My team recently released a report called “The Power of an Employment Brand: HR Trends in 2008.” Although we worked on it earlier in the year, we had already recognized that the economic horizon was beginning to darken with storm clouds, and our research reflects that shift in the business landscape.  As Jack’s post below indicates, however, the turbulence in the economy hasn’t necessarily affected the kinds of high-end industries that TriNet tends to work with--such as technology and professional service firms. These companies still critically need to attract and retain top talent, because top talent always has the option to go work elsewhere.

From the report itself, which summarizes the responses from nearly 400 executives in small and medium-sized companies:

“Amid recent dire predictions of an economic recession, employers are increasingly concerned about attracting and retaining high-quality employees. This is because despite a 70 percent probability for a recession in 2008, top talent will remain in high demand and qualified candidates will continue to have many career opportunities available to them.

Survey results show that the top business concern in 2008 is recruiting and retaining talent (31 percent), followed by revenue (26 percent). …

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As you consider your investment in employee health benefits for 2008 – 2009, some facts and approaches may be helpful.

Health Benefits Costs Present Management Challenges

When you choose to provide health benefits to your employees, your company must balance two conflicting objectives – maximizing the incentive value of healthcare to your employees, and controlling the cost of this investment.  TriNet’s 2008 – 2009 health benefits program help strike the right balance.

Health insurance premium costs continue to increase across all insurance types, providers and regions. Between 2001- 2007, health insurance premium costs rose 80%—nearly four times faster than wage cost growth in the same period. This trend continues with no sign of abatement.

Costs of TriNet-offered plans reflect national trends. Many plans (including High Deductibles, HMO’s and some others) have very low, or no increase, due to favorable claims experience and low risk. Low-deductible plans which expose insurers to near “first-dollar” claim costs generally have higher percentage increases. But across plan types, options and regions, the median annual increase for TriNet-sponsored plans in 2008 – 2009 is well below national averages.  The TriNet total picture is continued wide choice among excellent …

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Recent news about the national employment market has been consistent with broader concerns about recession in 2008.  Last week’s BLS report indicated that payroll employment declined by 232,000 in the January-March quarter, and that the unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in March. 

TriNet sees a different picture among high-wage technology and non-banking professional services employers with 400 or fewer employees. These companies continued to hire and grow at about the same pace as in 2006 and 2007.  Employment growth seems to be moderating, and small companies continue to experience rising health-care costs, but small, high-wage companies expanded their workforces in Q1 2008. 

Here’s how we see it:

Study Population: High-Wage Small Technology and Services Companies

TriNet studied hiring and compensation patterns from 2006 – 2008 at more than 600 companies averaging about 26 employees in 39 states, with median salary around $75,000. More than 90% of the companies are professional services, technology or non-bank financial service businesses.  All companies in the study were TriNet clients for the entire period (2006 – present).

Continued Hiring in Q1 2008: Fewer Companies Hiring More New Employees

While the number of …

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In case you just visit this blog but not TriNet’s main corporate site, I wanted to point your attention to the fact that we’ve just launched a pretty major overhaul of TriNet.com.

Of particular interest to new and curious onlookers in the HR outsourcing industry may be our series of short flash videos.  We think they go a long way towards making the point that outsourcing human resources isn’t difficult, and it isn’t complicated. It’s actually really, really easy.  One of the most common things we hear from customers is that they outsourced their HR because of “simplicity.” That’s not to say that there are complicated aspects to human resources—it’s just that our customers don’t have to worry about them.  We do.

Check out the videos here.

We’ve also added some additional content that you may enjoy. For example, we have a series of very short podcasts, hosted by TriNet’s Human Capital Consultants, covering a variety of human capital issues and trends that pertain to business owners. We’ll be adding many more, and you can also look for the series on iTunes.

Check out the podcasts here.

In a previous post I discussed the results of a study that TriNet undertook in regards to Human Capital Management practices. The goal was to build some actual data sets around both HCM practices and outcomes in small high performing companies nationwide, including what worked and didn’t work to maximize their corporate performance. There were 700 companies in the study population with an average wage of $102,000, and an average workforce size of 18.1 employees.

I’ve already shared the results we found in regards to Talent Acquisition practices in these companies, but now I’d like to focus on what we discovered in terms of Performance Management practices.

The short list for performance management success calls for keeping focused on just three things:
1. Set and align goals from top to bottom
2. Link performance reviews to compensation
3. Touch base on goals throughout the year

We found that very few companies in the small and medium-sized market set concrete goals for their employees, and those that did failed to specifically link compensation to the completion of those goals throughout the year. Rather, promotions and salary increases—or lack …

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Here’s an article that Greg Morton, TriNet’s VP of Marketing, just wrote for the PEO Insider.

