Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Korn Ferry's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2022 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded for replay purposes. We have also made available in the investor relations section of our website at kornferry.com a copy of the financial presentation that we will be reviewing with you today. Before I turn the call over to your host, Mr. Gary Burnison, let me first read a cautionary statement to investors. Certain statements made in the call today, such as those relating to future performance, plans and goals, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, excuse me.
Although the company believes expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Actual results in future periods may differ materially from those expected or desired because of a number of risks and uncertainties which are beyond the company's control. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties can be found in the release relating to this presentation and in the periodic and other reports filed by the company with the SEC, including the company's annual report for fiscal year 2021, and in the company's soon to be filed quarterly report for the quarter ended October 31, 2021. Also, some of the comments today may reference non-GAAP financial measures such as constant currency amounts, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.
Additional information concerning these measures, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, is contained in the financial presentation and earnings release relating to this call, both of which are posted in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.kornferry.com. With that, I'll turn the conference over to Mr. Burnison. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Tom. Good morning. Pleased to report that Korn Ferry once again achieved all-time financial performance highs. Revenue was up 47% and our diluted and adjusted diluted EPS were $0.38 and $0.53, respectively. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 21.1%. You know, I think our performance over recent quarters has reached a new level of scale, and it speaks to the resiliency and agility of our colleagues, as well as our operational excellence amid a time of enormous transition and secular change. This aligns with our businesses. Today, wherever and whenever strategy meets talent, Korn Ferry is at that cross section, enabling agility in a world that will undoubtedly be in transition for the next several years.
Our strategy in the new year will be to continue to innovate, replicate, and scale, allowing people and organizations to see their potential in this rapidly changing world. Elements of our strategy will include driving a top-down go-to-market strategy through our marquee and regional accounts, which represent about 36% of our portfolio. This not only facilitates growth and enduring partnerships, but it also key to more scalable and durable revenues. For example, in the quarter, about 30% of our revenue was driven by cross referrals within our firm, demonstrating the effectiveness of our go-to-market strategy. Although our search businesses, both Pro Search and Executive Search, combined represent about 45% of our revenue, we believe there's still substantial market opportunity ahead given the acceleration of an increasingly nomadic labor market.
It's one of the reasons we acquired the Lucas Group during the quarter, a move that adds breadth and depth to Korn Ferry's Search portfolio. Looking at our Digital and Consulting businesses, we will continue to innovate, marrying Korn Ferry's capabilities with tomorrow's opportunities, from ESG to DE&I to M&A services. We're also gonna further push the monetization of our IP and move more of our Digital business to a subscription offering. We're gonna also scale our learning development outsourcing or LDO capabilities, leveraging our Korn Ferry Advance platform, in which we now have completed 50,000 development and coaching sessions. Lastly, we're gonna deploy a balanced capital allocation strategy, including a disciplined approach to M&A.
Looking ahead, I truly feel we have the strategy, the people, the diversity of solutions and expertise to help our clients drive performance in this new world, and our results clearly reflect this reality. We look forward to keeping up the momentum in the new year ahead. With that, I'm joined by Bob Rozek and Gregg Kvochak. Bob, I'll turn it over to you.
Great. Thanks, Gary. Good morning, good afternoon, depending on where you are in the world. Let me start with a few comments before I jump into the second quarter results. I've, you know, always felt that the best way to measure success is through performance and our, you know, if you look at our performance coming out of the COVID recession, you know, it's really been and continues to be exceptional, and that's reflected in our Q2 results. Now, there's no doubt that the world we live in has changed for good. You know, today more than ever, our clients are facing unprecedented organizational and human capital challenges as workforces are transformed and digitized, as corporations are called upon to have greater environmental, social, and governance responsibilities.
