Tidewater Staffing helps shipbuilding companies find workers. (Courtesy photo)

Shipbuilding is one of the core industries in Hampton Roads — one that Jay Prock and Nikki Purvis of Tidewater Staffing are proud to keep afloat.

Tidewater Staffing was founded by their father Mark Prock in 1992. He started at the original company as a janitor in the ‘80s and moved his way up to sales associate after convincing the higher-ups to give him a chance with change and conviction.

“The owner, skeptical at first, asked him to complete a few tasks. If my father wanted the job, he needed to cut his hair, shave his beard, fix his teeth (many of which had been knocked out playing rugby), and stop chewing tobacco,” Prock said, “The following day, Dad showed up with a haircut, no beard, a dental appointment slip and a promise that he would not chew anymore.”

He got the job soon after and excelled, landing several accounts, many in the shipping industry. When the company went public soon after, new investors wanted to distance themselves “from the maritime side of the business citing the risk involved in the industry,” Prock said. Mark Prock thought quickly, and “with a loan from his previous boss and a book of business he had developed over the years, Dad set out on his own.”

Now his legacy lives on through his son, who is the company’s president, and his daughter, whose role as managing partner has her dabbling in human resources, workers’ compensation and safety.

However, despite their family ties, Prock and Purvis worked their way up the ranks to get where they were just like their father.

“Ever since I can remember, my dad would bring me into the office,” Purvis said, “I literally grew up in the industry learning everything from folding checks, processing payroll and access, to doing check-ins at the shipyard.” She got her official start as the staffing coordinator at the Portsmouth office. “It was challenging, fast-paced, high risk/high reward, and a whole lot of fun!”

Prock joined the team roughly 10 years ago after taking a hiatus in 2004 for college in Florida to study real estate. After flipping and renting out a few homes down there, he returned to Virginia with his wife to commit to the family business, he said.

“I was a material handler and stacked boxes left to right, high and tight for four months. I worked the vessels for another two months. I cleaned tanks: fuel, oil, and bilge. I can even run a pneumatic grinder and needle gun on a preservation project if I needed to.’’

Only once he understood what folks in the field do every day was he allowed to work in the office as a recruiter, working his way up through the ranks over six years to become project manager and then president.

Prock says TSI is a Top Workplace because of the “societal and community value of what our business brings to the table,” such as solving staffing challenges and providing quality candidates with great jobs. “The opportunity to give individuals a path to success and improvement” is what Purvis said makes the company deserving of the title.

Tidewater Staffing has the awards to back it up, too. Last year, it received CoVa Biz Magazine’s Best of Business award for Best Staffing Agency, and Prock received the Francis R. Sharp Award for Executive Safety Leadership from Tidewater Staffing’s workers’ compensation provider, Signal Mutual.

Accolades aside, the true crux of the business comes from helping people find jobs, and its ethos is rooted in Tidewater Staffing’s humble beginnings. “We hope to have many more years of helping people and getting them safe and secure work by continuing the conversation of how best to put people to work and do the right thing every day,” Purvis said.

Since 1992, Tidewater Staffing Inc. (TSI) has been providing unrivaled workforce solutions for clients in the ship repair, warehousing and light industrial/manufacturing industries. Through the years, the business dedicated itself to solving staffing challenges efficiently, economically, and with integrity by embodying its mission statement: “Put people to work. Do the right thing every day.”

Top executives: Jay C. Prock, president; Nikki Purvis, managing partner; Billy Allred, chief financial officer

Benefits include: Weekly pay, insurance benefits, free training. More info at tidewaterstaffing.com/job-seekers/

Fun factor: The business is working on an electric car program. Currently TSI has been able to get chargers installed at every office and has put three employees in electric cars.

Community service: The firm supports the waterways that bring the vessels and goods into our port: Lynnhaven River NOW and the Elizabeth River Project.