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ManpowerGroup Inc. (MAN)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 20, 2020

$31.29

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to ManpowerGroup Third Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode until the Q&A session of today’s conference. This call will be recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. And now, I will turn the call over to ManpowerGroup, Chairman and CEO, Jonas Prising. Sir, you may begin.

Jonas Prising

Management

Good morning. Welcome to the third quarter conference call for 2020. On the call with me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Jack McGinnis. For your convenience, we have included our prepared remarks within the Investor Relations section of our Web site at manpowergroup.com. We will start by going through some of the highlights of the third quarter, then Jack will go through the operating results and the segments, our balance sheet and cash flow, and guidance for the fourth quarter. I will then share some concluding thoughts before we start our Q&A session. Before we proceed, Jack will now cover the Safe Harbor language.

Jack McGinnis

Management

Good morning, everyone. This conference call includes forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. Actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Slide 2 of our earnings release presentation includes additional forward-looking statement considerations and important information regarding previous SEC filings and reconciliation of non-GAAP measures.

Jonas Prising

Management

Thanks, Jack. Since our last earnings call in July, much has happened in the world and I'm pleased to say we see the early shoots of a global recovery taking hold during the third quarter, and our results reflect a stronger market environment than we anticipated a few months ago. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing some of the fastest changes to the global economy with industries like retail, hospitality, and aviation, previously more resilient than others, impacted in ways never seen before. Other industries such as tech, e-commerce and logistics are benefitting from new ways of working and new consumer preferences. At the same time, job protection initiatives have been implemented worldwide and have helped support jobs, livelihoods and households. Around the world, governments are mindful of the need to bring confidence back while also managing pressures on health and social services. As a result of the learnings from the first waves of the pandemic, we do not anticipate a repeat of the widescale and sudden shutdowns that we saw in the first phase. However, recent increases in COVID-19 cases in many parts of the world will force countries to implement new restrictions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, this time more targeted and localized than prior lockdowns. These factors will make the recovery uneven and our experienced management team is prepared to confidently manage the volatility as circumstances dictate. In fact, we are leveraging the opportunity in this rapidly changing environment to reaffirm our commitment to our strategy of growth through diversification, digitization, and innovation and are continuing to fund investments in these areas. At the same time, we continue to exercise cost controls and drive further efficiency through restructuring actions. We are also continuing to adjust our geographic footprint. We are proud of…

Jack McGinnis

Management

Thanks, Jonas. Revenues in the third quarter came in above our constant currency guidance range. Our gross profit margin also came in above our guidance range. On a reported basis, our operating profit was $62 million. Excluding special items consisting of restructuring charges and a loss on dispositions, our operating profit was $117 million, representing a decline of 37%, or a decline of 38% on a constant currency basis. This resulted in an operating profit margin of 2.6% before restructuring charges and other special items, which was above the high-end of our guidance. I will cover the restructuring charges and the dispositions in more detail by segment. Breaking our revenue trend down into a bit more detail, after adjusting for the positive impact of currency of about 2%, our constant currency revenue declined 14.5%. The impact of acquisitions and billing days were minor resulting in an organic days adjusted revenue decrease of 15%. This represented a significant improvement from the second quarter revenue decline of 27% on a similar basis. This also represents five consecutive months of improvement beginning in May when governments began lifting country-wide lock-down requirements. On a reported basis, earnings per share was $0.18, which included the restructuring charges of $50 million which represented a negative $0.72, certain discrete tax charges of $12 million and a loss from dispositions of $6 million which combined had a $0.30 negative impact. Excluding the restructuring and other special items, earnings per share was $1.20, which exceeded our guidance range. Included within this result was improved operational performance of $0.47, $0.03 on better than expected foreign currency exchange rates before restructuring and other special items, $0.04 on an improved effective tax rate and $0.03 on improved interest and other expenses. Looking at our gross profit margin in detail, our gross margin…

