Item 1. Business.
General
We provide an array of human resources (“HR”) and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. Since our formation in 1986, we have evolved from being solely a professional employer organization (“PEO”), an industry we pioneered, to our current position as a comprehensive business performance solutions provider.
Our long-term strategy is to provide the best small and medium-sized businesses in the United States with our specialized human resources service offering and to leverage our buying power and expertise to provide additional valuable services to clients. Our most comprehensive HR services offerings are provided through our Workforce Optimization® and Workforce SynchronizationTM solutions (together, our “PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions”), which encompass a broad range of human resources functions, including payroll and employment administration, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, government compliance, performance management, and training and development services, along with our cloud-based human capital management platform, our Insperity PremierTM platform. Workforce Optimization is our most comprehensive HR outsourcing solution and is our primary offering. Workforce Synchronization, which generally is offered only to our middle market client segment, is a lower cost offering with a typically longer commitment that includes the same compliance and administrative services as Workforce Optimization and allows those clients to select, for an additional fee, from the strategic HR products and services that are included with Workforce Optimization.
In addition to our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, we offer a comprehensive traditional payroll and human capital management solution, known as our Workforce AccelerationTM solution. We also offer a number of other business performance solutions, including Recruiting Services, Employment Screening, Retirement Services, and Insurance Services. These other products and services generally are offered only with our other solutions.
Our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions are designed to improve the productivity and profitability of small and medium-sized businesses. These solutions relieve business owners and key executives of many employer-related administrative and regulatory burdens, which enable them to focus on the core competencies of their businesses. Our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions also promote employee performance through human capital management techniques designed to improve employee engagement and satisfaction. We enter into a Client Service Agreement (“CSA”) with each of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients under which we and our client act as co-employers of the employees who work at the client’s worksite, or worksite employees (“WSEEs”). Under the CSA, we assume responsibility for personnel administration and assist our clients in complying with employment-related governmental regulations, while the client retains the employees’ services in its business and remains the employer for other purposes. We charge a comprehensive service fee (“comprehensive service fee” or “gross billing”), which is invoiced concurrently with the processing of payroll
for the WSEEs of the client. The comprehensive service fee consists of the payroll of our WSEEs plus an additional amount reflected as a percentage of the payroll cost of the WSEEs.
We accomplish the objectives of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions through a “high-touch/high-tech” approach to service delivery. In advisory areas, such as recruiting, employee performance management and employee training, we employ a high-touch approach designed to ensure that our clients receive the personal attention and expertise needed to create a customized human resources solution. We utilize a variety of information technology capabilities to deliver our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, including Insperity Premier through which we, along with our clients and WSEEs, manage employee administration, payroll, payroll tax, benefits, retirement solutions and other HR-related information, creating efficiencies for all parties.
As of December 31, 2022, we had 74 physical office locations in 43 markets. To take advantage of economic efficiencies, multiple sales offices may share a physical location. In addition, we had four regional service centers along with human resources and client service personnel located in a majority of our 43 sales markets, which serviced an average of 307,506 WSEEs per month in the fourth quarter of 2022. Our service centers coordinate PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions for clients on a regional basis and localized face-to-face human resources services.
We were organized as a corporation in 1986. Our principal executive offices are located at 19001 Crescent Springs Drive, Kingwood, Texas 77339. Our telephone number at that address is (281) 358-8986, and our website address is www.insperity.com. Our stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NSP.” We file or furnish periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and if applicable, amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Through the investor relations section of our website, we make available electronic copies of the documents that we file or furnish to the SEC, the charters of the standing committees of our Board of Directors and other documents related to our corporate governance, including our Code of Conduct. Access to these electronic filings is available free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after filing or furnishing them to the SEC. Printed copies of our committee charters and other governance documents and filings can be requested by writing to our corporate secretary at the address above. Information on our website is not a part of, and is not incorporated into, this report or any other report we may file with or furnish to the SEC, whether before or after the date of this report and irrespective of any general incorporation language therein.
PEO Industry
The PEO industry began to evolve in the early 1980s largely in response to the burdens placed on small and medium-sized employers by an increasingly complex legal and regulatory environment. While various service providers were available to assist these businesses with specific tasks, PEOs emerged as providers of a more comprehensive range of services relating to the employer/employee relationship. In a PEO arrangement, the PEO assumes certain aspects of the employer/employee relationship as defined in the contract between the PEO and its client. Because PEOs provide employer-related services to a large number of employees, they can achieve economies of scale that allow them to perform employment-related functions more efficiently, provide a greater variety of employee benefits, and devote more attention to human resources management than a client can individually.
We believe the key factors driving demand for PEO services include:
•the focus on growth and productivity of the small and medium-sized business community in the United States, utilizing outsourcing to concentrate on core competencies
•the need to provide competitive health care and related benefits to attract and retain employees
•the increasing costs associated with health and workers’ compensation insurance coverage, workplace safety programs, employee-related complaints and litigation
•complex regulation of payroll, payroll tax and employment issues and the related costs of compliance, including the allocation of time and effort to such functions by owners and key executives
•the significant costs, time and specialized knowledge required to purchase or develop the technology infrastructure to administer benefits, HR and payroll processing on an integrated basis
A significant factor in the development of the PEO industry has been increasing recognition and acceptance of PEOs and the co-employer relationship by federal and state governmental authorities. Insperity and other industry leaders, in concert with the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (“NAPEO”), have worked with the relevant governmental entities for the establishment of a regulatory framework that protects clients and employees, discourages unscrupulous and financially unsound PEOs, and promotes further development of the industry. Currently, 42 states have enacted legislation either recognizing PEOs or requiring licensing, registration, or certification, and several others are considering such regulation. Such laws vary from state to state but generally provide for monitoring the fiscal responsibility of PEOs. State regulation assists in screening insufficiently capitalized PEO operations and helps to resolve interpretive issues concerning employer/employee status for specific purposes under applicable state law. We have actively supported such regulatory efforts and are currently recognized, licensed, registered, certified or pursuing registration in all of these states. The cost of compliance with these regulations is not material to our financial position or results of operations.
The Small Business Efficiency Act (“SBEA”) created a federal regulatory framework for the payment of wages to WSEEs and the reporting and remittance of federal payroll taxes on those wages paid by PEOs certified under the Internal Revenue Code as meeting certain requirements (“CPEOs”). We actively supported the enactment of this law. The SBEA clarified that a CPEO, rather than the client, is treated as the employer for purposes of reporting and remitting payroll taxes. It also clarified that a CPEO is treated as a successor employer for purposes of the wage base of WSEEs on which federal payroll taxes are applied. In addition, the law clarified that clients of a CPEO remain eligible for specified tax credits for which they would have been eligible absent the CPEO relationship. Following the establishment of the voluntary certification program by the Internal Revenue Service of the United States (“IRS”) and Treasury Department, our PEO subsidiary, Insperity PEO Services, L.P., received its designation as a CPEO from the IRS.
Service Offerings
PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions
We serve small and medium-sized businesses by providing our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, which encompass a broad range of services. Both of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions offer the following:
•payroll and benefits administration
•general HR advice
•health and workers’ compensation insurance programs
•401(k) retirement plan sponsored by us
•employer liability management
•assistance with government compliance
•personnel records management
•access to Insperity Premier for employees, managers, and client owners
Our Workforce Optimization solution also provides additional services that our Workforce Synchronization clients can purchase for an additional fee, including the following:
•employee recruiting and support
•employee performance management
•training and development services
Our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions are designed to attract and retain high-quality employees, while relieving client owners and key executives of many employer-related administrative and regulatory burdens. Among the employment-related laws and regulations that may affect a client are the following:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| • | Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) | • | Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) |
| • | Federal Income Contribution Act (FICA) | • | Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) |
| • | Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) | • | Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) |
| • | Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) | • | State unemployment and employment security laws |
| • | Employee Retirement Income Security Act, as amended (ERISA) | • | State workers’ compensation laws |
| • | Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) | • | Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (the “Reconciliation Act”) |
| • | Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) | • | Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) |
| • | Title VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964) | • | State and local law equivalents of the foregoing |
| • | Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) | • | The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) |
| • | Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) | • | The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act |
| • | Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) | • | The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) |
| • | The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) | • | The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) |
| • | Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 | • | Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act (PPP) |
| • | Drug-Free Workplace Act | | |
These laws and regulations are complex, and in some instances overlapping. We assist our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients in complying with these laws and regulations by providing services in the categories set forth below:
Administrative Functions. Administrative functions encompass a wide variety of processing and recordkeeping tasks, mostly related to payroll administration and regulatory compliance. Specific examples include:
•payroll processing
•payroll tax deposits
•payroll tax reporting
•employee file maintenance
•unemployment claims processing
•workers’ compensation claims reporting and monitoring
Benefit Plans Administration. We maintain several benefit plans for eligible WSEEs including the following:
•a group health plan
•a health savings account program
•a health care flexible spending account plan
•a 401(k) retirement plan
•an employee well-being program
•cafeteria plans for group health and health savings account contributions
•short-term and long-term disability insurance
•an educational assistance program
•an adoption assistance program
•group term life insurance
•accidental death and dismemberment insurance
•critical illness and accident insurance
The group health plan includes medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage. All benefit plans are provided to eligible employees based on the specific eligibility provisions of each plan. We are the policyholder responsible for the costs and premiums associated with any group insurance policies that provide benefits under these plans, and we act as plan sponsor and administrator of the plans. We negotiate the terms and costs of the plans, maintain the plans in accordance with applicable federal and state regulations and serve as liaison for the delivery of these benefits to WSEEs and corporate employees. COBRA coverage is extended to eligible terminated WSEEs and other eligible individuals in accordance with applicable law. We believe that the variety and comprehensive nature of our benefit plan offerings are generally not available to employees in our small and medium-sized business target market and allow our clients to compete with the type and level of benefits usually offered only by companies with a larger group of employees. As a result, we believe the availability of these benefit plans provides our clients with a competitive advantage that small and medium-sized businesses are typically unable to attain on their own.
