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January Hot Topics:
  1. Critical HR Challenges for 2012
    By Renee Sheetz Davies, President, Human Resources Professional Group
  2. 10 Things to Consider When Switching Payroll Service Providers
    By Fred Patterson, lll, District Sales Manager, AmCheck
  3. The Soft Market is Over for Worker's Compensation
    By Eric Sheetz, Commercial Insurance Broker, The Michael Ehrenfeld Co.
  4. Google Analytics and Ad Words (Part 2)
    By Michael Sick



Critical HR Challenges for 2012
By Renee Sheetz Davies, President, Human Resources Professional Group

Executives and HR leaders are setting their agenda for 2012 by reviewing the most critical issues that affect their employees, and therefore, the success of their business in the coming year. What are some of the critical challenges and should you include any of them on your list of priority issues for 2012? Below are five that warrant your consideration.
  1. Compliance with state and federal regulations. Governments are low on funds and seeking ways to increase revenue. To this end, state and federal agencies have stepped up efforts in regulatory compliance as they find that all employers fail to comply with at least one employment regulation. Key areas for compliance audits and fines:
  • I-9 policies and procedures
  • 1099 contractor miss-classification
  • Inaccurate classification of non-exempt employees as exempt
  • Travel pay and other payroll issues related to overtime liability
  • Proper retention and control of personnel records
  • Basic compliance such as current postings and brochures
  1. Hiring qualified candidates who will work well within your company's culture. Recruitment is no longer about just finding the candidate that best fits the job requirements. Companies now understand that Talent Management strategies must be incorporated into their workforce planning and that ownership of the various talent management tools must be identified and codified to ensure a cost effective and efficient talent acquisition program. Those companies who understand these distinctions will be in the best position to grab the most highly qualified candidates.
  1. Preparing for the large influx of returning military and preparing HR and managers to understand the skills these individuals bring to the employment landscape. Most HR and hiring managers are ill-prepared to understand the experience offered by returning military personnel. This puts these employers behind the curve in utilizing much of the team and leadership training that most of these military veterans offer to potential employers. Identifying how best to incorporate these skills into their workforce, rather than letting more sophisticated competitors harness this talent, will be a key issue over the next few years.
  1. Maximizing performance: Employee development and skills training. Companies who failed to develop their talent during the economic downturn will find they are at risk of losing key employees to competitors who have been more aggressive in training and leadership initiatives.
  1. Successful mapping and ownership of internal communication programs. How important is accurate and timely communication to your employees? Companies who focus on best practices have identified this as one of the key issues in successful business operations and employee satisfaction. Preparing detailed communication processes including ownership of various communication vehicles has become a critical aspect of corporate success. Those companies who have the ability to focus on these programs will have an advantage as they move into 2012.
The five challenges listed above are just some of those identified by several national and international HR organizations as key issues for 2012. Those companies who successfully address these challenges will find themselves in a better position to capitalize on the improving economy.

We invite you to contact HRPG if you would like to discuss ways that HRPG may assist your company in working through any of the HR challenges you see for 2012. Contact us at rdavies@hrpg.com or 619-421-0074.

