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Esther: Welcome back to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld.
Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.
Esther: And we are here with Carl Kleimann, who is not only a sponsor of this show, but he is so full of infinite wisdom, it's unbelievable. We've chatted with him on a number of occasions. Seriously, we've had him on the show before, kind of impromptu. And really he had some great insights and I'm so excited that he's here today to share with us more insights on how to run your business better.
Carl: Esther, that worked out better than I thought it would when you said, "He's so full of -. " I was a little concerned with where that was going.
Esther: It could have gone bad, could have gone south real fast. Well, I'm happy I said the right thing.
Carl: Me, too.
Esther: And we're happy to have you on the show.
Carl: Well, thank you, it's great to be here.
Esther: So tell us a little bit about Odyssey OneSource.
Carl: Odyssey OneSource is a human resources outsourcing firm and that doesn't say a lot, so let me tell you what we really do. We really help small businesses. Small businesses typically don't have Human Resources Departments, it's just not cost effective with 20 employees, 50 employees, even 100 employees in a lot of cases. So we are their Human Resources Department. We take care of payroll, tax reporting, employee benefits administration, compliance - making sure that they comply with the alphabet soup, help them hire the right people, teach them how to do performance management, help them with compensation strategies, on and on and on.
Esther: So it sounds like you're providing a really important service. How important is it? For a small business to have some HR services?
Carl: It's become increasingly important for two reasons, really. If you look over a span of, say 20 years, let's say - we've gone from what we used to call personnel to the concept of human resources, to today what more people refer to as human capital management. And what that progression I think really speaks to is that human talent plays a much different role today than it did 20 years ago. Certainly than it did 40 years ago. We're a knowledge economy today. We're not a manufacturing economy anymore. People aren't performing just repetitive tasks, we really need people's talents and skills and vision and to answer your question, that's one reason why I think human resources is more important today than it's ever been. The second reason that it's more important I because the regulatory climate that employers live within has become increasingly complex. And if you're a small business or entrepreneur, you have no Human Resources Department, who in the world is looking out for you to make sure that you're not in violation of payday laws and The Fair Labor Standards Act and the EEOC, Title VII. I could go on and on and on about all the areas you could get into trouble.
Esther: Oh my gosh, I'm getting afraid just listening to you. So I mean, does this mean you have like, a crack legal team on staff? Or - I mean, how do you manage to wade all of these legal issues and keep up with, I mean things change daily.
Carl: They do change daily. Well certainly we do have legal experts. I think more importantly though, we have experts in each of the HR disciplines fro human resources compliance, people whose specialty is employee benefits administration, payroll, payroll tax compliance - I mean, our organization is staffed with more than 100 professionals in these various disciplines. And as a client, you have access to those resources.
Esther: So you know you're gonna have access to any information you would need about HR at any given time, which is so important. I think questions kind of come up - people don't know where to turn and then they have you.
Carl: That is correct.
Esther: That's very cool.
Katie: Now what does it look like when a company engages with you? So I mean you have, you know, 100 plus employees at your disposal. Is there a lot of, I mean is it a lot of web-based working together or are you in and out of client's offices, or how does it look?
Carl: We are in and out of client's offices. The answer is all of the above, but one of the things we pride ourselves on at Odyssey OneSource is, we really are a people-based company. We certainly utilize technology to leverage our personnel, but, you know, we're in our client's offices, we're training, we're evaluating their current practices, I mean, all companies without our help are performing the functions that need to be performed. Hopefully they're hiring employees, they're paying employees, they're hopefully paying taxes and filing their payroll tax returns. The job for us is migrating those functions off of them first. And then collaborating with them to make sure that the policies and the procedures that we help them with fit their organization. We don't have a cookie cutter approach. We believe that business owners are like fingerprints. They're all a little bit different, and the culture within each of the companies we serve is a little different. And what we hope to do for our clients is to help them leverage that, not mask that.
Katie: So given that companies are working with tighter budgets these days, what's kind of creative employee benefit packages are you seeing? Or are you even encouraging clients to put together for their employees?
Carl: Few things that we see a lot of. One is, a dual option plan. And a dual option plan works really well, particularly where you might have a workforce that has some older workers and some younger workers. Younger workers have a tendency to wanna spend less and accept fewer benefits - in other words, the cash is more important to them. Where you older workers may be more benefit-centric. So dual option plans that can give the best of both worlds is one thing that we see a lot of. Health reimbursement arrangements are another very effective tool. Health reimbursement arrangement is where a client of ours may take on a certain portion of the deductible. Where the company's actually responsible for a deductible. So the company buys a - let's say a $5,000.00 deductible plan, only passes on, let's say $2,000.00 of the deductible to the employee and the company insures that, you know, $3,000.00 in between. That can be a very effective tool is managed right. The downside is very quantifiable in most cases; it works out better than the company purchasing a $2,000.00 deductible plan. Savings accounts can be an effective tool; they're certainly not effective in all instances. And we work hard to help educate clients as to when and where they're effective and when and where they're not. There's a lot of confusion about that.