Insperity Premier. Insperity Premier is our cloud-based human capital management platform for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions and is available to our clients with minimal implementation effort. It is designed to provide our service providers with insight into client and WSEE HR information to better support their needs. Insperity Premier provides role-based access to a wide range of human capital management functions, along with personalized content to the managers, owners and WSEEs of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients, including:
For managers and client owners:
•WebPayroll for the submission, approval, and reporting of payroll data
•mobile access to review and approve payroll transactions and employee time entry
•tools to manage the onboarding of new employees
•employee administration functions such as viewing or changing information about employees
•access to client-specific compliance-related information relevant to many HR areas
•reporting and analytics tools to create, view, save, and export reports and data about employees and to perform more complex analysis and visualization of their workforce data with the Insperity People Analytics solution
•ability to manage employee time and attendance information, absences, and paid time off
•access to talent management tools in the areas of recruiting, performance management, and learning management
•access to a library of online human resources forms
•access to a wide range of best-practices human resources management content
For WSEEs:
•access to view, edit, and change a range of employee profile information
•online check stubs, pay history, W-2 forms, W-4 forms, and other state forms
•employee-specific benefits content, including summary plan descriptions, enrollment status, and tools to assist with benefits selection for Insperity-sponsored plans
•access to 401(k) retirement plan information for covered plans
•e-learning web-based training
•links to benefits providers and other key vendors
•performance management tools including self-reviews and review history, if offered by client
•ability to submit time and attendance information, absences, and paid time off requests, if offered by client
•mobile access to perform a wide range of employee-specific activities such as reporting time and attendance and paid time off, view pay stubs, insurance coverage and ID cards, view 401(k) balances and other commonly accessed data
People Management. In addition to the services we deliver through Insperity Premier, we provide a wide variety of human capital management services that give our clients access to HR advisors and additional resources normally found only in the human resources departments of large companies. All PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients have access to our advice concerning personnel policies and practices, including recruiting, discipline, and termination procedures. Other human capital management services we provide include:
•drafting and reviewing personnel policies and employee handbooks
•designing job descriptions
•performing prospective employee screening and background investigations
•designing performance appraisal processes and tools
•professional development and issues-oriented training
•diversity, equity and inclusion training
•employee coaching and counseling
•substance abuse awareness training
•outplacement services
•compensation guidance
Employer Liability Management. Under the CSA, we assume many of the employment-related responsibilities associated with the administrative functions, benefit plans administration, and human capital management services we provide. For many of those employment-related responsibilities that are the responsibility of the client or of both the client and us, we may assist our clients in managing and limiting liability. This assistance may include safety-related risk management reviews as well as the implementation by our clients of safety programs, for which our clients are responsible, that are designed to reduce workplace accidents and, consequently, workers’ compensation claims. We also provide guidance to clients for avoiding discrimination, sexual harassment and civil rights violations, and we assist with termination decisions when consulted to attempt to minimize liability on those grounds. While we do not provide legal services to our clients, we employ in-house and external counsel who specialize in several areas of employment law, have broad experience in disputes concerning the employer/employee relationship, and provide support to our internal human resources professionals. As part of our comprehensive service, we also maintain employment practice liability insurance coverage for ourselves and our clients, monitor developments in HR-related laws and regulations, and notify clients of the potential effect of such changes on employer liability.
MarketPlaceSM provided by Insperity®. Through our many alliances with best-of-class providers, Insperity’s MarketPlace is an e-commerce portal that brings a wide range of products and services to our clients, WSEEs and their families. Through MarketPlace, which is provided through Insperity Premier, our clients also have the opportunity to offer their products and services to other clients and WSEEs.
Middle Market Solutions. We believe the middle market sector, which we generally define as those companies with employees ranging from approximately 150 to 5,000 WSEEs, has historically been under-served by the PEO industry. Currently, we have a dedicated sales management, service personnel and consulting staff who concentrate solely on the middle market sector. Our average number of WSEEs per month in our middle market sector in 2022 increased 23.3% from 2021, and the middle market sector as a percentage of our overall WSEE count also increased over this period, representing approximately 24.9% and 23.8% of our total average paid WSEEs during 2022 and 2021, respectively. Clients with an average number of WSEEs exceeding 1,000 paid WSEEs represented 5.4% and 1.9% of our total average paid WSEEs during 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Other Product and Services Offerings
We offer other product and services offerings on a stand-alone basis and to our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients. We also strive to leverage our relationships with our customers to enable cross-selling of our various products and services.
During 2022 and 2021, revenues from our other products and services offerings as a percentage of our total revenues were 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.
Following are the key components of our other products and services, which are offered separately or as a bundle:
Comprehensive Traditional Payroll and Human Capital Management Solution. Our Insperity Workforce Acceleration solution is a comprehensive human capital management and payroll services solution for clients that do not choose our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions. This solution combines a third-party cloud-based human resources software suite that provides integrated payroll, HR administration and employee onboarding, benefits administration, performance management, and time and attendance functionality with HR guidance and tools, as well as reporting and analytics. In addition, through a strategic partner, Workforce Acceleration clients have access to a national, licensed insurance brokerage that specializes in the insurance needs of small businesses.
Recruiting Services. Our Recruiting Services offer direct hire placement on an as-needed basis and provides outsourced support for individual requisitions or large-scale hiring projects. In addition, we provide consulting services to assist in the creation and maintenance of consistent hiring practices and retention strategies. We also provide compensation services, behavior-based interview training and talent assessment.
Employment Screening. Our Employment Screening services offer a customized approach to background-check reporting for companies. Services include criminal records checks; verification of employment history or education; driving record, civil record and credit history checks; and confirmation of extraordinary credentials.
Retirement Services. Our Retirement Services solutions deliver comprehensive 401(k) retirement plan recordkeeping and administrative services to small and medium-sized businesses, primarily in connection with a 401(k) retirement plan we sponsor for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients. Services include employee education and enrollment, participant communications, elective deferral withholding and transmission, matching contribution calculation, loan and distribution processing, regulatory filing preparation and nondiscrimination testing.
Insurance Services. Our Insurance Services solutions offer assistance through our licensed insurance agency to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the United States to secure affordable, customizable business insurance packages and life, health and disability insurance policies. Insurance Services also assists individuals in obtaining insurance coverages.
Client Service Agreement
All PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients execute a CSA with us. The CSA provides for an ongoing relationship between Insperity and the PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions client. For most clients, the CSA generally establishes pricing for a period of one year and is subject to termination by Insperity or the client upon 30 days’ written notice or upon shorter notice in the event of default. CSAs for our middle market clients generally establish pricing for two years and are subject
to termination by clients upon payment of a termination fee or otherwise by the parties upon an event of default. The CSA establishes our comprehensive service fee, which is subject to periodic adjustments to account for changes in the composition of the client’s workforce, employee benefit election changes, and statutory changes that affect our costs. Under the CSA, clients are obligated to pay the estimated payroll tax component of the comprehensive service fee in a manner that reflects the pattern of incurred payroll tax costs. This practice aligns clients’ payments to us with our obligations to make payments to tax authorities, which are higher in the earlier part of the year and decrease as limits on wages subject to payroll tax are reached.
The CSA also establishes the division of responsibilities between us and the client as co-employers. Pursuant to the CSA, we are responsible for personnel administration and for compliance with certain employment-related government regulations. In addition, we assume liability for payment of salaries and wages (as well as related payroll taxes) of our WSEEs and responsibility for providing specified employee benefits to such persons. These liabilities are not contingent on the prepayment by the client of the associated comprehensive service fee. Instead, as a result of our employment relationship with each of our WSEEs, we are liable for payment of salary and wages to the WSEEs as reported by the client and are responsible for providing specified employee benefits to such persons regardless of whether the client pays the associated comprehensive service fee. The client retains the employees’ services and remains liable for complying with certain government regulations that require control of the worksite or daily supervisory responsibility or is otherwise beyond our ability to assume. A third group of responsibilities and liabilities are assumed by both Insperity and the client where such concurrent responsibility is appropriate. The specific division of applicable responsibilities under our CSAs generally is as follows:
Insperity Responsibilities
•Payment of wages and salaries as reported by the client and related tax reporting and remittance (local, state and federal withholding, FICA, FUTA, state unemployment)
•Workers’ compensation compliance, procurement, management and reporting
•Compliance with the Code, COBRA, ERISA and PPACA for Insperity-sponsored employee benefit plans, as well as monitoring changes in other governmental laws and regulations governing the employer/employee relationship and updating the client when necessary
•Offering benefits under Insperity-sponsored employee benefit plans
•Administration of Insperity-sponsored employee benefit plans
Client Responsibilities
•Payment, through Insperity, of commissions, bonuses, vacations, paid time off, sick pay, paid leaves of absence, and severance payments
•Payment and related tax reporting and remittance of non-qualified deferred compensation and equity-based compensation
•Products produced and/or services provided
•Compliance with OSHA regulations, EPA regulations, FLSA, FMLA, WARN, USERRA, and state and local equivalents and compliance with government contracting provisions
•Compliance with federal, state, and local pay or play health care mandates and all such other similar federal, state and local legislation
•Compliance with the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), including all organizing efforts and expenses related to a collective bargaining agreement and related benefits
•Professional licensing requirements, fidelity bonding, and professional liability insurance
•Ownership and protection of all client intellectual property rights
•the Code, COBRA, PPACA, and ERISA compliance for client-sponsored employee benefit plans
•For clients electing payroll tax deferrals and claiming tax credits under the FFCRA, the CARES Act, PPP, CAA, and ARPA (collectively, the “COVID Relief Programs”), the client has sole responsibility for determining eligibility under the programs and depositing deferred payroll tax amounts with the U.S. Treasury as they become due
Concurrent Responsibilities
•Implementation of policies and practices relating to the employee/employer relationship
•Internal compliance with all federal, state and local employment laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ADEA, Title I of ADA, the Consumer Credit Protection Act and immigration laws and regulations
We maintain employment practice liability insurance coverages (including coverages for our clients) to manage our exposure for various employee-related claims. Our incurred costs in excess of annual premiums with respect to this exposure have historically been insignificant to our operating results.
