Resources Connection, Inc.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Resources Connection, Inc. conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. At this time, I would like to remind everyone that management will be commenting on results for the first quarter ended August 27, 2022. They will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. An explanation and reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures are included in the press release issued today. Today's press release can be viewed in the investor relations section of RGP's website and also filed today with the SEC. Also during this call, management may make forward-looking statements regarding plans, initiatives, and strategies in the anticipated financial performance of the company. Such statements are predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. Please see the risk factor section in RGP's report on Form 10-K for the year ended May 28, 2022, for a discussion of risk, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the company's business, results of operations, and financial condition to differ materially from what is expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made during this call. I'll now turn the call over to RGP's CEO, Kate Duchesne.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for being with us. We're pleased to report sustained robust performance in Q1. Specifically, Q1 revenue was 17% higher than prior year, excluding the task force business, which we divested at the end of May. Growth margin improved 190 basis points over prior year to 40.9%. Growth profit improved almost 17% quarter over quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 280 basis points over prior year to 15%. These results exceeded our guidance as we grew top line, improved pricing, and maintained disciplined cost management. During our prior call, we outlined the strategic objectives for fiscal year 23. I will briefly comment on technology and digitalization initiatives as we are progressing on all fronts. We've launched our technology modernization project to support continued top line growth and drive greater operational efficiency. This project will take approximately 24 months to complete globally. To remind you, we are replacing our core ERP system, our core talent acquisition and management system, and implementing a contract management product. These technology modernizations will help us automate and provide collaboration tools for the new ways of working. We believe it will allow us to continue to improve our financial performance as we replace manual process with technology-enabled workflows. During the quarter, we also advanced the development of our digital engagement platform, Hugo, by RGP. We have expanded our reach into California and are on track with our strategy. The next regional focus for Hugo will be Texas, which we are planning to launch in the second half of this fiscal year. Google enables us to attract finance and accounting talent who are earlier in their careers and want to pursue their work life through a state-of-the-art professional staffing platform, which allows talent and clients to match skills and opportunity directly. We're pleased with the volume and quality of candidates published on the platform and continue to receive favorable client experience feedback. With respect to our brand development work, and as announced during our investor day in April, we launched several initiatives to refresh our brand's position, including a new tagline, Dare to Work Differently. This tagline speaks to the business model we pioneered in the late 90s when we were first to market offering expert, diverse professionals the ability to control their own career paths. It acknowledges and affirms our consultants' decision to work differently and is a rallying cry encouraging our clients to embrace more agility in their human capital strategy. Most importantly, it challenges us to own our position of strength in today's world of work as we amplify our brand. What you can expect to see in the coming months is a refreshed website as well as thought leadership based on RGT-led market research, offering perspectives on how organizations are