Item 1. Business
TriNet is a leading provider of comprehensive and flexible HCM solutions designed to address a wide range of SMB needs as they change over time. Our flexible HCM solutions free SMBs from HR complexities and empower SMBs to focus on what matters most - growing their business and enabling their people.
TriNet offers access to human capital expertise, benefits, payroll, risk mitigation and compliance, all enabled by industry leading technology capabilities. TriNet's suite of products also includes services and software-based solutions to help streamline workflows by connecting HR, benefits, payroll, time and attendance, and employee engagement. Clients can use our industry tailored PEO services and technology platform to receive the full benefit of our HCM services enabling their WSEs to participate in our TriNet-sponsored employee benefit plans. Clients can alternatively choose to use our self-directed, cloud-based HRIS software solution and add HR services such as payroll and access to benefits management as needed. By providing PEO and HRIS services, we believe that we can support a wider range of SMBs and create a pipeline of HRIS clients that may be able to benefit from and transition to TriNet’s higher-touch PEO services at future points in their business lifecycle.
Since our founding in 1988, TriNet has served, and continues to serve, thousands of SMBs. In 2022, we processed $73 billion in payroll and payroll taxes for our clients and ended the year with approximately 22,000 clients, 348,700 WSEs and 248,500 HRIS Users primarily in the U.S.
Our Service Models
We deliver a comprehensive suite of HCM services that help our clients administer and manage various HR-related needs and functions, such as compensation, benefits, payroll processing, tax credit support, employee data, health insurance, workers' compensation, EPLI and other employment risk mitigation programs, employee performance management and training, on-boarding and off-boarding, and other transactional HR needs using our PEO and HRIS technology platforms and our HCM, benefits and compliance expertise.
We deliver our services through two primary models, higher-touch PEO services and our more self-directed HRIS services.
PEO Services
TriNet has focused almost exclusively on the PEO business since its formation and PEO services remain our core business. Our PEO services offer clients our most complete HCM solution generally including all of the services described below, including providing their WSEs with access to our TriNet-sponsored employee benefits plans. We leverage our scale and industry HR experience to deliver our PEO service offerings tailored for SMBs in specific industry verticals. We believe our vertical approach is a key differentiator for us and creates additional value for our clients by addressing their industry-specific HR needs. We offer six industry-tailored vertical PEO services: TriNet Financial Services, TriNet Life Sciences, TriNet Main Street, TriNet Nonprofit, TriNet Professional Services, and TriNet Technology.
HRIS Services
Our HRIS services primarily consist of our TriNet Zenefits solutions, which offer clients access to our self-directed, cloud-based HRIS software solution to manage their HR needs and the option to add additional services such as payroll processing and benefits management tools to provide HCM solutions that grow dynamically over time based on the needs of our clients. Our HRIS services do not include access to our co-employment services, or access to our TriNet sponsored health benefit plans. These services can also include tax credit support via our Clarus R+D team and cloud-based software.
Our Services
Our comprehensive HR solutions include the following capabilities:
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HR CONSULTING EXPERTISE | | BENEFIT OPTIONS | | PAYROLL SERVICES | | RISK MITIGATION | | TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM |
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HR Consulting ExpertiseWe use the collective knowledge and experience of our teams of HR, benefits, payroll, risk management and compliance professionals to help our PEO and HRIS clients manage many of the administrative, regulatory and practical requirements associated with being employers. We do this by incorporating our knowledge and experience into our services and our technology platforms and by making our professionals available to consult with clients on a variety of HR needs, including talent management, retention and terminations, benefits enrollment, immigration and visas, payroll tax credits, employment compliance and regulatory developments and many other industry-specific and general HR topics. Depending on their needs, our clients, WSEs and HRIS Users have access to varying levels of service and support from our professionals, ranging from call center support to pooled HR resources. Our professionals also provide additional specialized HR consulting services upon request.
Benefit OptionsIn our PEO business, we utilize our scale to provide our WSEs access to a broad range of TriNet-sponsored employee benefit and insurance programs with choice and at costs that we believe most of our clients would be unable to obtain on their own. We believe that our TriNet-sponsored programs help our PEO clients compete for talent against larger businesses. Our benefit and insurance programs are designed to comply with federal, state and local regulations, and our benefit and insurance service offerings include plan selection and administration, enrollment management, leave management, plan document distribution and WSE and client communications.
Under these benefit and insurance programs, we pay third-party insurance carriers for WSE insurance benefits and reimburse insurance carriers or third-party administrators for claims payments within our insurance deductible layer, where applicable.
We sponsor and administer several employee benefit plans for our WSEs through a broad range of carriers, including group health, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, and life insurance as an employer plan sponsor under Section 3(5) of ERISA. We also provide for other benefit programs to be made available to WSEs, including flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement benefits, COBRA benefits, supplemental insurance, commuter benefits, home insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, hospital indemnity, pet insurance, and auto insurance. For further discussion of our insurance programs, including policies where we reimburse our carriers for certain amounts relating to claims, refer to Note 1 in Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Form 10-K. We also offer PEO clients the option to obtain their own client-sponsored benefits through our IOM product. Our IOM clients receive PEO services like HR, payroll, payroll tax, and risk management from TriNet while obtaining client-sponsored health benefits from a third-party broker.
Our HRIS clients use our HRIS software solution to manage their own selected group health plans. For our HRIS clients, we provide access to benefit programs for HRIS Users where we are not an employer plan sponsor under ERISA, such as flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement benefits, COBRA benefits, supplemental insurance, commuter benefits, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, and hospital indemnity.
Payroll ServicesWe help our PEO and HRIS clients manage their employee compensation by providing multi-state payroll processing, tax administration and tax credit services and other payroll-related services, such as time and attendance management, time off and overtime tracking, and expense management solutions. Our clients, WSEs, and HRIS Users can access payroll and tax information using our various online and mobile tools. Our payroll tax administration and tax credit services include calculating, withholding, remitting and reporting certain federal, state and local payroll and unemployment taxes on behalf of clients, WSEs, and HRIS Users. While all of our PEO clients receive payroll and payroll tax administration tax services, our HRIS clients can choose whether to manage these services themselves.
Through our recently acquired Clarus R+D business, we also help SMBs take advantage of federal and state payroll tax credits, particularly PATH Act R&D tax credits, one of the largest payroll tax incentives available to US businesses. Clarus R+D uses its own software solution and payroll tax experts to support clients and help them determine their tax credits. SMBs do not need to use TriNet’s PEO or HRIS services to use Clarus R+D.
Risk Mitigation We monitor employment-related legal and regulatory developments at the federal, state, and local levels to help our PEO and HRIS clients comply with employment laws and mitigate many of the risks associated with being an employer. We provide HR guidance on employment laws and regulations, such as those relating to minimum wage, unemployment insurance, family and medical leave and anti-discrimination. For our PEO clients, we also ensure that our TriNet-sponsored benefit plans comply with applicable laws and regulations, like the ACA, reducing this compliance burden to our clients.
Our PEO services provide fully-insured workers' compensation insurance coverage for our clients and WSEs through insurance policies that we negotiate with third-party insurance carriers. We manage the deductible risk that we assume in connection with these policies by being selective in the types of businesses that we take on as new clients, and by monitoring claims data and the performance of our carriers and third-party claims management service providers. In addition, we advise clients on workers’ compensation best practices, including by performing workplace assessment consultations and assisting with client efforts to identify conditions or practices that might lead to employee injuries.
We also provide EPLI coverage for our PEO clients through an insurance policy that we obtain from a third-party EPLI carrier. This policy provides coverage for certain claims that arise in the course of the employment relationship, such as discrimination, harassment, and certain other employee claims, with a per-claim retention amount. The retention amount under this policy, which functions like a deductible, is allocated on a pre-determined basis between the client and TriNet. Our professionals assist our clients in implementing HR best practices to help avoid and reduce the cost of employment-related liabilities. Our preferred outside employment law firms defend covered EPLI claims.
Technology Platform We use separate technology platforms for our PEO and HRIS clients. Our PEO technology platform includes online and mobile tools that allow our clients and WSEs to store, view, and manage HR information and administer a variety of HR transactions, such as payroll processing, tax administration, tax credits, employee onboarding and termination, employee performance, time and attendance, compensation reporting, expense management, and benefits enrollment and administration. Our online tools also incorporate workforce analytics, allowing PEO clients to generate HR data, payroll, total compensation and other custom reports.
Our HRIS software allows our HRIS clients to manage most of the same functions as our PEO technology platform and it is optimized to provide HRIS clients with customizable and flexible reporting tools and analytics to fit specific client needs. Clarus R+D uses its own cloud-based software platform to simplify and support various state and federal tax credits for SMBs.
We continually invest time and resources to improve and expand all of our technology platforms and the products and services that we offer to our PEO and HRIS clients.
Our PEO Co-Employment Model
Our PEO services operate using a co-employment model, under which employment-related responsibilities are allocated by contract between us and our PEO clients. The co-employment model allows WSEs to receive the full benefit of our services, including providing WSEs with access to TriNet-sponsored employee benefit plan offerings. Each of our PEO clients enters into a client service agreement with us that defines the suite of services and benefits to be provided by us, the fees payable to us, and the division of responsibilities between us and our clients as co-employers. WSEs also separately acknowledge the co-employment relationship and the allocation of employment-related responsibilities between TriNet and our clients. The division of responsibilities under our client service agreements is typically as follows:
TriNet Responsibilities
We generally assume responsibility for, and manage certain risks associated with:
•payments of salaries, wages and certain other compensation to WSEs from our own bank accounts (based on client reports and payments), including the processing of garnishment and wage deduction orders,
•reporting of wages, withholding and deposit of associated payroll taxes as the employer of record,
•provision and maintenance of workers' compensation insurance and workers' compensation claims processing,
•access to, and administration of, group health, welfare, and retirement benefits to WSEs under TriNet-sponsored benefit plans,
•compliance with applicable law for certain TriNet-sponsored employee benefits offered to WSEs,
•administration of unemployment claims, and
•provision of various HR policies and agreements, including employee handbooks and worksite employee agreements describing the co-employment relationship.
Client Responsibilities
Our clients are responsible for employment-related responsibilities that we do not specifically assume, generally including:
•day-to-day management of their worksites and WSEs,
•compliance with laws associated with the classification of employees as exempt or non-exempt, such as overtime pay and minimum wage law compliance,
•accurate and timely reporting to TriNet of compensation and deduction information, including information relating to hours worked, rates of pay, salaries, wages and other compensation, and work locations,
•accurate and timely reporting to TriNet of information relating to workplace injuries, employee hires and termination, and certain other information relevant to TriNet’s services,
•provision and administration of any employee benefits not provided by TriNet, such as equity incentive plans,
•compliance with all laws and regulations applicable to the clients' workplace and business, including work eligibility laws, laws relating to workplace safety or the environment, laws relating to family and medical leave, laws pertaining to employee organizing efforts and collective bargaining and employee termination notice requirements,
•payment of TriNet invoices, which include salary, wages and other relevant compensation to WSEs and applicable employment taxes and service fees, and
•all other matters for which TriNet does not assume responsibility under the client service agreement, such as intellectual property ownership and protection and liability for products produced and services provided by the client company to its own clients.
