In the past, the main focus in personnel recruitment has been on the candidate. But in today’s get-it-done-and-get-it-done-now economy, recruiting is more about creating seamless programs that make the process easier for both jobseekers and employers. That is what constitutes next-level staffing services, and that is what S3 is all about.
From the very moment that Cynthia J. Pasky first decided to branch out and start her own staffing business back in October of 1990, she knew she wanted to offer something different from any other staffing agency.
Having worked for another leading recruitment firm before starting Strategic Staffing Solutions (S3), Pasky knew the ins and outs of the industry, and had a solid understanding of how to recruit and place qualified talent in exactly the positions that employers were looking for.
“I knew that S3 could staff talent and do it well, but I also wanted to do it in such a way that showed that S3 really heard and understood what our customers were looking for versus trying to selling them categories that we wanted to sell,” she said.
“And I also felt that there was an opportunity to be more supportive of the talent that became part of our team.”
But in addition to matching the right candidates to the right jobs and providing companies with professionally tailored staffing and recruitment solutions, Pasky was determined to also include a social responsibility aspect in her business.
“At S3, we really believe strongly that if you have a company and are creating wealth from a community, you have an obligation to give back to that community,” she said.
“That should be part of who you are. It shouldn’t feel like a tough obligation; it should feel like one that you look forward to.”
It was that three-pronged approach to the staffing industry that became the template for starting and operating S3, Pasky said.
It is also what has positioned the company as one of the leading recruitment and staffing firms in the United States and as a global provider of business and IT services.
“I think that the manner in which we’ve conducted our business and the focus that we have on core industries has allowed us to grow and be able to add new services and capabilities in order to bring more to our customers,” Pasky said.
“We run very lean. We’re a flat organization by design. And what our customers would tell you if you asked them is that we do our job well.”
Among S3’s customers are Fortune 500 companies and FTSE100 customers around the world in the energy/utility, financial, government, healthcare and insurance industries.
And with annual sales of more than $350 million, as well as more than 500,000 resources with industry-specific knowledge across all IT disciplines, Pasky said that Strategic Staffing Solutions is ideally suited to shape and take advantage of current market needs.
“We can offer our clients incredible quality because of our culture and style and because of the manner in which we work since our talent stays with us longer,” she said.
“Our talent is more interested in becoming part of our team, which allows us to better serve our customers and our customer’s teams.”
But getting the job done well is only the first step, Pasky said. Speed is also important.
“Part of our success is the fact that when we bring talent to the customer – whether it’s in a project that we’re running for them in Lithuania or down on the development center here – every single one of those people has had a thorough personal screening.”
“We’re quick, and that is something our customers really appreciate,” she said. Pasky recalled the case of a recent S3 contract with a major client that had wanted to be positioned to service its products in the Philippines as soon as possible.
Within weeks, S3 had already set up consultants in Manila, which allowed the client to meet its timeline needs.
“The job must be done quickly. Obviously, it must also be done thoughtfully, but it must done quickly. There can`t be layers in order to get it accomplished,” Pasky said.
Whatever a client requires, Pasky said that S3 will find a solution. “We may not know everything about how we’re going to do this, at first, but I can tell you, it will get done. And then we move quickly to do that.”
Having a strong financial footing is likewise key to being able to meet client needs, she said. “We are incredibly strong financially,” Pasky said.
“We are a middle-market, middle-sized, privately held company. We have no debt. We have an amazing banking relationship. We have a phenomenal spreadsheet and phenomenal results.”
As a consequence of a secure cashflow, Pasky said that S3 can take on both medium- and long-term contracts.
“If a client says that they want us to open a facility in a given country and put together a shared service center for them, staff it, hire 600 people, make their payroll for six months, we can say without a pause, ‘Absolutely, yes.’ That’s a huge competitive advantage and it’s a huge support for our customers,” she said.
Looking forward to the years ahead, Pasky said that S3 is committed to sticking to what it knows it can do really well and never abandoning its core values.
“We should always continue to have the customers that we serve now as our first priority,” she said.
Within the context of that solid client portfolio, Pasky said that S3 will continue to grow by offering its customers more services, expanding into more countries and continuing to develop relationships that adapt swiftly to market dynamics and allow its clients to make effective and informed hiring decisions.
“We will become more and more of who our clients turn to for their exclusive business,” Pasky said. “That’s our number one priority.”
Pasky also said that S3 will always have its team learn from their clients to better serve them and their individual needs.
“Our leadership, our recruiting team, our sourcing team, they are all groups of individuals who are students of the industry for the customers that we serve,” she said.
“That’s a distinguishing factor, and it makes us so much better at how we service and support our customers.”
Pasky said that while S3 has incorporated some modern technology into its databasing, testing, cybersecurity and back-office tracking, at the end of the day, the company has never forgotten that it is the human touch that makes the real difference in matching candidates to jobs.
“If you think about the core of our business, what keeps it moving forward, it’s knowing exactly what the customer needs from a talent standpoint,” she said.
“There are no missteps and it’s exceptional. You can’t do that without humans being involved. Our solution is people.”
“If anyone says they have a five-year plan, they should rethink it, particularly based on what’s happened in our world in the last three, four, five years.”
That personalized human element in the selection and matching process is what has kept S3’s talent and clients faithful over the long term, she said.
All of which goes back to Pasky’s commitment to community involvement. For Pasky, that social responsibility has translated into a veteran hiring plan.
“We have had really good success with this plan,” Pasky said proudly.
“We were just recently accepted into a program with the Department of Defense (called SkillBridge) that gives us unique access to veterans, and we are executing a platform to make best use of that available talent, much of which will only be available to S3.
We’re the only company in our industry that’s been accepted into the Department of Defense program, and it will provide us a whole new source of talent with discipline and incredible backgrounds, individuals whose knowhow and experience we can now offer to our customers.”
Pasky said that “at S3, we know that military veterans and their spouses are among the best and brightest thinkers. They adapt easily, build solid relationships and have strong ethics. And above all, they are loyal.”
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