The leaders of a family owned national staffing company can look out their Columbus headquarters and a see a tangible example of growth that’s normally reflected on balance sheets.
Steel framing is up and concrete floors are poured in Elwood Staffing’s 27,298-square-foot, two-story expansion directly behind its main office at 4111 Central Ave.
Enclosing the new building is the next big step for the company, one of the 20 largest staffing agencies in the United States. The expansion and main office will eventually be connected, too. Elwood Staffing in April announced its plans to expand on property it leases from the Columbus AirPark, immediately behind its current corporate headquarters building.
The corporate headquarters, which has a capacity for 75 employees, has 18,500 square feet on one floor. The corporate annex, across the street at 4105 Vickers Drive, has 30 employees and 5,344 square feet. A total of 105 people work at the two buildings now, company leaders said.
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The new building will have room for 146 employees, and combined with the headquarters space would provide enough room for the company to hire more than 100 new employees, the company said.
The project is expected to be finished in the second quarter of this year.
“There’s a real sense of journey and accomplishment and working together,” said Mark Elwood, chairman and CEO. “It’s exciting. When you’re growing, in our minds that’s the market’s way of saying we kind of approve of what you’re doing. If you’re not doing a very good job, then the market doesn’t buy your products or services. It’s very satisfying to grow.”
That growth is symbolic of the hard work of Elwood Staffing employees, said John Elwood, company president.
Elwood Staffing, which their father David Elwood started in 1980 as a consulting company, and includes brother Michael as president of Elwood Professional, has 1,127 employees at 195 locations. It first reached $1 million in revenue in 1996, a few years after staffing became part of the business. Revenue increased to $125 million in 2006, and last year sales reached $975 million, Mark Elwood said.
Many employees have worked at Elwood since it had fewer than 10 locations, and even a few employees when the company had only one office, he said.
Elwood’s growth is a great lesson that people can learn from, said Cindy Frey, president of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce.
“It inspires other entrepreneurs that they can build something from the ground up,” she said.
The company’s growth also reflects the way Elwood has separated itself in the industry, Frey said.
“Sometimes you can be successful if you have a great idea, or you can take an existing kind of business and make it better, and I think that’s their story. They’ve found a way to do it better than their competitors,” she said.
Different concept
The expansion, being designed by Columbus architect Louis Joyner, will add 171 parking spaces and feature an outdoor terrace space, conference rooms, an open-office concept and an Internet cafe.
“We wanted it to have a bit of a campus feel,” John Elwood said.
Mark and John Elwood said the expansion will have some ties to the nearly 15-year-old corporate headquarters building, with some similar designs, colors and materials representing the company’s origins and history. But the design will also capture a more modern feel and represent the fact that the company has grown and is evolving, they said.
“The new building will have more straight lines and be more geometrical, and it will incorporate design features or accent walls or sculptures that speak to the design history for which Columbus is known,” John Elwood said. “We’ll try to do some things that pay homage to some of the legacy of architecture around town.”
One concept the company will carry over from the corporate headquarters is commissioned art by local artists. With four such pieces now that represent the company in the current headquarters building, family members will work with local artists again to create works for the new building, Mark Elwood said.
“We have tried to make this building as first-class and top-notch as we can in every single way. Not only are we going to be proud to be in there, but our visitors and community members who happen to come over and see the building will feel good about the building and what it represents. It will be one of the premier buildings around for office space,” the chairman and CEO said.
Every inch of the expansion will be outfitted, trimmed and ready to occupy immediately so additional work doesn’t need to be performed later, Mark Elwood said. When the headquarters opened in 2003, only the main level was usable space while the basement level was not. Subsequently, the building has undergone two renovations to accommodate growth and needs, he said.
Out of room
Elwood Staffing has grown so much that it has run out of space for employees both at the headquarters and its corporate annex. The company has been hiring 15 to 20 people per year to support business needs, Mark Elwood said.
