From cubicles to factory floors, C&S staffs Columbia companies

Temporary staffing has come a long way since the days of calling up an agency for a “girl” to fill in behind a typewriter. But over the years some aspects of the local temp industry have remained constant.

Among them is C&S Business Services, founded by Carolyn and Scott Thompson 30 years ago as the first temporary staffing agency in central Missouri.
In the past three decades, the company has seen significant growth. Penny Hickey, C&S branch manager, notes that every year, except for two slow years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, “We’ve pretty much had record-breaking years.”

When Paula Benne took over 18 years ago, the company was called C&S Secretarial Services. Back then, Benne says, the requests for temporary workers leaned toward jobs traditionally held by women. Now, she says, physical labor is in big demand, and more of the workers are men.

Hickey says that when manufacturing plants hire temporary help during peak demand periods, the staffing service can benefit both parties, providing income for workers and extra hands for busy clients. When the demand dips and the worker is no longer needed, the temporary agency helps the employee to land on his or her feet and find another gig.

The types of hiring services C&S offers include temp-to-hire, direct hire and temporary hire. In temp-to-hire, after 90 days on a job (which corresponds with the standard probationary period), an employee shifts to the company payroll. In direct-hire, C&S acts as a search company for professional-level employees. Temporary hire deals with part-time, fill-in and seasonal work; busy seasons include the holidays and the maternity season, often in spring.

Tina Potter, C&S’s area account representative/staff development coordinator, conducts needs assessment with businesses to “see if we can provide them with the type of employee they’re looking for.” Once she has negotiated a contract, she turns it over to a staffing specialist. While client companies pay for the service, the temp workers sign on for free. “When a candidate comes to us, they don’t pay for anything,” Potter says. “They’re the service we provide to the clients.”

Employees can earn income with temporary work while searching for the ideal job, performing other part-time or freelance work, going to school or being at-home parents. For the employers, a temporary staffing service can save time and money in the hiring process.

“Using C&S results in a faster way of securing a qualified person for a vacant position,” Benne says.

Benne says C&S generates approximately 2,000 W2s every year and produces several hundred paychecks every week. Along with national accounts, the company has hundreds of local clients. “But to narrow down a number would be difficult since clients may call us for, say, a maternity leave one year, then not have a need for couple of years, and then call us again,” she says.

Benne says C&S has had a contract with the state of Missouri for nearly 30 years. The company is one of nine external vendors the University of Missouri-Columbia currently uses to assist with staffing needs, supplementing its internal staffing department, known as SOS. C&S is in its second year of a three-year contract with the university for clerical work and manual labor. Christian Basi, spokesperson for MU, says the arrangement is not competitive; it’s more like a partnership. “If SOS cannot fulfill a department’s need, we have other vendors on our list for temporary staffing,” Basi says. C&S has 12 employees in its offices in Columbia and Jefferson City. Its Web site, www.cs-business.com, is under development.