This article was written by ADELLA HARDING Mining Correspondent of the Elko Daily.
New Name. Same Great Company.
In the five years since Pray and Company began, the business has grown to serve clients throughout the United States and beyond, and now the company has modified its name and logo to better reflect the expansion of its job recruitment and human resources services.
The new logo is P&C Recruiting/HR, People and Project Solutions, but P&C still offers job recruitment and human resources services in the current challenging labor market. One of the principals, Rhonda Zuraff, said the new name and logo “more clearly define” the company.
She said it “still has the same great company and people but a slightly new look.”
This is the second update because the company started as Pray Solutions in 2017.
“I think it is worth saying that our footprint is now through North America and outside North America,” Zuraff said. Partner Dana Pray of Elko said the company now has 12 employees, and “we’re not Nevada-centric anymore.”
Zuraff said the clients “really run the gamut geographically, as do our employees,” who are spread out in various states.
P&C continues to work with clients in precious metals with a gold focus, but the company is now covering a wide variety of metals, including lithium, which is a key mineral for batteries used in electric cars. Nevada is the site of several lithium projects.
Along with recruitment, the company continues to offer human resources services in a separate division, providing support and leadership training.
“We’ve got really first-class people who bring vast knowledge of the industries we serve and the people in it,” Zuraff said, and Pray said that “I would ditto that statement.”
Clients are feeling the pinch of the tight labor market, and Pray said there are more positions open than employers can fill. She and Zuraff explained what they are seeing in the labor market these days as they recruit for executives, managers and people with technical and professional disciplines.
“The heart of the story is it takes more than great pay and benefits offered to attract talent,” Zuraff said.
Pray said the current talent pool is representative of more than one generation, and “it is a different talent pool than 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. First of all, although compensation is important, the ability to learn and advance in a relatively short time is a high priority.”
She also said potential employees give “a lot of weight for time working and life balance,” and Zuraff said in a joint phone call that those in the talent pool want a flexible schedule and work location is important to them. Ability to work remotely also is a priority.
“You can thank the pandemic partly for that,” Zuraff said, also noting that those in the current workforce say they want to stay on the job two or three years and look at what would be their next best move.
The current pool of potential employees can be seen in Canada and in the Americas where P&C also has clients, Pray and Zuraff said.
Pray said she believes the mining industry needs to work to interest a bigger segment of the workforce in mining and promote mining to broaden the labor pool.
P&C is involved in promoting mining as a career choice, working with colleges and universities and trade organizations.
“We outreach with schools from the East to the West Coast and in Canada,” Zuraff said.
She also is on the board of the North American Advanced Battery Technology trade group developed to build and support the push for electric vehicles.
P&C acquired Mine Staffing International and associated assets from co-founder Bob Lundblad in 2020 to broaden the company’s reach, and most of the work with the expanded company continues to be done remotely and virtually.
