Co-Founder · Documentation and Compliance · Deployment and onboarding, 2000–2022 · Documents, compliance and accounts, 2022–present
Frances co-founded the business in 2000. She built and ran the deployment and onboarding of every worker the company placed for 22 years, and now runs document checking, compliance and the accounts. She is named in more of our Google reviews than anyone except Dennis.
- Co-founder since 2000
- Built the deployment and onboarding process used for every worker placed, 2000–2022
- Runs document checking and compliance: every visa application, every certificate, every medical, every flight
- Runs the company accounts
- Certificate in TEFL, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL Toulouse, France, 2017)
The Paperwork
I check documents for a living. So you will forgive me if this is shorter than his.
In late 1999 Dennis rang me from the bush on a satellite phone and asked whether I wanted to start a recruitment company and run it our way. I said let’s go for it. We had a family and a mortgage and no clients. I knew exactly what I was agreeing to.
He found the people. I built the system that looked after them. Deployment first, then onboarding, and for the last several years the documents and the checking.
People think documents are the boring part. They are not. A missing page is not a paperwork problem. It is a man in Kitwe who does not fly on Thursday, and a family who were told he would be home for Christmas.
Dennis was working FIFO when our first child was a baby. Someone at the company he worked for then missed a booking, and he missed the first steps because of that “paperwork problem”. I have never lost sight of that, and I do not intend to.
I also do the books. So when we tell you that no worker pays us a fee to be recruited, understand that I would be the one who saw it. There has never been anything to see.
Dennis is my husband. We have been married thirty years.
We did not say so for a long time. When I walked into a workshop in Lusaka I wanted to be the woman who ran deployment, not somebody’s wife, and I have never regretted that. But he has now written a page about kitchen tables and how he would be nothing without me, and people have been thanking me in reviews for years without knowing who they were thanking. It seems a bit silly to keep it up.
What I Actually Do
Every certificate gets verified. Every licence gets checked against the issuing authority.
That is not new. Our first company kept a file on every tradesman it placed: a photograph, and a photocopy taken direct from the original of every qualification, licence, ticket and training record. That was 2002. The filing cabinet has gone. The rule has not.
Every part of every application gets read by one of the team before it gets to me. Then I read it and check it again, before I approve anything to be passed to an agent or adviser who then checks it again.
If a document can be checked and verified, we check it and we verify it, and if it cannot be verified, it simply does not go in an application and an agent or adviser explains why.
The workers we place fly on the day they were told they would fly. That does not happen by luck. It happens because somebody is pedantic about paperwork, and in this company that pedantic somebody is me.
With Dennis I also write and run our cultural awareness seminars for the workers deploying to Australia and New Zealand. We have run pre-departure seminars since 2008. We both trained to teach English as a foreign language, and we prepare candidates for their English tests without charging them for it.
No Recruitment Fees. Ever.
We never charge recruitment fees or costs to workers. No hidden charges. No high-interest loans to pay off.
We are paid by the companies that need skilled and experienced people. Ethical employers do not allow their workers to be charged fees. Read our Code of Conduct and Modern Slavery Policy.
Reviews
Nine Google reviews name Frances. Three are quoted below exactly as written, with the […] symbols marking anything left out. You can read the full set on our reviews page.
From workers and their families
“I can’t recommend Skilled Migration Group highly enough. Dennis and his team, especially Frances, were incredibly supportive throughout my migration journey—and what amazed me most is that they provided all of this outstanding service completely free of charge. […] Frances handled all the paperwork with great care and precision, making the whole application process smooth and stress-free.”
Kabelo Sebetlela · Google review, record 059 (read it in full)
“I relocated to Australia in 2023 to join AAMG as a Fitter […] From my initial interview with Den Henri and Brent, to Frances handling all the details of my visa application, everything was managed with professionalism, clarity, and care. I didn’t pay anything during the whole process.”
Paul Makungu, Fitter · Google review, record 062 (read it in full)
“From my first interaction with SMG, I was immediately set at ease that I will not be required to make any payments, and true to their word, my medicals, Visa fees and my relocation to Australia was free, I did not pay a cent […] Thank you Dennis and team, and Mrs Frances Helen, you have been outstanding, thank you very much.”
Poiter Tebogo phoshoko · Google review, record 060 (read it in full)
These reviews describe Frances’s work checking documents and compliance for SMG clients. Reviewer names and spelling appear exactly as written on Google.
If You Are Going Through Our Process
I am the person checking your file. Get your documents right the first time and I will get you on the plane. See the roles we are recruiting and what the people we have placed say.
If you are an employer: the process behind our placements is documented, audited and checkable. Book a consultation.