Jonas Prising

Management

Thank you, Jack. We are very well-positioned to leverage the lasting legacy of the pandemic. New work models with more flexible and remote work, more focus on health and wellbeing, greater use of technology and faster changing skill shifts, and the need for strategic and operational workforce transformation, at scale and speed. Let me also say how incredibly proud I am of the critical work our talented teams have provided by helping people and companies around the world respond and reset following these unprecedented crises. From redeploying and reskilling catering and hospitality workers to new roles in in-demand sectors like logistics, virtual customer service and pharmaceuticals, to redeploying financial programmers to install and program COVID testing robots, and providing the skilled IT talent, lab technicians, and skilled workers for PPE production. We have remained steadfast in our purpose and committed to providing our clients, candidates and our communities around the world with skilled talent and meaningful employment, all with health and safety at the center. And I thank all of our people for their expertise, professionalism and dedication when so many of them are managing their own personal challenges in these unprecedented times. We can be certain too that helping people adapt from declining industries and jobs to growth sectors and future proof roles will be critical in this next normal. And it will be the responsibility of business, government and educators to support people with swift, targeted upskilling programs so that value creation is shared with the many, not just the few, for the benefit of us all. At ManpowerGroup we are fully committed to being part of the solution and the actions we are taking to digitize, diversify and innovate will position our company for further success in 2021 and beyond. I would now like to open the call for Q&A. Operator?

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question came from the line of Andrew Steinerman of JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Andrew Steinerman

Analyst

Hi, it's Andrew. hoping this isn't an implied question but so Jack when you started talking about fourth quarter guide, you said no material lockdowns impacting economic activities is your assumption. And so my question is, what did you mean by that? Did you mean that the lockdowns don't get worse or that the current lockdowns aren't having a meaningful impact on economic activity? Like for example, French economist is expecting zero real GDP in France in the fourth quarter. How does that square with the assumption that you're making, assuming, again worst lockdowns or current lockdowns are not having an impact?

Jack McGinnis

Management

I would say what really, it's the latter the current lockdowns, we are obviously talking with our French business and analyzing the impact of the current lockdowns, but on our business specifically the current lockdowns are not having a significant impact. So our business is continuing. There are adopting to the new restrictions in place. And it's not currently having an impact in terms of the way we're looking at the current trends and the way we've done our guidance. So I'd say it's been factored in. What we're really trying to say is, we're not seeing any additional changes beyond that, really, we're getting at, the more towards the risk of more country wide lockdowns. And that's the risk that we don't have incorporated into our guidance, but it is incorporating the current restrictions that we are operating within our countries today.

Andrew Steinerman

Analyst

That's super clear. And can I just add on when you when you talk about fourth quarter, France being down 10 to 15%, for the fourth quarter guide, is that what you're already seeing in October?

Jack McGinnis

Management

Yes. Trend reflects what we're seeing in October, I think, Well, Andrew, in terms of our analysis of France, we did indicate great improvement in the third quarter, but the rate is slowing down. So we are seeing a slowing rate and our guidance incorporates that that will continue to improve. But at the level now, which is a slower rate of improvement, but that's what we're anticipating in October, reflects a slightly better trend than we saw in September.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question came from the line of Manav Patnaik of Barclays. Your line is now open.

Manav Patnaik

Analyst

I just had a broader question. I think earlier in the call, Jonas talked about, attempting a flexible option for an uneven recovery. I was just wondering in terms of that fine line of uncertainty, like, what are you hearing from your employers right now, in terms of their plans of scaling up, versus just waiting it out to, I don't know, another year or so.

Jonas Prising

Management

What we're hearing from our clients today is that, they're seeing their activities return, but their horizon in terms of how long, how durable and to what degree that improvement is likely continue means that they are very interested in operational flexibility. And I think that's exactly reflected in our Q3 results, which was a faster recovery than we had anticipated. And as Jack just as indicated, of course, looking ahead, we expect that rate of improvements to continue, although at a slightly slower rate. And that is very consistent with what we tend to see in recoveries after recessions, where our services and solutions are in high demand, as the operations are improving, the demand is improving, but there's a degree of uncertainty, that means that employers are really favoring our services. And to that I would add, what was very encouraging also in Q3 is to see the quite significant improvement in our permanent recruitment numbers that moved up quite significantly down from a minus 43%, in Q2, up to minus 27%, in Q3, and we saw that reflected also in on our RPO operation. So companies are clearly not only looking for contingents of staff to help them but also starting to want to employ some people also on a permanent basis. And we think that's a trend that will also continue going into the fourth quarter.

Manav Patnaik

Analyst

Got it. That's helpful. And throughout the call, there was a lot of real estate optimization, I guess, globally, you've done a lot of that. You've done this over the past years as well, was this current wave more a factor of work from home or lack of activity? Or maybe ask now that way, how much of this is permanent? And how much do you maybe ramp up when things get back to normal?

