New office to enhance Express

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Express Personnel Services now has a presence on the north side of Springfield with the addition of an office at 2237 E. Kearney. The 2,000-square-foot office opened Oct. 16 and will focus primarily on light industrial business, according to franchise developer and owner Nikki Sells.|ret||ret||tab|

She and her husband Robert established Express Personnel Services, a staffing agency, in Springfield in 1990 and now work with more than 400 Springfield area businesses each year.|ret||ret||tab|

"We've looked at this for a couple of years and talked a lot about the fact that as the business community of Springfield grows and changes, we have to be flexible to those needs," Sells said.|ret||ret||tab|

Sells said the growth of industry on the north side of town, specifically that in the industrial parks, prompted this expansion.|ret||ret||tab|

"Our client base and applicant flow has grown in this direction," Sells said. "We definitely felt the need to be up here."|ret||ret||tab|

The Sells' south side location, 2045 S. Waverly, has two divisions: a large office services and professional division and a smaller light industrial division. Sells said the new office would service light industrial businesses, while leaving office services to the original location.|ret||ret||tab|

"It might develop to have more office services business, but the way Springfield is laid out, more of the office work is going to be in the south," she said. "If you look at where the industrial parks are being built and where the growth of industry is, it's really north."|ret||ret||tab|

"We've opened it as an enhancement to our south office," added general manager Valerie Earhart, who is overseeing the expansion process.|ret||ret||tab|

Earhart has worked with Stephanie Dietrich, project manager, and the newly hired staffing coordinator, Chad Schick, on preparing the office for operation. Dietrich, a three-year employee from the south-side location, has been temporarily transferred to work as project manager for the new office. Schick will run the Kearney office after receiving the necessary assistance from Dietrich.|ret||ret||tab|

Sells said that having confidence in the staff was a huge part of the decision to expand.|ret||ret||tab|

"It's been very positive that we will fully staff this office and we will watch it grow just like the one on the south has," she said. "I see in the very near future that we'll be expanding our hours and bringing another person in."|ret||ret||tab|

She said they anticipate adding two more employees by the spring and having four or five on staff at the north-side office a year from now. Their current hours are Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to noon.|ret||ret||tab|

The new office, which is leased from Rob Lurvey, makes for a total of 17 franchises in Sells' three-state region of Missouri, Kansas and northern Arkansas. She became regional developer for Express in 1995 when there were only five franchises in the region. Sells and her husband own the two in Springfield, while she oversees the others in her region. |ret||ret||tab|

"When we came to town 10 years ago there were a lot of people who still didn't know what a staffing service was," Sells said. "We've kind of come of age now."|ret||ret||tab|

She said Express services include recruiting, screening and other human resource functions.|ret||ret||tab|

"We become an extension of the companies that we're working with," Sells added.|ret||ret||tab|

Sells feels that two offices in Springfield will be sufficient, but sees growth potential in Christian County and other surrounding areas like Marshfield, Monett, Bolivar and Lebanon.[[In-content Ad]]