As a result of co-employment relationships for PEO services, we are liable for payment of salary, wages and certain other compensation to the WSEs as reported and paid to us by our client, and we are responsible for providing specified employee benefits to such persons to the extent provided in each client service agreement and under federal and state law. In most instances, clients are required to remit payment prior to the applicable payroll date by wire transfer or ACH.
For our PEO services, we also assume responsibility for payment and liability for the withholding and remittance of federal and state income and employment taxes with respect to salaries, wages and certain other compensation paid to WSEs, although we reserve the right to seek recourse against our clients for any liabilities arising out of their conduct. We perform these functions as the statutory employer for federal employment tax purposes, since our clients transfer legal control over these payroll functions to us. The laws that govern the payment of salaries, wages and related payroll taxes for our WSEs are complex and the various federal, state and local laws that govern such payments can vary significantly. Based on applicable law in any jurisdiction, we or our client may be held ultimately liable for those obligations if we fail to remit taxes.
Our HRIS services do not involve co-employment, and this reduces the responsibility and liability that we assume when providing these services. For example, while our software may facilitate payroll processing for HRIS clients, TriNet is not the employer of record and acts only in a software provider role. HRIS clients generally remain responsible for, among other things, payroll funding, workers’ compensation insurance, obtaining and administering group health, welfare and retirement benefits, administering unemployment claims, and in some cases payroll tax reporting. The higher level of responsibility that our PEOs assume, and risks that our PEOs manage, for our PEO clients is a key differentiator between our PEO and HRIS services.
Market Trends and Developments Affecting Our Business in 2022
The U.S. economy experienced significantly slower growth in 2022 than 2021. While the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic waned, higher interest rates, intended to slow inflation, began to make an impact on the economy. In addition, 2022 saw a decrease in federal and state legislative efforts to help businesses and employees impacted from the pandemic along with increase in federal and state legislative efforts in areas that impact our business, such as data privacy, employer status and PEO benefit plans. We observed the following industry trends in 2022:
•SMB Economic Performance. While U.S. economic growth slowed, SMB's continued to hire, albeit at significantly lower levels than in 2021. The extent of hiring differed based on industry and geographic region. For example, SMBs in the leisure and hospitality industries generally experienced greater rebounds in hiring than other industries in 2022 as they recovered from the significant headcount freezes, furloughs and terminations in 2020 and 2021. In addition, relatively low unemployment rates created difficulties in finding qualified candidates.
•Continued Insurance Cost Variability and Volatility. While our health insurance plans experienced an increased amount of medical claims in 2022, our insurance costs remained below our projections. We believe this occurred in part as a result of constraints on access to medical services and systems early in 2022, particularly in regions that saw shortages in active medical personnel. We set our fees based in part on our projections regarding insurance costs, and the claims experience of our health insurance plans did not develop at the same rate as our fee increases in 2022.
•Increase in Severity and Frequency of Workers’ Compensation Claims. In 2022, we experienced a slight increase in both the severity and frequency of workers’ compensation claims as more worksite employers returned to in-person work. Workers’ compensation claims may have also been impacted by state regulations and laws as many states extended workers’ compensation coverage to remote employees and to COVID-19 claims.
•Tax Credit Backlogs. Many of the key economic assistance programs that SMBs relied on during the COVID-19 pandemic expired before 2022, including FFCRA paid leave and tax credit programs, CARES Act employee retention tax credit programs, and PPP loan programs. Although these programs have expired, processing backlogs at the IRS have resulting in many SMBs, including some of our clients, continuing to wait to receive their tax credits. In some cases, SMB may also still participate in these programs retroactively via payroll tax filing amendments. As a result, we expect to continue to devote substantial time and resources to helping our clients file and recover these tax credits.
•Privacy Laws and Regulations. We have seen increased focus at every level of government inside and outside of the United States on regulating the collection, storage, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of confidential, sensitive and personal information, such as the California CCPA and CPRA and new data privacy rules in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Utah, all of which become effective in 2023. As the patchwork of state privacy laws becomes increasingly complex, we expect the cost of complying with all of the requirements and the likelihood of compliance failures to rise.
•Joint Employer and Independent Contractor Regulations. We also saw continued significant litigation and uncertainty relating to the current federal rules and guidelines around both independent contractor and joint employer status. Recently, the DOL proposed a new rule for determining independent contractor status and the DOL also indicated that it may propose new regulations that address white collar minimum wage and overtime exemptions under the FLSA. Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new rule for determining whether two businesses are joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Standards for determining independent contractor and joint employer status vary from law to law and state to state, and changes to and new interpretations of these standards can limit the client workers to which we can provide services and increase claims that we are an employer or joint employer of PEO client WSEs.
•PEO Benefit Plan Legislation. We saw increased state efforts to regulate PEO health plans in 2022. New Mexico regulators published rules that will, starting in 2024, treat PEO health plans as multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs) and prohibit PEOs from allowing WSEs of small group SMBs to participate in PEO sponsored large group market health plans; the New Mexico legislature is considering a bill that will eliminate this prohibition for PEOs that register as MEWAs under state law. Meanwhile, New York regulators also requested data from insurance carriers on PEO health insurance practices. State regulations on PEO health plans can limit our options for providing TriNet sponsored benefits to our PEO clients or eliminate those benefits entirely, so we devote substantial time and resources to monitor and respond to these developments. We expect to continue to see similar legislative and regulatory efforts across the country.
Our Technology and Service Development Efforts
We continued to make significant investments in our PEO technology platform and HRIS software with projects intended to provide our clients, WSEs, and HRIS Users with enhanced functionality, ease of use, HR management options, security and an overall enhanced experience. We intend to continue making these and other similar investments in 2023 and beyond. We believe the continued investment in improving our technology platform and HRIS software will drive operating efficiencies and improve client retention and satisfaction over the long term.
Our cloud-based HRIS software allows us to diversify our product and service offerings by offering HCM services without using a co-employment model. We believe this enables us to expand the SMBs we serve and dynamically service SMBs throughout a larger portion of their lifecycle. Additionally, our Clarus R+D cloud-based tax support software allows us to better serve our existing SMB clients and to serve SMBs that may not need our PEO or HRIS services. The new services we provide through our HRIS software and Clarus R+D also creates a potential pipeline of SMB clients that may benefit from, and transition to, TriNet’s higher-touch PEO services at future points in their lifecycle.
Our Clients and Geographies
Our clients are distributed across a variety of industries. We support these different clients using our suite of HCM offerings, including our industry-tailored vertical approach for our PEO services and our HRIS software and services. Our PEO clients generally execute annual service contracts with us that automatically renew. In most cases, our PEO clients may cancel these contracts with 30 days' notice to us and we may cancel these contracts with 30 days' notice. Our HRIS clients execute contracts with monthly or annual terms and clients can typically cancel these contracts with 30 days’ notice to us. In some cases, our clients may incur early termination fees.
Our top five PEO markets are California, New York, Florida, Texas and Massachusetts, which account for approximately 65% of our total WSEs for the year ended December 31, 2022. Nearly all of our revenues are generated within the United States and its territories and substantially all our long-lived assets are located in the United States.
Our Competitors
We face competition from:
•PEOs that compete directly with us,
•HRIS software providers that compete directly with us,
•payroll processing agents and other HCM services providers that do not use a PEO model,
•HR and information systems departments and personnel of companies that administer employee benefits, payroll and HR for their companies in-house,
•providers of certain endpoint HR services, including payroll, employee benefits, business process outsourcers with high-volume transaction and administrative capabilities, and other third-party administrators, and
•insurance brokers who allow third-party HR systems to integrate with their technology platform.
PEO services remain our core business and other PEOs continue to represent our most significant competition. Our PEO service competitors include large PEOs such as the TotalSource unit of Automatic Data Processing, Inc., the PEO operations of Paychex, Inc. and Insperity, Inc., as well as numerous specialized and smaller PEOs and similar HR service providers with PEO operations.
Our HRIS service competitors include software and HCM service providers such as Rippling, Gusto, Automatic Data Processing, Inc. and Bamboo in addition to smaller national and local providers.
Our tax credit services face competition from large CPA firms, such as PWC, E&Y, Moss Adams, and KPMG and smaller software companies and CPA firms, such as alliantgroup, Ardius, Cherry Bekaert and Eide Bailly.
We believe that a key reason why our PEO services are attractive to SMBs is because of our ability to provide access to a broad range of TriNet-sponsored workers compensation, health insurance and other benefits programs on a cost-effective basis. We compete with insurance brokers and other providers of insurance and benefits coverage, and our PEO offerings must be priced competitively with those provided by these competitors in order for us to attract and retain our clients.
Our PEO clients are typically looking for high-touch HR compliance and services support, TriNet sponsored employee benefits, TriNet responsibility for processing payroll and payroll taxes as a co-employer, and access to EPLI claims support and other substantial HR services. By contrast, many of our HRIS clients are looking for more self-directed, focused and less expensive HRIS access and payroll support services. We do not co-employ our HRIS Users and do not provide TriNet sponsored health benefits, workers’ compensation coverage or EPLI. As a result, our HRIS product competes with a wider array of HCM companies and HRIS providers outside of the PEO industry.
For additional information about our competition, please refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading – "We must continue to work to improve our services to meet the expectations of our clients and regulators, or we may lose our clients and materially harm our business". Our Sales and Marketing Organizations
We sell our solutions primarily online and through our direct sales organization. We have aligned our PEO sales organization by industry vertical and unique product offerings with the goal of growing profitable market share in targeted industries. Our PEO vertical approach deepens our network of relationships and gives us an understanding of the unique HR needs facing SMBs in those industries. Our sales representatives are supported by marketing, lead generation efforts, and referral sources and networks. We increasingly use technology and remote communication tools to engage with customers and prospects virtually.
We typically sponsor and participate in associations and events around the country to promote our PEO and HRIS services and we also utilize these forums to target specific vertical and geographic markets. Events include our 3rd Annual TriNet PeopleForce conference, and informational webinars periodically throughout the year on a wide variety of business topics relevant to our SMB prospects and clients. We also generate sales opportunities, and promote brand awareness, client retention and build our reputation as HCM thought leaders, within key industry verticals, through marketing alliances and other indirect channels, such as accounting firms, venture capital firms, incubators, insurance brokers, and vertical market industry associations. Additionally, we utilize digital marketing programs, including digital advertising, search and email marketing, to create awareness and interest in all of our services.
Our marketing and corporate communications organization is charged with driving overall brand awareness, managing lead generation, creating and managing our website and other online properties, creating content for all marketing and communication channels including our outbound and inbound marketing efforts, media relations, and managing our sponsorships, major marketing events, and internal and external communications. SMBs are increasingly using digital tools like tele-presence and web engagements and we work to engage with SMBs in these
ways. In 2022, we launched numerous digital channels for engagement, including conversational marketing enhancements on our website in response to customers' changing preferences. Our marketing team also focused on strategic marketing, communications via social media, branding initiatives, and crisis communication plans, in part by augmenting our comprehensive company brand campaign, Incredible Starts Here, with our marketing campaign, People Matter, that included omni-channel initiatives using social media, digital, television, radio and out-of-home media.