Jonas Prising

Management

Well, you could hear me say in the prepared remarks that we've had some learnings from the pandemic. And I would say, our confidence in our strategy around real estate optimization that you've seen us do over many years now, is really reaffirmed by what we're seeing and living under here. During the pandemic. We can operate and run our business very effectively on a remote basis. Now, whilst we don't anticipate that we'll be going fully remote and we believe that the there is great value in our last mile delivery capabilities through our office network. What's also clear is that with the help of process change, supported by technology, we can do our work in different ways. And we anticipate that will accelerate in terms of what our candidates are accepting and wanting to see as well as what our clients are expecting and wanting to see, which will give us further opportunities for real estate reviews. And you're seeing some of the early signs of that in the third quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question came from the line of Hamzah Mazari of Jefferies. Your line is now open.

Hamzah Mazari

Analyst

Jonas, I think you've talked about a two-speed recovery in your prepared comments. Could you maybe talk about how much of your business is levered to faster growth versus industries that may take a while to recover, travel, leisure, et cetera?

Jonas Prising

Management

Yes, our exposure to the most heavily negatively impacted industries is very low. Because we're not really represented in the hospitality industry, aside from some countries. So at large, I would say we're better positioned on the fastest growing industries, rather than those most heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Jack McGinnis

Management

And I would just add on to that Hamzah. I think maybe a little bit more detail in terms of the sectors. So I would say manufacturing to Jonas's comments is about core manufacturing is probably about 40% of our business today. Within that we've talked about auto being in the range of around 7%. Currently, food and beverage has been very strong that's about 7%. Pharma within that is about 6%. Manufacturing of computers and electronics about 6%. So, all other manufacturing about 14% of that 40. I'd say logistics, transportation and storage is about 8%. That's been very, very strong. Construction is about 5%. So it gives you a little bit of flavor on some of the manufacturing sectors. I think on the communications that's been very strong for us, that's about 10%. Financial services and insurance is about 5% to 10% for us as well. So it gives you a bit of a feel. And as Jonas said, our exposure to hospitality and tourism is very, very small.

Hamzah Mazari

Analyst

That's extremely helpful. And just my follow up question, I'll turn it over. Could you maybe talk about the furlough dynamic this employment cycle, and then how you see that impacting temp growth? Historically, your business coming out of a downturn, recovered as quickly really as it went down? And so just any thoughts high level as to the furlough dynamic? I know you provided Q4 guidance, but sort of just a longer term question on this dynamic. Thank you.

Jonas Prising

Management

We think that furlough dynamic that we've seen during this pandemic has a short-term positive effect in terms of keeping people on the payroll. And frankly, from our perspective, it's something that we've been able to use as well to maintain our productivity levels as high as possible as activity went down better then, of course, also provided us with the opportunity to ramp up quickly, once we saw demand pick up again. So from that aspect, it's been positive. In terms of structural change long-term compared to other recessions, we don't really think that this will play in any significant way, have a timing effect, where companies are bringing back furloughed workers first, but if so, we think it's going to be just a lag effect in some countries. And frankly, we have not seen that so far be a factor in the speed of recovery, matching the pickup of demand that we've seen with our clients.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question is from the line of Jeff Silber of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Jeff Silber

Analyst

Jonas, you just touched upon my question a little bit in your answer, but I wanted to drill down a little bit further. You talked before about how your customers are dealing with their own staffing requirements in terms of the rebound. Can you talk about your own internal staff where that stands now, relative to pre-pandemic? And are you expecting to increase that over the next few quarters?

Jonas Prising

Management

I will let Jack talk about some of the numbers but specifically, in terms of government assisted furlough programs, by and large, we're now out of the usage of those in most countries with the exception of Germany, but we expect to fade out of those programs over the next two quarters. And as I mentioned in my response to Hamzah, what we've done is, is really used those programs to mitigate the drop in demand during the depths of the pandemic. But then very quickly bring people back onto our rolls. And we saw productivity, maintain, and then move up so we could meet the demand. But Jack, maybe a few more aspects to that.

