Robert Half, formally referred to as Robert Half International Inc., is a global

human resource consulting The human resource consulting industry has emerged from management consulting and addresses human resource management tasks and decisions. HR Consultants can fill two typical roles (1) Expert Resource Consultant (2) Process/People consultant. These ...

firm based in Menlo Park and San Ramon,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, founded in 1948. It is a member of the

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, and is credited as being the world's first and largest accounting and finance staffing firm, with over 345 locations worldwide. Robert Half has a variety of divisions. The company operates through three segments: temporary and consultant staffing, permanent placement staffing, and risk consulting and internal audit services. Through its Accountemps, Robert Half Finance & Accounting, Robert Half Management Resources divisions, it provides temporary, full-time and project professionals in the fields of accounting and finance. Other divisions include Robert Half Technology, providing software, application, IT infrastructure and operations professionals, Office Team, which specializes in administrative and customer service staffing, The Creative Group, that focuses on design, artistic, and creative talent, and Robert Half Legal that offer flexible and direct-hire staffing for legal professionals. In 2002,

Protiviti Protiviti Inc. (Protiviti) is a global consulting firm headquartered in Menlo Park and San Ramon, California, that provides consulting in internal audit, risk and compliance, technology, business processes, data analytics and finance. It is ...

Inc. was founded as a subsidiary of Robert Half, which provides

internal audit Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to ...

, financial, operations, technology, governance, and risk consulting services. Robert Half is listed by ''Fortune'' magazine as among the "World's Most Admired Companies" in the temporary-help industry for 25 years consecutively (as of 2022) since it first made the list in 1998.

History

The company's founding was in 1948, in New York City, with its original name being variously reported as being Robert Half Inc., Robert Half Finance & Accounting, and Robert Half Personnel Agency. The founding, in any case, is reported to have been of two separate business entities, the Robert Half (RH) portion as "an employment agency for accountants," and the Accountemps portion "to supply accountants and other financial professionals… on a temporary basis." Founder Robert Half had previously managed the hiring of accounting staff for a sizeable textile manufacturing concern, and saw an opportunity as no placement agency had been focusing on this sector of the market. In the mid- to late-1980s, Robert Half (RH) altered its prior focus—which had been like that of the field in general—from relatively undifferentiated temporary clerical and light industry staffing, to providing temporary workers at higher skill levels via new "professional staffing divisions". Having grown to over 150 locations in the United States and launched an aggressive campaign to re-purchase many of the separate franchises, the firm went public in 1987, then expanded its operations into Europe in 1993. This information is derived from the following source: ''Note'', this compilation reports, to a significant degree, information self-reported by the company, and so constitutes information not strictly third-party in nature. In addition to their Accountemps brand, the firm expanded to include specialty groups focusing on technology, legal and creative services personnel. Inroads into the legal sector began with the company's 1991 acquisition of "The Affiliates, a firm in Southern California that placed temporary and permanent paralegal, legal administrative, and other legal support personnel," with it being renamed as Robert Half Legal. Robert Half went on to establish itself as a key information provider for government agencies and others seeking statistics and trends regarding employment, with its market-specific salary guides being used as a resource by the U.S Department of Labor in the preparation of their own forecasts. In addition to their main staffing line of business, RH also provides independent risk consulting, internal audit and

information technology consulting In management, information technology consulting (also called IT consulting, computer consultancy, business and technology services, computing consultancy, technology consulting, and IT advisory) is a field of activity which focuses on advising or ...

services via its Protiviti subsidiary, which was founded in 2002 with the acquisition of former employees of

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

. Since then, the group has grown from 700 to over 2,900 staff, and continues to be led by Andersen alumni. In 2003, the company was finally able to buy back the last of the few remaining independent franchise operations. In 2006, RH (through subsidiary Protiviti Inc.) acquired the assets of PG Lewis & Associates, a leading national provider of Data Forensics and Cyber Security services founded in 2003 by serial technology entrepreneur, Paul G. Lewis. Financial terms were not disclosed. In April 2022, Robert Half moved its legal consulting service line to Protiviti, which allows Protiviti to expand its legal consulting practice. The service line supports clients with a broader range of legal, compliance, governance, technology, investigation and transaction-related business needs.

Published works

Founder Robert Half's tradition of authoring books on the industry—such as ''Making It Big in Data Processing'' and ''How to Get a Better Job in This Crazy World''—was continued by the CEO of this date, Harold M. "Max" Messmer, in the form of works like ''Job Hunting for Dummies''.

History

Published works

See also

References

Further reading

Verified sources

Other sources

External links