As the temperature rises and nature comes to life with blooming flowers and cleaned-up yards, the local business landscape is also awakening from the winter slumber. With the promise of growth on the horizon, organizations are gearing up to expand their teams, as they navigate the post-winter resurgence.
One local recruitment agency is dedicated to connecting businesses in need of support, with individuals looking for new career opportunities, all while delivering top-notch staffing solutions and excellent customer service.
That is the mission of City Personnel, located at 235 Promenade Street, #401, in Providence.
City Personnel works hard to develop long-lasting relationships with clients and job candidates based on trust, collaboration, and participation, to ensure a great fit when placing candidates with their clients.
Founder/President Dawn Apajee leads a close-knit team of six professionals, dedicated to filling job vacancies across multiple industries. The agency specializes in filling various positions, including contract work and temp-to-permanent roles, catering to the diverse staffing needs of businesses and job seekers.
Dawn broke into the industry in a most unusual way.
“I stumbled into this business by accident,” Dawn revealed. “After graduating from the London School of Economics, I initially aimed for a career in social work. It didn’t take long for me to realize that it wasn’t my true calling. Instead, I discovered my passion was for connecting companies with talented individuals and making a meaningful impact in people’s lives.”
Dawn’s recruitment career began in London in 1989, where she led one of the city’s most profitable temporary staffing divisions. Her expertise in the field continued to flourish, when she and her husband, Deven, moved from the United Kingdom to Chicago, in 1995. There, she achieved national recognition as the top sales executive in the country, while working for a leading U.S. employment agency. Their Chicago chapter concluded in 2000, with an enticing opportunity in Rhode Island.
In 2006, City Personnel officially opened its doors, on Broadway in Providence. After being situated on Broadway for nearly two decades, they relocated to their current location in The Foundry.
Specializing in professional office staffing across diverse industries, City Personnel caters to a wide spectrum of organizations, from small and medium-sized enterprises, to large corporations. Since 2006, they have partnered with over 500 companies in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts.
Over the years, City Personnel has excelled in the Providence market due to their distinctive approach. When a business seeks assistance, Dawn and her team not only thoroughly assess the situation and identify the specific qualifications needed for the role, but also make it a priority to review the company’s culture and mission. They ensure that the candidates they source are not only qualified on paper, but also a good fit in all aspects. By carefully screening resumes, arranging interviews, and ultimately matching the most suitable individual with the company’s requirements, they guarantee a mutually-beneficial fit for both parties.
Dawn noted that the job market constantly changes.
“During the pandemic, companies were hiring anyone that wanted a job because they were desperate,” she said. “Now, there is a shift in which the businesses are doing their due diligence in ensuring they find the right people to fill their spots.”
The current landscape of working in person versus hybrid has not caught on in the state. Many business owners want their employees to be in the office. Yet, employees would rather work from home. It’s a work-life balance that can be a struggle to retain people for any length of time.
Dawn emphasizes the dynamic nature of the job market, noting that it undergoes constant change. “During the pandemic, companies were eager to hire anyone seeking employment out of desperation. However, there has been a noticeable shift, as businesses now prioritize thorough candidate selection to fill their positions effectively.”
When discussing employees, Dawn highlights a noteworthy shift in philosophy. In the past, it was common for employees to remain with a single company throughout their entire professional career, perhaps switching jobs only once or twice. However, today’s Gen Z workers are increasingly opting to leave positions, within six months to a year. While this trend may raise questions during job interviews and the appearance of frequent job changes on their resumes, the diversity of experiences gained can also present distinct advantages.
“It’s not just the salary and benefits that people are looking at,” Dawn said. “They are looking at the company culture, hybrid options, having a website, and type of work they will be doing, as mitigating factors in accepting an offer. One candidate even declined to interview for a job because the company didn’t have a website. It’s truly a different mentality from just a few years ago.”
Dawn said that she is not only proud to be a minority-owned and woman-owned business, but that they work with locally-owned businesses, as well. They pride themselves on partnering with local businesses, and assisting them achieve their goals of helping staff the best employees possible.
“Companies choose to work with us over other nationally based staffing firms because we know the local community—we live here. We understand the market because we have operated and lived here for almost two decades. That is the big difference between us and other firms,” Dawn Apajee stated.
For more details about their services, please call 401-331-2311, or email admin@citypersonnel.net.
Further information about City Personnel may be found by visiting their website at http://www.citypersonnel.net/
