Robert Half Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Robert Half EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.17
• Consensus EPS: $0.36
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.19
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.61

Robert Half Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.35 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.41 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$60.33 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -8.40%

Robert Half Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 4/23/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 5:00PM ET

Robert Half (NYSE:RHI) provides talent solutions and business consulting services in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company operates through Contract Talent Solutions, Permanent Placement Talent Solutions, and Protiviti segments. The Contract Talent Solutions segment provides contract engagement professionals in the fields of finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal and administrative, and customer support. This segment markets its services to clients and employment candidates through both national and local advertising activities, including radio, digital advertising, job boards, alliance partners, and events. The Permanent Placement Talent Solutions segment engages in the placement of full-time accounting, finance, and tax and accounting operations personnel. The Protiviti segment offers consulting services in the areas of internal audit, technology consulting, risk, and compliance consulting. It offers it services under the Robert Half brand name. The company was formerly known as Robert Half International Inc. and changed its name to Robert Half Inc. in July 2023. Robert Half Inc. was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

Robert Half Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• For Q1 FY25, Robert Half reported $1.352 billion in revenue, down 8% on a reported basis and 6% as adjusted, with EPS of $0.17 versus $0.61 a year ago, including a $0.13/share one-time charge for administrative cost actions.
• Protiviti delivered an adjusted 5% revenue increase in Q1, but adjusted gross margin contracted to 18.1% after $8 million of one-time charges, with planned cost reductions expected to save $32.5 million annually beginning in Q2.
• Cash flow used in operations was $59 million due to first-quarter seasonality, while the company paid $61 million in dividends (up 11.3% y/y) and repurchased $39 million of stock, with $660 million remaining under its buyback plan.
• Q2 guidance calls for revenues of $1.31 billion–$1.41 billion (−7% y/y as adjusted) and EPS of $0.36–$0.46, with Talent Solutions expected down 10–14% y/y and Protiviti up 1–4%.
• Amid economic and trade policy uncertainty elongating decision cycles, the company enacted $80 million of annual cost savings targeting non-revenue roles, while retaining hiring capacity to capture accelerated demand when market confidence rebounds.

Presentation

[Operator]

Our host for today's call are Mr. Keith Waddell, president and chief executive officer of Robert Half, and mister Michael Buckley, chief financial officer. Mister Waddell, you may begin.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Hello, everyone. We appreciate your time today. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that the comments made on today's call contain forward looking statements, including predictions and estimates about our future performance. These statements represent our current judgment of what the future holds. However, they're subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward looking statements.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

These risks and uncertainties are described in today's press release and in our most recent 10 ks and 10 Q filed with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update the statements made on today's call. During this presentation, we may mention some non GAAP financial measures and reference these figures as adjusted. Specifically, we present adjusted revenue growth rates, which remove the impacts on reported revenues from the changes in the number of billing days and foreign currency exchange rates. Additionally, we present adjusted gross margin, adjusted selling, general, and administrative expenses, and adjusted operating income by combining the gains and losses on investments held to fund the company's obligations under employee deferred compensation plans with the changes in the underlying deferred compensation obligations.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Since the gains and losses from investments and the changes in deferred compensation obligations completely offset, there's no impact on our reported net income. Reconciliations and further explanations of these measures are included in a supplemental schedule to our earnings press release. For your convenience, our prepared remarks for today's call are available in the Investor Center of our website roberthalf.com. For the first quarter of twenty twenty five, global enterprise revenues were $1,352,000,000 down 8% from last year's first quarter on a reported basis and down 6% on an as adjusted basis. Net income per share in the first quarter was $0.17 compared to $0.61 in the first quarter '1 year ago.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

First quarter twenty twenty five net income was reduced by $0.13 per share for one time charges related to cost actions to reduce ongoing administrative expenses. Business confidence levels moderated during the quarter in response to heightened economic uncertainty over US trade and other policy developments. Client and job seeker caution continues to elongate decision cycles and subdue hiring activity and new project starts. Despite the uncertain outlook, we're very well positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities and support our clients' talent and consulting needs through the strength of our industry leading brand, our people, our technology, and our unique business model that includes both professional staffing and business consulting services. Cash flow used in operations during the quarter was 59,000,000.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Cash outflows are typically elevated each year in the first quarter due to the annual payment cycle for bonuses and SaaS subscription renewals among others. In March, we distributed a $0.59 per share cash dividend to our shareholders of record for a total cash outlay of 61,000,000. Our per share dividend has grown an average of 11.6% annually since its inception in 02/2004. The March 2025 dividend was 11.3% higher than the prior year. We also acquired approximately 650,000 Robert Half shares during the quarter for 39,000,000.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