Jack McGinnis

Management

Yes. Jeff, I'd be happy to give you a little more detail around that. So at the end of September, if you look at our FTE year-over-year, we're down about 11%. And I would say put that in context that is lower than it was at the end of June. At the end of June, we were down about 18%. So, as I talked about, when I talked to the trends in our SG&A, we have been bringing people back based on the increased demand that we've been seeing in our businesses. And our guidance in Q4 continues to anticipate that. Now with that being said, if there is, any changes to the trajectory, we'll make adjustments accordingly. But we are continuing to manage our FTE very carefully. I think separately, we talked through the restructuring actions we've taken this quarter that will reduce some more FTEs permanently, based on that we've talked a lot about the real estate actions we've taken as well, that will go a long way reducing some of our fixed costs as well. But hopefully that gives you a bit of a flavor on where we are in FTEs.

Jeff Silber

Analyst

Yes, that's actually extremely helpful. And for a follow-up, also in your prepared remarks, you talked a bit about what was happening towards the end of the quarter and the beginning of this quarter in France. Are there any other major trends that you can highlight some of your larger countries in terms of how you ended 3Q and how 4Q has begun?

Jonas Prising

Management

Yes, sure. I would say the trend in France is pretty similar to what we've seen and I'd say, our top three countries. U.S., we saw a nice steady improvement over the pace of the third quarter. We're seeing that improvement continue here into early October. But I'd say the comments about slowing, that applies to the U.S. as well. So great improvement during the third quarter. But that trend of improvement continuing but slowing and that's factored into our overall guidance. I would say the same for Italy, very, very strong improvement. And we see trends in October that indicate continued improvement into the fourth quarter. I would say on the U.K., it's been a bit more sluggish, the U.K. has not seen the same level of improvement. I don't think that's, I don't think that's a surprise based on some of the data on the U.K. and some of the uncertainty in that market currently. And then I would say, the other large country would be Japan, which is continuing to see phenomenal growth in a very difficult environment. So I'm very pleased with their growth in Q3. And we anticipate good performance in the fourth quarter as well, although slowing a little bit, but we still anticipating closer to flat to very slight Japan. So that's what I would say in terms of the top five countries.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question is from the line of Mark Marcon of Baird. Your line is now open.

Mark Marcon

Analyst

I was wondering if you could drill down a little bit in the U.S. in terms of coming off of the bottom, just comparing and contrasting the recovery in terms of Manpower brand versus Experis and how the trends have unfolded? And what you're seeing now and how you think that plays out over the coming quarter? And then I have a follow up. Thank you.

Jonas Prising

Management

Good morning, Mark. Yes, we saw good recover in Q3 with really a quick improvement from the -35% decline in Manpower. So, we as Jack just indicated expect to see a continued improvement into Q4 but at a slower rate. Talent solutions really came back very strong. And you heard us talking in our prepared remarks about the strength and right management from an outplacement perspective, from an MSP perspective, continued good growth and a very, very strong rebound from RPO that now is at a much better position with a very strong pipeline that we expect to continue to perform very well for us into the coming quarters. And then, Experis, as we had expected, could still see some overhang from some enterprise clients and projects. And we talked about this in the Q2, but overall performing to our expectations with more opportunity, as we look ahead there as well.

Mark Marcon

Analyst

To be honest, can you can you talk a little bit more about Experis just in terms of how the monthly trends have unfolded? And have you kind of hit a bottom there and it's starting to bounce back? Or should it stay at these levels? And to what extent is that primarily driven by specific clients that you have exposure to relative to what you would anticipate, the overall industry is doing in terms of whether it's IT or F&A?

Jack McGinnis

Management

Hey, Mark. I can add a little more detail on that. So I'd say, looking at Experis, we went from -12%, in Q2 to -16.5% constant currency in Q3. So, what we said at the end of Q2, as we were starting to see select enterprise clients there was some slowdown, mainly due to some projects that were expiring, some of that was actually COVID-19 related projects. And we saw that as we exited the second quarter, and we anticipated that that would run through the third quarter and pull the rate down a bit. So that was anticipated I would say it really is select clients. I would say that that work was lower margin in the scheme of things. Experis U.S. actually expanded their GP margin in the third quarter year-over-year, which was great to see. So margin is holding up very, very well in the Experis business. And I would say what we're seeing now going into the fourth quarter, it's holding pretty steady. And so I think, our anticipated guidance for the U.S. for the fourth quarter is steady improvement and we're expecting a slight improvement in Experis as well.

Mark Marcon

Analyst

Great. And then from a longer term perspective. Can you talk a little bit about the anticipation in terms of -- you mentioned the lockdown activities in France? Is it your general expectation that the lockdowns will be targeted across all of Europe in the same manner and how you're thinking about that? And then specifically in France, Jack, can you talk a little bit more about the French tax rate in ‘21, because that seems like a real positive.

