Since 1994, Julie has served as President of Bonansinga & Associates, LLC, Inter-Connect Employment Services, LLC and Industrial Workforce, Ltd. With more than 22 years of experience in the staffing and recruiting industry, she is responsible for overseeing our integrated group of human capital service provider organizations and numerous staffing partnerships with regional employers in various industries. Julie drives operations, systems, process excellence and customer service relentlessly to achieve perfection.Prior to founding her companies, she had a successful career in corporate human resources in the insurance industry. This not only taught Julie valuable skills for hiring and managing a workforce, but gave her a unique perspective on risk management. Most importantly, it showed her exactly what a staffing service provider should be. Each company was originally built around these experiences and the belief that “if my own name is on the products and services we provide, we must do it right or not at all.” She has demonstrated herself as a fervent believer in the importance of both integrity and high quality which has earned unprecedented loyalty from her clients over the years.Julie has committed herself to developing the local and regional workforce for the betterment of our communities. To help ensure the necessity for a pipeline full of qualified people is consistently met both today and in the future, she and her integrated set of organizations donate their time and resources in a variety of ways. A few examples of these activities include:

• Local speaking engagements at schools to educate students.
• Donations to assist local groups.
• Employee scholarship programs.
• Recruitment of expert and influential speakers for SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) to encourage continuing professional education.
• Public service on boards and committees.

In addition, Julie is recognized by several organizations for her ability and contributions in workforce development, business growth and the exemplary ways she has integrated the mission of building high-performance workforces in our local communities. She currently serves on the following regional boards, councils, and committees:

• Great River Economic Development Foundation executive board of directors
• Workforce Investment Board of Western Illinois
• SHRM (regional chapter) executive board
• John-Wood Workforce Advisory committee

Julie’s business partner is her husband Tim Bonansinga, who is an attorney with specialized experience in employment law and a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources.

Tim is a Co-Owner and General Counsel of Bonansinga & Associates, LLC., Inter-connect Employment Services, LLC. and Industrial Workforce, Ltd. These companies are integrated and mission-oriented to provide high-quality, full-service staffing services. He is a licensed Illinois Attorney specializing in employment law, people analytics, strategic and legal selection practice. For the past 20 years, he has specialized in human capital business development, management consulting, staffing systems design, sourcing and recruiting, regulatory and legal compliance in the staffing industry. However, Tim has a broad range of hands-on experience including criminal prosecution, civil litigation, chief attorney positions in the Illinois Attorney General’s office handling fraud investigations, Chief Counsel for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, General Counsel for Sprint-United, and Tim J. Bonansinga PC prior to joining his wife Julie in partnership of the companies.

Tim received a bachelor’s degree from Illinois College and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. His current certifications include:

• Senior Professional in Human Resources from SHRM
• Professional Internet Recruiter for AIRS
• Behavioral-based interviewing

Tim was raised in Springfield, Illinois, and attended Sacred Heart Griffin. He was active in athletics, track and football. He worked as a construction laborer during school and summers in high school, and on his grandparents’ farm located north of Carthage, Illinois. He enlisted in the Marine Corps right after high school and served as a member of the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam Era. He was selected for membership as a Seagoing Marine aboard the USS “Bon Homme Richard” for several cruises as part of that tenure.

When he returned from the military, Tim worked as a sheet metal apprentice and steel rigger until he enrolled at Illinois College in Jacksonville. During school, he worked in the mail room of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services where he later returned after graduating from the University of Illinois law school to become that agency’s General Counsel.

During law school at the University of Illinois College of Law, he worked for Justice Publications. He was involved in research and assisting in the collection of materials for the writings of several litigation desk references published by the late Judge Robert Hunter. His further continuing academic endeavors include several business certifications through Duke, Northwestern and Stephen Covey. He has maintained certification as a Senior Professional Human Resource for several years and is focused on further professional certification through the American Staffing Association.

After graduating from law school, his first job was as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Sangamon County, Illinois. Tim describes his experiences as an Assistant State’s Attorney to be enlightening; however, the level of unbridled discretion coupled with immunity raised a serious concern in his mind. What if the wrong person were given this unchallenged power? It is a concern which has troubled him deeply over the years.

He was later tabbed to be General Counsel for the Illinois Department of Central Management where he was active in management of the personnel code and the procurement regulations for the state.
Illinois Attorney General Bill Scott personally offered him the position as Chief Counsel for the Illinois attorney general’s office specializing in fraud and financial crimes. He was also appointed to serve as a voting member of the Illinois Franchise Advisory Board.

In private practice, after leaving the attorney general’s office, he was a sole practitioner for Tim J. Bonansinga PC, where he focused on business regulatory matters and litigation. He was later recruited to United Telephone Company located in Kansas City, Kansas. It was as general counsel of Sprint-United of the Northwest that Tim feels his broad scope of hands-on experience paid off. In his role, he was allowed the freedom to act as an internal entrepreneur who happened to have a law degree. This occurred during the critical time of deregulation of the telecommunications industry where virtual chaos and daily crisis was the order of the day.

