BARRETT BUSINESS SERVICES

Written by Jonathan Nelson
Columbian staff writer
Photo By Janet L. Mathews

Overview: William Sheretz, president and chief executive o cer of Vancouver-based Barrett Business Services, directs a company that provides human resource help to small companies with ve to 50 employees.

Sheretz’s people can tackle such problems as employee turnover, payroll processing and risk management. The company also offers staffing services for short- and long-term projects.

“We’re a company made up of human resource and risk managers,” Sheretz said.

And he’s more than happy to lend those experts to Barrett’s 1,200 clients that primarily are spread across the West Coast.

Theere are 40 Barrett o ces in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina.

Roots: Barrett has its beginnings in the 1950s.

Sheretz founded his own company in 1971 when he was 24 years old and later merged it with Barrett. Sheretz’s business started as a temporary staffing service and grew slowly as he bought similar companies in Oregon, California and Washington. He decided to take the company public in 1993.

Strategy: In one sense, Sheretz’s focus hasn’t changed much from the start. “I thought you could probably get bigger some day,” he said when asked why he chose the temporary staffing field.

Growth is a key component of Barrett’s planning, but Sheretz is careful about achieving that goal in the right way and being responsive to market changes. It was in the 1990s that Sheretz dramatically shifted Barrett’s work from strictly a staffing service to more human resource work. “It was by demand,” he said.

Customers wanted the service so Sheretz responded. Today, about 90 percent of the business is focused on the human resource component.

The staffing work Barrett does provide has also changed. Rather than recruiting single workers, Barrett focuses on large projects that may require up to 100 people at a time.

That work often goes to seasonal industries such as canneries in Eastern Washington.

Results: By going public, Barrett was able to accelerate Sheretz’s expansion goals. The company has completed 23 acquisitions since 1993. In 2004, it bought part of a staffing company that has nine offices in Central Washington, Eastern Oregon and South Idaho. Four new offices in California’s Central Valley have been opened since 2003.

A secondary public offering in 2005 raised $33 million, money that will be used to continue expansion in targeted markets outside Oregon and California, where Barrett already has a strong presence. Revenue has grown steadily since 2002, going from $109.3 million to $231.3 million in 2005.

The company relocated its corporate headquarters in March 2006 from Portland to Vancouver.

Despite the company’s growth and continued expansion plans, Sheretz doesn’t seek any special recognition. Instead, he just maintains a low key approach while keeping the company moving forward.

“It’s just my nature,” he said. “I’m not much of a cheerleader.”