As organizations strive to have work environments that are inclusive and free from bias, or even as companies are challenged to grow in a post-COVID environment. These are real secular changes creating real and challenging business issues for companies across the globe. You know, it's a fact that no business issue has ever been solved without the involvement of people. That's really where Korn Ferry comes in. I mean, that's our sweet spot. Our core and integrated solutions line up perfectly with the secular changes that companies across the globe are wrestling with today, whether it's finding the right talent in a dislocated labor market to accelerating their top-line growth or to even keeping employees engaged, motivated, appropriately rewarded, and retained in this new and evolving work to social environment.
As these forces continue to shape the workplace, our clients, in growing numbers, continue to recognize the role our people and our solutions play in helping them solve their most pressing business issues through their most precious asset, their people. You know, I would also say that this is not our 15 minutes of fame. I mean, these secular changes that we're all feeling are real, and they are here to stay. In my view, I think, I really believe that we're in the first inning of a long ball game. Now, just as market demand has been strong, our execution has been stronger, driving our fee revenue, earnings, and profitability to all new all-time highs. Now I'm gonna turn to Q2 results.
As Gary mentioned, fee revenue in the second quarter grew $204 million, or 47% year-over-year, and $54 million or 9% sequentially, reaching an all-time high of $639 million. Fee revenue growth in the quarter for our consolidated Executive Search business was up 59% year-over-year and up 9% sequentially, while our RPO and Professional Search business was up 76% year-over-year, and 8% sequentially. The growth for our Consulting and Digital businesses was also very strong. Consulting grew 30% year-over-year and 11% sequentially, while Digital was up 18% year-over-year and 10% sequentially. Now, turning to earnings and profitability, they also grew to new highs in the quarter.
Our adjusted EBITDA grew $69 million year over year, and $13.5 million or 11% sequentially to $135 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.1%. Both are new quarterly highs. Our earnings and profitability continue to benefit from both higher consultant and execution staff productivity and lower G&A spend. Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share also advanced to a new high in the quarter, improving to $1.53, which was up $0.99 compared to adjusted fully diluted earnings per share in the second quarter of fiscal 2021, and actually up $0.16 or 12% sequentially. You know, it's really interesting when you compare our business today through the first six months to the same period in fiscal year 2020, now that's the pre-pandemic period, just two years ago.
Both our scale and our profitability are up dramatically. Our firm's fee revenue for the fiscal year 2022 Q2 year-to-date period is up 25%, with double-digit growth in every line of business. Our adjusted EBITDA over the same comparison period is up 67%. That's nearly three times greater than fee revenue growth, and our adjusted EBITDA margin is up 530 basis points to nearly 21%. Our earnings power has never been higher. Now as I look at new business, that also accelerated in the quarter, reaching new highs for each of our lines of business. On a consolidated basis, new business awards, excluding RPO, were up 40% year-over-year and up approximately 8% sequentially. RPO new business was also extremely strong, with a record $136 million of total contract awards.
This consolidated record level of new business across all of our business lines in the second quarter really provides us with a very solid backlog entering the fiscal third quarter. Our investable cash position also remains strong. At October 31st, the end of the second quarter, cash and marketable securities totaled $997 million. When you exclude amounts reserved for deferred compensation arrangements and accrued bonuses, our global investable cash balance at the end of the second quarter was approximately $591 million. That's up about $133 million or 29%, year-over-year. You know, it should be noted that this investable cash position includes approximately $90 million that was used to acquire the Lucas Group on November 1st. We continue to take our balanced approach to allocation of capital.
You know, in addition to the Lucas Group, and investing in the hiring of additional fee earners, and execution staff, year-to-date, we've repurchased approximately $14 million of our stock and have paid cash dividends of approximately $14 million as well. With that, I'll turn the call over to Gregg to review our operating segments in more detail.
Thanks, Bob. To start with KF Digital. Global fee revenue for KF Digital, $88.6 million in the second quarter, which was up 18% year-over-year and up 10% sequentially. The subscription and licensing component of KF Digital fee revenue grew to $26 million in the second quarter, which was up 16% year-over-year and up 7% sequentially. Additionally, global new business for KF Digital in the second quarter grew 29% year-over-year to a new high of $114 million, with $44 million or 39% related to subscription and license services. Earnings and profitability also continued to grow for KF Digital in the second quarter, with adjusted EBITDA of $28.6 million at a 32.2% adjusted EBITDA margin. Now, turning to Consulting.
