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HRintelligence eNewsletter |
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Industry Intelligence for HR Suppliers
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Greetings!
Welcome to the latest edition of the HRintelligence eNewsletter, the monthly marketing intelligence newsletter from HRmarketer.com.
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.
October 2005
- Aetna
- Aflac
- Delta Dental
- Mercer Human Resource Consulting
- MetLife
- Principal Financial Group
- Prudential Financial
- Sage Software
- SHRM
- Ultimate Software
Commentary and Analysis: In this month's top advertising list we see companies like Aflac and Delta Dental advertising in publications read by employee benefit brokers/agencies/consultants (e.g., Employee Benefit Advisor) as as well as mainstream HR trades read by senior HR decision makers (e.g., HR Executive). This is a variation of push-pull marketing whereby you simultaneously influence both the primary purchaser and purchase influencers in an effort to increase overall awareness and demand for your product/service. You see this quite extensively with worksite products (a.k.a. voluntary benefits) that are often sold to employers via brokers and consultants.
Companies like Aflac and Delta Dental target their advertising both toward HR departments (employers) as well as brokers/consultants and in some cases, even econsumers (employees). Traditionally, insurance carriers sold their products exclusively through brokers and consultants. However, research now shows that while carriers still sell primarily through brokers and consultants (80%), they increasingly sell direct to HR (20%). This is why push pull marketing is so important, and why regardless of the HR product/service you sell, you need to be aware of your primary buyers/influencers across all your channels and make sure your marketing plan is targeting these buyers and influencers.
This is also why HRmarketer.com's informational databases track not only resources that target HR professionals but resources that target influencers like brokers and consultants. If you are a member of HRmarketer, ask your account executive to show you how to effectively use these databases for your lead generating marketing campaigns. If you are not a member of HRmarketer, call 831-460-9700 to learn more.
HRintelligence subscribers click here... |
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.
October 2005
- Aetna
- Hewitt Associates
- IBM
- Mercer Human Resource Consulting
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
- SHRM
- Towers Perrin
- Watson Wyatt
- Wal-Mart
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 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.
HRintelligence subscribers click here... |
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.
Employers Helping Workers Cope in Katrina’s Aftermath
Employers have offered their benefits and generosity to assist the millions affected by Hurricane Katrina. One of the nation’s deadliest natural disasters has not only changed New Orleans and the Gulf Coast forever, but could alter the types of benefits employers use to help workers cope with the aftermath. Most companies have tapped their employee assistance programs to lend a hand to workers in search of missing loved ones, provide emotional counseling or ease financial concerns.
HR and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Touted as one of the most important and complex pieces of legislation in recent history, the Sarbanes- Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) helps to assure the investment community that corporate financial disclosures have veracity and that company executives are held accountable for maintaining an ethical code of business conduct. On the surface, SOX seems to be a minimal HR concern. But dig a little deeper and you will find HR aspects scattered throughout the 66-page document.
10 Tips from the 10 Best Employers for Retirement Security
In these days of employers cutting back on benefits, there are many examples of companies that offer its employees defined benefit plans, 401 (k) plans with a 100% match up to 3% of pay, profit-sharing plans, and retiree medical coverage. They feel that the better their people are, the better job they’ll do, and the more profitable they’ll be. The 10 tips are: take a long-term view, keep an eye on the bottom line, keep an eye on the “competition”, don’t skimp on defined benefit funding, offer a hefty 401 (k) match, get workers saving early, provide free and personalized 401 (k) advice, avoid abrupt health insurance changes, keep the wellness program healthy, and help with work/life issues.
The Army’s Recruitment Battles
The challenge faced by the U.S. Army in recruiting new people is an unenviable one – and why private- sector employers can learn from the Army’s approach to solving its manpower crisis. Though no one dismisses the enormity of the Army’s recruiting woes, the organization is credited with developing innovative methods to close its recruiting gap, solutions that can be emulated in some form by the private sector. These programs include advertising and public outreach campaigns, better education benefits and public-private partnerships that enable soldiers to move straight into new careers after their military service.
HR and IT Now Working As One
On the face of it, the human resource and information technology departments seem to have about as much in common as John Deere and Microsoft. Until about a decade ago, in fact, HR people took care of hiring, payroll, benefits and so forth, but little positive impact on the bottom line. IT folks installed and ran the company’s major computer systems, and were critical to bottom-line success. Today, with technology finally helping HR’s drive for strategic relevance, these departments are successfully collaborating on major projects in such business-critical areas as e-recruiting, self-service, training, compensation and talent retention.
The Value of Learning
Learning is becoming an increasingly important function for all companies to develop and maintain the individual and organizational skills needed to create a competitive advantage, increase efficiencies, and improve bottom-line results. More CEOs recognize that employees’ development is essential to achieving bottom-line results. As a result, Chief learning officers and other learning executives are increasingly being called upon to play a more strategic role in their organizations.
Rx Revenue Streaming
As all aspects of health care cost come under greater scrutiny, prescription drug players – employers, brokers and at least some insurers and pharmacy benefit managers – are beating the drum for greater transparency in drug pricing. But transparency is only useful if they understand the nuances of drug pricing. After all, wile transparency does not necessarily give advisers and employers control over the cost of prescription drugs, it does allow them the ability to land on the best side of the arrangement.
