wendy smith - Doing What You Do Best

"Doing What You Do Best"

Wouldn't every employee like to hear from their boss, "You're the heart of our success"? Hart-Merrell Personnel Consultants think so and have fashioned both their heart-shaped logo and their personnel business around making both their clients and personnel feel that way. If the buzz words for the 90's are "dealing with relationships", whether at home or on the job, couldn't the solution to a lot of the relationship problems that arise, start with that concept?

It should come as no surprise then, that this is a family business, which began as a partnership and marriage between Pauline Hart (for the heart) and George Merrell. In their struggle to come up with a name for the company, "Merrell Enterprises" was thrown out, because Pauline didn't want to loose her identity, so "Hart-Merrell "Personnel Consultants won out. That pretty much says it all about the personnel/employee relationship established at their company ever since, where no one looses his/her identity and everyone gains by becoming part of a larger family.
"Learning to treat people right ", according to George Merrell, President of the company, has been one of the keys to their success since they began in 1980. With a consistent annual growth rate of 33%, this axiom has certainly paid off and is key to the exceptionally low turn-over among Hart-Merrell's professional staff. According to George, the agency differs from most "by following a policy of developing an intimate understanding of it's client's operations and needs and seeking out and referring only the most qualified candidates". In fact, the agency's expansion is in direct proportion to their client's needs, which definitely come first.

When Hart-Merrell originated, permanent placements were the company's focus, but when clients demanded a more flexible, "temp to hire" concept, Hart-Merrell responded by pioneering the Temp-to-Perm placement method and the team-placement concept to enable clients to try out employees on a temporary basis before taking them on permanently. As demand increased, the agency also provided contract work (more technical and project oriented), services such as serving as a travel agency (only for clients), and within the last year, "employee leasing", since, as George says, "it's time has come". So actually, Hart-Merrell is three or four entities in one: a full service agency, handling permanent, temporary, and contract placements in almost every field of employment, although they do specialize in MIS (data processing), printing, secretarial/administrative, engineering work and machine trades.

The idea of employee leasing is relatively new to NYS because workmen's compensation laws aren't as advantageous to the employer as in such states as California, Georgia and Florida. It is a very attractive plan for small business owners, especially in companies of 30 or less employees, although any size is workable. It's existence is in response to the question, "What do America's private business owners find most frustrating? " Answer: employee issues. Employee leasing not only confronts this issue but best of all, provides a solution by taking all of the day to day burdens of dealing with payroll, insurance, workmen's comp, disability out of your hands and putting them in Hart-Merrell's. So as George puts it, "You as a small business owner are free to do what you do best while we do what we do best".

So how is this nirvana achieved? The small business owner that had 30 employees, suddenly doesn't have them anymore. He/she leases them from Hart-Merrell, in a situation similar to long term temps. Therefore, there is no workmen's comp, unemployment benefits, etc. to pay because the small business owner has no employees. Hart-Merrell takes care of that and can afford to so better than a small company of 30, because they now have thousands of employees. So if Hart-Merrell can get better health insurance rates with a larger staff, then that can get passed on to the employee and the former employer, who may still contribute to the employee's benefits, but doesn't have to administer them. In a small company, if an employee is land off, the company must pay unemployment, but Hart-Merrell rarely if ever pays unemployment, because they find the employee another job, since that is after all, "what they do best". By outsourcing their human resources, accounting, payroll, etc. to Hart-Merrell , the small business owner can then also be left to do "what they do best" in what looks like a win-win situation. Employee leasing might not really catch on until the laws in NYS change, which for now require the employer where the employee works to carry workmen's comp.

But what about the employee? What would make him/her find working for Hart-Merrell a win-win deal also? If the small business owner is promised fewer headaches, the employee is offered better benefit packages and support services along with the advantage, particularly with contract work, of always working since Hart-Merrell finds the work. This is a big plus for freelancers, who no longer have to be looking for work while they're working. The loyalty of employees as evidenced in the low turn -over rate, proves Hart-Merrell knows the employees are what make them successful. In a world where companies, even large ones, can no longer pay all of the employee benefits, employee leasing is another way to adapt to the changing work environment and has provided Hart-Merrell with yet another growth opportunity.

However, it hasn't always been an easy hill to climb for Hart-Merrell as a business, which grew in the first 4-5 years but almost went under during the difficult economic Carter years. However, George, who has now undergone his fifth career change, knew that when he found his niche, he had to stick with it. The difficulties of running a family business has not been without its ups and downs either. At first a partnership between a married couple who have now worked together for over 20 years, Hart-Merrell now employs two of the Merrell's three children. Their office in Avon has been run for the past 2 years by Pauline Hart's sister, who has been with the company for 15 years. With additional family members, come additional potential problems. The children became employees like everyone else without special treatment.

For George, the key to a family business success is that you remember the decisions are business decisions, not personal ones. From 8-5, you're a business, and after 5 PM you're a family. In that way the advantages of working as a family, in that warm circle, with people you trust,can become the dominant force for both employee and employer. For George, if the client comes first and becomes part of the family, it nurtures long term relationships and mirrors the way his own father brought him up. His father told him to treat others as he wanted to be treated. This philosophy has been the mainstay of his success. Having the client come first really is a family affair, not just a family business.