First started in 1971 by Geoff’s father under his name The Keith Bagg Group, Keith Bagg was a pioneer in Canada’s staffing field. As one of the original members and presidents of the former APPAC, The Canadian Association of Professional Placement Agencies and Consultants, Keith Bagg helped to establish the standards that are still the hallmark of the industry today.

“When my father started out in the business, staffing was relatively a new concept where there were few rules and guidelines,” says Geoff Bagg. “He built a reputation instilling the highest levels of ethnics and integrity - values we continue to uphold and build on today.”

Geoff’s mother...also played a major role in the company’s growth coming on board in the 1980’s by starting up the full-time secretary placement and making the business truly a family affair.

Geoff joined the company in the spring of 1990. He took over as president in 2000. His sister Luann is also involved in the business. The staffing firm which has been re-branded as The Bagg Group is located in downtown Toronto and has expanded to include two offices in Markham and Mississauga.

“We are really focused on growth over the next few years—with a goal to double our business by 2010,” says Bagg, “Yet we are not getting bigger for the sake of getting bigger— if we are doing things right, if we are servicing our clients better than our competitors, then our business should and will grow.”

YOUR ONE STOP STAFFING SOLUTION
The Bagg Group offers a truly broad spectrum of services—providing full-time, contract, temporary placements and outsourcing across multiple industries and functions. It is an ideal partner for the company or business looking for one total staffing solution in order to ensure continued success.

“Our focus is on small and medium sized businesses, but we also continue to work with some of Canada’s largest companies and financial institutions,” Bagg says. “While full-time placement is where we began and continue to grow in the business, we have also seen tremendous demand and growth from our temporary division.”

In fact, Geoff Bagg joined the family business in order to grow the Temporary Staffing Division. This fast paced high-energy area of the business gained further momentum with the acquisition of TOSI Placement Services in 2004 providing an additional focus on and recognition in government placement, light industrial and private sector businesses.

The Bagg Group’s Permanent Division has long been a leader in placement for entry level to mid-level management fulltime and contract positions. The company has a separate department that specializes in Information Technology called KBITS (Keith Bagg Information Technology Search). The Bagg Group is also in partnership with the independently run Fulcrum Search Science Inc. which focuses on headhunting top talent for middle to senior management positions.

THE SEARCH FOR SUCCESS
“We have all the bases covered and we take an overall approach that is focused on our clients success.” says Bagg. “We work with them to assess their situation, clarify their goals and develop a high performance team in order to help them grow their business.”

Most companies have already achieved many goals but may be challenged when it comes to recruiting the best talent. They may be losing valuable people. They may have a disengaged workforce. They may have trouble filling positions. They may be hiring the wrong talent or they don’t have access to high quality candidates. They may have trouble finding temporary workers for a project on short notice. As a result, they may not be as productive or as confident in the future as they would like.

“We understand the issues and problems that are preventing our clients from achieving their goals,” says Jackie Chua, General Manager of the fulltime placement division and a 23-year veteran of The Bagg Group.

“Our goal is to find the best people and then take all of the hard work out of the search and recruiting process for our clients,” Chua says. “At The Bagg Group, we work as a team to source and network for candidates. We do the filtering. If we see 15 candidates, we will only send the top two or three. Then we prepare our candidates thoroughly, so that by the time they meet their prospective employer, the client can make a strong hiring decision.”

THE BAGG GROUP’S PERSONAL TOUCH STAFFING
“Personal touch staffing means that we really take care to find out what’s important to our clients,” says Jacquie Chua.

For instance, Chua works with a management-consulting firm that has a company program they hold dear – tutoring inter-city children. “When it came to finding candidates for them, I thought it was important to keep those values in mind and found someone for an administrative position that had worked on humanitarian projects. He was a great prospect who fit their corporate culture—the ideal candidate. The customer appreciated that,” says Chua.

