Mom’s The Word For Staffing

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Julie Lacouture and Kate Pletcher watched their friends and family members juggle parenthood and work, thinking they would have to do that same balancing act one day.

Lacouture and Pletcher aren’t parents yet, but last month they gave birth to the L.A.-area office of Atlanta-based Mom Corps, a staffing firm that specializes in finding part-time or temporary jobs for moms and others who can’t or don’t want to put in a full working week.

“Parents are a big chunk of our candidates,” Lacouture said. “Other candidates are looking to care for an elder parent that has now moved back into the house or needs more attention. And we have a whole chunk who want their summers, or just like working project work and who like more flexibility.”

There are a lot of other staffing firms around town, and they’re busy because many companies are reluctant to hire full-time staffers and are more inclined to hire temporary workers. Marketing with the Mom Corps label might help Lacouture and Pletcher stand out in the crowd.

“They are going after a certain niche market and I don’t see any negatives in it,” said Amy Zimmerman, president and chief executive at Torrance employment agency Amy Zimmerman & Associates Inc.

Lacouture, a 34-year-old former director at online charity DonorsChoose.org, and Pletcher, a 31-year-old former director of global brand licensing at shoemaker Skechers USA, met while earning their M.B.A.s at UCLA. They kept in touch after graduating and often discussed business ideas.

So they did some research on the staffing industry and decided to become a Mom Corps franchisee.

Ted Richane, a director at West L.A.’s Cause & Affect, which oversees social change campaigns for filmmakers, corporations and non-profits, hired Lacouture and Pletcher to find a temporary worker to oversee fundraising for a financial literacy campaign.

He said he didn’t have to place job ads. “We didn’t want to get inundated with resumes.”

Richane interviewed the three candidates Lacouture and Pletcher sent him after winnowing the applicants down from 60. He hired one, who started work Jan. 1.

Lacouture and Pletcher are getting their franchise under control before their own babies come into the picture.

“If I had decided to start this kind of business with two toddlers, it would be difficult,” Pletcher said.

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