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The Vision
A Boutique Staffing Agency that exclusively serves the OGVG District 1 membership base in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Exclusivity to the high-tech greenhouse sector allows Flex-Force Inc. to recruit technicians for a specific job role. This allows the Flex-Force technicians to gain experiential skill. This retained skill reduces the amount of time growers must spend training, retraining & on boarding employees from traditional staffing agencies who may have been in a completely different industry sector prior to be “assigned” to a greenhouse or packhouse and may be in a totally different industry sector the next day.
Flex-Force Inc. is filling a niche that serves to better the community, the clients and the Flex-Force Inc. technicians.
Flex-Force Inc. technicians are, provided with consistent work within the greenhouse sector. Though the job task & the farm location may vary, the core skills required to do those tasks remain the same. Team Members also receive significant premium pay, easy access to work assignments through contactless automated app-based work dispatching.
The result, a pool of skilled technicians that can be flexed between various farm assignments within the district as the needs ebb and flow.
Why Flex Force
The days of just needing “labor” are evolving. The industry needs skilled labor. Industry specific technicians that will bring value, day in day out. Technicians that are not only skilled, but versatile, they have experienced hi-tech greenhouse crops in a variety of farms, large and small, various crops, grading, selecting and packing at packhouses. Technicians that come back, day after day, season after season. Technicians that are assigned to where the demand exists that day.
Many of these demands are already met within the farms through various International Guest Worker programs. These programs provide mutually beneficial rewards. However, they do not have the flexibility that Flex-Force Inc. offers. They do not have the ability to respond to the micro demands within the sector.
When demand peaks above what the farm can handle inhouse, calling in a conventional staffing agency that may be bringing in employees from various locations, often no where near the farm or community being served may have some risks. Generally, staffing agencies screen, select and hire employees for nonspecific jobs. We hear terms like “general labor” or “workers”. With diverse client bases.
Though conventional staffing agencies do offer a versatility that Flex-Force Inc. does not, such as being able to send “someone” to almost any general labor setting, the match is often as “general”. The employees aren’t specialised, familiar and may never have done the job before. Often plagued by high turnover, this cycle of virtual “on boarding” seems to be perpetual. This costs greenhouse operators as they continually invest in onboarding and upskilling agency employees and may never see a return on that investment through retention.
With Flex-Force Inc. providing premium pay and sector specific work, coupled with good working experiences at local farms, the foundations for retention are laid. Employees are less likely to leave the role and take work in the service sector that pays considerably less than Flex-Force Inc. As employees gain tenure and experience, they are more likely to become confident and capable in the technician work they are performing. Couple this with clients and farms that make the technicians experience a pleasant one and we have a recipe for skill retention, we also end up with hundreds of ambassadors for the industry within our community. This helps bridge a gap that has inadvertently occurred in past years through rapid growth between the community of perspective employees and the largest employers.
Flex-Force Inc. leverages technology to ensure fit and efficiency. Technicians receive work assignments, unique farm instructions, directions, location tracing and provide scoring feedback of each work assignment via app or web portal. Clients place orders, receive confirmations, provide scoring feedback and billing all via app or web portal.
Bottom line, would you want an employee who was stocking shelves yesterday, maybe stuffing newspapers tomorrow, making your crop selection decisions today? If your answer is “no way”, you may want to look at the “contact us” link or reach out to your OGVG contact today to connect with Flex-Force Inc.
About Us
We needed a better way.
In many agricultural sectors, product cycles are not consistent. Though high-tech greenhouse growing is at the leading edge of working with mother nature to produce consistent high quality natural foods, the industry is still based on a living product with many variables that still results in a world of “too much” or “too little”. These natural yet controlled cycles result in micro demands within the sector. If all the greenhouses were owned by 1 entity and were essentially a “mega farm”, flexing labor within the “mega farm” would be considerably easier. However, that is not the case. Flex-Force Inc. fills those gaps, competently.
Flex-Force Inc. was created with 3 primary objectives.
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Connecting our community members with the largest employer in the area, high-tech greenhouses
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Provide those community members with an opportunity to earn a premium wage.
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Provide the high-tech greenhouse sector with skilled local employees that can bring experiential skill to the job and hit the ground running.
Proximity, community, skill.
Flex-Force Inc. has a year-round and seasonal workforce. Flex-Force clients are members of the OGVG and as such, the membership has strong input into the processes and employee deployment, employee training and ultimately, a large hand in employee retention.
Mission Statement
Our Mission at FLEX-FORCE INC. is to enhance and expand value added, prosperous communal relationships with the high-tech Agri sector and the community constituents.
Serving with dignity to meet the mutual prosperity of the entire community.
Ensuring mutually successful growth of the broader community, including local producers, local employees and the greater population that enjoy and sustain Canadian grown greenhouse produce as well as making an effective contribution to workplace Health and Safety.