On front lines of labor shortage, SEEK continues to grow

Carol Ann Schneider began her staffing agency 48 years ago while operating out of her neighbor’s house in Grafton with a $500 budget. Today, SEEK Careers/Staffing has 21 offices throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota.

“I continue doing this because I like helping people realize their destinies,” Schneider said. “If you’re familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we all want to be self-actualized, but not all of us understand how to get there.”

On Jan. 4, SEEK finalized its acquisition of the Minnesota temporary-staffing agency Montu Staffing Solutions for $2 million.

Montu has three offices in Columbia Heights, Hopkins and West St. Paul, Minn., all of which will remain open.

“I was looking to establish a St. Paul (Minn.) office because we have offices in Eagan and Hudson, so I was looking for something in between,” Schneider said.

SEEK’s headquarters is at 1160 Opportunity Dr., Grafton, and has approximately 150 employees among its 21 offices. With the recent acquisition, the company will retain six of the 10 Montu employees, and Schneider said she plans to hire six more people for the new offices.

Last year, the staffing agency’s sister company, Seek Professionals, acquired Minneapolis-based Career Professionals.

Schneider’s company specializes in employment placement for direct-hire, temporary-to-hire and contract opportunities in manufacturing, light industrial, skilled trades and administrative roles.

She said the workforce environment for skilled and unskilled employees in Minnesota is comparable to Wisconsin.  

“We haven’t had labor (workers) in Ozaukee County for at least 30 years. We get our labor down the road in Milwaukee. It’s the same situation over St. Paul,” she said. “We realized that with a shortage of workers, we had to find more people.”

One of the reasons for the shortage, Schneider said, is that the birth rate in the U.S. dropped in the 1970s.

“It’s demographics. The birth rate took a giant plunge after the Baby Boomers. It’s starting to crawl back up,” she said. “We have some of those Boomers that are starting to age out of the workforce and we have a lot of educated kids, but we don’t have a lot in between.”

SEEK Marketing Director Amy Schwengels said that unlike members of other generations, people ages 18 to 35 aren’t as interested in today’s manufacturing jobs.  

“The dynamic has changed a lot from 20 to 30 years ago,” Schwengels said. “The tech schools and high schools pushed so hard to get the kids to go to college that we’re seeing this gap where kids coming out of college don’t want to take the types of roles that are available.”

The labor shortage has been exacerbated by the fact younger people tend to try multiple jobs before settling on a career. Government assistance programs can also keep the unemployed from seeking work, Schneider said.

Schneider and Schwengels said most employers are searching for people to take on manufacturing jobs at companies SEEK serves, such as Guy & O’Neill in Fredonia and Pace Industries in Grafton.

“There’s always been a need for unskilled labor. I’ve seen it like it is now where there are tons of jobs and not enough people,” Schneider said. “The economy is very healthy, but it could be even healthier if we had more people to work.”

Schneider said the businesses she works with need about 80% unskilled workers, 10% skilled and 10% office staff. As manufacturing companies become more automated, Schneider said, there will be a greater need for skilled workers.

According to Schneider, 86% of people get a job through networking, 7% through job boards and 7% through staffing companies like SEEK.

Schneider said about 35% of SEEK’s clients return to the agency for employment opportunities after their previous job stints expire.

SEEK also helps clients get to work by transporting them via vans and buses. The agency recently received a state grant to help with the program.

In the age of online job recruiting websites, Schwengels said, SEEK’s strength lies in the fact the agency knows the companies and people it serves. She also said web-based companies have over-extended themselves in other markets.

“Websites like Indeed are kind of going through an identity crisis because they are struggling to gain their market share back after they ventured in all these other different niches,” Schwengels said.

Schneider said she is optimistic about the workforce and said she expects there will be more laborers seeking blue-collar jobs in the next 20 years.

The 82-year-old CEO said she doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon, but when she does, she knows the company will be in good hands because her son Joel is the company’s president.

“I think when I turn 90, I’ll start scaling things back by working an eight-hour day,” Schneider said.