HRO Insight
NelsonHall's HR Outsourcing Insight newsletter provides commentary and insight on key HR outsourcing industry developments and vendor actions which impact your sourcing decisions. Now complemented by HRO Insight blog - updated daily.
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Latest Edition: August 20, 2010
Contains commentary and insight from NelsonHall analysts on key HR outsourcing industry developments that impact your sourcing decisions
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Randstad Acquires FujiStaff to Strengthen Presence in the Japanese Staffing Market
Randstad is acquiring FujiStaff Holdings to strengthen its presence in the Japanese staffing market.
Randstad initially acquired a 10% stake in FujiStaff for €12.3m in November 2008. In 2009 and Q1 2010 the stakeholding was increased to 20.5%, for c. €20m. The remaining stake is to be purchased for c. €147m..
In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, FujiStaff generated revenue of ~€461m with c. 1,000 employees working from 88 locations.
Randstad intends to retain all the employees in Japan.
A public offer will take place to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of FujiStaff. Pending approvals and Randstad obtaining a 75% economic stake with its public offer, closing is expected to be October 13, 2010.
Analyst comments:
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Adecco Announces Q2 2010 Revenues Up 29% to €4.646n
Adecco has announced Q2 2010 revenues, for the period ending 30 June 2010, of €4,646m, an increase of 29% (+13% in constant currency).
Q2 2010 revenue (and revenue growth) by geography was:
- France €1,142m (+20%) (+20% in CC)
- U.S. and Canada €925m (+60%) (+51%)
- U.K. & Ireland €411m (+90%) (+84%)
- Japan €314 (-6%) (-14%)
- Germany & Austria €290m (+21%) (+21%)
- Benelux €215m (+12%) (+12%)
- Italy €210m (+25%) (+25%)
- Nordics €181m (+25%) (+14%)
- Iberia €177m (+11%) (+11%)
- Australia & New Zealand €105m (+55%) (+24%)
- Switzerland €93m (+10%) (+4%)
- Emerging markets €313m (+36%) (+27%).
Q2 2010 revenue (and revenue growth) by business line was:
- Office and Industrial €3,135m (+19%) (+16%)
- Industrial €2,223 (+26%) (+24%)
- Office €912m (+6%) (0%) - Professional Business Lines €1,198m (+65%) (+57%)
- IT €520m (+98%) (+85%)
- Engineering & Technical €244m (+61%) (+54%)
- Finance & legal €183m (+130%) (+122%)
- Medical & Science €91m (+56%) (+52%)
- Sales, Marketing, & Events €90m (+10%) (+7%)
- Human Capital Solutions €70m (-26%) (-28%) - Emerging Markets €313m (+36%) (+27%).
Adecco does not provide revenue guidance but stated that there is no evidence of a slowdown of business in the third quarter of 2010 and that Adecco is on target to achieve its mid-term EBITA margin target of above 5.5%.
Analyst comments:
Adecco's Q2 2010 results were in the top tier of revenue growth reported to date by staffing services providers. The acquisitions of Spring Group in the U.K. in November 2009 and MPS Group in the U.S. in October 2009 contributed to the high revenue growth.
Revenue growth was strong in most regions, with the exception of Japan where demand was down due to late cyclical cycles in the office segment.
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Kelly Services Announces Q2 2010 Revenues Up 18% to $1.2bn
Kelly Services has announced Q2 2010 revenues, for the period ending 4 July 2010, of $1.2bn, up 17.5% (up 17.0% in constant currency) year-over-year.
