Robert Half (RHI) Risk Analysis

The Company's results of operations and ability to grow could be materially negatively affected if it cannot successfully keep pace with technological changes impacting the development and implementation of its services and the evolving needs of its clients. The Company's success depends on its ability to keep pace with rapid technological changes affecting both the development and implementation of its services and the staffing needs of its clients. Technological advances such as AI, machine learning and automation are impacting industries served by all of the Company's lines of business. In addition, the Company's business relies on a variety of technologies, including those that support hiring and tracking, order management, billing, and client data analytics. If the Company does not sufficiently invest in new technology and keep pace with industry developments, appropriately implement new technologies, or evolve its business at sufficient speed and scale in response to such developments, or if it does not make the right strategic investments to respond to these developments, the Company's services, results of operations, and ability to develop and maintain its business could be negatively affected.

The Company utilizes IP, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, in its business, including in the software and AI the Company uses, and in its customer lists. A combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates are critical to protecting these IP rights. However, these laws may not be adequate to protect the Company's IP from being challenged, invalidated, infringed, diluted or misappropriated. While the Company enters into confidentiality agreements with employees, consultants and partners, such agreements may not be effective in preventing unauthorized disclosure or use of its proprietary information. If such disclosures occur, the Company may not have adequate remedies. Moreover, while it is the Company's policy to protect and vigorously defend its IP rights, it cannot predict whether steps taken by it will be adequate to prevent misappropriation of these rights or the use by others of the Company's IP. IP disputes and proceedings and infringement claims may result in a significant distraction for management and significant expense, which may not be recoverable regardless of whether the Company is successful. Such proceedings may be protracted with no certainty of success, and an adverse outcome could subject the Company to liabilities, force it to cease use of certain trademarks or other IP, or force it to enter into license agreements on terms which may not be favorable to the Company. Any one of these occurrences may have an adverse effect on the Company's business, profitability, results of operation and financial condition. The Company uses open-source software in connection with its software development, which could negatively affect its ability to operate its business and subject the Company to litigation or other actions. The Company uses and may continue to use open-source software in connection with the development and operation of its platforms. Open-source software is generally licensed under open-source licenses, which could subject the Company to unfavorable conditions, including requiring it to make publicly available the source code for any modifications or derivative works the Company develops using the open-source software. The Company may face claims demanding the release of software it developed that incorporates open-source software, which could include its source code, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of underlying license. Litigation could be costly for the Company to defend and could require it to devote additional research and development resources to change the Company's platforms. Further, open-source licensors typically do not provide warranties or controls regarding the origin or security of the software and related support from the licensor is often unavailable. Therefore, the Company cannot be sure that the authors of the open-source software it uses will implement or offer updates to address security risks or will not abandon further development and maintenance. Many risks associated with usage of open-source software cannot be eliminated, and may, if not effectively addressed, negatively affect the Company's operations, reputation and financial results. Risks Associated With the Effects of Climate Change The Company may be adversely affected by global climate change or by legal, regulatory or market responses to such change. The physical effects of climate change could have a material adverse effect on the Company's operations and business. To the extent climate change causes changes in weather patterns, certain regions where the Company operates could experience increases in storm intensity, extreme temperatures, wildfires, rising sea-levels and/or drought. Over time, these conditions could result in increases in the Company's operating costs or business interruptions. For example, the Company's headquarters are located in areas of California where the incidence of wildfire has increased over time and may continue to increase. In addition, in 2023 the Company established certain emissions targets and other environmental goals and submitted them for validation to the SBTi. Failure to achieve such goals, or a perception (whether valid or invalid) of failure to achieve such goals, could result in market, reputational, regulatory or liability risks, client dissatisfaction, reduced revenue and profitability, or shareholder lawsuits. If the Company is unable to achieve its environmental goals, the Company's business and reputation may be adversely affected. There can be no assurance that climate change will not have a material adverse effect on the Company's properties, operations or business. General Risks