While serving as general counsel/director of legal affairs, he had the responsibility for a broad range of matters including: human resource, employment law, contracts, joint venture creation/management, regulatory compliance and claims/litigation defense. In one performance appraisal, the president of the company described him as “a Lawyer’s Lawyer.” He was awarded outstanding performance awards, such as the “Key Contributor Award,” several years in a row for his contributions and problem solving with the business and regulatory teams.

During his tenure with Sprint-United, he was assigned international project roles in Eastern Europe managing the labor code compliance for a new telecommunications company joint venture in Poland and adjoining countries. This experience also occurred during a time of critical change and upheaval after the release of Eastern European countries from Russian control. This was a 24/7 hands-on project with specific responsibility for the intricacies of the European Labor Code. It was at this point that Tim learned the real pay-off of superior human capital talent and high-performance team building.
In the early 1990s, Tim committed to a mission and values under the “Servant-Leader” concept as developed by Robert Greenleaf. This international assignment where a group of diverse team members came together to build a state-of-the-art telecommunications company in a former communist country taught him more about his calling than anything previously. During the long months away from home and his family, working with teams under a foreign labor code, with people who barely spoke the same language, but brought an unbelievable combination of talent and experience to the game taught him about the power of teams when correctly matched and aligned to strategy.

Tim’s personal mission is to be a “Trusted Advisor” and a valued contributor for his teams, with the opportunity to use never-ending curiosity and asking of “why” with a broad base of experience in law, organizational development and systems thinking together to build high-performance systems and teams. He considers it a gift that his partnership with Julie in business has allowed him the freedom to pursue the path of a “Servant-Leader” in their business.

Where Does He See Himself Delivering Greatest Value in the future? In the last decade, economic and organizational researchers have shed dramatic new light on the principles of the ancient, but once again newly modern matchmaking business model. As it happens, staffing right is at once the biggest problem and source of business failure, but also the greatest opportunity for sustainable advantage for every type organization.

The timing is right. Combined with evolutionary breakthroughs in technology, legal compliance requirements, new ways of thinking and strategy opportunities for tremendous improvement in the Staffing Matching businesses have emerged. Tim sees a great value proposition from helping employers with investing in the right people.

Tim advocates for a multiplatform approach to customization in making the right fit. An expert systems approach to staffing problems that maximizes the potential for the right fit, mutual success and minimizes risk of loss from poor matches.

A component of this approach is the use of an expert system process of customizing the approach to understanding the true cause of success on each job, within each culture, set of values and strategies. This understanding of success essentials is then used to develop a custom set of behavioral questions based not only on skills or prior experience, but on cultural fit, values, essential functions and competencies. Our companies have evolved their system processes to fit their market since 1995. Tim calls his approach the “Never-Ending Quest for a Perfect Match Doctrine.” He knows that perfection will always be a stretch out of reach, but it is the goal worth striving for.

Some of his current projects include research, development, testing and implementation seeking continuing improvement for:

• Strategic Job Analysis
• Behavioral Based Interviewing
• People Analytics
• Pursuing Untapped Resources for Recruiting
• Legal and Risk Management in Selection
• Return on Investment in People through Optimal Multiplatform Matchmaking

Tim considers himself a life-long learner with a broad range of interests, insatiable curiosity and a desire to pursue new things. His future endeavors and interests include: the science of talent acquisition; the prediction factors in selection; labor market economics; and the politics of employment.

Sarah is Office Manager / HR Consultant at Inter-Connect. She manages several aspects of our company operations and consults on human resource compliance for a variety of client companies. She is hands-on in day-to-day operations as well as in the design and implementation of customized processes to meet each client’s unique needs, such as creating proposals, job analyses and behavioral-based interview modules.Her extensive experience in the staffing industry began at the ground level as a file clerk. Prior to her management positon, she held a variety of positions including data entry clerk, administrative assistant and assistant personnel manager. Each position has made her well versed in every aspect of the business.

She holds a master’s degree in health administration from St. Louis University and a dual Bachelors of Science in biochemistry/pre-medicine and business administration. While completing her master’s, she worked in strategy and operations for BJC Healthcare, Center for Clinical Excellence – a large healthcare system. Additional focus during her studies included the field of medical staffing.

Sarah’s job experience and education have enabled her to contribute a rare portfolio of experience, skills and know-how to the Inter-Connect team. She has a deep knowledge of business organizations, customer service, management and operations. Furthermore, her continued demonstration of high energy, diligence and initiative has been key to the maintenance of Inter-Connect’s results driven mindset.

She endeavors to further her education of human resource compliance and legal matters, expand into medical staffing and obtain several key certifications: SHRM’s PHR certification, American Staffing Association’s Staffing Professional certification, and the National Association of Medical Staff Services Certification.