Intro
Broadcasting live from the Business Radio X studios in Dayton, Ohio. It's time for Dayton Business Radio. Now, here's your host.
The Mag
Lee Cantor here, another episode with Dayton Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today we have on the show J.R. McCullough with Insperity. Welcome, J.R.
J.R. McCullough
Hello, Lee. Thank you.
The Mag
Well, before we get too far into things tell us about Insperity. How are you serving folks?
J.R. McCullough
Oh, boy, it's we've been around for since 1986, more a publicly-traded PEO on the New York Stock Exchange about a four and a half-billion-dollar company. And like I said, we fall within that PEO industry. And we are basically working with small to medium-sized companies and essentially giving them access to a fortune 100 type structure, access to health and welfare benefits, then a whole host of other business performance solutions that really just kind of work to help level the playing field between small businesses in their larger competitors.
The Mag
Now, for those who don't know, can you explain what a PEO what that stands for, and what it means?
J.R. McCullough
Here, professional employer organization. And what that's doing is it organizations that partner with businesses, and what we're doing, specifically with Insperity, is, what we're doing is we're providing that bridge for small business to walk across to take advantage of, as I mentioned, the structure, the health benefits and in all the other things, and what it allows us to do, as a partner a share and our clients, share and or assume a lot of their liability as it relates to being an employer.
The Mag
So then, as a company, I have a relationship with Insperity. And then my employees also have relationships with Insperity.
J.R. McCullough
They do. So traditionally, what do you think of employer-employee, what kind of dictates that relationship as who has the direction and control of those individuals as employees, which again, we don't, we don't interfere with the day-to-day operations of a business. But again, when it comes to any kind of liability or exposure, we're either assuming or sharing and a lot of that liabilities relate to being an employer.
The Mag
So then, one of the benefits is me, as the owner of this company, is that I can now offer my people a whole host of different things that I couldn't as an individual small company may be afford or have access to.
J.R. McCullough
Correct. And it's kind of interesting that the genesis of Insperity started similar to that in that PAUL J. SARVADI who is our founder and is still our chairman and CEO. Like I said, he's he started a few businesses. And what he started to realize is that as the business grew, he had to add people. And as he added people, what came along with that was a lot of compliance issues. Now I've got to figure out how to get everybody paid. Now I have the government who's placing a lot of regulations on me. And then how do I work with these people. So what he found out was, as the business grew, his focus, kind of moved away from the day-to-day operations, because most businesses are started from a passion.
And when you start to take an entrepreneur away from what they love, they almost start to despise the very business that they started. Because they're having to do all these other things. So Paul came up with the concept of what Insperity does today, again, helping manage all that regulation and exposure as an employer. But then it's also when those businesses start again, it's born out of a passion. And at some point, those businesses plateau, and it's, it's kind of how do I continue to grow the business and generate revenue. So that's the other side of Insperity, where we really engage with our clients to help them generate revenue.
The Mag
But at some point, or maybe kind of the mental shift is I can offload my HR or all those kinds of administrative hassles that I'm not great at that I just, I'm just kind of cobbling together to the best of my ability, I can kind of partner with Insperity and then that becomes their problem.
J.R. McCullough
Yes, to some degree, and again, we see different variations of this. So even small business, you might be a 20 person, IT company that you still have somebody who kind of has those HR responsibilities were able to have when you think of it asperity and people in different roles, we certainly can fulfill the role of replacing the HR, you know, being that HR component for you. But we also, if you're going to keep those types of departments together, we have also become a really large tool shed for you to reach in and take advantage of those fortune 100 benefits and tools that we provide to our clients.
The Mag
So now, what does it look like? When you're starting a relationship with a firm do they have? Are they just switching from one PEO to another is something that they've just all of a sudden got a lot of hassles, and they can't do it? So there, they're kind of need to triage something like, how does your relationship typically begin?
J.R. McCullough
Well, the way it begins is, you know, you'll have those business owners that again, depending on you know, what their history has been, how the business started, things of that nature. You know, they are either they're either dealing with problems or issues that they can't, they've never seen before or again, maybe the business has plateaued. They're looking for some different ways to get things rolling again. But it's our engagement is looking at this kind of two-part. It's kind of where you are today, but then we want to talk with those small businesses about what's how do we help you finish painting that vision picture? So So where are you headed in the next 18, 24, 36 months, because we talk to a lot of businesses that again, have all the greatest intentions in the world, but they're kind of struggling. So if you have thought of if you had a map in front of you, there's a lot of business owners that can point to where they believe success will is, but a lot of times they're out an on a country road trying to figure out how to get there. Whereas what we do is we've got the map already laid out, we can give you those, those direct routes to meet with that success.
