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LinkedIn’s IPO a few weeks ago was a defining moment in staffing. I took it as a sign that we had reached an official turning point in the struggle to jump-start the economy. Yes, I know, we aren’t there yet – some people say unemployment hasn’t recovered quite yet at 9.1%. Although, I’d argue that if you consider that unemployment among college educated workers is 4.5%, that’s near full employment.
So what does LinkedIn’s IPO have to do with economic recovery or the staffing industry as a whole? Obviously, LinkedIn is not a staffing firm, but many staffing firms have come to depend on it as a resource and I think we will continue to see its prominence in the staffing industry. And we need to continue to hear good news where we can get it – especially with all the negative media hype out there.
Also, I’m hearing directly from IT and healthcare staffing firms that are doing very well. In fact I heard from several IT staffing firms that have offices with 100 job orders on the board! And they need to hire recruiters! Huh?!?! Did you say recruiters? YES! It’s true. They have so many orders they need to hire more recruiters to fill them. And I heard that from several firms – not just one.
I’m on the board for Ohio Staffing and Search Association (OSSA), and we had our annual conference this past week. We were fortunate to have some fantastic speakers including Bill Yoh, Chairman of the Yoh Company – he is also Chairman for the American Staffing Association this year, Fran Goldstein, noted staffing industry expert and speaker, and Sam Mandolfo of LinkedIn, to name a few.
Bill Yoh reminded us that the staffing industry has made a truly remarkable comeback. Many key staffing firms having lost 30% of their year over year revenue have come blazing back and now the industry as a whole is back to pre-recession numbers – around $100 billion as an industry.
Fran made a fantastic point that stuck with me when she reminded us that “nothing stays the same,” that we must always be ready for change and embrace it. A vital point for those of us in staffing.
All the more so when you consider LinkedIn was founded just a few short years ago – in 2003. How about that for making an impact quickly? How vital is LinkedIn to your recruiting efforts? If it’s not, you might want to look at it more closely. How vital are you to your clients’ businesses?
In fact, LinkedIn has recently revised its strategy with regard to the staffing industry. Now, they realize how important the staffing industry is to them. Sam Mandolfo told us that 40% of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from hiring, recruiting, and staffing. And here’s another stat that will blow you away:
LinkedIn did a poll and asked members if they would be annoyed or bothered if a recruiter they did not know approached them on LinkedIn about an open position. A staggering 95% of respondents stated that they were fine with being approached by a recruiter on LinkedIn as long as the position was appropriate for their skill set!
LinkedIn is so serious about catering to staffing firms that they now have a small team dedicated to servicing staffing firms. Now, staffing firms that currently allow their recruiters and account executives to expense monthly membership fees can consolidate that cost at a discount. Contact Sam Mandolfo for more info on that. You can find him on LinkedIn as you may have guessed!
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sammandolfo
LinkedIn has impacted my own personal business as well. My LinkedIn groups now exceed 33,000 members between the three bigger ones (Openreq, Openreq Healthcare Recruiters and RecruiterTalk). You can check them out by going to groups search or by looking at them from my profile page.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/perrinpeacock
My presence on LinkedIn has also assisted me with launching CardioSolution. CardioSolution is the first solutions firm to offer complete interventional cardiology service lines to regional and rural hospitals nationwide. We deliver the interventional cardiologists, guarantee 365/day coverage and partner with hospitals in their marketing and outreach efforts. Those of you in healthcare staffing with connections to regional hospital CEOs – let’s talk! We are offering a hefty referral bonus!
For all you serious sourcing experts out there, I’ll leave you with a little nugget to take home. My friends at Fee Trader are doing a blog series on LinkedIn searching techniques. The latest couple of blog posts offer some cool search techniques. Using Google to perform an “x-ray search” of LinkedIn, for example, is one of the best ways to find the profiles of people that are outside of your network. This is really cool. Check them out on FeeTrader’s blog:
http://www.feetrader.com/blog/
In summary, I think we all needed a significant event to solidify our official comeback as an industry. I predict that in the next year or two, we will look back to May of 2011 and point to the LinkedIn IPO as at least one indicator that we have emerged as an industry. We were the first to be negatively impacted by the recession and now we are among the first industries to recover and grow.
And as usual, the staffing industry leads from the front. We are a resilient group and we have weathered this storm. Now it’s time to enjoy some better days ahead!
Perrin Peacock
Good News for Staffing Firms!