managing their most mission-critical projects, particularly in the face of challenging economic times, talent shortages, and a hybrid working world. We have also continued to expand our PR program, garnering earned media coverage in Bloomberg Markets, Yahoo Finance, Chief Executive, News Nation, and other major outlets, as well as appearances on prominent business podcasts. We will continue our efforts throughout the year to build brand recognition through learning opportunities for our clients and consultants. Our brand work could not come at a better time to align to the prevailing trends in the contingent workforce marketplace. Pandemics reorder society. This one is no different and has radically transformed how work gets done. We have been in this pandemic for over 900 days. there is no doubt new habits have formed. Talent is mobile and empowered with career control like never before, and immigration policy and retirement trends warrant that professional talent shortages aren't going to resolve anytime soon. According to a staffing industry analyst July 2022 report, there are 6.7 million more openings in the job market than unemployed individuals available for full-time work. While the jobs report just yesterday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated a 5% drop in job openings August over August, these numbers confirm that there remains a wide gap in talent need and talent supply. Therefore, it's no wonder employers are actively rethinking their talent strategies to compete in this new environment. In fact, many companies recognizing these trends as foundational and generational shifts are embracing a more hybrid talent strategy whereby they allocate an increasing number of positions and roles to contingent rather than traditional permanent workers. According to a recent SIA research report, buyers expect that 22% of their workforce will be contingent by 2024. This is up from 12% in 2009. The trend toward embracing a shift in workforce models is so pronounced FIA has finally given the movement a name, Total Talent Strategy. According to FIA, because of critical talent shortages, many large organizations are actively accelerating workforce planning innovation. While we remain mindful of current macroeconomic conditions and uncertainty, the trends I've just touched upon present continued opportunities for our GPs. Our business model, which prizes mobility, flexibility, and choice, align strongly to today's reordered world of work. We empower expert, diverse professionals with ultimate career control and work with clients every day to deliver support for mission-critical work and transformation initiatives that continue to progress even in the face of recessionary pressures. While we read and hear every day about high inflation, increased interest rates, and growing recessionary pressures, We still see capital improvement and other business transformation work moving forward. These kinds of projects were delayed in COVID and are not being decommissioned, even given market uncertainty. We believe this supports our point of view that the migration to agile talent models is real and will be an increasingly important solution in the evolving world of work. I'll close by highlighting an example of culture and innovation at RGP. In the face of two recent disasters, a serious earthquake in Mexico and the devastating Hurricane Ian in Florida, a creative and caring group of cross-functional employees came together to design and implement a new global disaster protocol. The driving force for the work was to ensure we could connect with our people quickly to offer the right level of response and personal support. Using a survey tool in Workday, this group launched an automated standardized new process that enables us to check on the safety of our people as quickly as possible and deploy support as needed. The protocol has been incredibly well received by our employees and highlights the power of human at work at RGP. I want to recognize and thank this group of self-starters who exemplified the best of RGP. bringing empathy, creativity, and drive to make an impact for each other and the world at large. I'll now turn the call over to Tim for an update on operations.

