Description
ManpowerGroup is a Fortune 500 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. The company provides administrative & support services, professional services, and business services through its four primary brands: Manpower (contingent staffing & permanent recruitment), Experis (professional resourcing and project-based solutions), Right Management (career management, workforce consulting, and training & development), and ManpowerGroup Solutions (managed services and outsourcing).
History
Founding and expansion (1948-1961)
Elmer Winter and his law partner Aaron Scheinfeld co-founded Manpower in 1948. The pair was inspired when they found themselves looking for secretarial help to file a brief on a tight deadline with the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They raised $7,000 and opened their first storefront in Milwaukee with the name Manpower suggested by a friend.
In his book “A History of Manpower, Inc.® 1948-1976”, James D. Scheinfeld indicates that the idea for the company was, in fact, Aaron Scheinfeld's when at the close of World War II, he worked with a company on contracts to mothball military equipment and envisioned a temporary help service. By this account, in 1948 Scheinfeld conceived of Manpower, arrived at the name and early logo over lunch with friend and advertiser Marvin Frank, and invited Winter to invest as a minority stockholder and co-founder. The two incorporated the company in Delaware, and in June 1948 opened offices in downtown Milwaukee and Chicago.
By 1952, Manpower had expanded in the US to Minneapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York, Pittsburgh, and Boston; in 1954, the company offered its first franchise; in 1956, the company went international with offices in Montreal, Toronto, and the UK; and in 1957, Manpower established operations in France.
Rebranding as ManpowerGroup (since 2011)
In 2011, the company rebranded itself to ManpowerGroup and organized itself into four primary brands: Manpower, Experis (formed from the combination of Manpower Professional, Elan, and Jefferson Wells), Right Management, and ManpowerGroup Solutions (formerly Manpower Business Solutions). The new corporate name was part of an effort to become known as a workforce solutions company versus a traditional employment agency. The new brand name Experis was intended to emphasize the concepts of experience and expertise. New corporate and brand logos derived from the current corporate logo with work from The Martin Agency of Richmond, VA.
On September 22, 2011, ManpowerGroup acquired 70% of Proservia SA, a French IT and systems engineering company. The remaining shares were acquired by November 2011 for a total of $29.4 million.
On May 1, 2014, Jonas Prising replaced Joerres as CEO and Joerres assumed the role of executive chairman. Joerres retired on December 30, 2015 and Prising replaced him as chairman while retaining his role as CEO.
On June 1, 2015, ManpowerGroup announced the acquisition of the Australian and Singapore divisions of Greythorn and its subsidiary Marks Sattin. In August, 2015, the Experis division announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Veritaaq, a Canadian IT consulting firm. On September 3, 2015, ManpowerGroup acquired 7S Group GmbH, a German HR services firm, for $140.4 million. In 2016 and 2017, ManpowerGroup purchased several divisions of Ciber in Europe: Ciber Netherlands, Ciber Norway, and Ciber Spain.
