Top advertisers, listed alphabetically below, are determined by measuring advertising placements across the major monthly HR trade publications, not including buyer guide or product directory listings.

January 2006

• Aetna
• Lawson
• American Express
• MetLife
• Prudential Financial

Commentary and Analysis: A report soon to be released by Blackfriars Communications entitled "Marketing 2006: 2006's Timid Start" forecasts an almost 10-percent drop in the portion of marketing budgets allocated to traditional advertising in comparison with 2005. Most of the shift will go to new media and alternative marketing strategies. In 2005, according to Blackfriars' principal Carl Howe, companies allocated about 31 percent to traditional advertising, but this number will fall to 22 percent in 2006. The report cites executives' dissatisfaction with existing marketing returns as a major cause for their reallocating budgets away from "traditional" marketing techniques like advertising.

HRmarketer.com's own research confirms this trend (as do many other reports we've been reading). Business-to-business (B2B) marketer's need to take many of these findings with a grain of salt, though, since most study consumer advertising, not B2B (with the exception of our study, which was strictly B2B). Nevertheless, HR marketer's should take a closer look at the amount of money they are spending on traditional advertising versus other marketing and PR activities. Before an intelligent analysis can be performed, marketer's must educate themselves with alternatives including SEO, direct marketing (print and email), trade show participation, etc. (Unfortunately far too many marketers in the HR space do not fully understand SEO, direct marketing, Blogs, or other non-traditional marketing activities.)

Advertising is not for everyone and unfortunately there are no one-size-fits-all guidelines for whether or not advertising is right for your company. But if over 75% of a marketing budget for the average HR supplier is being allocated to advertising and trade shows, it is probably worth re-evaluating your marketing plan. Moreover, if the amount spent on traditional advertising is the same today as it was five years ago (as a percent of your overall marketing budget), equal scrutiny should be applied.

To determine the organizations receiving the most media coverage, we look at the number of non-paid editorial placements across the major monthly HR trade publications.

January 2006

• Aon
• Employee Benefit Research Institute
• GE
• General Motors
• Hewitt Associates
• IBM
• Mercer Human Resource Consulting
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
• SHRM
• Watson Wyatt

Here are some of the top stories in the major HR trade publications from last month. Visit HRmarketer News for a comprehensive listing of HR marketplace news releases and articles over the last 90 days.

The Impending Retirement Crisis Really Isn’t a Crisis

Conventional wisdom says that the United States nears a retirement crisis as the giant Baby Boomer generation retires en masse and a smaller generation of young workers struggles to maintain its productivity level and fund Social Security. But experts are saying that conventional wisdom is wrong and that the impending crisis is overblown.

Employees Need to Plan Ahead for Summertime Childcare

The effort of finding summer child care often spills over into the workplace. According to a survey by employee assistance program provider ComPsych, 38 percent of working parents spend more than 12 hours planning summer care for their children, and another 30 percent spend five to eight hours. Nearly all of those hours are invested during the workday, the only time summer camps are open for calls and questions.

Staffing Companies Helped with the Katrina Recovery

When hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast at the end of August 2005, people in Louisiana and Mississippi lost everything they had. Fortunately, though, staffing companies nationwide stepped up to the plate and did their part to assist in the recovery process, so survivors could begin to rebuild their lives.

Union Pacts in European Companies Impacting U.S. Firms

Complaints about the effects of globalization usually are lodged by employers whose companies have shifted work to other countries, leaving behind fewer jobs and lower wages. But now another constituency is feeling the local effects of international workforce decision-making: American subsidiaries whose parent companies in Europe are signing off on union-organizing agreements that are binding here.

Employers Focus on Recruiting and Retaining the Growing Latino Population

Today, Latinos are the largest minority group in America. The nation’s largest employers consider the recruitment and retention of Latinos to be one of their greatest concerns as this segment of the population takes the lead among minorities.

HSAs Have Not Taken Off As Expected

Employers’ interest in Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and the consumer-driven health care concept it embodies has not waned. But interest does not always translate into action, and the big surge of HSA-compatible plans and enrollment that was expected for 2006 has not come to pass in the ways many experts thought it would.

Financial Services Have Unique Training Challenges

Financial services businesses are facing significant and unique training challenges. And while the industry has embraced e-learning, training executives say its greatest value will be in enabling employees to access the information they need when they need it.

Great!

Our unscientific measure of the human capital industry's health looks at the aggregate number of advertising placements across the major HR trade publications and our subjective analysis of other "activity" within the sector including new investment money flowing into the space, IPOs, M&As, closures, etc. We then benchmark against the previous month to come up with a 5 point rating system of Excellent / Great / Good / Average / Poor. Again, we caution readers that our rating is a subjective analysis and may not be a true reflection of the industry's health.

