Staffing companies have broadened their service offerings in recent years beyond temporary staffing and direct hire. And while firms have often offered such services as payrolling, outplacement and recruitment process outsourcing, recently, some have also begun investing in new areas such as digital innovation.

Globally, staffing firms have made more than 200 investments or acquisitions of companies that don’t provide staffing but are still in the workforce solutions ecosystem, according to research by Staffing Industry Analysts. The most popular category was “talent acquisition technology” with 36% of acquisitions made in this space. It was followed with 27% of acquisitions in “other workforce solutions,” which includes a range of different services such as consulting, training and outplacement.

An SIA report out this month, “Investing in the Workforce Solutions Ecosystem” takes a look at strategies and investments by staffing firms in other parts of the ecosystem. It focuses particularly on investment initiatives begun by three of the largest firms: Randstad, The Adecco Group and Recruit.

“These investment funds are being used to assess the potential of digital disruption and position the companies to take maximum advantage if, and when, such disruption permeates the staffing industry,” according to the report.

• The Randstad Innovation Fund’s investments include recruitment chatbots AllyO and Wade & Wendy as well as HackerRank, a recruitment platform/code challenge community. The fund has also funded an initiative in France to fund its own chatbot, called Randy.
• Adecco Group X acquired skills training platform General Assembly and online staffing platform Vettery. It also launched its own online staffing platforms including Yoss and Adia. It has also invested in recruitment chatbot Mya.
• Recruit Strategic Partners has invested in a number of firms and has a broader business portfolio beyond staffing; over four years, it has invested in more than 90 businesses. Its investments include ScoreData, which focuses on candidate matching, and Veem, a payrolling provider that uses blockchain. Recruit also recently made its acquisition of Glassdoor through its Indeed operations.

The full report, “Investing in the Workforce Solutions Ecosystem,” is available online for SIA corporate members.