ManpowerGroup

Overview

ManpowerGroup Inc.

former name	Manpower Inc. (1948–89) Manpower PLC (1989–91) Manpower Inc. (1991–2011)
type	Public
traded as	nyse: MAN S&P 600 component
industry	Professional services
founded	1948 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
founders	Aaron Scheinfeld Elmer Winter
hq location city	Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
num locations	2700 offices in 80 countries and territories (2017)
area served	Worldwide
key people	Jonas Prising (Chairman & CEO)
brands	Manpower · Experis · Right Management · ManpowerGroup Solutions
services	Career Management Outsourcing Recruitment and Assessment Training and Development Workforce Consulting
revenue	US$20.724 billion (2021)
operating income	US$585 million (2021)
net income	US$382 million (2021)
assets	US$9.828 billion (2021)
equity	US$2.531 billion (2021)
num employees	30,000 (FTE 2021) 600,000 workers (2021)
parent	Parker Pen Company (1975-85) Blue Arrow (1987-89)
divisions	Americas AP ME Northern Europe Right Management Southern Europe
subsid	Brook Street CareerHarmony Econometrix FuturSkill Proservia Supplay TAPFIN Veritaaq
website	https://www.manpowergroup.com/
footnotes	‡R1R‡‡R2R‡‡R3R‡‡R4R‡‡R5R‡‡R6R‡‡R7R‡‡R8R‡

ManpowerGroup (formerly known as Manpower Inc.) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1948 by Elmer Winter and Aaron Scheinfeld, ManpowerGroup is the third-largest staffing firm in the world behind Swiss firm Adecco and Dutch firm Randstad NV.[9] The company provides administrative & support services, professional services, and business services through its four primary brands: Manpower (contingent staffing and permanent recruitment), Experis (resourcing and project management), Right Management (career management, workforce consulting, and training and development), and ManpowerGroup Solutions (managed services and outsourcing).[10]

History

The White Glove Girl and public offering (1966–1975)

The growing temporary employment category has been said to be a new category of work intentionally exempt from union protections. “To avoid union opposition, they developed a clever strategy, casting temp work as “women's work,” and advertising thousands of images of young, white, middle-class women doing a variety of short-term office jobs.”[14] In 1961, Manpower spent $1 million to place advertisements in Sunday papers across the country featuring their “White Glove Girls”. Winter described the company's strategy: "We chose white gloves as a symbol … because they seem to represent everything that is feminine, neat, and proper. They symbolize quality and efficiency.”[15] A 1962 advertisement[16] from TIME features model Judy Newton[15] who was the public face of Manpower in the 1960s as “The Girl in the White Gloves”. It cites Manpower's 240 offices in the US and Canada and 15 offices in Europe. It also specifies that the company offered the following divisions: Office Services, Industrial Help, Salespower, Inc., and Technical Services.

In “The Temp Economy: From Kelly Girls to Permatemps in Postwar America”, Hatton posits that the images in these advertisements were carefully curated to be “respectable sex symbols” and very purposefully not displaying images of men or nonwhites and emphasizing that the White Glove Girls were “specially certified” as code for white & middle-class and not recent immigrants or black migrants.[15] A 1964 advertisement[17] claims that the White Glove Girl carries an official training certificate that she is trained in: adapting quickly to new office routine, advanced telephone technique, dictation technique, transcribing services, good filing technique, fine points of electric typing, care of office equipment, keeping work confidential, starting the work day right, office etiquette, wardrobe and grooming, and dealing with office emergencies. The ad bills Manpower as the world's largest temporary help service with over 300 offices globally.

In 1962, Manpower went public, listing shares on the New York Stock Exchange.[18]

By 1967, Manpower advertising claimed the company has over 500 offices throughout the world.[19] The company opened its 100th foreign office and 500th office globally in Istanbul, Turkey on February 7, 1967.[20] On March 31, 1967, Manpower registered 300,000 shares of common stock offered for sale at $28 per share.[21] In 1968, Manpower Technical is established, expanding to offer specialized temporary employees outside office clerical and industrial settings.[2]

Return to public company; takeover by Blue Arrow (1986–1990)

On June 27, 1986, Manpower went public once again, registering 300,000 shares of common stock with the SEC.[24] On August 4, 1987, British firm Blue Arrow made a surprise bid to purchase Manpower for $1.2 billion in cash, or $75 a share for all 16 million outstanding shares. Blue Arrow intended to change Manpower into a full-service firm by adding permanent placement and executive recruiting services, cutting costs, and adding performance bonuses to employee compensation as they had done successfully with their 1985 purchase of Brook Street Bureau[25] At the time, Manpower was virtually tied with Kelly Services for position as the largest American temporary services firm, each with 11%-12% market share. Blue Arrow was about 10% the size of Manpower; some analysts considered their takeover offer too low.[26]

Manpower's board rejected the initial takeover offer, only to receive a new offer of $1.33 billion (or $82.50 a share) that they accepted on August 22. Along with the increased offer price, Blue Arrow agreed that the company would operate as a subsidiary retaining the Manpower name in the US, the Milwaukee office would remain open, and that Fromstein would stay on.[27] In the intervening weeks before accepting the Blue Arrow offer, Fromstein attempted to negotiate a joint venture with Adia S.A. to blunt the takeover; however, the Swiss employment firm decided not to proceed.[28] Adia later went on to merge with French firm Ecco in 1996 to form Adecco.[29]

The company resumed trading on the NYSE as MAN on October 3, 1988.[30]

On December 7, 1988, Fromstein resigned as President and Chief Executive of Manpower, publicly stating that the decision was mutual.[31] However, it was Blue Arrow CEO and Chairman Antony Berry who convinced the board to oust Fromstein, forcing him out of the company. In response, Fromstein mounted an effort backed by Manpower franchises in the US to replace Berry. Just a month later in January 1989, the board removed Berry as CEO and appointed Fromstein in the Blue Arrow chief executive role while Berry remained company chairman.[32] Berry's removal came amid poor stock performance and a scandal as the British Department of Trade and Industry investigated NatWest bank, Blue Arrow's investment bank advisor for the Manpower purchase, over "an alleged stock-price support operation following the failure of the stock flotation."[33] Charges were later filed in what became known as the Blue Arrow Affair in November 1989.[34]

In April 1989, Fromstein consolidated his hold on Blue Arrow when the board removed Berry completely, appointing Fromstein as chairman.[35] Later that year, Fromstein announced the intent to rename Blue Arrow PLC to Manpower PLC,[36] commenting "since Manpower Inc represents over 75% of the company's revenues and profits and is the multinational brand among the company's holdings, it is appropriate to make this change."[37] Ultimately, Manpower moved the head office from Britain back to Milwaukee.[38]

ManpowerGroup

History

Founding and expansion (1948–1961)

The White Glove Girl and public offering (1966–1975)

Parker Pen Company (1975–1985)

Return to public company; takeover by Blue Arrow (1986–1990)

Reorganization as Manpower Inc (1990–2005)

Global rebrand (2006–2011)

Rebranding as ManpowerGroup (since 2011)

Subsidiaries

See also

References