We Take a Lot of Pride in Being Different.

Post written by Mike Bollinger, Operations and Business Development

We’ve all experienced the following scenario a few times in our lives. You’re talking to someone, often for the first time, and they ask you, “So what do you do for a living?”

Sometimes that explanation is simple and straightforward. Other times, not so much. As a young professional in the staffing industry, I’ve found myself often responding with “I work in staffing” and leave it at that.

The reason is that discussions about the staffing industry can take a countless number of turns, both negative and positive.

The purpose of this post isn’t to try to persuade people to think a certain way about the staffing industry as a whole, but to instead share what led me to find a home at Grafton and why I plan to spend the majority, if not the rest, of my career here.

Grafton differs from the majority of the staffing world in several ways, but I want to highlight three critical areas:

• Grafton’s Internal Culture
• The Grafton/Client Relationship
• The Candidate Experience

Grafton’s Internal Culture

The internal culture at Grafton is the foundation of the successful reputation that’s been built and earned over our 36 years in business. We constantly preach (and consistently practice) several different qualities and virtues on both the professional and personal levels. Those practices include, but are not limited to:

• 100% transparency on the client and candidate level
• Honesty and integrity on any level 100% of the time
• Support without hesitation both professional and personal
• View each role as equally important… from the receptionist to the president… and everything between
• Win or lose, Grafton operates as a team with a “no one left behind” mentality

The Grafton/Client Relationship

Our clients receive more than just their job openings being filled with our candidates.

We pride ourselves on the fact that our clients view us as a partner instead of just a vendor.

We accomplish this by consistently remaining true to our values, ourselves and our clients.

Our goal isn’t solely to fill positions but to truly learn and understand our clients to the point that if they feel pain, we feel it too. We’re an extension of their team and we want them to know we’re there for them, in good times and in challenging times.

The Candidate Experience

Here’s one quick example that demonstrates who Grafton is as an organization when it comes to working with candidates…

Many candidates who have worked with staffing agencies experience pressure to quit jobs without notice when they’re getting ready to start a new one. Until joining the Grafton team, this was all I had ever seen in the staffing industry.

I feel extremely blessed to be a part of a team/ organization that doesn’t conduct business in those terms. We always respect and honor our candidates wishes to put in a notice if they’re currently employed. It’s little things like these that truly set Grafton apart from many other staffing companies in the industry.

The ultimate goal is to provide a service that results in a happy client, candidate and staffing firm. I like to refer to this as the “triangle of happiness”. If one piece is unsatisfied, we’ve got more work to do.