Genia Spencer, Executive Vice President of System One’s Creative and Digital Services division joins The Edge podcast to talk about acquisitions, mentorship, personal business plans and the American Staffing Association’s Women in Leadership Council.
Previously the President at media staffing organization TeamPeople, Genia is now part of System One and explains her excitement for the future of Team People and System One’s growth now that the two services can merge as one. Having been through an acquisition before Genia knows this is a great opportunity to grow individually and for the company.
After sharing the news of the acquisition, Genia takes us back to the early years in her career. Genia jumped into the staffing world her freshman year in college to help her pay the bills. What originally started as a way to makes ends meet, Genia says she “caught the bug” for the recruitment industry and found that there are so many opportunities to grow her career, which she certainly has starting from the ground floor to the c-suite.
When it comes to mentors for Genia, she says that over the years, the men and woman who have invested time and energy to teach and inspire her have proven to be the most influential mentors. A mentor who stuck out to her was a leader in the recruitment industry, yet no matter how busy her schedule got, she always picked up the phone and took a call when Genia need it most. Genia admires entrepreneur woman in the space people who take risks to grow their business every day and says those women inspire her and are true examples of strong leaders.
For anyone starting out in the industry, Genia notes that the greatest gift to the organization is to bring your own personality because recruitment is a relationship business. Being curious and interested with the desire to listen and meet other’s needs will help individuals starting out leap to the top. Genia also notes that it’s a numbers industry and to remain persistent because every day requires a level of commitment and energy to meet goals and tackle each day. She recommends writing a personal business plan- what do you want to say you’ve accomplished in 5 years from now and what’s going to get you from where you are to that point?
Genia is also on the Women in Leadership council of the American Staffing Association. Genia’s biggest project this past year was to reframe the discussions around women in leadership roles in recruitment. In earlier years, the narrative was around the lack of women leadership in the industry but Genia looked around and said there are a ton of woman leaders! Now, the Women in Leadership council wants to bring visibility to those women and keep women in the industry. In her initiative, Genia has help create a mentor/mentoree program that matches women up in different levels of their recruitment career to help each other identify and reach their career goals.
Genia will also be at Staffing World, hosted by ASA and is the industry’s largest staffing conference Oct. 24–26 in Chicago, with nearly 2,000 of staffing experts! It all takes place at the McCormick Place Convention Center! See the digital Advance Program for this year’s convention.
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