Houston, Texas – Burnett Staffing Specialists, a Houston-based staffing and placement firm, closed at the end of 2010 on an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). Burnett is now the 16th largest employee-owned company in the United States and the largest employee-owned company in Texas, as ranked by the National Center for Employee Ownership.

Burnett Staffing Specialists will remain a certified woman-owned business with Sue Burnett continuing as President. Rusty Burnett, Executive Vice President, will remain along with the rest of the management team.

"Approaching our 38th year, we decided we wanted to give back to the people that helped us make the company a success,” Sue Burnett said. “We have many long tenured staff members. Five have been with us for 30 years, ten for over 15 years and fifteen for 10 or more years. Although they have been with us for a long time, we actually have a young management staff. Most of our managers are in their 50s, 40s and even 30s.”

Burnett continued, “We heard about another staffing firm, Springfield MO-based Penmac Staffing Services, putting an ESOP in place in October. I had never heard of a staffing firm doing an ESOP before. We thought this was an ideal strategy for the future of our company. I wanted to ensure that the company would continue its success for decades to come.”

News of the ESOP was extremely well received by the Burnett staff. Debbie D’Ambrosio, Burnett’s Vice President and Risk Manager commented that, “I find it typical of Sue and Rusty to place such trust and value in their employees. I’ve been with Burnett for 30 years and, like others who have been here for many years, I consider myself to be part of the Burnett family. Now I am both family and an owner.” Alicia De Leon, Regional Sales Manager and 12-year veteran, said that, “The ESOP is a wonderful thank you for years of service to a great company. Now I know that the harder I work, the more successful we become, which results in my vested interest in the company increasing. This is a great motivator for becoming even more productive and another wonderful incentive to stay with Burnett.”

Burnett Staffing Specialists employs 98 full-time staff members and serves over 1000 clients from its 10 Texas offices in Houston, Austin, El Paso, Palestine, San Antonio and Dallas (Choice Staffing). Every week Burnett provides jobs for over 2000 temporary workers, in addition to the placement of direct hire employees. Ranked as Houston’s largest permanent placement firm and 3rd largest temporary staffing service by the Houston Business Journal, Burnett Staffing Specialists posted revenues of nearly $65 million for 2010.

Burnett Staffing Specialists was the founding sponsor of the “Best Places to Work” awards in Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. The most award-winning staffing service in Texas, Burnett has received six Better Business Bureau’s Awards of Excellence and MassMutual & the U.S. Chambers of Commerce’s Blue Chip Enterprise Award. Burnett has also been named one of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Top Five Houston's Greatest Corporations and the Houston Business Journal’s Philanthropy Community Champion and Top Woman-Owned Business.