Jonas Prising

Management

Mark, what we're seeing across Europe are different forms of lockdowns, depending on the country you have seen, Ireland just implement a pretty significant lockdown posture for the next two weeks. But overall, we believe that the governments are trying to [Technical Difficulty] targeted social distancing lockdown measures today to avoid having to resort to the more wholesale material lockdowns that we saw in the spring, because they were very damaging to the economy. And based on what we've seen and I just came back from a long trip in Europe visiting all of our major markets, all governments have indicated that there is their desire is not to return and their intent is to do everything possible not to return to the wholesale lockdown approach that they had in the spring, but rather affect the spread of the virus by controlling, the socializing aspects that appears to be the main source of the spread of the disease by shopping, bars, reducing hours when people socialize outside of their home, and things like that. So that's really what we're expecting. And I think it is reasonable unless things take a dramatic turn for the worse across the continent that that's what we'll see in most major European economies.

Jack McGinnis

Management

And Mark on the CVAE or the French business tax, I think, I guess the way I would phrase that is, it's easier to put it in perspective when you think about our pre-crisis, effective tax rate. And so we've talked about a pre-crisis effective tax rate around 34% that was our original guide for 2020 before the crisis. And you know that the French business tax has an outsized impact, and we've been obviously above that rate. But if you think about that, 34% we've always said the French business tax is about 6% to 7% of the 34%. It really has a significant impact on our global effective tax rate. And, the French government's indication that they're looking to reduce that by 50%. But think of that 6% to 7% will really be reduced by about 3% to 3.5%. And so that's a good way to think of it. I think as we are operating here in 2020 at reduced levels of profitability, the French business tax has temporarily had an outsized impact. So that's been much greater than the 6% to 7%, this year that we talked about in previous quarters, although it is improving. So as we go forward, I would think that reduction is going to help that outsized impact and it will lower our effective tax rate if it's approved as currently drafted.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question is from the line of Kevin McVeigh of Credit Suisse. Your line is now open.

Kevin McVeigh

Analyst

Hey, Jack or Jonas, give us sense of just the trends in the gross margin. It seems like the professionals been stronger than maybe some of the lesser skills, but it seems like the margins year-on-year is obviously still some pressure there, maybe help us understand what's driving that.

Jonas Prising

Management

Yes, Kevin. I'd be happy to. I actually wouldn't say that. I would say that margin is held up fairly well, overall, this year. And that actually has been a positive due to what we've been seeing in terms of the staffing margin in our businesses. And you can see on the GP bridge, that staffing margins actually held up quite well. And we've seen that pretty consistently over the last couple of quarters. We did call out we did have a positive benefit from some direct cost accrual adjustments and we put that to the side in our GP margin walk. But I would say on both the Manpower and the Experis business, we've actually seen pretty stable margin from -- we've acknowledged the shift to the enterprise client. But I think in the scheme of things, if you look at our staffing margin, it's actually held up very well year-over-year. So I would say when we look at our -- some of our largest countries, the U.S. margin has gone up year-over-year GP margin, Japan has gone up year-over-year, Canada, France has gone up year-over-year. So we're seeing actually pretty stable conditions from -- in terms of the trend that we're seeing going into the fourth quarter on some of the staffing margin.

Kevin McVeigh

Analyst

Got it. And then, just check any thoughts on buybacks [indiscernible] the quarter? Would you feel comfortable kind of reengage in or how you thinking about that?

Jonas Prising

Management

Yes. I guess, Kevin, I'd say when it comes to capital allocation, our strategy has not changed. I think looking back at -- when we ended the last quarter, we were pretty open that we were still early on in the recovery. And we're very focused on the balance sheet and balance sheet strength. I think as we sit here today, I would say we have a very, very strong balance sheet. We're very well positioned. And we don't pre-announce share repurchases, but you could expect that we'd be very focused on capital allocation in the fourth quarter. And I'll leave it at that.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question is from the line of George Tong of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

George Tong

Analyst

You talked about seeing a relatively uneven recovery across businesses in geographies. Can you provide constant currency revenue trends by month during the quarter and in October to-date for the overall company as well as your largest markets; France, Spain, the U.S.?

