Rama Kavaliauskas, PresidentSterling provides unmatched, full-service staffing and design/project management solutions to meet its clients’ technical workforce needs. Carrying a history of building long-lasting relationships, getting the right people for the right job, and engineering better outcomes, Sterling has built a solid industrial knowledge base that helps them identify individuals with unique skillsets, qualify them, and employ a high-touch approach in determining the right match for clients. Sterling’s expertise is further driven by its industry focus in automation, food and beverage, utilities, manufacturing, information technology, and life sciences.
In an exclusive interview with Manage HR, Rama Kavaliauskas, president of Sterling, Josh Bocek, director of recruiting, Mike Sury, senior executive director of sales, Greg Simutis, director of HR and compliance, Kevin Bass, director of operations, and Pamela O’Donnell, marketing manager share their thought-provoking insights on how Sterling is leaving the old corporate image of transactional recruiting at the door to usher in the next generation of talent.
Streamlining Project Management with the Right Staffing
Our strength lies in the combined power of Sterling Engineering and Sterling Staffing.
Sterling Engineering is a certified woman-owned business that provides design, engineering, and project management services to meet project requirements. We possess the technical skills to match each client’s needs with our machine, product, and process design expertise. Our in-house designers, engineers, and project managers support clients at every level of the project life cycle, enabling them to solve the challenges that arise from the most complex projects.
Sterling Staffing has built its reputation by providing technical staff on a contract, contract-to-hire, and direct-hire basis. For multiple consecutive years, Sterling Staffing has earned ClearlyRated’s Best of Staffing Awards in client, talent, and employee satisfaction, a distinction given to less than one percent of staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada.
This unique combination of the best engineering solutions and staffing-level recruiting services helps our clients and candidates achieve their goals.
Creating a Sterling Difference, Attracting the Best Talent
Companies often take an ad-hoc approach to recruitment and treat it as a short-term chore to quickly fill an opening. At Sterling, we equate our approach to running a marathon.
Running a marathon is a good metaphor for the hiring process because you get what you put into it. Marathon runners in long-distance races must carefully dole out their energy, pay close attention to their overall goals, and be fully present in the mile they are running. Similarly, being recruiters, we take a long-term approach to hiring decisions. Regardless of how many positions we have to fill, our approach focuses on building relationships and making a client’s brand stand out, so their organization attracts the caliber of talent they need.
Our ability to identify and provide unique talent in a competitive market is second to none. We go the extra mile to gain an in-depth understanding of their needs by visiting their facility, meeting the people, breathing in their unique culture, and understanding the business needs. Our approach allows clients to assess the fit —the hard skills, soft skills, and compatibility with their team—to pave the way for informed longer-term hiring decisions.
Most importantly, a significant differentiator is our internal proprietary database of technical talent. It enables us to identify suitable candidates by matching skills to job roles. Our technology tools further automate and streamline our hiring process and provide an efficient, engaging candidate experience.
Winning Recruitment Formula in a Candidate-Driven Market
The current economic climate around contingent workforce has sprouted many challenges. Many stem from a candidate-driven market—where top-quality candidates are in demand but in low supply. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, job openings hit a record high of 10.9 million, outnumbering available workers by nearly five million, which is the latest sign of a historically tight employment picture.
This affects all employers, with candidates often commanding more than just the best salary they can get – it’s the total package: compensation, work flexibility, remote/ hybrid, culture, and career growth. Hiring and retaining employees is a notable challenge for employers.
At its core, hiring is about building deep, trusted relationships, and Sterling values that. We understand the labor market, and we’re ready to help. We position our clients in a way that attracts suitable candidates. We also keep candidate interests at the center by providing the best-in-class experience and mapping that process to align all parties. This way, clients can fill vacant positions in a timely fashion.
Our ability to identify and provide unique talent in a competitive market is second to none. We go the extra mile to gain an in-depth understanding of their needs by visiting their facility, meeting the people, breathing in their unique culture, and understanding the business needs
Value-Addition through Employee Benefits
Our services go beyond hiring and recruiting top-tier candidates. We consistently engage with clients, candidates, and, most importantly, field employees’ post-placement to help with staff retention and professional development. Sterling offers a comprehensive employee-benefit program that includes true group health insurance plans, paid holidays, PTO, and a 401(k) with matching contributions which is a unique industry differentiator and better positions employees for building a career at Sterling as opposed to temporary employment. With Sterling Staffing being 100% employee-owned, the ESOP benefit strengthens our ability to retain proven employees and offers customers dedicated resources with a unique commitment to quality and delivery. We’ve had a remarkable 988 percent overall growth in stock value over the ESOP’s life, reflecting our ability to build depth with existing customers and attract new business opportunities. After three years in the program, our Employees become fully vested and benefit from the organization’s success.
Integrating Process Design Improvements to Create Cost Efficiencies
One of our clients faced various hiring challenges and needed improvement in its staffing process. They were experiencing submittals of duplicate candidates, often with varying proposed bill rates, and candidates were often not thoroughly pre-qualified by their suppliers.
They turned to Sterling to improve the recruiting process and implement a more effective and efficient program for filling contract hiring needs.
Working together, we devised a managed service program that puts process improvement at the forefront to satisfy their needs. We leveraged our many resources and networks to fill hiring needs in multiple areas of their organization nationwide. Outsourcing this new program allowed them to focus on mission-critical and daily operations. Sterling’s 30-year track record with the client created a solid foundation of trust in our service delivery for long-term contingent labor solutions and contract-to-hire model, which allowed them to assess each worker’s quality in real-time, creating cost efficiencies in their hiring process. Despite changing business conditions, including several ownership changes, our program’s success continues to preserve.
This exemplifies our ability to adapt to various client needs and build long-term contingent staffing partnerships. The way we see it, our client’s success is our success. The more they hire great people, the more they’ll thrive. Ninety percent of our business is repeat business, meaning our impact lasts long after contracts are signed.
We are fiercely and unapologetically distinct in our approach to creating solutions for our client’s business challenges while advancing our employees’ career objectives. Sterling supports your team in everything we do, from cutting-edge process development to hiring for your next success.