Thank you, Kate, and good afternoon, everyone. During the first quarter, we saw strong revenue growth, operational metrics, and margin performance. Pipeline build and closed deals were also robust, and the momentum we had noted at the end of the fourth quarter continued in Q1 and through September, despite the return of traditional impacts related to summer vacation. With excluding task force, revenue increased by 17% of the prior year quarter on a same-day constant currency basis, and the demand profile for our services demonstrated strength throughout the quarter. Geographic performance in the quarter was solid across our core business, with strategic accounts, Asia Pacific, North America, healthcare, county, and veracity all performing well. Along with some turbulence related to the macro environment, Europe experienced significant vacation impact as anticipated. While we have performed well in the current economic environment and our operational indicators remain strong, we are cognizant of recessionary trends that could impact our customer base. However, as we have set in the past, as companies continue to shift their focus to co-delivery of important initiatives, we have become more embedded in the fabric of their enterprise workforce plan. Also, as we have learned during the pandemic, the pace of change in our client base is not abating. We remain cautiously optimistic that despite necessary awareness in our client base related to macroeconomic trends, there remains opportunity for RGP as companies continue to fashion flexible solutions to forge ahead on important projects. One favorable trend that is increasingly prevalent is the importance that clients are placing on value, which has long been our hallmark, as RGP provides experts who actually execute the work directly versus leveraging a pyramid structure that is common in big consulting. As an example, a top-tier commercial and investment bank has utilized big consulting over the last couple of years to help them transform. As they evaluated their current and upcoming portfolio of initiatives, two things became increasingly evident. An over-reliance on large consulting firms utilizing junior talent for much of the work product, and the increasingly prohibitive cost of those relationships, particularly as they shifted into the project execution phase. As a result, our account team was given an opportunity to propose on its Google services, and we were successful in shifting several projects to RGP, including work to support a significant divestiture. There is also more opportunity on the horizon to shift work from the wallet share of larger competitors, a process we shorthand as shift share. Another example of shift share occurred in a large pharmaceutical client that was struggling with the user experience their intranet was offering to their employees. The main charter of the site was to be a place where colleagues could quickly find answers so they could get back to the important work of making breakthroughs that changed patients' lives. A larger firm had implemented this new technology, and as stakeholders began to use the platform, the client realized they did not provide the ease and utility they expected. Instead of turning back to the consultancy that had done the initial implementation, the client gave voracity and opportunity to propose on an overall assessment with particular emphasis on user journeys and experience. veracity one-map proposal, and the project has been so well-received that we are proposing on significant additional work. On the candidate side of our business, the first quarter demonstrated continued strength in our ability to attract and retain premium talent to our platform. RGP is increasingly viewed as an attractive alternative to traditional employment, both in professional services and in industry. That talent is more drawn to the flexibility, career ownership, and community that RGP provides. Despite current economic concerns, the labor market continues to be very tight, and our team's task with the attraction, engagement, and deployment of talent are performing with excellence. Attrition has lowered the quality, and strong hiring trends have persisted as we have become the premier destination for professional talent that is daring to work differently. This strong trend continues despite some of the hiring freezes and layoffs that in previous periods of volatility may have created a sense of anxiety and perhaps a flight to traditional employment. In fact, hiring freezes and reductions in workforce help to amplify the increasingly small chasm between traditional and agile employment. This realization, coupled with a shift in the way people desire to live and work, makes RGP a very attractive employment destination. A clear example of this can be seen in the decision of one of our West Coast consultants. Working as an RGP consultant for over a year at a large technology company, he was approached numerous times for a variety of different job opportunities. He had repeatedly declined, noting that he enjoyed the control he had over his schedule and that he was positioned to help his client be successful without having the stress of project ownership. He admitted that the current macro environment made him think harder about a recent offer, but that his desire for flexibility and love of the RGP community, along with headlines about layoffs and other technology companies, cemented his desire to remain an RGPer. We also continued to see boomerangs of alumni who returned to us after leaving to work on other opportunities. These individuals are so important to our company as they are living embodiments of the agility that people seek and the experience that we work hard to provide for them. They are excellent ambassadors and can provide cautionary tales about leaving our platform. They help us cement the culture and community and co-work with new joiners, which is very important, particularly for those who are trying agile employment for the first time. Our recent rumor rank shared that she missed the culture and family environment at RGP and lamented that sometimes you must believe to appreciate what you have. While that is true, we are committed to continuing to build an environment that is hard to leave at all. Now let me turn back to our first quarter operations. During the quarter, we saw pipeline growth fueled by strong overall demand. We continue to make progress with respect to pricing, increasing bill rates by 3% on a constant currency basis compared to prior year quarters. We see pricing leverage as an opportunity across the enterprise, even in a potentially more challenging macro environment, as value is paramount to clients. While we are mindful of potentially broader impacts based on economic conditions, early second quarter revenue and operational trends are in line with Q1 trends. Finally, let me touch on operational leverage. In Q1, we continue to focus on controlling fixed costs and operating efficiency. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved significantly over prior year quarter. We will remain vigilant about discretionary spend and work diligently to continue to improve operating leverage. I will now turn the call over to Jen for a more detailed review of our first quarter results.

