Express Employment Agency Opens in Boardman

BOARDMAN, Ohio – Youngstown Express Employment Professionals, with a staff of four, has entered the Mahoning Valley market pledging to link employers with temporary and full-time workers in a different way from other agencies.

“This location is associated with 60 or 70 job seekers and we have placed a few to companies already,” said Scott Brush, owner of the franchise.

The staff of Youngstown Express Employment, which opened 22 days ago at 5815 Market St., Suite 1, cut a blue satin ribbon in front of the building Tuesday to kick off its day-long open house.

Brush said, “The concept of a staffing agency isn’t new, but the way we do it is different from other companies.”

Express Employment works to help job seekers find work by using its connections with employers in diverse fields and match seekers’ skills with employers’ needs, from nursing to warehouse work, from data processing to marketing, from delivery drivers to computer programmers.

“Other staffing companies in the area don’t always have the close relationship with their employees like we do, and that’s what sets us apart,” Brush said. He is working to establish and strengthen such relationships, he said.

Express Employment Professionals, based in Oklahoma City, opened in 1983. It has grown to 711 franchises in the United States, another 37 in Canada and 13 in South Africa.

“Ours [Express Employment staff] are a little bit different,” Brush said. “We try to qualify the candidate as much as possible.”

The work that Express Employment helps job seekers find can be temporary, or turn into a full-time position after 90 days.

It starts with an online application, followed by an interview of up to an hour long. Should Express Employment determine the job seeker has the qualifications, experience or credentials, its staff hires and places the individual.

Express Employment does “quality care checks” on those who apply, said sales representative Monica Carna. These checks include calling the applicant’s employers to learn his work history and reliability.

Once hired and placed, Employment Professionals staff follows up with calls to both the employer and the new hire to learn how the new hire is doing.

“It helps us have a personal connection with both employee and employer,” said Carna “and both are shocked when we do that.”

In 2015, Express Employment helped place more than 500,000 people and generated $3.02 billion in sales, its website says. Its goal this year is to place one million people in work.

The Youngstown office wants to expand into the office next door and help medical offices add staff. “Many other locations aren’t able to do this because they don’t have someone with a medical background,” said Lisa Carna-Brush, wife of the owner who has been a nurse more than 30 years and plans to help the office grow.

Pictured: Standing in front of the Express Employment Professionals building are staff and family members Monica Carna, sales representative, Lisa Carna-Brush, wife of owner, Scott Brush, franchise owner, and Lynda Bloise, front desk coordinator.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.