NIGP 96171: Talent Agency Services

NIGP 96171 Talent Agency Services, an Item code, comprises executive search, temporary staffing placement, and workforce development contracting that state and local governments use to fill permanent leadership roles, meet operational staffing gaps, and connect resident populations to employment opportunities. Recent solicitations show state and local buyers procuring retained executive search services for C-suite and senior investment roles, placing temporary personnel across food service, grounds maintenance, clerical, and IT functions on short-notice, as-needed bases, and designing employer-facing talent-access programs that bridge neighborhood residents to career pathways. The issuing bodies span state retirement systems (Teacher Retirement System of Texas), state environmental agencies (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency), state universities (Texas State University), city governments (Tucson, DeBary), county school districts (Cobb County, Collin County Community College District), and special-purpose districts (Atlanta Beltline Inc.). Temporary staffing dominates current activity, with school districts and community colleges issuing the most recent high-volume procurements; executive search work appears episodic and tied to institutional leadership transitions.

Geographic concentration in recent postings reflects Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and Kentucky, with secondary activity in Illinois and Florida. Representative opportunities include the Teacher Retirement System of Texas seeking executive search services for Private Market investment roles through an RFP closing August 12, 2026, under a placement-fee structure with a three-year initial term and approximately $100,000-plus anticipated value; Cobb County School District issuing RFP P26084 for temporary Food and Nutrition Services staffing (temporary assistant and specialist roles) due March 11, 2026, with an estimated annual expenditure of $950,000; and the City of Tucson soliciting temporary employment and staffing services across general clerical, IT, and finance categories through an RFP with options to extend for up to four additional one-year periods and an estimated nationwide cooperative purchase volume of $25,000,000. Collin County Community College District's three-year temporary staffing contract (ending September 30, 2027) carries a $2.8 million estimated budget with grounds maintenance as the primary use case. Notable procurement features include mandatory placement fees tied to candidate first-day-of-employment milestones (with refund or replacement guarantees), multi-vendor awards to ensure flexibility, hourly-rate markup pricing models, extensive insurance requirements and background-check mandates, and federal compliance obligations including HUD Section 3 labor requirements, DBE participation thresholds, and prevailing-wage adherence where applicable.