Because we are a co-employer with the client for some purposes, it is possible that we could incur liability for violations of such laws, even if we are not responsible for the conduct giving rise to such liability. Our CSA ordinarily addresses this issue by providing that the client will indemnify us for liability incurred to the extent the liability is attributable to conduct by the client. Notwithstanding this contractual right to indemnification, it is possible that we could be unable to collect on a claim for indemnification and may therefore be ultimately responsible for satisfying the liability in question.
In most instances, clients are required to remit their comprehensive service fees no later than the same day as the applicable payroll date by wire transfer or automated clearinghouse transaction. Although we are ultimately liable, as the employer for payroll purposes, to pay employees for work previously performed, we retain the ability to terminate immediately the CSA and associated WSEEs or to require prepayment, letters of credit, or other collateral upon deterioration in a client’s financial condition or upon non-payment by a client. These rights, the periodic nature of payroll, and the overall quality of our client base have resulted in an excellent overall collections history.
PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions Clients
Insperity’s PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions provide value-added, full-service human resources solutions we believe are most suitable to a specific segment of the small and medium-sized business community. We target successful businesses with approximately 10 to 5,000 employees that recognize the advantage in the strategic use of high-performance human resources practices. We have set a long-term goal to serve approximately 10% of the overall small and medium-sized business community in terms of WSEEs. We serve clients and WSEEs located throughout the United States.
By region, our revenue distribution for the year ended December 31, 2022, was as follows:
Please read Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements, “Accounting Policies,” for additional information related to the change in revenues by region. All prospective PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients are evaluated on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of employer-related risks entailing many factors, including (where permitted) industry and operations, workplace safety and workers’ compensation, unemployment history, operating stability, group medical information, human resources practices and other employer risks. As part of our client selection strategy, we strive to minimize offering our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions to businesses falling within certain specified NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes for those industries that we believe present a higher employer risk such as employee injury, high turnover or litigation.
Our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions client base is broadly distributed throughout a wide variety of industries as follows:
This diverse client base lowers our exposure to downturns or volatility in any particular industry. However, our performance could be affected by a downturn in one of these industries or by general economic conditions within the small and medium-sized business community.
We focus heavily on client retention. During 2022 and 2021, our retention rate was approximately 85% and 82%, respectively. For all PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients, the average annual retention rate over the last five years was approximately 84%. Client attrition is attributable to a variety of factors, including: (1) client non-renewal due to price or service factors; (2) client business failure, sale, merger or disposition; (3) our termination of the CSA resulting from the client’s non-compliance or inability to make timely payments; and (4) competition from other PEOs or business services firms.
Marketing and Sales
As of December 31, 2022, we had 92 sales offices located in 43 markets. Our sales offices typically consist of seven to nine Business Performance Advisors (“BPAs”), a district sales manager, and an office administrator. To take advantage of economic efficiencies, multiple sales offices may share a physical location.
We identify markets using a systematic market evaluation and selection process. We continue to evaluate a broad range
of factors in the selection process, using a market selection model that weighs various criteria that, based on our experience, we believe are reliable predictors of successful penetration. Among the factors we consider are:
•market size, in terms of small and medium-sized businesses engaged in selected industries that meet our risk profile
•market receptivity to PEO services, including the regulatory environment and relevant history with other PEO providers
•existing relationships within a given market, such as vendor or client relationships
•expansion cost issues, such as advertising and overhead costs
•direct cost issues that bear on our effectiveness in controlling and managing the cost of our services, such as workers’ compensation and health insurance costs, unemployment risks, and various legal and other factors
•a comparison of the services we offer to alternatives available to small and medium-sized businesses in the relevant market, such as the cost to the target clients of procuring services directly or through other PEOs
•long-term strategy issues, such as the general perception of markets and our estimate of the long-term revenue growth potential of the market
We develop a mix of national and local advertising media and a placement strategy tailored to each individual market. After selecting a market and developing our marketing mix, but prior to entering the market, we engage in an organized media and public relations campaign to prepare the market for our entry and to begin the process of generating sales leads. We market our services through various business promotions and a broad range of media outlets, including digital marketing, television, radio, newspapers, periodicals and direct mail. We employ public relations firms for most of our markets as well as advertising consultants to coordinate and implement our marketing campaigns. We have developed an inventory of television, radio and newsprint advertisements, which are utilized in this effort.
We routinely seek to develop new marketing approaches and campaigns to capitalize on changes in the competitive landscape for our human resources services and to more successfully reach our target market. We have an agreement with the Professional Golf Association Champions Tour to be the title sponsor of the annual Insperity Invitational™ presented by UnitedHealthcare® professional golf tournament held annually in The Woodlands, Texas (a suburb of Houston). In addition, we have an arrangement with Jim Nantz, a sports commentator, to serve as our national spokesperson. Our marketing campaigns use this event and the relationship with Mr. Nantz as a focal point of our brand marketing efforts.
Our organic growth model generates sales leads from six primary sources: direct sales efforts, digital advertising, traditional advertising, third-party channel programs, referrals, and marketing alliances. These leads result in initial presentations to prospective PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients, and ultimately, prospective PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions client business profiles. A prospective PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions client’s business profile reflects information gathered by the BPA about the prospect’s employees, including base compensation, level of benefits coverage options, job classification, state of employment and workers’ compensation classification. This information is used to generate a bid from our customized bid system, which applies Insperity’s proprietary pricing model to the census data. Concurrent with this process, we evaluate prospective clients through the previously described comprehensive employer risk analysis. Upon completion of a favorable employer risk evaluation, the BPA presents the bid and attempts to complete the sale and enroll the prospect. Our selling process typically takes approximately 90 days for clients with less than 150 employees, and 180 days or longer for middle market clients. The process can be extended during economic downturns.
We have implemented a sales process that allows our BPAs to offer our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions or Workforce Acceleration, our traditional payroll solution, to each prospective client with which they meet. This strategy allows us to leverage the same sales force for all of our primary offerings and increases the ability of our BPAs to add clients to our Workforce Acceleration solution when the client is not prepared for PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions. This dual channel approach to selling attempts to reduce barriers to a company becoming a client and allows us to offer solutions better tailored to the specific needs of the business, including at renewal.
Competition
We provide a value-added, full-service human resources solution through our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, which we believe is most suitable to a specific segment of the small and medium-sized business community. This full-service approach is exemplified by our commitment to provide a high level of service and technology personnel, which has produced a ratio of corporate staff to WSEEs (the “staff support ratio”) that is higher than average for the PEO industry. Based on an analysis of the 2019 through 2021 annual NAPEO surveys of the PEO industry, we have successfully leveraged our full-service approach into significantly higher returns for Insperity on a per WSEE per month basis. During the three-year period from 2019 through 2021, our staff support ratio averaged 55% higher than the PEO industry average. During the same three-year period, our gross profit per WSEE and operating income per WSEE exceeded industry averages by 144% and 223%, respectively.
Competition in the PEO industry revolves primarily around quality of services, scope of services, choice and quality of benefits packages, reputation, and price. We believe reputation, national presence, regulatory expertise, financial resources, risk management, and information technology capabilities distinguish leading PEOs from the rest of the industry. We also believe we compete favorably in these areas; however, other PEOs may offer their PEO services at lower prices than we offer.
Due to the differing geographic regions and market segments in which most PEOs operate, and the relatively low level of market penetration by the industry, we consider our primary competition for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions to be the traditional in-house provision of human resources services. The PEO industry is highly fragmented and we have seen competition intensify; however, we believe Insperity is one of the largest PEO service providers in the United States. Our largest national competitors include the PEO divisions of large business services companies such as Automatic Data Processing, Inc. and Paychex, Inc., and other national PEOs, such as TriNet Group, Inc. In addition, we also face competition from: (1) fee-for-service providers such as payroll processors and human resources consultants; (2) human resources technology solution companies; and (3) large regional PEOs in certain areas of the country.
Vendor Relationships
Insperity provides benefits to its WSEEs under arrangements with a variety of vendors. We consider our contracts with UnitedHealthcare (“United”) and the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies (“Chubb”) to be the most significant elements of our employee benefits package, as they would be the most difficult to replace.
