Spherion was first known as City Car Unloaders, a Chicago[4][5][6] company created by Leroy Dettman and Joseph Perfetto in 1946.[2][7][8] They initially placed manual laborers in temporary jobs loading cargo.[4] Filling temporary clerk jobs was a service the company only later added.
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By 1978, the firm was doing business as Personnel Pool of America, Inc, and was acquired by H&R Block.[8] In 1991, H&R Block acquired Interim Systems Corporation and combined it with Personnel Pool, creating a larger staffing services firm.
In 1992, the company changed its name to Interim Services Inc., and was spun off by H&R Block in 1994.[9] Interim
[10] acquired a number of other companies over the next few years.[11]
The company, which changed its name to Spherion in 2000,[9][11] was acquired by Randstad NV in July 2011.[12][13]
Brands
Spherion has done business under a variety of brand names. The following brands are more or less current: Emerging Workforce,[2] The Mergis Group,[2][3][14][15] SFN Group,[2] Sourceright Solutions,[2][3][16] Spherion, Spherion Recruitment Process Outsourcing,[2][17] Spherion Staffing Services,[3] Tatum,[3][18] Technisource[2][3][19] Victor Temporary Services,[8] Professional Nurses Bureau,[8] and Today's Office Professionals.[2][3]
Leadership
Cinda Hallman, a member of Spherion's board of directors beginning in early 1995,[20] replaced Raymond Marcy as Chief Executive Officer in 2001, a role that Marcy had held for over a decade.[11] Rebecca Rogers Tijerino became the CEO of Spherion in January 2019. Rogers Tijerino left the company and was replaced by Kathy George in February 2024.[21]
Acquisitions and spinoffs
An "acquisition spree" that began in 1994[22] led to Spherion's 1999 acquiring of an Atlanta-based rival. Norrell Corp. Part of Fort Lauderdale-based Spherion's board of directors wanted to move corporate headquarters to Atlanta, a conflict that ended when Marcy was replaced by Hallman in 2001.[11]
In 2001 Spherion made an initial public offering (IPO) of its London-based Michael Page Group, which it acquired in 1997.
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