August 1, 2025 – Thomas Emmerling and Gregory Urban recently joined leaders from the Business First of Buffalo 2025 list of Top Private companies for a conversation about the challenges WNY organizations are facing in the current economy.

Strategies to attract, keep personnel are key to company success

August 1. 2025

R&R is top-of-mind for area business leaders as the calendar turns to the second half of 2025.

Not rest and relaxation but recruitment and retention.

The combination is a challenge, but it must be done well and intentionally, they say, for their organizations to continue to be successful in their industries and the region’s economy.

Buffalo Business First Publisher John Tebeau recently invited Top Private Company leaders from an array of organizations representing manufacturing, construction and services sectors for a conversation over dinner that included getting and keeping talent in the region.

Joining the conversation were:

• Ken Bianchi, executive vice president, Safetec of America Inc.
• John Cleary, vice president, Campus Construction Management Group
• Russell Corigliano, president and CEO, Rosina Food Products Inc.
• Thomas Emmerling, managing partner, Dopkins & Company, LLP
• Jeff Fancher, vice president, J&R Specialties Inc.
• Andy Jakson, CEO, Evolution Dental Lab
• Luis Rodriguez, CEO, Rodriguez Construction Group
• Gregory Urban, partner, Dopkins & Company, LLP

FINDING HELP

Hiring is a challenge especially when you need personnel to replace the many retirees in a specialty area, such as in construction, Rodriguez said.

However, he and the other business leaders have established practices and policies that help them get the personnel they need to contribute to company growth.

Such preparation is key, Emmerling said the chances of hiring and retaining personnel improve if the company invests in the work that comes before looking for help.

Rodriguez looks beyond the good stuff on resumes and interviews candidates himself to determine whether they have a mindset for hard work and teamwork. He also wants to discern if the candidates are motivated to advance in the company.

“You have to give people that opportunity to learn. If they are getting an opportunity, we want to see what they can do with that,” Rodriguez said.

Jakson has the same approach. Like Rodriguez, he lets his team interview the candidates, but then he sits down with them individually to see what makes them tick beyond their years in a career. He wants to know about their hobbies, their families, their core belief in the human spirit. If he does not like what he hears, the job is not theirs.

It’s a simple as that, Jakson said.

“It is very difficult for me to hire somebody just because they have the knowledge,” Jakson said. “For me it is really about hiring the character of the person. Would they treat the CEO the same way they would treat the person who is washing the glass on the front door? If that is their core and if I see that piece, then I am OK. I can work with that person. It is really about my gut feeling about somebody and who they are as a human.”

To read the full article, please click here to visit the Business First of Buffalo website.