We provide group health insurance coverage to our WSEEs through a national network of carriers including United, UnitedHealthcare of California, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of California, HMSA BlueCross BlueShield of Hawaii and Tufts, all of which provide fully insured policies or service contracts. The health insurance contract with United provides approximately 87% of our participants’ health insurance coverage and expires on December 31, 2026, subject to cancellation by either party upon 180 days’ notice. For a discussion of our contract with United, which is accounted for using a partially self-funded insurance accounting model, please read Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Benefits Costs.” Our workers’ compensation coverage (the “Chubb Program”) has been provided through an arrangement with Chubb (formerly ACE) since 2007. The Chubb Program is a fully insured program whereby Chubb has the responsibility to pay all claims incurred under the policies regardless of whether we satisfy our responsibilities. The current workers’ compensation coverage with Chubb expires on September 30, 2023. Chubb has committed to certain expense and premium terms for one additional policy year (through September 30, 2024) subject to certain customary terms and conditions. In the event we are unable to secure replacement coverage on competitive terms, significant disruption to our business could occur. For additional discussion of the Chubb Program, which includes terms shifting some of the financial responsibility for claims to us, please read Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Workers’ Compensation Costs.” Information Technology
Insperity utilizes a variety of information technology capabilities to provide its PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions and business performance improvement services to its clients and WSEEs and for its own administrative and management information requirements.
Insperity’s PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions information systems, which include Insperity Premier, are a proprietary mix of applications that includes both internally developed software, licensed software applications and cloud-based services. These systems manage a wide range of transactions and information specific to our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, to Insperity and to our clients and WSEEs, including:
•WSEE enrollment
•human resources management and employee administration
•benefits and defined contribution plan administration
•time and attendance collection and administration
•payroll processing
•client invoicing and collection
•management information and reporting
•sales bid calculations
Central to these systems are transaction processing capabilities that allow us to process a high volume of employee enrollment, employee administration, payroll, invoice and bid transactions that meet the specific needs of our clients and prospects. We administer our employee benefits through a proprietary application designed to process employee eligibility and enrollments, manage carrier relationships and maintain a variety of plan offerings. Our retirement services operations are conducted utilizing an industry-leading retirement plan administration application in a third-party hosted environment. Aspects of all of these components are delivered to our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions clients and WSEEs through Insperity Premier. We utilize commercially available software and cloud-based solutions for other business functions such as finance and accounting, sales force activity management and customer relationship management.
Insperity has hosting facilities located at two separate leased facilities, one of which serves as our primary facility. These facilities host the majority of our business applications, information security and network infrastructure. Each hosting facility houses a mix of primary production applications, disaster recovery, replication and back-up applications, and pre-production environments. Both hosting facilities have the capacity to run all of our critical business applications and have sufficient capacity to handle all of our operations on a stand-alone basis, if required. We have an active Business Continuity Plan, which includes information technology capabilities and we utilize a variety of measures to ensure our Business Continuity Plan remains effective and available.
Our network infrastructure is designed to ensure appropriate connectivity exists among all of our facilities and provides appropriate Internet connectivity to conduct business with our clients and WSEEs. The network infrastructure is provided through industry standard core network hardware and via high-speed network services provided by multiple vendors.
We have incorporated a variety of measures designed to maintain the security and privacy of the information managed through our systems and applications. These measures include industry standard technologies designed to protect, monitor and assess our data centers and network environment; best practice security policies and procedures; annual corporate employee training on data security and privacy; SOC-1 reports prepared by independent firms regarding key systems; and a variety of measures designed to control access to sensitive and private information.
Industry Regulations
The operations for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions are affected by numerous federal, state, and local laws relating to tax, insurance and employment matters. By entering into a co-employer relationship with our WSEEs, we assume certain obligations and responsibilities of an employer under these federal and state laws. Because many of these federal and state laws were enacted prior to the development of nontraditional employment relationships, such as PEOs, temporary employment and outsourcing arrangements, many of these laws do not specifically address the obligations and responsibilities of nontraditional employers. Currently, the federal government and 42 states have passed laws that either recognize PEOs, require licensing or registration of PEOs, or provide voluntary certification programs for PEOs, and several others are considering such regulation. The SBEA established a voluntary certification program and created a federal regulatory framework for the payment of wages to WSEEs and for the reporting and remittance of federal payroll
taxes on those wages paid by CPEOs. Our PEO subsidiary, Insperity PEO Services, L.P., is a CPEO. Please read Item 1. “Business—PEO Industry” for further information. As an employer, we are subject to federal statutes and regulations governing the employer/employee relationship. Subject to the issues discussed below, we believe that our operations are in compliance, in all material respects, with all applicable federal statutes and regulations.
Employee Benefit Plans
We offer various employee benefits plans to eligible employees, including our WSEEs. These plans include:
•a group health plan, which includes medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
•a 401(k) retirement plan
•cafeteria plans under Code Section 125
•a health savings account program
•a welfare benefits plan, which includes life, disability, accidental death and dismemberment, critical illness, and accident insurance, as well as an employee well-being program
•a health care flexible spending account plan
•an educational assistance program
•an adoption assistance program
•a commuter benefits program
Generally, employee benefit plans are subject to provisions of the Code, ERISA, and COBRA. The number and complex nature of federal and state regulations relating to employer-sponsored health plans has continued to increase over time. We believe that additional regulatory burdens placed on employers can increase the demand for our services because small and medium-sized businesses are especially challenged in their efforts to comply with governmental regulations due to limited resources and a lack of expertise. As a co-employer in the PEO relationship, we assume or share many of the employer-related responsibilities and assist our clients in complying with many employment-related governmental laws and regulations. Historically, we believe that we have successfully marketed the compliance component of our service offering and that our compliance-related services have increased the value proposition of our service offering.
401(k) Retirement Plans. Our 401(k) Retirement Plan for WSEEs is operated pursuant to guidance provided by the IRS under Revenue Procedure 2002-21 and Revenue Procedure 2003-86, each of which provides guidance for the operation of defined contribution plans maintained by PEOs that benefit WSEEs. This guidance provides qualification standards for PEO plans that, if met, negate the inquiry of common law employer status for purposes of the exclusive benefit rule. All of Insperity’s 401(k) Retirement Plans have received determination letters from the IRS confirming the qualified status of the plans.
Employment Taxes
As a co-employer, Insperity generally assumes responsibility and liability for the payment of federal and state employment taxes with respect to wages and salaries paid to our WSEEs. There are essentially three types of federal employment tax obligations included in Subtitle C — Employment Taxes of the Code:
•withholding of income tax requirements governed by Code Section 3401, et seq.
•obligations under FICA, governed by Code Section 3101, et seq.
•obligations under FUTA, governed by Code Section 3301, et seq.
Under these Code sections, employers have the obligation to withhold and remit the employer portion and, where applicable, the employee portion of these taxes.
The SBEA provides a CPEO shall be treated as the employer under Subtitle C – Employment Taxes of the Code and shall be responsible for reporting federal employment taxes on remuneration paid by the CPEO rather than the CPEO clients.
For any client CSA that is not a CPEO contract, Code Section 3401, which applies to federal income tax withholding requirements, contains an exception to the general common law test applied to determine whether an entity is an “employer” for purposes of federal income tax withholding. Code Section 3401(d)(1) states that if the person for whom services are rendered does not have control of the payment of wages, the “employer” for this purpose is the person having control of the payment of wages. The Treasury regulations issued under Code Section 3401(d)(1) state that a third party can be deemed to be the employer of workers under this section for income tax withholding purposes where the person for whom services are rendered does not have legal control of the payment of wages. While several courts have examined Code Section 3401(d)(1), its ultimate scope has not been delineated. Moreover, the IRS has to date relied extensively on the common law test of employment in determining liability for failure to comply with federal income tax withholding requirements.
Accordingly, while we believe that we can assume the withholding obligations for WSEEs, in the event we fail to meet these obligations, the client may be held ultimately liable for those obligations. While this interpretive issue has not to our knowledge discouraged clients from enrolling with Insperity, there can be no assurance that a definitive adverse resolution of this issue would not do so in the future. These interpretive uncertainties may also impact our ability to report employment taxes on our own account rather than the accounts of our clients.
Clients who elected to defer the employer portion of social security under the recent CARES Act have sole responsibility for reporting and depositing deferred amounts with the U.S. Treasury.
Unemployment Taxes
We record our state unemployment insurance (“SUI”) tax expense based on taxable wages and tax rates assigned by each state. State unemployment tax rates vary by state and are determined, in part, based on Insperity’s prior years’ compensation and unemployment experience in each state. Certain rates are determined, in part, by each client’s own compensation and unemployment experience. In addition, states have the ability under law to increase unemployment tax rates, including retroactively, to cover deficiencies in the unemployment tax funds. Rate notices are typically provided by the states during, or prior to, the first quarter of each year; however, some notices are received later. Until we receive the final tax rate notices, we estimate our expected SUI rate in those particular states.
State Regulation
While some states do not explicitly regulate PEOs, 42 states have adopted provisions for licensing, registration, certification or recognition of PEOs, and several others are considering such regulation. Such laws vary from state to state but generally provide for monitoring the fiscal responsibility of PEOs, and in some cases codify and clarify the co-employment relationship for unemployment, workers’ compensation and other purposes under state law. We believe that we are in compliance with the material requirements in all 42 states that have such laws. Regardless of whether a state has licensing, registration or certification requirements for PEOs, we must comply with a number of other state and local regulations that could impact our operations.