The Laws and Regulations that Affect Our Business
Our business operates in a complex legal and regulatory environment due to a myriad of federal, state and local laws and regulations that impact our business. Below is a summary of what we believe are the most important legal and regulatory issues specific to our business. For additional information on the impact of these and other laws and regulations on our business and results of operations, refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading - "Legal and Compliance Risks". Employer Status under ERISA and State Laws
As part of our PEO services, we sponsor employee benefit plan offerings as the employer of our WSEs under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"), ERISA and applicable state law. The term “employer” has different definitions for different purposes under the Code and ERISA, and for most purposes are interpreted under complex multi-factor tests under common law. As an employer of WSEs, we must manage our benefit plans in accordance with ERISA requirements, which can impact how we fulfill plan obligations, how we price services, whether and how we use discretionary credits, the features of our benefit plans, and how we administer and operate our plans. We believe we manage our benefit plans in accordance with ERISA requirements and that we are an employer of our WSEs in the U.S. under the Code, the employer of our WSEs in the U.S. for the purposes of ERISA, as well as qualifying as an employer under various state laws, but this status could be subject to challenge by various regulators. We believe that our benefit plans are exempt from many state regulations under ERISA, but our position could be challenged by state regulators or as a result of new laws, regulations, agency guidance, audits or caselaw at the federal and state levels. For additional information on our state and federal employer status and the ERISA and other state requirements that apply to us and their collective impact on our business and results of operations, refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading - "If we are not recognized as an employer of worksite employees, and if our benefit plans are deemed to not satisfy plan requirements, under federal and state regulations, we and our clients could be adversely impacted". Health Insurance and Health Care Reform
Our sponsored employee health and welfare offerings are an important component of the services that we provide. The future of health care reform continues to evolve in the U.S. For example, the passage of the ACA in 2010 implemented sweeping health care reforms with staggered effective dates from 2010 through 2022, and many provisions in the ACA are still subject to the issuance of additional guidance from the DOL, the IRS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and various U.S. states. Passage of the TCJA in 2017 eliminated the individual mandate tax penalty under the ACA beginning in 2019, while retaining employer ACA mandate obligations. States have developed, and will continue to develop, varying approaches to state-based health exchanges and mandates. Further significant changes to health care statutes, regulations and policy at the federal, state and local levels could occur in 2023 and beyond, including the potential further modification or amendment of the ACA, and we may need to adapt the manner in which we conduct our business as a result of any such changes. For additional information on health care reform and its impact on our business and results of operations, refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading - "Changing laws and regulations governing health insurance and other traditional employee benefits at the federal, state and local level could negatively affect our business".
Data Privacy and Security Regulations
We collect, store, use, retain, disclose, transfer and otherwise process a significant amount of confidential, sensitive and personal information from and about our actual and potential clients, WSEs, HRIS Users and colleagues, and we are subject to a variety of federal, state and foreign laws, rules, and regulations in connection with such activities. As a sponsor of employee benefit plans, we also have access to certain protected health information (PHI) of our WSEs and colleagues. Management of PHI is subject to several regulations at the federal level, including HIPAA and the HITECH Act. HIPAA contains restrictions and health data privacy, security and breach notification requirements with respect to the use and disclosure of PHI. Further, there are penalties and fines for HIPAA violations. Because TriNet sponsored health plans are covered entities under HIPAA, we are required to comply with HIPAA's portability, privacy, and security requirements. We are also subject, among other applicable federal laws, rules and regulations, to the rules and regulations promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission. Several federal and state agencies have issued or are considering rules, regulations or other forms of guidance that may impact the privacy and security obligations and disclosures that apply to our operations. We expect that the federal government’s approach to data privacy and security will continue to evolve in the coming years.
At the state and local level, there is increased focus on regulating the collection, storage, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of confidential, sensitive and personal information. In recent years, many states have proposed or enacted new laws or amended existing laws, such as the California CCPA and CPRA and new data privacy rules in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Utah, all of which become effective in 2023. As the state privacy laws becomes increasingly complex, we expect the cost of complying with all of the requirements and the likelihood of compliance failures to rise. New federal, state and local data privacy security laws impose, or have the potential to impose, additional obligations on companies like TriNet that collect, store, use, retain, disclose, transfer and otherwise process confidential, sensitive and personal information, and will continue to shape the data privacy environment nationally. Although there are similarities between the data privacy laws coming into effect in 2023 in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Utah (along with the laws that have been proposed in other states), there are also substantive aspects of the laws that differ markedly. This lack of uniformity, which we expect to continue as other states enact data privacy laws, creates significant legal complexities for companies like TriNet that operate nationwide and are required to comply with a patchwork of privacy laws. Moreover, all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Canada have enacted data breach notification laws that may require us to notify WSEs, HRIS Users, clients, colleagues, third parties or regulators in the event of unauthorized access to or disclosure of personal or confidential information. Complying with existing and new data privacy and security regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business. For additional information on the privacy and security of the confidential, sensitive and personal information and PHI we possess and the potential impact to our business if we fail to protect such information, refer to each of the risk factors included in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading - "Data Privacy and Security Risks". Licensing Laws
Nearly all states have adopted laws and regulations for licensing, registration, certification or recognition of PEOs and the IRS has implemented a voluntary federal certification program for PEOs. We expect states without such laws and regulations to adopt them in the future. While these laws and regulations can vary widely, most regulators monitor the financial health and other relevant business information of PEOs on an annual or quarterly basis. In some cases, these laws and regulations codify and clarify the co-employment relationship for certain payroll, unemployment, workers' compensation and other employment-related purposes or require specific client contractual terms and/or WSE disclosures. We believe we comply in all material respects with the applicable PEO laws and regulations in each state and jurisdiction in which we provide PEO services.
Every state regulates insurance practices conducted within their jurisdiction. While we do not broker insurance, certain of our PEO and HRIS services involve assisting our clients in obtaining and managing employee benefits We partner with brokers to provide these services and have elected to obtain state insurance licenses as a result. As each state’s licensing requirements differ, maintaining current licenses is complex and we are subject to insurance audits, investigations and fines if we fail to comply with insurance license requirements.
Other state regulatory authorities impose licensing requirements on companies involved in the transmission of cash, such as banks, and other money transmitters. We do not believe that our current activities require any such licenses, but we and others in our industry have received inquiries from regulatory authorities in the past and could receive them in the future.
For additional information on the impact of licensing laws, refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading "If we do not comply with our regulatory license requirements, or if we are deemed to be operating in various non-PEO licensed industries without the required licenses, we and our clients could be adversely impacted".
Payroll Taxes, Unemployment Taxes and Payroll Tax Credits
We must also comply with the federal and state payroll tax and unemployment tax requirements that apply where our clients are located. Tax reform efforts, and other payroll tax changes, at the federal, state and local level can impact our payroll tax reporting obligations for our clients and the services we can provide. State unemployment tax rates vary by state based, in part, on prior years’ total wages, unemployment taxes paid and unemployment claims experience and may also vary based on the overall claims experience of a PEO in states in which we are required to report and pay unemployment taxes using one of our accounts and rates. As a result, depending on where client WSEs perform services for our clients, the fees we charge PEO clients for unemployment taxes can be higher or lower than a client could obtain without use of a PEO. In some cases, taxing authorities can retroactively increase the unemployment taxes we pay to cover deficiencies in the unemployment tax funds. We also rely on our clients to accurately inform us of the work and residence locations for their WSEs and HRIS Users, and inaccurate information, whether due to remote work policies or otherwise, can impact our payroll tax obligations and the obligations of our clients, WSEs and HRIS Users.
We have seen a growing trend, particularly at the federal level, of using payroll tax credits, deferrals and other related payroll tax programs as a mechanism for incentivizing SMB development and/or economic recovery. These programs are popular because they allow SMBs, which often have business income tax losses, to realize benefits via payroll tax reductions, rather than business income tax reductions. As a result, many of our SMB clients require that we support these programs. Examples of these programs include the federal 2015 PATH Act, and the more recent CARES Act and FFCRA Act. The PATH Act allows SMBs to use R&D tax credits submitted on the SMB’s business income tax return to reduce SMB payroll taxes. The CARES Act and FFCRA Act introduced payroll tax credit and employer Social Security deferral programs that allowed SMBs to receive payroll tax reductions and refunds or to defer the employer portion of Social Security based on qualifications and employment practices.
We act as the employer of record for federal payroll tax reporting for our PEO clients. This means that we file client tax credit claims, and pass tax credit refunds to our client and submit their Social Security deferral repayments based on information supplied by our clients, which we do not control. These programs have generally not been designed with the PEO industry in mind and these programs are subject to broad agency interpretations given their complexity. While our clients are contractually responsible to us for their errors in tax credit submissions and for repaying us for all rejected tax credits under our service contracts, taxing authorities may still look to TriNet for repayment and we may not be able to effectively enforce or collect on these obligations. For additional information tax credit programs, and the risks they post to our operations, refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading - "Our business is subject to numerous complex laws, and changes in, uncertainty regarding, or adverse application of these laws could negatively affect our business." Other Employment Regulations
We must also comply with labor and employment laws, which can change frequently at the federal, state and local level. In particular for our PEO services, regulatory focus on the classification of employers, employees and independent contractors has the potential to significantly change how we and other PEOs operate and the services that we and other PEOs can provide to our clients and WSEs. For example, California AB5 could potentially reclassify client independent contractors. In 2020, California voters passed Proposition 22, exempting certain contractors and business from AB5. The status of Proposition 22 remains unresolved as a state court ruling holding that Proposition 22 is unconstitutional and under appeal. Other states are considering, or have adopted, in the case of Alabama and Louisiana, new regulations or guidance changing the definition of employers, employees and independent contractors and such change in these definitions may impact our ability to provide certain PEO and HRIS services or products to certain employers or employees.
We must also comply with state and federal rules and guidelines around both independent contractor and joint employer status. Standards for determining independent contractor and joint employer status vary from law to law and state to state, and changes to and new interpretations of these standards can limit the client workers to which we can provide services and increase claims that we are an employer or joint employer of client WSEs or HRIS Users. For example, at the federal level the DOL recently proposed a new rule for determining independent contractor status and the DOL also indicated that it may propose new regulations that address white collar minimum
wage and overtime exemptions under the FLSA. Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new rule for determining whether two businesses are joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). We do not believe that we are a joint employer under any law or rule, or that these rule changes impact our status as a co-employer. However, laws regarding independent contractor and joint employer status can impact the types of SMB workers we can service and the potential liability that we have for the actions of our SMB clients and their employees. For additional information, refer to Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K, under the heading - "The definition of employers, employees and independent contractors is evolving. Changes to the laws and regulations that govern what it means to be an employer or an employee may require us to make significant changes in our operations and may negatively affect our business". Our Human Capital Resources
As of December 31, 2022, we had approximately 348,700 WSEs, 248,500 HRIS Users and 3,600 colleagues.