In the second quarter, Consulting generated $164.9 million in fee revenue, which was up approximately $38 million or 30% year-over-year and $16 million or 11% sequentially. Fee revenue growth continued to be broad-based across all solution areas and strongest regionally in North America, which was up over 43% year-over-year. Consulting new business also reached a record high in the second quarter, growing approximately 17% year-over-year and 2% sequentially. Regionally, new business growth was also broad-based in the second quarter, with continued strength in North America and improving trends in EMEA and APAC. Adjusted EBITDA for Consulting in the second quarter improved to $30.1 million with an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.2%. Growth for RPO and Professional Search continued to improve in the second quarter.
Globally, fee revenue grew to $150.4 million, which was up 76% year-over-year and up approximately $11 million or 8% sequentially. Both RPO and Professional Search continued to take advantage of the post-recession dislocations in the labor market for skilled professionals. RPO fee revenue grew approximately 69% year-over-year and 10% sequentially, while Professional Search fee revenue was up approximately 88% year-over-year and 5% sequentially. Sequentially, both the number of new search assignments and the average fee per assignment were up double digits for Professional Search. New business wins for both RPO and Professional Search were also extremely strong in the second quarter, reaching new all-time highs.
Professional Search new business was up 13% sequentially, and RPO was awarded a record $136 million of new contracts, consisting of $28 million of renewals and extensions and $108 million of new logo work. Adjusted EBITDA for RPO and Professional Search continued to scale, with revenue improving to $36.3 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.1%. Finally, in the second quarter, global fee revenue for Executive Search reached another new all-time high of $235 million, which was up 59% year-over-year and up 9% sequentially. Growth was also broad-based and led by North America, which grew 74% year-over-year and over 14% sequentially. Fee revenue in our international regions remained steady in the second quarter.
EMEA and APAC were up approximately 34% and 36% respectively measured year-over-year and essentially flat sequentially. We continued to invest in expanding our team of consultants in the second quarter. The total number of dedicated Executive Search consultants worldwide at the end of the second quarter was 570, up 58 year-over-year and up 5 sequentially. Annualized fee revenue production per consultant in the second quarter improved to a record $1.66 million, and the number of new search assignments opened worldwide in the second quarter was up 37% year-over-year and 5% sequentially to a new all-time high of 1,830.
In the second quarter, global Executive Search adjusted EBITDA grew to approximately $66 million, which was up $38 million year over year, and up $4.5 million or 7% sequentially. Adjusted EBITDA margin in the second quarter was 28.1%. Now I'm going to turn the call back over to Bob to discuss our outlook for the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
Great. Thanks, Gregg. As I mentioned earlier, new business in the second quarter grew to a new all-time high, and it actually accelerated each consecutive month in the quarter. That positions us with a very strong backlog entering our third fiscal quarter. In fact, as we ended the quarter, October and September were our first and second highest new business months ever. While our third quarter is usually our most seasonal quarters, both our clients and colleagues take time off during the year-end holiday season. However, November was also an excellent month for new business, actually eclipsing September as the second highest month ever. That was up 37% year-over-year.
Now, if monthly trends in each of our lines of business are consistent with our historical patterns and the market conditions remain strong, we would expect December to be seasonally slower than November, with demand accelerating and peaking at a quarter high in January. Additionally, we will continue to make investments in consultants and execution staff to fuel future growth, and we expect employee productivity to remain strong and G&A spend to remain at current levels in the third quarter, keeping both earnings and profitability strong. Now, assuming no new major pandemic related lockdowns or changes in worldwide economic conditions, financial markets and foreign exchange rates, and including fee from the Lucas Group, we expect our consolidated fee revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2022 to range from $640 million- $660 million.
