Heart and Soul: A story with a twist Labor Finders / LF Staffing pays tribute to its workers

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL-Employee of the YearAwards are nothing new…many businesses honor their top employeeswith this accolade. Two things sets the Inaugural Labor Finders /LF Staffing Employee of the Year Awardapart-first, there is not onewinner but two winners and secondly, both of the winners arewomen-which, for the normally male-dominated blue-collar industriallabor industry-is truly astonishing.

Dan Shube, the Director of Marketing for Labor FindersInternational, who conceived of the awards stated, "I had beenhearing stories about the wonderful temporary workers from ourbranch managers throughout the country.  It was afterreceiving yet another inspiring story, that I had a feeling therewere more stories needing to be told."  Shube went on to say,"It is unfortunate that the public's perception is not accuratewhen it comes to temporary blue-collar workers and our goal was toset the record straight with the facts. Additionally, we wanted away to recognize and reward our over-achievers and improve themorale of all our temporary workers and internal staff.  Afterdiscussing this with Celina Klee, the Manager of Public Relationsfor Labor Finders, we both believed the time was perfect torecognize the best temporary workers that we employ!"

Throughout the country, branch managers from both Labor Findersand LF Staffing offices entered their best candidate(s) by sendinga paragraph explaining why their worker deserved to be honored.Some of key points the branch managers touched upon were:attendance, attitude, hard work, making suggestions that savedmoney or improved safety, if the temporary worker received apermanent placement or won employee of the week, quarter or yearwhile on assignment.

It was a proven fact, every office has their star performers;but the winner had to be a SUPERSTAR!  When the first coupleof entries came in, Shube and his team was thrilled. Then, thefloodgates' opened and they received an impressive 30% responsefrom their offices.  Shube stated, "The results surpassed ourwildest expectations. Each of the branch managers wrote about theirworkers with amazing pride and passion, begging us to considertheir candidates. Many of the managers received recommendationsfrom their clients that employed the workers at their job site.These letters of recommendation were heartfelt and compelling; inan industry, where most businesses do not want it known that theyhire temporary workers, this in itself was amazing."

The plan was to choose one winner, however, each of the entriesstories was compelling, and some moved the judges to tears. Therewas no choice but to choose two winners and four runners-up; inaddition, the remaining workers were recognized as honorablementions.

In a male dominated industry, Labor Finders International,theoldest and largest privately held industrial labor staffingcompany in the United States along with its LF Staffing division isproud to announce that both winners were women: Ms. Ida SillahNjie, (Wichita, KS) and Ms. Carrie Rost, (Arnold, MO.) Both oftheir stories will make anyone pause and ponder what amazingindividuals we have helping to make this great country of ours evengreater.

Ms. Ida Sillah Njie, who immigrated to the US from Gambia27-years ago, not only does she excel at any job given her, but sheworks harder than her male counterparts do. She has zero tolerancefor slothfulness and inspires others around her to work hard. Ms. Njie attends college at Wichita State majoring in SocialServices and back in 2009, she founded the PS Njie Foundation tohelp Gambian disaster victims. In 2010, she took some time off fromLabor Finders to begin her quest to Africa, returning with heartwrenching photos of a hospital with a rotting, leaky-roof, onetable with no chairs, no restroom facilities, scores of peoplelined up to see one nurse and one doctor, children without homes,schools, clothing and food.  Ida began by accepting donationsand ended up personally overseeing the transport, arrival anddistribution of the much-needed supplies; it was at this time thatshe met the President of Gambia and his officials. In the nearfuture, she plans to return to Gambia to continue her quest-Ms.Njie is truly a great, empowering citizen and a role model forall.

Ms. Carrie Rost gives new meaning to "strength of character."Back in June of 2008, Carrie began her career at the Arnold,Missouri Labor Finders by being placed as a temporary worker in amale dominated environment, for Custom Fabrication and Coating inArnold, Missouri.  The supervisor was nervous about hiring afemale because all of his employees were males, and he was worriedthat Mrs. Rost would have difficulty keeping up. Carrie quicklychanged his mind, by logging in excess of 4,000 hours at his shopbefore the workload finally slowed down. Then, the very samesupervisor who initially doubted her capabilities wasso convincedof her worth that he arranged for her to be transferred to hisparent company, Stripmasters of Illinois, which was 25 miles away.Carrie gratefully accepted the position and has since logged2,058.5 hours and counting. Then disaster struck. Early in 2011,she was the victim of a potentially life-threatening accident thatoccurred at Stripmasters.  She was doing some touch uppainting work on a row of ten-foot tall steel support girders whenone of the girders broke loose and fell, creating a domino effectsending all of the girders tumbling to the floor. Carrie was pinnedunderneath several thousand pounds of solid metal and was rushed byambulance to the emergency room. She suffered multiple crushingwounds. The accident was not her fault and she insisted on gettingback to work as soon as possible. Based on her exceptional workhistory the client offered to let her work light duty at theirfacility. Though clerical work is not her forte', Carrie did notcomplain. She accepted the work and did a fantastic job. One weeklater, she was released to full duty; then she went back to herregular position at Stripmasters, where she continues to contributeand receive accolades. 

Each of these two amazing women took home the grand prize ofone-thousand dollars along with the honorary plaques and eachreceived a celebration party at each of their office locations. Thefour runners-up received a check for one-hundred dollars; inaddition, each of the honorable mentions received a check fortwenty-five dollars. Everyday Labor Finders is changing the way thepublic views temporary workers…and in the case of our employee ofthe year…one woman at a time.

By the way, the rest of the entrants' have great, feel-goodstories too! Ask about them!