“Suffice It to SIA” – Ursula Williams Predicts the Future

I first met Ursula Williams more than a decade ago at Bullhorn, where she was a customer and a beloved source of insight and positive energy, and as the years have gone by I’ve been fortunate to call her a friend.

A staffing industry stalwart with decades of experience leading some of the largest enterprise staffing agencies in the world – from Adecco to Randstad – Ursula has taken her strategic instincts, people insights, leadership acumen, and pure unbridled positivity into a ten-year journey at SIA (formerly Staffing Industry Analysts). Starting as SVP of Global Strategy and Marketing and now, two years into her tenure as CEO, Ursula has led SIA to unprecedented heights.

Is there any organization more synonymous with staffing industry research and benchmark measurement than SIA? SIA’s events have become must-attend, their analysts among the best in the business, and their lists a coveted barometer of influence. It’s been quite a rise.

But that’s Ursula for you.

Tommy and I spent almost an hour catching up with Ursula on all sorts of meaty topics, from:

• What separates the staffing firms growing amid macro uncertainty from those receding (hint, it’s about leadership, agility, and culture)
• How Ursula scaled SIA by transforming not just the leadership team and org structure but also value delivery
• What AI solutions Ursula would roll out if she were starting up a staffing firm in this day and age
• The rampant epidemic of candidate fraud and how automated solutions (like those from RefAssured) can address this crisis as well as improve compliance and redeployment
• How staffing as an industry will continue to evolve and how businesses can prioritize their strengths, their tech stacks, and their swim lanes to stay competitive
• What it means to respect human relationships in staffing and to build things that will truly delight customers and be easy for them to adopt, not just throwing spaghetti against a wall

Check out the full episode below or on Apple Podcasts.