Our consolidated adjusted diluted earnings per share to range from $1.42- $1.58, while our GAAP diluted earnings per share should range from $1.38- $1.56. As we look ahead to the new year, we see a great opportunity to continue to build on our strong financial performance. You know based on the strength, or I should say, the continuing strength of our new business trends, it is evident to us that our portfolio of solutions will have a continuing relevance as companies address the secular changes I previously discussed. We will continue to execute at a high level, and there is little doubt that we are well positioned to take more than our fair share of the growing market.
Korn Ferry has never been better positioned to serve all of its constituencies, colleagues, clients, candidates and shareholders for years to come. With that, we would be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Ladies and gentlemen on the phone lines, if you wish to ask a question today, please press one followed by the zero. You're gonna hear acknowledgement that you've been placed in queue, and you can take yourself out of the queue by simply pressing the one zero command again. Again, for questions, please press one zero at this time. The first question today will come from the line of Tobey Sommer, representing Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. I was wondering if you could comment about the benefits of building out your Professional Search capabilities and if you could continue to add to it. Is there anything in the marketplace that, in terms of having a bigger established brand in the marketplace that could help? Because I think it's a relatively fragmented market. Thank you.
It is. It's a very, very fragmented market. It's a sizable market. You know, against a backdrop of a nomadic labor market, where people, you know, work at a company for a year or two and move on and upskill and parlay salary and benefits. We really see an incredible opportunity. The brand of Korn Ferry is very, very powerful. We think that that combination, along with our IP and our people, create a sizable opportunity for Korn Ferry. Today, on a run rate basis, that professional search piece of our RPO and PS businesses is probably running about $350 million. We easily see that as a billion-dollar business for us.
We're gonna continue to invest in all of our search businesses and in particular, Professional Search. That could also include interim work and possibly some high-level staffing as well.
Tobey, the other thing I would add to that is the, you know, the access that our search folks provide to us, and we've seen it, you know, in each of the acquisitions that we've done, elevates our ability to perform as well, because the companies that we're acquiring just simply don't have the access that our folks do.
Yeah, that's a very good point, Bob, because when you look at the cross referrals in the quarter, you know, on a dollar basis, it was an all-time high. You know, out of the $640 million or so of revenue, about $173 million of that represented cross referrals. Those are real dollars that our colleagues get paid off of the cross referring business. When you look at our RPO and PS business, you know, that's typically 40%-50% of the revenue in any given quarter is actually referred from inside the networks. That's an excellent point, Bob.
Could you talk a bit about inflation, both in terms of how it helps your top line across your different businesses as well as what you're seeing internally and your need to sort of stay competitive with internal competition as well?
Yeah. It's certainly unlike anything I've ever seen. When you look at the transient nature of many companies' workforces today, then the outlook of younger people entering the workforce, it's just night and day from when I started years ago, a completely different perspective. If you look at our average fees, for example, on Professional Search, they're probably up 18%-19% over the last four or five quarters. On the Executive Search side, they're also up probably 12%-14%, something like that.
I think that reflects what you're seeing in the market today around inflation and wage pressure. We've also raised prices across the board, whether it's our Consulting business or Digital businesses, we've had to increase our price points. Then internally for our colleagues, I mean, the amount of raises that we've given over the last 12 months is 3 x higher than we've ever done. I think that we're taking a balanced approach to making sure that we are being rewarded for the value that we deliver to clients and also, you know, passing that on to not only our shareholders, but as importantly, our colleagues.
Okay. Last one for me. If you could comment on what the continued acquisition pipeline looks like so that, you know, you're able to deploy your ample balance sheet in the short term.
Yeah, that's a good question. We certainly have our eye on the Professional Search market. It's something that as you asked the question, it's an opportunity. It's a fragmented market. Korn Ferry's brand is phenomenal. We continue as we have to look at ways that we can grow that business. The Lucas Group is a company that I met probably 15 or 16 years ago. It's one that we have periodically stayed in contact with. We're thrilled to make that investment and have those colleagues now join Korn Ferry.
