Posted on: 02.13.12
NEWS!
From the Aug 29, 2011 edition
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Temporary staffing turns into permanent solution
By Marcia Grann O’Brien
Contributing Writer
One mother, three sons and a commitment to matching the right people with the right jobs in the right companies is all that it takes to be named one of the Fastest-Growing Companies in Rhode Island. At least that’s how RI Temps Inc. made it to this year’s list, published in special section included with this week’s edition of PBN.
Founded by Diane Seaback Martin in 1978, RI Temps is roaring into the second decade of the 21st century with a 31 percent growth rate from 2008 to 2010, as revenue increased from $2.9 million to $3.8 million, performance that made the agency No. 13 on the list of companies with revenue from $250,000 to $5 million per year.
“Somehow we have managed to survive through all these God-awful times,” said CEO Diane Martin. The Cranston native could not have envisioned such growth 33 years ago when she founded the company after her husband, Peter Seaback, had the first of several heart attacks at the age of 35. “He never worked again,” she said. “We learned the company he was working for had not paid social security, or workman’s comp – and then it went belly-up.”
Martin had been working part-time; but with three sons to support, that was no longer an option. “I had to start a business. It wasn’t like I ever set out to do it. We invested $1,700. All the notepads, pens and pencils came from our house, and my brother loaned us some furniture.”
From that day forward, until his death in 1993, Pete Seaback took care of the family needs, shopping, cooking, doing the laundry, caring for sons Scott, Mark and Todd.
“He was an amazing father,” Martin recalled. “A superb father, especially for boys. They had so much love and respect for him. He put the children first and led by example. That’s why the boys are the way they are. But,” she mused, “who would have thought that today this would be a business all three boys are working in?”
Scott Seaback is company president; Todd, vice president; and Mark, controller. Their diverse responsibilities are one reason they work so compatibly. There’s also a big dose of humor and friendly competition, Scott explained.
“I’ve always been involved,” he said, “answering phones, doing general and clerical work. I cut my teeth on stuff in the office, progressed to sales, got a suit and tie and started banging on doors. Now it’s 29 years later, and here I still am.”
Todd Seaback previously worked for a transportation company, at which, among other things, he was in charge of hiring and training temporary workers. Mark Seaback, as controller, has a background in computers and is responsible for all day-to-day accounting, payroll and financial functions.
As for CEO Martin, she’s cut back on her hours but remains active and “tries not to bring the office home” to her current husband, Ernest Martin. She confessed, though, “I think I have the nature for business.” Her own mother was active in RI Temps until a stroke forced her to retire at the age of 88.
“All her friends would call us up from Villa Del Rio [an apartment complex] and ask ‘Can you get us jobs?’ and we did,” laughed Martin. “At one point I think we had more senior ladies working for us than any other company in Rhode Island.”
RI Temps’ first location was on Post Road in Warwick, where New England Institute of Technology was located. The company next moved to the Cowesett area of the city before moving again four years ago to a converted ranch house on Maple Street, just off Jefferson Boulevard. Scott finds the location for the six-person core staff “ideal, just off Route 95 in the center of the state.”
Scott Seaback doesn’t gloss over tough times. “During the 1980s and ’90s there were five- and six-year stretches of economic growth, with lulls called recessions. We’d bounce back because that’s historically good periods for our industry.”
But this time? “It was a depression. Nobody will say the ‘D’ word, but in this case our clients, and the state, and the United States came to a grinding halt. Companies that had been in Rhode Island for 50 to 60 to 100 years were closing. It was scary – a very scary time.”
Survival for RI Temps depended on “really great clients,” he continued. “We have a very good cross-section – and we only deal with clients located in Rhode Island. Plus we have a 33-, 34-year reputation – people know who we are.”
One of those people is Barbara Darling. Now the benefits manager for Ross-Simons Jewelers at its Cranston corporate headquarters, she always relies on RI Temps to fill jobs. “I can call them on a Tuesday night and tell them I need someone in the morning,” she said, “and they’ll do it,” whether that’s a seasonal light industrial job or clerical work.
Darling herself owes her current position to RI Temps. Some years ago she was in human resources at a now-defunct company she declined to name. “I called Scott, Todd, their mother whenever I needed someone,” she said.
When the company she worked for went belly-up, Darling planned to return to school and wanted a temporary job. RI Temps placed her in a one-month position at Ross-Simons, it expanded to part-time, and when she finished school she was hired full-time. That was 11 years ago.
RI Temps also fills full-time personnel needs, and has a division devoted to the legal niche: attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries. “We were very busy in the mortgage field but that has fallen off because of the economy, though we’re now seeing a bit of a turn,” Scott said.
Brendan Kane, a principal in Peregrine Property Management in Rumford, has been working with RI Temps for two years to fill positions. “One of our first hires was a temp who quickly went to full time as account operations manager,” he said. “We’ve also hired several project engineers, and Scott is currently helping us to fill a controller position.”
Kane has nothing but praise for RI Temps. “They’re honest; they’re trustworthy; they’re committed to help,” he said. “There’s enough in business that’s hard. This is one opportunity to make things easy!”
The Seaback’s are optimistic about the future. “The last two years, business has slowly and steadily crept up,” Scott observed. “We have lots of diversification in our clients. We see manufacturing picking up a tad, and it’s exciting to see new companies emerging.
RI Temps assumes all payroll deductions for temporary workers: federal and state withholding taxes, workers compensation, unemployment and disability insurance and FICA. Additionally, it provides W-2 forms at year-end and complies with all federal I-9 laws plus e-verify. This cuts down clients’ paperwork and eliminates other usual human resources tasks. Additionally, the company carries general liability, worker’s compensation and employer’s liability coverage on all its temporary employees.
“We are all neighbors,” the RI Temps website home page proclaims, reflecting a central focus of the Seaback family, all of whom are active in community affairs, from Rotary International to various nonprofit boards and communities such as Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island and the Community College of Rhode Island Foundation board.
“Whether a company is a national or a startup, we try to tell people to buy Rhode Island,” Scott said. “We’re all Rhode Islanders. … We’ve worked with companies here; we’ve struggled with them; we’re all trying to help each other.” •