Greetings!
Welcome to the latest edition of the HRintelligence eNewsletter, the monthly marketing intelligence newsletter from HRmarketer.com.
Have you downloaded our latest white paper entitled Marketing and Selling in the Human Resource Marketplace: Winning Strategies and Tactics? This first-of-its-kind white paper, based on four-plus years of experience working with hundreds human resource suppliers like yourselves, will help you and other stakeholders to better understand our unique marketplace. Click on the "Marketing to HR White Paper" link below for more information about this informative free white paper!
Top Advertisers |
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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.
September 2005
- ADP
- Aetna
- Aflac
- American Dental Association
- Delta Dental
- Guardian Life Insurance
- MetLife
- Monster.com
- Mutual of Omaha
- VSP
Commentary and Analysis: We've noticed a steady increase over the past few months in advertising from benefits and health insurance companies in many of the top HR trades where they are promoting their products and services. Because of the exorbitant costs of employee health care (and it continues to skyrocket), employers are searching for cost-effective alternatives like consumer-driven health care benefits, flexible spending accounts (FSA's) and Healthcare Spending Accounts (HSA's) for their employees, and many benefits providers are answering those calls with new products and services. In fact, increasing numbers of benefits providers realize that the human resource department is now a powerful gatekeeper to virtually all other departments in an organization, from department heads to the executive management team to the boardroom, and are held accountable to the bottom line. Another category that has seen an increase in advertising is gift cards - from coffee to electronics - as employers are becoming increasingly comfortable using gift cards for a variety of purposes beyond just employee recognition.
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Top Editorial Placements |
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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.
September 2005
- Aetna
- Aon
- Employee Benefit Research Institute
- Hewitt Associates
- IBM
- Mercer Human Resource Consulting
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
- SHRM
- Towers Perrin
- Watson Wyatt
Commentary and Analysis: Companies that consistently secure media placements in the major HR trades do so by offering current, newsworthy information such as trend data and statisics from new research. This is one reason why firms like Hewitt, Mercer, Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt and organizations like SHRM, EBRI and PBGC have such high visibility. We are well aware that most HR suppliers cannot possibly expect to match the research output of the above mentioned firms, but HR suppliers can do a much better job at including more "newsworthy" information in their press releases. Whether they realize it or not, most every HR supplier is sitting on a wealth of useful and interesting data. For example, HR suppliers that market employee benefit administration software can data mine their logs this Fall to report on such things as percentage of employees who use online enrollment options, demographic correlations, what time of the day/week/month they logon to make their selections, how long it takes to complete their enrollment, etc. Regardless of what you sell, you have data that journalists will find interesting. You just need to be a little creative (and get cooperation from your IT) to data mine the information and work it into your press releases. But it is worth the effort if you want to secure more print media placements.
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Top Stories in the HR Marketplace |
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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 Growth of Consumer-Driven Health Plans
Consumer-driven health plans are poised to proliferate in the next several years, driving changes in health spending that even early employer converts can’t precisely predict. In 2004, just 4 percent of companies with at least 500 employees offered consumer-driven, according to Mercer Human Consulting’s annual benefits survey of 3,020 employers. But one-fourth planned to implement the approach by 2006.
Benefit Managers and HR Directors Struggle with Benefit Problems
Benefit managers and HR directors walk a fine line between what their employees want and what they can provide. When they aren’t stumbling, the result often is contentious relationships with both workers and insurance carriers. Be it the competition for talent or simply a sense of responsibility for their workforce, benefit managers say they are providing as comprehensive a benefits package as they can to both employees and their families. However, a number of them note that many times, their best is not good enough for workers.
Online Higher Education and Corporate Learning
Online education has enjoyed significant growth in recent years among the general public. ASTD recently partnered with Capella University, a leading accredited online university, to identify the perceptions of senior learning executives about the role of online higher education in corporate learning. Among the key findings: A vast majority of respondents see continued growth in their organizations for online learning and, nearly half perceive an online education equally as valuable as one from a traditional land-based degree program.
Plan Sponsors Concerned About the Ever- Changing HRO Landscape
The HRO marketplace remains “hot” despite the fact that consolidation has changed the landscape, greatly reducing the number providers. This trend concerns plan sponsors that are considering placing their HR administration in the hands of an entity that may not still be in the HRO business at the end of the contract. But the biggest challenge for plan sponsors, and certainly for HRO providers who are trying to work with them, seems to be the process of figuring out if they themselves are ready for HRO.
Executives as Change Agents in HR
At organizations all over the country, doors are being thrown open and executives are being brought in to make changes to company HR functions. In fact, in a recent study from Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that half of the 300 HR professionals surveyed work at an organization that is currently undergoing a transformation – and of those, 30 percent say the makeover is due to a new leader.
Performance Management Effectiveness
Although health care fraud, defined as the intentional submission of false medical claims, has been a serious problem for more than two decades, it is gaining widespread attention now as a major driver of health cost inflation. In their responsibilities for managing employer-sponsored health benefits, HR professionals are pivotal in seeing to it that health plan administrators ore health insurance providers are proactive about detecting fraud.
Blogs as Recruitment and Branding Tools
Although blogs have popped up by the millions over the past five years, some companies still find it controversial whether or not they should use or sponsor blogs as recruitment and branding tools. But some experts believe blogging will evolve to include all segments of society, much the same as the Internet today. And earlier this year Businessweek urged businesses to blog. No matter what, specific guidelines should be set for posting to business blogs because there are legal implications to consider.