I think that, given our legacy Professional Search business we have combined with the powerful platform of the Lucas Group, it's really a solid foundation to grow that business. That's clearly one. The second is I do believe that there's an opportunity to create an LDO business here, much like we did with RPO years ago. When you look at, again, the mega trends in the world and you look at increasing level of turnovers at companies, you know, you can maybe partially solve that through compensation, but that's really not the answer. You know, people wanna grow, they wanna be developed, they wanna be stimulated. They wanna know that what they do matters to another human being.
I think the development, whether that's coaching, you know, that can go a long way to, I think, reducing turnover. That makes a huge impact on a company's P&L. There's this hidden cost on every income statement called turnover. We see, you know, with our IP that we have, and it's just a, you know, phenomenal opportunity to replicate what we did with RPO, to do it in the learning space. Those two areas certainly come screaming off the page. We're also looking at other areas such as our, you know, Consulting business or Digital businesses. We're gonna, you know, we've had a very, you know, systematic approach to M&A, and we're gonna continue that.
Thank you.
Next, we'll go to the line of Tim Mulrooney representing William Blair. Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah, good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. You were helpful in sharing with us what percentage of your Professional Search clients or I guess, what percentage of your Professional Search business is referred from the Executive Search business. I was wondering if you could also comment on how many Executive Search clients don't currently use Professional Search services that could benefit from them?
A huge amount. I mean, I don't have the data in front of me, but it's enormous.
Not saturated.
You know. No. I mean
No.
No, not even close. Okay, the opportunity is there. You know, how do you go about that? Well, you know, the first answer to that is through our marquee and regional accounts you know, driving loyal, sustaining clients of scale. Today we have about 350 marquee and regional accounts that represents about 36% of the portfolio. That would be the first lever that we pull. No, it is far from saturated in terms of the penetration there.
Okay. All right. Well, that's helpful. Did Lucas Group include some temp staffing as well as, like, two-thirds professional-
It did.
Is that something?
It did.
You guys would look into? You know, temp staffing's, you know, an attractive spot right now. All the companies are up a lot. It's very busy. There's a dislocation there too. Is that something you guys would look into getting further involved in?
Absolutely. Yeah. We believe there's an opportunity there. Again, you know, against this, you know, nomadic labor market. It's for sure. I think that, you know, coming through this pandemic and now, you know, not only digitizing everything but work anywhere, anytime, that is gonna play very, very well into that trend. Yes, we did pick up a very good base of interim staffing business. We're gonna continue to, you know, to drive that. Which is new for Korn Ferry. I mean, both of these areas really. I mean, we've been a Professional Search business for years, but both of these areas, you know, really speak to a new opportunity to our firm.
Yeah, that's interesting. I wasn't sure how you were gonna answer that. Yeah, I mean, that makes perfect sense. Just one more from me. You know, within your Executive Search business, both Pro and Executive, I guess within your search Businesses, both of them, I was hoping you could talk a little more detail about how the volumes trended through your fiscal second quarter here. I mean, essentially, did they continue to accelerate month-over-month throughout the quarter, or was there a little more choppiness in those numbers?
Bob, you wanna-
Yeah. Yeah, I'll take that. No, listen, the volumes is in line with our overall new business, did accelerate throughout the quarter and actually continued in the month of November. The month of November, in terms of the search volumes, was our highest volume in terms of units, you know, that we've ever had. So no, we continue to see great volume, great levels of searches being won by our folks.
Okay. All right. That's very helpful. Thanks for taking my questions, guys.
We will go to the line of George Tong with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, sir. Mr. Tong?
You touched on continued traction with your marquee and regional accounts this quarter. Can you elaborate on broader cross-selling activity among these larger accounts and how much opportunity remains, as well as what that means for potential market share performance?