10 Things to Consider When Switching Payroll Service Providers
By Fred Patterson III, District Sales Manager, AmCheck

So you’re frustrated with your current service provider and are ready to make a move to another company…It’s important to consider the following 10 items before switching:
  1. Payroll Data - Make sure you have all of your company and employee payroll records/details before switching. Your new company will require these details to convert your account. AmCheck specializes in converting clients from larger outsourced vendors. In the case where you’re making a change, you should be able to rely on your new provider for detailed advice, counsel, and best practices for your specific changeover process.
  1. Tax Payments and Filings - Please confirm that your current service provider will pay all your outstanding taxes and file any required forms before the switch (most processors are legally required to do so as outlined in your written agreements with them). Keep in mind that your new service provider may not assume the liability of what your prior service provider filed/deposited (AmCheck has unique processes surrounding this that I’m happy to elaborate on…please contact me for further details).
  1. Cancellation of Service - You’ll want to make sure you do not cancel your current service until your new service provider has completely set up your company and employee profile(s) in their systems. I’ve seen companies cancel services too soon with their original vendor and are then unable to run a payroll because the new service provider does not have all the necessary information.
  1. New Quarter or New Year - Historically, most organizations try to coordinate their payroll vendor change to start in a new quarter or wait until the following year. The reason behind this is having a “clean start” with their new service provider. The mindset is that it will be easier to enter the Year-to-Date wages for W2 and tax purposes. If you are starting with a new vendor in a new year, then there are no wages or taxes to carry over. This can be a relatively simple setup process. However, with AmCheck’s unique wage and tax auditing processes, we are happy to switch our clients at ANY TIME from ANY VENDOR. We have additional steps specifically outlined with our transition processes to audit your prior vendor’s tax practices for accuracy. This combined with our proven implementation strategies ensures an easy and accurate change for all of AmCheck’s clients - no matter when they switch to us.
  1. Customer Service - I always encourage my clients to try out the proposed customer service prior to switching service providers. You’ll want to ensure that there are live people answering the phones before switching services. Ask yourself how quick and easy is it to get a live person on the phone, do they know you and are they familiar with your account (or will you be dealing with random agents in a Call Center?), what are their hours of operation, are they local, do they understand what’s important to you? Is changing service providers worth saving a few pennies if you’re sacrificing a high level of customer service?
  1. System Functionality - It’s important to verify that the systems you’ll be utilizing are intuitive and easy to use. Are they web based? Can they support all your payroll needs such as 401K, 125 Plans, internet access, garnishment processing, custom calculations, etc. Some systems support limited numbers of employees- you’ll need to make sure the systems you choose are scalable and capable of handling your current as well as future needs.
  1. Local vs. National - When thinking about switching service providers, please make sure you know where they’re located because if they’re local then you can print checks and take delivery much faster compared to a company in another region or state. If your potential new vendor is representing themselves as a “truly local” provider, ask them for a site visit and go to their offices to see their local operations and meet their client services professionals in person.
  1. Reports - Certain companies will offer a variety of custom payroll reports, ask them about the reports that you need and make sure your prospective new vendor can produce what you need (at a reasonable cost). I often ask for copies of these specific reports to ensure we understand the client’s custom reporting needs and at the same time ensure there are no unforeseen obstacles or charges to produce custom reports on behalf of my clients. Some of the larger providers are notorious for “nickel and diming” their clients for these services.
  1. Value Added Services - Outside of standard payroll processing, check printing, direct deposit, tax filing, etc.; what other services are being offered to your organization by your potential new vendor? Are they offering services that are beneficial to you and your organization at no additional cost? What if you want to expand your suite of services with them? Do they offer integration of Human Resources Support, Time & Attendance Solutions, etc.? What makes them different / better from all of the other vendors with similar offerings? Who endorses the vendor(s) that you’re considering? Why?
  1. Year End Forms - Please make sure just one company is handling your year-end payroll and tax forms such as W2’s, 940’s, etc. I’ve heard stories where a client cancelled services from the previous service provider and both vendors filed W2’s at year-end because the previous vendor wasn’t informed to stop all further filing obligations. If your new provider files your W2’s as well, you could end up with two sets at year-end. AmCheck provides best practices and advice for our clients in this regard to ensure these types of situations don’t occur, but again, it’s important to consider all the details when making a change.

I hope you find this information useful as switching payroll service can seem complicated, but as long as you understand the concept and arm yourself with the right questions to ask, then the evaluation and transition processes can be smooth and relatively painless.

For more information or questions regarding your payroll processes, please contact Fred Patterson III, District Sales Manager for AmCheck, a payroll solutions firm with offices throughout the United States. Fred may be reached at fred.patterson@amcheck.com. (619) 595-7900.


The Soft Market is Over for Worker's Compensation
By Eric Sheetz, Commercial Insurance Broker, The Michael Ehrenfeld Co.

It is increasingly evident that the way-too-long soft market in workers' comp is coming to an end, if it hasn't already.

The latest news coming from Market Scout indicates workers' comp rates were up 3% in December, the highest increase among all property and casualty lines. Earlier, it was noted that the reserve releases (insurance companies deciding they have too much money set aside to cover future claim costs) for work comp claims had pretty much ended.

The Insurance Service Office reported Property and Casualty insurers' net income for the first three quarters of 2011 had declined by two-thirds from the same period in 2010.

This comes as welcome news to insurers, brokers, third-party administrators and has implications for work comp services companies as well.

While employers may not look forward to paying higher premiums, they have to realize they have been enjoying a long period of low rates and great product availability; factors which have reduced their expense significantly over more years than anyone could have anticipated.

For TPAs (third party administrators), many of whom have been hanging on by a thread while waiting for employers to once again look hard at self-insurance, this could not have come any sooner. The word on the street is there has been an upward push in proposal requests from employers.