We have 6,600,000.0 shares available for repurchase under our board approved stock repurchase plan. Return on invested capital for the company was 5% in the first quarter. Now I'll turn the call back over to our CFO, Mike Buckley.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Thank you, Keith. Hello, everyone. As Keith noted, global revenues were $1,352,000,000 in the first quarter. On an an adjusted basis, first quarter Talent Solutions revenues were down 11% year over year. US Talent Solutions revenues were $676,000,000 down 10% from the prior year's first quarter.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Non US Talent Solutions revenues were $199,000,000 down 15% year over year. We conduct talent solutions operations through offices in The United States and 17 other countries. In the first quarter, there were 61.9 billing days compared to sixty two point eight billing days in the same quarter one year ago. The second quarter of twenty twenty five has sixty three point two billing days compared to sixty three point five billing days during the second quarter of twenty twenty four. Currency exchange rate movements during the first quarter had the effect of decreasing reported year over year total revenues by $12,000,000.10000000 dollars for Talent Solutions and 2,000,000 impact to Protiviti.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Contract Talent Solutions bill rates for the first quarter increased 4.2% compared to one year ago, adjusted for changes in the mix of revenues by functional specialization, currency, and country. This rate for the fourth quarter was 3.4%. Now let's take a closer look at the results for Protiviti. Global revenues in the first quarter were $477,000,003 $87,000,000 of that is from The United States and $90,000,000 is from outside of The United States. On an adjusted basis, global first quarter Protiviti revenues were up 5% versus the year ago period.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

US Protiviti revenues were up 4%, while non US Protiviti revenues were up 8% compared to one year ago. Protiviti and its independently owned member firms serve clients through through locations in The United States and 28 other countries. Turning now to gross margin. In contract talent solutions, first quarter gross margin was 38.9% of applicable revenues versus 39.5% in the first quarter '1 year ago. Conversion or contract to hire revenues were 3.2% of contract revenues in both the current quarter and the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Our permanent placement revenues were 12.8 of consolidated Talent Solutions revenues in the in the in the current quarter and 12.3% in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. When compared with Contract Talent Solutions gross margin when I'm sorry. When combined with Contract Talent Solutions gross margin, overall gross margin for Talent Solutions was 46.7% compared to 47% of applicable revenues in the first quarter '1 year ago. For Protiviti, gross margin was 18.9% of Protiviti revenues in both the current quarter and the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Adjusted gross margin for Protiviti was 18.1% for the quarter just ended compared to 20.7% last year.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Protiviti gross margin for the current quarter includes $8,000,000 of onetime charges related to cost reductions to reduce ongoing administrative expenses. These mid April actions are expected to result in annual savings of 32,500,000.0 with 75% of a full quarter's benefit recognized in the second quarter due to timing and the full benefit each quarter thereafter. Enterprise SG and A costs were 34% of global revenues in the first quarter compared to 35.4% in the same quarter one year ago. Adjusted enterprise SG and A costs were 35.2% for the quarter just ended compared to thirty three percent one year ago. Talent Solutions SG and A costs were 43.7% of Talent Solutions revenues in the first quarter versus 44.3% in the first quarter of twenty twenty four.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Adjusted Talent Solutions SG and A costs were 45.5% in the quarter just ended compared to 40.8 last year. Talent Solutions SG and A for the current quarter includes $9,000,000 in one time charges related to mid March cost actions to reduce ongoing administrative expenses, which are expected to result in annual savings of $47,500,000 with full effect in the second quarter and thereafter. First quarter SG and A costs for Protiviti were 16.3% of Protiviti revenues compared to 15.9% of revenues for the same quarter one year ago. Operating income for the quarter was $39,000,000 Adjusted operating income was $19,000,000 in the first quarter or 1.4% of revenue. First quarter adjusted operating income for our Talent Solutions divisions was $10,000,000 or 1.2% of revenue.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Adjusted operating income for Protiviti in the first quarter was 9,000,000 or 1.8 percent of revenue. Adjusted operating income includes $17,000,000 of onetime charges related to cost actions to reduce ongoing administrative expenses, 9,000,000 for Talent Solutions, and 8,000,000 for Protiviti. Our first quarter twenty twenty five income statement includes a $20,000,000 loss from investments held in employee deferred compensation trusts. This is completely offset by an equal reduction of employee deferred compensation costs, which are reflected in SG and A expenses and direct costs. As such, it has no effect on our reported net income.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Our first quarter tax rate was 22% compared to thirty percent one year ago. The lower 2025 rate reflects the accelerated timing of certain tax credits that would have otherwise been recorded in the upcoming fourth quarter. This has no impact on the estimated full year tax rate for 2025 of 31% to 33%. At the end of the first quarter, accounts receivable were $787,000,000 and implied days sales outstanding, or DSO, was fifty two point four days. Before we move to second quarter guidance, let's review some of the monthly revenue trends we saw in the first quarter and so far in April, all adjusted for currency and billing days.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Contract Talent Solutions exited the first quarter with March revenues down 13% versus the prior year compared to a 12% decrease for the full quarter. Revenues for the April were down 12% compared to the same period last year. Permanent placement revenues in March were 10% versus March 2024. This compares to an 8% decrease for the full quarter. For the April, permanent placement revenues were down 2% compared to the same period in 2024.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