Esther: I'm curious to know about you, more specifically. Were you always entrepreneur-focused? Were you always working in the HR industry?
Carl: The way that I got introduced - throughout my high school and college years, I was in business. I had a Texaco franchise and a little later was actually in the trucking business in my college years. When I got out of college, I went to work for a large payroll service bureau, Automatic Data Processing, or ADP, and it was I that line of work that I actually was exposed to this concept of professional employer organization, or HR outsourcing, and decided to get into that business. That was in 1990 and here we are 20 years later, still doing it.
Esther: And what would you say to other entrepreneurs who are looking to get into this field and maybe kind of launch into a career with HR or HR outsourcing>? Where do you even begin?
Carl: I would give the same answer I would give to anybody trying to kind of find their place in the world, and that's follow your passion. What I would say about the HR space is, I think it's extremely dynamic, it's changing very quickly. What HR meant even 15 years ago and what it means today are really two totally different things, and I think that evolution is going to continue. I think - not to sound self-serving, but I do think companies will kind of continue the trend toward outsourcing maybe more of the tactical HR functions. Outsourcing is very widely accepted in the HR space among large organizations and small, and I think HR folks really have an opportunity for the first time I think in a really bona fide way to have a seat at the strategy table and not just the historical tactical functions. In other words, trying to help the company identify the right kinds of employees and cultivate culture and all of the things that help the company meet its goals through having the right human capital that's motivated in the right way, compensated in the right way, recruited in the right way and so forth.
Katie: I was actually recently at a conference where one of the keynote speakers said that the number one two man in every company in the next five years will and should be the HR Manager because if it's all about the people, if your company is the people that work there, you know, serving the clients, not just who needs to really have a lot of pull. So it's getting more and more exciting in your industry. I love it.
Carl: Well it is, and we've become a knowledge economy, but we've also become a very diverse workforce. If you look at the diversity not just from a national origin point of view, but we have more generations working today than we've ever had before. And so I think there's just more opportunity than there's ever been before for people to truly excel in this human resources field. And have real strategic impact on the outcomes of organizations they serve.
Esther: Wow. Well thank you so much for being here. This has been eye opening for me. I know we just hired an HR manager in our company and we've never had an HR function within our organization before. We've always sort of outsourced those types of functions or just not had them at all. So it's pretty exciting, but it's great to hear you talk about HR and just - the wonderful things it can provide for a company, so thank you for enlightening us.
Carl: Well, thank you, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Katie: Yes, Carl, of course.
Esther: So I guess we can do something kind of crazy right now. Usually Carl provides us with the business survival tip at this point in the show after our interview, but Carl Kleimann is here, so Carl is going to pitch to the business survival tip himself. Carl?
Carl: And now it's time for another business survival tip by me, Carl Kleimann of Odyssey OneSource.
Carl: Hello business owners this is Carl Kleimann from Odyssey One Source with another Business Survival Tip. If someone asked you to describe your company's culture, what would you say? By definition, a company's culture is the shared values and practices of its employees. It defines the way that organizations act and react and can be particularly important in the face of adversity or challenge. Some of today's most successful organizations go to great lengths to foster and maintain a culture that supports their mission, vision and values.
So, how do you create your culture? First, understand that every business has one so step one is identifying your current culture. You can either hire a consultant or simply look around. How do your employees act? What are their common behaviors? How do they react in challenging situations? Step two is determining what you want your culture to be. How do you want them to act? You should design a culture that is aligned with your business goals. For example, a technology firm may choose to foster a culture that thrives on innovation. A service organization may choose to foster a culture that supports a strong customer focus. Whatever you choose, you will have established the expectations by which everyone on your team will be judged.
A company's culture will evolve and change over time. As employees leave and new employees are hired, culture will shift. The same is true as a firm grows from startup to maturity. As the business owner, your goal is to never stop moving culture toward your intended goal. And that job should get easier over time as you get better and better at hiring people that fit your culture.
I am Carl Kleimann and this has been another Business Survival Tip by Odyssey One Source, ranked as the number one Professional Employer Organization three years running by the Black Book of Outsourcing. For more information on this and other issues affecting employers, please visit www.odysseyonesource.com.
Katie: Thanks for being here with us in The BusinessMakers Overtime Show. Heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. That's it for Chapter 2. We'll see you in Segment 3 where Esther and I are talking about successful entrepreneurial skill sets.
Esther: Are they born or created? Find out in our next chapter.