Commentary and Analysis: Rating the overall health of the human resource marketplace is difficult given the diversity and vastness of the space. For example, a rising tide in the insurance or worksite marketing space does not necessarily translate into equal success in the HR software, recruitment, training or payroll sectors. The earnings announcements below are taken from a sample of HR companies across all aspects of HR and present a broad overview of how the space is doing. We believe the health of the HR marketplace remains "Great" as employment is rising, corporate spending is increasing, technology and cost barriers continue to fall, and global markets are expanding – and it’s becoming easier for small and mid-size companies to penetrate. It's a good time to be doing business in the human capital industry. And because our own business relies on selling marketing and PR services to HR suppliers across all aspects of the human capital marketplace, we usually have our finger on the pulse of the space – and our business has never been better. So, this month we continue to rate the health as “Great”.

• Shares of Administaff Inc. soared to a new 52-week high after the personnel management company reported earnings that jumped more than threefold and eclipsed analysts' estimates -- driven by higher unit growth and increased gross profit per worksite employee. For full-year 2005, Administaff's profit came in at $29.9 million, or $1.12 per share, on revenue of $1.2 billion vs. full-year 2004 profit of $19.2 million, or 72 cents per share, with revenue of $969.5 million.
• Aetna, one of the largest providers of health insurance to employers, saw quarterly revenue rise 14%, reflecting higher contributions from health-care premiums. Aetna also increased its forecast for 2006 growth in medical membership, to a range of 900,000 to 1 million from 800,000 to 900,000 previously. The company also announced a two-for-one stock split effective Feb. 17.
• Aflac Inc., one of the nation's largest supplemental health and life insurers, increased its quarterly cash dividend to 13 cents - an 18-percent increase from the previous payout of 11 cents.
• Ceridian Corp. said that its fourth-quarter profit more than quadrupled on strong demand and improved margins. The company attributed the increase to the penetration into new markets, new products, and higher demand for its Comdata credit and debit payment services. The company did not single out its payroll or HR services.
• Clark Inc., a benefits and compensation consulting firm, said its fourth-quarter net income declined 39 percent, hurt by lower revenue and commissions and fees. Revenue fell 17 percent to $77.5 million from $93.6 million, while commissions and fees declined 34 percent to $14.1 million. Both new-business and renewal revenue declined, Clark said, with the majority of the shortfall in the company's banking practice.
• Hewitt Associates said first-quarter earnings fell 7 percent, as revenue edged down and charges for job cuts and a terminated $10 million contract hurt results.

• Kronos earned $6.2 million on $128 million in revenue in the fiscal first quarter ending Dec. 31. A year ago, the company had a $10.7 million profit on sales of $118 million. Kronos achieved its 75th straight quarter of profitability, but new chief executive Aron Ain said he was disappointed in the company's results. Kronos also announced it has begun offering its software as a service, with customers able to rent access to Kronos applications running on Kronos servers. Customers will be able to continue purchasing perpetual licenses and run the software on their own servers.
• Marsh & McLennan Cos., the world's largest insurance broker, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit as insurance premiums declined and revenue dropped at its Putnam mutual fund unit. Marsh is trying to bounce back after agreeing in January 2005 to pay $850 million to settle charges that it rigged bids and steered business to insurers that paid hidden fees. On a positive note, its consulting revenue, which includes the Mercer Human Resource unit, rose 6 percent to $966 million.
• Monster.com reported a 49% increase in fourth- quarter net income to $36.5 million, with revenues increasing 24% to $266.6 million. Monster Worldwide's profits also spiked 49 percent in the December quarter. In a statement, Monster Worldwide's Chairman and CEO Andrew J. McKelvey said international sales grew 46 percent last year. Monster.com's success is due to employment classifieds increasingly migrating to the Web, an improved employment outlook and strong international growth. In fact, Nielsen/NetRatings' November data ranked Monster as Europe's most visited site. Monster is also getting into the Chinese market. Competition in this space is relentless with Yahoo!'s HotJobs, CareerBuilder, Craigslist, and even Google (Google Base), not to mention all the niche boards.
• TALX Corporation announced a quarterly dividend of $0.04 per share, a 20 percent increase from $0.033 per share last quarter. TALX also reported a 55 percent net earnings increase in its fiscal third quarter from the same quarter in 2004.
• Ultimate Software said its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled thanks to strong demand, and forecast higher-than-expected 2006 revenue. Revenue rose 22 percent to $24.9 million from $20.5 million during the prior-year period. The company said demand for its Intersourcing product drove revenue during the quarter. For 2006, the company said it expects revenue go grow by 20 percent to 23 percent, which puts revenue at between $106.3 million and $109 million - well above Wall Street's forecast for 15-percent growth to $101.9.