Thank you, Tim, and good afternoon, everyone. We achieved another outstanding quarter, one of the best first fiscal quarters in the company's history. Revenue of $204.1 million exceeded the high end of our guidance. On same-day constant currency basis and excluding the impact of the task force divestiture, we grew revenue 17% year-over-year and 0.4% sequentially from the fourth quarter despite summer vacation in Q1. In addition to the strong top line growth, we also expanded our adjusted EBITDA margin by 280 basis points from the prior year quarter to 15%, a record first quarter margin, and a team staff deleted EPS of $0.53 per share for the quarter. Overall, demand remains healthy despite uncertainties in the macro environment. Our strong revenue performance in Q1 was broad-based across all client segments in our core business. including strategic global accounts and regional accounts, with 15% growth and 10% growth year-over-year, and was led by solution areas in finance and accounting, technology and digital, and business transformation. Revenue and project consulting and on-demand talent both grew approximately 12% year-over-year. Geographically, North America and Asia Pacific both performed well, with 18% and 20% year-over-year growth on a same-day constant currency basis, while Europe declined slightly by 1% as a result of heavy summer vacations, as we had anticipated. While we were beginning to see some softness in pockets of the European client base, the growing recession in Europe did not have any material impact on our Q1 performance in the region. So its margin in the first quarter was 40.9%, up 190 basis points over the same quarter a year ago. PRIMARILY DRIVEN BY AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PAY BILL RATIO OF 230 BASIS POINTS. WE RAISED OUR AVERAGE BILL RATE TO $130 CONSTANT CURRENCY FROM 126 IN Q1 OF FISCAL 22, A 3.2% IMPROVEMENT, WHILE U.S. AVERAGE BILL RATE ROSE BY 5.4%. AVERAGE PAY RATE WAS ALSO SAVABLE AT $62 CONSTANT CURRENCY COMPARED TO 63 IN THE PRIOR YEAR QUARTER. We remain disciplined with cost management and investment oversight in the business. Our runway SG&A expense for this quarter was 53.1 million, or 26% of revenue, or 100 basis point improvements compared to the same period a year ago. As a reminder, runway SG&A excludes non-cash stock compensation, restructuring charges, continued consideration, and technology transformation costs. The three main levers for SG&A that we continue to focus on, our management compensation, occupancy, and business travel expenses. First, in the face of recessionary pressure, we will closely monitor our headcount investment to match the pace of demand and business activity while driving forward our growth strategy in key areas of the business. Second, we will continue to drive reduction in our real estate while reaping benefits from our previous efforts over the last two years. OPPORTUNITY COSTS IN THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR IS EXPECTED TO BE FAVORABLE BY ANOTHER 2 MILLION OR 17% OVER FISCAL 22. LASTLY, WE WILL REMAIN DISAPPOINTED WITH THE LEVEL OF BUSINESS TRAVEL AND EXPECT TO SUSTAIN THE COST REDUCTION ACHIEVED IN THE PREVIOUS FISCAL YEAR. THIRTY TO OUR LIQUIDITY. AS EXPECTED, WE USED APPROXIMATELY 5.3 MILLION OF CASH IN OPERATIONS DURING THE FIRST QUARTER DUE TO OUR ANNUAL BONUS PAYOUT IN THE SUMMER. We repaid $34 million of outstanding debt, lowering our debt leverage ratio from 0.6 to 0.2, and ended the fiscal quarter with $72.6 million of cash and cash equivalents. Now let me address three macroeconomic trends and how they impact our business. First on inflation. Sharp inflation understandably places cost pressure on our business, primarily in the area of employee consultant raise and compensation, given that's the most significant cost in the business. We're focused on providing competitive pay to our employees while raising bill rates and have been successful in alleviating the margin pressure from wage inflation and will continue to do so in the future. In a contracting economic environment, we believe our value proposition becomes more appealing compared to our competitors who are often more expensive, leading to ample opportunities to continue driving bill rates upward. Second on currency, particularly with respect to the strengthening U.S. dollar, While the translation of our operating results is subject to fluctuations in the exchange rates of foreign currencies, we believe our economic exposure to such fluctuations is not material. Our foreign entities typically transact with clients and consultants in their respective local currencies and generate healthy cash flows to fund their own operations. There is a limited number of circumstances where we may be asked to transact with our client in one currency but are obligated to pay our consultant in another currency. Last on interest rates. At the current debt level, we do not expect any material impact on rising interest rates, nor our ability to service such debt. In the event of higher debt levels, our ability to generate cash will enable us to deleverage quickly. As always, we will remain prudent in how we leverage debt to grow the business, whether organically or strategically. I'll close with our second quarter outlook. Early second quarter weekly revenue trend has been stable. While there's more caution in general within our client base, critical projects are still being initiated and executed, albeit at a more deliberate pace. More than ever, in the face of macro headlines, our deep relationship with our clients and our expert talent base have positioned us to compete and win opportunities. Our second quarter revenue is estimated to be in the range of $196 to $201 million, representing growth over the prior year quarter excluding . So its marginal N2Q is expected to be in the range of 40 to 41 percent, reflecting the impact on Thanksgiving holidays. Finally, our runway SG&A is expected to be in the range of 54 to 58 million. We continue to make progress in our technology transformation project and expect cash outlays to be in the range of 3 to 5 million in the second quarter, of which approximately 55 percent will be capitalized, with the remaining to be recognized as non-recurring operating expenses. With that, I will open up the call for Q&A.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. Please stand by as we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird. You may proceed.