The Bureau of Labor released its employment numbers today and got mixed reviews. Talk about SPIN...Wow! This report was spun all over the place by bloggers and media outlets. Unemployment was unchanged at 9.6%. 77,000 U.S. Census workers who were hired on a temporary basis rolled off in August and September, and those numbers were reflected in the loss of 159,000 government jobs. But private sector jobs grew - at 64,000 jobs added.
I read a variety of different blogs that spun those numbers to promote whatever agenda they were pushing. For those of us in the staffing industry, the 77,000 temporary Census workers were just like any other solid temp project – it lasted for a while and it was good while it lasted and then they rolled off. So what now? Here’s what now…NEXT!
It was good while it lasted and now it’s gone. Time to go do some other deals. Wouldn’t it be nice of elected officials and bureaucrats could view it like we in the staffing industry would? Instead they complain about it and blame everybody – when they could be out there focusing on doing more to assist small business owners – who are ultimately the group most likely to “create jobs” anyway!
The good news for staffing firms was that nearly 28,000 temporary workers were added in September – reflecting the steady growth of temporary workers over the last year. We know that this is a good sign for the staffing industry; and even though the growth in temporary employment is slow and steady when we’d like it to be much faster, we can still breathe a sign of relief that the economy is still steadily increasing. Direct hire placement numbers will surely increase as well. Sooner than later hopefully!
Now, who knows what we can export to China and India? It can’t be anything manufactured because we can’t compete there. It has to be a service, an education, or a concept we can export that they want. They are chomping at the bit to buy American ideas and concepts. How do we package that and sell it? Whoever knows the answer to that question could become rich and famous very quickly…and what’s more…help us jump-start our economy!
Perrin Peacock
Openreq
http://www.openreq.com
http://www.recruiter-talk.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/perrinpeacock
At Openreq, We speak with staffing firms daily, and very often we run across firms that are either looking to sell their firm or potentially acquire other firms. The sellers are looking to exit for a variety of different reasons - retirement, lifestyle, cashing out, etc.
The buyers are interested in acquiring for a variety of reasons as well - faster growth, market penetration, new service offerings, etc.
The good news is that staffing firms have officially sensed that the economy is on a steady, positive growth curve. And, thus, the staffing industry will most likely continue its own recovery – albeit, a slow and steady recovery.
So, acquiring firms know that there are some good deals out there right now – especially with boutique firms and small to medium sized firms that weathered the recession (but just barely). In any case, there are lots of firms that would be interested in an acquisition right now.
Valuating Your Staffing Firm
Staffing firms are valuated in a variety of different ways including revenue and EBITA (earnings before the deduction of interest, taxes, and amortization), staffing niche or discipline, team make-up, client diversification, and other factors. The relatively standard multiple of 3-5 times EBITA still seems to apply in this market for firms $10 million in sales or greater. Multiples of 0.3 to 0.7 times revenue also tend to be somewhat common for professional staffing firms that are attractive. To get 1 times sales typically requires more scalability. Valuations for firms with lower GMs and markups will be a little lower.
Since most staffing firms typically don’t have any assets to speak of, their book of business and internal teams are the most important factors in assessing a value. Is the book of business diversified? Are the gross margins solid? Do the markups and bill rates reflect market rates? All important factors to consider.
Intangibles are also very important in the assessment of a firm’s value. Are the salespeople also the owners? If so, will they stay on board? Will the clients be difficult or easy to transfer? Who has the client relationships? Are the clients used to working with more than one contact? These factors become even more important when valuating staffing firms under $10 million in sales.
Sell Now or Continue to Grow?
If you anticipate growth, is it better to wait until you reach a certain level of sales before you entertain acquirers? For boutiques, it’s really more about the team, the structure, the client base and the staffing discipline. Since some may not show a lot of EBITA, the valuation tends to rely more on the intangibles. If you feel like you may be able to grow larger in a short period of time – say a year or two – it might make sense to wait until you have reached a higher level of sales before you sell.
However, if your acquirer can help you grow faster by allowing you to add sales people and recruiters at a faster rate, it may make a lot more sense to get a smaller piece of a bigger pie by selling, staying on with an employment contract, and setting up an earn-out scenario. Why do all the heavy lifting by yourself!
Conventional wisdom allows that only staffing firms at $25 million (or preferably $50 million) are really “scale-able” enough to attract the attention of larger firms.
