With record sales growth, recruitment firm plans to hire seven

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Grand Rapids-based Axios Incorporated recently announced an impressive 117 percent sales growth over the past three years, and company leaders expect to create approximately seven human resource jobs by spring 2008. That growth landed Axios in INC Magazine's INC 5,000 fastest growing firms in the country.

In 2006, company sales of $90.4 million capped the last three years of growth. And the growth isn't over.

"We're projecting we'll do about $100 million this year and $115 million next year," says CEO Dan Barcheski.

Axios is the parent company of Staffing Incorporated, Office Staffing Incorporated, and Axios Human Resource Services. Those companies provide a variety of services for small and mid-sized businesses.

The staffing services include temporary staffing for blue-collar and white-collar jobs, the healthcare industry, and entertainment venues that includes the Van Andel Arena and DeVos Place. Fee-based recruitment services are available.

The human resources arm handles the entire task side of a human resources department—outsourcing, 401K, benefits procurement and administration, payroll, retention, employee productivity—for businesses that can't afford an HR department of their own.

Axios has 55 employees. Barcheski expects to fill the new positions with employees ranging from recent college grads to 10- or 15- year human resource veterans. Starting pay will run between $35,000 and $70,000 a year.

"We hope the work we're doing helps jobs stay in West Michigan," Barcheski says. "We're helping small companies stay competitive in a rough global marketplace. That gets us up in the morning and makes us proud of what we're doing."

Source: Dan Barcheski, Axios Incorporated; Nick Wasmiller, Seyferth Spaulding Tennyson Inc.

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].

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