Personnel staffing company succeeds by the Golden Rule

Looking for a job can be a stressful task, so it is a big help when someone can assist you in finding the right employment.

Jean Simpson Personnel Services has been helping folks find jobs for 50 years and, despite a few rough patches over the decades, shows no signs of slowing down.

“We have applicants that come in all day long and fill out applications, so we match them up with the businesses in the community,” said Sandra Braddock, president and owner of the company and daughter of its founder, Jean Simpson.

“So we put people to work, but they’re contracted through us. So we’re the employer, and we pay the person; we pay all the taxes on the person. And so if a company wants to hire them full-time, they can after a certain period of time. I would say (at) this point, about 60 to 70 percent of our business is finding permanent positions for people.”

The company was formed in 1974 as Jean Simpson Temporary Employment. At that time, Simpson had been managing the local Kelly Girl office for 12 years, from 1962 to 1974. “In 1974, Kelly Services started non-renewing franchises. They wanted everything to be corporate-owned out of Detroit. So when they didn’t renew their franchise and they owed her a little bit of money on her commissions that they weren’t going to pay her for some reason, she started her own business: Jean Simpson Temporary Employment,” Braddock said. “She left as a Kelly manager on a Friday and opened up Jean Simpson Temporary Employment on Monday.”

The transition went rather smoothly, as a lot of companies with whom Simpson did business for the previous 12 years as well as employees she had sent out on assignments came with her. “She had a good base because she had a good relationship with all these people, and they knew she had done a good job for them,” said Braddock. “They just went with her.”

The early 1970s were a period of transition for the country as well, with the women’s liberation movement sweeping the nation, but Braddock said she didn’t think her mother had any problems. “She was just a businessperson running a business.”

How was the business able to grow after all these years? “Just putting the right people in the right companies and just word of mouth,” Braddock said.

Braddock joined the company in January 1977 with a business degree with a major in marketing. “I started advertising,” she said. “I started spreading the word about Jean Simpson Temporary Employment and letting everybody know we were in the community. The economy was good, and people were needing jobs, and companies were needing employees, so it just fell into place.”

Like most businesses, Jean Simpson had to overcome a few troublesome times, such as in the 1980s and early 1990s when the oil and gas companies moved to Houston. “But we seemed to have picked up business in other areas, a lot of manufacturing areas and companies, and we withstood that exodus of the oil and gas during that period,” she said.

Over time, people began looking for full-time positions, and Jean Simpson had done such a good job promoting its temp-to-hire program that businesses started to come to them for their full-time positions. In 1997, the company changed its name to Jean Simpson Personnel Services.

Things were going quite well for the company until COVID-19 hit in 2020. Plants and offices closed, and people couldn’t go to work. “It was awful,” Braddock said. “We’re still trying to rebuild from COVID. The labor market is totally different. Business is rough right now. It’s challenging, and it’s hard to find good people. We do everything we know to do to try and get people in here so that we can help them find a job.”

For example, in a company’s quest to find a data entry operator, “we go to our files, and we match up people that have that experience and then send them on interviews. That’s how it works,” Braddock said.

What does Jean Simpson do that has made it so successful after five decades? “It’s simple. You live by the Golden Rule. You do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Braddock said. “Being a family-owned business, we can do things on a personal basis and treat people the way they needed to be treated. And we know the Shreveport market. (If) you go to a national company, they may have a manager that’s here from Michigan, and they don’t know how Shreveport does business and how to deal with Shreveport people. So I think it’s a personal touch. We would not send anybody out that we wouldn’t hire ourselves.

“One other thing is, do whatever it takes to make things right. That’s our philosophy, too. Your reputation is the only thing you have that matters. So we will do whatever it takes to keep that reputation second to none.”