Job agency owner's secret? Be caring, firm

When Stacey Azevedo

started her blue-collar

employment agency five years

ago, one of her chief goals

was to pay workers a fair

wage, whether they had few

skills or were at the top of

their trades.

"To get out there and dig

trenches all day for minimum

wage is hard," she says. "I

wanted to pay people more."

Treating people well is a

theme that runs through

Azevedo's business, A Spear

Workforce in Reno, and her

life.

The agency places workers

in heavy industrial and construction

jobs and is certified

to teach courses in traffic

control and provide traffic

safety crews for road construction

projects. It employs

a wide spectrum from top

trades people who go on to

supervise construction projects

to folks who need quick

jobs to buy bus tickets home.

Azevedo started the business

after opening and managing

offices for another daylabor

employment agency in

California and then Reno. A

Spear Workforce opens each

morning at 6 in a modest

building just south of the railroad

tracks on Keystone

Avenue. People who want

jobs sign in and wait while

the office staff screens applicants

and dispatches them to

jobs as calls from employers

come in.

The agency draws on a

huge skill base, occasionally

recruiting tradespeople from

other states. In some cases, it

also works with people who

are down on their luck. As

long as they are employable,

Azevedo's company will do

what it takes to find them

jobs, including giving them

rides to work or even buying

them shoes.

The agency, for instance,

works with local law enforcement

officials, who refer visitors

who have lost all their

money at local casinos and

can't afford transportation

home. Azevedo's company

helps put the qualified candidates

to work so they can earn

enough to buy bus tickets.

"A lot of people who are at

the bottom of their lives are

really good people," she says.

Azevedo won't put up with

a job can-didate with a bad

attitude, but she also insists

that her workers are treated

well. "If you're a mother, you

get it. You've got to have a

sense of compassion and a

sense of firmness."

Azevedo's business philosophy

is to deal with customers

and employees honestly

and treat others the way

she'd want to be treated. She

says she tells customers, "I

can't guarantee there won't

ever be a problem, but I can

guarantee I'll fix it."

"She has never failed us,"

says Dena Cross, administrative

manager at Cantex Inc., a

local company that makes

PVC pipe. Cantex, a 24/7

operation, has to be able to

reach an employment agency

at any time, and Azevedo

always responds right away

with a cheerful, can-do attitude,

Cross says, even if she's

just been awakened at 3 a.m.

"She just really cares."

Azevedo

doesn't shy

away from

tough challenges.

As a

young

woman in

her 20s, she

drove a bus

in South

Central Los Angeles. After her

husband died in 1989 leaving

her with a son to raise alone,

she helped build freeway

bridges as an iron worker. And

after she married again, this

time to a rancher, and moved to

northern California, she learned

how to handle bulls.

Still, starting her own business,

she says, was terrifying.

She financed it with a $15,000

loan from a friend and the

$30,000 sale of cattle from the

ranch. She says encouragement

from her husband, Manuel, and

friend Vince Merkley were

priceless. She also credits her

office manager, Robi

McMordie, and staff.

The business became profitable

quickly, and annual revenues

are now at $1.5 million.

But Azevedo faces steep challenges

in the tough economy.

After Sept. 11, some of her

customers

went

bankrupt.

Then her

insurance

company

stopped

insuring

temporary

employment

agencies, and her business

had to get expensive high-risk

insurance, even though the

agency had an excellent safety

record. That squeezed margins

even tighter, but Azevedo doesn't

want to pass on the costs to

customers or cut workers' pay.

Outside the business,

Azevedo helps raise money for

the National Association of

Women in Construction scholarship

fund, various food drives

and Kids & Horses, a local

ranch providing rehabilitation

therapy to physically and mentally

challenged children and

young adults. She and her husband

also prepare and provide a

Thanksgiving dinner for hundreds

of the employment

agency workers. And on top of

everything else, she is raising

her baby granddaughter,

Corynn.

"She works so hard, and

she's so caring," says Laura

Staszewski, owner of Mr.

Electric of Reno and a fellow

member of the Association of

Women in Construction.

"Whenever anybody needs her,

she's there. She never says she

cannot do something. She

makes the time for it."