PACE Staffing Network, with headquarters in the stunning Pacific Northwest, has a 45-year history of putting people and jobs together in the right way. Their network is made up of systems, people, and partnerships that work together to deliver local and regional staffing solutions.
“PACE’s story goes back to 1975 when we became one of the first placement agencies in the nation to require the employer, not the job seeker, to pay the fee,” says Sara Bennett, Marketing Manager at Pace Staffing Network. “Our founders, two young female entrepreneurs, had a vision for how an employer-paid recruiting and placement service could ‘make a difference’ and we did.”
“Today, we continue to provide a menu of staffing and recruiting services to Pacific Northwest companies – both small businesses and corporate ‘bigs’. We are staying focused on solving our client’s staffing challenges and always being unafraid to step outside the box to find the right solution.”
“Our focus on Pacific Northwest employers and job seekers is one of those things that sets us apart from the nationally based staffing companies who often dominate a local marketplace. PACE is owned by a Pacific Northwest native. Our employees live in Pacific Northwest communities. Everything we do is about the Pacific Northwest and supporting our local community.”
- How has this pandemic shifted the way your business operates, and how have your people responded to the crisis?
“Staffing and recruiting is a very volatile business and we’ve been around for nearly 45 years – we thought that we’d seen it all,” says Bennett.
“We know that many local employers have experienced financial hardship throughout the epidemic and may no longer have the internal recruiting resources they need to hire the great talent needed to quick-start the return to normalcy,” says founder and CEO of PACE Staffing Network, Jeanne Knutzen. “We’ve created a new recruiting model ‘R3 – The Right Recruiting Resources’, to provide our clients with a low-cost way to flex their recruiting resources up or down, avoiding costly agency fees.”
Bennett continues, “We were very fortunate to have the internal communications infrastructure in place prior to the epidemic so we could quickly inform our network of candidates and field employees about how the outbreak would affect their work with PACE and also provide helpful community resources and information on how to apply for unemployment, especially for those who are signing up for these benefits for the first time.”
“We very quickly felt the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on our business and immediately readjusted roles and shifted our internal operations as many of our existing recruits canceled or postponed.”
“Giving our recruiters these opportunities to shift their responsibilities rather than take PTO or avoid feeling the ‘nothingness’ burnout of having way too much time on their hands has been successful for our organization. We saw recruiters dive deep into database strategy and organization projects, provide insight and support to Sales, and pick up some new skills from online training and webinars. They really enjoyed being able to diversify their skillset and try on a new role for a change.”
Here are some of the ‘downtime projects’ PACE took on within the organization. Most are suitable for companies outside of staffing/recruiting as well:
- Organize and strategize ATS and CRM databases – “We’ve got a lot of candidates that just aren’t ever going to be interested in the roles we are recruiting for or sales leads that aren’t in industries that we serve that need to be removed from our database so that we can focus on the SQL’s and candidates that we can be a resource for.”
- Lead profiling and prospecting – “We have invested time into evaluating the current job market and seeing what employers are hiring that we could potentially provide recruiting services to.”
- Surveying SQL’s that never purchased – “We always spend a great deal of time surveying clients that we work with but don’t often follow up with SQL’s that did not move forward with purchasing our staffing services. Now that we have more time on our hands, we have contacted all incoming leads from the past two quarters who have not purchased our services to get some feedback on how they experienced us and what their first impressions of PACE were – this feedback is invaluable!”
- Checking in with all clients that we have worked with over the past year – “Checking in to see how they are coping and wishing them health + safety going forward.”
- What are you most proud of that your company has achieved over the last year, or any specific milestones you want to tout?
“In February, we won our 4th consecutive ClearlyRated Best of Staffing recognition which was a huge win for us, especially since it’s voted on by our clients! It could not be more encouraging to our service team to be recognized by our clients that we work so hard to serve every day in this way.”
- How would you describe your workplace culture, and what attributes are you looking for when determining who gets hired there?
“We take a soft skill-driven and personable approach to everything we do at PACE, it’s really ingrained in our culture. Our clients remember our quality of service as the PACE team members they work with. Internally, we’ve got a consistent open door, direct communication style in place. Our field employees on assignment working with our employer clients are in frequent communication with their PACE recruiter and we are very much in tune with how their assignments are going and how they are feeling about their work.”
- Are there any guiding principles that you or your company live by?
“We’re really big on personalization, individuality, and understanding that everyone has a story.”
“We truly understand that no two staffing needs are the same and put a ton of effort into pinpointing the right skills and experience our clients need in addition to all the soft skills they’re looking for.”
“One of our favorite things to do is learn all we can about our client’s ‘stories’ – who you are, what you do, why an employee would want to work for you, or why an employer would want to hire you. Telling our client’s stories accurately and well is one of the things we do best – what we think makes us great recruiters!”
- What has been the biggest challenge to overcome as a business, and how did you rise to the occasion?
“Coping with the COVID-19 outbreak has no doubt been one of the largest challenges we have overcome as an organization. Our strong personal commitment to each other and the business has been the driver behind our ability to rise to the occasion. While Option A is not available because we aren’t working on as many recruits or active projects as we normally are, our team has been exceptionally adaptable and has grabbed Option B with both hands and worked so hard every day to make the most of this challenging time.”
- What are some of the best practices you and your staff do to stay connected, in general, and in times of crisis?
“We utilize Microsoft Teams to carry on workplace interpersonal communication and to be able to quickly touch base with our employees. Every morning, all of our employees each drop one daily goal into the chat so we can all encourage each other to reach our goals. We also share our ‘weekend highlights’ every Monday morning where employees are encouraged to share a photo and what they did over the weekend.”
We have a 10:00 AM company-wide video conference every morning to touch base on these projects – with a ‘camera on’ policy! Although most of our team hasn’t worked remotely prior to the epidemic, we’ve got a great culture of accountability and transparency, so it’s been a smooth transition to having the company 100% WFH.”
- Would you like to share anything else that we haven’t asked about?
“Throughout the epidemic, our senior leaders have maintained a proactive approach to strategizing and preparing for what the business will look like post-Coronavirus.”
“Obviously, PACE has no crystal ball to look into the future and no playbook for what lies ahead but we have maintained a close eye on what our government and health officials are communicating to businesses like ours, collaborated with our staffing partners nationally to share insights about what our post-COVID future will likely be and of course stayed in great communication with our employer clients to be able to gain our best understanding of how to plan for the future.”
“Most of our client partnerships go back decades and we value these relationships more than ever as we mutually cope with the effects that the epidemic has put on our businesses. We are able to get an understanding of how they have been impacted, how their business is currently operating in the midst of the Stay at Home order, and gain an idea of what types of roles they will be hiring for and the types of staffing needs they will have post-COVID.”
PACE Staffing Network appears to be handling this surreal era of American life with the necessary grace. The company has adjusted staff where needed, offering employees a chance to redirect their efforts to areas that will prepare PACE to be in the best position when life returns to “the new normal.” The right plans in place for that return to regular life is the most important thing any company can have in this uncertain moment.
