Lisa Collado, Diego Rinquest, and Manisha Subramanian
There are literally hundreds of career staffing, temp and placement agencies in New Jersey, making it a challenge to stand out and find success in this very tough marketplace. NJBIA member PrideStaff, based on Pierson Avenue in Edison, is finding that success primarily due to the leadership and business smarts of owner Manisha Subramanian.
Manisha is an affable, outgoing person people warm up to right away. When you hear her speak, you know you’re listening to someone who is very knowledgeable and prepared, which are staples of successful people. Her academic background helped set her career path; she attended Drexel University, where she earned both an undergraduate degree in business and an MBA with an emphasis in Management Information Systems (MIS).
Four years at accounting powerhouse PwC followed by four years at Reuters America (now Thomson Reuters), both in a business operations manager capacity, gave her an excellent underpinning of the business world. This ultimately led to her being hired by a large-scale staffing firm in New Jersey that specializes in IT staffing, where she spent a decade in a senior leadership role, which included overseeing 16 recruiters in multiple locations.
Pridestaff Headquarters in Edison
In 2015 she decided it was time to venture out and be her own boss. She opened a PrideStaff franchise, which is the only one currently based in the state. PrideStaff, founded in 1978, is a national staffing company based in Fresno, CA, with 200+ employees based in 68+ offices. One of the best assets that Manisha shares is her ability to both be an autonomous small and flexible agency, yet have all the resources of a large agency to turn to as a franchisee. Her office has two employees—Lisa Collado, Staffing Consultant, and Diego Rinquest, Recruiting Assistant—whose dedication allows Manisha to primarily focus on meeting with clients and potential clients for placing candidates.
PrideStaff Edison’s office is a Certified Minority Women’s Owned Business, and Manisha’s dedication to her profession is also illustrated by her earning the designation of both Technical Services Certification (TSC) and Certified Staffing Professional (CSP), which are certification programs offered by the American Staffing Association. She also makes sure that every candidate they have to place is E-Verified, which is an Internet-based system that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of employees to work in the United States.
Manisha clearly loves her job. As she puts it: “How many people get to go to work each day and directly impact people’s lives? Whether I’m assisting clients in finding high performers, or helping job seekers to find great career opportunities, I’m thankful to be able to make businesses and careers more successful. It’s what gets me out of bed every morning!”
Manisha perceptively points out that great staffing is part science, part art. “At a fundamental level, all staffing firms must follow certain procedures – recruiting, interviewing, and testing – to meet clients’ needs. But the ‘science’ of staffing only takes you so far. What sets PrideStaff apart is in the “brushstrokes” – the invaluable expertise and care we bring to matching not just skills and experience, but intangibles, too.”
With reference to secrets to success she shares, “For me, success starts with recognizing who your customers truly are. In our industry, both clients and candidates are customers. To thrive, we must serve businesses, job seekers and our employees on assignment equally well. Each plays a vital role in the staffing equation, and each deserves respect, attention and exceptional service.”
Congratulations to Manisha and her PrideStaff office for what they have been able to achieve in just one year. With deference to the Van Halen song “Best of Both Worlds,” what she and her team bring to the Edison office combined with the backing of PrideStaff nationally, truly seems like the best of both worlds for the staffing services she can offer to her clients. For more information about them visit their website or Facebook page.
PrideStaff is just one of 20,000 companies that comprise NJBIA’s membership, which is very diverse with representation from an amazingly large and wide spectrum of fields, industries and professions. Look for more unique stories about NJBIA members in future issues of “Beyond 10 West Lafayette,” NJBIA’s membership blog.
