G&A PARTNERS: 30 YEARS OF ADAPTATION AND PEOPLE-FOCUSED SERVICE

What does it mean to celebrate 30 years of founding and running a business?

It means I’m old, John Allen, the co-founder, president and CEO of Houston-based G&A Partners, says with a laugh.

While age may be relative, what’s not is the impact Allen’s firm has had on the PEO industry since its humble beginnings as G&A StaffSourcing three decades ago.

“I would like to say that I’ve been a visionary and anticipated everything,” Allen said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. We tried to take advantage of opportunities as they’ve come up.”

That pragmatism and willingness to pivot has brought the original temporary staffing firm he and Tony Grijalva co-founded in 1995 from a three-employee company to one that now boasts 700 employees in more than 30 offices, serving more than 5,000 clients and 120,000 worksite employees nationwide.

Tony Grijalva and John Allen co-founded G&A Partners in 1995.

What’s the secret sauce?

“If you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to surround yourself with good people and focus on the customer,” Allen said. “If you focus on what’s easy for you versus the client, eventually you’ll miss the mark.”

Allen admits that when he and Grijalva — whom he founded a CPA practice with in 1991— launched the temporary-staffing focused G&A in 1995, they didn’t have a well-thought-out business plan and frankly, didn’t think it would last this long.

Little did he know just how high demand would be from small and mid-size businesses, beginning a journey that would forever link them as the G and the A in G&A Partners. (The G and A are also symbolic in their nod to the general and administrative expenses terminology of their accounting roots.)

They focused on its quickly growing HR and PEO businesses, rebranding it as G&A Outsourcing in 2000 before landing on its current name four years later. By 2002, they sold off the staffing and CPA business to focus solely on the PEO side. From there, it grew and grew some more.

The goal has long been to be a destination workplace, where employees are valued and well-compensated, with customers serving as their North Star. Happy employees mean a better-treated client.

Other keys to success and longevity in the PEO world, Allen says, are perseverance —success doesn’t happen overnight— and a desire to adapt as the industry adapts around you.

They’ve morphed in several ways, including by significantly improving their benefits offerings, as more small businesses seek out PEOs for better benefits pricing.

And like many businesses, G&A has become more tech-oriented to deliver higher quality HR services. The 1995 value proposition is no longer relevant. Adaption was key, especially as it meant taking advantage of industry and regulations changes so its service offering and products stay relevant.

In many instances, they’ve kept an eye on competitors to either emulate success or learn from others’ mistakes to avoid those pitfalls. That research —along with many acquisitions in pockets across the U.S.— has helped G&A Partners catapult to one of the largest PEOs in the nation, frequently named to major publications’ fastest-growing private companies lists.

But with three decades in business, there are bound to be some bumps in the road. At one point, G&A Partners was ready to buy a property and build a state-of-the-art four-story office building to accommodate its growing staff. Plenty of eyes would see the G&A Partners logo slapped on the side of this “architectural wonder” as Allen put it, right on a major highway that thousands of cars travel by each day. Everything was great on paper.

But an issue came up that took quite a bit of work to resolve, which led to scrapping the building project altogether. COVID hit not long after, and businesses shifted to a hybrid working model with a largely downsized office footprint.

Had the purchase gone through, they’d be sitting on a mainly empty, albeit state-of-the-art workplace. That little issue they thought was unfair at the time turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

As evidenced, sometimes it takes a little luck. But other times it takes a positive response to tough love.

About six years ago, Allen and Grijalva thought it was time to take some chips off the table in a potential exit. They hired an investment bank and gave about 15 management presentations for interested private equity firms.

When all was said and done, the common theme was a majority discounting value of the business. So, the team called it off and addressed the issues raised. During that period, the business grew five times, and it became a larger, more profitable organization. The lesson learned: don’t be afraid to recognize where you have weaknesses, and it will benefit you in the long run.

The 30th anniversary was marked by acknowledgement — luncheons coupled with an eight-minute video at G&A Partners offices across the country — but without excessive fanfare.

“We paused for a brief moment and now we’re focused on the future,” Allen said.

What does that future look like for G&A Partners? Well, Allen doesn’t like to speculate on what the next 30 years will bring, but he is happy to project what success will look like over the next half-decade.

It rests on three pillars: organic growth, customer care to retain clients and accretive acquisitions. That, in addition to remaining a destination workplace where employees are well taken care of. If those goals are met, growth and profitability should follow.

As for any advice for newcomers hoping to break into the PEO space today?

“Come out and talk to us,” he says. “I came out of public accounting and I never imagined I’d own and operate a PEO. Now it consumes my thoughts, my actions and my time.”

“I love the industry, I love our value proposition and I love what we do,” he added. “If someone wants to have the experience I did, I would welcome them with open arms.”