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Paula Adams, president and CEO, seated; Nancy Riggs, regional vice president; and Jackie Woolsey, chief sales officer
Paula Adams, president and CEO, seated; Nancy Riggs, regional vice president; and Jackie Woolsey, chief sales officer

2013 Dynamic Dozen No. 9: Penmac Staffing Services Inc.

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An eye toward finding skilled employees for businesses needing new hires has spurred continued growth for Penmac Staffing Services Inc.

The Springfield temporary and long-term hiring placement and human resources service, founded in 1988, earned revenues of $96.2 million in 2012 – up 5 percent from 2011 and 24 percent from 2010.

Penmac has 142 on-site employees and 18,289 associates operating out of 29 offices in eight states, according to Penmac.com. The company is gaining momentum by branching out from traditional general labor placements into the field of professional recruitment for specialized and skilled employees.

“What we’ve been finding is a lot of our existing customers who are using us for temporary or temp-to-hire needs are now turning to us for skilled labor or management type positions,” says Penmac President and CEO Paula Adams.

Jackie Woolsey, who leads Penmac’s professional recruiting division, says direct hire professional recruitment is a natural extension of the staffing services the company has provided to clients for years.

Woolsey says Penmac is adding another recruiter to specialize in finding candidates for higher level professional positions, saying recent hires have been in engineering, quality and information technology.

“Jobs in engineering and IT are in especially high demand,” says Woolsey, noting Penmac’s professional recruiters have access to a pool of candidates, network with industry professionals and utilize a variety of tools to recruit qualified candidates for tough-to-fill openings.  “We’re able to bring talent to our clients, and strive to identify and present three to five qualified candidates for each job opening.”

 Woolsey said for local positions, Penmac meets face-to-face with candidates; however, they’re able to recruit for assignments in any of their clients’ locations out of town.

“Providing this service saves our clients time and money, and time is money for a lot of companies that may not have the human resources staff to go through a lot of resumes, and do the hard work of identifying the best qualified, passive candidates,” Woolsey says.

Though 80 percent of placements in staffing service fields are for industrial or manufacturing jobs, Adams says Penmac welcomes this growing trend of professional recruitment.

“We’ve found that this type of hiring is increasing, and we love that,” Adams says. “We’ve always had the capability to provide this service, but last year we found out that honing in on specific types of skilled employees who can fill a customer’s needs is in demand.”

Penmac’s growth has continued through many changes.

In 2010, Penmac’s founder Patti Penny stepped down from the position of CEO, passing the reins to daughter Paula, who had served as president since 2006.

Penmac executives also credit its online presence for continued success, saying the Internet has allowed the business to serve clients and find job candidates in various states. In the last five years, Penmac has opened branch offices in Georgia and South Carolina.

“Our business is changing in that you don’t necessarily need a brick-and-mortar place to fill a job in Florida or Georgia, but it’s not a total shift,” Paula Adams says cautiously. “I don’t think we’ll ever, and I hope we don’t, get away from one-on-one hiring for the majority of jobs. But a lot of skill sets don’t require this type of contact anymore.”

When she took over as CEO, Adams also instituted an employee stock program.

“I think it’s a wonderful benefit that we have,” Adams says of the program that awards ownership in Penmac to its in-house staff and qualified long-term associates. “It’s more like a retirement plan. It’s something where the profits of the business go back to the employees. It worked very well for my family and it’s been very successful.”

Adams also credits her company’s good fortunes on continued client loyalty.

“You want to be the service they call when they have needs,” she says.

“We love our clients that repeat and repeat, and these are people that we lean on significantly.”[[In-content Ad]]

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