Jack McGinnis

Management

Yes, George. This is Jack. I guess, I'll help you a little bit on that. I think in terms of the monthly trends, we did add some of that detail last time. But I guess with the improvement that we've seen and with the guidance we did pull back on some of that just to limit the time of our prepared remarks. But what I would say, if you look at the quarterly trend during the course of the quarter, we would start on a consolidated basis. July was probably about minus 19%, organic days adjusted. August and September, were both around -13%. I think, August is always a little bit of a funny month due to the holidays. So I wouldn't read anything into that trend. I think the main trend is we started at -19% and we ended a closer to -13%, -13.5% on an ADR basis. So good, underlying improvement over the course of the quarter overall. I'd say in October on an overall basis, I think we gave an indication of what we were seeing in our largest businesses as part of our prepared remarks. I guess what I would say is you should expect that that -13.5% that we saw for the month of September, we'll see slight improvement going into October. And that gives you a pretty good idea of what we're looking at currently.

George Tong

Analyst

Got it. That's helpful. And then, on the margin side, you talked about funding investments, while exercising cost controls. Can you elaborate on what your investment spending initiatives look like for 4Q as well as what's already baked into guide?

Jack McGinnis

Management

Yes, George, I'd say, first and foremost, we've been very consistent in discussing our technology initiatives. So we continue to spend on technology, we've talked in the past regarding our power suite initiatives, those are going very well, we're making a lot of progress. Those continued, we have not slowed those down. So that continues to be in our cost base. I would say, as we continue to look at where we're spending, we are positioning ourselves for the growth. So where we're seeing, good increases in demands and kind of going back to my comments regarding FTEs coming back into the business. We are investing in the business and specifically in terms of where we see the most demand. We've talked about our Experis business in the past, we continue to make those investments in those markets, where there is strong demand and we're seeing good progress. So that is part of what is incorporated into our fourth quarter guidance as well. And I would say that would follow what you would expect in terms of the progress we're seeing in our largest markets. That's where you should expect there is some incremental investment happening in those areas where skills are in demand.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question is from the line of Seth Weber of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Seth Weber

Analyst

Hey, Jack, just following up on that last answer and tying together a couple of your prior answers just on capital allocation. A lot of discussion around building out the digital, capabilities, you're sitting here with a net cash balance sheet. Can we expect that there might be some more M&A on the digital side to enhance that part of the business? Is that an option that you're considering as well, in addition to repo?

Jack McGinnis

Management

Yes. I guess I would say that that's really what we were talking about, when we were saying the strategy really hasn't changed. I think we've been very open that we continue to look at our capital allocation strategy, we have a very good track record on share repurchases. But we also -- we've talked about the fact that as part of our diversification. We do keep an eye out for potential acquisitions where they make sense. Now, with that being said, we've also -- we always have been very careful in that regard. And we were focused on the opportunities from a professional staffing side, as well as from a solution side. So that's really unchanged. And that is something that we continue to have as part of our overall strategy and capital allocation. And if there isn't an acquisition, then you should expect that we would continue to look at share repurchases as a vehicle to return cash to our shareholders.

Seth Weber

Analyst

Okay. And then just a follow up on the Talent Solutions. It sounds like there's some good trends going on there. Is that all U.S. or are you starting to see many more traction internationally on that side of the business?

Jonas Prising

Management

Well, Seth, we're certainly seeing it in the U.S., but we really seeing it also across the world, maybe to a lesser degree at this stage. But we feel very good about the positioning. And as you heard in our prepared remarks, we've been recognized as the global leader in TAPFIN and our pipeline looks strong on that slide RPO was coming back strong and of course, right management has also had a very good quarter within especially the career transition offerings. So we feel good about Talent Solutions as a whole in our positioning there. And it's really tying back to what Jack just said around diversification and how we feel good about our strategy around diversification and that it's really benefited us and it's come back strong here in the third quarter and we hope to continue to see some good improvement also into the fourth quarter.

Jack McGinnis

Management

The only other color, I'd give on that Seth is, right management, the majority of that increase was in the U.S. So the U.S. is the market where we've seen the outplacement activity that has not transpired in Europe. So when we think about the increase in right management that we talked about majority of that fell in the U.S. And that was part of that 30% increase in right management in the U.S. that I referred to earlier.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And at this point, we don't have any more questions on queue.

Jonas Prising

Management

Great. Thank you. That brings us to the end of our Q3 earnings call. We look forward to speaking with all of you again for our fourth quarter earnings call in January. Thanks everyone, and have a good rest of the week.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.