Press Room

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--November 4, 2002--The Staffing Group of Spherion® Corporation (formerly Interim Services), a leading provider of workforce solutions, today announced that it has signed a contract with TALX Corporation (Nasdaq:TALX - News) to use the FasCast(TM) Automated Contact program from TALX to reach out to its thousands of flexible workers across the United States. Enabling Spherion to offer more responsive and efficient staffing services to its clients, the new program reduces the time to identify available workers, fill job requests and to communicate with flexible workers already on assignment. 

This service allows Spherion to make a large number of personalized telephone contacts without the need for manual dialing or human intervention, thus saving time and resources. Call recipients will hear messages recorded by local Spherion representatives and then be able to indicate whether they are interested and available for positions, desire a specific work location or would like to be contacted by a local representative by pressing keypad buttons on their telephone. 

"What once took us days or weeks, now takes a matter of hours. By using FasCast, our clients can enjoy a higher degree of responsiveness and effectiveness that will help them fulfill their workforce needs even more quickly and efficiently than before," said Gary Peck, president of Spherion Staffing. "Because the system can reach hundreds of contacts per minute, we can assemble and deploy a high quality workforce at record pace." 

In addition to reaching out to its pool of potential candidates, the new system can also be used to communicate with workers already on assignment. Employees can be reminded about assignment schedules, missing time sheets or other issues that affect their current assignment. Wake up calls can also be made to those workers who are on early or late shifts. 

In pilot programs, Spherion was able to contact more than 350 candidates in under six minutes. In that time, candidates heard a personalized message from a local Spherion representative and were able to register their preference for an upcoming assignment. Voicemail messages with a call back number were left for those who were unavailable. In addition, a comprehensive report was developed that provided detailed statistics for each call. 

"The pilot was extremely successful and has shown us just how much time we are able to save by using the FasCast service," Peck said. "Within a matter of minutes, we can determine how many people are interested and available for our assignments. Our clients will feel an immediate impact from this as we fill their assignments faster than ever before." 

"As a leading supplier of automated solutions to the staffing industry, we are pleased with the response to our FasCast automated contact services and pleased to provide additional TALX services to Spherion," said Dick Herrmann, managing director for TALX FasTime services. 

About Spherion 

Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN - News) provides Recruitment, Outsourcing and Technology services. As part of the Company's Recruitment business, the Staffing Group offers flexible and temp-to-hire assignments, as well as full time placements for office professional and light industrial staffing needs. The Staffing Group also provides comprehensive on-site workforce management solutions through its On-Premise(SM) and CallSource Plus(SM) services. Spherion currently serves 85% of all Fortune100 companies in an array of industries. Founded in 1946, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, Spherion helps companies efficiently plan, acquire and optimize talent to improve their bottom line. Visit the Company's Web site at http://www.spherionstaffing.com. 

About FasTime 

FasTime(TM) services, provided by TALX Corporation, offer automated solutions for payroll-data centric employee communications, particularly for the staffing industry. FasTime automates time and attendance reporting and can be fully integrated into a company's payroll system. FasCast(TM) Automated Contact services enable clients to deliver hundreds of messages to employees almost instantaneously. All services are available via the Internet or telephone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

About TALX Corporation 

TALX Corporation is a leading business process outsourcer of payroll and human resource services. TALX holds a leadership position in two key employment-related services -- automated employment and income verification services via The Work Number services and unemployment cost management services via UC eXpress. TALX also provides automated time reporting through its FasTime services as well as paperless payroll and W-2 services. Based in St. Louis, MO, TALX empowers users to complete transactions independently utilizing available multimedia including Web, interactive voice response, speech recognition, fax and e-mail. TALX Corporation's common stock trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market® under the symbol TALX. For more information call 314/214-7000 or visit the company's Web site at http://www.talx.com.