Lastly, we enjoyed reading some recent reports from Aberdeen Group and Fidelity Investments which confirms more companies are outsourcing HR functions. A whopping 97% of large companies have completed or planned an HR transition, such as upgrading HR operations, implementing self-service technology or introducing talent-planning initiatives. Roughly 66% of companies with more than $1 billion in revenues outsource all or part of their HR activities, compared to 40% at mid-size companies ($50 million to $999 million) and 39% for companies with revenue less than $50 million. The top motives driving HR outsourcing are lowering costs, enhancing the ability to focus on core business objectives, and improved end-user service, Aberdeen reports.

To view the MOST comprehensive news briefs and releases in the human resource industry, please visit our HR Industry News page. Members of HRmarketer.com receive news updates via email several times per week and may post their own company's news to this site.

Marketing PR = Lead Generation

We are "Marketing PR" evangelists, and we've been discussing the concept for months now. Marketing PR is the combining of what are traditionally two separate departments (PR and marketing) to one united front whereby all marketing and PR activities support marketing objectives (lead generation) versus traditional PR metrics (media placements) - and it's rapidly gaining in popularity!

The difference between traditional PR and Marketing PR is best illustrated with a press release. Traditional PR writes and distributes a press release for the sole purpose of securing media placements, whereas in Marketing PR the release is used to not only secure placements but also to enhance website SEO and to generate sales leads...

Read more about best-practice "Marketing PR" activities by going to our latest blog posting. You can also download our free Marketing PR report.

This monthly feature highlights how HRmarketer helps our loyal members...

“HRmarketer.com helps our company get organized and make the most of our marketing activities. They clearly provide a unique and valuable tool to the HR community and their customer service and attention to our needs is top notch.”

Maria Slabaugh, US Marketing Director, eFinancialCareers.com & jobsinthemoney.com

Human Resources suppliers are spending up to 10 percent of their annual revenue on marketing efforts, but that outreach is rooted in traditional activities that fail to deliver the sales leads that executives seek. That’s a key finding of "Trends in HR Marketing," the first in a series of HRmarketer.com research reports that will be released each quarter in 2006. Each report will include valuable results from surveys sent to over 5,000 HR suppliers, as well as analysis from HRmarketer.com’s leading experts on marketing and media visibility. Download the “Trends in HR Marketing” report today free of charge. It offers recommendations, implications and analysis of the HR marketing arena in 2006, and lessons learned by the HR/Benefits marketplace. In addition, HRmarketer.com's marketing and public relations analysts will identify best-practice trends by evaluating the marketing and PR practices of highly successful HR suppliers in each industry segment.

Marketing PR can help you integrate your current tactics with marketing best practices in the HR/Benefits marketplace, enabling you to generate leads and accomplish your marketing objectives. Marketing PR can accomplish many goals, including demand generation, Marketing PR fundamentals, search engine visibility, Media visibility and Brand support. Download HR Marketing Best Practices: Marketing PR That Works today.

And many of you have already downloaded our white paper on how to effectively market and sell to human resource professionals, but if you haven't, it's a rich resource for companies selling to HR. Topics covered include assessment of the human resource marketplace, buyer characteristics, purchasing influencers, sales channels, marketing and public relations campaigns that maximize lead generation, and effectively selling to human resources. Download the Marketing and Selling in the Human Resource Marketplace: Winning Strategies and Tactics white paper today.

HRintelligence is a premium HRmarketer service that tracks media and advertising placements in the major industry trade publications for all HR service providers, helping vendors monitor competitive information and track their own media and advertising placements. Much of the analysis in this monthly newsletter comes from the HRintelligence service.

For more information about HRintelligence or any of HRmarketer's services, please contact us at 831-460- 9700 or via email at info@hrmarketer.com

The HRmarketer.com Publications database is the largest collection of human resource and benefits-related publications, business periodicals, print newsletters and eNewsletters, ePubs, local business journals, daily newspapers and publication websites anywhere – and it is about to get even bigger!

The upgraded publications informational database, one of eight informational databases available on HRmarketer, will be renamed "Media Outlets" and will include even more comprehensive profiles of all the outlets tracked. Radio and TV outlets relevant to the human resource marketplace will be added later in 2006. While all HRmarketer “Media Outlet” profiles will continue to include details on target audience demographics, editorial calendars, press contacts, advertising, list rentals and byline article opportunities, we’re expanding the amount of information available for advertising and direct marketing opportunities. This makes it easier for HR suppliers to quickly identify and compare advertising and direct email marketing rates for a variety of media outlets that target their buyers, from print to online – something no other online marketing, PR or media planning service currently offers. This will also help HR suppliers and their agencies put together more targeted and cost-effective marketing and PR plans. And, HRmarketer marketing advisors are available to help HR suppliers and their marketing or PR firms identify and allocate marketing and PR dollars to focus on lead generation – regardless of the supplier's budget.

HRmarketer members can see a sample of these new profiles by checking out these popular publications in their accounts: Employee Benefit News, Workforce Management, and Chief Learning Officer.