It could be a match made in job-matching heaven, especially for people getting back on their feet after hellish times.
A newly formed partnership between Hire Dynamics LLC and First Step Staffing has the potential, its respective leaders hope, to help put some 300 formerly homeless individuals back into the workforce.
First Step is a full-service staffing firm that places people who are moving out of homelessness into employment. Hire Dynamics is a fast-growing, award-winning staffing and professional recruitment firm.
First Step has one office; Hire Dynamics has six Atlanta offices and 20 on-site locations. Hire Dynamics also puts 2,000 people to work every day, Campbell said. Through First Step, more than 1,400 formerly homeless men and women have been placed in employment.
The chief executives of Hire Dynamics and First Step Staffing, Dan Campbell and Greg Block, respectively, know each other; Campbell is on First Step’s board. After finding out about Campbell’s company’s desire to help the community, and that First Step could use additional support, the two entities decided that they each had what the other was looking for.
“I thought [First Step] fit real well into our mission around helping people,” Campbell said.
Partnering with Hire Dynamics gives First Step access to expertise and a national reputation that may propel its efforts.
“When I think of Hire Dynamics, they’re trusted, they are excellent on fulfillment. They brought all those good things we needed. They bring all that credibility,” said First Step Staffing President Barbara Peters.
Hire Dynamics also brings resources to the table that First Step needs to spread its word and, ultimately, get more people that it serves hired.
“Via our relationship with [Hire Dynamics] we will be able to significantly scale the number of customers we reach and therefore the number of homeless men and women we help re-enter the work force,” said Block, First Step Staffing’s chairman of the board, through e-mail correspondence.
“A source of income is the number one reason for homelessness, “ he continued. “Dan and Hire Dynamics are really presenting us with a dream opportunity to help so many more people.”
The people assisted through First Step are “motivated and ready to go back to work,” Peters said.
“A lot of people’s vision is, it’s ‘the guy I see on the street every day.’ We’re working with the guys who have been in treatment, they’re in programs, they know they’re clean and sober. We don’t get them until they’re really ready to go to work.”
And that effort could take off through the exposure with Hire Dynamics, Block said.
“Currently, First Step employs close to 100 homeless men and women in job assignments,’” he said in his correspondence. “We believe that our relationship with [Hire Dynamics] will allow us to increase this number by more than fourfold. We believe this partnership will create a working template with Hire Dynamics in other cities and one that will hopefully be emulated by other organizations.”
Hire Dynamics and First Step both say it’s too early to see direct results of their partnership — it will probably be six months before there is an obvious impact — but the goal is to put 300 people transitioning from homelessness back to work.
Why specifically 300? “We thought that’s a sizable, material number. It really drives some momentum around the community,” Campbell said.
“Right now, it’s more about getting the awareness out, giving First Step the opportunity to prove themselves with clients. That’s what we’re really excited about.”