Associates Staffing, LLC, an employee placement firm based in Piqua, Ohio, is expanding its operations into a historic building in downtown Tipp City. A Grand opening is planned for Wednesday June 10, 2009, and will mark the fifth office location to open in our region in the past two years.  The businesses owner, Rick Brownlee a long time resident and graduate of Tippecanoe High School purchased the historic building in November of 2008.  Associates Staffing, will occupy the space as a sales and recruiting office which qualified the improvements to the property for SBA’s 504 program and the Community Capital Development Corporation’s assistance program.  

The economic slowdown made the first quarter of this year an excellent time for our Associates Property division to complete the improvements to the building in time for the Grand Opening.   “We are very excited about working from this new location and being a part of Tipp City’s many downtown activities”, said Mr. Brownlee.  The Downtown Improvement Committee has done an outstanding job of overseeing the improvements to preserve the look of Tipp City’s historical buildings.

The strategic location of this new office will centrally locate us in the area where we anticipate the largest new business growth which is near the I-70/I-75 corridor. This location will help us better service our customers by providing our new recruits a convenient location to fill out our application and complete all of the necessary testing in order to go to work through us.  The request for new employees is on the rise so the addition of this new recruiting location really compliments this process.  Staffing companies such as ours have been part of the challenging economic recoveries since the 1970s.  Typically our industry begins to pick up months before an economic recovery begins, so this is definitely an encouraging sign. 

Now more than ever it's important for the stability of our local economies for corporations to work with local companies. We are providing jobs and tax revenue to this local economy and the employees who work through us are spending money there as well.  Earlier this year Associates Staffing created its own stimulus package for all of our employees.   We handed out cash bonuses in the form of two dollar bills and asked that they be used to purchase items in their neighborhoods and home town businesses.  This was done in an effort to illustrate the importance of supporting their local businesses.  Associates Staffing is a locally owned company like many of the customers we work with and much of the profits and payroll from our businesses are spent in the communities we operate in.

Our role for the majority of our customers is full time recruiting, screening, and placing employees who desire full time employment. Over 70% of our applicants come from referrals of other satisfied employees that we have placed into employment.  In cases where the customers need is a project that will end, we strive to align a new opportunity for our employee to reduce their time without work.

As business continues to increase and more employees are needed we expand our recruiting to keep pace.  When the total number of employees at a company reaches a level that becomes difficult to manage from one of our offices an account manager or supervisor is assigned to work on sight and in many cases we become the human recourse department.  Because of this need we are always looking for new Account managers to learn the staffing business.  We provide free training in all aspects of employment law, workers compensation, safe workplace practices, recruiting, and interviewing.  Our company systems are web based so our account managers and supervisors can work from any location.

 We have an incentive plan in place for our customers and employees that we outline in detail when we bring on new customers.  Once new employees start working for our company they qualify to enter into a program that allows them to work towards more than just a weekly paycheck.  We share this program with each new customer and explain in detail how working with our company ensures they are getting a better motivated employee.  This type of additional incentive creates an environment for our employees to be a better long term team member of their company because they are working toward more than just a weekly paycheck. It’s for this reason I truly enjoy this business and there’s nothing more gratifying than running into a past employee years later and them explaining how they were able to advance at the company we placed them at. After being permanently hired they tell me that they are making a good living and have been able to purchase a home for themselves and their family.  I can’t think of any other business that I would rather be in, the rewards are abundant.