Quarterly volunteer program is a beloved benefit
Insperity is in the business of creating great workplaces for its clients, providing a suite of human resources services ranging from health care benefits to recruiting help.
So it’s probably no big surprise that the Kingwood company, which teaches its own clients to be better managers, placed No. 3 on the Chronicle’s Top Workplace survey. The ranking is based on surveys conducted by Energage, an employee engagement consulting firm.
Employees like working for Insperity, which offers traditional benefits like health care and retirement plans along with innovative programs that give every employee 12 hours each quarter to volunteer at a nonprofit of the employee’s choice.
“It’s my favorite benefit,” said Michelle Mikesell, who heads a team of human resource consultants working with client companies on employee relations and leadership development.
Mikesell, who grew up in a military family, volunteers with the Warrior Weekend program, which welcomes injured veterams to Houston for an all-expenses paid fishing trip to the Texas coast.
“Sometimes it’s a sea of Insperity green welcoming the warriors home,” she said, referring to the lime green Tshirts employees wear on their volunteer missions.
Insperity clients are typically small to midsize companies attracted by offloading their insurance, payroll and hiring responsibilities so they can focus on their businesses. Insperity targets white-collar industries that pay well and have lower-than-average health and safety problems. Chief Operating Officer Steve Arizpe said he believes employees gave Insperity high marks because the company’s business is doing well.
“People like to be part of something cool, and that is really growing,” he said.
Insperity reported revenue of $3.3 billion last year, up 12.2 percent from the previous year, according to its financial filings. Net income was up 28 percent to $84.4 million last year.
The company has 183,000 work site employees, a 10.2 increase over the previous year. It also has 3,000 corporate employees, including those who design and manage the benefit programs, along with sales, legal and finance.
Insperity added two sales offices this year, in Stamford, Conn., and Oklahoma City, bringing the total to 65 nationwide. The company traditionally made its money by providing a full suite of employee benefits through co-employment relationships with client companies, in which Insperity and its clients were the employers.
Insperity is now expanding its a la carte end of the business. The company began offering stand-alone services such as payroll processing and recruiting seven years ago, and it has turned out to be a good gamble. Of the company’s 100,000 customers, only 7,500 are in fullservice co-employment arrangements. The rest have hired Insperity to fill specific gaps in their human resources functions.