Branding a PEO isn’t a matter of harnessing a million dollar advertising budget and blasting commercials on American Idol.  Branding is a matter of corporate reputation, in which every positive action that the company makes establishes trust, credibility, and support among its customers. Those customers talk to other customers, and those customers talk to other customers, and—all of a sudden—word-of-mouth has created your company’s brand.

Conversely, if your corporate reputation gains momentum while being based on bad product and poor customer service…well, you also get a brand. It’s just not the one you want.

So how do you begin to spread your corporate reputation?  Typical marketing activities certainly play a role, as does the overall strength and quality of the HR services that you deliver. But you also have another indispensable asset: your own employees. Building a corporate reputation—and therefore a powerful brand identification in the marketplace—begins right at home.

Spread the Message
You might take it for granted that each and every employee at your company understands the PEO value proposition. The sales …

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We recently announced extensive new product offerings that give our customers a critical business advantage as they compete for in-demand new talent as well as successfully manage and support their existing employees.

In high-end industries such as technology and financial services, small business executives often seek ways to gain access to affordable enterprise-level tools and resources, because doing so can help position themselves as an attractive career destination and gain the competitive edge needed to catch the eye of prospective job candidates. The flexibility and scalability of TriNet’s suite of web-based human capital management services — resources previously only available to big companies with big budgets — equip smaller company executives with additional “large company” resources and enable them to fully maximize their most important competitive asset: their people.

As a leader in the high-growth human resource outsourcing industry since 1988, TriNet has provided payroll, benefits, and HR services through its secure online portal since 1995. In recognition of our rapid customer base growth and in anticipation of expanding our business offerings to bring aboard larger scale organizations, we have added even more efficiencies to our existing platform in the form of new strategic business intelligence …

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As the equity markets gyrate, and financial services, manufacturing and housing industries contract, high-growth companies may confront new challenges in 2008.  Because the economic growth picture has blurred, now is the time to take a fresh look at the human capital practices and policies that drive business outcomes. 

Management can apply human capital practices to adapt to changing business conditions by thinking through four dimensions of these practices. The four dimensions are talent acquisition, performance management, compensation practices, and employment risk management.  I will cover the first two in this entry and the last two in a future entry:

Talent Acquisition: Financial services companies, builders and suppliers are already cutting employees. Layoffs of more than 50 employees increased 11 % in 2007 over 2006, and the trend is upward.  Management teams often turn to employee reductions as a fast way to reduce costs as demand slows.

But layoffs can be the wrong answer for small, high-growth companies. Because these companies tend to operate with lean overhead, layoffs can cripple sales growth or product development.  If a downturn is affecting competitors with higher cost positions, then a recession may actually present opportunities to expand into …

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So, I hear that this year’s U.S. health expenditures will total 2.2 trillion dollars. Um, yeah, trillion.As in nearly 20% of our own GDP. As in over $7,000 for every U.S. citizen. I remember reading somewhere that the U.S. spends more on Mother’s Day cards and gifts than the entire GDP of Chad--which came in at $6.5 billion in 2006--and probably more than a few other nations. In fact, 63 nations come in behind Chad, fully a third of all the countries ranked by the World Bank and the IMF. So, by comparison to that venerable institution of Mother’s Day, how does health care rank? Sad but true, Mom and apple pie do not hold a candle to health care. If our health expenditures were a country in their own right, they would tie with France for the sixth-largest GDP in the world. I don’t know about you, but somehow I don’t feel like I am getting that great a bang for that huge a buck.

Not to get too predictable, but let’s trot out a couple of stats. Among developed nations, the United States has the second-worst newborn mortality rate, bested (worsted?) only by that powerhouse Latvia, …

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Is the healthcare crisis beginning to ebb?  Not according to business executives at fast-growth companies who responded to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.

According to the most recent Private Company Services’ Trendsetter Barometer, most fast-growth private businesses (57%) claim to have suffered an impact from increased healthcare costs over the past 12 months, and/or expect to suffer wage/hiring impacts over the next year. Specifically, higher costs contributed to slower profit-growth (43%), while 38% foresee additional wage or hiring impacts in the next year. Anticipated hardships include lower wage increases for current employees (34%), slower hiring (10%), and/or hiring of more part-time versus full time workers (10%).

The full story can be found on the PWC web site.