We provide this information so that you have insight into some of the trends we saw during the first quarter and into April. But as you know, these are very brief time periods. We caution against reading too much into them. With that in mind, we offer the following second quarter guidance. Revenues of $1,310,000,000 to $1,410,000,000 income per share, dollars $0.03 6 to $0.46 Midpoint revenues of $1,360,000,000 are 7% lower than the same period in 2024 on an as adjusted basis.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

On a sequential basis, mid quarter estimated Q2 revenues are down 4%. For the most recent six week period ended April 11, weekly sequential revenues have remained essentially flat. The major financial assumptions underlying the midpoint of these estimates are as follows. Adjusted revenue growth year over year for Talent Solutions, ten percent to 14% For Protiviti, up one to up 4%. Overall, down five to 9%.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Adjusted gross margin percentages for contract talent, thirty eight to 40%. Protiviti, twenty one % to 24%. Overall, 37% to 39%. Adjusted SG and A as a percentage of revenue, Talent Solutions forty three percent to 45%, Protiviti fifteen to 16%, overall 33% to 35%. Adjusted operating income as a percentage of revenues, Talent Solutions, two percent to 4%.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

Protiviti, six % to 8%. Overall, three to 6%. Tax rate, 31% to 35%. Shares outstanding, 100 to 101,000,000. 20 20 5 capital expenditures and capitalized cloud computing costs, 75,000,000 to $95,000,000 with $15,000,000 to $25,000,000 in the second quarter.

[Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO at Robert Half]

All estimates we provide on this call are subject to the risks mentioned in today's press release and in our SEC filings. Now I'll turn the call back over to Keith.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Thank you, Mike. U. S. Trade policy uncertainty has caused many economists to lower their economic growth forecast for the remainder of the year. Business confidence levels, which had surged following the US elections, have recently moderated.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Given this, in March, we reduced our administrative cost structure and lowered staffing levels at corporate services and for administrative field positions in talent solutions and did so in April for Protiviti. Revenue producing roles were not impacted. This results in annual cost savings of 80,000,000 and will improve profitability levels. Despite the present uncertain outlook, we remain optimistic about our growth prospects once economic conditions improve. US job openings continue to reflect strong pent up demand and remain well above historical averages.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

The supply of labor remains tight. The unemployment rate in The United States for those with a college degree is only 2.6%, with rates for many in demand accounting, finance, and other professionals even lower. Though the latest NFIB small business optimism index is off its recent peaks, it is still only slightly below its long term average. Further, 40% of small business owners report job openings they could not fill in March. And of those trying to hire, eighty seven percent reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