Well, the marquee and regional accounts represented about 36% of the portfolio. If you look at world-class professional services firms like ours, you would find that number on quote, house accounts would be 40%, could be as high as 45%. We continue to have. You know, that's our first strategic lever. The performance of those accounts outperformed the portfolio again. In terms of the cross referrals, this was the highest dollar amount of cross referrals that we've had in a quarter. You know, like I said earlier, those are real numbers. Our colleagues are rewarded both on the spot, on an ongoing basis, as well as when we evaluate end of the year performance.
both of those aspects of our strategy, you know, we're walking, definitely walking the talk.
George, this is Bob. I would also add, when you look at the, you know, the opportunity there, I mean, as we think about, you know, the cross-line of business referrals, you know, to be excellent in that area, you know, if you're achieving, 35% or 40%, you know, that's then when you're really hitting your sweet spot. I look at what we've done over time, go back to FY 2018, we're at 14%. Year to date, you know, we're at 28%, a little bit north of 28%. So obviously we've grown that nicely. There's still, you know, to get to 40%, there's still ample opportunity, for us to grow the cross-line of business referrals.
The other thing I would add as well is if you look at what I find really encouraging, you know, a lot of the referral activity historically had gone from Executive Search to the other lines of business. Again, going back to FY 2018, the referrals into Executive Search were only 3.6%. You know, today it's closer to 10%. So again, we're you know, making great progress there in terms of the sort of cross fertilization across all the lines of business.
Got it. That's helpful. You've continued to deliver significant EBITDA margin expansion in the current environment. How do you think about the long-term structural margin opportunity at Korn Ferry, and how has the pandemic changed your overall underlying cost profile?
Gary, you want me to jump on that?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, George, I think, you know, in the last couple of calls, we had talked about some of the key drivers to the structural change, whether that was how we enabled the execution of our services, our BD, kind of internal meetings, travel, and our real estate.
We said that we felt it was a 200 basis point improvement. Historically we talked about a 15%-16% sort of long-term range, and we bumped it up to 17%-18%. Now that we've got sort of three quarters under our belt, we actually think that it's closer to 18%-19% in terms of the structural changes. You saw in the quarter, you know, we took a charge for our real estate strategy. Where we are today on that, we've reduced about 20% of our overall footprint. We still have some, a little bit of work to do there. You know, my guess is by the time the dust settles, it'll be down probably 25%, you know, plus or minus.
That'll be, you know, obviously permanent structural change that we have on the BD travel and internal meetings. You know, we were doing $11 million a quarter. I think, you know, going forward, you know, we were at $1 million over the past couple of quarters, $1-$2. That'll probably, you know, settle in right around $5 million-$5.5 million. Again, permanent structural change. I think just, you know, the scaling of the business and the productivity of our folks driven by, you know, the ability to work virtually, you know, that's going to be permanent structural change.
In fact, one of the things I do before every quarterly call is I reach out to partners in the firm, and I was talking to a couple of search partners last week, and they were commenting on the fact that, you know, they believe they're going to be able to conduct more searches. The close time to searches is faster. So I think the impact of working virtually is gonna be, again, more structural change. That's why we've elevated our long-term sort of EBITDA margin outlook to 18%-19%. Then given, you know, where our top line goes, you know, if it'll achieve what we expect it to achieve, you know, there could be upward pressure on that 18%-19%.
Got it. Okay, that's it. Thank you.
Next we'll go to the line of Mark Marcon with Baird. Please go ahead.
Hey, Bob. Good afternoon, everybody, and congratulations on the great quarter. I'm wondering, Gary, I want to just start on a big topic. You know, as you get more into you know temporary staffing, you know, it has a certain market perception, and Korn Ferry has you know an elevated you know market perception related to Executive Search and Consulting. Can you frame a little bit about how you're thinking about the types of temporary staffing that you could potentially get into and how you would protect you know the franchise and the brand name?
Well, you're absolutely right. You know, number one, it starts with the quality of delivery. But we would be definitely focused on the more higher end of that marketplace. We would not see ourselves going, and I hate to use this term, but to, you know, down market. We would not be doing that. We would certainly be focused on skilled positions, and probably around three or four functional areas, such as legal, such as finance and accounting, such as certain aspects of technology. We would stay as you indicated at the higher end for sure. No question about that.
