You’ve heard the one about the woman who excels in a male-dominated field, but Pamela Jung founded, owns and leads two human resources firms—where it’s not uncommon to find female-owned businesses.
Healthcare Talent in Lake Forest is an HR consultant and recruiter to healthcare companies, and Workforce Solutions Group Inc. in Foothill Ranch provides similar services to industries that include banking and finance, hospitality, manufacturing, and retail.
Jung—one of this year’s Business Journal Women in Business honorees (see profiles of the other award winners, pages 1, 6, 8 and 11)—says, “I have worked for large national firms where the executives and mid-level managers are men, but there are many smaller (women-owned) agencies out there helping clients every day.”
The two companies together had about $32 million in revenue last year and are projected to hit $35 million this year, and healthcare—another area familiar to the female-run enterprise—makes up about 90% of that.
“We don’t compete with the big guys,” Jung said.
She pursues success with personal service and actions that touch all parts of the work, from how she started out in business to client interaction, employee commitments and community service.
9/11
Jung worked for a decade for HR firms, including Glendale-based AppleOne and Cincinnati-based StaffMark, before striking out on her own—just before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“The economy took a dive, and I was like, ‘What have I done?’”
She “tried to back-pedal” and return to her executive-level work, “and they said, ‘Nope, we’re good.’”
The economic hit gave her time to plan and “figure out how I wanted the business to work,” she said.
It started from her home, with employees working from their homes, on 100% commission, and everyone connected through technology.
“It allowed people freedom to work—stay-at-home moms and dads [and] ex-executives who could still contribute.”
Consulting Core
Jung started by offering HR consulting and recruitment process outsourcing—an industry term running the gamut of services, which can include executive and midlevel searches, general staffing and background checks.
Consulting is still her biggest effort and includes “all aspects” of clients’ HR needs, including workforce strategy, vendor management and legal compliance.
“We don’t really know what we can do for a prospect until we spend some time there,” she said. “We need to understand their business strategy.”
Her companies don’t follow a “typical [retail employment] agency model” but provide multiple services, which can include hiring.
“We build programs around large clients” that include CalOptima in Orange and NextGen Healthcare Information Systems LLC, a unit of medical practice software maker Quality Systems Inc. in Irvine.
Another Storm
In the early days, it was largely nurse and hospice recruiting, and hospitals and health plans still lead the client list. Jung added banking and other industries, peaking at $5 million in revenue—and then another recession came in 2008.
“It was ugly,” she said.
“We bought a building in Lake Forest at the top of the market,” she said. “We didn’t lose clients, but they stopped hiring.”
Revenue dropped to $900,000 “very quickly.”
Jung cut workers, banks called in loans, and company credit cards “were capped at $1,000” in short order.
“We were $500,000 in debt. My attorney said, ‘Bankruptcy is a business strategy, and you should explore it.’”
She didn’t. “I knew things would turn around,” she said, and, “Healthcare sustained us through the recession.”
Outreach
Jung now helps sustain others.
An employee’s recent personal tragedy prompted her and her companies to start a scholarship fund for inner city students to enter the healthcare field.
The money helps them through school, and once certified in their area, “we help place them.”
It’s placed 25 students, and Jung plans to expand the scholarships to technical and mechanical fields and to help military veterans and their spouses.
She’s also on the board of the Irvine-based Council on Aging Southern California.
“Services for seniors—it’s very near and dear to my heart.”
