On Oct. 5, 1953, Helen Lynch opened the Des Moines office of Manpower Inc., it was the Milwaukee-based company’s second franchise and the first temporary employment agency in Iowa’s capital city. She had an order for a secretary that day, and was ready with an employee to fill it.

Much has changed since then. Lynch said her biggest challenge in the beginning was educating potential clients about what temporary workers were and how they could help their businesses. Now the industry has grown — so much so that Lynch said if she had to start over tomorrow, she wouldn’t open a temporary staffing business.

“It’s just too competitive,” she said.

Before opening her Manpower franchise, Lynch joined the United States Coast Guard. After completing yeoman’s training, she was assigned to work in a recruitment office in Oklahoma City. Upon completion of her tour of duty, Lynch attended Creighton University in Omaha with funding from the G.I. Bill and received a degree in English and history. She worked several jobs before joining the Air Force Reserve, where she served for two years as a first lieutenant in the public information office at Omaha’s Offutt Field.

Two months before Lynch got out of the service, her friend Wayne Brady decided to open a Manpower franchise in Omaha. It was the company’s first. Brady recommended Lynch to the home office as someone who might be interested in opening the company’s second franchise.

Manpower executives contacted her with “a deal where you send out housewives to do temporary work,” according to a release. They said she could choose between Denver and Des Moines.

She moved to Des Moines, even though she barely knew anyone here. In the early days, her employees were like her family and friends, she said, and many of them still keep in touch. Through her business, Lynch also met her husband, James, He would call and dictate letters to her over the phone. Eventually, he asked her out, and in 1958 they were married.

Lynch’s franchise has grown to encompass offices in Ames, Fort Dodge, West Des Moines and Des Moines. It also has a significant customer in Creston. Lynch’s son, Mike, has succeeded her as president of the company.

Fifty years ago, employers were primarily looking for temporary workers to fill in for staff members who were sick, on vacation or on maternity leave. Now some companies rely on temporary workers every day. Manpower has three clients with representatives on site to manage all of the temporary workers they employ.

Mike Lynch estimates his family’s Manpower franchise employs 800 workers per week, based on the number of paychecks it issues, and 3,000 to 4,000 per year, based upon the number of W-2s it compiles and files with the Internal Revenue Service. Some of those people work four hours total. Others work 2,000 hours, about the same level as a full-time worker.

Lynch says the typical Manpower workers haven’t changed all that much through the years. Then, as now, they were people who like the flexibility or were looking for a job to tide them over until they could find employment.

“Now more people use temporary work as an opportunity to get on where they are placed,” Mike Lynch said. The practice ballooned in the 1990s. “They can fill out one application and try out multiple workplaces. If someone works hard, is a good person, it’s a great way to get a foot in the door.”

Experts are predicting that a worker shortage is right around the corner. Mike Lynch says his agency is already preparing. He says Manpower makes itself attractive to employees by offering ongoing training, bonuses and even some benefits. He is confident  The franchise will survive, just as it has for the past five decades.

“I never set a goal to be in the business for 50 years,” Helen Lynch said. “It just happened.”