Executive recruiting and consulting firm Vaco Birmingham has launched a new division to respond to client demand and local hiring needs.

Vaco Staffing was recently launched to fill lower- and mid-level positions for companies in the Birmingham area, said Birmingham partner Yvonne Shelfer.

And since the launch, Vaco has added three new employees to its staffing division, she said, including a 20-year veteran of the human resources industry to lead the group, Alan Ridgway, director of client services.

When the market turned for the worst in late 2008, our clients were coming to us requesting things that maybe were not in our sweet spot, said Shelfer. And we were not wanting to turn anything away, so at the request of our clients we started taking on some of these searches.

While Vaco wasnt geared for staffing, Shelfer said the company soon became successful at it.

Vaco Staffings Ridgway comes to the firm after 17 years at Amsource in Birmingham, where he served as a senior human resources advisor and partner. Amsource, a professional employer organization, was purchased earlier this year by Massachusetts-based XcelHR Holdings.

Most of todays job growth is coming from temporary, temporary-to-permanent and contract employment, which most staffing firms do, said Gerriann Fagan, human resources consultant and president of The Prism Group.

While most employers are busy and have work for employees, most arent comfortable making a commitment yet, she said. So companies opt to commit for something short-term.

And launching a staffing division could position Vaco better for 2011, when that sector of the job market picks up even more, said Fagan.

Vacos Shelfer said her company is seeing the early stages of that pick up.

Its more the mid-manager level to director roles that have been the largest increase this summer, she said.

Two years ago when people started feeling the pinch, a lot of companies got rid of that middle layer of people. Now they are looking at being more strategic and filling mid-manager roles.

Shelfer and partner Bart Marcum started the local Vaco office in August 2008. Both had worked as certified public accountants in local firms before starting Vaco and focusing on executive recruitment in the accounting and financial services industries.

Vaco is a national firm, with 26 locally owned offices across the U.S. It works to place accounting, financial, information technology and administrative professionals.

-Birmingham Business Journal post on Friday November 12, 2010