Elle Cecil
Operating in the Geelong region for over 30 years, The Salary Packaging People have been named as a finalist in this year’s Geelong Business Excellence Awards (GBEA).
The Salary Packaging People (TSPP) is a dedicated team of Geelong locals who service thousands of customers throughout Australia.
Providing a fully outsourced service to employers of any size and industry, TSPP helps people to take full advantage of their workplace tax entitlements. With these people typically working for charities, health organisations, not-for-profits and community service organisations, TSPP’s services enable these organisations to recruit, reward and retain employees in a highly competitive market.
Glenda Garmey is TSPP’s General Manager, running the business with Director Brian Coghlan, as well as Dan Nicholls, Head of Customer Experience, and Justin Jacobs, Head of Business Development. With a combined total of around 100 years of experience in the industry, Glenda, Brian, Dan and Justin have been working hard to push TSPP further since they acquired the business five years ago.
“Being nominated [for the Geelong Business Excellence Awards] was like, wow! We were actually nominated by two different people, so winning this award would hopefully put us in front of some more opportunities to further our business.”
TSPP has been strongly involved with the Geelong community, as members of the Geelong Chamber of Commerce and Geelong Business Club, and participating in a variety of local initiatives including the Geelong Region Alliance (G21) and the Geelong Region Opportunities for Work (GROW). The “formal alliance of government business and community organisations working together to improve the lives of people within the Geelong region across five municipalities,” the G21 is designed to better all aspects of living in the region (www.g21.com.au).
“We’re dedicated to growing the Geelong region and supporting low socioeconomic groups through our G21 and GROW associations,” Glenda says.
TSPP also supports the Give Where You Live Foundation, designed to create a fairer Geelong and G21 community by delivering programs and providing grants to organisations and charities in the community.
From supporting access to education and employment to promoting wellbeing for residents in the Geelong area, TSPP is one of many community-driven businesses. TSPP employees often spend time volunteering with the organisation and have grown to love their community even more because of this.
TSPP has also been supporting their own customers throughout the coronavirus pandemic. With the majority of clients working in the healthcare or not-for-profit sector, TSPP has been donating to their health and wellbeing packs throughout the pandemic.
“We understand the needs of our customers because we know them personally and we care about them,” Glenda says.
When faced with the notion of two separate GBEA nominations, the team at TSPP were shocked and excited. Being a small business in a large area, it wasn’t something that seemed particularly pertinent to the business.
“It’s been a really amazing journey and it’s been an opportunity to look inwardly. We said to our team, ‘Why do you work for us and why do you keep coming in?’ They said some really wonderful things and we thought, wow,” says Glenda.
“We’re really happy that we’ve been nominated, the process has been really enlightening and just being a finalist is awesome with the publicity and getting our business out there.”
“We’re pretty excited to be honest, we’ve got to practice our Logies speech just in case!”
The Salary Packaging People are located at 2/396 Latrobe Terrace, Newtown. For more information, phone (03) 5229 4200 or visit www.salarypackagingpeople.com.au.
Thanks to this year’s major sponsors LBW Business + Wealth Advisors and Deakin University, the 2021 Geelong Business Excellence Awards celebrate clever, creative and resilient businesses and business leaders.
To find out if the Salary Packaging People will be a winner of the Geelong Business Excellence Awards, watch the free virtual event via Channel 31 or www.gbea.com.au on 19 October at 7pm.