Good afternoon and really nice to see the strong first quarter results. Can you talk a little bit about the progress that you're seeing with Hugo? You're expanding that to California and Texas. What have you seen so far in New York in terms of the take-up and And how meaningful is it, you know, in terms of revenue and.

Yeah, hi, Mark, and thanks for the question. So we have launched in the tri state areas we talked about. in the last fiscal year, and we've just launched in California, both Northern California and Southern California. So we're on track with our strategy. We've hired some additional sales personnel to support the platform, and we've been building talent pools in the particular geographies where we're expanding. as we return to more hybrid or on-site work, we'll have talent available to fill the need. So, so far we're on track, but it's early days, and the budget for Hugo is not material this year in light of our overall results.

Okay. But it is meeting expectations in terms of

um you know what you were expecting out of the tri-state area in terms of kind of the initial stages yeah we're on track we feel good about where we are i mean um migrating to this alternative channel is something that will take some time especially as we're targeting more digitally native buyers And so that takes some time. You know, I think we shared on a previous call, Mark, we had a client who loved the experience, went through the digital engagement, but came out the other end saying, don't let me lose the connection to my client service personnel as well. So I think we're still going through a stage where we're learning new behaviors and new channels and the efficiency of it. And as we've said before, this will be a learning year as we bring this platform to life.

Great. And then the 17% growth that you ended up experiencing on a constant currency basis when we strip out task force, that was terrific. I'm wondering, how is the growth split between project consulting and management services versus on-demand talent and professional search?

Yeah. Hey, Mark. On-demand talent and project consulting, both segments grew about 12% year-over-year. And when I say 12% there, you know, it's not constant currency and same day. So, you know, so I would say that the growth is evenly split between the two segments.

Okay. Great. And then with regards to Europe during the last quarter, obviously, task force came out. It still seemed a little bit softer than what we were looking for. I'm wondering, was that broad-based across Europe, or was it one country or two countries specifically that may have been a little bit softer and any sort of projects that that would have been associated with?

Hey, Mark. Well, I would say it was fairly broad-based. Remember, our largest practice in Europe in Europe is in the UK, and a lot of the reading had to do with a full complement of vacation, some of the roiling of the markets, and then, you know, those all kinds of things that happened with the Queen and other things there. So, you know, generally, it wasn't, I don't think it was fully unexpected. There were some things that occurred, obviously, that were out of our control that were a little bit unexpected. And we had some timing of projects. Remember, it's a smaller European practice than it's been in the past, and we're focusing really on large projects at larger clients. So some of the timing of those projects can impact where they hit in the quarter.

Great. And then the gross margin improvement was impressive. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, the sustained ability to continue to to raise the bill rates in excess of the pay rates and how you're doing that? And are there specific practices where you're seeing a greater ability to do that?

