’s leadership.

Paul said Connect Staffing Group saw a casual worker potential at COVID-19 in 2020. To compete with rivals in elderly care, the organization created a pool of motivated personnel and implemented a retention policy. This program employs over 650 people and serves over 300 customers in diverse sectors.

The company’s development and success have been continuous due to these efforts.

• Connect Staffing was named one of Australia’s fastest-growing firms by the Australian Financial Review in 2021 and 2022
• Connect Staffing was ranked No. 199 out of 500 across the APAC 2023 in the financial times.
• Business leader of the year 2023
• Many of the team practices that contributed to Connect Staffing’s 2022 Great Place to Work® certification were first implemented by Paul.

Given Australia’s high casualization rate, Paul’s duties include providing flexible work for internal and external employees. Connect Staffing Group promotes flexible work and helps job seekers find stable, satisfying jobs. Casual workers received work-life balance, training, and growth via partners.

Connect Staffing pioneered wage packaging and sacrifice for Australian temporary workers. Sundowners, recognition, incentives, career paths, and stable weekly hours are also offered. “We keep our word,” Paul adds. This has also helped us retain workers and satisfy customer needs, especially in a tough global labor market.”

Incredible Growth through the Global Epidemic

Paul claims that the year 2020 will always stick out in his mind because of the $200,000 in losses his company incurred due to a botched software development project. The effects of Covid-19 led to the collapse of the development firm. Although they had their misgivings after the prior disaster, the company ultimately decided to switch to EntireHR after much thought. Paul has given them eight weeks to set up the company’s CRM system and start doing business by September 1, 2020. In just the first month, they were able to better provide workers to all client facilities, and they saw a 60% increase in filled shifts. Paul acknowledges that this has been important to the company’s expansion, saying, “We owe it all to the EntireHR ,Blake Thompson and Sachin Nischal and all their team. Our company’s size has virtually doubled in the previous three years because of their assistance.

Employee Support at Connect Staffing Group

Paul claims a healthy work-life balance is essential to the company’s success. As part of its commitment to employee well-being, Connect Staffing Group offers monthly paid mental health days and a paid birthday day off. In addition to a family- and lifestyle-friendly environment, they also provide flexible scheduling. These actions have helped the company stay on track, foster expansion, and preserve its current course. With most recently spearheading the COVID surge workforce campaign across Western Australia for the aged care sector, in collaboration with state, federal government and the industry body RCSA (Recruitment Consulting Staffing Association)

Paul just recently now became a council member for western Australia for the industry body RCSA (Recruitment Consulting Staffing Association).

Paul adds that it doesn’t take long for a leader to understand they can’t do it all by themselves. Therefore, it is essential to learn to trust and provide authority to others around you if you want to make choices that align with your objectives and vision.

According to Paul, he has a fantastic group of coworkers that make his job easier and more pleasant. The office staff’s enthusiasm for the company’s goals has helped the business thrive. In addition, the company’s 650+ monthly workers, some of whom have been there from the start, are the ones who support the client’s requirements and business operations. Paul sees this as evidence that the business is headed in the right direction. A recent staff poll also showed that over 68% of employees want to remain with Connect Staffing Group exclusively.

Strategic Vision for The Company

Paul plans to increase the number of registered personnel working in public and private hospitals in Western Australia (WA) over the next three years to extend its footprint in the healthcare industry. During this period, the firm plans to expand to become the leading supplier of nurses in the state. Furthermore, as a staffing supplier to our healthcare and senior care business partners, they aim to establish new benchmarks.

Bureau Veritas has awarded Connect Staffing accreditation in ISO 45001, 14001, and 9001, making it the only nursing and hospitality agency in Australia to have this kind of recognition. Staffsure has verified them as WA’s best nursing and hospitality agency provider, protecting their employees from modern slavery and underpayments. Paul explains that the company’s dedication to its employees and business partners is shown in its pursuit of these certifications. He is also about to lodge a Labour Agreement with the federal government and immigration to help support the nursing shortage across the public sector Hospitals throughout western Australia. With this agreement in place, it will help Connect staffing Group increase its footprint across the Healthcare sector.

Advice to Aspiring Young People in the Industry

As an industry leader, Paul states, Been in Business you must be surround yourself with likeminded people that have a growth mindset, get yourself a mentor in business, it doesn’t have to be in the same field of expertise as you but someone who is generally older and been in business a lot longer than yourself is a bonus, I currently have a mentor who currently has been awarded  into the hall of fame for finance for his impact on industry and change, by the name of Mike Coombes.

Paul also states, “You need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable with some major decisions you make, realizing that these choices may have significant effects on people’s lives, both positively and negatively.”

Making the correct choice is not always feasible, and individuals have varying definitions of success. About 99 percent of the population equates success with monetary gain, status symbols like expensive vehicles and mansions, and other displays of material achievement. Success is often celebrated, but the effort, commitment, setbacks, uncertainty, obstacles, and lack of sleep that often accompany it are seldom recognized.

Hence Paul emphasizes, “something you learnt today may work today, but it doesn’t mean it will work next week. That doesn’t mean it’ll work as the company grows. So, you must always be “open to change and be ready for it.” The issue with today’s society is that the illiterate is not the people that cannot read or write, it is the people that cannot learn, unlearn what they have learnt and relearn the new way”