HRintelligence subscribers click here... |
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 maintain our "Great" rating this month primarily as a result of strong earnings from major HR suppliers and an abundance of HR suppliers announcing new or increased dividends and/or stock buyback plans - a sign of confidence amongst suppliers. Also, like last month, many HR suppliers we speak with are expressing optimism on the future of the HR space and their own company's revenue outlook. Here's some selected news and earnings announcements from publicly traded HR suppliers:
- Automatic Data Processing (ADP): Raised dividend 19 percent and announced a stock buyback plan. ADP had also recently announced that their fiscal first quarter profilts grew 6 percent as revenue expanded across its units. By segment, employer services division grew revenue 9 percent, brokerage revenue grew 12 percent and dealer services grew 6 percent.
- Administaff: Announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per share. The company had also announced third- quarter profit had doubled as a result of a fee mark- up and lower costs.
- Ceridian: Announced its profit more than doubled in the third quarter from growth in both of its businesses. By segment, revenue from its human resources services group advanced 8 percent to $254.6 million, while its Comdata division, which offers fuel cards and cash advances to the retail and trucking industries, climbed 17 percent to $109.5 million.
- Clark Consulting: Announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.06 per common share.
- Gevity: Announced strong client growth that sparked a 32 percent increase in third-quarter profit, and raised its full-year guidance. The company also declared a dividend of $0.07 per common share.
- Hewitt Associates: Announced that its fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 22 percent but profit declined due to a 25 percent increase in operating expenses.
- Kronos: Announced that revenue rose 17% in the latest quarter due to a rise in sales and from recent acquisitions. Profit rose 7%. During the past year, Kronos made several acquisitions, including AD OPT Technologies, CTR Systems Time and Attendance and NextTime Inc.
- Monster Worldwide: Announced plans to buy back up to $100 million worth of its stock over the next two and a half years.
- TALX: Announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share. The company also declared a 3-for-2 stock split to shareholders of record Dec. 19.
- Workbrain: Announced third quarter revenue of $21.9 million, an increase of 36.5% over same period 2004 but a decrease of 1% over last quarter. Workbrain has increased revenue guidance and expects to achieve total revenue in the range of $85 million to $87 million for the 2005 fiscal year, representing annual growth in the range of 49% to 53%.
Recent M&A activity in the HR space:
- TALX acquired the unemployment tax management business of Employers Unity Inc. for $30 million in cash. The unemployment tax management business of Employers Unity had revenue of $14 million in 2004.
HRintelligence subscribers click here... |
Marketing and Media Visibility Tip of the Month |
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Timing is Everything: Do’s and Don’ts for Sending Press Releases
When sending a press release, timing is nearly as important as having well-written, newsworthy content, according to Todd Raphael, editor in chief of The Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership. Raphael previously served as an editor for Workforce Management, and he recently shared some tips with HRmarketer about sending news. While Tuesday is considered a prime distribution day for many companies, Raphael notes that the day has now become an “overload” day since so many companies use it. There’s really no “perfect” day now; in fact, the time of day is now more critical. Early morning hours have also become an overused time. “It can be overwhelming,” he says, “when you first come into work and are faced with a stack of press releases, in addition to the usual dozens of e-mails.” He recommends sending press releases at different times of the day – late morning and early afternoon, for instance - unless early timing is crucial to the news.
Also, Raphael urges clients to avoid the “boy who cried wolf syndrome,” where so many companies announce new clients, new partners and other items that journalists began to glean over the important announcements. “You learn over time to subconsciously tune it all out,” he notes, “and then something that’s of real interest comes along and you miss it.” After seven years at Workforce Management, he was established and well-known enough to receive as many as a “couple dozen” press releases a day. Raphael encourages PR and marketing professionals to contact him by phone and discuss what kind of news he’s interested in. The technique is good to consider for all HR journalists: phrase your questions in a way that shows you want to help them, not bombard them. Raphael thinks editors will welcome a one-time call of this nature, as it shows your willingness to be a resource.
To read other helpful tips like these, login to your HRmarketer account... |
How HRmarketer Helps Me |
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This monthly feature highlights how HRmarketer helps our loyal members...
"HRmarketer has done all of the legwork for press release and article distribution. They've streamlined the process of selecting editorial calendars and building media distribution lists that allow mass exposure of our press releases with only a few clicks. Ultimately, HRmarketer allows me to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time creating quality marketing and PR content important to the media and our target buyers."
Deborah Ackles, Director of Marketing, BlessingWhite, a global leadership development consulting firm.
Click here to login to your HRmarketer.com account... |
Marketing to HR White Paper |
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Our free white paper - Marketing and Selling in the Human Resource Marketplace: Winning Strategies and Tactics - has already been downloaded by hundreds and hundreds of HR suppliers! Make sure to download your copy today!
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.
The white paper is drawn from HRmarketer’s years of experience working with more than 300 human resource suppliers. The paper also promotes a best- practices discussion on ways to effectively generate sales leads through coordinated marketing and public relations campaigns.
We hope you’ll spread the word about our informative white paper! 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
HRintelligence subscribers click here... |
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Your Marketing and Media Visibility Solution
HRmarketer.com is the #1 on-demand marketing and media visibility service for companies selling to human resource departments and/or targeting employee benefit brokers and consultants.
HRmarketer combines a database of marketing and public relations (PR) information with press release distribution, campaign management, business intelligence and marketing advisory services.
Call us at 831-460-9700 or email us at info@hrmarketer.com for a free 20-minute demo!
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Marketing & Lead Generation tips for HR Suppliers. Archives.
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