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

organized the International Specialty Solutions, recruiting nurses from foreign countries for healthcare jobs. When that business was divested in 2007, he was offered the opportunity to replicate the recruitment process to the IT business to fill high demand/low supply positions with foreign nationals, a far more lucrative line of business. “Now we are reaping the benefits of the leadership team’s faith,” said Manish who is now vice president of International Recruiting. “They stuck with me during those uncertain times.” The ISS business is now a key contributor to the firm. Changing Lives By its very nature, Kforce’s job is changing people’s lives—clients, customers, and associates. For Dick Bramel, who took a risk and a cut in pay to become a Romac recruiter, the gamble paid off in more ways than one. “I’m proud to say that I and many people here have helped many, many people change their lives,” Dick said. “Our product is a human being that has needs and wants. That’s why I’ve been doing it for as long as I’ve been doing it and I can’t imagine doing it for any other company.” Quite frequently that change comes as a result of extraordinary efforts and gestures. During 2003, Amy Thomas, who is now a director in the NRC, and Kristopher Volker, market vice president in the Kansas City-St. Louis region, were working with a restaurant equipment supply company in Kansas City that was going through a very difficult time. The company was struggling with system implementation and centralization at the same time. “We were providing them people to assist with all functions and developed a great working relationship with the management team,” said Kris. As Thanksgiving neared, their staff was working extremely long hours and Amy decided to take advantage of their fully equipped kitchen to prepare them a traditional holiday meal. “We all laughed when Amy showed up in her apron, but then we sat down and ate. It was a really neat moment with all of us together.” Occasionally, those extraordinary gestures turn candidates into clients. Tom Mayer, senior talent partner in the Cleveland office, represented a candidate in the mid-1980s who was a young father with financial problems. He would have been unable to accept the position Tom found for him because of the client’s pay schedule. Tom fronted the candidate two weeks pay out of his own pocket. “He took that position and my client loved his work,” said Tom. “In addition, I placed him three more times, he became a client and we made multiple placements with him.” In another instance, a number of years ago Eric Preusse, who is now New England market vice president, placed a new graduate into a development position at a time when clients were generally very unwilling to pay a staffing fee for an entry level position. The candidate had been looking for months and was extremely appreciative of the work Eric had done to get him a job. Eight years later he called Eric to tell him he’d started his own company. “He wanted to give me all his job openings to repay me for getting him to where he was now,” said Eric. “We ended up helping him create an internal staffing process and filled a number of positions at his company.”

Kforce literally lit up the night skies at Cabo San Lucas during the 2009 PIP trip.

Dave Dunkel’s band, Counteroffer, has been renamed Shepherd’s View since the early days. Dave rocked out to kick off the 2010 Awards Night in Naples, Florida.

Alex Donley, 2017 Maddock award winner, and her husband Doug.

73 “It’s the Culture”