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January 27, 2025
GREEN BAY – After 11 years, Express Employment Professionals of Green Bay – a franchise location of “one of the leading staffing agencies in North America” according to its website, expresspros.com – is under new ownership.
Eric Hussin, the new owner of Express Employment Professionals of Green Bay (2271 Fox Heights Lane), said when he began working at the staffing agency roughly three years ago, its former owners, Matt and Kim Sullivan, quickly incorporated him into their two-and-a-half year succession plan.
“Matt and Kim, outside of my family, are two of the most important people in my life, both as former bosses, friends and mentors,” Hussin said. “They have helped groom me to be ready to take over this business.”
Express, Hussin said, is one of the few local staffing solution companies with two divisions dedicated to both helping job seekers find employment and companies fill their open roles.
“Our search (division is) a team of seven headhunters,” he said. “They do everything via direct hire for high-level, head-hunting-type roles. Then our staffing division – we have two divisions within that: office services and light industrial in which we have dedicated people to each service line – (does) things on an evaluation-hire basis, usually for more entry-level roles, so companies don’t have to guess, or bring out the right person, or even put any effort into recruiting at all. We handle that for them.”
A passion for staffin’
Hussin said he began his working career in medical equipment and pharmaceutical sales, as well as medical logistics.
Then – after losing his job at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic – he said he transitioned to an inside sales position with “a local industrial distributor.”
“I knew right when I started (that) this was not the ‘forever gig,’ but I took a mindset where I’m never going to be laid off or lose my job again, and did inside sales the best I could,” he said. “I just tried to make (life) easier for my bosses and make sure that I was an irreplaceable employee.”
While working in inside sales, Hussin said he received a call from an Express recruiter – Scott Ross – asking if he was interested in leaving his current role for another inside sales position.
“I said, ‘You know what, Scott, I don’t think I would leave for another inside sales role,’” he said. “(I told him), ‘my next move… would be for something either (in) outside (sales) or in recruitment.’ That’s been a function of my job in the past, though not the whole job, and I really enjoyed it. And he goes, ‘Well, we’re hiring here. You want to come interview with Matt?’ – the rest is kind of history.”
Hussin said he was drawn to the recruiting industry because “it is highly honorable work.”
“Helping companies fill open roles and then helping people get promotions (or) leave toxic environments for better ones – it’s very intrinsically fulfilling,” he said.
Another reason Hussin said he enjoys recruiting is because of the variety of industries you’re exposed to daily.
“I always tell people, I feel like I work 37 different jobs, because we get to know all of our clients’ industries and their needs and what they hire for,” he said. “You get a real-life MBA going into a staffing and recruiting firm, and it keeps things exciting. I need that variety, and I think a lot of our internal employees enjoy that aspect, too.”
The final reason he’s passionate about recruiting, Hussin said, is the value it provides clients and companies – especially at Express.
“We take service to what we believe is another level compared to the industry standard here,” he said. “It shows in the way we care for our clients, and the ability we have to find solutions to make sure we’re not just charging them for something – we’re actually providing them value.”
New year, owner, goals
Express, Hussin said, provides staffing services to companies and job seekers in several industries while emphasizing the ones most prominent in the Green Bay area.
“Manufacturing (and) paper converting are absolutely massive in Green Bay, so those are the ones that we have to be the strongest (in) – especially on the staffing side,” he said. “We have an office services staff for (positions) like customer service reps, receptionists, accounts payable, accounts receivable clerks, things like that. Then, (on) our search team, everyone has their own niche, whether that’s construction, industrial, manufacturing, healthcare executives are a big one for us, then information technology and sales as well.”
Hussin said Express will often see a lot of return business from companies who utilize their staffing services.
“For a lot of companies, it is actually more cost-effective to use our services for several reasons,” he said.
One of those reasons, Hussin said, is that Express will both assist employers in finding qualified candidates and help them decide how to best fill gaps in their current workforce.
For example, Hussin said if a job is “relatively undesirable,” it makes more sense for an employer to seek out a temporary worker so they don’t have to spend the money or pay the taxes to recruit, train and onboard a new employee that may leave the position sooner rather than later.
“Oftentimes, it makes sense to feel somebody out, because you’re not exactly sure what the role should be yet, but right now, you need help in accounting and customer service, so let’s just find someone with that skill set,” he said. “Also, (they) don’t have the resources, nor want to pay for the job advertising and the search tools, because those are not cheap.”
Hussin said most of Express’s business has been with companies who have used its services “for many years.”
“We’re not very interested in transactional roles… There’s a lot that goes into this,” he said. “So to do it (as a) ‘one-off’ is not as satisfying as having a real relationship. “
A differentiator between Express Employment Professionals and other staffing agencies, Hussin said, is that in addition to regular recruiting tools – such as LinkedIn, Wisconsin Job Center, etc. – Express utilizes two different applicant tracking systems (ATS) it has been using for more than a decade, providing it with an expansive applicant database.
“The number of local people in Green Bay that we have in that system is (more than) 37,000,” he said. “That’s almost (more than) a third of the working population. So when companies say, ‘Hey, I need this really nuanced position,’ – for example, an applications engineer – ‘what have you seen on the market?’ We can go check (and say,) ‘Well, over the last 11 years, we’ve talked to 51 of them. So let’s go and see if they’re on the market first, and then try to spark up those conversations.’”
Some positions, Hussin said, take more time to fill than others and Express’s turnaround time varies depending on the job.
“If (a company) came looking for someone in the light industrial or even office services (division) as a staffing solution, there’s been times where we found that within a day, because we interview these people constantly,” he said. “Now, when you’re asking us to go find your next CFO, that can be a three-month search, because there’s a huge responsibility (in picking) out a CFO, and we have to make sure we find the right person.”
Express excitement
As an employee of three years with Express Employment Professionals, Hussin said he’s looking forward to growing with his team in his new role as owner of the franchise.
“I’ve been a part of the hiring decision, or made the hiring decision for everyone we have on our team,’ he said. “So it was really rewarding to break the news to them and let them know that this is the next step with Express Employment Professionals.”
Furthermore, Hussin said as the new owner of the franchise, he’s looking forward to building on the culture the Sullivans established over their 11 years of ownership.
“When you’re in a small business that truly appreciates their employees, like we had under Matt and Kim Sullivan, they live up to that,” he said. “It’s the most rewarding place to work for and I hope to continue that in my tenure as well.”
