by Carrie Resch
Staff Writer
When CSX downsized about a year ago, three women from the Human Resources department decided to take the opportunity to spearhead their own HR service company.
The group volunteered to leave and started Employment Resources and Solutions, located right next to their old company in the 550 building.
They actually see the CSX building out their office window. “It’s motivation,” one of the women joked.
In truth, there are no hard feelings between the two companies even though the women are targeting the transportation industry because of their past experience.
The three are Cassaundra Anderson-James, the president; Kelly Moore, vice president of business development; and Rose Conry, vice president of operations. Betwen them, they have 25 years of combined human resources experience. Their time of unemployment wasn’t long: just two months after leaving CSX, their new business began.
“A lot of companies are outsourcing their HR needs because they have downsized and they don’t have a budget that allows them to keep someone on staff full-time, so it’s beneficial to these companies to have an HR service outsource such as ourselves,” Conry said.
Additionally, the group is targeting small companies that may not have money for an HR department, but could still use their services.
The seven main areas covered by the business are recruiting and selection, workforce transition (including resume writing), image consulting, training and development (including safety training and organizational development), employment administration, labor relations, and relocation services.
“So far we have targeted the transportation industry, but we don’t want to limit ourselves,” Anderson-James said. “We’d like to be able to offer our services to any company that needs part-time or full-time HR services.” Soon the group will be focusing on the medical industry.
The women were given a lead that jumpstarted their business and gained them their first client.
“We were very lucky when we left, we were able to obtain a class one railroad company,” Conry said. “Within a couple months of leaving CSX we had them as clients.”
She added that the company was actually one of the most difficult railroads to obtain as a client. “They had enough faith in us to try us out and they’re very happy with us,” Conry said.
The company currently has three out-of-state railroad companies as their clients.
“We need to make sure that we promise and deliver which is part of our slogan, ‘Promise and deliver. It’s that simple’. because we are a small company and our name is all that we have at this point,” Conry said. “We have to promise these folks that we’re going to give them exactly what they want and make sure that the customer service needs are met each and every we provide a service to them.”