What does this mean for your company?

Congratulations, you've made it through the longest soft market in recent history.

For more information or questions regarding your companies risk exposure, please contact Eric Sheetz, Property and Casualty Insurance Broker for The Michael Ehrenfeld Co. at ESheetz@ehrenfeldinsurance.com, (760) 809-8510.



Google Analytics and Ad Words (Part 2)
By Michael Sick

The expansion and development of the internet has created enormous opportunities for brands and marketers to gain insight and feedback from their websites. Google has experienced exceptional growth by creating a search advertising market and providing free tools to help brands improve the relevancy of their websites and to increase qualified traffic. The Google Analytics tool offers hundreds of reports to help website owners understand how visitors are using their site, what content they are viewing and for how long, what keywords were used to find the site, what press release/mention linked back to the website and how many visitors came as a result of that mention and many other insightful pieces of information. Google Analytics is almost the equivalent of doing a focus group or research study of actual visitors.

This article is the second of two parts and will serve to provide an overview of some of the capabilities for B2B and B2C users. The previous article in last month’s newsletter covered some of the capabilities related to the geographic origin of website visitors, what type of sites the visitor was at before they came to visit your website and an overview of the many different reports available through Google Analytics. A particularly useful report for B2B and professional service firms is the “Service Provider” report and can give some insight into which companies are visiting your website and how much time they are spending looking at your site. This is particularly useful for companies that utilize direct mail, email newsletters, trade shows and other tactics to generate warm leads for their sales teams. Feel free to check out last month’s article. This month I will drill down to discuss how content and keywords can improve your traffic and conversions.

Content: The content reports are good tools for evaluating how visitors utilize a website. Time on page is a barometer of how valuable the content is on the page. Most sites have very high views of videos and photo galleries as visitors prefer to see rather than read. Other reports have information about landing pages which are useful for tracking special promotions or targeting ads to land on a specific product or service rather than the home page. The following report provides an overview of pages viewed and for this client provides some insight into how the Spanish language pages for this website are being used (see pages 7-10 in the table below).


E-Commerce/Goal Functionality:  Google Analytics has functionality that enables goals and sales to be tracked from the origin of the visit. If a visitor comes from a referred site, an email, or an AdWords Cost Per Click campaign, this data can be segmented by source, keyword or other attributes.

What are Goals? Goal conversions are the primary metric for measuring how well your site fulfills business objectives. A goal is a website page which a visitor reaches once they have made a purchase or completed another desired action, such as a registration or download. Once you have set your goals, you'll be able to see conversion rates and the monetary value of the traffic you receive. You can also define a "funnel path" for each goal. A funnel path is the path you want visitors to take to reach a goal. Defining a funnel path allows you to monitor how frequently visitors who begin a conversion process actually complete it. Examples of goals will vary for different companies but they can include:
    s
  1. "Thank you for registering" pages
  2. Receipts
  3. Registration confirmations
  4. Email signups
  5. "Download completed" page
  6. Forms filled requesting more information
  7. Placing an item in a shopping cart
  8. Filling out shipping information
  9. Filling out payment information.


For websites that can take orders, having goals like examples 7-9 can provide insight into why shopping carts are abandoned. With the Ecommerce functionality, revenues and product purchases can also be tracked. Analytics can be integrated with most shopping carts although PayPal integrations have been challenging. Having this capability is important to provide guidance in bidding for keywords. If a keyword has a strong conversion to a sale, you can justify higher bids. On the other hand, a big portion of an AdWords budget may be consumed by keywords with a very low conversion rate which would provide opportunities to optimize your campaigns to increase results without a budget increase.


This document is designed to introduce only a few of the capabilities available from Google Analytics. Conducting an initial assessment, setting goals for quality and quantity of traffic increases, establishing programs to increase traffic and desired actions (request for information, sign up/registration, download, purchase, etc.) are key components of effectively leveraging the web channel. Evaluating those results on a regular basis and developing a dashboard continues to enable improvement to occur and captures the benefits of learning to be carried forward for years so that future staff doesn’t need to repeat mistakes from the past.

Michael Sick is a nationally recognized, innovative Management Consultant specializing in strategic marketing, advertising and business development. He spent 25 years in corporate marketing and was a Marketing Vice President for Jack In The Box, Pearle Vision, Arby's and others. Currently he serves as a part-time Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for a number of clients around the US. Contact Michael Sick at (858) 342-0998, Michael@GetTheSickness.com or visit his website: www.GetTheSickness.com.


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