Oversight and Management
At TriNet, we power the success of small and medium-sized business supporting their growth and enabling their people. Together, we strive to become the most trusted advisor to SMBs by harnessing the power of scale. We recognize the incredible opportunity that can only be realized by working together, with a shared view of how we support our clients, WSEs and HRIS Users. This is illustrated in our core values:
•Lead with the customer - We are accessible, responsive and empowered to serve our customers. We are successful when our customers are successful.
•Stand together - We bring together diverse backgrounds, experiences and ideas to create better outcomes. We collaborate across boundaries, communicate openly and respect each other.
•Act with integrity - We are honest, transparent, ethical and fair. We take pride in always doing what’s right for our customers and colleagues.
•Make an impact - We act with purpose, are deliberate in our planning and quick in execution. We are accountable to each other and empowered to make decisions.
•Be incredible - We invest in the development of our colleagues. We push the boundaries of what's possible, lead the way and innovate to accomplish the extraordinary.
We regularly conduct surveys to seek feedback from our colleagues on a variety of topics, including confidence in company leadership, competitiveness of our compensation and benefits package, career growth opportunities and opportunities to improve the attractiveness of our company with existing and potential colleagues. The results are shared with our colleagues and reviewed by senior leadership, who analyze areas of progress or deterioration and prioritize actions and activities in response to this feedback to drive meaningful improvements in colleague engagement. None of our colleagues are covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
Attracting and Retaining Our Colleagues
We must attract, develop and retain highly motivated and qualified colleagues to continue to provide the services that our clients need, to achieve our strategic objectives, and to grow our business. We do this by:
•offering competitive compensation and benefits packages, including comprehensive health benefits and our 401(k) retirement savings plan, with an immediately vested employer match of up to 4% of cash compensation,
•supporting a pay for performance culture through the use of cash and equity incentives tied to the performance of our company and individual performance,
•offering an ESPP that allows our colleagues to purchase our shares at a discount to market value, which fosters a stronger sense of ownership and aligns the interests of our colleagues with our stockholders,
•investing in the professional growth of our colleagues with tuition and continuing education reimbursement, wellbeing programs, and comprehensive training and development activities and opportunities both inside and outside of our company,
•creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive colleague base by, for example, the use of colleague-led resource groups and a diversity and inclusion training curriculum for our colleagues, and
•supporting workplace flexibility for our colleagues by adopting remote work policies, and providing access to telemedicine services.
For more information about how we help our PEO and HRIS clients manage their own human capital resources and satisfy their own HR-related needs, see the section above titled “Our Services”.
Our Approach to Acquisitions
Historically, we have pursued acquisitions to expand our service capabilities, technology offerings, and supplement our growth. Our acquisition targets have included PEOs and other HR solution providers, as well as HCM technology and service companies, such as Zenefits and Clarus R+D, to supplement or enhance our existing service and technology solutions. We intend to continue to pursue acquisitions, where appropriate, that will enable us to add new clients, WSEs or HRIS Users, expand our presence in certain geographies or industry verticals, or expand our HCM technology capabilities and services offerings.
The Impact of Seasonality on Our Business
Our business is affected by seasonality in client business activity, hiring and benefit selections, health claims costs and payroll taxes:
•PEO clients generally change their payroll service providers at the beginning of the payroll tax and benefits enrollment year; as a result, we have historically experienced our highest volumes of new clients and terminating clients in the month of January. Our HRIS clients are generally less affected by these considerations.
•WSEs select our TriNet-sponsored benefit plans during their respective open enrollment periods, which occur throughout the year. We have recently experienced the largest proportion of WSE benefit changes in the first and second quarters.
•Health claims costs tend to increase throughout the year as the utilization of medical services above each WSE's deductible causes our insurance costs to increase. In addition, the overall use of medical services by WSEs, including elective procedures, tends to increase later in the calendar year.
•Certain payroll tax related billings are based on annual taxable wage bases up to a set cap. WSEs and HRIS Users frequently meet these wage base caps in the first two quarters of the year, depending on the compensation level, resulting in lower related billing contributions to PSR in the latter half of the year.
Our Owned and Licensed Intellectual Property
We own or license from third parties various software, as well as other intellectual property rights, used in our business. Generally, we protect our intellectual property rights through the use of confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements and policies with our employees and third-party partners and vendors. We also own registered trademarks in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union covering our name and other trademarks and logos that we believe are materially important to our operations. We generally protect our trademarks through federal registration or through the commercial use of our trademarks. Trademark registrations must generally be renewed every five to ten years and we renew the registration of trademarks that we deem to have continuing value to our business.
Corporate and Other Available Information
We were incorporated in 1988 as TriNet Employer Group, Inc., a California corporation. We reincorporated as TriNet Merger Corporation, a Delaware corporation, in 2000 and during that year changed our name to TriNet Group, Inc. Our principal executive office is located at One Park Place, Suite 600, Dublin, CA 94568 and our telephone number is (510) 352-5000. Our website address is www.trinet.com. Information contained in or accessible through our website is not a part of this report.
Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports are available free of charge at investor.trinet.com as soon as reasonably practicable after we file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. Alternatively, the public may access these reports at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The contents of these websites are not incorporated into this report and are not part of this report.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Below is a discussion of the risks that we believe are significant to our business. These risks are not the only ones we face. We may face additional risks that we do not currently consider to be significant or of which we are not currently aware, and any of these risks could cause our actual results to differ materially from historical or anticipated results. You should carefully consider these risks along with the other information provided in this Form 10-K, including the information in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and our accompanying consolidated financial statements, as well as the information under the heading "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" before investing in any of our securities. We may amend, supplement or add to the risk factors described below from time to time in future reports filed with the SEC.
Operational Risks
Unexpected changes in workers' compensation and health insurance costs and claims by worksite employees could harm our business.
Our insurance costs, which comprise a significant portion of our overall costs, are significantly affected by WSEs health and workers' compensation insurance claims experience. We use fully insured risk-based, and fully insured guaranteed-cost, insurance plans provided by third-party insurance carriers. Under risk-based policies, we agree to reimburse our carriers for any claims paid within an agreed-upon per-person deductible layer up to a maximum aggregate exposure limit per policy. These deductible dollar limits and maximum limits vary by carrier and year. Under guaranteed-cost policies, our carriers establish the premiums, and we are not responsible for any deductible. Refer to Note 1 in Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Form 10-K for further discussion of these policies.
Under our risk-based health insurance policies, which make up the majority of our health plans and claims paid in 2022, we assume the risk of variability in future health claims costs for our enrollees. We have experienced variability, and may experience variability in the future, in the amounts that we are required to pay within our deductible layer under these policies. This variability arises from changes to the components of MCT, defined as changes in participant use of services, including the introduction of new treatment options, changes in treatment guidelines and mandates, and changes in the mix, cost of providing treatment, and timing of services provided to plan participants. MCT trends change over time, and other seasonal trends and variability may develop, which makes it difficult for us to predict this aspect of our business and our failure to accurately predict these trends could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, while the amount of medical claims we experienced increased in 2022, our insurance costs remained below expectations.
Under our fully insured workers' compensation insurance policies, we assume the risk for losses up to $1 million per claim occurrence (deductible layer). The ultimate cost of the workers’ compensation services provided will not be known until all the claims are settled. If we do not accurately predict the risks that we assume, we may not charge adequate fees to cover our costs, which could reduce our net income and result in a material adverse effect on our business. Our ability to predict these costs is limited by unexpected increases in frequency or severity of claims, which can vary due to changes in the cost of treatments or claim settlements. For example, we experienced a slight increase in both the severity and frequency of workers’ compensation claims in 2022 as more worksite employers returned to in-person work.
We accrue for the estimated future costs of reimbursing our workers' compensation and health insurance carriers under our insurance policies. In 2022, we began using internal actuaries to develop health insurance estimates and we continue to use external actuaries and our own experience to develop workers’ compensation estimates, but the volume and severity of claims activity is inherently unpredictable. Estimating these accrued costs requires us to consider a number of factors, such as the components of MCT, seasonal trends and the impact of events like the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires significant judgment. In addition, the usefulness of historic claims data is impacted by our rates of WSE and client turnover and we renew our carrier contracts and set fees in advance of benefit periods.
In past periods, we have experienced insurance costs that were either higher or lower than our expectations and estimates. If were to experience either outcome in the future, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation. Higher-than-expected insurance costs result in lower net income. Because we set fees in advance of plan periods, lower-than-expected insurance costs can be an indicator that insurance costs are developing more slowly than our projections, which are reflected in our fees, and this can have a negative impact on client retention and new sales. We have experienced lower-than-expected insurance costs in the past, and as a result, have announced discretionary credits to incentivize client retention and loyalty.
However, discretionary credits do not directly promote new sales and we cannot guarantee that such credits will achieve our retention and loyalty goals. In the past, some clients who were eligible for discretionary credits did terminate their services with us.
In addition, claims are not static and if we subsequently receive updated information indicating that the volume and severity of insurance claims were higher or lower than previously estimated and reported, our insurance costs could be higher or lower, respectively, in that period or subsequent periods as we adjust our accrued costs accordingly, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We have experienced both favorable and unfavorable insurance cost variability due to claims activity in the past and could have similar or worse experiences in the future. Refer to Critical Accounting Judgments and Estimates in Part II, Item 7. MD&A, of this Form 10-K for further discussion of these estimates.
Our co-employment relationship with our worksite employees exposes us to unique business risks.
We are the co-employer of client WSEs. As a co-employer of WSEs, we assume some of the risks and obligations of an employer. For instance, in the past we have been required to provide access to health benefits to WSEs even when the cost of providing those benefits exceeded the service fees received from our clients. The extent of our responsibility for other aspects of our co-employer relationship with WSEs remains subject to regulatory uncertainty at the federal, state and local levels. For example, in certain states, PEOs are responsible for paying salaries, wages and related payroll taxes of WSEs, even if our clients have not timely remitted payments to us.
WSEs work in our clients' workplaces. Our ability to control the workplace environment of our clients is limited. Yet, we may be subject to liability for violations of labor and employment laws, workers' compensation laws, industry-specific laws that apply to the businesses our clients operate, and other laws that apply to our clients or to employers generally. We may also be liable for acts, omissions or violations by clients or WSEs, even if we do not participate in such acts, omissions or violations.
We seek to mitigate these risks through our client agreements and insurance coverage. Our client agreements allocate responsibilities between us and our clients and provide that our clients will fund certain obligations in advance and indemnify us for any liability attributable to their own or our WSEs' conduct. However, we may not be able to effectively enforce or collect on these obligations. In addition, we maintain insurance coverage, including workers’ compensation and EPLI coverage, to limit our and our clients' exposure to various WSE-related claims. We are still responsible for deductible layers under our EPLI policies, and these policies generally exclude coverage for claims relating to the classification of employees as exempt or non-exempt, other wage and hour issues, and employment contract disputes. We cannot assure you that our insurance will be sufficient in amount or scope to cover all claims that may be asserted against us and for which we are unable to obtain indemnification from our clients.
