Abbott, Other Staffing Firms Recast Themselves as Consultants
Employee-placement firms don’t just deal in workers anymore.
In today’s tight labor market, “human capital” is more difficult to care for and feed. It’s a tedious, not to mention expensive process,companies can dole out up to $20,000 for a professional hire, according to some industry figures. And that doesn’t include training.
That’s why staffing companies such as Abbott Resource Group Inc. in Irvine and others are taking on larger roles for their clients. They’re trying to go from being mere brokers of workers to corporate consultants, much like the way PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC and others evolved from accounting firms.
“It’s not resource,it’s the capital value of a person these days,” said Leslie Saleson, president and chief operations officer of Abbott Resource. “We work hand in glove with a company to meet their needs for people and growth.”
Abbott and others still will find workers for companies. What’s changed is now the placement firms also can help train those workers, and even manage them. The firms can run call centers, mailrooms and other operations, too.
But the placement firms aren’t looking to take on the big consulting firms, which offer some of the same services. Saleson said Abbott is targeting so-called gazelle companies,mid-size businesses as opposed to the Fortune 1000.
Changing Market
The firms say they’re changing because their core product,workers,is changing. Dubbed “knowledge workers,” employees today no longer are as loyal to their employers. In industry parlance, they’re “CEOs of their own careers.”
Many of today’s young workers don’t stick around for long. They like challenging work and desire training to help them along.
“If they don’t like your Web site, they’re not interested in working for your company,” Saleson said. “That’s pretty different.”
In part because of the changing workforce, the staffing industry is changing its business model. Staffing companies are doing everything from hiring, training, developing and managing whole departments or segments of a business.
“Staffing is not what it used to be,” Saleson said.
Staffing companies also are offering complementary services to clients. Saleson’s company recently formed the Abbott Alliance Group to provide its clients services like payroll software and risk management.
But since Abbott doesn’t have expertise in these areas, it’s teamed with other companies, including: Aon Risk Services, Acordia of California Insurance Services Inc., Unisys Corp., SunGard Recovery Services Inc. and Best Software Inc., a subsidiary of The Sage Group.
“These are things that companies need to grow,” Saleson said. The partners share revenue, cross-promote and market their services together.
Abbott also has done some restructuring to better reflect its new model. Parent company Abbott Resource Group Inc. is now divided into two divisions, Human Capital Management and Business Process Outsourcing,two new buzz phrases in the consulting industry.
Business process outsourcing simply means outsourcing key operations within a company such as information technology. Under those umbrellas are Abigail Abbott Staffing Services Inc., Abbott Specialty Staffing Inc. and Abbott HR Inc.
Running Networks, Too
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Interim Services Inc., one of the largest employers in the nation and which recently merged with Atlanta-based Norrell Corp., has spent big money to recast itself in the name of the new economy. The company, a rival to Abbott, has seven Orange County offices and plans to open a new one in the Irvine Spectrum this year.
Interim hired a well-known marketing company to select its new name and tagline, Spherion, “workforce architects.” The name officially changes in July.
“We wanted the name to reflect the global and technology focus,” said Ralph Henderson, senior vice president for Interim’s Western division. The word “Interim” also suggests “temporary,” which isn’t what the company is about anymore, he said.
Staffing companies are competing not only against consulting firms but also against other businesses like Pleasanton-based PeopleSoft Inc., which offers services to users of its software.
“We run networks for companies as well,” Henderson said.
In addition to managing workforces, Interim also is wooing the other side of its business,workers. Interim positions itself as a worker’s “career agent,” from beginning to end, he said.
Turning to the Web
In an effort to compete with Internet-based recruiters, staffing companies like Interim are launching their own job sites. In March, Interim launched CareerZone.com. The site is aimed at job seekers and acts as a portal driving traffic to Interim’s other sites.
In addition to career information, Careerzone.com posts jobs available through Interim and eventually will post jobs from other sources. The company hopes the site will be a revenue stream, internally called the “14th business unit,” Henderson said. Sales will come from banner advertising and job postings.
Abbott is turning to the Web, too. Saleson said the firm is looking into software that it would embed into the Web sites of employers. From there, Abbott would filter through and rank job applications on behalf of the employer.