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This Month's Human Capital Health Indicator Is... |
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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: We can't help but upgrade our human capital indicator to Great this month. Here are a few reasons why: With our HRmarketer service, we work with and have fairly regular contact with nearly 300 human resource suppliers. And during the last month, most have expressed optimism, albeit cautious, on the future of the HR space and their own company's revenue outlook. We're also seeing increased advertising placements in many of the trades (Workforce Management recently increased their publication from once to twice a month), larger 2006 marketing budgets, well attended trade shows and very good earnings announcements (see below).
Concerns do loom, however. Inflation at the wholesale level soared in September by the largest amount in more than 15 years, reflecting increased energy prices as a result of the Gulf Coast hurricanes. This along with rising interest rates is bound to impact the HR space, but to what degree nobody knows. So far it has had a minimal impact - relative to other industries. What's interesting is there is limited historical data on how HR stocks perform during economic downturns since many HR stocks were IPO's within the last decade. We can only hope the HR sector will be like the pharmaceutical or healthcare sectors - just like people always need medicine, employers always need good employees. Some of the major news this month included:
- Paychex: Reported a quarterly revenue gain of 17% and an even bigger 31% increase in net income. Both results beat analyst estimates. Rising interest rate will help all payroll processing firms but economic growth and high employment rates drive this sector.
- Workstream: Quarterly revenue in the quarter ended August 31 was $6.3 million, up 11 per cent from last year. However, the company also continues to pile up large losses.
- The net loss for the quarter was US$3.8 million, or 8 cents a share compared to US$2.5 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier.
- IBM: Posted strong quarterly results and their new "services" business (which includes outsourced HR services) continues to perform well. IBM said it recorded $11 billion in orders for new service contracts during the latest quarter. How much is HR related we do not know. Interesting note: Mercer Human Resource Consulting recently awarded IBM a $58 million contract to manage its IT procurement systems.
Some HR companies who have yet to announce quarterly earnings as of this newsletter's publication date include:
- ADP: Scheduled for Oct 26
- Administaff: Scheduled for Nov 1
- Gevity: Scheduled for Oct 27
- Kronos: Scheduled for Oct 26
- Ultimate Software: Scheduled for Oct 20
- TALX: Scheduled for Oct 27
- Kenexa: Scheduled for Nov 1
Recent M&A activity in the HR space:
- Monster acquire Korean employment Web site JobKorea for $94 millkon.
- Saba Software has agreed to buy Centra Software Inc. for $56.6 million. Centra provides of software and services for online learning and training.
- Direct Data Capture Ltd (DDC) acquired Fedaso (NL) from Wegener DM
- Time Plus Payroll Services of Atlanta, GA acquired Payroll Data Systems (PDS) of Philadelphia.
- Marsh and Mercer Human Resource Consulting announced the launch of Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, a new business combining their respective health care and group benefits businesses.
- Clark Consulting, a public executive compensation and benefits firm, purchased Stratford Advisory Group, an institutional investment consulting firm.
- WageWorks will acquire the reimbursement administration business of FBD Consulting, Inc.
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Marketing and Media Visibility Tip of the Month |
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To quote or not to quote?
In press releases, the inclusion of a quote from senior managers and/or customers is a necessary element. However, while journalists expect to see quotes, they’re generally regarded as the least newsworthy element. As with any news release, the most important news should be at the very top, following by a descending order of supporting details...and then a quote. In fact, many journalists will only read the first paragraph or two of a release before deciding to keep or discard it.
The exception to this rule is when a quote helps tell the story, such as in a customer win release or a new product release, where your company or product helped the customer solve a major pain point. In this case, a customer quote can run higher because it supports the story with new information, as well as alerting journalists that the client is willing to speak with media. Otherwise, unless it’s from a “marquee name” or business celebrity, or it offers a unique perspective or position expressed...keep that quote at the bottom where it belongs.
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How HRmarketer Helps Me |
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This monthly feature highlights how HRmarketer helps our loyal members...
"HRmarketer is an incredible value. For less than the monthly cost of a PR firm, the HRmarketer tool and the incredible staff is helping us to create a marketing program for an entire year. HRmarketer is helping us to become our own PR firm. We are only one month into the process, and our second press release resulted in 3 phone calls from the media. The entire staff has been friendly and responsive. I would recommend this service to anyone who does marketing to HR professionals."
Jonathan Levy, CEO, Fair Measures, a leading provider of legal management training for managers and employees.
Click here to login to your HRmarketer.com account... |
Marketing to HR White Paper |
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Our latest white paper - Marketing and Selling in the Human Resource Marketplace: Winning Strategies and Tactics - has only been available for the past week, but has already been downloaded by hundreds of HR suppliers!
What you will learn in our white paper:
- Assessment of HR Marketplace, buyers, opportunities, trends and how to capitalize on them.
- Implementation of HR Marketing strategies and tactics that will put your firm in front of the competition.
- Integrated approach to marketing and public relations that will generate more leads and sales.
- Value of outsourcing administrative marketing and public relations activities.
- Competitive edge with aggregated marketing and PR resources so vendors can focus on execution.
This white paper is available as a free download at our newly designed HRmarketer.com website! We hope you’ll spread the word about its benefits and availability! However, we kindly ask that you not send the white paper PDF to anyone and instead refer others to our website to download a free copy.
Click here to download the white paper... |
HRintelligence Service |
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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
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