Revenues for Q2 2010 by segment were:
- Americas Commercial $600.9m (+27.0%, +25.5% constant currency (cc))
- Americas PT $219.9m (+12.9%, +12.6% cc)
- EMEA Commercial $209.8m (-0.9%, +2.4% cc)
- EMEA PT $34.4m (+4.1%, +8.6% cc)
- APAC Commercial $83.7m (+26.2%, +13.8% cc)
- APAC PT $7.8m (+41.1%, +28.8% cc)
- Outsourcing Consulting Group (OCG) $60.4m (+20.5%, +20.3% cc)
Revenues from services in Q2 2010 by region and country were:
- Americas $866.4m (+22.6%, +21.5% cc)
-- United States $770.8m (+21.7%, +21.7% cc)
-- Canada $54.5m (+28.1%, +12.7cc)
-- Mexico $21.9m (+36.5, +28.9% cc)
-- Puerto Rico $19.2m (+31.2%, +31.2%cc) - EMEA $248.9m (+0.1%, +3.7% cc)
-- France $67.6m (+7.4%, +15.1% cc)
-- Switzerland $40.7m (+25.4%, +25.0% cc)
-- U.K. $34.2m (-32.0%, -29.6% cc)
-- Russia $25.4m (+68.5%, +59.6% cc)
-- Portugal $19.1m (+51.9%, +63.7% cc)
-- Germany $16.2m (+5.1%, +12.7% cc)
-- Italy $14.7m (-16.5%, -10.1% cc)
-- Norway $14.1m (-6.9%, -10.4% cc)
-- Other $16.9m (-37.7%, -34.5% cc) - APAC $94.1m (+27.5%, +15.2% cc)
-- Australia $28.7m (+27.0%, +9.3% cc)
-- Singapore $19.6m (+29.6%, +22.6% cc)
-- Malaysia $16.3m (+35.8%, -+24.0% cc)
-- India $15.2m (+93.9%, +82.3% cc)
-- Other $14.3m (-12.0%, -22.4% cc).
Q2 2010 earnings from operations were $8.5m. Included in the operations results were $52.6m of impairment charges of $1.5m.
Analyst comments:
Kelly Services had a very good quarter in comparison to Q2 2009, led by growth in the Americas and APAC. Though Kelly is seeing some companies still hesitant in the hiring of full-time permanent employees, temporary hiring is up across all regions, including in the U.S. where 360,000 temp jobs were added.
In the Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group (Kelly OCG), revenues were up 20.5% year-over-year (y-o-y), but most significant was the increase in the RPO practice. Kelly OCG does not break out revenue separately for RPO, but reports that RPO revenue was up 86% y-o-y, most notably in the Americas. Within KellyOCG's Ayers Group, which provides outplacement services, revenues were down. This decline is to be expected and is an overall good news story in that fewer people are losing jobs and needing help with career transition, while an increase in hiring is beginning to take place.
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Manpower Awarded 3-Year RPO Contract by AIR-serv in North America
Manpower Business Solutions (MBS) has been awarded a 3-year recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) contract by AIR-serv in North America.
MBS will provide end-to-end RPO services that include:
- Job profiles through on-boarding
- Technology, using Taleo as the applicant tracking system
- Employer branding
- Training of hiring managers.
Manpower will perform recruiting for the hiring of maintenance repair technicians in the U.S. and Canada.
Analyst comments:
Manpower's relationship with AIR-serv began in February 2009 and MBS was selected for several key reasons including to:
- Improve talent / increase quality of hire, including employer branding
- Reduce time-to-hire
- Reduce recruitment costs.
One of the aspects about this contract that is unique and is a value-added service, is that MBS is training hiring managers both to enhance interviewing skills as well as how to best review and screen candidates. MBS is using a virtual recruiting model to support AIR-serv throughout North America. While its core responsibility is to hire service technicians, MBS has developed a virtual hiring manager training program targeted to small groups, of 20 or less, to assist hiring managers with interviewing skills and further evaluating high-quality candidates. MBS recommended the virtual training module as it would be most efficient given AIR-Serv's workforce is spread throughout the U.S.
MBS will also standardize the recruitment process to increase efficiency.
The reason training of hiring managers is so important is that often in the recruiting industry, the recruitment team can do a great job of finding the right candidates in a timely manner, but the hiring managers themselves can sometimes be bottlenecks. With the agreement by AIR-serv to train its hiring manages, MBS will be able to help AIR-serv meet its business objectives.
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Realogy Announces Q2 2010 Relocation Services Revenues Up 33% to $106m
Realogy has announced Q2 2010 relocation services revenues, for the period ending 30 June 2010, of $106m, up 32.5% year-over-year.
Analyst comments:
Consistent with Q2 2010 results being reported by staffing providers with growth rates ranging as high as 45%, including some RPO providers reporting growth as high as 86% year-over-year, it makes sense then that relocation services revenues achieved significant growth as well.
Consistent with NelsonHall's most recently published HR outsourcing confidence index in June, relative pipeline growth for mobility services has strengthened considerably, to 4.0 on a 1 - 5 scale.
