Workscape Reports Solid Results for 2009

MARLBOROUGH, MA--(Marketwire - March 23, 2010) - Workscape, Inc., a leading provider of integrated HR solutions and services, today shared details of its successes in 2009, including new clients and contract renewals, new products and enhancements, the formal launch of its client advisory program, groundbreaking research findings and expansion into new markets.

Workscape is highly focused on the areas of employee performance, compensation, and benefits administration, and is the only company in the marketplace with domain expertise and proven experience across these three vital pillars of strategic Human Resources (HR). Workscape's Total Rewards Platform™ enables its clients to confidently outsource the services and technology required to solve complex HR challenges in the areas of pay for performance, compensation planning, and benefits eligibility and enrollment.

"Founded in 1999, Workscape celebrated its 10th anniversary last year. When so many software companies have come and gone, Workscape has continued to grow and thrive based on its unwavering commitment to innovation and strong partnership with its clients," commented Tim Clifford, president and CEO of Workscape. "Through formal Client Advisory Boards and informal discussions, our clients are telling us that integrated solutions on a single Total Rewards Platform are empowering their HR organizations to drive corporate performance with highly-engaged, high-performing employees."

New Clients and Renewals

Many new clients were welcomed in 2009, including Dow Jones, Eastern Bank, Global Imaging Systems, Guardian Life Insurance, Temple-Inland and Xerox, and a global manufacturer and provider of computer systems and related services.

"We partnered with Workscape late last summer to replace our online benefits administrative system. At the same time, we changed our health benefit offerings and contracted with new medical, dental, flexible spending account and vision providers. So there was a lot going on all at once. Their implementation team fully partnered with us and our new suppliers," said Geoff Harrington, director, Benefits, at Global Imaging Systems. "Workscape was able to get us from where we were in August through an all-employee open enrollment in the fall and we are now fully live on their system and very satisfied with it. Putting all those different moving parts together in a period of only four months was nothing short of miraculous."

Several current clients were so pleased with Workscape's offerings that they expanded their relationships in 2009. First Data Corporation and Pulte Homes implemented versions of Workscape Manager Self-Service (MSS), enabling them to track compensation and organizational adjustments that occur throughout the year. Swift Transportation established a Total Rewards Platform by adding Workscape Outsourced Benefits Administration (OBA) and Performance Manager to its existing Compensation Manager. Other companies that expanded their relationship with Workscape include a leading freight company that provides reliable, cost effective ground service in the continental U.S., a leading, independent securities regulator, and a leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet.

"More companies are recognizing that to drive corporate performance and be more competitive they need a highly engaged, high-performing workforce. Recent research, including a 3-year ISR study, shows that companies with an engaged workforce see up to five percent higher operating margin and up to three percent higher net profit margin. Employers are seeing the advantages of our Total Rewards Platform to drive employee performance and engagement, reduce costs and improve the management of HR processes," commented Clifford.

Business and Product Growth

In April 2009, Workscape released the next generation of its proven, award-winning Outsourced Benefits Administration (OBA) solution. Its online decision support tools, delivered via a simple, intuitive user interface, make employees better, more informed healthcare consumers. It enables clients to achieve cost-savings goals by improving processes and driving participation in more cost-effective consumer driven health plans (CDHP).

Workscape also released the third generation of Performance Manager™ built on the same Total Rewards Platform and tightly integrated with Compensation Planner™. Performance Manager helps companies closely align individual goals with corporate, division, and team objectives; track goals and competencies; compress review cycles; and drive higher quality reviews. The new release includes functionality that supports a year round workforce communications platform, enabling organizations to transfer from a rigid culture of annual performance evaluations to a communications-centric culture with ongoing workforce interaction and planning, 365 days a year.

With the opening of the company's new headquarters in London and addition of its new EMEA managing director, Workscape further positioned itself to support global clients across multiple geographies.

Valuable Client Input

Client advice and perspective have always been critical ingredients in developing and delivering Workscape's best-in-class solutions and services to meet current and emerging industry needs. Workscape formalized its client advisory program in 2009 by offering a range of regular opportunities for clients to play an important strategic or tactical role in shaping the future of Workscape solutions. These included the Client Advisory Boards from which Workscape solicits strategic advice and product councils, which offer tactical advice to the company.

