Nelson Staffing has been voted Best Job Placement Service in the 2011 NorthBay biz readers poll.
This year makes it a perfect 10 for Nelson Staffing, one of the Nelson Family of Companies—which together provide a wide variety of full-time and contract staffing as well as software and services designed to ease the process of workforce management.
“I can’t tell you how excited we are to win the North Bay’s Best for the 10th year in a row,” says Craig Nelson, executive vice president of Nelson Staffing. “We’re as proud to receive this award the 10th time as we were the first.”
The company was founded by Gary Nelson, Craig’s father, in 1970. From its first office in San Rafael, it’s expanded to include branches at numerous locations in the Bay Area and beyond.
As might be expected in the North Bay, Nelson Staffing saw activity last year in the wine industry, so it added wine recruiter Derek Stefan. In 2011, it’s continuing to increase its services to the wine industry; and two other areas—engineering and computer gaming—are also showing particular growth, Nelson says.
An employment service firm sees the first signs of a change in the economy, and Nelson says he’s definitely seeing an upturn, particularly in the temporary labor market. “ [Temporary employees] are the first to go down and the first to come back,” he says.
But the good news doesn’t stop there. “A lot of companies are hiring full-time employees, because they have the budget for it. It’s a good sign,” he says. “We all follow the same trajectory. Business in the North Bay is doing well.”
Industry-wide, staffing grew 12 percent last year, Nelson says, but Nelson Staffing did even better. “Our growth for staffing was 32 percent year to year, and it looks like 2011 will be a great year.”
One reason Nelson is leading the industry is that “we’re consultants as opposed to order takers,” he says. “Over the years, our employees have developed relationships with our clients. They know how to develop solutions that satisfy them, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Examples of its specialized approach can be seen in computer gaming, engineering and wine industry recruiting. Nelson says that while the company previously supplied quality assurance and outsourcing for game testing, it’s now recruiting people who actually create the games. It’s also added three recruiters with engineering backgrounds to its staff, so it’s prepared to hire engineers for temporary and permanent positions.
While previously Nelson hired staff for winery production, hospitality (pouring in the tasting room) and direct sales, it’s now able to recruit people for CEO, COO and chief of marketing positions.
“We continue to expand our offerings so we can help more and more people and get into more and more industries,” says Nelson. He’s looking forward to the company’s 11th win next year.