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Hewitt Announces Fiscal Q3 2010 Results Even at $731m
Hewitt Associates has announced fiscal Q3 2010 revenues, for the quarter ending June 30, 2010, of $730.6m, flat year-over-year. Net revenues decreased by 1% after adjustments for one time events, foreign currency impact, and thrird party revenues. Operating income was $79.2m down 27%. The operating margin was 10.8%, down from 15%. EPS was $0.82, compared to $0.71 in fiscal 3Q 2009.
Fiscal 3Q 2010 revenues (and revenue growth y-o-y) by segment were:
- Benefits outsourcing $369.3m (-2%, -3% adjusted)
- HR outsourcing $110.5m (-5%, -7% adjusted)
- Consulting $258.2m (6%, 5% adjusted).
Consulting segment revenues increased across all practices:
- Retirement and financial management, 4%
- Talent and organizational consulting, 3%
- Health management, 13%
- Communications, 9%
Benefit outsourcing operating income decreased 28% to $72.0m and segment margin was 19.5%, down from 26.5% in the prior year quarter. The number of participants was up 8% y-o-y to 21.1m and was flat compare to 2Q 2010. The segment was impacted by lower project spend, client losses, and clients that renewed at lower pricing.
HRO operating income was up slightly to $3.0m, up 36% from a year ago and up nicely from $1.1m in 2Q 2010. The increase is due to lower infrastructure cost and staffing leverage from prior cost cutting. Net participants were 675k, down 5% y-o-y. The decline in revenues and participants was expected due to contract adjustments and the termination of Sun Microsystems services, which was acquired by Oracle. In July Hewitt signed a new Fortune 100 client for multiple process HRO services.
Consulting operating income declined 6% to $28.5m and the margin was 11%, down from 12.4%. Consulting expenses were up in performance-based compensation and higher client-related discretionary expenses.
Overall, and for each segment the results are better on an adjusted basis, with puts and takes in both quarters related to acquisitions, tax events, and charges for cost cutting measures including severance and real estate consolidations.
On July 12, 2010 Hewitt announced it had agreed to be acquired by Aon and it will be combined with Aon Consulting into a new unit, Aon Hewitt. July 20th Hewitt announced it was acquiring EnnisKnupp an investment adivisory services firm.
Hewitt suggested that on an adjusted basis EPS for the year should be at the low end of previous guidance, $2.85 - $2.95. On an actual basis EPS results will be lower than anticipated due to added acquistion activity and costs related to the Aon deal.
Analyst comments:
Hewitt's solid consulting revenue results were the best in the last six quaters and growth was in all practice areas and across geographies including the U.S, U.K, most countries in western Europe and Asia Pacific. Expect continued growth as employers begin to be concerned about a return to growth and retention of talent, and health care consulting has yet to see the full impact of work driven by the Health Care Reform Act.
The new multi-process HRO Fortune 100 client meets the target of 3-4 new HRO clients per year. Hewitt is alloting two slots to the Bank of America implementation due to its size. Each HRO implementation underway remains on time and on budget - an important marker needed to keep the hard earned turnaround in operating income for the segment positive. Over the next five years Hewitt goal is to attain a 15% operating margin for HRO.
Benefits outsourcing faced a 2% decline in revenues and a major drop in income and margin for the quarter. One of the largest factors was low project revenues. In 3Q 2009 there was an uptick in activity due to the COBRA temporary govermental assistance program. Conversely, in 3Q 2010, projects were unusally low due to clients delaying work to wait for more detailed information on the new Health Care Reform requirements. With pricing appearing to stablilze and project work likely to rebound to at least normal levels, expect a return to growth in benefits outsourcing for fiscal 2011.
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MMC Announces Mercer Q2 2010 Revenues Up 1% to $838m
Marsh McLennan Companies (MMC) has anounced Mercer Q2 2010 revenues, for the period ending June 30, of $838m, up 1%, down 1% in constant currency.
Mercer Q2 2010 revenues (and revenue growth) by activity were:
- Consulting $588m (-3%, -3% cc)
- Outsourcing $161m (5%, 1% cc)
- Investment consulting & management $89m (21%, 17%).
Consulting segment detail:
- Retirement, $259m (-4%, -5% cc)
- Health & benefits, $227, 2%, 2% cc)
- Rewards, talent & communications, $102m (-8%, -9% cc).
The consulting segment, which also includes Oliver Wyman Group, had an operating loss of $275m due to a settlement of litagation in Alaska. On an adjusted basis operating income was $127m and operating margin was 10.9%, compared to $131m and 11.5% in 2009.
