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

obvious that the Chicago office was floundering. Though they tried managing the office long distance, Dave reluctantly agreed to have Rich take the helm. “I went up there and cleaned house and we started from the beginning,” Rich said. He personally assembled fifty modules of training through which he would model successful behavior and mentor new associates as their staff increased. Within a few years, Chicago became Romac’s Office of the Year, adding multiple lines of business in both search and flex, and when the Emerging Technologies Division was created years later. Rich was consistently a top performer and was named Performer of the Year in both 1988 and 1994 before making his way back to the East Coast after more than a dozen years in Chicago. Romac FMAwas following the Romac and Associates model of only doing permanent placement in three areas: Finance and Accounting, Information Technology, and Banking. And while the 1980 recession lifted within a few years, high unemployment continued to plague the U.S. economy. When Howard Sutter first came on board, he asked Al Dunkel if he was concerned about the recession’s potential impact on their business. In typical no- nonsense style, Al replied, “You know, I’ve been in this business a number of years, been through a number of recessions—they come and they go. I’m not going to worry about it—it is what it is, we’ll just deal with it.” They forged ahead with what Howard refers to as their “gunslinger attitude,” acknowledging in hindsight that it was probably a key ingredient to their survival and success. “Whenever Dave and I and Cooch got together, if we had a problem the first thing we’d do was just start laughing,” Howard said. “I guess that laugh was a way of breaking the tension. We’d laugh about it and then say, ‘Okay, what are we going to do to fix it?’” They found a way to “fix” the recession’s drag on the business. Despite fears that temporary placement might taint the reputation of professional staffing firms like Romac, the unavoidable truth was that permanent placements were most susceptible during recessions and economic downturns. They began their campaign to convince Ralph Struzziero of the virtues of temporary placement. Other firms were doing it, they argued, threatening to pave the way on their own if necessary. Eventually, they got their way. Romac contracted with a firm out of Long Island to teach the franchisees the ins and outs of temporary staffing and help them set up the payroll and receivable systems they’d need to support it. Four markets were identified as test sites—Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia, and Boston. There were obvious advantages for the clients as well. The cyclical nature of the accounting world made it perfectly suited for temporary hires. It also helped them avoid the paperwork and the added cost of benefits that accompanied permanent hires as well as the stigma of having to layoff employees should economic downturns resurface.

It’s About Relationships It’s not uncommon for a candidate to become a client (or vice versa for that matter) at Kforce. When a major financial institution moved its mortgage headquarters from New Jersey to Tampa, Florida, in the late 1980s, Paul Winters immediately began trying to contact their controller, Bob Nace. “It took me months to get Bob to meet me,” Paul said. Through persistence, they finally met and Bob and his company became one of Paul’s and Romac’s best clients both locally and nationally. About nine years later, Bob’s firm moved their accounting department to another city and Bob took a new controller position with another large financial institution and moved back to New Jersey. On the strength of the relationship he’d built with Paul and Romac, Bob helped Paul make his new firm, a major player in the industry, a national account for Romac adding substantially to Romac’s revenue. After a few years back in New Jersey, Bob and his wife missed their life in Florida and moved back to semi- retire. With Paul’s help, Bob became an internal consultant for Romac at the controller level to assist with the integration of one of Romac’s largest acquisitions. Paul is pleased to report Bob has since happily retired early to enjoy life near Orlando, Florida.

31 Expanding the Team