Yeah. When we address the bill rates, I think, you know, and I'll talk about the pay rates in a second because our approach around pay rates hasn't really changed, but our approach to bill rates really has over the last few quarters as we've been talking about it. You know, some of this kind of comes down to, we always talk about having both mindset and mechanics. And I think we've done a pretty good job of shifting people's mindset to the concept of pricing to value. I mean, prior to this year, prior to last year, we hadn't really focused. We've been more of a cost plus as opposed to pricing to value. So we've made some of those strides. We've brought in some assets to help us around strategic pricing. So we've put folks through training. We've tightened up governance. And so that mechanic, those mechanics are helping to enforce the mindset and the market can take it. I mean, the reality of it is that we've been under market for many years. So our ability to continue to raise pricing, I still think there's plenty of upside there. So with respect to pay rates, our pay rates have been fairly consistent, but we price to market. We don't negotiate against our consultants. We want to pay them. We want to pay them a fair wage to come and work for us and pay them for every hour that they work. And the result of that is we're in the market a lot, both for using external surveys, but also just in our experience to make sure that we're paying the right amount to our folks. And so the reality of it is that that muscle in our business is a little further ahead than our muscle in pricing, and we really look to flex the pricing muscle now.

Yeah, let me just add something also on pay rates. which is, you know, in some parts of the business, we are hiring offshore talent. And so that definitely is the favorability that you're seeing this quarter, you know, in pay rates. Some of it comes from that as well. And that's something that we're going to continue to focus on going forward to expand that offshore.

That's really helpful and really illuminating. Can you talk a little bit about You know, the 17% constant currency ex-task force growth that you ended up seeing, how did that vary over the course of the quarter? And, you know, how are you seeing that, you know, translate or how are you thinking about that translating into, you know, the guidance that you basically provided for the second quarter? You know, what areas, you know, might potentially slow down? Obviously, we're all aware of the macro headwinds. And so it's natural to assume that there would be some slowing, but just wondering if you can be specific about where you're seeing it.

Yeah, you know, first of all, overall, when I think about the velocity of the business, we're actually fairly consistent through the quarter with some in the latter part of the quarter with some of the holiday impact in Europe impacting us toward the latter third of the quarter. And what we've seen is real consistency and stabilization as we've moved into the second quarter. So, you know, I look at both kind of the trends from a velocity standpoint, but then also looking into where our pipeline is and some of our operational metrics. Those are still strong. What we begin to think about is that things aren't, Things will get a little bit harder. We know that. But our overall demand profile is still really strong. So it kind of comes down to how hard are we willing to grind to get that extra bit of revenue, which I can tell you that we're willing to do that. And the second bit is just understanding that there may be some things, some choppy waters that are outside of our control. And we are putting ourselves in the best position to help our clients. And we'll You know, depending on kind of the wariness or the impact that they're feeling from the macro economy, you know, we'll adjust as we move through.

Yeah. Mark, I'll just add one thing. I was on the phone today with one of our major market leaders talking about the environment and what he's seeing. And one comment he made, which I think has been echoed with a variety of our clients, is, In these economic times, clients don't want to be paying for a lot of advice right now. They really want to be paying those firms that can help them execute the projects that are already on the agenda or underway. And that tells me that we are the right solution for today because we are all about locking arms with our clients and executing those initiatives. And I think that's really what clients are looking for in today's environment.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. One last one for me, and then I'll jump into the queue. But with regards to, you know, one of the questions that we're getting from investors is just, you know, how companies might end up reacting with regards to, you know, if the macro environment significantly slows down, you know, to what levers you would have in order to, you know, reduce expenses if need be. Obviously, you've got a variable cost structure, but I'm wondering if you can just, you know, discuss that a little bit just in terms of, like, what the game plan would be if things do get a lot choppier, you know, over the next, you know, three to nine months.

