By Jean Schurman
The change of ownership at A2Z Personnel may actually be a legacy in the making. When Sue Devlin sold the company to her daughter, Jaime Williams, Williams’ daughter, Kyslei, who is eight, told her mother that she would be buying the company from her in about 30 years. It is a legacy of strong women that Kyslei will be adding her name to if she does take over the company.
Devlin was born in Toronto, Canada. Her family had a summer home in Quebec as she was growing up where she and her siblings – Penny, Brian, and Mike – had many fun times. Her father was a mining engineer and took the family all over for his work. She spent time in the Yukon, and in several remote areas in South America as a child. Although her siblings were in boarding school, she traveled with her parents. When she was 12 years old, she was left at a convent in British Guyana for two years.
Devlin’s interest in staffing agencies began when she was 17 years old. She had run away from her home in New Jersey to New York City. She didn’t have much but she did have four nice outfits and enough money to purchase white gloves. This was the uniform of a ‘Kelly Girl’, a temporary office worker. She worked in offices in the city for very exacting bosses.
While in New York City, she saw an ad for employment in Yellowstone National Park. She rode the bus to Lewiston, Idaho, where she was picked up and taken to the park. It was early spring and even though she’d lived in places all over the Western Hemisphere, she’d never seen such beauty, or experienced the freedom. She worked at Old Faithful for the Hamilton Stores for seven months. It was the beginning of a life-long love affair with the national park.
Devlin left the park to follow a fellow to Austin, Texas. Although the relationship didn’t work out, she lived in Beaumont for a while. While there, she worked for Snelling and Snelling, another employment agency.
“I was an employment coordinator there,” she said. “I fell in love with the concept of finding work for people.”
Because she wanted out of Texas, she decided to move to Denver. A friend had moved there to be an Army nurse while her husband was in Vietnam. She offered Devlin a place to stay. She had worked for Victor Comptometer Corporation, an adding machine company, in Beaumont and transferred up to Denver.
Eventually moving to Montana in 1973, Devlin worked in many areas. She was a 911 dispatcher, sold Avon and after the birth of her daughter Jaime, she opened a daycare.
“I wanted to see her first steps and hear her first words,” said Devlin. “This was a way to do that.”
It was when Jaime was older that Devlin got back into the employment business. Devlin opened the doors to the company that would become A2Z Personnel on April 18, 1993. She had been working for another ‘temp’ agency, Labor Contractors, and when she was let go by the owner, she partnered up with Jenet Marten who had just purchased Nolan Agency in Missoula. Devlin named her part of the business Nolan Temps. She had a non compete clause with Labor Contractors in Missoula County and so they opened an office in Hamilton that Devlin ran. When Devlin won a non compete lawsuit against Labor Contractors, she returned to running the Missoula office. Eventually she managed the Missoula and Hamilton offices and one in Helena as well. She said she wasn’t sure when the name changed from Nolan Temps to A2Z. They were contemplating a name change and she sat down and thought, “we do everything from A2Z,” and the name was born.
The partnership dissolved in 2002 and Devlin became the sole owner. They sold the Helena office, and flipped a coin to see who took Hamilton and who took Missoula. Devlin got the Hamilton office, and in 2004 she opened the Stevensville office. The company has grown and is now one of the major employers in the valley. This is not only a temp agency but they also do placements.
Employers can advertise an opening and have to pore over resumes, check references and do interviews. Or, they can have A2Z do all the legwork for them. A2Z will match the required skills to the person and select the three top candidates for the job. Devlin feels it’s a win-win situation.
“The employee can ask ‘do I like it here’ while the employer can say ‘does this person fit in, can they do the work’.”
The employer pays the fee; Devlin didn’t think it was right for an employee to pay a fee while trying to find a job. The employee may work at one job up to 520 hours and still be employed by A2Z. If it is a good fit for both and the employee is hired, the employer doesn’t pay any more fees, but up until that person is hired by the company, they are actually employed by A2Z and all the workers’ comp and liability insurance is paid for by A2Z. This is actually a benefit for the employee as well. If they don’t feel like the job is a good fit, they just call the A2Z office and say it’s not working out. Nothing shows up on their work experience except that they are working at A2Z.
Devlin says there are many reasons for people to use the company. One of the more unusual reasons walked through the door in 1994 or ’95. “He was a college student, a bit rotund. He came in and said he needed to lose weight. ‘I want you to find me a job that’s going to work my butt off’.”
The student was from Eastern Montana. Devlin said he showed up for four summers and would have put on weight over the winter only to work it off during the summer. After graduation he thanked her for dealing with him, for teaching him to stay in school. He said he saw the job market and decided to stay in school so he could do something better.
Both Devlin and Williams agree this is a good learning experience for entry-level positions. Lots of employers want people with no preconceived ideas about how to do a job. The positions run from office and clerical to the building industry, “pretty much any business as long as it’s legal,” said Devlin. They place people in the health care industry, such as PCAs and CNAs. There are temporary jobs as well, such as catering, private parties, window washing and cleanup around yard and garden. The company employs four full-time support staff and will send out over 500 W2 forms for 2015.
Williams is happy to be back in the business. She went to work at A2Z in 2000 when her mother had a health scare. “I had two days’ training before I had to do the job,” said Williams. “It was sink or swim.”
After working there for a few years, Williams moved on and has spent time in the building industry. But she’s just like her mother. She is passionate about helping people and helping them get a job that is right for them. When Devlin decided to sell the company, she didn’t have to look any farther than her daughter. She hopes to make A2Z a resource for employers needing human resource questions answered. She also hopes to have the company become even more involved in community events.
In addition to Kyslei, Williams has a son who lives and works in the Seattle area.
As for Devlin, she’s spending the first few days of 2016 lying in the sun on a tropical island. She says she’s coming back, but we’ll have to see.