While construction of the expansion is ongoing, Elwood will be leasing a space in downtown Columbus through the end of the year in order to accommodate additional employees they need to hire now and in coming months, until the new building is ready to occupy, he said.
Driftwood Builders, which is overseeing the construction, broke ground last summer. However, a stretch of three to four weeks of inclement weather — below-freezing temperatures, snow and rain — from around Thanksgiving to late December, slightly delayed the construction timeline, Mark Elwood said.
The expansion — which will offer plenty of additional room to grow — should be substantially completed by June, and maybe July before employees could be working in the building, Mark Elwood said.
Space decisions
Employees working in the annex will move into the new building, as will the executive team of Mark, John and Michael Elwood and Chief Financial Officer Steven Hunnicutt. Beyond that, no decisions have been finalized about which departments or employees will remain in the main building or move into the new building, Mark Elwood said.
Company leaders are still deciding best fits for departments and employees based on their needs, John Elwood said.
And for at least the short term, Elwood Staffing intends to keep the annex property for overflow needs.
However, the plan is to keep the office of David Elwood, now the chairman emeritus, in the same corner space in the main office as a way to honor him and maintain the tie to the building that was an important project for him, Mark Elwood said.
“Dad invested himself in the headquarters,” John Elwood said.
Now David Elwood and his sons are seeing another tangible result of the family’s investment in the company take shape.
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The expansion being designed by architect Louis Joyner — who also designed the company’s corporate headquarters — will bring a 27,298-square-foot, two-story building to the east of Elwood Staffing’s corporate headquarters on Central Avenue. It will add 171 parking spaces and will feature an outdoor terrace space, conference rooms and an Internet cafe.
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1980: Elwood Consulting founded by David L. Elwood in Columbus. Located at 2530 Sandcrest Blvd., company provides pre-employment testing services.
1993: Services expanded to include interviewing, skill testing, drug testing, making hiring recommendations, arranging for physicals and handling applicant phone calls and information.
1994: Temporary staffing services offered.
1995: Incorporated as Elwood Consulting Co. Inc. Satellite office opened in Martinsville.
1997: Company name changed to Elwood Staffing Services Inc.
2001: Elwood Staffing made first acquisition by purchasing Job Placement Services of Valparaiso.
2003: Broke ground on new corporate headquarters, at 4111 Central Ave., Columbus. Headquarters opened later in year.
2004: Acquired Hubbuch Staffing of New Albany.
2006: Acquired Alabama-based TRI Staffing, which also has offices in Nashville, Tennessee. Elwood Staffing expanded into Georgia. Acquired Premier Staffing of Indianapolis. Expanded into Kentucky by opening an office in Louisville.
2007: Expanded into Nevada by serving customers in Reno. Expanded into Texas by offering services in the Forth Worth area.
2009: Acquired Time Staffing Solutions with offices in Indiana and Michigan.
2010: Acquired Alpha Omega Resources with offices in Virginia.
2010: Acquired Multi-Staffing Services with offices in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi.
2012: Acquired Beacon Staffing in western Michigan. Opened office at 2506 25th St. in Columbus in spring; used as the staffing site.
2013: Purchased SOS Employment Group, based in Salt Lake City. SOS became a wholly owned subsidiary but operates as a sister company.
2014: Purchased Encore Staffing Services with offices in the Midwest, West Coast and Northeast.
2015: Acquired York Companies Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky-based commercial staffing firm.
2016: Acquired White Staffing Management, a commercial staffing firm serving western Kentucky and Tennessee.
2016: Acquired Berks & Beyond, including 15 offices located throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. The company operates under the name of Berks & Beyond and functions as a division of Elwood Staffing.
2017: Acquired Swanson Staffing, a commercial staffing firm serving northern Indiana and parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
2017: Announced in April a planned expansion on property leased from the Columbus AirPark immediately behind current corporate headquarters, 4111 Central Ave., that could add 90 new jobs. Plans call for a 27,298-square-foot, two-story office building with room for 120 employees. The project is expected to be finished in the second quarter of 2018.
Source: Elwood Staffing
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