Numerous product enhancements delivered in 2009 were directly influenced by input from the Client Advisory Board and product councils. For example, Performance Manager saw simplified goal alignment, extended rating distribution reports and new configuration of multi-rater feedback. Compensation Manager saw new and improved reporting capabilities including a new off-cycle history report. Outsourced Benefits Administration (OBA) was enhanced with new reporting dashboards, an ad-hoc report builder, and robust administration for pending events, elections and dependents.

Significant Client Results

Workscape is trusted with Benefits clients' greatest asset -- their employees. Throughout each annual enrollment (AE) period, Workscape has the opportunity to earn that trust all over again. During the 2009 AE period, the company delivered close to 1 million enrollment kits -- accurately and on time -- to employees and their families on behalf of Benefits clients. Client employees placed over 125,000 calls to Workscape's Boise, Idaho-based call center during the three-month period, with 92 percent resolved on the first call and an overall caller satisfaction rate of 97 percent. Over 1,330,000 employees participated in benefits selection using Workscape's online enrollment platform, and selected from a total of 640 medical plans offered by Workscape clients this AE season.

Decision support tools integrated in the Workscape online enrollment process helped clients drive desired behaviors, such as participation in flexible spending accounts (FSA) and CDHPs, to meet clients' cost-saving goals. On average, employees who completed the enrollment process using Workscape's OBA solution with integrated decision support tools contributed three times more to their FSA accounts than did those who did not enroll online, resulting in significant tax savings for employee and employer alike. Additionally, those who completed the enrollment process using Workscape's OBA solution, were on average, two to three times more likely to enroll in a CDHP plan than those who did not enroll online, resulting in significant cost savings for the employer.

Key Research Findings

Workscape continues to stay ahead of the industry in conducting relevant primary research around HR trends; findings of particular note in 2009 research included:

-- Data from Workscape's compensation research study indicated that while
   many companies know how to calculate bonuses based on performance,
   many cannot provide the corresponding documentation -- at least not
   without considerable manual labor.
-- Although the majority of American organizations agreed on the
   importance of performance management as a means to drive business
   success, findings from Workscape's performance research study indicated
   that only 11 percent subscribe to the best practice of providing
   ongoing performance feedback and measurement against goals. Two-thirds
   of organizations admitted an inability to realign employee goals to
   corporate goals as they change throughout the year.
-- Human resource-related practices among North American companies were
   impacted by the 2009 recession yet despite extreme economic pressure, 59
   percent of Workscape's benefits survey respondents indicated that they
   were not shifting a greater percentage of health care expenses to their
   employees and only 20 percent indicated that they were reducing or
   reconstituting benefits offerings. However, 48 percent of respondents
   indicated that there were no planned merit increases for 2009 and 37
   percent planned to reduce or cease bonus distributions.

Awards Won, Certifications Earned

Workscape was named a Hot Vendor in the Ventana Research Value Index: Total Compensation Management in 2009, and rated the top-right-most vendor in the NelsonHall Targeting Benefits Administration quadrant. The company also achieved a very high degree of compliance with the ISO 27002 standard, according to SystemExperts Corporation, the premier provider of IT compliance and network security consulting services. Workscape's SaaS-based offerings have also attained SAS70 Level II certification, ensuring that the highest levels of security controls are in place.

About Workscape

Workscape is unique in its ability and demonstrated domain expertise in addressing the talent management, benefits administration and employee communication challenges of hundreds of organizations and millions of workers across the country and across the globe. For more than a decade, Workscape has been delivering Web-based software and services that are proven to help organizations reduce healthcare costs, improve adherence to compensation budgets and ensure alignment between employee activities and corporate goals. As a result, Workscape's employee-centric approach has consistently helped organizations to achieve the highest return on their greatest workforce expenditures: healthcare benefits and employee compensation. For more information about Workscape, visit www.workscape.com, follow twitter.com/workscape or call 888-605-9620.