Human Capital
We believe that our ability to attract and retain highly motivated and skilled corporate employees with diverse backgrounds and experiences is critical to our continued success. Our human capital management objective is to attract, develop, and retain qualified corporate employees as appropriate to support our growth, client service initiatives, and technology investments, while furthering our commitment to our culture, mission, and values.
We had approximately 4,100 corporate employees as of December 31, 2022. We believe our relations with our corporate employees are good. None of our corporate employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The number of BPAs and trained BPAs impacts our ability to grow our customer base. We refer to BPAs who have been employed for two months and completed initial sales training as “trained BPAs.” During 2022 and 2021, the average number of BPAs were 669 and 650, respectively, while the average number of trained BPAs were 601 and 596, respectively.
We offer numerous programs and benefits in furtherance of our human capital management objective, including: competitive compensation and benefits; corporate 401(k) retirement plan with a matching component; employee stock purchase program; leadership development programs; the Insperity MVP (Mission Values Performance) employee recognition program; flexible remote working arrangements; and employee benevolence programs to provide additional assistance to corporate employees in times of need.
We monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our human capital management efforts by seeking formal and informal feedback from our corporate employees, including periodic surveys of our corporate employees to obtain their opinions on key topics.
Intellectual Property
Insperity currently has registered trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. We believe that our trademarks as a whole are of considerable importance to our business.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
The statements in this section describe the known material risks to our business and should be considered carefully.
Economic Risks
Adverse economic conditions could negatively affect our industry, business, and results of operations.
The small and medium-sized business market is sensitive to changes in economic activity levels as well as the credit markets. As a result, the demand for the outsourced HR services we provide clients could be adversely impacted by weak economic conditions or difficulty obtaining credit. Current and prospective clients may respond to such conditions by reducing employment levels, compensation levels, employee benefit levels and outsourced HR services. In addition, during periods of weak economic conditions, current clients may have difficulty meeting their financial obligations to us and may select alternative HR services at more competitive rates than we offer. Further, our growth is partially dependent on hiring of new employees by our existing clients, which may be negatively impacted during periods of tight labor markets, such as the low unemployment environment experienced during 2022, and during economic slowdowns, such as the high unemployment levels experienced during 2020. Such developments could adversely impact our financial condition, results of operations and future growth rates.
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected our business. The current pandemic may have, and a future outbreak of other highly infectious or contagious diseases could have, a material and adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
The spread of the COVID-19 virus has created significant volatility, uncertainty and economic disruption, including actions taken by businesses and governments in response to the pandemic that have resulted or could result in a significant reduction in commercial activity. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic or future pandemics impact our business, operations, financial results and financial condition will depend on numerous evolving factors that are highly uncertain and that we may not be able to accurately predict, including:
•scope, severity and duration of the pandemic;
•varying impact that the pandemic has within each locality;
•actions taken by government authorities to contain the outbreak or address its impact;
•development, distribution, adoption and cost of safe and effective testing, treatments or vaccines for COVID-19;
•direct and indirect economic effects of the pandemic and containment measures;
•scope, significance and duration of business disruptions on small and medium-sized businesses, including any reduction in employment levels, compensation levels and employee benefits;
•magnitude and extent of business failures among the small and medium-sized businesses that we serve;
•impact of the pandemic on our benefits costs;
•ability of our clients to pay for the outsourced HR services and solutions we provide; and
•any resulting impact on the demand for our outsourced HR services and solutions.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing and even after it has subsided, we may experience material adverse impacts to our business, operations and financial results due to any existing or continuing negative economic impact, including a recession, depression, or periods of supply shortages or high inflation, such as experienced in 2022.
The spread of the COVID-19 virus has changed, and future pandemics may change further, how and when we incur health insurance costs under our health insurance contract with United. We have experienced, and may continue to experience, changes in quarterly levels and timing of both medical and pharmaceutical health insurance claims and processing payment patterns. For example, government imposed testing and/or vaccination and treatment mandates, restrictions on certain elective health care treatments; costs associated with vaccination administration, testing, and
treatment; and changes in treatment delivery options may continue to significantly alter our health care claim trends as compared to historic norms. Our ability to estimate health care claim trends became more difficult due to the testing, vaccination and treatment costs and as participant utilization of health care services are deferred or canceled while stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements are enacted or recommended by state and local governments. Furthermore, our ability to predict the rate at which participants will increase utilization of health care services in future periods is also difficult.
The 2020 increase in U.S. unemployment levels resulted in a significant increase in unemployment claims with state unemployment agencies. A continuous increase in unemployment claims may increase state and/or federal unemployment insurance tax rates. In addition, some states have the authority to increase unemployment tax rates retroactively. Any such increases, which are reflected in our comprehensive service fee, may result in client attrition due to increased prices or we may have to reduce our overall pricing, which would adversely affect our profitability, to assist clients with these additional costs.
The economic disruptions caused by a pandemic may cause customers to have difficulty meeting their financial obligations to us or increase business failures. As a co-employer, we assume the obligation to pay the salaries, wages and related benefits, and related payroll taxes associated with the WSEEs. An increase in the number of clients unable to pay us would result in an increase in bad debts, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, we have modified certain business and workforce practices to be more flexible in light of government restrictions and best practices encouraged by governmental and regulatory authorities. While most of our operations can be performed remotely, there is no guarantee we will be as effective while working remotely because our team is dispersed, many employees may have additional personal needs to attend to and employees may become sick themselves and be unable to work. The remote work environment that was implemented during the pandemic also has had an impact on the expectations of our employees and, as a result, many of our departments have now switched to a “hybrid” mode in which remote work is permitted one or more days per week. These changes may also impact productivity or have other impacts on our operations. Further, our increased reliance on remote access to our information systems as our employees work remotely impacts our control over cybersecurity protection and service stability and performance, which increases our exposure to cybersecurity and privacy issues and to disruptions to employee productivity. We may take further actions as government authorities require or recommend or as we determine to be in the best interests of our employees, clients, partners and vendors. There is no certainty that such measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by COVID-19 or the changes to the workplace resulting from the pandemic, in which case our ability to perform critical functions could be harmed, and we may be unable to respond to the needs of our business.
The COVID Relief Programs created various programs and incentives to assist businesses and individuals managing through the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain of these programs and incentives have required us to make changes to our systems that manage leave, payroll and payroll-related tax calculation, and invoicing and collection of service fees, COBRA participation, and client reporting. The CARES Act allowed companies to defer certain payroll taxes, which were reflected in the payrolls we processed for clients electing deferrals. Client companies are liable for repaying the deferred amounts to the IRS; however, the IRS has not yet clarified how such deferred amounts will be properly applied to companies utilizing a PEO and, if and when issued, such guidance may require further revisions to our systems or processes. In addition, PEO clients are dependent on the PEO to process Employee Retention Tax Credits (“ERC”) on a consolidated basis, including amending previously filed payroll tax forms with the IRS. The IRS has experienced significant backlogs of amended tax forms from employers seeking ERC refunds. In addition, various states and localities and the federal government may enact further legislation that may require further changes to our processes and systems or that may expand the coverage afforded to WSEEs under our health and workers’ compensation programs. If we experience extended IRS delays related to ERC credits on behalf of clients, or are unable to timely make these changes, incur substantial additional costs in doing so, or are otherwise adversely affected by these requirements, then we may face fines, penalties, other regulatory action, or litigation relating to such failure, which could further adversely impact our PEO state licenses or registrations, our CPEO status, our results of operations and our ability to attract and retain clients.
The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic or other future pandemic precludes any prediction as to its full adverse impact. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic presents, and other future pandemics may present, material uncertainty and risk with respect to our business, and may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and business.
Labor shortages and increasing competition for highly skilled workers could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
The success of our business is heavily dependent on our ability to attract and retain a skilled workforce, including in our service and sales positions. Several factors may limit the labor force available to us or increase our labor costs, including high employment levels, strong macroeconomic conditions, federal unemployment subsidies, and other governmental regulation. As macroeconomic conditions improved throughout 2022 and 2021, the labor market tightened, resulting in increased employee turnover and skilled labor shortages. Increasing competition for highly skilled and talented workers may make it increasingly difficult and expensive for us to attract and retain a service team capable of supporting our clients or a sales team that is effective in selling our complex service offerings to clients. An overall or prolonged labor shortage, increased turnover, or labor inflation could have a material adverse impact on our growth plans, client service delivery, results of operations and financial condition.
Inflation may reduce our profitability.
Inflationary pressure could adversely impact our profitability. Our operating costs have increased, and may continue to increase, due to the recent growth in inflation. We may not be able to fully offset these cost increases by raising prices for our services, particularly because our client agreements generally fix our pricing for a period of time, which could result in downward pressure on our profit margins. Further, our clients may choose to reduce their business with us if we increase our pricing.
Geographic market concentration makes our results of operations vulnerable to regional economic factors.
Our New York, California and Texas markets accounted for approximately 10%, 16% and 18% (including 7% in Houston), respectively, of our WSEEs for the year ended December 31, 2022. Accordingly, unless we are successful in expanding in our current markets and into new markets, which we believe will take additional time, for the foreseeable future, a significant portion of our revenues may be subject to economic, statutory, and regulatory factors specific to New York, California, and Texas.
We are subject to covenants under our credit facility that may restrict our business and financing activities. Our failure to comply with these covenants may result in an acceleration of our indebtedness, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Our credit facility contains, and any future indebtedness of ours likely would contain, covenants that, subject to certain exceptions, impose significant operating and financial restrictions, including restricting our ability to:
•incur additional indebtedness,
•sell material assets,
•retire, redeem or otherwise reacquire our capital stock,
•acquire the capital stock or assets of another business,
•enter into new lines of business,
•make investments, and
•pay dividends.
