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.

February 2006

• AARP
• Aetna
• AIG
• American Express
• Delta Dental
• Employease
• Lawson
• MetLife

Commentary and Analysis: A March 2006 article in Inc. magazine titled "Why Pay for Ads that Don't Work" reported companies are finding pay per click advertising to be a let-down because (1) between 20-50% of clicks are made by people who have no interest in buying and (2) prices continue to rise - the cost of an average click on Google is close to $2 for popular keywords. We'll add another reason: (3) selecting and managing your keywords is complex and time-consuming and most marketing departments do not have the time, experience or expertise to effectively manage a pay per click campaign. Some HR suppliers correctly outsource this function to a capable firm but this adds even more costs. A quick Google search for "human resources" showed just over 100 active pay per click advertisers for this keyword phrase. "Recruiting Software" generated similar results. "HRIS," about 50. "HR BPO," about 30. "HR outsourcing," about 70. But the overlap is considerable, meaning pay per click advertising is not that popular with HR suppliers.

The Inc. magazine article tells us how "a host of technology entrepreneurs believe they have a better answer. They're working toward a future in which online advertisers, instead of buying clicks of uncertain value, will pay only when an ad results in a phone inquiry - or, in some cases, an actual sale....". In this model (which represents about 2 percent of online advertising), average pay per "call" rates are about $5.50

Advertising is not for everyone and unfortunately there are no one-size-fits-all guidelines for whether or not advertising is right for your company. But if over 75% of a marketing budget for the average HR supplier is being allocated to advertising and trade shows, it is probably worth re-evaluating your marketing plan. Moreover, if the amount spent on traditional advertising is the same today as it was five years ago (as a percent of your overall marketing budget), equal scrutiny should be applied.

Should HR suppliers jump on the bandwagon of pay per click and/or pay per call ? Depends. Pay per click advertising is not for everyone. But far too may marketing departments lack the basic knowledge to make this decision. For example, what percentage of your target buyers use the Internet to locate suppliers, what are the most common search terms your buyers use to locate the services you sell, and what is the popularity of these search terms, etc. Understanding the purchasing behavior of your buyers will go a long way toward helping you make better online and other marketing expenditure decisions. Most suppliers do not spend enough time or money on understanding these important decisions (checking your own web site statistics/logs is a great start to understanding these questions). Regardless of whether you choose to advertise online, remember the importance of your own web site SEO. A recent HRmarketer Blog posting reported that "total money spent on search engine optimization represents only 12% of what is spent on pay for click advertising (PPC), yet organic search engine results (those that show up in natural "free" listings) are better-noticed, read, and clicked on than the paid listings."

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.

February 2006

• Employee Benefit Research Institute
• Fidelity Investments
• General Motors
• Hewitt Associates
• IBM
• Kaiser Family Foundation
• Mercer Human Resource Consulting
• Microsoft
• Recruitmax
• SHRM
• The Conference Board
• Watson Wyatt

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.

Background Screening Is Booming, But...

Employers are worrying a lot about the possibly checkered pasts of employees and prospective new hires. As a result, the background-screening business is thriving. But the boom in screening services could be another reason in itself for employers to lose sleep: heavy and insufficiently critical reliance on these sleuths could trigger headaches and legal problems, experts warn.

Using Temps in HR

Because many employers lack the budget and the long-term need for more full-time HR employees, they’re likely to opt for contingent workers. But before bringing temps into the office, HR professionals should forecast when they will need extra help, and they should also be aware of the legal questions and confidentiality matters involved in such a step, according to staffing agency executives, HR directors and other experts.

Embedded Learning

The age-old model of “learn-then-do” is being replaced by a newer “learn-while-doing” model. And this is not about a shift from traditional classroom-based learning to e-learning. This scenario is about embedding learning into the work process.

Best Practices for Online Surveys

A company’s true core competency must be finding, attracting and retaining the most qualified people in order to remain effective. As a result, organizations are turning to online surveys as a cost-effective and immediate way to ensure that employee satisfaction data is up to date.

Brokers Should Give Dental Benefits Another Chance

Executives at Delta Dental of Minnesota’s national sister sales organization, DeCare Dental, say it’s time for brokers to take another look underneath the proverbial dental-benefits pillow for employer savings. The company is in the midst of rolling out a tiered provider product that they say will breathe new life into the dental conversation for advisers.

More Disclosure on Executive Compensation

No company would argue, at least not publicly, that the Securities and Exchange Commission proposal to require increased disclosure of executive compensation is a bad idea. But many executives and compensation experts are concerned that the proposal, which is in a 60-day comment period after being unveiled by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on January 17, could create more questions than answers.

