Founded in 1988 as Reinhard Temps Ltd., Madison Approach Staffing has been a woman-owned and operated family business for its entire lifespan. Allison Madison, president since 2004, has overseen the company’s expansion across the tri-state area. Clients include local businesses with 100-plus employees in a wide range of economic sectors all managed from the business’s Elmsford location. But this doesn’t mean they didn’t have to make a few changes to stay relevant.
“Over our 30 years, we have managed to survive several economic downturns, bubbles, and recessions, and had to make hard choices to navigate and survive,” Madison says. “It’s what you do when you are committed to your company and to your community. Employees are more than producers or ‘human capital.’ Employees are people—my people.”
Also founded in 1988 by former marine Joseph Murphy, Carmel’s Country Bank has grown its capital ten times over since its genesis. According to TK, the company longevity has largely been a product of its embrace of both community and client involvement as well as new technology.
“Unlike other banks that may just help fill out forms before sending off the applications to be processed, Country Bank sees the entirety of a customer’s financial picture to serve all of their needs from opening an account to securing loans,” say Joseph M. Murphy, Chairman of Country Bank, and Joseph M. Murphy Jr., the bank’s President and CEO. “We eschew bureaucracy and make decisions rapidly. And the fact that we have remained the same bank with the same name for three decades instills a great deal of confidence in our customers. We are deeply involved with local civic and charitable organizations. Generations of our family have lived in Westchester County.”
Staying on top of burgeoning technologies has also been a major factor in the bank’s growth. The two executives belive that “technology has transformed the way customers choose their bank. With online banking they don’t even need to live near a branch. They also expect to instantly and easily manage their money on the move. The Country Bank mobile app and telephone banking allow them to complete transactions in minutes. One new service that allows them to receive or send money to family quickly is P2P Pay.”
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Allison Madison, president of Madison Approach Staffing |
For Madison Approach Staffing, staying relevant is all about recognizing problem areas within their sector and developing strong relationships with the community to address them. “We recognize that the ‘skills gap’ is real, and all employers are experiencing it to one degree or another,” says Madison. “MAS, in partnership with and grant funding from the Workforce Development Board, developed its wage-subsidy incentive program to clients willing to provide on-the-job-training to qualified candidates. This is part of our ethos, part of our concept of community. We all need to be part of the solutions, and helping to provide candidates with opportunities to learn on the job is part of our responsibility as a business community. We actively seek partners with similar ethos who are willing to do their part too, to help grow the workforce of tomorrow by teaching them the skills today.”
To mark its anniversary, Madison Approach Staffing is launching its 30 Kickstarts program, selecting 30 new and returning job seekers to receive free professional assistance services. “I still remember what it was like for my mom [company founder Marion Reinhard] returning to the workforce and trying to make a change,” says Madison. “We look forward to helping individuals overcome a barrier, improve a skill, or gain a new one, in order to take that next step.”
Country Bank, meanwhile, is prepping for a new redesign that should help them stay germane for another 30 years. “The bank’s website address has been changed to CountryBankNY.com to further reflect its New York connection and the redesigned website is in the works which will offer improved navigation,” say Murphy and Murphy Jr.. “We are not going for a trillion dollar, mega-bank look. We want to retain our core values while growing from our present half billion to a billion. We want to amass the scale necessary to position ourselves for an initial public offering at some point in the future.”
