The Kforce Story: 50 Plus Years of Great People Delivering Great Results

Management—software. PROS made it possible for management to monitor client and candidate contacts on a daily basis, using that information to develop their overall marketing plan while ensuring good service to the customer. Direct Recruiting—Yes or No?

“As we move from an industrial to an information society, we will use our

brainpower to create instead of our physical power ... it is a great and yeasty time, filled with opportunity ... My God, what a fantastic time to be alive!” John Naisbitt, author of Megatrends

The trio began gaining momentum and quickly earned a reputation as mavericks within the Romac organization, though a great deal of the innovation that earned them that reputation was born of necessity. The staffing industry was still dogged by the public’s archaic but prevailing attitude toward “headhunters,” despite firms like Romac that held to an impeccable standard of ethics. All three of them—Dave, Rich, and Howard— had been attracted to the Big Eight accounting firms specifically because of their ethics but on one particular issue, the Romac standard of ethics was handicapping them. At the time, Romac’s management considered it a breach of ethics to directly recruit a candidate from a company. While the more established offices had a fully developed network of contacts they could call on for referrals, that network was years away from being fully developed in the Florida offices. That left print advertising for recruiting candidates and when that failed to net the results they wanted, Dave and Rich made the maverick decision to direct recruit people despite the prevailing attitude within the larger Romac organization.

If that decision was rooted in economic necessity, it was justified by a changing attitude toward employer responsibility that would later become part of Kforce’s core values. “It’s the employer’s responsibility,” Rich argued, “to see that people are growing and challenged and have an opportunity to grow their skill set over time. If that happens, they’ll stay with you.” Support for their decision came in the form of a speaker named Tony Bruno, brought in by Ralph Struzziero for one of Romac’s firmwide annual franchise meetings. A consummate recruiter, Tony was also an advocate of direct recruiting. During the course of his speech, Tony asked for a show of hands of those who recruited directly. “No one had their hands up,” Rich recalled. “Dave and I looked at each other and both of our hands inched up. It was like we were going to confession.” While the “old school” guys occasionally ostracized them, Ralph quickly dubbed them “the whiz kids” because they were putting up numbers that set the pace for the rest of the company. In 1982, the Tampa office won Romac’s Office of the Year Award and Fort Lauderdale won it in 1986. Over time, direct recruiting became an acceptable norm, even at Romac.

Frugal to the Nth Degree

When the office moved to the Tampa City Center in December of 1982, they wanted to give the office a professional appearance and decided to add some nice plants to give it a “light and airy” feel. When Rich Cocchiaro was given the task of buying the plants, he put his competitive spirit to work to prove he could “get a good deal” to satisfy Dave’s penchant for frugality. When he returned from Walmart with an office load of potted plants, Dave was naturally concerned over how much money he’d spent. Rich told him he’d negotiated a volume discount and had, in fact, spent very little. “Dave just shook his head and laughed,” Rich recalled. “Dave said, ‘Who negotiates lower prices with Walmart?’ Well, we did.”

25 The Next Generation