The Truth About My Assumptions
By: Lisa Tracy

I have spent most of my adult life in management, restaurant management to be specific. I can remember so clearly the parts I loved, along with the parts I loathed. Management requires extreme multitasking and so often, things get pushed to the side for another day, and possibly never touched again at all. The one thing I always tried to prioritize was people. These people, no matter how small their responsibilities are, run your business, the day to day operations, filling in all the cracks and crevices that are inevitably unseen by management. They are the faces on the front lines. They create your atmosphere. They build your culture.

In leadership and management, your strongest efforts for success will always fall short without the buy-in of your people.

They outnumber you.

I would like to say that I successfully prioritized people, but the truth is, I never had the time to. Looking back, I see myself in a circus, standing on a stage, juggling fire-balls of all different shapes and sizes – budgets, operations, human resources, client and vendor relationships, product quality, repairs & maintenance, and insert an unexpected task of the day. The list goes on and on and on and on.

Sound familiar?

There’s no shame in admitting it.

I think we all play a part in this familiar circus, no matter what we do for a living. There are highs and lows, rewards and losses, and at the end of the day, we find a way to feel a sense of fulfillment because we gave it our all. But the reality is, most of us spend a work day giving a minimum of 10 things a maximum of 10%. With so many things on our to-do list, paired with the ever-changing business demands unique to each industry, how could we ever be able to stand on that circus stage, even as award winning performers, and confidently say we gave our people 100%? I was humbled to admit to myself that on the good days, I was only able to give people 10% of my time at work.

I had never heard of Priority Staffing Group before I interviewed with them. I had never even considered this as a career option. I was curious, but somewhat skeptical of accepting a position with a staffing agency, caught between my love for staffing and the words I associated with an agency – “low quality, short term, temp employment.” I have no idea where I got that perception from, but I imagine these are common association words from people, like myself, with little to no first hand experience. After all, how many of us have actually partnered with a staffing agency? My best guess is that we all get our perceptions from the few who have been unsatisfied with their experience from a low quality agency. It will always be true that bad news travels fast.

So what happened when I accepted this position and began to dig into this industry? I will tell you, I found myself completely wrong in my assumptions and unaware of the true rewards in partnering with a high quality staffing agency. High quality is the key word here. In a few shorts weeks, my association words would change drastically to “valuable resource, high quality solutions, long term partnerships.” I found that this industry provided a way for any kind of business to give 100% to their people. It’s how you gain an extra set of hands, a business partner, a focused expert in “your people.” It’s how you take something off your plate, and simultaneously guarantee the success of your existing and future employees. I have been completely blown away with my experience, serving as a resource to match local businesses of all sizes with their ideal candidates. While we do offer temporary services, it is not all that we do.

Temp work is a perk for your busy seasons and/or temporary needs. It is not the definition or the ceiling of our partnership.

So, I keep asking myself – How did I get this industry so wrong? How many other people believe the same things I once did? How can I change that?

Over the next few weeks, I am going to share information about a company that is worth knowing about, and an overall industry that is all too often misunderstood and undervalued. If you have any specific topics/questions you would like to be included, send me a message!

Lisa Tracy Account Manager – Priority Staffing Group – Middle Tennessee lisa@prioritystaffinggroup.com