In addition, we are required to maintain certain financial covenants. Our ability to comply with the financial covenants may be affected by financial, business, economic, regulatory and other factors beyond our control.
Our failure to comply with these covenants, or any other terms of our indebtedness, could result in a default that may limit our ability to borrow additional amounts under our credit facility, which may adversely affect our liquidity. In addition, a default may allow our lenders to accelerate our obligation to repay the outstanding amounts under our credit facility. If we were unable to repay or refinance the accelerated indebtedness on favorable terms, then our business, financial condition and results of operations would be materially adversely affected.
PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions Risks
We assume liability for WSEE payroll, payroll taxes, benefits costs and workers’ compensation costs and are responsible for their payment regardless of the amount billed to or paid by our clients.
Under the CSA, we become a co-employer of WSEEs and assume the obligations to pay the salaries, wages and related benefits costs and payroll taxes of such WSEEs. We assume such obligations as a principal, not as an agent of the client. Our obligations include responsibility for the following even if our costs to provide such benefits exceed the fees the client pays us and the amounts collected from WSEEs:
•payment of the salaries and wages for work performed by WSEEs, regardless of whether the client timely pays us the associated service fee
•withholding and payment of federal and state payroll taxes with respect to wages and salaries reported by Insperity
•providing benefits to WSEEs
•providing workers’ compensation coverage to WSEEs
If a client does not pay us, or if the costs of services we provide to WSEEs exceed the fees a client pays us, our ultimate liability for WSEE payroll, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and/or benefits costs could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
Increases in health insurance costs or our inability to secure replacement health insurance coverage on competitive terms could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Maintaining health insurance plans that cover WSEEs is a significant part of our business. Our primary health insurance contract expires on December 31, 2026, subject to cancellation by either party upon 180 days’ notice. In the event we are unable to secure replacement contracts on competitive terms, significant disruption to our business could occur.
Health insurance costs are in part determined by our plans’ claims experience and comprise a significant portion of our direct costs. Our health insurance coverage is provided under policies or service contracts that are fully insured. United is the carrier that insures the majority of our coverage. Although all of our carriers remain responsible to pay all covered claims, under our health insurance contract with United, we retain an obligation to United to fund the cost of the plan. The profitability of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions is affected by the overall expenses associated with the cost of delivering our services, one of the largest of which is the cost of our health insurance. Our ability to accurately anticipate the expenses associated with the plans, including claims costs on a quarterly or annual basis, can impact our results of operations. If the plans experience an unexpected increase in the number or severity of claims, our associated health insurance costs could increase beyond anticipated levels, as we experienced in 2019 and 2021. These costs are further impacted by a number of factors, including coverage options elected by employees, macro-economic changes, proposed and enacted regulatory changes and wide-spread health-related outbreaks. Contractual arrangements and competitive market conditions may limit or delay our ability to increase service fees to offset any associated potential increased costs associated with the plans, which could substantially impair our financial condition or results of operations. Further, if the overall pricing of our services includes cost assumptions based on inaccurate forecasts of plan expenses, our profitability or our ability to attract and retain clients may be adversely impacted. As a result, if we do not accurately forecast the costs of our plans, our business, financial condition or results of operations may be materially adversely affected. For additional information related to our health insurance costs, please read Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Benefits Costs.”
Health care reform could affect our health insurance plan and could lead to a significant disruption in our business.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The PPACA was subsequently amended on March 30, 2010 by the Reconciliation Act (collectively, the “Act”). The Act entails sweeping health care reforms with some provisions in the Act still requiring the issuance of additional guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) and the states. The future impact of the following provisions or changes to the provisions of the Act, or future legislative actions, is unknown and, if any such developments were to reduce our ability to make health care benefits available to WSEEs or were to make our offerings less attractive to our clients, then our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
Beginning in 2014, a number of key provisions of the Act took effect, including the Exchanges, insurance market reforms and the imposition of excise taxes on the health insurance industry and reinsurance taxes on insurers and third-party administrators. Additionally, the pay or play penalties on Applicable Large Employers were fully phased-in by 2016. As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017, the requirements that individuals maintain health insurance coverage or pay a federal tax penalty, which was known as the individual mandate, was effectively eliminated beginning in 2019. In addition, supporters in various states are advocating for adoption of health care-related reforms at the state level, including those states that have enacted individual mandates. Collectively, these items have the potential to significantly change the insurance marketplace for small and medium-sized businesses and how employers provide insurance to employees. Generally, the Act and subsequently issued guidance by the IRS and HHS have not addressed or in some instances are unclear as to their application in the PEO relationship or whether such provisions should be applied at the PEO or client level.
The Act also ushered in a number of insurance market reforms for the small group and individual markets. The reforms required guaranteed issue and renewability of coverage, eliminated certain underwriting practices by issuers, consolidated the number of risk pools in each state and restricted the permissible factors and variable ranges of those factors that can be considered in determining health insurance premiums. Transition relief permitted states to delay the effective date of some of these reforms. In addition, various states have adopted or are considering reforms that may impact the requirements for or availability of PEO-sponsored health plans. At this time, the insurance market reforms have not had a material adverse impact on our business operations, and if any future changes impact our ability to attract and retain clients, or our ability to increase service fees to offset any increased costs, then our business may be materially adversely affected.
Information contained in the Congressional Record, which specifically references PEOs, indicates that any pay or play penalties should apply separately to clients of a PEO and not at the PEO level. However, the Act and subsequently issued IRS guidance do not expressly address the issue of whether the pay or play penalties apply only at the client level or whether the penalties can be applied at the PEO level. If pay or play penalties were assessed against a PEO for coverage provided to WSEEs under a PEO sponsored plan, then our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.
As part of the Tax Extenders Act passed in 2019, the rules imposing excise taxes commencing in 2022 on employers and insurers who offer excessive health benefits under so-called “Cadillac plans” have been repealed. At this time, we are unable to determine the effect that the repeal of these pending excise taxes will have on our business and whether such changes will make it more difficult for us to attract and retain and clients.
The elimination of the penalty associated with the individual mandate and subsequent changes resulting from action that may be taken at the federal or state level may impact our benefit plans, business model and future results of operations, including repeal or repeal and replacement of the Act as has been advocated by some Congressional leaders. In future periods, changes may result in increased costs to us and could affect our ability to attract and retain clients. Additionally, contractual arrangements and competitive market conditions may limit or delay our ability to increase service fees to offset any associated potential increased costs. We are currently unable to determine whether potential future changes to the Act or other regulatory action, including at the state level, may adversely affect our business or market conditions.
A determination that we are not the employer of our WSEEs and an inability to offer alternate benefit plans could have a material adverse effect on our business.
In order to qualify for favorable tax treatment under the Code, employee benefit plans must be established and maintained by an employer for the exclusive benefit of its employees. Generally, an entity is an “employer” of individuals for federal
employment tax purposes if an employment relationship exists between the entity and the individuals under the common law test of employment. In addition, the officers of a corporation are deemed to be employees of that corporation for federal employment tax purposes. The common law test of employment, as applied by the IRS, involves an examination of approximately 20 factors to ascertain whether an employment relationship exists between a worker and a purported employer. Generally, the test is applied to determine whether an individual is an independent contractor or an employee for federal employment tax purposes and not to determine whether each of two or more companies is a “co-employer.” Substantial weight is typically given to the question of whether the purported employer has the right to direct and control the details of an individual’s work. Among the factors that appear to have been considered more important by the IRS are:
•the employer’s degree of behavioral control (the extent of instructions, training and the nature of the work)
•the financial control or the economic aspects of the relationship
•the intended relationship of the parties (whether employee benefits are provided, whether any contracts exist, whether services are ongoing or for a project, whether there are any penalties for discharge/termination, and the frequency of the business activity)
Employee retirement and welfare benefit plans are also governed by ERISA. ERISA defines “employer” as “any person acting directly as an employer, or indirectly in the interest of an employer, in relation to an employee benefit plan.” ERISA defines the term “employee” as “any individual employed by an employer.” The United States Supreme Court has held that the common law test of employment must be applied to determine whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor under ERISA. A definitive judicial interpretation of “employer” in the context of a PEO or employee leasing arrangement has not been established.
If Insperity were found not to be an employer with respect to WSEEs for ERISA purposes, its plans would not comply with ERISA and/or the Code. Further, as a result of such finding, Insperity and its plans would not enjoy, with respect to WSEEs, the preemption of state laws provided by ERISA and could be subject to varying state laws and regulations as well as to claims based upon state common laws. In addition, if Insperity were found not to be the employer sponsoring a single-employer plan under ERISA for purposes of its health benefits plan, we could be subject to additional requirements under state and federal laws that could restrict our ability to provide benefits to our WSEEs in the same manner that we do today, which could negatively impact our business. In the case of any such events, we would endeavor to make available similar benefits at comparable costs in a manner that complied with applicable state laws. However, if we were unable to promptly transition our benefit plans to a compliant structure with terms that were acceptable to our clients and at a comparable cost to us, then our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
Increases in workers’ compensation costs or inability to secure replacement coverage on competitive terms could lead to a significant disruption to our business.