The Battle to Control Health-Care Costs

Here’s some good news for plan sponsors: Heath- care costs are not increasing as fast as they were a few years ago. The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation reports that, after soaring 13.9% in 2003, health insurance premiums rose just 11.2% in 2004 and only 9.2% in 2005. The bad news, of course, is that those increases still far exceed the rate of inflation.

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: This month we continue to rate the health as "Great". Only a few publicly traded "HR" companies released earnings since our last report and these are listed below. However, there has been lots of M&A activity in the space and we see this continuing.

• Gevity HR reported fourth-quarter profit fell on higher operating expenses, as revenue edged up slightly. Results missed analyst consensus estimates, sending shares down sharply in late February. On a brighter note, Gevity approved the repurchase of up to an additional 1 million shares, and increased its quarterly dividend to 9 cents from 7 cents. The company expects double-digit growth in 2006 profit and revenue.
• Oracle Corp. said fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 42% as sales of new licenses for its business applications jumped, helped by the acquisition of Siebel Systems Inc. and other software firms. Oracle has spent nearly $20 billion in the last 18 months acquiring makers of business-application software. While new license sales for Oracle's application software surged 77%, revenue from new database licenses rose just 4%.
• Workbrain Corporation recently reported 2005 Financial Results (Canadian GAAP financial results). The company achieved 56% annual revenue growth and posted record earnings in 2005. Workbrain reported revenue of US $88.7 million for fiscal year 2005, compared with US $57 million for 2004; an increase of 56%. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2005 was US $23.8 million, compared with US $17.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2004, an increase of 34%.

Recent M&A activity in the HR space:

• Resolve Staffing, Inc. reached an agreement to merge with Employee Leasing Services, Inc. to create a national human resource outsourcing provider. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, ELS (www.elshr.com) is a professional employer organization (PEO) managing a payroll of over 10,000 worksite employees in over 40 states with operation and service centers throughout the country.
• Workstream has acquired Exxceed. No details were released by either company. In fact, no press release was issued. However, a visit to www.Exxceed.com redirects to Workstream.
• First Advantage Corporation, a global risk mitigation and business solutions provider, announced the acquisition of the assets of National Data Verification Service, a New England-based employment screening company owned by Chex Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of eFunds Corporation. The transaction was completed to expand First Advantage's employment screening market share in the northeast. First Advantage Corp. also recently purchased SkillCheck Inc., a pre- employment testing and educational skills assessment company. No terms of the deal were disclosed. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Burlington, Mass., SkillCheck has provided skills testing products and services to staffing agencies, corporate human resources departments, training organizations and schools. This follows First Advantage's recent acquisition of TruStar Solutions (formally IIRC). Stay tuned.
• Willis Group Holdings Limited, a global insurance broker and human resource consulting firm, acquired Gueits, Adams & Company.
• Accenture said it had acquired the back-office outsourcing arm of privately held software and services vendor Savista. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Savista specializes in providing business-process outsourcing services for midmarket companies in the hospitality and restaurant industries. Its offerings include human resources management, finance and accounting services, and benefits administration. About 400 Savista staffers will join Accenture as part of the deal. Accenture currently has about 18,000 workers employed in the BPO sector. Accenture says the market for midsized BPO service offerings currently stands at about $17 billion and should grow to more than $25 million by 2009.
• Summit Partners "reportedly" is acquiring ComPsych Corp., a workplace counseling and information services company (aka EAP and Work/Life company) based in Chicago. Financial details were not released. We learned of this from the web site The Deal.
• ACEL Corp. announced that it acquired United Personnel Services, Inc. headquartered in Auburn, Maine. United Personnel Services, Inc. is a Professional Employment Organization (PEO) founded in 1999.
• Warning Management Services, Inc. announced that it has signed a binding letter of intent for the acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of capital stock of All Staffing Inc., a Tennessee corporation. All Staffing provides payroll services and business processing services to small- and mid-size businesses principally in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. The Company also owns Employment Systems, Inc., which provides staffing services and business processing services to municipalities and small businesses throughout Southern California.
• Mirabilis Ventures, Inc., a mergers and acquisition corporation, announced the recent acquisition of Gadsden, Alabama-based The Hancock Group (Hancock). Hancock is a leading Professional Employer Organization (PEO) in Alabama, with customers not only throughout Alabama, but also Tennessee and Georgia. As part of its array of services to its client companies, Hancock provides payroll administration, human resources, benefits administration, workers compensation and federal and state regulatory compliance services.
• Kroll Inc., the global risk consulting company, announced that it has completed the acquisition of InfoLink Screening Services, Inc., a leading, privately- held background screening company headquartered in Chatsworth, Calif.
• SIRVA, Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with Crown Worldwide Holdings Ltd. to sell its Business Services Division in the UK and Ireland. SIRVA provides relocation solutions to a well-established and diverse customer base around the world.
• Monster Worldwide, Inc., the parent company of Monster, announced that it has sold its TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications businesses in Australia/New Zealand and Singapore in two separate transactions.
• According to the Blog "The Human Capitalist," Hewitt's recent SEC filings show that Fidelity Investments has purchase approximately 5.5% of the company.

