It’s October and that can mean only one thing: It’s time for the October PEO Marketing Push! (Silly you if you thought I was going to say pumpkins, fall leaves, or Halloween). It’s the industry-wide, all-hands-on-deck marketing effort to raise the profile of our industry and move the needle on industry awareness and visibility.
Since the early days, this pandemic has been a roller coaster. PEO marketing and sales teams have been sitting in the front row: First to see the wild ride ahead of us, holding on tight, and adapting to the changing landscape that lies ahead. From temporary pauses to permanent shutdowns, to furloughs and layoffs and school closures, businesses and their employees have been struggling to hold on.
While we witness a historic shake up of the current business landscape, it’s important to remind ourselves of the value we’re bringing to so many businesses. We’re here to help them keep their lights on and their doors open.
Available evidence on the early impact PEOs had on business outcomes for their clients during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic showed that PEO clients fared better than other small businesses, often significantly better.
Adjusting how we sell in the current COVID-19 world can be hard, especially when our historically successful approaches have been hamstrung. Effectively changing our sales methods requires us to account for some new realities in personal interactions and the business environment, and then equip ourselves with the sales tools we need to keep making progress in a COVID-19 world.
Various things can impact success in sales in the PEO industry: timing of specific events, level of pain of certain issues, competition, your PEO’s product offering, benefits costs, your pipeline, general sales activity, sales acumen of your frontline team, and relationships. Many of these things are outside the sales rep’s control, but many are not.
I remember sitting in last year’s NAPEO Annual Membership Meeting and thinking about 2020. As Andy Lubash received the chair’s gavel from Barron Guss, I remember feeling nervous, excited, and a little overwhelmed as I projected myself onto that same platform in 2020.
Through NAPEO Gives Back, members raised $79,470 for Our Daily Bread Food Pantry in Marco, Island, Florida, our charity partner for the NAPEO 2020 virtual conference. Although NAPEO’s Annual Conference & Marketplace could not be live and in-person this year, NAPEO Gives Back raised about 50 percent more than the amount raised at the 2019 Annual Conference for Anthropos Arts in Austin, Texas.
Lee Yarborough is the president of Greenville, South Carolina-based Propel HR. On September 15, 2020, she was elected chair of NAPEO’s Board of Directors during NAPEO’s Annual Member Meeting. She recently spoke with PEO Insider to discuss her background and share where she thinks the industry is headed and how NAPEO can continue to grow.
592 Attendees: 42 Staff and Crew, 26 Sponsors 103 Speakers: 4 Keynotes, 19 Industry Education Sessions 5,400+ Gigabytes of Data Streamed: 3 Studio Connections,25 Zoom Rooms $79K Raised by 171 NAPEO Members to Feed the Hungry
While the pandemic may be keeping the government busy issuing rules about returning to work, workplace safety, and implementation of the paid and family leave benefits, it is far from the only guidance that has come out over the last several months.
The terms diversity and inclusion have been widely used for years but have been renewed with the passionate call to action that our society has seen in recent months. Many workplaces have policies that on the surface appear to support these ideals, but too often simply amount to hollow words on a page, not because of ill intent, but due to lack of understanding. Having policies to shape the framework and set expectations is one thing. Executing on the mission is quite another.
One of the first goals in setting a budget is to determine what your revenue is relative to your costs. The harder part of that equation in the insurance business is usually cost because there is significant uncertainty in estimating it. PEOs are no different. The goal of this article is to cover some of the largest costs within a PEO’s workers’ compensation program and briefly suggest ways to mitigate, manage, and control those costs.
The revenue growth rate for all respondents in NAPEO’s 2020 Financial Ratio & Operating Statistics Survey (FROS) was 8.3 percent for FY2019, down slightly from 10 percent in FY2018. The operating income per worksite employee was $242, also down slightly from $259 in FY2018.
Payroll administration is a vital function for any PEO. An employee’s payroll is personal and any inconsistencies or errors can elicit a slew of emotions. Additionally, payroll professionals have consistent contact with clients and can be the first to recognize potential issues that may arise within the client organization or its relationship with the PEO. Below are some tips to help protect your PEO and keep your payroll department running smoothly.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many PEOs have had to take a critical look at their sales teams. Many PEOs made decisions to furlough some of their salespeople. Some of those salespeople likely should have been given to the opportunity to be successful somewhere else even before the pandemic—they were not meeting their numbers.
As the economy works to recover from the pandemic, now is the time to take advantage of opportunities and position your business for sustained growth. Yes, there will be challenges to overcome, but opportunities are plentiful. Despite the heavy hit that many PEOs and their customers took during the crisis, the outlook for the industry and its positioning in a post-pandemic world is positive.
As I write this, NAPEO’s first-ever virtual annual conference is in the rearview mirror. Because it was the first of its kind, I can tell you we had the greatest turnout ever! But all kidding aside, the turnout was pretty spectacular. We had 600 registrants and—more important—about 150 were first-time registrants, people who had not attended a NAPEO conference in the past. One benefit of going virtual is that it allowed people to participate without having to incur airfare and hotel costs—and they did.