Negative publicity relating to events or activities attributed to us or our colleagues as a result of the actions of our clients and WSEs, or others associated with them, whether or not justified, may tarnish our reputation and reduce the value of our brand, which could have a material adverse impact on our ability to attract and retain clients.
Our SMB clients are particularly affected by volatility in the economic environment.
Small and medium-size businesses can be particularly susceptible to changes in the level of overall economic activity in the markets in which they operate. These businesses are often exposed to credit and cash liquidity risks that larger businesses may be able to avoid, and during periods of weak economic conditions, including periods of increased inflation and increased borrowing costs, small business failures tend to increase, and employment levels tend to decrease. During these periods, our clients can and do freeze hiring, terminate their employees, and reduce compensation and benefits levels, any of which would negatively affect our revenues and margins if we are unable to reduce our operating expenses sufficiently or quickly enough. During these periods, we have also seen and expect to see, reduced demand for our services, increased client terminations, fewer new clients, and clients seeking to renegotiate our contracts and prices. When our clients leave us or reduce their headcount, we typically see increases in the volume and severity of unemployment claims, COBRA claims, disability claims, and workers’ compensation claims. We may be unable to recover costs related to these claims based on the fees established in our client service agreements, and any failure to recover such costs may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We lose clients for many reasons that we cannot control or easily predict and, generally, our clients sign service agreements that they can cancel on short notice.
Our standard client service agreements can generally be canceled by our clients with 30 days’ prior written notice. We regularly experience client attrition and decreases in new client sales due to a variety of factors that are difficult for us to control or predict, including the overall national economic conditions, client mergers and acquisitions, changes in medical utilization and related costs, client business failure and liquidity issues, the effects of competition, and client decisions to administer all or a portion of their HR needs in-house without using our services. If we experience client attrition for any of the above reasons in excess of our historic and estimated rates it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Geographic and industry market concentration makes our results of operations vulnerable to regional and industry-specific economic and health factors.
PEO services remain our core business. Our top five PEO markets, California, New York, Florida, Texas and Massachusetts, accounted for approximately 65% in aggregate of our paid WSEs for the year ended December 31, 2022. If any of those geographic regions suffers a downturn, even if the economy at the national level remains strong, or experiences higher than expected medical services utilization, due to regional health issues, the portion of our business attributable to clients in that region could be adversely affected, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
In addition, most of our PEO clients operate in a relatively small number of verticals, including the technology, professional services, financial services, life sciences and not-for-profit verticals. As a result, if any of those verticals, or any industry within one of those verticals, suffers a downturn, even if the economy at the national level remains strong, the portion of our business attributable to clients in that industry could be adversely affected, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.
Any failure in the business systems or service centers that we or our service providers rely upon, could negatively impact our clients, harm our reputation and expose us to significant, unanticipated liability.
Our business is highly dependent on in-house and third-party business systems and service centers. The operation of our business relies on the complex integration of numerous hardware and software subsystems across several service centers to manage a large volume of daily client, WSE and HRIS User transactions. For example, we rely on software systems to process payroll, payroll tax and benefits data and make related payments, and to access insurance carrier networks and databases that manage WSE and HRIS User benefits and claims. These software systems run on computer hardware that we or our service providers house in various service centers.
These centers and systems have been, and could be disrupted by equipment failures, computer server or systems failures, network outages, ransomware attacks and other malicious acts, software errors or defects, vendor performance problems, power failures, natural disasters, terrorist actions or similar events. We have, for example, experienced office closures on the east coast on multiple occasions over the past few years due to hurricane and storm threats, in Texas due to climate-related power grid issues, and in California due to increased wildfire threats in the state. Our offices and service centers in these and other locations will continue to face the risk of closure or damage in the future due to climate change.
Any such disruption, even if only for a short period of time and even if we are not at fault, can have a significant impact on our clients, WSEs and HRIS Users. As a result, any such disruption could cause us to lose clients, negatively impact our ability to attract new clients, and reduce our revenues and increase our costs, any of which could result in a material adverse effect on our reputation, business and results of operations.
Our announced discretionary credits had significant costs. These costs will not be recovered if we fail to achieve the business goals for which the credits were designed, which could result in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operation and financial condition.
We have offered various discretionary credits to eligible clients in 2020, 2021 and 2022. These credits were based on TriNet health insurance costs over specified periods and we announced them to assist in the economic recovery of our SMB clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, to promote client loyalty and incentivize client retention, and to differentiate TriNet from its peers in the PEO industry and in other competing HR services industries. For example, in the second quarter of 2022, we announced that eligible clients, as a group, may receive up to an aggregate of $25 million in discretionary credits based on certain health insurance costs in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. In the fourth quarter of 2022, we announced that eligible clients, as a group, may receive up to an aggregate of $50 million in discretionary credits based on certain health insurance costs in the fourth quarter of 2022.
These credits are associated with significant costs, and we cannot guarantee that we will recover these costs or achieve our intended client loyalty, retention and differentiation goals from these credits. As mentioned above in the risk factor titled “Unexpected changes in workers' compensation and health insurance costs and claims by worksite employees could harm our business,” discretionary credits can help incentivize client loyalty and retention if we determine that the claims experience of our health insurance plans did not develop at the same rate as our fees. For example, even if a client receives a credit, they may not receive it in an amount or on a timetable that will retain the client. If our credits, including future credits we may announce, fail to generate the client loyalty and retention impact for which they are designed, for any reason, our financial performance will be negatively affected, which could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changes in our insurance coverage, or in our relationships with key insurance carriers, could harm our business.
Our success depends in part on our ability to maintain competitive health and workers' compensation coverage options and insurance rates through well-known insurance carriers. If we are unable to maintain competitive insurance rates or obtain popular and desirable coverage plans through well-known insurance carriers, it could affect our ability to attract and retain clients, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. Where we sponsor insurance coverage and we are not responsible for any deductibles, our carriers set the fixed cost of the plan, which may lead to uncompetitive fees. Even where we sponsor insurance under which we are responsible for deductibles, we may not be able to control our costs in a way that would make our fees competitive.
In addition, broad adoption of our services in certain geographic regions or industries may make it more difficult for us to obtain competitive health and/or workers' compensation insurance rates due to concentration of clients within a particular region or industry. For example, we have significant concentrations of PEO clients in California, New York, Florida, Texas and Massachusetts, which account for approximately 65% in aggregate of our paid WSEs for the year ended December 31, 2022. The loss of any one or more of our key insurance vendors in these areas, or our inability to partner with the most desirable carriers in these areas, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We must continue to work to improve our services to meet the expectations of our clients and regulators, or we may lose our clients and materially harm our business.
In order to attract and retain clients, we believe that we must compete in our industry effectively on the basis of the value proposition that we deliver to our clients, which includes
•client experience and satisfaction,
•the relevance and cost-effectiveness of our PEO benefit plans,
•our PEO vertical market expertise,
•our service and product pricing,
•our brand awareness and reputation,
•our ability to innovate and respond to client needs and regulatory mandates rapidly,
•the performance of our online and mobile solutions, software and technology platforms, and
•our human resources subject matter expertise.
The expectations of our clients and prospective clients in these areas change over time as a result of many factors outside of our control, such as competition, regulatory and technical changes, and changing trends in the demands employees place on SMB employers.
To satisfy client expectations and regulatory requirements, we must timely and effectively identify and develop, or license and contract appropriate technologies and services, and incorporate such technologies and services into the solutions that we provide. New services or upgrades may not be released according to schedule or may contain defects when released. If our new technologies and services perform poorly, or fail to satisfy regulatory requirements, we could experience client dissatisfaction, adverse publicity, loss of sales, and client claims against us, any of which could materially harm our business. For example, we experienced higher than expected rates of client dissatisfaction and terminations due to our client service model roll-out in 2020 and 2021. As another example, like other PEOs, our federal R&D credit programs require the IRS to provide tax credit refunds for our clients. In situations where IRS refunds were delayed, even where we were not at fault, we have experienced client terminations and dissatisfaction, and we may experience similar outcomes in the future. Even where we can satisfy client expectations and regulatory requirements, we may not be able to do so on a cost-effective basis, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and our results of operations. We could lose market share if our competitors develop superior technologies and services or satisfy client or regulatory demands before we are
able to do so. If we are unable to satisfy the evolving technology and service expectations and regulatory requirements, then we would experience lower client satisfaction, fewer new clients and higher client attrition, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We have acquired, and may in the future acquire, other businesses and technologies, which can divert management's attention and create integration risks and other risks for our business.
We have completed numerous acquisitions of other businesses and technologies over the years, and we expect that we will continue to pursue future acquisitions. Acquisitions, including our 2022 acquisitions of Zenefits and Clarus R+D, involve numerous risks, some of which we have experienced in the past and which we may experience in the future, including:
•over-valuing and over-paying for businesses and technologies,
•increased operating costs and unanticipated costs to successfully integrate the clients, WSEs and HRIS Users, operations, systems, technologies, services and personnel of the acquired business,
•establishing or maintaining required internal controls, procedures and policies for the acquired business,
•unanticipated costs and risks arising from the unique corporate culture and risk appetite of acquired businesses,
•diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns,
•litigation resulting from the activities of the acquired business,
•insufficient revenues, insurance or seller indemnification to offset increased expenses associated with the acquisitions and unanticipated liabilities of the acquired businesses,
•entering markets in which we have no prior experience and may not succeed, and
•potential loss of key employees or key clients of the acquired business as a result of the acquisition or integration of the acquired business.
We have experienced increased operating costs to resolve the challenges of prior acquisitions. If we fail to appropriately integrate any acquired business, we may fail to achieve our growth, service enhancement or operational efficiency objectives, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
For example, TriNet has focused almost exclusively on the PEO business since its formation and PEO services remain our core business. Zenefits and Clarus R+D are not PEO businesses. They utilize separate software and technology platforms, and they service SMB clients that can have very different needs from our traditional PEO clients. These businesses may divert management attention from our core PEO business to its detriment. Conversely, we may lack the experience needed in these non-PEO businesses to manage them effectively. Any such outcome could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our efforts to improve our operational effectiveness and resiliency require significant time, resources and costs and if these efforts fail or significantly divert management attention, our business and results of operations may suffer.
We have changed our operations and client service processes in recent periods in order to improve our operational effectiveness and resiliency, and we will continue to do so in the future. For example, over the course of 2022 and 2023 we have been upgrading and rolling out a new company-wide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. If our ERP system roll-out is delayed, management attention may be diverted, and we may see increased operational costs while we maintain two ERP systems. We are also working on other projects intended to upgrade our technology platform and the client support tools we use, increase workflow automation (and mitigate against the risk of human error), and improve the retention of, and access to, institutional knowledge.
We have and will continue to devote substantial time, money and management resources to these projects. Managing these projects also typically requires changes to our internal operational, financial and management controls and reporting systems and procedures. As a result, we cannot guarantee that our efforts will achieve our goals in a timely or cost-effective manner or at all, and we cannot guarantee that we can carry out these projects without a negative impact on our day-to-day operations and client satisfaction. If our current and future projects are delayed or unsuccessful, client satisfaction may suffer, we may lose clients or fail to onboard new clients at expected rates, and we may incur substantial unanticipated costs to complete these projects. Any of these outcomes could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are unable to attract, maintain and manage qualified personnel, including our sales force, our business may be harmed.
