Van Grace Associates (#1118) celebrates 50 years of NPAworldwide membership this month, so we asked owner Steve Morris to share his thoughts on what NPAworldwide means to him and his business.
The summer of 1975 I was laid off at what was then New England Telephone. I had been there for three years after getting my degree from Worcester State College in 1972. I was nervous as hell with a newborn and Karen having to go back to work quicker than we thought. The mechanic who serviced the trucks for my crew gave me his Dad’s card and suggested I call him. His name was Robert Van Patten Steiger otherwise known as Van. Experience-wise I had supervisory background in a union environment and 2 years in the Marine Corps as a grunt. Van and I hit it off and he hired me as a recruiter and said he would find me a job if it didn’t work out. I started with him in October of 1975 and found out his partner Bob Grace was getting ready to leave. There were three other recruiters besides myself and all were supportive of the new guy.
Van/Grace Associates was founded in 1962 and joined NPA on March 16, 1971. For the 1st three months Van and I would sit together, and he would walk me thru the jobs and candidates that we were working with and why some were a fit and others were not. He would incorporate all the resumes and job orders that came in that day (by mail) from Grand Rapids with those we received directly from client companies and candidates.
We had a punch card system called a Randomatic and each candidate had a hard file with their resume, the recruiter’s intake notes, and the skills sheets candidates filled out for the secretaries to make up a punch card for the Randomatic. NPA candidates and jobs were incorporated in every recruiter’s day to day activities at Van Grace. Van would review what came in and hand them to the recruiter that made the most sense based on current activity unless someone wrote specifically to one of the recruiters, same with the NPA candidates and jobs
I was fortunate and did very well my 1st year and quickly saw the value of split business. Van hosted meetings at our office every two or three weeks at the end of the work day for the local NPA owners. They would discuss trends, who was hiring, who was laying off, what the Globe was charging for advertising etc. In my 2nd year, after overhearing parts of one of their meetings, I asked Van if I could attend. Each firm had its own niche but there were some overlap with all of them and they knew and trusted each other. I convinced the owners we needed to include the recruiters in doing this same type of thing geared to jobs and candidate which they agreed to. This also increased our split business between the local offices, so everyone was quite happy with the results.
Late 1977 open houses became the rage for the high-tech companies in Boston. I looked at what they were doing and brought it to the owners of the local NPA members. We priced everything out and agreed to split the costs evenly for the venue. Each firm would provide all of its recruiters as interviewers at the open house, and we would meet the following afternoon to share the resumes of the candidates we interviewed with the other 5 firms. No one could refer a candidate until the following day so that no one had an advantage. Keep in mind you either hand delivered resumes or used the US mail. NPA got its 5% on every placement. We worked out an arrangement so that the placing firm got 47 1/2% of the candidate they placed, and each firm got 1/6th of the other 47 1/2%. We rotated the “credit” when reporting the split to NPA so even if your firm made no placements you would make money after expenses and would meet your quotas for NPA. It was a win for everyone. I kept track of the paperwork for this process and we held multiple open houses for many years that were quite successful.
Starting with the open houses that were developed in meetings in our waiting room I have always factored NPA into any business decision we made. By that time Van and I were talking about buying him out. Van had taught me the value of having trusted affiliates and how split business was good business. NPA provided all of that than an continues to do so today. Van retired in 1981 and we transferred ownership of the company and the NPA membership. I have never once debated dropping out of NPA and survived 5 recessions since then. NPA helped me thru all of them.
On April 5, 2019 NPAworldwide awarded me the Chairman’s Award which recognized me for providing extraordinary service for the betterment of the network. This award is given annually by vote of the Board of Directors. I have received other awards in my life, but this one means a great deal to me because my peers selected me for it. Based on how I was brought up, and what I learned from Van and all of those life experiences, NPA was a great fit for me. Volunteering for NPA over the years just made sense for me. I truly like what I do and gravitate to those who feel the same way. I strongly believe you need to give back in life and I knew many “more seasoned” members helped me learn the nuances of our business. Hopefully, I have passed some of that off too others.
The line I have used for quite some time is from the movie Jerry Maguire “Show me the money”. NPA has always shown me the money and along the way I have made a number of friends that I still cherish.
Thank you.