TeamTemps Branch Manager Sean Panizzi, left, and President Giovanni Panizzi.
When TeamTemps Personnel Staffing started 30 years ago, owner Giovanni Panizzi never imagined that the company would expand into 12 states with more than 500 employees.Giovanni, along with his wife Carolyn who passed away in 2006, opened TeamTemps in Valdosta during a time when the concept of using temporary workers was not as popular as it was in metro areas.
Giovanni, along with his wife Carolyn who passed away in 2006, opened TeamTemps in Valdosta during a time when the concept of using temporary workers was not as popular as it was in metro areas.
“When we started, our biggest obstacle was companies didn’t know what we did and how we could serve them,” Giovanni said. “In those days there were job placement companies, where the employees paid 10 percent of their annual salary to get a job. These were corporate headhunters.”
In the first few years of TeamTemps operation, the primary request for staff was clerical, light industrial, and service-related work.
“A company would call and need someone to fill in for one or two weeks,” Giovanni said. “About 90 percent of our business was office staff.”
The shift toward placing more manufacturing skilled workers came several years later.
“One day we received an order for 30 industrial workers and that was the tipping point,” Giovanni said. “Some of the companies where we placed clerical staff, now wanted industrial workers.”
Today, TeamTemps places the majority of workers in production, logistics, and administrative jobs.
“The numbers have flipped from when we started,” Giovanni said. “Now clerical is about 15 percent and industrial jobs are 85 percent of placement.”
In 1995, Giovanni’s son, Sean Panizzi, joined TeamTemps as the branch manager.
Sean explained that TeamTemps has moved to more of a “temp-to-hire” model, where an employee is placed with a client for three months, and after the trial period has ended the employer can hire the employee full time.
“In the past five years we have averaged over 400 employees a year becoming full-time, and last year we went over 500,” Sean said. “We do all the recruiting and screening and then place them with a client that is the right fit. If the company sees that they are a good worker, then they can hire them after three months of placement.”
From the employer’s perspective, using temp workers allows them to hire a flexible workforce based on the size and scope of a project.
“If a company knows they have a new project starting on Monday, then they call us the week before and let us know how many temp workers they need,” Giovanni said. “They know we will have the workers there when they need them. We have already done the recruiting, interviewing, background check, and other screenings.”
The challenge and responsibility of TeamTemps is to ensure that the temporary workers are correctly matched to the job, based on skills and level of experience.
“We are always recruiting and interviewing potential employees,” Sean said. “We are looking at their skills, but we are also looking to see if they have a positive attitude. They can learn the technical skills, but you can’t teach a person to have a good attitude.”
Giovanni agrees that in today’s competitive workforce, having a good attitude and work ethic, arriving to work on time, and possessing a willingness to learn can be as important as the work experience.
“Attitude means they are willing to learn,” Giovanni said. “If you go to work and you are on time, you do your job and want to learn then you will move up. As simple as it sounds, it is getting harder to find people that will do this.”
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economics and Statistics Administration, the number of jobs in the temporary staffing industry reached an all-time high of 2.9 million in May 2015, accounting for 2.4 percent of all private sector employment. In Georgia, temporary help accounted for 3.3 percent of private employment.
TeamTemps continues to expand in South Georgia. In addition to the Valdosta office there are offices located in Homerville and Waycross.