Analyst comments:
Within the consulting segment, retirement consulting has not yet started to rebound, but health and benefits and rewards and talent are trending up compared to Q1 2010.
- Health and benefits revenue growth cotinues to be led from outside of the U.S. consulting. Asia/Pacific leads with double digit growth for the quarter and was especially strong in flex benefits consulting
- Talent management and rewards was up by 10% over 1Q 2010 and Mercer is hoping it is harbinger of an improving consulting environment.
HRO continues to be flat.
Investment consulting and management services continued its strong rate of growth at 17% cc. Mercer is expecting low single digit growth for the full year.
In commenting on the Aon acquisition of Hewitt, Mercer was comfortable that overall it will be a stabilizing force in the market and a confirmation of Mercer's own three pillars of consulting, outsourcing and investment services and expressed confidence in its ability to compete in the changed benefits landscape.
MMC has $1.5bn in cash with more coming in from the sale of Kroll. Expect to see Mercer make another acquisitive move by the end of the year.
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TDS Awarded 4-Year HRO and SAP HR AM Contract by Novartis
TDS has been awarded a 4-year contract by Swiss pharma firm Novartis for the provision of HRO and SAP HR application management services for Novartis' 3 German subsidiaries Novartis Deutschland GmbH, Novartis Pharma GmbH and Novartis Pharma Produktions GmbH.
As part of the agreement, TDS will replace Novartis' Paisy system with SAP ERP HCM, which will be hosted and managed in TDS' data centers. Payroll processes will be restructured and harmonized.
HRO services to be provided by TDS for ~2,200 Novartis employees in Germany include:
- Payroll
- Organization management
- Time management.
Analyst comments:
This is a similar contract to the one awarded by Unilever earlier this year (see separate article dated 18 February 2010) and illustrates the attractiveness of an experienced local payroll provider for international organizations with operations in Germany.
Notable also is that both clients opted for a platform-based approach, which is typically driven by the desire to standardize and improve HR processes, and involves the BPO provider hosting the standard HR software (SAP HR).
HRO Insight: January 29, 2010
Contains commentary and insight from NelsonHall analysts on key HR outsourcing industry developments that impacted your sourcing decisions
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Primacy Relocation Acquired by Realogy Subsidiary, Cartus
Primacy Relocation has been acquired by Realogy subsidiary, Cartus.
Primacy, based in Memphis, TN, has 700 personnel in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Cartus has 2,500 personnel and is based in Danbury, CT.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not provided.
Analyst comments:
The acquisition of Primacy enables Cartus to challenge SIRVA as the leading global provider of relocation services. Additionally, as Primacy is a major provider of relocation services to the government, it enables Cartus to target the U.S. government. Now that healthcare reform has been put on hold in the U.S., the economy and creation of jobs is now a top priority for the Obama administration. Expect for the U.S. government to be creating additional jobs as well as incent the private sector to do so, thus fostering additional growth in mobility services.
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TriNet Launches Benchmarking Dashboard to Help Small Businesses Improve Competitiveness
TriNet has launched a benchmarking dashboard to help small businesses improve competitiveness. The dashboard will be included as part of TriNet's standard services offering at no extra charge.
Dashboard information will be extracted from TriNet's database of 8,000 small business clients so that small business owners will be able to compare their:
- Company growth
- Compensation
- Employee turnover
to that of small businesses within their industry and across all businesses in the U.S. If client metrics are below average, TriNet will recommend how to improve.
In addition, TriNet has launched tools to help employees manage their health. Through online tools, employees can:
- Identify areas where their health may be most at risk
- Develop a plan to mitigate the risk
- Track how employees are doing in meeting their health objectives
Employees will also receive:
- Health coaching
- Learning modules for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases prevention
- Personalized meal and exercise planning
Analyst comments:
TriNet is providing a very important offering at no extra cost to its small business clients. Obtaining and retaining talent in small businesses is just as important as it is for medium to large sized organizations and now buyers will know how they compare to the industry. Providing the dashboard at no extra charge is also of significance. In NelsonHall's HRO Analytics market study published in Q3 09, higher level analytics, such as in the form of a dashboard, that provide actionable results with recommendations how to improve, are normally charged extra for.