As business confidence improves, hiring urgency returns, project demand accelerates, deferred backlogs, and growth initiatives are reprioritized, and labor churn normalizes. This puts pressure on client resources that are often already stretched thin and creates hiring and consulting demand that traditionally sets the stage for very strong gains early in the early part of growth cycles. Although Protiviti's results were also impacted by elevated economic uncertainty, it achieved year over year revenue growth for the third quarter in a row. Protiviti's prospects and pipeline remain very strong, though the current environment has lengthened the time it takes to convert opportunities to wins and begin projects. The expanded use of contract professionals sourced through Talent Solutions continues to be a significant contributor to Protiviti's success and is a key component of our enterprise wide competitive advantage.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

We hold steadfast to our time tested corporate purpose to connect people to meaningful and exciting work and provide clients with the talent and consulting expertise they need to constantly compete and grow. We'd like to thank our employees across the globe for their resilience and unwavering commitment to success. Their efforts have earned us significant recognition already in 2025, including being honored as one of America's most innovative companies by Fortune and one of America's best large employers by Forbes. We're particularly proud that high levels of employee engagement again earned both Robert Half and Protiviti recognition as two of Fortune's one hundred best companies to work for. Now Mike and I'd be happy your quest answer your questions.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Please ask just one question and a single follow-up as needed. If there's time, we'll come back to you for additional questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. At this moment, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your touch tone telephone. If you're joining us today using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off And your first question comes from the line of Mark Marcon with Baird.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Hey. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions. Keith, when we take a look at Protiviti, you know, clearly, you know, the revenue was still up year over year. The margins ended up contracting. Obviously, you've got a bench model and deleveraging.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

And so the questions are around Protiviti. When you think about the book of business within Protiviti, how much would you characterize as basically being, you know, recurring or less discretionary relative to, you know, purely more discretionary nice to haves? Because you're still looking at, you know, potential growth for the first quarter, and I'm wondering how you think that kind of unfolds as the year goes along and where the margins, you know, could end up being if things stay steady state or conversely if things get a little bit worse, and then I've got a follow-up.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, I guess we've never really officially, formally broken out discretionary versus nondiscretionary. If you look at our big four solutions, risk and compliance, primarily regulatory, remediation and compliance, that's not discretionary. If you look at, technology consulting, clearly, there's a must do and a yeah, it improves thing to do dichotomy there. So that is split. Internal audit in our largest industry financial services is not discretionary.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

It has to happen in the non FSI industries, segments. There is some discretion there. And then business process improvement is probably the most discretionary of all. If those four are about equal, I mean, technology is a little larger and risk and consulting is a little smaller, you know, and added up the split I just talked about. But, I mean, there's a there's a decent mix of the two.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

As we said, this is the third quarter in a row that they've had revenue growth, notwithstanding the uncertain macro. We expect sequential growth in all of those major solutions into the second quarter. We're more conservative with that sequential growth than we've been in years past, but we still feel good given the pipeline. And adjusted for the slower conversion of pipeline time, we feel reasonably good about where Protiviti is from a profitability standpoint, as you observed, that the revenue shortfall relative to expectation was centered primarily on Protiviti employees versus contract employees, so it had a disproportionate impact on profitability. The good news is in the coming quarter, just the opposite happens and that we actually convert more than the revenue improvement to the bottom line because not only are we better utilizing the full time staff we have, we're also swapping out some full time staff, contract staff, and actually save direct cost dollars in that way.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

So it's actually one of our better sequential improvements given that dynamic.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

That's great. And then I'm hesitant to ask this question, but I've been getting it a lot from a lot of different investors. And so I know it's top of mind with with a number of them. I think I know the answer already. But when we take a look at capital allocation, where does where does the dividend sit on your capital allocation priorities?

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

And could you envision a scenario based on what you're currently seeing where the dividend would ever be cut?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

And so we've had a long, long, long term commitment to return our excess cash flow to shareholders. Over the long term, that's been about 50% dividends, 50% repurchases. As earnings have contracted, dividends play a much larger role in that capital return. We're committed, just as we have since we started in twenty two thousand and four to raise that dividend. We just raised it last quarter, and it would certainly be our intention, not only to keep it, but to keep increasing it.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

And that the cash flow of the first quarter, as we already commented, there are seasonal seasonal impacts to cash flow, I e, annual bonus payments, annual SaaS payments that make first quarter cash flow look low, but we certainly expect that to rebound nicely, for that reason. So no change in capital allocation strategy, still return all our cash flow to share excess cash flow to shareholders, retain the dividend, and it just happens to be given where overall cash flow is, dividend's gonna be a larger portion of the total. But that's something we believe will work its way out as we move forward in time just as we have in the past, but no change in capital allocation strategy.

[Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

That's what I expected. Thanks a lot.

[Operator]

And the next question will come from Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.

[Andrew Steinerman, Equity Research Analyst - Business & Info Services at JP Morgan]

Keith, I'd like to hear a little bit more about the efficiencies Robert Half is bringing to the administrative cost structures in both Talent Solutions and Protiviti. You were very clear to say these cost savings won't affect revenue producing roles. Could you just be a little more specific about how you're replacing these roles? Is this a tech enabled solution? You know, are the the revenue, roles gonna be as, you know, enabled, to, you know, hunger league go after orders, with these efficiencies?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well,

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

you know, for two or three years, we've had some pretty significant negative leverage on our administrative compensation and overhead cost. And our view was, given lower volumes, given technology improvements and tools that have, that we've implemented over the last few years, that we could operate more efficiently. The majority of the reductions were corporate services, and those reductions that happened in the field were more field management positions, not field sales support positions. So I would argue there's very, very little impact on how well our revenue producing roles are supported based on what we did, principally at corporate services.

[Andrew Steinerman, Equity Research Analyst - Business & Info Services at JP Morgan]

Okay. Thank you, Keith.

[Operator]

And the next question will come from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.

[Manav Patnaik, Managing Director, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays Investment Bank]

Historically, you've also said that you'd rather be a little bit late to cut costs. So just curious on what you've heard directly from your clients, and you've talked about how all economists are predicting different things. But any change in behavior on your clients that prompted you to take this action right now?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, the change in behavior is was a continuation of the cautiousness that we were beginning to see improvements in that we talked about on the last call. We we came out of the election. There was a surge in business confidence. Our discussions and the tender of our discussions with our clients was improving. And so we were quite optimistic, and our forecast for the first quarter assumed flatness with what we had seen in the fourth.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

And that changed, those discussions changed as a result of the uncertainty and, the trade policy uncertainty that I talked about already. But the fact that it had been a couple of years since we had adjusted, corporate overhead cost, we were continuing to see negative leverage. Given the renewed economic uncertainty, it appeared that this was gonna be with us longer than we had hoped. And so some combination of all those factors said it was time for us to to take cost actions, again, not impacting revenue producers.

[Manav Patnaik, Managing Director, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays Investment Bank]

K. Fair enough. And then just a quick follow-up. I I know you did some m and a recently. Just curious if you can help us with the contribution either in quarter or for the rest of the year.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Yeah. And so Protiviti, acquired a small consulting firm in, France that specializes in financial services. They have about 50 consultants, so it's it's a very small transaction. But but one we're excited about. It adds capabilities that we didn't otherwise have, there in Paris.

[Operator]

And

[Operator]

the next question will come from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Excuse me. Hi. Afternoon, good afternoon. Thank you. Maybe sticking with the topic of Protiviti here.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Can you talk a little bit about, maybe the pipeline of of projects or underlying demand environment that you're seeing within Protiviti, if you've seen any any of your clients that may have paused the projects or delayed the start of projects just given this underlying, uncertain environment? Thank you.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, as to the pipeline, the pipeline is up year on year. The weighted pipeline weighted for probability of excess Success is up year on year. That said, we did see during the first quarter some delays, some pauses related to, particularly financial services client engagements. But all of that's been factored in in the guidance we're giving for the second quarter. But, yes, Protiviti has certainly been impacted somewhat, by the macroeconomic uncertainty that's been exacerbated in the last few months.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

But that said, they still managed to grow year on year.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Absolutely. That's helpful. And then one clarification on the on the February outlook. I guess I'm trying to understand what the underlying perm demand demand environment is like. I think you kinda called out what it was in March, and I think it looks like on a year over year basis, it's a it looks like it may have improved April versus March.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Maybe I'm I'm misreading this. But is there something from a year over year comp standpoint we should think about, or perm kind of end up turning the corner a little bit better for the first couple weeks of April? Thanks.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, it's just factual that for two or the three weeks, I guess, in April for perm that it's stronger than it had been, and it's stronger than contract. But it's three weeks, and we've talked many times, post quarter perm results are much less predictive of full quarter results than is the case in contract. But that said, we did begin the quarter in perm, more strongly than we did in contract, and that's a good thing.

[Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

And your next question will come from Kartik Mehta with Northcoast Research.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive MD & Director of Research at Northcoast Research]

Good afternoon, Keith. This may be a odd question. I realize that. But you talked about the uncertainty in the economy, and I know you talked about when things turn, they could turn quickly. And it seems like, you know, we get a new headline every day.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive MD & Director of Research at Northcoast Research]

And so I'm wondering if things do turn quickly, you know, how quickly could you ramp back up? And, you know, how quickly would that impact margins? Or how do you see the business trending if something like that happens?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, we think we could turn back up quickly. As I've said earlier, we have not impacted our revenue producers with these cost actions. We've carried more revenue producers than the revenues would otherwise dictate. We've talked about 20 to 30% upside, based on prior productivity levels. I would also say we're seeing nice early traction from a technology standpoint where we use AI to, direct our recruiters to the clients we believe have the best probability of converting.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

And so there we're seeing it takes fewer calls to get a client visit. And once you get a client visit, we get better conversion rates to job orders than we did pre this technology. So I would argue, if anything, that even helps participate in the upside, call this digital labor, if you will, that gives us capacity above and beyond the human labor that we've retained beyond what the revenues would say in the first place. And so I'm I am very bullish on our ability to participate in the upside. We've talked about unemployment is lower.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

That means it'd be tougher for clients to hire on their own. In the upside, that's good for us. There's more pent up demand. Job openings are still elevated. That's good for us.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Churn churn is very subdued as we speak. Just to illustrate that, I think people often forget that the jobs numbers that come out every month are net numbers. They're hires minus separations, which are are essentially quits. And so as an example, in June of twenty twenty three, there were 257,000 jobs added, but that was 6,500,000 hires and 6,300,000 separations. We'll roll the clock forward to last month.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Here, we had 228,000 net job openings, not that different from June of twenty twenty three. But here, we've got 5,500,000 hires and 5,300,000 separations, meaning 1,000,000 fewer hires, 1,000,000 fewer separations on the set than on the same net jobs number. The point is that's a significant difference in churn. And so as clients and candidates get more confident, as things turn, there are more hires, there are more quits, there's more churn. That's good for our business on the upside.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive MD & Director of Research at Northcoast Research]

And then, Keith, I know you've talked about this in the past, but, just wanted to get your perspective again. Technology impacting the business, you know, whether it's LinkedIn or apps people are using to find help, you know, has that impacted your business, you know, your small business customers?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

I would say the the job boards and the aggregators have been around a long time. LinkedIn has been around a long time. The freelance platforms have been around a long time. We consider all of them frenemies because on the one hand, we compete at some level. On the other hand, we also use their technologies in our own sourcing efforts.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

And I would argue that none of them have recently moved the needle and changed the calculus in a in a significant way as to whether a small business owner, decides to use a recruiting firm like Robert Half or not. So those options have been there for long periods of time, and I don't think, relatively speaking, they're any more attractive than they were. We've they've gotten better. We've gotten better.

[Kartik Mehta, Executive MD & Director of Research at Northcoast Research]

Alright. Thank thank you very much.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from George Tong with Goldman Sachs.

[George Tong, Sr. Research Analyst - Equity Research at Goldman Sachs]

Hi. Thanks. Good afternoon. You mentioned client and job seeker caution is elongating decision cycles and some doing hiring activity and new project starts. Can you talk about how this was reflected in weekly sequential revenue trends over the course of the quarter?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, if you remember last quarter, we said the first couple of weeks were holiday impacted. The third week kinda returned to what we had seen the prior quarter, which had been flat, I believe, for twenty three straight weeks. So we were getting back to what we expected. But then start at least early February, the weekly started to drift down. But then by March, they flattened out at that somewhat lower level.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

So on a weekly sequential basis, as we said in our prepared remarks, the month of March and the April are essentially flat. On a relative to the entire first quarter, that's about down one and a half percent. The guidance we gave was more conservative and assumes down 4%. And so again, on a weekly basis flat for the most recent six weeks, so it stabilized at a one and a half percent lower level than we saw on average for the prior quarter.