All right. Well, I'll start by saying we've highlighted that we have a variable cost structure already. It's built into our model, and that makes us more agile than many of our competitors. The other thing I'd say is with the work we've done internally over the last five years, we do have much greater visibility to our data. and to the investments we're making and whether that's paying off and what the trend lines we see in our client buying behaviors. So we can adjust sales or pull levers more quickly than I think we used to be able to do. Keep in mind the two most fundamental elements of our cost structure are headcount and real estate, and we'll continue to look very carefully. I mean, Tim is running our operations with a very careful eye on headcount, replacement, or additions, and we will continue to stay very disciplined. And Jen and her group are continuing to look at our real estate needs and continuing to Slim knows where appropriate. As a firm, we're still operating largely in a hybrid model that seems to be working for our people. We recognize that in today's environment, we are in a new world of work with new behaviors, and in order to attract the very best that can drive growth and profitability, we need to be listening to what talent wants. Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, and as a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. Our next question comes from Mark Riddick with Sudoti. You may proceed.

Hi, good afternoon. Hi, Mark. So I wanted to follow up on the business travel side of things and what you're seeing there. It seems as though you're expecting that to be steady. Are there any particular areas where you're seeing any type of pickup as far as folks looking to, clients looking to engage more face-to-face or any type of visibility that you might have in having that pickup going forward?

Hi, Mark. First of all, in terms of face-to-face travel, a couple of things. I mean, there are a couple of industries where one of them is financial services where they express that they prefer to have more face-to-face in terms of our delivery. And also for us, just in terms of level of concentration in terms of how we serve our clients there, we are pretty face-to-face. And the other one I would say is energy. Those two industries have really asked for more face-to-face. Almost everybody else, including some of the large technology companies, who have sort of said publicly that they want all their employees back in, the reality of it is that almost everybody is working in a hybrid fashion. And the companies who got used to working with excellent talent to help them execute their work and having that work done remotely are willing to give that talent up now. So we haven't seen any major shifts outside of a couple of the issues that I talked about.

Okay, great. Majority of the travel that we are doing, I mean, we are really focused on go-to-market activities and, you know, client-facing activities as opposed to internal travel. So typically we try to keep our travel to, you know, no more than 60 basis points of revenue. That's kind of where the target is, which is about half of what, you know, a little less than half of what we used to spend pre-pandemic.

Great. And then I wanted to shift over to, in discussing the branding opportunities and the messaging that you're moving forward with us, I wanted to talk a little bit about, I guess, maybe how that might roll out strategically or from a timing perspective. Are there any sort of things that we should be thinking about as to sort of that messaging or, you know, Do you wait until after the political season stuff, or is that something that ramps up more after the new year? How should we think about that?

Yeah, I think you'll see before the end of Q2, Mark, you'll see us releasing some new positioning and brand language on our website. We're currently refreshing that. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're also engaged currently in a research project, which will help us deliver some thought leadership for our client base and targets around moving to more agile talent models. And that will be showcasing in Q3, both, I think, before the holidays and then thereafter. And we're going to continue to build on that thought leadership. If you really think about RGP as as a leader in the field of agile human capital models and how we can help clients move more toward agility in their human capital supply chain. You'll see us talking more and more about that and preparing insights and other reports that can help clients along their journey.

Great. And then the last question for me, I was wondering if you thought, are there any sort of shifts or changes that you've seen in strategy when it comes to sort of how your clients are responding not necessarily from a specifically from a macro you know driven kind of recessionary concern area but I mean just from a strategic approach are there any sort of trends that maybe are kind of under the radar that you're seeing that you think might emerge and be more of a contributor going forward thanks

