Robert Half International – “The truth about Robert Half.”

Pros

RHI provides access to the best tools and training materials in the industry, hands down. Their internal database is exceptional as a sales and recruiting tool. They are, indeed, world class from an operations and marketing perspective. The feature/benefits sell is very easy to pitch as a staffing manager. Plenty of collateral available, class ‘A’ office space, Fortune 1000 benefits (though the high turnover appears to prevent room to negotiate better health benefit costs). They are debt free and have a ton of cash on hand so the chance of growing and expanding through acquisition is always a possibility. And that is where it ends.

Cons

Granted - it is a tough economy out there. Robert Half was one of those companies that didn't own up to a global recession until the banks failed. As you can imagine the message to internal employees is that they are mostly responsible for the sharp decline in business. That has been a consistent message for the past 2 years and it is exhausting to hear day in and day out.

Make no bones about it, as a new employee you are nothing more than a number hired to deliver RHI’s message 25 times a day, 125 times a week. If you are good at delivering a polished message and mimicking the style of your office’s tenured employees and management team you, yourself, will be promoted to a Division Director position (read as Sales Manager) in about 1.5 to 2 years.

Money is good for a 22 – 28 year old employee but look around when interviewing – what do you see? Very few 35 and older employees with the exception of senior management and their financial perm-placement and consulting divisions.

The ideal personality fit for RHI in today’s challenging market: Young, Type A, willing to step all over others for your own personal gain. RHI calls that a “healthy culture.”

Training in most branches is a crap shoot. Starting in 2006 management compensation was heavily weighed on personal production so there is very little incentive for them to train new employees. So, for the most part you are on your own.

They use their Per-Desk Average to decide who stays and who goes and favoritism and office politics is very popular and widely practiced. If you are a management favorite you may be assigned some well performing accounts - that is, of course, if the managers themselves don't take those said accounts as their own. Fairness is no longer a common practice and the greedy and slick tend to thrive in all divisions. Turnover is very, very high lately. Maybe as high as 90%, if not higher, in some districts. The compensation plan introduces a draw against your salary versus commissions after 9 months (average draw is $2900 - $3500/month) - a concept that was dismissed by senior management in the past now acts as a revenue stream for the company - which is sad. At any given time in your career you may dig a hole that is very difficult to emerge from. If you are in the hole your options are very limited and typically you are labeled as a person who "doesn't get it" = a frequent phrase bellowed by mid and senior management.

Advice to Senior Management

The $10 Billion Dollar Plan is a thing of the past. The truth is that RHI's staffing divisions have not grown substantially in the past 4-5 years. Yes, RHI was a $2.5 Billion in 2001 and a $5 Billion company in 2007 but that was due to foreign expansion and Protivit's growth during the lucrative SOX years. The internal message is lousy and you reputation as an employer is worsening. Why are you letting that happen? The inside joke in the staffing industry is that RHI does a wonderful job training the competition. As I am still a share holder It will be interesting to see how RHI plans to recover as an employer when the economy changes.