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In normal economic times, search firms make a lot of money placing candidates corporations should be able to find on their own.

“How do they do it and what can be done to prevent them from doing it to us?” is a question many corporate recruiting leaders are asking. The underlying premise here is that if corporate recruiting departments could be organized and run like contingency recruiters and executive search firms, lots of money would be saved.

Despite the promise of the objective, very few companies have been able to successfully pull it off.

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I’ve been a contingency recruiter for over 11 years. Some days I say to myself, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.”

Think about it: How do contingency recruiters get business? They compete with other recruiters for the privilege of spending their own (or their boss’) money on clients who may hire a candidate we present at some unknown time in the future.

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The bankruptcy filing of Ensemble Chimes Global in Los Angeles on Jan. 9 leaves the users of staffing services through the company’s vendor management system with some unresolved issues. However, the greatest learning opportunities for staffing clients may come in the long term, as all of the issues surrounding the bankruptcy come to the surface, and clients gain a heightened awareness of the potential risks associated with running staffing transactions through an intermediary company.

Currently some staffing suppliers are opposing the sale of the system to Ensemble Chimes Global’s former president, and alleged improprieties have come to the surface about the financial dealings of executives of Axium International Inc. the parent company of Ensemble Chimes Global, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. As these events transpire, clients are realizing how they can become vulnerable, should their vendor management system supplier be acquired, file for bankruptcy protection, or handle funds inappropriately. While the bankruptcy trustee has made interim arrangements for the operation of the system, at the very least, clients face the potential for business interruption should vendor management system firms go belly up and all of the financial ramifications have yet to be identified or decided in this case.

As of Friday afternoon, Ed Lenz, senior vice president for public affairs and general counsel for the American Staffing Association said he had heard from staffing suppliers that outstanding receivables owed staffing firms by Ensemble Chimes Global totaled anywhere from $100 million to as much as $300 million. Lenz said it was his understanding that the majority of the outstanding balances represent billed but unpaid client invoices.

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Manpower is No. 136 on the Fortune 500 and is the world’s second-largest temp agency. It’s trying to let people know, however, that it’s more.

Manpower has bought an IT recruiting company, another company doing internal audits, the career-transition company Right Management, and is in the recruitment process outsourcing business. It is rebranding itself as a full-service giant, doing testing, training, and retention work. Most of its sales is overseas.

Allan McKisson, Manpower VP human resources, North America, came over from Whirpool, where he spent 20 years. (Whirpool went through its own branding exercises 10 years ago.)

McKisson is examining what the implications of Manpower’s new direction are to the employment side of the business. Right now, he says, that means two things.

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