Moms Going Back to Work at Mahwah Company

On any given day at Recruit Savvy’s headquarters in Mahwah, two staffers might be coming in late after taking their kids to doctors’ appointments, three might be leaving early to go to parent-teacher conferences, and one might be working from home with a kid home sick from school. And that’s exactly how the owner wants it.

The company, located in an office on Franklin Turnpike, works in recruiting and Human Resources, with a specialty in financial advisor recruiting.

Owner Michael Wilder says the staffing policy at his staffing agency is a bit unique. Nearly half of his 23 employees are former stay-at-home moms who were looking to re-enter the workforce.

“Of course, we hire men and non-moms,” Wilder said. “But, this job is just tailor-made for moms with school-aged children.”

Most of the company’s employees are part-timers who work 20 to 30 hours a week on a flexible schedule. Telephone recruiters generally work to court experienced financial advisors for client companies.

“Most of the moms we hire had pretty big jobs, but stepped away when they had kids,” Wilder said. “We do a lot of training, so they don’t necessarily need to know about financial advising when they get here. But, they need to be organized, need to be able to multi-task, need to be good communicators and good listeners. I think being a mom is great experience for this job.”

And his employees agree.

Melissa Gasparis, who has been at Recruit Savvy for about a year and a half, previously owned an advertising agency outside of Washington DC. She sold her business about 18 years ago, and moved to Upper Saddle River to raise her kids.

“I wanted to raise my daughter,” she said of her decision to walk away from the corporate world.

“Her grandma was getting to raise her, and I wanted to do it.”

Gasparis said she was an extremely active “stay-at-home,” volunteering with almost every school, church, and community group she could.

“After a while, I was bored,” she said. “I wanted to go back to work.”

So, after her daughter went to college and her son entered middle school, she started working at Recruit Savvy.

“My son is still in school, so I needed the flexible schedule. I still want to be home after school. This is just a good fit for me.”

Deb Schwartz, the company’s Business Development Manager, said she had a similar experience.

Schwartz was working in one of Nordstrom’s corporate offices when her youngest son was diagnosed with autism.

“I felt very strongly that I wanted to be home with him,” she said. But, now that the Mahwah mom’s kids are older, she said she wanted to return to work.

“It feels good to work and contribute to the family finances, because we don’t get paid for our other job at home,” Schwartz said.

Recruit Savvy is hiring, and Wilder said he’d be happy to have more moms on staff.

“We’ve really been lucky finding great people who came from great jobs,” he said.