TriNet has as history of introducing a number of tools that provide buyers with business intelligence. Such prior offerings have included:
- An accounting dashboard offering a view of company payroll by month or quarter, that can be segmented by company, department, or down to the individual employee level
- A human capital management dashboard enabling customers to view and sort information related to headcount, employee tenure, average salary, and hires/terminations
Expect for TriNet to continue introducing new analytics and for other vendors to take notice and begin incorporating increased levels of analytics as part of their services offerings without additional charge.
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Edvantage Group Partners With KnowledgePool to Enhance Managed Learning Services
Edvantage group has partnered with KnowledgePool in the U.K. to enhance its managed learning services offering.
KnowledgePool's training suppliers and training administration will be integrated with Edvantage group's hosted eLearning platform. Customers will be able to obtain both eLearning and instructor/classroom led training courses.
This blended learning service is available to customers now.
Analyst comments:
This partnership is a win-win for both Edvantage group and KnowledgePool, but most importantly for customers who can work with one vendor to fulfill all of their learning needs. KnowledgePool, one of the top managed learning services vendors in the U.K. in terms of revenue, will benefit due to the increased demand for eLearning. Edvantage group benefits as instructor led training is still a significant portion of the learning services market that clients require for their learning.
This is Edvantage group's 3rd partnership announced in the last 30 days, the others being:
- Saba on December 21, 2009 to enhance its eLearning services
- Ossidian Technologies to offer eLearning courses to its clients in the telecom industry
Look for additional learning partnerships to take place globally as providers seek to offer multi-learning services capability to meet client needs.
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Pinstripe Awarded Sixteen New RPO Contracts in 2009
Pinstripe has been awarded sixteen new recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) in 2009, of which six are named and include:
- Agilent Technologies
- Coleman
- Critigen
- Princeton HealthCare System
- RJ Reynolds
- VWR International.
Analyst comments:
The addition of 16 new clients in 2009 speaks well for Pinstripe and the strength of the RPO industry. As Sue Marks rightfully points out, buyers are turning to RPO to meet their ever-changing workforce needs. The value of RPO being that providers can quickly scale up and down to meet changes in demand while internal recruiting departments struggle with needing to downsize or be stuck with high fixed costs when hiring is low and then when demand picks up, having to quickly hire their own internal staff to meet demand.
2009 was also an important year for Pinstripe as both the contracts for Agilent Technologies and VWR International included hiring outside of the U.S. in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and in the case of Agilent Technologies, in Brazil as well. The ability to provide global RPO is an emerging critical success factor as buyers are increasingly seeking one vendor to manage all of their hiring needs.
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Hewitt Incorporates Participant Advocacy Services Within its Absence Management Service
Hewitt Associates has added participant advocacy services to its absence management service.
The new service pairs each employee taking an extended absence with a trained participant advocate, who advises them on potential benefits-related access-to-care, eligibility, and billing issues.
Analyst comments:
Absence management services can both help employees navigate the often complex benefits and health care programs which can result in an overall lower cost of absence and a faster return to work, potentially a win-win for the employee and employer.
Hewitt has been able to successfully integrate its 2008 acquisition of LCG absence and disability management services as evidenced by the addition of 16 new clients to its previous base of c. 60 clients.
Absence management is a high growth service within the field of benefits administration, as employers pressured by the down economy look to reduce overall labor costs.
Buyers have a wide choice of vendors, from specialty absence management vendors and insurance companies to HRO vendors from Kronos to Hewitt and Mercer. Offerings can range from basically leave of absence and FMLA claims processing to full offers that include clinical decision support, claims administration, return to work support and advanced analytics to identify opportunities for improved solutions.
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Salary.com Adds Financial Services Industry Job Models to its Competency Library
Salary.com has added Banking and Financial Services Industry Job Models to its job model and competency library.
Analyst comments:
Salary.com maintains a rapid and continuous pace of enhancements and updates to its HR SaaS offerings. Service enhancements in the last two months include:
- Adding the SkillsManger skills assessment and gap analysis module to its talent management software portfolio
- TalentManager expanded employee development and career planning, writing assistance for performance reviews, and added a new interface for employee self services
- CompetencyManager added manufacturing industry job models to its job model and competency library
- CompAnalyst added merit modeling analysis, market pricing capabilities and new reporting tools.
One of the benefits of SaaS for HR is the ease of access to updates and enhancements with minor improvements included at no extra charge. New service modules come designed as plug and play and can be added easily and at less cost than paying 100% of the cost to integrate new services into a client-customized system.