Our workers’ compensation coverage has been provided through an arrangement with Chubb since 2007. Under our current arrangement with Chubb for claims incurred on or before September 30, 2019, we have a financial responsibility to Chubb for the first $1 million layer of claims per occurrence and for claims over $1 million, up to a maximum aggregate amount of $6 million per policy year for claims that exceed the first $1 million. Effective for claims incurred on or after October 1, 2019, our financial responsibility increased as we have financial responsibility to Chubb for the first $1.5 million layer of claims per occurrence and for claims over $1.5 million, up to a maximum aggregate amount of $6 million per policy year for claims that exceed $1.5 million. Chubb bears the financial responsibility for all claims in excess of these levels. The Chubb Program is a fully insured program whereby Chubb has the responsibility to pay all claims incurred under the policies regardless of whether we satisfy our responsibilities. For additional discussion of our policy with Chubb, please read Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Workers’ Compensation Costs.” Workers’ compensation costs are a significant portion of our direct costs and contractual arrangements and competitive market conditions may limit or delay our ability to increase service fees to offset any associated potential increased costs. If we were to experience an unexpected large increase in the number or severity of claims, our workers’ compensation costs could increase, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. Further, if the overall pricing of our services includes cost assumptions based on inaccurate forecasts of our workers’ compensation costs, our profitability or our ability to attract and retain clients may be adversely impacted.
The current workers’ compensation coverage with Chubb expires on September 30, 2023. In the event we are unable to secure replacement coverage on competitive terms, significant disruption to our business could occur.
Our ability to adjust and collect service fees for increases in unemployment tax rates may be limited.
We record our SUI expense based on taxable wages and tax rates assigned by each state. SUI tax rates vary by state and are determined, in part, based on prior years’ compensation experience in each state. Prior to the receipt of final rate notices, we estimate our expected SUI rate in those states for which rate notices have not yet been received for purposes of forecasting and pricing. In a period of adverse economic conditions, state unemployment funds may experience a significant increase in the number of unemployment claims. Accordingly, SUI rates would likely increase substantially. Some states have the ability under law to increase SUI rates retroactively to cover deficiencies in the unemployment fund. In addition, FUTA may be retroactively increased in certain states in the event the state fails to timely repay federal unemployment loans, as we recently experienced with California, Connecticut, Illinois, and New York in 2022.
Generally, our contractual agreements allow us to incorporate such statutory increases into our service fees upon the effective date of the rate change. However, our ability to fully adjust service fees in our billing systems and collect such increases over the remaining term of the clients’ contracts could be limited, resulting in a potential increase not being fully recovered. As a result, such increases could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
Many of our contracts for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions may be canceled on short notice. Our inability to renew client contracts or attract new clients could materially and adversely affect our financial conditions or results of operations.
Our standard CSA can generally be canceled by us or the client with 30 days’ notice. Accordingly, the short-term nature of the CSA makes us vulnerable to potential cancellations by existing PEO HR Outsourcing solution clients, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition or results of operations. Our middle market sector, which we generally define as those companies with employees ranging from approximately 150 to 5,000 WSEEs, represented 25% of our average paid WSEEs and clients with an average number of WSEEs that exceed 1,000 WSEEs represented 5% during 2022. In the event we have large clients that terminate or an increase in terminating clients from our middle market client base, the financial impact of such an event could be significant. Also, our results of operations are dependent in part upon our ability to retain or replace our clients upon the termination or cancellation of the CSA. Our client attrition rate was approximately 15% in 2022. There can be no assurance that the number of contract cancellations will continue at these levels and such cancellations may increase in the future due to various factors, including economic conditions in the markets we operate. Clients electing to purchase our services or electing an alternative solution often do so at the beginning of the calendar year. As a result, we typically experience our largest concentration of new client additions and attrition in the first quarter of each year.
Our loss of insurance coverage, the failure of our insurance carriers or increased insurance costs or deductibles could have a material adverse effect on us.
As part of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, in addition to our health insurance carriers, we contract with other insurance carriers to provide workers’ compensation insurance and employment practices liability insurance. In addition, we obtain insurance coverage for various commercial risks in our business such as property insurance, errors and omissions insurance, cyber liability insurance, general liability insurance, fiduciary liability insurance, automobile liability insurance, and directors’ and officers’ liability insurance. The failure of any insurance carrier, such as occurred in 2001 with respect to a previous workers’ compensation insurance provider, providing such coverage could leave us exposed to uninsured risk and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. In addition, in the event that our primary health carriers in any key market make material changes to their network of health care providers or facilities, such as the discontinuation of prominent hospital networks in key markets on occasion by a carrier in connection with their ongoing negotiations with those networks, then our ability to attract and retain clients in that market may be adversely affected, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Further, we have experienced an increase in insurance premiums for our corporate policies as well as an increase in the deductible amounts for which we retain liability and a decrease in coverage limits. If these premiums or deductible amounts continue to increase, or coverage limits continue to decrease we would have increased exposure with respect to costs and insurance claims, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
A determination that a client is liable for employment taxes not paid by a PEO may discourage clients from contracting with us in the future.
Under the CSA, we assume sole responsibility and liability for paying federal employment taxes imposed under the Code with respect to wages and salaries we pay our WSEEs. There are essentially three types of federal employment tax obligations:
•income tax withholding requirements
•FICA
•FUTA
Under the Code, employers have the obligation to withhold and remit the employer portion and, where applicable, the employee portion of these taxes. The SBEA clarifies that a CPEO is treated as the employer for purposes of federal payroll taxes on wages it pays to WSEEs. Most states impose similar employment tax obligations on the employer. While the CSA provides that we have sole legal responsibility for making these tax contributions, the applicable state taxing authority could conclude that such liability cannot be completely transferred to us. Accordingly, in the event that we fail to meet our tax withholding and payment obligations, the client may be held jointly and severally liable for those obligations. While this interpretive issue has not, to our knowledge, discouraged clients from enrolling with Insperity, a definitive adverse resolution of this issue may discourage clients from enrolling in the future.
New and higher federal, state and local taxes could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
In times of economic slowdowns, the federal government and states and municipalities in which we operate may experience reductions in tax revenues and corresponding budget deficits. In response to budget shortfalls, such as those being experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government and many states and municipalities have in the past and may in the future increase or enact new taxes on businesses operating within their tax jurisdiction, including business activity taxes and income taxes. In addition, federal, state and local taxing agencies may increase their audit activity in an effort to identify additional tax revenues. New tax assessments on our operations could result in increased costs. Further, the Biden Administration and Congressional leaders have expressed support for reviewing federal taxes and potential increases in federal tax rates for businesses. Our ability to adjust our service fees and incorporate additional tax assessments into our billing system could be limited. As a result, such higher taxes could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition or results of operations.
We may be subject to liabilities for client and employee actions.
As a co-employer in the PEO relationship, we assume or share many of the employer-related responsibilities and assist our clients in complying with many employment-related governmental regulations. A number of legal issues remain unresolved with respect to the co-employment arrangement between a PEO and its WSEEs, including questions concerning the ultimate liability for violations of employment, payroll, discrimination, and workplace safety laws. Our CSA establishes the contractual division of responsibilities between Insperity and our clients for various human capital management matters, including compliance with and liability under various governmental regulations.
Because we act as a co-employer, we may be subject to liability for violations of various employment, payroll, discrimination, and workplace safety laws despite these contractual provisions, even if we do not participate in such violations. Although the CSA generally requires the client to indemnify us for certain liabilities attributable to the client’s conduct, we may not be able to collect on such a contractual indemnification claim and thus may be responsible for satisfying such liabilities to the extent that such liabilities are not covered or insured against under our insurance policies. In addition, WSEEs may be deemed to be our agents, which may subject us to liability for the actions of such WSEEs.
Changes in federal, state and local regulation or our inability to obtain licenses under new regulatory frameworks could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
As a major employer, our operations are affected by numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to labor, tax, benefit, insurance and employment matters. By entering into a co-employer relationship with employees assigned to work at client locations, we assume certain obligations and responsibilities of an employer under these laws. However, many of these current laws (such as the Act, ERISA, and some state insurance codes and employment tax
laws) do not specifically address the obligations and responsibilities of non-traditional employers such as PEOs, and the definition of “employer” under these laws is not uniform despite the SBEA having provided clarification under federal employment tax laws for CPEOs. In addition, many of the states in which we operate have not addressed the PEO relationship for purposes of compliance with applicable state laws governing the employer/employee relationship or PEO health insurance plans. Any adverse application of, or adverse legislative/regulatory response to, new or existing federal or state laws to the PEO relationship with our WSEEs and client companies could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
While some states do not explicitly regulate PEOs, 42 states have passed laws that have recognition, licensing, certification or registration requirements for PEOs and several other states are considering such regulation. Such laws vary from state to state, but generally provide for monitoring the fiscal responsibility of PEOs, and in some cases codify and clarify the co-employment relationship for unemployment, workers’ compensation and other purposes under state law. In addition, the SBEA provides certain benefits for companies that qualify as a CPEO. While we generally support licensing regulation because it serves to validate the PEO relationship, we may not be able to satisfy licensing requirements or other applicable regulations for all states. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will be able to renew our licenses in all states or that we will be able to maintain our CPEO designation.
Certain state and federal regulators are more closely evaluating the existing regulatory framework governing money services businesses and money transmitters in their jurisdictions, particularly following the high-profile failures in 2019 of several national payroll companies. While we maintain that we are not a money services business or money transmitter, the adoption of new, or changes in interpretations of existing, state and federal money transmitter or money services business statutes, or disagreements by regulatory authorities with our interpretation of such statutes or regulations, could subject us to registration or licensing or result in limitations on our business activities until we are appropriately licensed, and such additional regulation and the actions of the regulatory authorities could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. These occurrences could also require changes to the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business. In addition, should any state or federal regulators make a determination that we have operated as an unlicensed money services business or money transmitter, we could be subject to civil and criminal fines, penalties, costs, legal fees, reputational damage or other negative consequences, which could be material.
