Marketing Opportunity -- Training the Unemployed - For FREE!

At a Proformative event in San Francisco today I made a bold suggestion. 

I approached Paul Turner, senior director of Product Marketing at NetSuite and Rob Hull, Founder of Adaptive Planning -- two of the hottest small/medium business software companies. I suggested that they train unemployed business executives for FREE.  Here is what I said:

I really think Netsuite has a huge opportunity to do some long-term marketing and to build some incredible good will in the financial community.

Right now, due to the Great Recession, there are thousands and thousands of senior business managers without jobs. Few have experience with Netsuite. Most have used Quickbooks, GP, etc. At some time in their career, most will participate in the decision about an ERP/CRM/accounting implementation.

It would be great if Netsuite took a long-term view and treated this situation as an opportunity. Netsuite could develop a formal program to train those out of work finance managers on the Netsuite product free of charge. Then...when they are employed again, and they will be employed again, they are much, much more likely to recommend Netsuite when it comes time to upgrade accounting, ERP, etc.

This was a bold suggestion. Offer training for free. But...the value is clear. Both Paul and Rob clearly "got it". They expressed cautious interest in the idea. We will see if their organizational view is long-term enough to embrace it.

Twitter: @jroym

Is there a role for local HR firms with a PEO?

Is there a role for local HR firms with a PEO?

I am sure my last post has successfully pissed-off all my HR consultant friends. But…I stand by it…for VC-backed startups.

However, there are some things to remember. First of all…most small businesses are not VC-backed startups. Second, most small businesses have less than 10 employees. By-the-way…this obviously includes startups at the very beginning.

In general, PEOs will not work with companies with less than 7-10 employees. This leaves a significant portion of small businesses un-served. However, the owners of these smaller businesses need HR advice and services also. This is where HR consultants have their advantage. Once they are in, if they do a good job, they can grow with the company.

However, if a company (especially a startup) does choose to work with a PEO, there does remain a role for HR consultants. PEOs are great in providing payroll, medical benefits, forms, advice, etc. But…by their very nature, they operate through centralization and scale. They are unlikely to be hyper-local like an HR consultant. They cannot be on site very often. But employees need someone to talk to. Often…an 800 number is not good enough.

When a company works with a PEO, they need to assign an on-site coordinator -- somebody to be the liaison between the company and the PEO. Usually this is the person employees approach first with HR issues. Often it is the CFO. But…even this diminished HR role is not a good use of the CFO’s time. This is where an outsourced HR consultant can still help when a PEO is involved. Being the employee contact, working on projects with the PEO (like an employee manual), and helping manage the PEO-company relationship.

Now I have probably succeeded in upsetting my PEO friends as well. OK…so if everybody is upset with me, I have probably been fair and balanced.