Celebrity Dynamo

Grete Ruder, Celebrity Staff Recruiter and Q1 Employee of the Quarter

Mission Man, meet Wonder Woman. You can find her in Kansas City. She goes by the name Grete.

She’s no throwback to the 70s and she’s not jumping off skyscrapers, chasing the bad guys. Instead, she’s a recruiting dynamo who has zeroed in on helping Celebrity KC build its brand and become a player in the staffing market.

Her efforts have also earned her recognition as an Employee of the Quarter for Q1 of this year.

A self-titled jack of all trades, Grete has done just about everything in Celebrity’s small but mighty office during her five years with the division. She was hired as a staffing assistant in what was then its Overland Park location – greeting candidates, setting up candidate testing, and fielding calls.

She didn’t plan on staying long. “When I started I really thought it was just a temporary step while I finished my degree. I fell into it and have evolved in my role. It has a little bit of everything for me – sales and the people factor,” Grete said.

She worked into her current role, recruiting manager, stepping up when there were holes to fill, sometimes plunging right in with both feet.

Early on, when a recruiter left the company, Grete took on recruiting responsibilities. Six months into the job, the office found itself without a branch manager so she began running a desk.

Now she’s not only recruiting for Celebrity but also for Aureus Group, with both KC operations under one roof.

Beyond recruiting, Grete assists in training new staff and helps account managers learn the ropes of writing ads and interacting with candidates. She also accompanies co-workers on sales calls.

She’s the backup to most every role in the office and takes the initiative to lend support whenever she sees a need. She doesn’t wait to be asked or for a ball to drop. She’s right on it – all the time.

Grete is such an integral part of the client side of the business that when they are unable to reach their account manager, they call her directly. “All of our clients know me by name. They know me, what I do, and feel comfortable calling me.”

She believes in making the most of every opportunity and giving anything less than her all isn’t in her vocabulary. “I’m focused on bringing in candidates who will bring us closer to a placement. If I’m not batting 100 percent then I know something will fall through the cracks and we may miss out. I know that what I do affects the bottom line.”

Always ready for whatever challenge comes her way, she takes pride in the daily contributions she makes and in Celebrity. “I care. That’s the biggest part of it,” she explained. “The way I look at it, if it’s going to have my name on it, even if I’m having a horrible day, I think to myself, ‘I’m a part of Celebrity Staff.’ I can’t turn it off.”

Since Grete joined Celebrity, the branch has steadily increased its market share in Kansas City and received C&A’s Business Builder Award in 2008. “I like to think I’ve been a key player in that,” she said.

And while the last year has been a tough one, she and her team are, “always shooting for something more. We know we can get back up there.”

Her level of perseverance isn’t surprising. A first generation American, Grete came to the United States from her home country of Romania when she was just five years old.

“When we left, Romania was a communist country. The government controlled religion and those who practiced other faiths attended churches in apartments,” she explained. Her dad, an engineer, lost his job when it was discovered he was attending a non-approved church.

Not long after, he and his family – his wife and nine children – left Romania and settled in California, eventually migrating to the Midwest where he learned English and took a job with the postal service. Later, the family grew by three more.

One would never know that English is Grete’s second language. To this day, her mother speaks only Romanian. Grete’s husband of not quite two years, David, is currently taking lessons.

Self admittedly, she’s goal-focused as are her siblings. “Of the 12 of us, nine have our bachelors or masters degrees.” She’s a marathon runner (she’s completed three) and is involved with numerous organizations that focus on adolescents – Girls on the Run, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. She’s also a volleyball referee.

Looking back, Grete is fairly certain her upbringing helped shape the kind of person she is today. “That may be where my assertiveness comes from and what makes me so driven. We had to work for everything we had.”