Facing the enormous challenge of a dramatically shifting and shrinking labour market, many companies are concerned about the future—wondering how they are going to find, attract, develop and keep new people with the right skills.

"As a staffing and consulting partner with some of Canada’s most recognized businesses, we understand that competitive pressures now and in the future require that companies acquire and retain good people," says Geoff Bagg, president of The Bagg Group.

"At The Bagg Group, we also understand that our future success will depend on the ability to supply qualified people. Just as important, we need to offer a level of service that well exceeds the expectations of our customers and what our competitors are willing to provide."

"In the competitive field of staffing services, it is important to perform consistently at a very high level," says Bagg. "What sets us apart is the personal touch—a higher level of personalized service that we are prepared to offer in order to build the kind of long term relationships we seek with our clients."

Personalized service comes naturally to The Bagg Group, one of the most respected and trusted names in the staffing industry with a long tradition of helping companies find the best talent and business solutions to their staffing needs.

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 Bagg Technology Resources (BTR). 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 25-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."

"We really take care to find out what’s important to our clients," says Chua. For instance, Chua works with a management-consulting firm that has a company program they hold dear – tutoring inner-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 troubleshoot 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."

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. We have built our reputation on the people we provide, and work with 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."

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 that 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.”