A new Atlanta-based staffing company plans to match employees with employers to fill empty roles in the skilled trades in metro Atlanta and elsewhere.
The founders of the staffing company Hire Dynamics have teamed up again to launch a new firm aimed at supplying Atlanta employers with skilled workers.
Jon Neff and Dan Campbell announced the debut of SKL’D, a specialized staffing company that will collaborate with manufacturers, logistics companies, general contractors and more.
The goal is to combat an acute labor shortage in the skilled trades sector —Deloitte projected that 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030 nationwide — and to promote the modern, tech-enabled nature of these roles to people in the job market.
Georgia in particular is undergoing a clean energy and manufacturing boom, landing more than $28 billion in investments in recent years. Hyundai Motor Group and others will need a strong pipeline of workers to make those projects work.
One of the clients SKL’D is working with is helping to build a data center in metro Atlanta, another high-growth industry.
Neff and Campbell have succeeded in staffing before, growing Hire Dynamics from about $2 million in revenue upon its founding in 2001 to $450 million in revenue when it was acquired by EmployBridge in 2021. It had 70 offices and 600 employees across the Southeast, placing over 500,000 individuals into jobs each year.
“That’s the impetus: Let’s do it again,” Neff said.
Neff worked for EmployBridge for two years after it bought Hire Dynamics, while Campbell concentrated on his role as partner at MSouth Equity Partners, a private equity firm.
Neff, an Atlanta Business Chronicle CFO of the Year honoree in 2019, eventually founded his own advisory firm and has maintained his presence on the boards of Junior Achievement of Georgia and 21st Century Leaders.
Examples of jobs that SKL’D will help fill include electricians, HVAC techs, plumbers, forklift drivers, maintenance mechanics and more. Beyond placement services, SKL’D will focus on developing talent through targeted upskilling and reskilling programs.
“[Candidates] have the skills or desire to have the skills,” Neff said. “We help provide them access to skills-development opportunities, or it’s on-the-job training provided by our clients.”
SKL’D wants to provide the “connective tissue” between the smorgasbord of organizations seeking to address the skills gap in the metro area.
“I am strategically invested in SKL’D because I see it as the culmination of over Jon Neff COURTESY “I am strategically invested in SKL’D because I see it as the culmination of over two decades of commitment to Atlanta,” Campbell said in a statement. “With a team bringing over 100 years of combined experience and a proven track record of success, SKL’D is uniquely positioned to offer the metro area business and talent communities a quality alternative for impactful and meaningful workforce solutions and opportunities. I have immense confidence in the team assembled.”