The Company's ability to manage its operations using IT Assets successfully is critical to its success and largely depends upon the efficient and uninterrupted operation of its and third parties' IT Assets, some of which are managed and run by third-party vendors. The Company's primary IT Assets (and, as a result, its operations) are vulnerable to damage or interruption from power outages, computer, technology and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches, cyberattacks, catastrophic events, and errors in usage by the Company's or its vendors' employees and contractors. In addition, the Company's IT Assets contain personal and confidential information and intellectual property, including information of importance to the Company and its employees, vendors, contractors and clients. Cyberattacks, including attacks motivated by the desire for monetary gain or embarrassment, geopolitics, and grievances against the business services industry in general or against the Company in particular, could potentially disable or damage the Company's IT Assets or those of its vendors or clients, or allow unauthorized access to, or exposure of, intellectual property and personal or confidential information, including information about employees, vendors, candidates, contractors and clients. The Company's security tools, controls and practices, including those relating to identity and access management, credential strength, and the security tools, controls and practices of its vendors and clients, may not prevent or detect access, damage or disruption to Company or third-party IT Assets or the unauthorized access to, or exposure of, intellectual property or personal or confidential information. A failure to prevent or detect unauthorized access to Company or third-party IT Assets could expose the Company to material operational, financial and reputational damage. There are many approaches through which such IT Assets or the information stored thereon could be damaged, disrupted, exposed or accessed, including through system vulnerabilities, configuration errors, vendor vulnerabilities, social engineering, cyberattacks (including cyberattacks through the use of AI), improper acquisition and use of user credentials, malfeasance, or the misuse of authorized user access. Periodic and continuous assessments are conducted by the Company on its IT Assets to identify security risks, vulnerabilities, weaknesses or gaps, and a risk-based approach is then employed to address them. This risk-based approach prioritizes risks, vulnerabilities, weaknesses and gaps based on, among other factors, budgetary constraints, impact, likelihood of mitigation and the broader risk landscape. No security program can offer a guarantee against all potential cyberattacks or other cybersecurity-related incidents. The Company and its third-party vendors experience cybersecurity attacks with increasing frequency, including incidents that have resulted in unauthorized access to the Company's or its third-party vendors' IT Assets. To date, no such incidents have been determined to have had a material impact on the Company, but there is no guarantee that such incidents will not have a material impact on the Company in the future. The Company has transitioned a significant number of its employee population to remote work. This transition has also increased the Company's vulnerability to cybersecurity-related risks related to the Company's IT Assets and has exacerbated certain related risks, including risks of phishing and other cybersecurity attacks. The damage or disruption to Company or third-party systems, or unauthorized access to, or exposure of, intellectual property or personal or confidential information, could harm the Company's operations, reputation and brand, resulting in a loss of business or revenue. It could also subject the Company to government sanctions, litigation from candidates, contractors, clients and employees, and legal liability under its contracts, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenue. The Company may also incur additional expenses, including the cost of remediating cybersecurity incidents or improving security measures, identifying and retaining replacement vendors, increased insurance premiums, or ransomware payments. Cybersecurity threats continue to increase in frequency and sophistication (including through the use of AI), thereby increasing the difficulty of detecting and defending against them. Furthermore, the potential risk of cybersecurity breaches and cyberattacks may increase as the Company introduces new service offerings and deploys new AI technologies. Any future events impacting the Company or its third-party vendors that damage or interrupt the Company's or its third-party vendors' IT Assets or expose intellectual property or data or other confidential information stored thereon could have a material adverse effect on the Company's operations, reputation and financial results.

The Company's business depends on a strong reputation and anything that harms its reputation will likely harm its results. As a provider of contract and permanent talent solutions as well as consulting services, the Company's reputation is dependent upon the performance of the employees it places with its clients and the services rendered by its consultants. The Company depends on its reputation and name recognition to secure engagements and to hire skilled employees and consultants. If the Company's clients become dissatisfied with the performance of those employees or consultants, or if any of those employees or consultants engage in or are believed to have engaged in conduct that is harmful to the Company's clients, the Company's ability to maintain or expand its client base may be harmed.

The Company depends on operations in international markets for a significant portion of its business. These international operations are subject to a number of risks, including general political and economic conditions in those foreign countries, international hostilities and responses to those hostilities, the burden of complying with various potentially conflicting foreign laws, technical standards, unpredictable changes in foreign regulations, U.S. legal requirements governing U.S. companies operating in foreign countries, legal and cultural differences in the conduct of business, potential adverse tax consequences, and difficulty in staffing and managing international operations. Furthermore, the Company's operations may be adversely impacted by conflicts between the U.S. government and those of other jurisdictions in which the Company operates. These factors may have a material adverse effect on the performance of the Company's business. In addition, the Company's business may be affected by foreign currency exchange fluctuations. In particular, the Company is subject to risk in translating its results in foreign currencies into the U.S. dollar. If the value of the U.S. dollar strengthens relative to other currencies, the Company's reported income from these operations could decrease.

Natural disasters and unusual weather conditions, pandemic outbreaks, terrorist acts, global political events and other serious catastrophic events could disrupt business and otherwise materially adversely affect the Company's business and financial condition. With operations in many states and multiple foreign countries, the Company is subject to numerous risks outside of the Company's control, including risks arising from natural disasters, such as fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, unusual weather conditions, pandemics and other global health emergencies, terrorist acts or disruptive global political events, or similar disruptions that could materially adversely affect the Company's business and financial performance. Historically, the Company's operations are dependent on the ability of employees and consultants to travel from business to business and from location to location. Any public health emergencies, including a real or potential global pandemic such as those caused by the avian flu, SARS, Ebola, coronavirus, or even a particularly virulent flu, could decrease demand for the Company's services and the Company's ability to offer them. Uncharacteristic or significant weather conditions may increase in frequency or severity due to climate change, which may increase the Company's expenses, exacerbate other risks to the Company, including from impacts to key suppliers, and affect travel and the ability of businesses to remain open, which could lead to a decreased ability to offer the Company's services and materially adversely affect the Company's results of operations. In addition, these events could result in delays in placing employees and consultants, the temporary disruption in the transport of employees and consultants overseas and domestically, the inability of employees and consultants to reach or have transportation to clients directly affected by such events, and disruption to the Company's information systems. Although it is not possible to predict such events or their consequences, these events could materially adversely affect the Company's reputation, business and financial condition.

If the Company does not effectively manage billable rates, the Company's financial results could suffer. Accurate and strategic pricing represents a key factor in the Company's financial results. If billable rates are too low, the Company's service revenues may not cover operational costs, whereas if billable rates are too high, the Company risks hindering client retention and limits competitiveness. Legal and Regulatory Risks

Failure to maintain adequate financial and management processes and controls could lead to errors in the Company's financial reporting. If the Company's management is unable to certify the effectiveness of its internal controls or if its independent registered public accounting firm cannot render an opinion on the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting, or if material weaknesses in the Company's internal controls are identified, the Company could be subject to regulatory scrutiny and a loss of public confidence. In addition, if the Company does not maintain adequate financial and management personnel and processes and controls, it may not be able to accurately report its financial performance on a timely basis, which could cause its stock price to fall.