The Mag
So what are some? Like? What are some of the questions, you're asking a business owner in order to help them kind of determine where what that picture of success looks like?
J.R. McCullough
Well, again, it comes down to there's really kind of two sides of this. So you've got that administrative side, that kind of what you've mentioned before was there's a lot of administrative burdens, that's pulling a pulling a business owner away from the strategic side of the business. So again, if you're dealing with, there's all the HR admin there is, you know, the filing of taxes and making sure everything's running on the admin side. So again, those can be a pain to a business owner. But then a lot of times, it's where do they find that trusted advisor that they can talk to? How do I get to this place that I want to get to, so it's kind of when you become a client of ours, again, when I keep getting tied into a fortune 100 structure, you're gonna have access to a variety of different HR professionals. And depending on what those specific issues that we're going to deal with, would depend on who we would pull in at whatever time and really gives them the guidance to really deal with anything.
The Mag
Now, let's, let's kind of put this to the test in terms of how did you help your clients deal when COVID struck? And then this was impacting businesses in every industry? What were the conversations you were having with your clients? And how did you help them kind of manage that?
J.R. McCullough
You're so obviously just like, just like everybody else on the planet? I think what's been created is fear, first of all, and fear is going to do one of two things. It's either going to paralyze you, or it's going to motivate you to change, change your situation. So our clients we have, we have clients in both of those camps, meaning that listen, we've been hit with COVID. We're not sure what the regulations of it are, what should we do? What should we do? What can we do? So we're able to help those people realize not only are we dealing with them proactively, so we were reaching out to our clients and giving them guidance upfront. But we also have a resiliency team that we built that again, they're dealing with COVID every day all day, and it's not just the health aspect of it. There's also dealing with the financial side. So there are a lot of small businesses that when you talk about the PPP loans you and being able to gather the data, you need to be able to apply for those types of things. Our clients, we were able to turn around all the documentation they needed within a, you know, a 24-hour period, those reports and everything they need are there ready to go?
The Mag
So now, for you, what's the most rewarding part of doing this kind of work?
J.R. McCullough
Well, it's kind of twofold. So so, you know, I work with my sales team. So I get to, I get to help people internally. And when you look at Insperity, as a whole, were a servant leadership type of organization. So my job is really to support the people that I work with. And I get the same thing and return from everybody else in the organization, that working with our clients. So if you look at our mission statement is to help businesses succeed so that communities prosper. And it's not just a tagline in that sense. So when you think of it, what it means to me is that we realize that small business is the backbone of really of the country. And I know that that small business, the one that's going to hire my, my kids, my father, my mother, my brother, and that's what keeps each individual community strong. So it's rewarding for me to see those businesses stay strong, but they're also the ones that you're going to see sponsor, the local Little League baseball teams, and the more that I can help keep those alive and thriving, the better my community is.
The Mag
Now, how does Insperity serve the Dayton community? What are some examples?
J.R. McCullough
Well, we deal with a lot of the government contractors, they're at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in or in the surrounding area. So we have and if you look at it sparingly as a whole government contracting is kind of a whole different world. So we're very good at that. We've actually got five offices around the DC area. So we're supporting a lot of the governor, and government contractors out of Dayton. And then I have a couple of people out of my office that specifically targets the Dayton area to see, you know, where can we plug in and help those businesses be successful as well?
The Mag
Now, what's one of the benefits of working with Insperity? That maybe isn't obvious to the business owner may surprise them once they start working with you guys?
J.R. McCullough
Sure, that's a great question. So again, if you go back to the PEO industry, there are a lot of PEOs out there. And the first thing I think that if you're a business owner, you want to kind of look at is, are the PEOs that I'm engaging with, are they certified. So the Small Business Efficiency Act came about a couple of years ago that, you know, the federal government recognizes PEOs, and you have to go through rigorous background checks and financial analysis to be certified. So it kind of starts there. And then when you if you took a lot of PEOs and stuck them in the same room with me as Insperity, and you had them on one side of the table, we're all going to be able to handle a lot of those, those transactional type thing. So it's running your payroll providing you with workers comp, providing you some health benefits. And my competitors or people in the Indus PDO industry, typically, they're going to provide you with some type of reactionary HR type service.
What I think separates us is the fact that we are more focused on the truth of the strategic side of your business, how do we help you, at the end of the day, generate more revenue through your people? So that's, that's helping you not only define a culture but it's also contained within the climate. So there's culture is really what a business sets and says, they set that culture, but the climate is what it really is. So you can have businesses that say their culture is x, it's a safe environment, what have you, but when you get the employees that are getting together, and they don't really believe that that's kind of your climate. So I think what's surprising for small business owners is the fact that we're looking more at the strategic side of the business. And when you look at it, I think this the surprise, not even really a surprise, but we're not really this isn't something we can sell to a business owner.
