Profiles in Certification – Bill Evans
We’re back profiling another SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) — this time speaking with a business that holds multiple certifications, though the conversation focused on their Disability Owned Business Enterprise status. Samantha Smith interviews potential businesses, so email us with a request to be included — no, you don’t have to be a GetDiversityCertified.com client.
Up this month, Bill Evans, the founder of Current Staffing Solutions, LLC, a DOBE (Disability Owned Business Enterprise) and MBE (Minority Business Enterprise). We asked him to give an elevator pitch about his business and its origins. Current Staffing Solutions is an industry leader in client partnering relationships, specializing in recruitment and difficult-to-fill positions. He tries to place people with disabilities when he can and is a member of CTBLN (Connecticut Business Leadership Network), a coalition of 250 businesses who strive to connect people with disabilities. Current Staffing Solutions prides itself on diversity inclusion and has received multiple nominations and awards for excellence and growth from clients and industry organizations.
Where did it begin for him? Evans laughs, “Well, that story is a little longer than an elevator pitch.” He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about 10 years ago. At around age 38, his hands started shaking and other symptoms followed. Of the 1.5 million Americans diagnosed with Parkinson’s, he is among the 10-20 percent diagnosed under the age of fifty.
During the economic downturn, he found himself looking for a job and decided to create Current Staffing Solutions. While cold calling a Comcast representative, it somehow came up that Evans had Parkinson’s. Comcast suggested that he get certified through the USBLN and become one of their vendors through the supplier diversity program. Since then, Evans has experienced exponential client growth, working with several Fortune 500 Companies such as Comcast, The Hartford, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. He knows he wouldn’t have been able to land these businesses as his clients if he’d gone any other route. “We’re too small of a business.” And the market is competitive. The DOBE sets him a part.
The USBLN (US Business Leadership Network) unites business around disability inclusion in the workplace. USBLN has more than 130 corporate partners and represents over 5,000 businesses. They are considered a bridge between businesses and people with disabilities. People with disabilities are among the largest minority group. Evans continues, “Disability doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t matter what you look like, what church you go to. It can happen to you at any time.”
The most difficult part of the certification process for him? “It did take several months,” he admits. “The process was similar to getting incorporated in the first place.” To anyone considering certification, he recommends being diligent, and quick. One of the tasks he was asked to complete was providing a doctor’s note, proving his disability.
When asked how businesses should view diversity certification, he said, “as a business tool or a source of community. Certification should be part of who you are. As part of a greater presentation as to what you and your company represent.” As diversity certification becomes more popular, there are a variety of people with different intentions and goals. Some people get diversity certified as a route to build their businesses and then feel entitled to a flood of new clients. For Evans, it has never worked that way. “The more you put into it the more you get out of it.” He works within his community to better the circumstances around him. He recites a quote by Zig Ziglar, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
To learn more about Bill Evans and his services, please visit Current Staffing. And check out the USBLN’s national conference next week.
Our parent company, Abator, is proud to be a USBLN DOBE.
ETA: During the national conference USBLN was rebranded as Disability:IN.