Competition and other developments in the HR services industry may impact our growth and/or profitability.
The human resources services industry, including the PEO industry, is highly fragmented. Many PEOs have limited operations and fewer than 2,500 WSEEs, but there are several industry participants that are comparable to our size or larger. We also encounter competition from “fee for service” companies such as payroll processing firms, insurance companies, human resources consultants and human resources technology solutions as well as cloud-based self-service bundled human resources offerings. Our competitors include the PEO divisions of large business services companies, such as Automatic Data Processing, Inc. and Paychex, Inc., and other national PEOs such as TriNet Group, Inc. In many cases, these competitors offer a reduced service PEO offering at a lower price than our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions. We expect that as the PEO industry grows and its regulatory framework becomes better established, well organized competition with greater resources than we have may enter the PEO market, possibly including large “fee for service” companies currently providing a more limited range of services. In addition, competitors may be able to offer or develop new technology-based lower service models that may require us to make substantial investments in order to effectively compete.
We offer a lower priced reduced service level PEO offering referred to as Workforce Synchronization in response to certain middle market client needs and the evolving PEO marketplace. As of December 2022, approximately 13% of our WSEEs were co-employed by Workforce Synchronization clients. In the event we were to experience a significant increase in the number of clients using the Workforce Synchronization offering or increased pricing pressures in the PEO marketplace without corresponding reductions in operating costs, our operating margins may decline, which could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition or results of operations.
Technology Risks
Evolving regulations, market trends and client expectations require us to constantly enhance and expand our service and technology offerings.
The HR services industry is experiencing rapid technological advances to meet client expectations and expanding regulations. As new regulations are adopted, we must modify our systems to address these changes in the law, such as
our recent efforts to implement the assistance provided to businesses and employees under the Covid Relief Programs. In order to make these types of modifications, we may be required to reallocate resources, potentially resulting in delays to planned competitive improvements to our systems. If we do not successfully or timely deploy these types of modifications, we may be unable to comply with regulations, which could subject us to penalties, damage our reputation or result in decreased sales. Further, in order to effectively compete in this environment, we must identify and predict trends, and adapt our technology and service offerings accordingly. In addition, as a larger portion of our client base falls within the middle market segment, we must also develop different technology and services to meet the more complex needs and demands of this key group. These efforts require us to devote substantial resources to develop new functionality, or to integrate third-party solutions, into our offerings. If we fail to respond successfully to these developments or we make investments in enhancements that are not accepted by the market, then the demand for our solutions and services may diminish.
Disruptions of our information technology systems could damage our reputation and materially disrupt our business operations.
Many of the HR services offerings we provide to clients are conducted through a technology infrastructure using both internally developed and purchased commercial software, a wide variety of hardware infrastructure technologies, and a multi-carrier wide area network. The processing of payroll, benefits and other transactions is dependent upon this complex infrastructure, some of which is provided by third-party vendors. We must manage all of these systems, and are dependent on third parties to manage the systems that we obtain from them, including any upgrades, replacements or enhancements, to ensure that they continue to support our services. For example, we are currently working on a multi-year project to replace our sales force automation system and our customer relationship management (“CRM”) system with a single CRM solution to be used widely across the company. We continue to monitor and make changes to our proprietary system for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions for compliance and modernization. Any delays or failures resulting from network outages; planned upgrades, enhancements, or replacements of software, hardware, or other systems, including in connection with our CRM replacement project or any updated for compliance and modernization of systems; or other data processing disruptions, even for a brief period of time, could result in our inability to timely process transactions. The speed with which we, or third-party vendors, are able to address significant cybersecurity incidents may be influenced by the cooperation of certain government agencies. We may also incur significant costs in the future to protect against damage or disruptions that could be caused by cybersecurity incidents. If such failures cause us to not meet client service expectations or to breach our obligations to our clients, we may lose existing clients, have difficulty attracting new clients, incur regulatory penalties or liability to our clients, or suffer other financial losses, which may have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
We could be subject to reduced revenues, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to our competitive position as a result of data theft, cyberattacks or other security vulnerabilities.
In connection with our offerings, we collect, use, transmit and store large amounts of personal and business information about our WSEEs, employees paid under our traditional payroll solution, and clients, including payroll information, personal and business financial data, social security numbers, bank account numbers, tax information and other sensitive personal and business information. Attacks on information technology systems continue to grow in frequency and sophistication, and we and our third-party vendors are targeted by unauthorized parties using malicious tactics, code and viruses. Hardware or applications we develop or procure from third-party vendors may contain defects in design or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of data or our systems. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access and disable or sabotage systems change frequently and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time, we and our third-party vendors may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventive measures. As these threats continue to evolve, we may be required to invest significant additional resources to modify and enhance our information security and controls or to investigate and remediate any security vulnerabilities. We have limited ability to monitor the implementation of similar safeguards by our vendors and do not have the ability to monitor such implementation by our clients or their employees, including WSEEs.
In addition, our services also involve the use and disclosure of personal and business information to us that could be used by a malicious party to commit identity theft or otherwise gain access to the data or funds of our clients or their employees, including WSEEs. If any person, including any corporate employee, misappropriates or misuses such funds, documents or data, we may have liability for damages, and our reputation could be substantially harmed and we may have other liabilities that could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Any cyberattack, unauthorized intrusion, malicious software infiltration, network disruption, denial of service attack, ransomware attack, corruption of data, theft of private or other sensitive information, or similar malicious act by a party (including our employees), or inadvertent acts or omissions by our vendors or our own employees, could result in the loss, disclosure or misuse of confidential or proprietary information, and could have a material adverse effect on our business operations or that of our clients, result in liability or regulatory sanction, or cause a loss of confidence in our ability to serve clients. We may not have adequate insurance coverage to compensate us for losses from a security incident. Accordingly, the impact of a data security incident could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Failure to comply with privacy, data protection and cybersecurity laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations or financial condition, or have other adverse consequences.
We are subject to various laws, rules and regulations relating to the collection, use, transmission and security and privacy of personal and business information. Most states and the District of Columbia have enacted notification rules that may require notification to regulators, clients or employees in the event of a privacy breach. In addition, new laws and regulations governing data privacy and the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information pose increasingly complex compliance challenges and potentially elevate our costs. It is possible that these laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our data practices. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, this could result in an order requiring that we change our data practices, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Complying with these various laws and regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business. For example, we incurred additional costs and reallocated internal resources in order to comply with the requirements of the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”), which amended the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and became effective on January 1, 2023, and we expect to incur additional costs and reallocate additional resources when the final regulations under the CPRA are released. Other states have adopted or are currently contemplating additional privacy requirements. The future enactment of similar laws, rules or regulations could have a material adverse impact on us through increased costs or restrictions on our businesses and noncompliance could result in regulatory penalties and significant liability. Additionally, any failure by us to comply with these laws and regulations, including as a result of a security or privacy breach, could result in significant penalties and liabilities for us.
The failure of third-party providers, such as financial institutions, data centers or cloud-service providers, could have a material adverse effect on us.
In conjunction with providing services to clients, we communicate and rely on financial institutions to electronically transfer funds for the collection of our comprehensive service fee as well as the payment of wages and associated payroll tax withholdings. Communication failures or other failures involving these financial institutions, for any reason, could cause material interruptions to our operations, impact client retention, and result in significant penalties or liabilities to us.
We lease hosting facilities for our data centers at two separate facilities with one facility acting as our primary data center. These facilities host the majority of our business applications, telecommunications equipment, information security infrastructure and network equipment. If our data centers experience any interruptions or outages, and our business continuity plan fails, then our operations may be materially impacted, which could result in our failure to meet our obligations to our clients, WSEEs, tax authorities, and/or other vendors, which could damage our reputation, subject us to liability and have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
In addition, some of our systems and services rely upon third-party technology. Examples include, the human capital management system on which our Workforce Acceleration solution is based, the data analytics solution on which our Insperity People Analytics solution is based, and the payroll tax calculation and reporting tools that provide the rates used to calculate payroll taxes for our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions, among others. Any failure by these service providers to deliver their services in a timely manner and in compliance with applicable laws could result in material interruptions to our operations, damage our reputation, and result in a loss of clients.
Other Operational Risks
Failure to integrate or realize the expected return on future product offerings, including through acquisitions and investments, could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition or results of operations.
We have adopted a strategy to market and sell additional solutions within and outside of our PEO HR Outsourcing Solutions. As part of this strategy, periodically we make strategic long-term decisions to partner with, invest in and/or acquire new companies, business units or assets in order to offer new or enhanced solutions. Offering new solutions involves a number of risks such entering markets or businesses in which we have no prior experience and that may be highly regulated; failing to integrate the new solution into our product and service offerings; diversion of technology, service, marketing, management and other teams from other business concerns; in the case of an investment or acquisition, over-valuation of the targeted business; and litigation or government action resulting from the activities of an acquired company or from offering the new solution in a non-compliant manner. The occurrence of one or more of these events could result in the loss of existing or prospective clients or employees, not achieving anticipated revenues or profitability, impairment of acquired assets, and substantial liability. Such developments could have a material impact to our financial condition, results of operations, and future growth rates.