EmploymentGroup names EVP

EmploymentGroup names EVP

Gary Schuler. Courtesy EmploymentGroup

EmploymentGroup has named an EVP to grow the staffing company in three “core” service categories.

The EVP role

Gary Schuler will oversee staff placement and development operations, new business development and sales team management.

Schuler said, as EVP, he'll focus on growing the EmploymentGroup's three “core areas”: temporary staffing, recruiting for full-time positions and managed services.

Schuler said he’ll focus on identifying companies in and outside the state that are looking for services to manage “non-core” internal departments, such as mailroom, shipping and receiving, document management and shuttle services.

He added that he'll also focus on providing clients with "A" players via the company’s testing and evaluation process.

Schuler said that EmploymentGroup is consistently able to produce 50 percent lower turnover rates on its placements than the industry standard.

More than 4,000 of its temporary placements have been offered full-time employment in West Michigan since 2010.

"Open" jobs in region

Recruiting remains one of the biggest challenges in West Michigan.

“Grand Rapids is such a great business environment right now,” Schuler said. “The challenge is finding ‘A’ players who want to work and meet the general guidelines required to perform the job.

“Every week, we have open orders for jobs that we are unable to fill,” Schuler added. “You would not think this is the case given Michigan's unemployment rate of 9 percent. There are a number of factors creating this problem, including the breakeven point of receiving governmental subsidies, the hourly wage being offered and a requirement of being ‘drug free.’"

Schuler said that challenges also present opportunities, and he believes EmploymentGroup has the ability to turn the challenges into opportunities.

“We have the ability to take what we have learned from selecting ‘A’ players for the manufacturing segment and applying the process to the medical, financial or service industry,” Schuler said. “The basics are the same for any industry: attracting the best employees who are a cultural fit for the organization and are more likely to stick."

Sales background

Schuler brings 25 years of sales and management experience to his EVP role at EmploymentGroup.

Most recently, he served as a senior sales executive for Cintas Corporation. He was esponsibile for managing Fortune 500 and other large retail accounts and securing new customers for Cintas’ line of corporate uniform services, facility products and document-management systems.

His prior experience includes serving as a founding member of MyWay Mobile Storage, where he helped form the company’s sales and operations, as well as developing a multi-channel sales strategy for retailer Family Christian Stores.