“Sometimes, it is as simple as just taking the time to do something a little out of the ordinary,” says Bagg. “Unlike other placement agencies that communicate with their customers largely by phone or email, we believe we need to be more available and spend more time on site. For instance, when one of the largest financial services companies hired a group of our candidates and needed them to start at 6 am, we arranged to send someone from our staff to ensure they arrived and to trouble shoot if something went wrong. We know of no other service that does that, and as a result, we have now become the bank’s #1 supplier.”

Tali Wilkes is the branch manager for the Toronto office. “We believe in servicing our clients to death. We believe it is important to get to know our clients and we make a point of thanking them for their loyalty.”

“We also strive to build relationships rather than look the quick fix,” say Michele Knezaurek. Mississauga’s branch manager who has been with The Bagg Group 12 years. “I believe in what we are selling and that our team will deliver the best way they can, and if they can’t, we will say so rather than providing just anyone to fit the bill.”

PEOPLE ARE OUR GREATEST RESOURCE
In addition to their own dedicated staff, The Bagg Group’s great asset is its number one resource – high performance candidates. The Bagg Group’s database of potential new high caliber candidates is constantly being replenished and depleted by the growing demands of the staffing industry and as candidates are being successfully placed in suitable positions.

Linda Yenssen is the branch manager for the Markham office. “We are looking for a broad band of skills sets and a great attitude. We have built our reputation on the people we provide and are looking for candidates who are bright, enthusiastic and a cut above the rest.”

“Many new Canadians fit into this category,” says Bagg. “They are a growing source of skills and new talent. Often, we find them temporary work where employers then discover their potential and offer them permanent positions.”

CHALLENGES IN THE SEARCH FOR SUCCESS
The staffing industry will face its greatest labour challenge in the next 10 years. With the lowest level of employment since the early 70’s, as well as the largest and most skilled segment of the population, the baby boomers, starting to retire, businesses are concerned by what they perceive as not just a “brain drain” but a “brain hemorrhage.’

“Businesses are looking three, five and even ten years down the road – asking themselves where they are going to find people, how they will develop them and how will they keep them,” says Bagg, “It is our job to keep asking our clients what’s keeping them awake at night and then work together to adapt and find solutions.”

That kind of thinking keeps The Bagg Group constantly looking for new ways to help their customers. In addition to there staffing services, The Bagg Group is always looking to develop new offerings - additional “value-add” - based on the growing needs of their clients.

Virtual Worker.com is one such service. It provides a full packaged solution to
a client’s specific project needs.

For example, The Bagg Group provided temporary staff to an insurance company. When someone called in a claim, the company employed the temporary staff as runners to retrieve claims from its giant file room – a system that was both cumbersome and inefficient. The Bagg Group’s Virtualworker.com offered the company a better solution. It automated their claims system by imaging and then indexing the documents, so that when a claim was called in, it could easily retrieved.

“Virtualworker.com changed the insurance company’s work process. The company became a lot more productive and was considered more progressive and responsive to their customers,” says Bagg.

The Bagg Group’s Workforce Employee Leasing Solutions is another value-added service provided to foreign firms, especially American, that want to hire people to work for them in Canada without putting them on the payroll.

“We actually find, and then hire the people they want and put them on our payroll,” Bagg says.

PARTNERS IN YOUR SUCCESS
Overall, The Bagg Group wants to have input in the future of the staffing industry. For the last two decades, the firm has had representation on the current industry watchdog ACSESS – The Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services, setting the bar for its high quality and high touch staffing.

“We want to be treated as partners rather than vendors,” says Bagg. “We want to partner with companies that value people the way we do - as our most precious resource. We are looking for businesses who understand what a difference good people can make to their organization but are too stretched to find them themselves,” That is our primary focus. We are always looking for people – the best people,”

“Bottom line - we want to help. And when you think about it, our business has more of a positive impact in society than any other. In one year alone, we help hundreds of companies become more successful and thousands of people find employment and be productive members of society. That’s pretty powerful – and something for which all of us at The Bagg Group are very proud.”