To view the MOST comprehensive news briefs and releases in the human resource industry, please visit our HR Industry News page. Members of HRmarketer.com receive news updates via email several times per week and may post their own company's news to this site.

Improve Your Open Rates With Strong Subject Lines

Subject lines are such an important part of any marketing campaign. Think of all the marketing activities a company delivers via email:

• Press releases
• eNewsletters
• Invitations to events
• Email advertisements
• New research reports
• White paper downloads

Yet, few marketing and public relations professionals spend much time on developing, let alone measuring, the "subject line." It's not uncommon for a PR professional to spend over eight hours writing a press release, and then take five seconds to copy and paste the release headline into the subject line. Or, a marketing professional spends weeks writing a white paper and then gives no thought to the subject line in the email that is sent out announcing the new white paper.

At HRmarketer.com, we see thousands of press releases and other email announcements sent through our system and there is no doubt that emails with great subject lines experience a increased open rate. We've witnessed this ourselves by testing different subject lines in emails we send announcing our free marketing white papers and research reports.

Three ways to improve your subject lines:

1. Keep your subject lines short and to the point
2. Highlight relevant keywords
3. Review and repeat 1 and 2

This monthly feature highlights how HRmarketer helps our loyal members...

“Our HRmarketer membership is the best marketing investment we’ve made in over a decade. We’ve received some excellent media placements using their press release distribution services and following up on their editorial queries direct from journalists – and we’ve secured at least one speaking engagement from the countless opportunities identified by HRmarketer’s experienced marketing research team.”

Angela Rao-Brown (SPHR), Executive Vice President, Effective Resources Inc.

Human Resources suppliers are spending up to 10 percent of their annual revenue on marketing efforts, but that outreach is rooted in traditional activities that fail to deliver the sales leads that executives seek. That’s a key finding of "Trends in HR Marketing," the first in a series of HRmarketer.com research reports that will be released each quarter in 2006. Each report will include valuable results from surveys sent to over 5,000 HR suppliers, as well as analysis from HRmarketer.com’s leading experts on marketing and media visibility. Download the "Trends in HR Marketing" report today, free of charge. It offers recommendations, implications and analysis of the HR marketing arena in 2006, and lessons learned by the HR/Benefits marketplace. In addition, HRmarketer.com's marketing and public relations analysts will identify best-practice trends by evaluating the marketing and PR practices of highly successful HR suppliers in each industry segment.

Marketing PR can help you integrate your current tactics with marketing best practices in the HR/Benefits marketplace, enabling you to generate leads and accomplish your marketing objectives. Marketing PR can accomplish many goals, including demand generation, Marketing PR fundamentals, search engine visibility, Media visibility and Brand support. Download HR Marketing Best Practices: Marketing PR That Works today.

And many of you have already downloaded our white paper on how to effectively market and sell to human resource professionals, but if you haven't, it's a rich resource for companies selling to HR. Topics covered include assessment of the human resource marketplace, buyer characteristics, purchasing influencers, sales channels, marketing and public relations campaigns that maximize lead generation, and effectively selling to human resources. Download the Marketing and Selling in the Human Resource Marketplace: Winning Strategies and Tactics white paper today.

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

No, we haven't shelved our new HRmarketer Community Forum feature - the development work has begun!

We will be launching the Community Forum later this year and it will offer members the ability to network (in a private, secure and closed environment) with other HRmarketer members - some of most senior, influential and intelligent marketing minds in the human capital industry.

HRmarketer members will be able to discuss partnership opportunities, solicit feedback on the success of recent events, promotional efforts, trade show exhibitions, direct mail lists, and any other marketing and PR topics you wish to discuss. Members will also be able to post, search for, and respond to marketing and public relations-related job opportunities within the HR marketplace.