An attentive ear

Staffing and recruiting firm focuses on understanding clients’ needs

Published April 29, 2016 by Joan Tupponce

HIGHEST REVENUE GROWTH
Cynet Systems Inc.
Ashburn

In the past five years, staffing firm Cynet Systems Inc. has placed about 1,500 people in industries ranging from information technology to banking. Five hundred of those placements occurred in 2015 alone, says Ashwani Mayur, the company’s co-CEO.

Mayur and Snigdha Budhiraja, who is president and co-CEO, started the company in 2010 after seeing a need for recruiting high-performing employees in the staffing industry. “With over 6,000 staffing organizations to choose from, Cynet Systems originated with a deep desire to be qualitatively different,” says Mayur.

The Ashburn-based company is now one of the leading staffing and recruiting firms in the Washington, D.C., area. Its revenue grew 7,388.69 percent from 2011 to 2014, making it the fastest-growing company in the Fantastic 50 this year. In 2015, the company’s revenue nearly doubled to $31.5 million.

“Our growth and success over the last five years is a testament to the spirit of our people,” Mayur says. “We believe we have the best staffing professionals in the industry, who in turn recruit the best.”

The company now has 450 employees and consultants in North America, including 10 at its Ashburn headquarters. Another 100 employees perform back-office duties in India. “The number of employees is very deceptive,” Mayur notes, however. “It includes our billable contractors.”

Mayur attributes Cynet’s rapid growth to its emphasis on understanding clients’ needs. “For our staffing agency, it is a requirement to listen to the client carefully. We have to figure out exactly what they are looking for and give that information to our recruiters to find the right person [for the job],” Mayur says. “We don’t send a lot of people to the client. We only send a select few. Understanding the client and the client’s mindset helped us.”

Cynet provides permanent, temporary and contract-to-hire staffing in the United States and Canada. Clients range from small government contractors to Fortune 500 companies.

More than 50 percent of the company’s customers are companies with revenue of more than $1 billion, such as HCL America, an IT consulting firm; India-based Larsen & Toubro, a technology, engineering and construction conglomerate; and Century Link, a communications and IT services firm.

The company also works with companies with revenues in the $10 million to $900 million range. “Some of those are federal contractors,” Mayur says.

Sometimes a small company finds it difficult to focus on recruitment after it wins a large federal contract, Mayur says. “We can support any company like that once they have a contract in their hands,” he says.

Cynet recently began offering its services to the health-care industry as a way to diversify its customer base. “This year we will focus on health care,” Mayur says. “That will help us go to the next level.”

The industry, however, does pose some challenges for Cynet. Health-care companies often need permanent and temporary workers in small communities as well as major cities. “It’s hard to find people to work as a contractor and go to a small town for a short-term contract,” Mayur says. 

In developing a qualified applicant pool, the company uses a variety of ways to recruit contractors, including the website Monster.com and social media outlets such as Twitter. “We send more than 50 contractors to clients on a monthly basis,” Mayur says. “When I’m looking for contractors, I might have between 800 to 1,000 people contact me.”

Cynet focuses on diversity in its clients and employees. “We will continue our hiring efforts and focus on diversity hiring, making opportunities for our veterans, military and disadvantaged,” he says.

“We will also have a greater visibility in local college and university recruitment,” he adds. “Our technical experts hope to converse with local schools and provide expertise on job market demands and supply, thereby giving students an insight into the job world and guiding them on courses.”

Cynet never forgets that it is a service-oriented company. “Our results depend heavily on the satisfaction of our customers in the quality of our service, delivery, agility and business acumen,” Mayur says. “Our customer focus is strongly embedded into the DNA of every employee at Cynet Systems.”