Acquisition brings Guard's career full circle
“There was this synergy,” Lisa Guard, owner of Specialized Staffing & Industry Recruiters, said of her rapport with Diane Payne.
Payne recently retired as owner of Temporaries North and sold her business to Guard.
To ease the transition, the two woman drove around Pittsburgh visiting Payne's clients.
Along the way, they shared personal history and chatted. And then it happened: The ah-ha moment.
“Diane started talking about when she used to work for a different staffing firm in Pittsburgh,” Guard said. “The day I graduated from Bradford College, I applied for work at that temp agency. Diane placed me at my first job in HR. She launched my career, and here it is full circle.”
Payne said she spoke to a number of companies interested in Temporaries North as she prepared for retirement.
“I've worked with many of my clients for 20 years, and I had a responsibility to them to find the right company,” Payne said. “I believe Lisa has the same ideas I do. The same morals. And when we realized our connection, I thought to myself, 'Now I know I made the right decision.'”
Guard related how that first job set the tone for her life's experiences, and ultimately her 1997 decision to open Specialized Staffing.
Then, the company was Guard alone operating out of a “little pink” spare bedroom in her house with a desk, a Compaq Presario and a fax machine.
With a focus on administrative and professional staffing, Guard said she, “ran help wanted ads in the Butler Eagle, and scheduled interviews at the old unemployment office. I'd interview candidates during the day and in the evenings I'd fill the positions.”
On Tuesdays, Guard said, she'd run payroll — paper checks back then — and drive them to the post office on her bicycle.
Within a year, Guard hired her first employee and leased an office in the Holly Pointe Building.
“Every couple of years, they had to break down a wall because we kept expanding,” Guard said.
In 2004, Guard bought and renovated her Main Street location, a one-time Thom McAn shoe store. It continues to be the company headquarters. Specialized Staffing now also has the Wexford site and an Erie location.
The blended business, which carries only the Specialized Staffing name, is seven employees strong. It will continue to offer the same services, but have a larger fingerprint for clients and recruitment.
“We're very busy right now because the unemployment rate is so low,” Guard said. “It's a candidate-driven market. Because candidates are working, they have the advantage. Most of the candidates we work with are happy and successful. They're just smart enough to be aware when opportunities arise to make a move.”
