“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get,” said the Cat.
“I really don’t care where,” replied Alice.
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
–Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
Needless to say, Alice probably would not make it in the PEO business very long. Who knows about Wonderland, but in the PEO world, getting where you want to be depends as much on a big-picture strategic plan for getting there as much as it does on managing and perfecting a complex operation.
At the time of this article’s publishing, it will still be early in 2012, which makes it an opportune time for planning how to make this year’s sales better than those of 2011. When looking at how to shape the results of an upcoming year, the word “strategic” surfaces frequently, and there are two aspects to it.
There is probably no topic as important—and as misunderstood—as strategic planning. Most organizations today have been engaged in some kind of strategic planning effort for a number of years. We’ve all been through the drill. Nice offsite meeting, a chance for the team to reflect on the past, dream a little about the future, perhaps argue about just the right wording of a particular goal. You leave energized and excited about the goals you have set, then quickly return to the real world, forgetting about the noble plans you have made until it’s time for the next planning meeting. Sound familiar?
One of the many services PEOs offer their clients is the maintenance and sponsorship of Section 401(k) retirement plans. These plans permit clients to offer high-quality retirement plan packages to their co-employees in a cost-effective manner with the administrative and operational duties handled by the PEO and the PEO’s professional third party administrator (TPA).
In an industry that is constantly redefining itself, innovating new products, and foraging for new markets, it can be a difficult task to look far into the future to define a vision. At HR Comp, we have been working hard over the past year at defining ourselves and our product service and delivery.
Propel HR Headquarters: Greenville, South Carolina Top Executive: Lee Cutchin Yarborough, President Years in Business: Yarborough has been in the industry for 16 years; Propel HR has been in business for five years.
Critical to a successful government affairs program is ensuring that it encompasses various approaches aimed at building awareness with policymakers, leveraging existing and potential supporters, and encouraging political involvement.
My name is Kat Cunningham and I’m “so moved” to get involved. I own a company in Columbia, Missouri, called Moresource, Inc. I started my company with a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan in March of 1994. It’s exciting to say Moresource is about to celebrate 18 years in business!
There’s an old story from Tammany Hall of O’Malley, a political operative who—in return for helping to elect the mayor—is appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. The press seizes upon the appointment as an example of blatant political patronage to a wholly unqualified hack.
Q. Can a client request photos from job applicants? A. While a photo for identification purposes could be taken or requested after an offer of employment, it would generally not be proper as a part of a pre-employment inquiry.
To improve the operations of the company and to find a competitive edge in the outsourcing marketplace, PEOs continue to look for better ways to deliver and grow their services. The existence of many variably defined professional employer organizations contributes to the evidence that businesses are willing to accept a combination of delivery models.
Many of our readers will remember the presentation by Doug Bailey at NAPEO’s Legal and Legislative Conference in 2010. We asked Bailey to look in his crystal ball and to give us his take on where politics 2012 may take us. The result was a bit surprising.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, or ACA) brought some massive changes to the United States healthcare system. Some of these were relatively immediate and others are being implemented over time. Moreover, a keystone of the ACA—the required individual mandate to have healthcare coverage—is to be considered by the Supreme Court of the United States in March 2012. So, the future of the ACA and many of its provisions is still murky.
In early November, NAPEO set a course to get Congress to attach the Small Business Efficiency Act (H.R. 2466/S. 1908) to a larger tax bill. Seven weeks later, Congress is at an impasse on whether or not to extend the payroll tax for two months or for a full year. The best description of the NAPEO lobbying efforts during this time—if I can paraphrase noted philosopher Jerry Garcia—would be “What a short, strange trip it’s been.”