Our job is to help educate them, expose them, expose them to some things that they might not have been aware of providing With those roadmaps, and if they believe in that those of that employee engagement and empowerment, it's going to be hard to keep them from becoming a client. So that's usually a surprise. Because again, our industry, it's a lot of transactional type stuff. But then when we come along and talk about the strategic side of the business, that's usually the biggest surprise,
The Mag
I would think that your ability, to help frame in the business owners' minds that they get access to this kind of huge menu of different choices and options helps them recruit talent and keep talent. Is there any kind of data to support that?
J.R. McCullough
Well, the data for it? That's a good question. And certainly, we have that, I think that what you'll find is that small business, one of the toughest things they're dealing with is competing with, you know, the chase banks in the world for people. So you might be a 30-person IT company. And you're not, you're not competing, you're competing with Chase banks in the world for people because you're not competing with just other IT companies. And the problem arises that, again, it's that internal structure, everybody would love to work for a small business. Because lo and behold, in that 30-person company, I'm probably going to walk past the CEO at some point, and maybe I have a great idea, and he's probably going to tell me to implement it. Whereas again, if I'm with a large fortune 500 company, I'm kind of a number. But the problem starts to arise because that small business has trouble providing a competitive benefits package. They have trouble competing on the training and development side, and the career path. So what we're doing is we're again, plugging our clients into that instantaneous structure that really just helps the level of playing field between them and their or their larger competitors.
The Mag
Now, are you industry-agnostic? Are there certain industries that you have a sweet spot in?
J.R. McCullough
Well, we kind of delivered this through a couple of different models, in the sense that we've talked, what we've been talking about so far is the PEO offering, when which our clients are taking advantage of those, the benefits that that are, they take advantage of plans that are owned and managed by Insperity. So what that's doing is, first of all, it's containing costs around benefits, not only as you walk in the door, but what's more important for small businesses containing cost over time. So due to our model, we're able to provide that, unlike any other option that that small business has.
And we also have an administrative offer administrative services offering traditional employment type model, where again, we're perfect, we're meeting clients where they are, and providing them holding on the upgrades around technology, giving them some of those dashboards, give them access to training and development, HR guidance and those types of things. So the funny thing is I'm when we go talk to a prospect what's a little difficult is, I can walk in and almost guarantee there's something I'm able to help them with. It's just a matter of, can we dedicate a couple of meetings to really uncovering what it is I can help with. And I think we're pretty good at identifying things pretty quickly. And again, I'll go back to where we're not walking in and really trying to sell anybody anything. So it's we're able to take those engagements and moving forward pretty quickly and identify where we can or where we can't help.
The Mag
So it doesn't matter the industry because you're there to solve problems.
J.R. McCullough
Essentially, yes. And that's, that's what I'm, again, I've got we have something for everybody. But when you look at it, we're not necessarily a fit for every, every business out there.
The Mag
Now, what are the businesses that you are fit for? Or what is the symptoms of maybe their growth or an area they're struggling with where their best solution is to have a chat with somebody from Insperity?
J.R. McCullough
Yeah, so again, it's one of those things around we're dealing with so if you break it down to what we're doing for our clients, it's really three things. So we're helping to stabilize costs. So if you're in a situation where you have benefits costs that are not only high right now, but year over year that they're, they're kind of out of control on you and you're having trouble containing that cost. It's also a matter of, you know if you're looking to grow, how are you doing that? So a lot of small business has trouble, First of all, finding people.
So one of the things that we talk about is, you know if I were to be the best guy in your industry, the first question is, how do you find me? And secondarily to that, from the outside looking in? Why would I come here versus somewhere else? And again, it's, it's you have the structure, add people to onboard them. And then when they get there, a lot of small business deals with? How do I keep people? Am I? Am I just a stop for somebody? Or is this somewhere that somebody wants to be long-term, if it is, typically, you're going to need to provide that training and development, you're going to need to provide maybe some career pathing. And that's typically what they're looking for, they're looking to grow. And when you look at Insperity, there's no, no faster way to make the biggest impact on your company than to become an Insperity client, where, again, you're plugging into the instantaneous structure.
The Mag
So now, if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, or what's the best coordination?
J.R. McCullough
Well, there's always insperity.com or you can reach out to me directly and it's, and I give you my email, which is J.R.McCullough@Insperity.com
The Mag
Good stuff, J.R Thank you so much for sharing your story today and doing the work that you do.
J.R. McCullough
All right. Thank you, Lee.
The Mag
All right. This is Lee Canter. We'll see y'all next time on Dayton Business Radio.
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