Buyer questions to ask when considering an HR SaaS offering include; examples of recent and planned service enhancements and whether they were included at no charge to current clients and how enhancements or upgrades that do cost additional are handled. Ask about the age and planned life span of the service platform and how migration to a new platform, if needed, is managed. If the services are offered on more than one platform, by client size for example, what happens if a client outgrows the platform's normal parameters?
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Hewitt Recaps HR 2009 Awards in Benefits and Multi Process HRO
Hewitt summarized many of its 2009 awards showing wins in all areas of benefits administration, a stabilization of its HRO business, and a surge in point solution sales, bringing its services to more than 21m participants globally.
Benefits administration -- 15 new clients for services including DB, DC, health and welfare, absence management, and three clients for TBO (total benefits outsourcing). Hewitt now has more than 300 benefits administration clients.
HRO -- two new HRO multi-process contracts
Point Solutions -- 177 awards from both new and existing clients for services including;
- Absence management
- Advocacy services helping employees resolve health care and retirement claim issues
- Claims and appeals management and audits
- Dependent audits
- Flexible spend accounts
Analyst comments:
Hewitt issued a end of year summary of notable new mid and large client wins and renewed and expanded business with current clients.
The two new HR BPO clients include a global energy company win earlier last year and a recently signed long term contract with a Fortune 100 client. Additionally, Hewitt successfully renewed each of its current MPHRO clients going through renegotiations in 2009. Hewitt is finally turning the corner on years of drag on its earnings as significant progress was made in stemming the losses in its HR BPO division, where losses were reduced from $83.3m in 2008 to $5.2m in 2009 against $479.7m in revenues.
Having quietly reentered competition for new MPHRO business in 2009, Hewitt is now targeting 3-4 per year new North America or U.K.-based clients willing to start with two or three HR processes covering geographies with a high concentration of employees.
The solid activity in benefits administration helped Hewitt keep segment revenues even in 2009 at $1.5bn, offsetting declines in project work and covered participants as clients reduced their workforce and budgets. Absence management was among the benefits point solution sales, indicating Hewitt has been able to leverage its April 2009 acquisition of LCG, a small clinician-based absence management provider.
Hewitt's increase in point solution activity for dependent audit, absence management, and flexible spending accounts is in line with NelsonHall market growth estimates. We see Health and welfare services outpacing the growth of overall benefits administration, which included the more mature DB and DC segments. Even as we progress through the recession recovery period buyers will remain cost conscious and services like dependent audits and leave of absence support that can show a bottom line ROI impact on total labor costs will grow faster than the overall HRO market.
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Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions Launches Free Employee Self Service Offering
Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions has launched a free Employee Self Service (ESS) offering.
In 2009 Patersons began providing its HR offering free to its buyers of international payroll, but now this has been expanded to include ESS.
With Patersons ESS employees can:
- View and update personal information
- Initiate leave of absence
- View payslips
Customers can also buy Manager Self Service which includes online approval capability of requests.
Analyst comments:
Companies of all sizes have benefited from ESS and MSS to save time and money and improve employee satisfaction.
The free HR offering and ESS/MSS are part of Logon2, Patersons global HR and payroll system. Logon2 is available in 30 countries and the self service capabilities are multi-lingual, so clients can use this across their entire company.
In Q4 2009 Patersons announced a self-service portal, allowing employees to access and submit expenses from anywhere to managers who can approve them anywhere at any time.
As seen by NelsonHall in its recent payroll market analysis to be published by end of January, an increased number of SaaS HR services, including ESS and MSS are being provided alongside payroll, but Patersons is the first ESS seen to be provided for free and buyers will take notice.
Since 2005, Randstad has been acquisitive in growing its staffing business, including acquisitions in:
Acquiring the remaining stake in FujiStaff fits in with Randstad's strategy to grow its staffing business in Japan, one of the largest staffing markets globally. Since 2006 Randstad has merged and partnered with five other companies in Japan to offer staffing services that include temporary and permanent hires, contract staffing and internal recruiting for industries that include healthcare, real estate and construction. FujiStaff is one of Japan's largest staffing providers and provides temporary staffing of office, factory and engineering workers and recruitment outsourcing for the manufacturing sector.
We expect Randstad to also continue making acquisitions in Europe as recruitment outsourcing is expected to have strong growth globally for the next several years.