Protingent Staffing Delivers Top-Tier Technical and IT Professionals

By Nicole Zaro Stahl, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Many Companies Rely on Firm to Locate Personnel for In-Demand Positions

Protingent Staffing focuses on a specific and rapidly growing niche of the employment market: providing contract engineers and technical staff.

According to National Division Manager Eric Seminara, the demand for talent in this sector is very high, while the supply is very tight. Some of the hottest positions are for Android and Java developers, embedded firmware designers, and hardware engineers.

"Engineering and technical skills are at a premium in today's job market," he relates. "Our specialty is being able to find individuals with these skill sets, locally or anywhere else in country."

The Protingent team relishes the challenge. "We're focused on the most vibrant part of the economy, and the most interesting. Technology changes at such a quick pace, and you have to stay on top of the latest developments to effectively follow the market."

Explaining the key to the agency's success, Seminara notes that CEO Donn Harvey was an engineer himself before he started the firm in Redmond, Washington, almost a dozen years ago." Being engineer-owned means we know technology. It's the heart of our company. This focus permeates Protingent from the top down. It is ingrained as part of our corporate culture."

A typical job requisition identifies the technical skill set, length of assignment, budget, and "a slew of additional information." Protingent sales representatives work with clients in a consultative manner, digging into "the primary pieces of the position," then disseminating those details to the company's recruiters, who go out and start speaking to potential candidates.

In filling requisitions, "it's all about the dynamic with our clients. Our recruiters and sales reps work closely to communicate information about the position requirements so the entire process becomes an extension of the client's efforts to fill the position."

The temporary assignments typically last a minimum of six months, a fact that has great appeal to candidates, affording them the opportunity to work on "some of the most exciting projects in the Bay Area," gain exposure to different corporate cultures, and expand their experience base.

The financial incentives are also attractive. Recognizing that its contractors represent a key competitive advantage, Protingent offers generous pay and benefits, including participation in its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), and takes a genuine interest in their career goals and paths. "What they do for us is a very important piece of their lives and well-being, and we want to make it the best possible experience and opportunity they can have."

The company has six offices: three in California; one in Austin, Texas; one in Portland, Oregon; and corporate headquarters in Redmond. Its second California office initially opened in San Francisco in June 2011 and moved to Hacienda late last year for wider access to clients all over the Bay Area. As of January 2014, the Pleasanton site will house four employees, divided evenly between recruiting and sales.

As testimony to its robust performance, Protingent is a seven-time Inc. 5000 honoree, part of an elite group of privately held, independent U.S.-based companies with the highest rate of annual revenue growth. It also ranked #80 on Staffing Industry Analysts' annual list of Fastest-Growing U.S. Staffing Firms for 2013.

For more information, visit www.protingent.com.

Photo: Protingent's Hacienda staff is based at 5990 Stoneridge Drive.

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