If your firm is tracking a bit below that level, you might consider a calculated growth plan to get you to that higher level – making your firm a bit more attractive.
Contact us to explore your options!
Perrin Peacock
ppeacock@openreq.com
http://www.openreq.com
http://www.recruiter-talk.com
800-231-4172 ext 1
Check out Openreq for the best Recruiter Jobs in the staffing industry!
Monster officially acquired HotJobs from Yahoo last week, paying $225 million for the third largest U.S. job board, and setting in motion what may be a new chapter in the race for market share with Careerbuilder.
Even with the acquisition, Careerbuilder is still larger in terms of traffic and exposure to newspapers and other media outlets (1600 partners vs 1000 for Monster/HotJobs). But, as part of the acquisition of HotJobs, Monster negotiated a high profile spot on Yahoo’s navigation bar, which they speculate will even the playing field.
Should be interesting to watch. Clients of both Monster and Careerbuilder seem to prefer one or the other...kind of like Coke and Pepsi.
So who’s bigger now?
Well, depends on who you ask and in what area.
In terms of Traffic...
Careerbuilder has been the traffic leader for several years. They claim 21 million unique visitors monthly. According to Compete.com, for the past 3 months, Careerbuilder has shown roughly 13-14 million unique visitors, while Monster has had about 10 million unique visitors. In any case, Careerbuilder has been consistently 30-40% stronger in traffic than Monster.
Monster will add potentially another 5 million uniques from HotJobs. So, depending on who you ask, Careerbuilder's traffic advantage could be reduced - but to what degree?
In terms of Revenue...
CareerBuilder’s North American revenue in 2009 was $542 million, including both US and Canadian revenue. Monster tracks U.S. revenue separately at $407 million for 2009, and includes Canada in the category of “International.”
Internationally, Monster shows $905 million in revenue for 2009.
Estimates of HotJobs revenue are in the $80 to $100 million range. That would certainly bring Monster in a lot closer to Careerbuilder's North American revenue – especially considering the Canadian factor.
Careerbuilder doesn’t disclose international sales.
So basically, you can make a few assessments from that but at the end of the day, this looks like a good old American competition that may continue to ebb and flow – kind of like Coke and Pepsi!
Good Deal or Fixer-upper?
Yahoo acquired HotJobs in 2002 for roughly $445 million in cash and stock. Now, 8 years later, Monster is buying HotJobs for nearly half of that at $225 million.
Monster will also be spending an extra $20 to $30 million a year for three years for great exposure on Yahoo as their official job board and a redirect from the Yahoo navigation bar.
Multiples for Job board acquisitions typically run 4 to 5 times sales. So, if HotJobs was doing $80 to $100 million in sales, an acquisition price of $340 to as high as $500 million may have once been realistic. But considering the recession, the current economic climate, and the additional revenue Yahoo will get from Monster's three year advertising deal, it seems like a win win for both Monster and Yahoo.
Will it be enough to catch Careerbuilder traffic?
Maybe not, but it buys Monster some time to come up with something more interesting...like...say...integrating with social media?
Hmmmm. Wonder how that might work...
Perrin Peacock
ppeacock@openreq.com
http://www.openreq.com
http://www.recruiter-talk.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn!
When we speak with folks outside the staffing industry regarding the number of people on the job market and the availability of candidates to place, they typically assume that since there are so many people unemployed, that recruiters should have plenty of candidates to present to our clients.
Well…not exactly. What they don’t know - but what all of us in staffing and recruiting have seen first-hand - is that, yes, there are lots of candidates on the market, but clients are very picky. During the recession, if clients were hiring at all, they certainly wouldn’t have paid a fee or a reasonable hourly rate for a candidate that was only adequate. They only wanted the top candidates. And ironically, some of the best “A” candidates wouldn't move. It’s the old bird-in-the-hand thing. Some of the best, most placeable, candidates wouldn’t budge because they did not want to take the risk of leaving during such uncertain times. Now, however, we are finally starting to see that loosen up. Candidates are moving. They are exploring other job opportunities, many of which they would not have considered even 2 months ago. We have seen staffing firms benefit from this more relaxed environment, and subsequently, they are growing themselves to meet the ever-growing staffing needs of their clients.
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Here’s what one Talent Hog client had to say:
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For more info contact:Perrin PeacockCEO Openreqppeacock@openreq.comhttp://www.openreq.comhttp://www.recruiter-talk.com
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