Category Archives: Office / HR / Employment

By Paul Post

Gerald Davis wants to open a second location for his successful heating and cooling business, and document its growth with a long-range goal of having employees partner up with him as franchise owners.

JoAnna Schwartz felt the need for more structure and better processes at Name Bubbles, an e-commerce company that makes personalized waterproof name labels and decals, to ensure the firm’s future prosperity.

These are just two of many area business leaders that have turned to Wendy Waldron to teach, facilitate, coach, lead and direct them through critical phases of their respective operations. 

She owns Glens Falls-based WaldronWorks, and is a Professional EOS Implementer for the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), whose principles have helped clients around the world overcome business problems as well as identify and take advantage of new opportunities.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Around the time Lynn A. Wadleigh, CPA was thinking of leaving the corporate world and into a career where she could be her own boss, her father, E. Peter Marshall, had decided to sell the CPA practice he had built over the past 40 years.

“I enjoyed doing financial statements for a senior management team,” said Wadleigh, whose accounting career spans more than 30 years. “But as my father was preparing to retire, I was thinking it was time to do my own business.”

Buying his firm, Marshall Associates CPAs, kept the business in the family and  serving the community Wadleigh grew up in.

This was 2018 and Marshall was in his late 70s. His practice had grown along with his family and Wadleigh, her  siblings, and their mother all worked there at different times over the decades. 

“We all remember how busy the five of us were during tax season,” she said. “Raised in the CPA world,” Wadleigh graduated from Queensbury High School and SUNY Albany and got an accounting internship at Ernst & Young in Albany. She earned her CPA designation, started a career in public accounting, and planned to stay in it.

“I had an opportunity to take a position with KADANT, part of Albany International, the paper manufacturer,” she said. “By the time my father had his CPA and his own business.”

The Atrium Financial Group, a member of the Private Client Group at Northwestern Mutual, recently celebrated the opening of its office at 11 South St., Glens Falls, with a ribbon cutting ceremony that was marked by the donation of $2,500 to the Family Service Association of Glens Falls Inc.

The donation benefited the Family Service Association’s Emergency Christmas initiative.

The new satellite office is led by private wealth advisor Sherry Finkel Murphy, CFP, ChFC, RICP.

The company said the new location allows the Atrium Financial Group to strengthen its presence in the Adirondack region, while continuing to build relationships with both new and existing clients and further develop their commitment to the Glens Falls community.

The Atrium Financial Group is led by founder and private wealth advisor William J. Newman, CFP, ChFC, CASL, RICP; partner and private wealth advisor Jeremiah J. Makey, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CASL, AEP; and partner and private wealth advisor Michael P. Mennella, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CLTC. The firm works with families and small businesses that share its values of family, commitment to excellence, mutual respect, integrity, and personal and professional growth. 

By Jennifer Farnsworth
MCW Janitorial Services has been servicing the Glens Falls area for years, so opening an office in the city seemed like the next logistical step.
Operations Manager Reed Chronis said the new location allows the company to better serve what is already a strong client base. The company cleans businesses all over the Capital Region and North Country areas.
“We have been aggressively pursuing business in the Queensbury and Glens Falls area for some time, and the response has been steady. The new office will give us the opportunity to meet the needs of customers we already have in that area as well as new business,” said Chronis.
The new office is at at 175 Broad St., Suite 188, Glens Falls.
MCW services include commercial janitorial, same-day COVID-19 disinfections, carpet cleaning, maintenance, pressure washing, painting, parking lot maintenance, school consultations, and post-construction clean-up.

By Rose Miller
When the news of an FDA approved Covid-19 vaccine was going to become available, I joined many with feelings of joy and hope. I envision a future where we can all live, work and play together again.
Personally, I am tracking vaccine availability closely and I will be seizing the day when I can get a shot. Sign me up. I will be carping a whole lot of diem when this is over.
In the workplace, the expectation was that my staff and the workplaces we support would be equally excited about getting vaccinated. Unfortunately, we are hearing that’s not always the case.
In fact, Dr. McKenna of Albany Medical Center believes that production of the vaccine will greatly improve, and supply will meet or exceed demand in the near future. One of his major concerns was the public’s resistance to getting vaccinated. He and public health officials know for these vaccines to truly turn the tide of the pandemic, there will need to be near universal willingness among Americans to get the shot.
It’s important to understand what’s behind the fear. According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Undefeated, some 70 percent of Black Americans believe that people are treated unfairly based on race or ethnicity when they seek medical care. Examples of malpractice and unauthorized experimentation are far from forgotten by the Black community.

By Michael Cruz
Your new employee is starting Monday. You think, “I hope they work out well.” The worst thing that can happen to you is that you have to start searching all over again. Not, really the worst thing. The real worst thing is that they do not work out—and they stay on your payroll.
This can be avoided. The big mistake we make is to focus on their skill. Can they perform the tasks well? Let’s modify the question to what you should be thinking? Can they perform their tasks well, here? We often interview for skills. Why not, skills are often easier to measure. Yet the key question is whether they have the right soft skills to fit into your company’s culture.
Most people struggle to define ‘soft’ skills. Yet, those traits have more to do with our success than anything else. Does your company focus on getting results? Is it okay to be a free wheeler or do you need to follow specific structure? Do the people you work with give specific direction? Or do you expect others to figure it out? Answering these questions helps you hire better. This allows us to change the way we get to know candidates. Take the time to figure this out.

By Christine Graf
Express Employment Professionals, a locally owned small business, opened its second Capital Region location in December.
It is located in the T.J. Maxx plaza on Route 50 in Saratoga Springs. Owner Jordan Modiano opened his first Express Employment franchise in Albany in September 2015.
“To put it simply, we help people find jobs, and we help companies find employees,” he said.
A Long Island native, Modiano moved to the area in 1999. He had a 20-year career in advertising and marketing before purchasing the franchise. Express Employment Professionals was founded in 1983 and has more than 780 franchise locations in the United States, Canada, and South Africa.
“I wanted to do something that made a difference in people’s lives and the community that I live in,” Modiano “That’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
According to Modiano, his franchise currently specializes in providing employment services to several specific employment sectors.