[George Tong, Sr. Research Analyst - Equity Research at Goldman Sachs]

Got it. That's helpful. And then can you talk a little bit about how much of an impact do you think job displacements by AI is having on the business? Specifically, how much of the revenue decline you're seeing now you would attribute to cyclical factors versus AI?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well,

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

I as it relates to AI driven tools today that impact accounting and finance, which is our, major sector, I would say there's very, very little impact. And the revenue impacts we've seen are because of client cautiousness that leads to less hiring that I just talked about, which in turn leads to candidate caution, which leads to fewer candidate quits that I just talked about. So less churn due to client and candidate caution, and therefore cyclical factors, I think, are, by and large, the the the essential reason why not just ours, but the entire industry revenues have been impacted. I'd say further on this issue of displacement, and I'm sure you've heard this as well, there's this concept of Jevan's Paradox that says when resources become more efficient because of AI or otherwise, the cost of using it decreases. And that lower cost, in fact, leads to increased consumption and usage.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

And so I think in the in the terms of AI, offsetting the the apparent impact, there will be displacement, be the potential impact. There'll be more usage because the unit costs are less. I look at our own internal IT, projects, and if the thought of it cost me less to, modify, develop software for Robert Half, my guess is I might use more rather than less because it's less costly to do. So I think there's some credibility to Jevan's paradox. You form your own opinion.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

I'm sure you already have.

[George Tong, Sr. Research Analyst - Equity Research at Goldman Sachs]

Got it. Very helpful. Thank you.

[Operator]

And we'll take a question from Kevin McVeigh with UBS.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Great. Thanks so much. Hey, Keith, I just wanted to clarify one thing on the restructuring. I just want to make sure I heard you right. I thought you said there was $0.17 in the Q1, and you took another charge in, was was it April for Protiviti or or was all of that wrapped in the first quarter?

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Or was there, you know, a q two charge for Protiviti in the q two guidance?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

It's all it's all in the first quarter. It's all in the first quarter. It just happened a few weeks apart.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Got it. Okay. So it was all in one. As you think about that So we

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

accrued we we accrued all that Protiviti did in April for the first quarter.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Got it. Got and that 17 much of it the core versus Protiviti? Is there is there any way to think about that?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, you were breaking up. So it was, 9,000,000 staffing, 8,000,000 Protiviti in cost, and then we the resulting savings are 80,000,000, and it was $42.05 and $37.05, between the two. And that 160,000,000 is about 54¢ a share savings.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

And is that I know that's annual. Do you start to see that in in in the second half of this year, or any sense how that 80,000,000 comes in?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Yeah. We see and so divide it by four, that's 20,000,000 a quarter. We'll see 18 of that in the second quarter, and then we'll see 20 of that in quarters three and four. So it'll happen right away, but for the piece, in Protiviti that happened pre April mid April. So 18,000,000 savings in q two and 20,000,000 savings in q three and four from the cost actions.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

So the 36 to 46¢ already includes, which is about is it how how much cost savings in that

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

It includes the 18. The 36 to 46 or the 41 at midpoint includes

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

That'll

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

the 18,000,000 in savings.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Got it. Okay. So without that 18,000,000, it would have been obviously that much lower, the EPS.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

That's right. But, I mean Okay. The other the other observation I would make inclusive of the savings, our sequential progression between quarters one and two is one of the better progressions we've had historically.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Yeah. No. I get it.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

If you and if you further if you pro form a in a full quarter's benefit Protiviti, Protiviti's margins return essentially to what they were a year ago.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

Right. So the 18,000,000, if if you were to it was that taxed to the the the regular rate? I'm just trying to, like, figure out what the Right. What the benefit of the Well,

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

the tax provision, tax provision is a little wonky. But if you take the 18,000,000 and you, tax effect it, I get 12 pennies, and I'm looking at the team here. You take so you take 67% of it at a 33% tax rate, which gives you 12, and it's essentially a hundred million shares. So I call it 12p.

[Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group]

It's 12¢ benefit in q two from the restructuring. It's very helpful. Correct. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Yep.

[Operator]

And next is Jeff Silber with BMO Capital Markets.