Yeah, I think this whole idea of agility and mobility, it's going to happen with talent pools that are not entirely captive. So, you know, coming out, we are, in our point of view, we're clearly moving out of the baby boomer paradigm where, you know, everyone really aspired to a full-time equivalent job where you worked for only one employer at a time. You climbed the corporate ladder, worked at a specific location, and you worked under a regular set of hours. That is changing. And, you know, while we're still in a period, I think, of flux, what we're going to see through the next 12 to 24 months is how is that paradigm really shifting for the future? And that means, you know, clients have to prepare for more mobility, even in their own captive talent pools. But they also, in order to compete and move faster, have to identify the right kind of process and protocol to insource talent. when they need it for the specialized skillsets they need. And that's really the opportunity for RGP. It's what we do so well and what we think we can continue to do well into the future with more and more clients as they move in that direction. I mean, there are plenty of really leading business people that have said this kind of shift in strategy and how work gets done is coming. I think it's not as widespread as I would have thought it would be right now, but we really feel like that movement is accelerating and that creates opportunity for us. And that's really where we're focused on delivering and putting together, you know, our platform, which brings the right level of care on the talent side and the client side to really be successful in this new way of working.

Much appreciated. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Mark Marcon with Baird. You may proceed.

I had a follow-up. With regard to the new guidance that you gave us, how would you specify which areas would you say would be growing the fastest versus the slowest from a geographic perspective? How should we think about that?

Yeah. Yeah, Mark, I would say the area with geographically, you know, North America and the U.S. probably is still going to accelerate faster than the other geographies. Europe, given that, you know, the growing concerns and the growing kind of recessionary pressure, and economic turmoil going on in Europe, it will be the slower part of the business in the guidance. That's what's baked into the guidance.

Okay. So Europe a little bit slower. And Asia-Pac relative to North America?

Asia-Pac is performing very steadily.

How about from a practice perspective?

In terms of the solution area market, is that what you're inquiring about?

That's right.

Yeah. So, I mean, Tim, you should answer that one.

Yeah. First of all, as you can see, kind of coming out of last year, we had a real boom in finance and accounting, and that continues to be strong. What you see is that there's still a lot of transformative opportunities even despite seeing kind of a slowdown in M&A, there's still a fair amount of transformation that's occurring. So I talked about in my script, divestitures, divestitures that we're working on. There are a number of things that we've teed up around digital transformation that are pretty strong in our pipeline, but both in terms of kind of sheer volume and also in terms of where there is opportunity when you look into the finance and accounting still continues to be the dominant strength.

Okay, great. And then with regards to looking beyond this self-imposed slowdown that's occurring because of interest rates going up, once we get to the other side, you've obviously done a great job in terms of improving the margins. You've got these technology initiatives put in place, which should increase the efficiency. How are you thinking about like You know, where the EBITDA margins can go from a long-term perspective, given the mix of business, once your digital transformation is completed?

Yeah, well, I think, you know, we have our eye on continuing to improve those, not only with the more modern technology platform that we'll put in place and lots of both automated and self-serve possibilities with those state-of-the-art platforms, Also how much of our more on-demand talent we can drive through Hugo, which can improve our efficiency and our financial metrics. So, I mean, we're all about improvement and focused on that. I'm not gonna give you a solid number right now. You know, we've talked about 15%, I think a year and a half ago, and we're achieving that. So we're continuing to drive toward improvement Mark, and we'll keep you updated. That's an aligned commitment by this executive team, and part of it's going to depend on how quickly both clients and talent adapt to some self-serve and automated, you know, aspects of our business workflows. And we're going to do all we can to continue driving that so we stay focused you know, as a top performer in our industry group.

Great. And then just from a shorter-term perspective, how should we think about headcount additions internally over the balance of this year?

Well, from a headcount perspective, you know, as I said in my remarks, we are going to hold headcount steady and obviously, you know, looking at the pace of demand and the pace of business activities. And that's definitely going to be, you know, closely monitored. Although we do still want to, you know, continue growing key areas of the business, such as Hugo and Veracity. So areas of key investments where we need to invest, we're going to move forward. But in other areas, we're really going to watch it very, very cautiously.

Got it. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm not sure any further questions. At this time, I would now like to turn the call back over to Kate Duchesne for any further remarks.

Okay. Thank you, everyone. Thanks again. Look forward to connecting with you after we report our Q2 results. Thanks again.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.