‘A trend toward moving back onshore’

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Typically, upon exiting a lousy economy, temporary staffing agencies go gangbusters. Last year was no exception for The Intersect Group, the Atlanta placement agency for IT, accounting and finance jobs.

Intersect’s success, though, doesn’t necessarily translate into large-scale hiring among Atlanta’s unemployed. After previous recessions, U.S. corporations would take on contract or temp workers as a precursor to full-time hiring.

This time, though, companies are more cautious, despite billions of dollars of cash on hand. Skittish about the still-uncertain economy, they’re hiring temp workers. Full-time follow-on jobs, though, remain elusive for many. Hence, Georgia’s 9.9 percent overall jobless rate.

Hughes, though, says many of the accountants and computer specialists he places are finding full-time employment.

Q: How’s business?

A: 2011 [was] a great year for the group. We should be about 65 percent over [2010] from a revenue standpoint, about $44 million. We’ve made a lot of investments. Profitability has been pretty good. We have 100 full-time salaried employees — recruiters, sales folks, leadership, salaried consultants — and 300 hourly contractors.

Q: You opened an office in Dallas last year and one in Chicago the year before. What’s on tap for 2012?

A: We’re absolutely planning for more, massive growth in 2012. We’re looking at doubling down on our expansion in Dallas and Chicago and [selecting] one more city next year as well. We’re considering multiple cities. Some significant clients are looking to give us opportunities. New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Raleigh are some possibilities.

Q: But you had difficulties with your Chicago expansion, no?

A: It did not go very well. We made every mistake in the book. We hired the wrong people. We launched with the wrong service line. We launched with finance and accounting staffing when we probably should’ve launched with IT staffing given the demand.

Q: Any other lessons learned?

A: Taking someone from our Atlanta office and putting them in a remote office has been a big plus for us. If you understand our culture and you’re able to take that culture into a new market and take all our systems and processes too then you know who to turn to when you need some help. It’s hard to put a value on that. Hopefully, though, we make more good moves than bad moves.

Q: You’ve been placing some people directly in full-time jobs, but your bread and butter remains temp and contract work. Will those trends continue in 2012?

A: I’ll closely be watching merger and acquisition activity; that will be driving a good amount of our business. Usually a project team is assigned to integrate the companies. That requires specific expertise to set up an integrated office. The demand for financial efficiency these days is requiring a much more disciplined approach to integrating companies.

Q: Other trends to look out for in 2012?

A: We’re watching very closely off-shoring versus on-shoring. A lot of companies have asked, “Do I outsource my IT development to India? Mexico? Dallas? Or Augusta?” Our feeling, based on anecdotal evidence, is that there is a decent trend toward moving back onshore from offshore. A lot of companies realize the cost savings are no longer what they used to be. We’re also seeing some quality and efficiency issues. We know for a fact some of these tasks are coming back onshore; we just don’t know how much.

Q: What bodes well for Atlanta’s temporary and full-time employment future?

A: Health care IT is just an absolute boom; that business is going crazy. A lot has to do with electronic medical records. A lot of companies, like McKesson and Greenway, help to identify talent and bring them to Atlanta. We’re literally creating some unique collaborative efforts in the business to make Atlanta a very attractive place for health care IT. High tech, in general, is rebounding in Atlanta a decent amount.

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Meet Wade Hughes

Occupation: Managing partner, The Intersect Group

Age: 45

Education: BA, accounting, University of Alabama

Home: Dunwoody

Family: Wife, 3 daughters.

Other: Coaches softball, plays tennis, rides dirt bikes and horses