5 Ways to Identify Clients That Need HR Support
When we see clients that need HR service, we open the conversation by presenting our solutions-oriented value. Adding any new service line is easier than starting a business as you already have a captive audience in your client base. The conversation then switches from how to address the public with the services you offer to how to identify your current clients that could benefit from this service.
Here are my top five indicators that current clients need HR:
1. They Are Hiring Lots of [Remote] People
This one is a “two-fer.” As we are running payroll for clients, our firm pays attention to their hiring practices. When they start hiring people quickly, we flag them for a conversation around HR compliance and employee relations. We can support their policies and procedures to ensure compliance beyond just payroll taxes. We also pay attention as they are registering new states. New states mean new laws to comply with.
The opportunity for HR services with growing teams are the easiest lift, from a value perspective. Companies scaling quickly often do not have solid HR infrastructure to handle the growth. The value proposition becomes similar to that of outsourcing accounting – we will scale with you and handle the back-office needs of your growing team.
The services that scaling teams need are generally across the board. Everything from compliance, employee handbooks and state registrations to onboarding processes, HRIS implementations, PEO evaluations, benefits, and employee relations support. They often need HR strategy as well. This indicator is my number one because more people implicitly means more HR needs.
2. Revenue Growth
With many industries, hiring is directly correlated to revenue growth. If we are working with a client that is projecting large revenue growth, we bring up early what their human resource planning looks like. We can help from the forefront of working through the capacity of each individual to create a hiring plan and can then assist with everything from recruiting through compliance and strategy maintenance.
3. Government Notices
Clients that are traditionally not exceptional at compliance tend to get a significant number of government notices. These notices are a fantastic indicator of companies that need support. The notices can be from state unemployment offices, federal deposit notices, OSHA notices, etc.
Business owners that are moving too quickly to ensure a 100-percent compliance with government agencies tend to need the support we can offer with HR services. They are also more apt to see the value in having that piece of it outsourced. No one likes to get government notices! If we can assist in righting the ship and ensuring compliance in the future, the clients are happy to pay us for it.
4. Companies Have Employees in States With New Laws
Our team pays attention to the state and local employment law updates and uses the legal changes as a conversation starter with clients. When we see a big change, we inform the clients that we know have employees in that state with a message that we are happy to help ensure their current and future compliance. We also show our value and give them the option for us to continue to tell them about legislative updates and lead the charge on HR compliance.
For example, Montana recently changed some significant employment laws. Companies that were previously in compliance may not even know about the law changes.
For clients operating in Montana, we will send out a summary of the new law (or a link to a good article about it) and offer to do a compliance check with them. We will then offer ongoing HR support and hopefully expand to a full-service HR client. These are great ways to open the conversations!
5. Significant Turnover
Similar to the hiring side, when we see a client that seems to be struggling to keep team members, we open conversations about HR. There are generally a few items that could be causing the turnover and all of them are things that an HR team could assist with.
Many times, they have had a degradation of culture. Other times, they are not paying the right salary levels for the positions they need. We have used the ADP compensation benchmarking tool in the past to provide a report to clients about average wages.
We will then compare that back to what they are paying as a conversation opener about how we can assist with their turnover problem. Turnover could also indicate that they have poor recruiting practices or they could have bad onboarding practices. Likely they have never asked their current team how to make the experience better.
In the world of HR services, turnover means lots of strategic opportunity to dig in with clients and help them solve their human experience struggles. Fundamentally, we are searching for indicators that there was a change, or growth, or an underlying human resource issue.
Conclusion
These are my top five for finding ways to open conversations with current clients about HR services. In fact, these indicators are the moments that we come to the table with additional advice and support where clients respect the value that we bring. Even if they are not interested in our help with HR, they are appreciative that we bring a solutions-oriented mindset to the table.
Any additional moments of change with their teams are moments that we should find an opportunity to present our HR service lines. We as professional advisors have a giant opportunity to address each business holistically and identify moments that our advice and support can bring value to our clients.
Check back next week for the final segment in our series on HR Advisory Service opportunities for accountants, and don’t forget to register for our free two-part webinar where we’ll go into even more detail!