To succeed, we must be able to attract and retain highly motivated and qualified personnel. Competition for skilled employees is intense and, if we are unable to attract and retain the personnel we need, our business may suffer. Like many businesses, in recent years we have experienced higher than normal rates of employee turn-over, which we believe is due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and the "great resignation".
We have experienced elevated sales force attrition in the past and may experience it in the future, for a variety of reasons, including due to changes in industry or client focus, compensation structure, third-party competition for sales talent and other factors. Newly hired sales personnel are typically not productive for some period of time following their hiring, which results in increased near-term costs to us relative to their actual sales contributions during this period. If we are unable to effectively train and maintain an adequately seasoned and sized sales force, new client onboarding will not increase at the rate that we anticipate, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our industry is competitive, which may limit our ability to maintain or increase our market share or improve our results of operations.
We face significant competition on a national and regional level from other PEOs, ASOs that do not use co-employment relationships, and HRIS software providers, as well as from other existing, and potential, companies and industries that service, or may in the future service, client HCM needs. Refer to the heading “Competition” under Part I, Item 1. Business, above for more details. Our competitors, regardless of industry, may have greater marketing and financial resources than we have, and may be better positioned than we are in certain markets. Increased competition in our industry could result in price reductions or loss of market share, any of which could harm our business. We expect that we will continue to experience competitive pricing pressure and competition from new technologies and HCM service models, any one of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Data Privacy and Security Risks
Cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures or other data-related incidents could result in reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, regulatory penalties, regulatory disclosure requirements and damage to our reputation.
We and our third-party service providers and subcontractors collect, store, use, retain, disclose, transfer and process a significant amount of confidential, sensitive and personal information from and about our actual and potential clients, WSEs, HRIS Users and colleagues, including bank account numbers, social security numbers, tax information, PHI, health claim information, retirement account information, and payroll data. Maintaining the security and confidentiality of this information is critically important to our clients, WSEs, HRIS Users and colleagues.
Due to the size and complexity of our technology platform and services, the amount of confidential, sensitive and personal information that we store and the number of clients, WSEs, HRIS Users, colleagues and service providers with access to this information, we and our service providers are potentially susceptible to a variety of intentional or inadvertent cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents and threats.
Cybersecurity threats can take a variety of forms. Malicious actors may develop and deploy viruses, worms and other malicious software programs that attack our networks and data centers or those of our service providers. Malicious actors may also direct social engineering, phishing, credential stuffing, ransomware, denial or degradation of service attacks and similar types of attacks against any or all of us, our clients and our service providers. Other threats include inadvertent security breaches or disclosure, misuse or unauthorized access or other improper actions by our colleagues, clients, WSEs, HRIS Users, service providers and other business partners. Cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents are increasing in frequency and evolving in nature. While we devote substantial time and resources to training our colleagues to identify and avoid such incidents, no training or cybersecurity program can offer absolute protection against such attacks and incidents.
Any actual or attempted cyber-attack, breach, disclosure or other data-related incident, could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition or results of operation. Any actual or attempted breach or disclosure of the confidential, sensitive and personal information that we possess about our clients, WSEs, HCM Users and Colleagues could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition or results of operations. Public perception of, or even inaccurate or unfounded rumors of, any such cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures, or other data-related incidents, could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition or results of operation.
Any such cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures or other data-related incidents, could result in material financial liability by
•resulting in material fines, penalties, orders, sanctions and proceedings or actions against us or our service providers by regulatory authorities, clients and other third parties,
•requiring us to indemnify clients and other third parties,
•damaging our reputation,
•forcing us to incur significant expenses to defend our actions and practices,
•delaying product and service development plans,
•resulting in unrelated compliance breaches as a result of system failures or management distraction, and
•increasing our costs of doing business.
TriNet does not need to be the direct target of such cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures or other data-related incidents, for them to have a material adverse effect on our operations. A cyber-attack on a key third-party software service provider, or a new vulnerability identified in software that we use, could disrupt our services or compromise client data entrusted to that service provider. In March 2022, a hacking group announced that they had compromised several systems, including those of Microsoft and Okta, both TriNet vendors. After review, our security team determined that no security compromises had occurred within TriNet’s systems related to any of these incidents, but this is no guarantee that a future vulnerability or incident would not result in a security compromise. New software vulnerabilities are identified regularly, by organizations like the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Similar cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents, including those resulting from a vulnerability, involving a client could also result in access to TriNet’s systems. Any such incidents, even if not initially directed at TriNet, could also have a material adverse effect on our business operations, result in liability, fines and penalties or other regulatory sanctions, a loss of confidence in our ability to provide our services, and/or harm our reputation and relationships with current or potential clients.
We, our clients and our service providers have been the victims of cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosure or other data-related incidents, in the past, and we, our clients and our service providers expect to be victims again in the future. For example, we experienced a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack against the login pages for the TriNet and TriNet Zenefits platforms in 2022 that prevented platform access for several hours. TriNet’s data and systems were not accessed by unauthorized parties and we were able to restore platform access quickly, but we cannot guarantee that we, or our service providers, will be able to respond to another attack as quickly or effectively. We and our service providers have experienced disruption to, or unauthorized access to, our networks, applications, bank accounts and other key systems in the past and similar events may occur again in the future. We, our service providers and our clients have experienced cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures or other data-related incidents in the past that led to disclosure of the confidential, sensitive or personal information we possess, and we and they could experience such events in the future. We have reported data breaches to regulators, affected individuals, clients and other third parties in the past and we expect to do so in the future. While we do not believe that any such past events resulted in material expenditures or a material loss of confidential, sensitive or personal information, future events could still result in a material adverse impact on our operations.
As discussed above, the costs associated with any cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosure or other data-related incidents could result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Although we maintain insurance coverage for such events, the amount of our insurance may not cover these costs, and we cannot be certain that cyber insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that any insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim.
Our efforts to protect against and to remediate cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents, may not succeed and any such event, whether intentional or inadvertent and whether attributable to us or our service providers, could have a material adverse effect on our business, and reputation.
We have implemented policy, procedural, technical, physical, and administrative controls with the aim of protecting our networks, applications, bank accounts, and the confidential, sensitive and personal information entrusted to us, including bank account numbers, social security numbers, tax information, certain medical information, certain health claim information, retirement account information, payroll data and other PHI, from cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents. While we, and our service providers, have security measures and programs in place to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents, these security measures and programs and our collective efforts may not always succeed. Despite our efforts and those of our service providers, we cannot fully eliminate the possibility of such cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents, whether intentional or inadvertent and whether internal or external and
we, our clients or our service providers may not discover a cyber-attack, breach, disclosure or other data-related incident for a significant period of time after the incident occurs.
We perform risk-based assessments of our vendors and service providers, but our assessments may be incomplete or not detect vulnerabilities that can impact our business. Vendors and service providers with access to our data and systems typically undergo additional security review procedures. In addition, we require those vendors and service providers to undertake additional security measures according to the inherent risk of the system access or processing activity contemplated in the contract. We typically require documentation of vendor and service provider security and privacy obligations through contract provisions. However, we do not control our service providers and our ability to monitor their data security is limited, so we cannot ensure the security measures they take will be sufficient to protect our confidential, sensitive and personal information. Due to applicable laws and regulations or contractual obligations, we may be held responsible for any cyber-attack, breach, disclosure or other data-related incident attributed to our service providers regarding the information we share with them and any contractual protections we may have from our service providers may not be sufficient to adequately protect us from any such liabilities and losses.
We have invested, and plan to continue investing, in resources to protect our information security ecosystem against cyber-attacks, breaches, disclosures and other data-related incidents, and to investigate and remediate any information security vulnerabilities. We are also devoting substantial time and resources to integrate the security processes of TriNet Zenefits and Clarus R+D with our own standards. However, the security protections and strategies that we implement, and the investigation and remediation efforts we undertake, may not be successful. Any cyber-attack, breach, disclosure or other data-related incident, whether intentional or inadvertent, could result in the access, public disclosure, loss or theft of our clients', WSEs', HRIS Users’ and colleagues’ confidential, sensitive and personal information, which could negatively affect our ability to attract new clients, cause existing clients to terminate their agreements with us, result in significant reputational damage and subject us to significant lawsuits, regulatory fines, or other actions or liabilities, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We must comply with constantly evolving, data privacy and security laws and regulations, which may require substantial costs or changes to our business, and any actual or perceived compliance failure could result in reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, regulatory penalties, and damage to our reputation.
We are subject to various federal, state and local laws, rules, and regulations, as well as contractual obligations, relating to the collection, storage, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of confidential, sensitive and personal information. Existing laws and regulations are constantly evolving, and new laws and regulations that apply to our business are being introduced at every level of government inside and outside of the United States. For example, all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Canada have enacted data breach notification laws that may require us to notify WSEs, HRIS Users, clients, colleagues, or other third parties and regulators in the event of unauthorized access to or disclosure of confidential, sensitive or personal information experienced by us or our service providers.
In addition to breach notification laws, we have seen increased focus at every level of government inside and outside of the United States on regulating the collection, storage, use, retention, security, disclosure, transfer and other processing of confidential, sensitive and personal information. In recent years, many states have proposed or enacted new laws or amended existing laws, such as the CCPA and CPRA in California and other rules in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Utah, all of which become effective in 2023. These laws may be more stringent or broader in scope, or offer greater individual rights, with respect to confidential, sensitive and personal information than federal, international or other state laws, and such laws may differ from each other, which may complicate compliance efforts, requiring attention to changing regulatory requirements. As the patchwork of state privacy laws becomes increasingly complex, the cost of complying with all of the requirements will rise. We are working to comply with all applicable state requirements, but we cannot guarantee that we will not incur significant costs to comply with these requirements or that our efforts will be successful.
For details regarding these data privacy and security laws and regulations discussed above and that apply to our operations, refer to Part I, Item 1. Business, of this Form 10-K, under the heading “The Laws and Regulations that affect Our Business: Data Privacy and Security Regulations”. Complying with these and any other data privacy and security laws, rules and regulations, and with any new laws or regulations or changes to existing laws, could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business, divert resources from other initiatives and projects, and restrict the way products and services involving data are offered, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur additional costs to comply with the California’s CCPA/CPRA regulations and other similar regulations. Despite our efforts, in the future we may be unable to make required changes and modifications to our
business practices in a commercially reasonable manner, or at all. Given the rapid development of cybersecurity and data privacy laws, we expect to encounter inconsistent interpretation and enforcement of these laws and regulations, as well as frequent changes to these laws and regulations. As a result, we may be required to incur significant, unexpected compliance costs and we may be exposed to significant penalties or liability for non-compliance, the possibility of fines, lawsuits (including class action privacy litigation), regulatory investigations, criminal or civil sanctions, audits, adverse media coverage, public censure, other claims, significant costs for remediation and damage to our reputation, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations. Any inability, or the perception of any inability, to adequately address data privacy or data-related concerns, even if unfounded, or to comply with applicable laws, regulations, standards and other obligations relating to data privacy and security, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our relationships with clients and have a material adverse effect on our business.