[Analyst]

Hey. Thank you. This is Ryan on for Jeff. I was just wondering if you have any comments on the competitive environment. I was wondering how you're bearing compared to big four on Protiviti and then just related to the other temp agencies and contract solutions.

[Analyst]

Thank you.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, I guess we would observe on the big four side, the competitive environment has stabilized. We're not seeing the crazy pricing that we had seen, you know, nine, twelve, fifteen months ago. On the talent solution side, most of our competitors are local and regional, and we haven't seen much change in that, throughout this period of client candidate cautiousnesses, which we're now going on for almost three years. So I would argue not much change in the competitive environment, and if anything, more rational, particularly as it relates to the big four, than it had been.

[Analyst]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

And our next question is from Trevor Romeo with William Blair.

[Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair]

Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a couple of quick ones, I guess, on the Talent Solutions business. One was just kind of wanted to ask about, I guess, how the mix is evolving, between high skilled and more sort of operational roles right now. Are you still seeing, you know, I guess, relative resilience in the higher skilled roles?

[Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair]

And then as it relates to the, the FTEP, so the full time engagement professionals, anything you'd call out in terms of, you know, demand or interest in those arrangements?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Yeah. I'd say we continue to move up the skill curve. That's particularly true in technology. If you'll look at our segments, technology has done better for two or three, four quarters in a row. Much of that involves going from infrastructure and operations positions to software and applications positions.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

There's a a meaningful bill rate difference. You'll note on the bill rate side, we went from the plus threes to the low plus fours this quarter, year on year bill rate increases. Much of that is this skill mix impact, particularly as it relates to technology. On the EFTAP side, the issue with EFTAP because we pay them full benefits, the cost per hour for those people is much higher than is for our core contractors. And that higher price has put some pressure on the volumes in that business.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

But particularly returning to how well will we participate in the upside, FTEP becomes a big part of the upside. Clients will be more willing to pay those prices at that time as they've proven in the past. And that's good for margins. That's good for bill rates. That's good for length of assignment.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

That's good for everything.

[Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair]

And and, Keith, could you just remind us, how big a portion of your mix are the FTEPs at this point?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

It's it's roughly 20% of our contract business. I'm measuring hours versus dollars. It changes a little bit, but it's in that it's in that range.

[Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay. Thank you. That's that's helpful. And just one quick one on the international business. It just looks like the, the talent solutions, the trend got a little bit worse in the first quarter.

[Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair]

Could you just talk through kinda what you're seeing in in Europe or any other countries?

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Well, I guess I would argue that more of the differential between the growth rates in US versus non US relate to the year ago comps than they do to current performance. And so, as an example, a year ago in US, we were down 19%. And a year ago, IZ, we were down 10. And so clearly, IZ has a tougher comp. And that same differential plays out, and you look at this quarter versus a year ago.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

So I would argue that, that's more about comps. And I would further say that you certainly read a lot about the negativity as it relates to tariffs in Europe. But I can tell you, our people are particularly excited about the opportunities in the second half of the year that come from this, infrastructure and defense spending that's slated to happen particularly in Germany. And so we are already aggressively and proactively positioning ourselves for that. So our people in Europe and particularly our people in Germany are, quite excited about that opportunity.

[Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay. Very helpful. Thank you.

[M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer at Robert Half]

Okay. So that was our last question. Thank you very much for joining us.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. If you missed any part of the call, it will be archived in audio format in the Investor Center of Robert Half's website at roberthalf.com. You can also dial in to the conference call replay. Dial in details and the confirmation code are contained in the company's press release issued earlier today.

Participants

Executives

• M. Keith Waddell, Vice Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer
• Michael Buckley, Executive VP & CFO

Analysts

• Mark Marcon, Senior Research Analyst at Baird
• Andrew Steinerman, Equity Research Analyst - Business & Info Services at JP Morgan
• Manav Patnaik, Managing Director, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays Investment Bank
• Stephanie Moore, SVP - Equity Research at Jefferies
• Kartik Mehta, Executive MD & Director of Research at Northcoast Research
• George Tong, Sr. Research Analyst - Equity Research at Goldman Sachs
• Kevin McVeigh, Managing Director at UBS Group
• Analyst
• Trevor Romeo, Research Analyst at William Blair