In 1946, Leroy Dettman capitalized on an emerging demand for contingent labor by creating City Car Unloaders. Opening its doors in Chicago, Illinois, Dettman founded the business with the vision to “connect the right employee with the right business at the right time.”

He began by helping local Chicago companies find temporary help in loading and unloading freight shipments. Realizing the potential value across all industries, Dettman expanded the business beyond light industrial staffing to provide local companies with clerical and administrative office support, quickly becoming a powerful force in the newly established staffing industry.

In the succeeding years, the company broadened its expertise in supporting clients with a wider range of skill sets, adding professional positions that have come to include technology, finance, accounting, marketing, law, engineering, manufacturing, sales and human resources.

Establishing a reputation as an innovator, Spherion^® was:

• First to develop an on-site workforce management solution.
• First to use television as a medium for recruiting.
• First to utilize interactive voice response technology to prescreen job candidates.
• First to introduce remote workforce support.
• First to establish the staffing industry's only fully integrated, Web-based operating system, enabling greater responsiveness, efficiency and speed in addressing customer needs, filling open positions and tracking performance.

Spherion’s broad-based experience in recruiting is founded on an in-depth understanding of the workforce and the issues that drive performance. It continues today to apply this expertise to help clients more effectively plan, acquire and optimize talent to improve their bottom line.