As a sponsor of employee benefit plans with access to certain PHI, we are subject to regulation at the federal level, including under the HIPAA and the HITECH Act. HIPAA contains restrictions and health data privacy, security and breach notification requirements with respect to the use and disclosure of PHI. There are penalties and fines for HIPAA violations. Additionally, in 2021 the DOL issued cybersecurity best-practices guidance for sponsors, administrators, service providers and participants of defined contribution retirement plans, which guidance is relevant to the retirement plans we maintain for our WSEs and colleagues.
Following our acquisition of Zenefits in 2022, we have an increased customer and colleague presence outside of the United States, including new technology design and backend support offices and operations in India and Canada. If we fail to comply with applicable data privacy regulations in the countries in which we send and receive personal data, we may be exposed to regulatory action and fines, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Legal and Compliance Risks
Our business is subject to numerous complex laws, and changes in, uncertainty regarding, or adverse application of these laws could negatively affect our business.
The services we provide to our clients are subject to numerous complex federal, state and local laws and regulations, including those described in Part I, Item 1. Business, of this Form 10-K. These laws and regulations cover a diverse range of topics, including employer status, employee and independent contractor classifications, employee benefits, health and retirement plans, workers' compensation, baking and money transmission, employment and payroll tax, worksite safety, insurance and banking, wage and hour, anti-discrimination, and many topics specific to the industries of our clients. Many of these laws do not specifically address PEOs or co-employment relationships, and regulators are often unfamiliar with the PEO industry and co-employment relationships, which can lead to unpredictable application, interpretation and enforcement of these laws and regulations at the federal, state and local levels in relation to our business. Our HRIS services can also be subject to complex federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding payroll agents, employment and payroll taxes, insurance producers, banking and money transmission, and other licensing requirements. The tax support services that Clarus R+D provides are also subject to federal, state and local regulations regarding tax preparation and practice that limit the services they can provide to SMBs. While regulations governing HRIS services and tax support services do not involve the complexity of a co-employment relationship, these services are in some ways also highly regulated and such regulations can, and do, change regularly at the federal, state and local levels.
Any new laws, changes in existing laws, or any adverse application, interpretation or enforcement of new or existing laws, including those described in Part I, Item 1. Business, of this Form 10-K, whether they apply to employers generally or specifically to PEOs or to our co-employment relationships could:
•reduce or eliminate the value and benefits that clients realize by using our services,
•change or eliminate the types of services we provide,
•require us to make significant changes to how we do business and provide services,
•require us to modify our current business practices or operations,
•affect the extent and type of employee benefits that employers and co-employers can or must provide employees,
•alter the amount, timing and type of taxes employers, co-employers, clients, WSEs, and HRIS Users are required to pay and that we must manage for and collect from our clients,
•increase the cost and complexity of the licensing requirements for our business operations,
•create or increase our liability and responsibilities to our clients and WSEs, HRIS Users, and/or
•mandate new compliance requirements, disclosures or services.
Any of the above could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
For example, we have seen a growing trend, particularly at the federal level, of using payroll tax credits, deferrals and other related payroll tax programs as a mechanism for incentivizing SMB development and/or economic recovery. These programs are popular because they allow SMBs, which often have income tax losses, to realize benefits via payroll tax reductions, rather than income tax reductions. However, these programs have generally not been designed with the PEO industry in mind and rely on calculations contained in client income tax returns (which PEOs do not process in their role as the co-employer) and/or other client data that cannot be verified by a PEO, even though the resulting tax benefits are processed through the PEO’s payroll tax returns. Because minimal guidance exists in the statutes that create these programs, they are subject to broad agency interpretation and confusion. In addition, the processes used to evaluate payroll tax filings are designed with individual taxpayers in mind, not PEOs that aggregate the filings of many clients, which can further increase agency confusion and make it difficult to predict agency interpretations.
Some of these programs include the 2015 PATH Act, which allows SMBs to use R&D tax credits submitted on the SMB’s income tax return to reduce the SMB’s payroll taxes, and the CARES Act and FFCRA Act payroll tax credit and payroll tax deferral program enacted in 2020 and 2021, which allow SMBs to defer certain payroll tax obligations to a later date or to receive payroll tax credits based on SMB employment practices that are beyond our control. The IRS has taken positions that we and other PEOs, rather than clients, are responsible for client errors and repaying rejected tax credit claims under these and similar programs. While our clients are contractually responsible for repaying us for any rejected tax credits under these programs, a contract does not guarantee our ability to recover rejected tax credits and any failure to recover rejected tax credits from our clients would increase our operating expenses, which could result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. Similarly, the IRS has taken positions that the tax benefits under some of these programs should be calculated on an aggregate PEO, rather than individual client, basis, which can limit whether and how we obtain credits for our clients. We cannot predict how these positions will ultimately be resolved and if they are resolved unfavorably, we may be forced to discontinue supporting some or all of these programs, incur tax expenses that we cannot recover from our clients, and divert management’s attention to defending our positions, any one of which could have a material adverse effect our ability to attract and retain SMB clients or on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, in response to COVID-19, many states have also implemented assistance programs, such as mandatory employee leave requirements and other employment- and employment tax-related incentives. Our SMB clients rely on us to help them take advantage of these programs, and new laws, regulations and agency or judicial interpretations of these laws could change or eliminate existing programs at any time, which could force us to discontinue supporting these programs or incur liability that we cannot recover from our clients, which could cause us to lose clients and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Changing laws and regulations governing health insurance and other traditional employee benefits at the federal, state and local level could negatively affect our business.
Changes to and continued uncertainty regarding the implementation and future of health care reform in the United States, at the federal, state and local level, has the potential to substantially change the health insurance market for SMBs and how such employers provide health insurance to their employees, which could have a materially adverse effect on how we provide our sponsored health benefits to our WSEs, and our ability to attract and retain our clients. In addition, changes at the federal, state and local level to the laws and regulations regarding other traditional employee benefits, such as retirement and workers’ compensation benefits, also have the potential to substantially change the types of benefit programs that are available to SMBs and that we and other PEOs may be required to offer. Our ability to comply with, and adapt our service offerings to take advantage of, any such changes could require significant additional costs, divert management attention, or be prohibitive based on cost, technology or other factors, which could result in a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
If we are not recognized as an employer of our worksite employees, and if our benefit plans are deemed to not satisfy plan requirements, under federal and state regulations, we and our clients could be adversely impacted.
In order to sponsor some of our most important employee benefit plan offerings for WSEs, including health plans, we must qualify as an employer of WSEs, and our plans must qualify as employer-sponsored plans, under
applicable provisions of the Code and ERISA. In particular, our status as the employer for the purposes of ERISA is important because ERISA preempts state laws that otherwise might apply to, and limit, our benefit plan offerings.
The definition of employer under the Code and ERISA is not uniform and is defined in part by different facts and circumstances tests, and there is no definitive judicial interpretation of employer in the context of PEOs. Generally, the tests used under the Code or ERISA are designed to evaluate whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee, and they confer substantial weight to whether a purported employer has the right to direct and control the details of an individual's work. Some factors that may be considered important under these tests have included the employer’s degree of behavioral control (for example the extent of instructions, training and evaluation of the work), financial control and the economic aspects of the work relationship, the type of relationship, as evidenced by the specific contract, if any, whether employee benefits are provided, whether the work is indefinite in duration or project-based, and whether it is a regular part of the employer’s business.
We believe that we qualify as the sole employer of WSEs for the purposes of Sections 3(5) and 3(40) of ERISA and that our health plans are single-employer plans that, as such, are entitled to ERISA’s preemption of state law. However, the DOL routinely audits employee benefit plan offerings of employers, and in one routine audit of one of TriNet’s health plans that concluded in 2021, the DOL indicated that while it agrees that we are an employer for ERISA purposes, it believes that wherever there is more than one employer of a WSE, no employer may qualify as a single employer for ERISA purposes. Similarly, in 2022, the DOL revised an existing publication regarding regulation of multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs) and added a new section stating its view that a PEO arrangement offering health coverage to more than one client is a MEWA under Section 3(40) of ERISA. This DOL interpretation is contrary to our interpretation of the applicable ERISA facts and circumstances test, and it also is contrary to the position taken by other national PEOs.
We will continue to vigorously defend our position that we are the sole employer of our WSEs for the purposes of Sections 3(5) and 3(40) of ERISA, and therefore that our health plans are single employer plans entitled to ERISA’s preemption of applicable state laws. While we have no current DOL audit on-going, this issue and the MEWA publication above may arise in future audits of TriNet plans or the plans of other PEOs in our industry. If it were ultimately determined that health plans sponsored by TriNet are multiple employer plans and subject to potential regulation at the state level, we would likely adjust our business model and the manner in which we provide employee health benefits to WSEs. Any such outcome or adjustment would require significant investment in time, cost and management attention and would have a material impact on our clients and WSEs and the type of products and services we provide to them, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
As an employer of WSEs under ERISA, we must manage our plans in accordance with ERISA requirements, which could impact how we fulfill plan obligations, how we price services, whether and how we use discretionary credits, the features of our benefit plans, and how we administer and operate our plans. We believe that our benefit plans satisfy all applicable ERISA requirements, but if it were ultimately determined that we fail to satisfy any such requirements, we would likely be required to adjust our business model, including with respect to each of the areas outlined above, and could be subject to material fines or penalties. Any such consequence may result in a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
We have seen increased state efforts to regulate PEO health plans in 2022. For example, in November 2022, the New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance published proposed rules that in most cases would require PEO plans to be treated as MEWAs and prohibit PEOs from allowing WSEs of small group employers to participate in PEO sponsored large group market health plans starting in January 2024. Proposed legislation is being considered in New Mexico that would eliminate this prohibition for PEOs that register as MEWAs under state law. States also undertake reviews of PEOs frequently. For example, in 2022 the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) requested data from insurance carriers on PEO health insurance practices. The New Mexico proposed rules, and any other new or changed regulations that treat PEO health plans as multiple employer plans, restrict PEO fees with carriers or that limit the availability of PEO benefit plans, if upheld to be legally valid and applicable to our PEO health plans, would likely require us to adjust our business model in the states with such rules, including the manner in which we provide employee health benefits to WSEs and price our services, and could result in material fines or penalties. Any such outcome or adjustment would require significant investment in time, cost and management attention and would have a material impact on our clients and WSEs and the type of products and services we provide to them, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Similarly, to qualify for favorable tax treatment under the Code, certain employee benefit plans, such as 401(k) retirement plans and cafeteria plans, must be established and maintained by an employer for the exclusive benefit of its employees. All of our 401(k) retirement plans are operated pursuant to guidance provided by the IRS and have
received favorable determination letters from the IRS confirming the qualified status of these plans. However, the IRS uses its own complex, multi-factor test to ascertain whether an employment relationship exists between a worker and a purported employer. Although we believe that we qualify as an employer of WSEs under the Code, we cannot assure you that the IRS will not challenge our position or continue to provide favorable determination letters. Moreover, the IRS' 401(k) guidance and qualification requirements are not applicable to the operation of our cafeteria plans.
