New three-part series outlines how the national staffing leader is leveraging agentic AI to strengthen, not replace, the relationships at the heart of employment

CINCINNATI, May 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Staffmark Group, one of the nation's leading workforce solutions providers, today announced a strategic commitment to people-centered agentic AI, backed by specific 2026 performance targets, and launched a new thought leadership series documenting how the company is putting that commitment into practice.

The series, titled Finding Heart in the Agentic Era, is authored by CEO Stacey Lane and launches as AI adoption accelerates across the staffing and workforce industry. Staffmark Group is moving beyond experimentation, committing to specific performance benchmarks tied to its AI deployment by the end of 2026.

Among the targets the company has set:

• Reducing average time-to-hire by four days through AI-assisted screening and scheduling
• Increasing recruiter interview capacity from 14.3 to 18.5 per week
• Returning approximately 60 hours per recruiter per year to high-value candidate engagement
• Freeing up 30% of recruiter capacity through AI-driven workflow automation

Part 1: Space, Not Speed — The True Value of Agentic AI | Read here
The first article identifies three pitfalls of speed-centric AI — automating away the human welcome, letting algorithms replace judgment, and optimizing for throughput over engagement — and offers practical guidance for employers scaling AI with intention.

Part 2: Two AI Agents, One Hiring Journey | Read here
The second article, introduces Staffmark's framework for defining and assigning AI agents with clear roles, guardrails, and accountability while distinguishing between quiet background agents that organize data, coordinate workflows, and manage compliance behind the scenes and conversational agents that interact directly with job seekers and employers.

Part 3: Innovation on Wheels — How Staffmark Tests Agentic AI Where Work Happens | Coming late May
The third article details how Staffmark's Mobile Innovation Lab validates agentic AI in live hiring environments before scaling. Rather than testing in isolation, Staffmark brings technology directly into branches, onsite locations, and client environments across different geographies, industries, and labor markets.

"AI agents are not replacements for recruiters," said Stacey Lane, CEO of Staffmark Group. "When deployed intentionally, they expand capacity so recruiters can apply judgment, deepen relationships, and improve workforce outcomes. The organizations that win in the agentic era will be those that build trust at scale and use technology to strengthen what makes work work."

Radi Jaarsma, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Transformation, added: "Who will the agentic era reward? Not the employers that automate the fastest, but the ones that integrate AI with intention and accountability. In hiring, you cannot test in theory. AI has to work in real employment workflows, with real people, under real pressure."

The full Finding Heart in the Agentic Era series is available at www.staffmark.com.

About Staffmark Group
Staffmark Group is one of the largest staffing companies in the United States and is a portfolio company of the SBU Staffing, called RGF Staffing, of Recruit Group, a $23.62 billion global HR services provider at the forefront of innovation with trailblazing brands like Indeed and Glassdoor. For more than 55 years, Staffmark Group has delivered the industry's widest range of tailored workforce solutions through its family of specialty brands, including Staffmark, Advantage Technical, Hunter Hamilton, Digital People, and Employee Management Services (EMS). Operating across a network of over 400 branches and 250 onsite locations, Staffmark Group places over 175,000 talented individuals annually. To learn more about Staffmark Group, visit www.staffmarkgroup.com.

About RGF Staffing:
RGF Staffing is a leading global HR services provider with activities in Asia Pacific, Europe, Japan and North America. Every day around 298,000 people work for businesses and institutions via the RGF Staffing network. RGF Staffing is part of Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. For further information please visit www.rgfstaffing.com.

* The USD equivalent of Recruit Holdings' FY2023 consolidated revenue of ¥3.41 trillion, calculated using the average exchange rate of 144.59 JPY/USD for FY2023.

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SOURCE Staffmark Group