Great. Can you talk a little bit about Lucas Group? I mean, obviously it was just completed on November first, but and so early, but what's the initial reaction and what's embedded in terms of the guidance, in terms of their contribution and what, how should we think about the annualized run rate?
About $100 million a year without taking into account the, you know, the growth synergies. So, you know, call it today, you know, $25 million a quarter. I had indicated it's a company that I met with Art Lucas, you know, probably 16 years ago and was always enamored by the brand that they have in the marketplace. They started more on the military side and over the years have evolved into technology, finance and accounting, legal, supply chain, technology. It's a very balanced portfolio. It really, you know, speaks to the handful of functional areas that Korn Ferry would have an interest in.
As in an earlier question, part of their business, less than 50%, but part of their business is around interim placement, which we were also attracted to. In terms of the success so far, we're only one month into this, and we've already seen some very, very nice wins. Including a couple wins actually for our Executive Search colleagues who came from the Lucas Group, and I can think of one that was very, very sizable.
For Korn Ferry, you know, say 2.5x-3x the size of our average fee. It's, we're off to the right start for sure. I think they've got just fantastic people. I think this is the beginning. I think, you know, with Lucas Group in our closed search business and, you know, the reaction inside, the firm has been incredibly positive. All of the physical meet and greets that we've done so far, very well. More importantly, we've seen wins in the marketplace. I think that, hopefully, the Lucas Group colleagues feel like it's part of the Korn Ferry family.
That's great. Gary , we've gone through multiple cycles. How are you thinking about, you know, I completely agree with you with regards to the number of behavioral changes that we can observe with respect to consumers that are retiring. Obviously, there's also, you know, some fish-type behavior out there as well. How are you thinking about it just in terms of where you think we are, and then, you know, how are you thinking about the capital deployment? Because you obviously have the capital to deploy. How careful would you be at this stage?
Yeah, we're certainly not gonna. We certainly wouldn't reach that's for sure. You know, I can speak to somebody that I know very well who's graduating from college, who hasn't even started, and she's going to work for a professional services firm in the summer and has already seen two raises before she's even started. It's a market that is unlike anything I've seen. I mean, the big wild card is inflation. That could be the real killer. It is definitely not transitory. It's certainly widespread. That is, you know, I think that is probably the biggest risk next to any geopolitical risk.
You know, we haven't seen anything in terms of this new mutation, in terms of an impact on the new business. It could, but I would say that, you know, that younger people coming out of college today have just a completely different outlook on opportunity and careers that I certainly did not have. I think the tight nomadic labor market spells opportunity for Korn Ferry. Yet at the same time, you're right, we've seen a number of different cycles.
I'll tell you, just going back two years, you know, December of 2019, you know, if you would've told me that there was gonna be a global pandemic, we would have lost so many lives and so many people would be afflicted by this common enemy, and, you know, society would go through all of this. On our business, we would, you know, furlough employees, we'd ask people to take pay cuts, and we would repay all of those pay cuts. We would hire back substantially all those employees, and our business would be 30% higher. You know, who would have guessed it? So it's certainly hard to predict the future. I think inflation is probably the biggest question that's out there among.
Obviously you are able to more than pass along all of that.
Yeah. We're certainly, I mean, fortunately or unfortunately, we're doing that. You know, you just look at the data in the Professional Search and the record of this business in terms of the average fees. I mean, it's absolutely reflective of not only the strategy clearly, it's reflective of the inflationary environment we're in.
That's great. Can you speak a little bit about capacity? I mean, obviously business is booming. How stretched do you currently feel? How should we think about internal ads and just deploying people to recruit more people organically?
We're gonna continue to deploy capital to recruit people on all aspects of our business. We've probably never been as aggressive as we are right now. We're gonna continue to do that. I think we've got a good track record of bringing new colleagues in and onboarding them. We're gonna absolutely continue that. In terms of our colleague count, we're actually a little bit higher than we were pre-pandemic. I think that we've gotten the right balance there in terms of our you know capabilities. Clearly you know the ability to execute on engagements just like we're looking for fee earners we're certainly continuing to add execution resources.
Our turnover is substantially less than what I would consider a world-class professional services firm to have. I'm not gonna disclose it, but our turnover right now so far this year is only 200 basis points higher than it was, say before the pandemic. You know, that's good news as well.
That's great. With regards to Consulting and specifically Digital, can you talk a little bit about some of the new wins and what you're most excited about and what seems really promising?
I think we have unlimited IP and the question is, can we take that IP and configure it to improve an organization's retention of their people? Whether that's you know retaining people another year, six months, two years, it has an enormous impact. You know that's absolutely our intent. I can think of an engagement that I've you know very recently a major technology company where you know it's an eight-figure engagement that's principally Digital where they license our IP to improve their effectiveness. That in part came about because of our marquee and regional account strategy. It came about because of an acquisition that we did before the pandemic.
You know, I think that's pretty indicative of what we can do there. I think the other area is with LDO, you know, the LDO capability and to take our IP and to license that to companies to develop their people. You know, through the KF Advance platform, we've done 50,000 individual coaching and development sessions. What started out as a B2C business actually has turned out to be an incredible technology platform coupled with our IP companies can use to develop their people at a pretty cost-effective way.
That's great. Yeah, that eight-figure deal that you have with that specific company is pretty exciting. Do you see others like that coming in the near future?
Well, you know, look, that's a huge win. We do have a good pipeline. You know, we'll see. I think that our IT is second to none. I mean, if you look at the amount, you know, we develop 1 million professionals a year. We've done 70 million assessments. We have incredible learning journeys, whether those are centered around DE&I or ESG. I mean, it's pretty robust. You know, I think part of it comes down to the CEOs. Will they recognize that there's other ways than just money to keep people engaged?
I think in the time where people are going to be increasingly nomadic, you know, the real risk for companies is that in this hybrid world, you know, employees become kind of free agents. You know, it's hard to leave other people. You know, it's easy to leave companies, but it's harder to leave other people. The risk is, in this hybrid world, are people gonna become, you know, are they gonna feel increasingly like they're free agents? And there's no loyalty to a brand, to a company. And there are ways that CEOs can address that. It's not just money.
I think that potentially using IP, using Korn Ferry's IP, whether that's through retention or whatever, is one way they can have an impact on turnover.
Mark, this is Bob. It's clear, the engagement Gary was talking about actually is it's going to be a subscription, so it'll, you know, the eight figures will be realized over three years.
Yeah. I know about that one. Yep.
Then the LDO ones that Gary was talking about, those are also eight-figure engagements that are gonna be realized over, you know, two, three, four years.
That's great. Lastly, just on the RPO business line, you mentioned a number of new logos. Were those new logos, former RPO users or are they brand new to RPO?
You know, I don't have the exact split on that, Mark. You know, my guess is it's probably in the kind of 50/50 range where we're stepping in on roughly half of them and taking over from another provider. The other half is just what we're seeing in the marketplace is a growing acceptance of handing over your talent acquisition activities to an outsourced provider.
That's great. Thank you. Congrats.
Gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time.
Okay. Well, listen, thank you, everybody. I sincerely wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, and we look forward to speaking to you in the new year. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this conference will be available for replay starting this afternoon at 4 P.M. Eastern and running through December 14 at midnight. You may access the AT&T executive playback service at any time by dialing 866-207-1041 and entering the access code of 425-8773. Those numbers again are 866-207-1041. Please enter the access code of 425-8773. International participants, you may dial 402-970-0847 and use that same access code of 425-8773 to replay. Also, the replay will be available for playback at the company's website at www.kornferry.com in the investor relations section. That does conclude our conference for today.
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Gary?
One moment. He disconnected.
Okay. All right. We're gonna hang up too then. Thank you, Tom.
Thanks, guys. Have a great day, gentlemen. Thank you.
You too. Bye-bye.