Further, if we are not recognized as an employer of our WSEs under the Code or by any state tax authority, we may be required to change the method by which we report and remit payroll taxes to the IRS or such tax authorities. Such changes could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
The definition of employers, employees and independent contractors is evolving. Changes to the laws and regulations that govern what it means to be an employer or an employee may require us to make significant changes in our operations and may negatively affect our business.
National views on employers, employees and independent contractors are changing at a rapid rate, as evidenced by recent federal and state rule changes. For example, in 2019, California passed AB5, a law that could reclassify some independent contractors as employees. In 2020, California voters passed Proposition 22, exempting certain contractors and businesses from AB5. The status of Proposition 22 remains unresolved while a 2021 state court decision that Proposition 22 is unconstitutional and unenforceable is under appeal. Any state regulations that change existing definitions and classifications of employers, employees and independent contractors could affect the types of client employees we can support through our HRIS and PEO offerings, the way in which we provide TriNet-sponsored benefits to our WSEs, the way in which we report and remit payroll taxes to tax authorities, and our legal liability for the actions and inactions of our clients, which may negatively impact client demand for the services we provide, require us to modify or change how we operate our business and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
At the federal level, the DOL issued rules on both independent contractor and joint employer status in 2020, and the following year, those rules were rescinded by the DOL after the Presidential election. Significant litigation and uncertainty were generated in each instance. Recently, the DOL proposed a new rule for determining independent contractor status and the DOL also indicated that it may propose new regulations that address white collar minimum wage and overtime exemptions under the FLSA. Meanwhile, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has proposed a new rule for determining whether two businesses are joint employers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Standards for determining joint employer status vary from law to law and state to state. Joint employment is not the same as co-employment, and we do not believe that we are a joint employer under any law or rule, or that these rule changes impact our status as a co-employer. However, continuing uncertainty regarding independent contractor and joint employer status could still result in increased regulatory and worker claims, which could divert management attention and cause us to incur additional and potentially material costs to defend.
Remote work has increased dramatically across the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The laws and regulations that govern employees were not drafted with remote workers in mind and changes in, uncertainty regarding, or adverse application of these laws could negatively affect our business.
More and more employees, including WSEs and HRIS Users, are working from home and SMBs, including our clients, are increasingly hiring employees in locations where they do not have an office. Many of these employees work at home in one state or city and in an office in another state or city. The work location and residence of an employee can create confusion regarding the federal, state and local laws that apply, including labor and employment, payroll and payroll tax, and unemployment laws. For example, it can be difficult to determine the amount of payroll and unemployment taxes that must be paid when employees spend part of their time working from home in one state and part of their time working in an office in another state. Regulations regarding payroll and unemployment taxes are still catching up to this new reality, which creates a risk that states will disagree about the taxes that must be paid, or the employment laws that must apply, in these situations. New laws, changes in laws or adverse application or interpretation of laws that depend on the residence and work location of WSEs and HRIS Users could reduce or eliminate the attractiveness of our services, significantly increase our compliance costs and the cost to provide our services, or require us to make substantial changes to the way in which we operate, and any one of these outcomes could result in a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Even where remote workers live and work in the same state and city, as a co-employer of WSEs, our PEO services are open to the risk that new laws, changes in laws or adverse application or interpretation of laws will expand PEO responsibility for remote WSEs. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic we saw many states extend workers’ compensation coverage to remote employees and to COVID-19 claims. We expect to see additional, similar
expansions of PEO responsibility and we cannot guarantee that we will be able to recover the costs to comply with such changes from our clients, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.
If we do not comply with our regulatory license requirements, or if we are deemed to be operating in various non-PEO licensed industries without the required licenses, we and our clients could be adversely impacted.
Most states require PEOs to hold a license and we are licensed as a PEO in all states that require such licenses. If we are not able to satisfy existing or future PEO licensing requirements or other applicable regulations in any state, we may be prohibited from doing business in that state, including having any clients within that state.
State regulatory authorities generally impose licensing requirements on companies acting as insurance agents or third-party administrators, such as those that handle health or retirement plan funding and claim processing. TriNet does not provide broker insurance, but we do maintain producer licenses in all 50 states and select U.S. territories for our HRIS services and for our IOM PEO product, which offers clients the option to receive PEO services from TriNet while obtaining client-sponsored health benefits from third-party brokers. Other state regulatory authorities impose licensing requirements on companies involved in the transmission of cash, such as banks, and other money transmitters. We do not believe that our current activities require any such licenses, but we and others in our industry have received inquiries from regulatory authorities in the past and could receive them in the future. Businesses similar to TriNet Zenefits have been subject to such licensing requirements in the past and although we believe that our operations have been designed to be compliant and avoid such requirements, we cannot guarantee that all regulators will agree. If regulatory authorities in any state determine that we are acting as an insurance agent, third-party administrator, money transmitter, or as any other regulated industry other than a PEO, we may need to hire additional personnel to manage regulatory compliance and pay annual regulatory fees, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to legal and tax proceedings that may result in adverse outcomes.
We are subject to claims, lawsuits, government investigations, and other legal and regulatory proceedings arising from the ordinary course of our business. Refer to Note 9 in Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Form 10-K for additional information about the legal proceedings we are currently involved in and future proceedings that we may face. Current and future legal proceedings may result in substantial costs and may divert management’s attention and resources, which may seriously harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity.
In addition, the tax authorities in the U.S. regularly examine our tax returns. Refer to Note 12 in Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, of this Form 10-K for additional details regarding tax examinations and disputes. The ultimate outcome of tax examinations and disputes cannot be predicted with certainty. Should the IRS or other tax authorities assess additional taxes as a result of any audit or examination, we may be required to record charges to operations that could have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position or cash flows.
Financial and Stock Ownership Risks
Our results of operations and stock price may fluctuate as a result of numerous factors, many of which are outside of our control.
Our future operating results and stock price are subject to fluctuations and quarterly variations based upon a variety of factors, many of which are not within our control, including, without limitation:
•the volume and severity of health and workers' compensation insurance claims made by our WSEs, recorded as part of our insurance costs, and the timing of related claims information provided by our insurance carriers,
•the amount and timing of our insurance premiums and other insurance costs, operating expenses and capital expenditures,
•the number of our new clients and the number of WSEs or HRIS Users employed by each new client,
•the retention or loss of existing clients, for any reason, including third-party acquisition,
•a reduction in the number of WSEs or HRIS Users employed by existing clients,
•a reduction in the rate of WSE or HRIS User hiring by existing clients,
•the timing of client payments and payment defaults by clients,
•the costs associated with our acquisitions of companies, assets and technologies,
•any payments or draw downs on our credit facility,
•any unanticipated expenses, such as litigation or other dispute-related settlement payments and compliance expenses arising from changes in regulations or regulatory enforcement,
•any expenses we incur for geographic and service expansion and service enhancements,
•any changes in laws or adverse interpretation or enforcement of laws, which may require us to change the manner in which we operate and/or increase our regulatory compliance costs,
•any changes in our effective tax rate,
•the issuance of common stock or debt to pay for future acquisitions, which could dilute our stockholders or subject us to significant debt service obligations,
•the repurchase of our common stock under our stock repurchase program or otherwise, which could impact earnings per share and increase the ownership percentage of non-participating stockholders,
•amortization expense, or the impairment of intangible assets and goodwill, associated with past or future acquisitions, and
•the impact of new accounting pronouncements.
In addition, the trading price of our common stock is subject to fluctuation in response to a variety of factors, including the factors above and below, many of which are not within our control, including, without limitation:
•the overall performance of the equity markets,
•any trading activity, or a market expectation regarding such activity, by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders,
•the economy as a whole, and its impact on SMBs and our clients,
•the performance and market perception of companies that investors believe are similar to us,
•changes in the interest rates and financial performance of our cash investments, which may increase during periods of high inflation and market volatility and impact our interest income,
•any significant changes in the liquidity of our common stock, and
•market acceptance of our performance across non-financial factors, including evolving environmental, social, and governance factors favored by investors and required by regulators.
Many of the above factors are discussed in more detail elsewhere in this Risk Factors section and in Part II, Item 7. MD&A, of this Form 10-K. Many of these factors are outside our control, and the variability and unpredictability of these factors have in the past and could in the future cause us to fail to meet our expectations and the expectations of investors and any industry analysts who cover our shares, which could result in a decline in our share price and reduced liquidity in our shares. In addition, the occurrence of one or more of these factors might cause our results of operations to vary widely, which could lead to negative impacts on our margins, short-term liquidity, and our ability to retain or attract key personnel, and could cause other unanticipated issues, including a downgrade of our securities by or change in opinion of industry analysts and a related decline in our share price.
The terms of our credit facility may restrict our current and future operations, which would impair our ability to respond to changes in our business and to manage our business.
Our credit facility contains, and any future indebtedness of ours would likely contain, a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us subject to customary exceptions, including restricting our ability to:
•incur, assume or prepay debt or incur or assume liens,
•pay dividends or distributions or redeem or repurchase capital stock,
•make loans, investments or acquisitions,
•enter into sale-leaseback transactions,
•enter into new lines of business,
•complete a significant corporate transaction, such as a merger or sale of our company or its assets, and
•enter into agreements that prohibit the incurrence of liens or the payment by our subsidiaries of dividends and distributions.
Our failure to comply with these restrictions and the other terms and conditions under our credit facility could result in a default, which in turn could result in the termination of the lenders’ commitments to extend further credit to us under our credit facility and acceleration of a substantial portion of our indebtedness then outstanding under our credit facility. If that were to happen, we may not be able to repay all of the amounts that would become due under
our indebtedness or refinance our debt, which could materially harm our business and force us to seek bankruptcy protection.
Atairos, our largest stockholder, may have significant influence over our Company, and the ownership of capital stock, and thus the voting control, of our Company remains concentrated in our executive officers, directors and their affiliates, which limits your ability to influence corporate matters.
On February 1, 2017, an entity affiliated with Atairos Group, Inc. (together with its affiliates, “Atairos”) became our largest stockholder when it acquired the shares of TriNet common stock previously held by General Atlantic. In connection with this transaction, we appointed Michael J. Angelakis, the Chairman and CEO of Atairos, to our board of directors and agreed to nominate Mr. Angelakis or another designee of Atairos reasonably acceptable to our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee for election at future annual meetings until Atairos’ beneficial ownership falls below 15% of our common stock. As of January 31, 2023, Atairos beneficially owned approximately 36% of our outstanding common stock, and all of our directors, executive officers and their affiliates, including Atairos, beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 37% of our outstanding common stock. As a result, Atairos, particularly when acting with our executive officers, directors and their affiliates, is able to exert substantial influence on all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or its assets. In addition, our stockholders have no assurances that Atairos’ holdings, or the holdings of our other large stockholders, in our common stock will not increase. This concentration of ownership could limit the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters and may have the effect of delaying or preventing a third party from acquiring control over us.
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PROPERTIES, LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES | |