Jeff DeLoach serves as the President of CogNet. Having hatched the HR global services center over 17 years ago, he has returned to CogNet to help build on that vision in partnership with the outstanding team.
He has more than 25 years of experience in the BPO, HRO, and Technology space. Previously, he served as CEO of US Personnel and CEO of QCI, an international hardware and services provider.
He has also served as Managing Partner for TDG, Inc. a global advisory and services company that helped develop and scale one of the largest human resources service companies in China.
DeLoach is a graduate of Baylor University with a degree in Political Science. He currently lives in Atlanta with his family.
Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn.
What You’ll Learn In This Episode
- What equipped him to be a CEO/President
- Working with employees across the globe
- What are misconceptions about outsourcing
- Business Process Management changes with technology
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Jeff DeLoach and he is with CogNet. Welcome, Jeff.
Jeff DeLoach: Hello. Glad to be here.
Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about cognate. How you serving folks?
Jeff DeLoach: So cognate we are. It’s funny this question. We’re right in the middle of, of sort of, uh, adjusting our message down to something simplified. And because we do some pretty complicated stuff. So cognate is a business process management company. We, uh, focus on the HR outsourcing space, where we help companies that work smarter by offloading the administrative tasks around payroll, payroll, tax, benefits, Finance and accounting. And we also do help them do AI and automation development as well. So that’s sort of us at a high level. We do it at scale because we we support HR outsourcing companies within the US. So you know, a company like I may perhaps an ADP or a or a companies in the PEO and Aso space. We’re, we’re sort of their back office administrative uh go to organization for them. So help them scale and and create efficiencies and reduce costs.
Lee Kantor: So so what was the genesis of the idea? Were you always an outsourcer for outsourcers or did you start just trying to get customers individually?
Jeff DeLoach: Actually, it’s even got a bigger genesis than that. We actually were a customer. So 20 I was a CEO of a PEO some 20 plus years ago, and we were looking at ways to create efficiencies for our back office. And we partnered with a company way back when that, uh, helped us develop a shared service center. And over time that we exited the company, sold it, and the acquiring company didn’t want the shared service center. So, uh, that ultimately became cognate some 18 plus years ago.
Lee Kantor: So now, for folks who aren’t familiar with exactly what’s going on here in terms of the service you’re providing, what’s kind of the entry level point where people start saying, you know what, maybe I can outsource this element of my business, and I’m sure there’s kind of project creep once they’re like, wow, that worked out pretty well. Um, why don’t we take another little chunk of the business outsource? Is it always I mean, not always, but is is payroll usually the first step here?
Jeff DeLoach: It’s you’re it’s interesting. You hit it on the directly on the head. So we have something we call land and expand. And so organizations usually have, you know, some particular pain point. And typically it’s not they can’t do it. Do it. It’s just they don’t necessarily have the scale or capacity to do do it. Or maybe they’re they’re struggling with or they lost someone. And so we help them provide that capacity. And so it might be one task payrolls one area. But payrolls typically a broader engagement. Because when you think about uh, HR outsourcing company, you know, they they do a lot of payroll. So it usually starts in a smaller engagement. So perhaps something like Garnishments. So perhaps they start with us and we’re managing their garnishments. And then uh, they say, wow, this is amazing. You guys do great. And then they start moving into other areas. And, and then we begin to, to, to help them and support them in these broader areas. But, uh, so typically we start out with a particular process or a few processes. Uh, occasionally we go, you know, we, we jump, you know, head first into, into broader engagements. But, uh, you know, one of the big things that that we do well is, is, is the change management piece of it. You know, helping integrate our organization with theirs. You know, we have a you know, our product is called we we label it EOS, which is extended office as a service, which we become part of that, that organization. It’s not just, you know, hey, some somebody else somewhere else is handling this for us. We actually integrate weekly meetings with teams and things like that. So it becomes an extension. So that’s where we see this land and expand because they they view us as, you know, part of their organization as they expand the outsourcing engagement.
Lee Kantor: So, um, how far can you expand, like what areas, uh, kind of are your sweet spots? Because it seems like it could be the almost everything.
Jeff DeLoach: So we we we’ve been, uh, strategic about staying within our niche and within our, uh, we’re sort of what I’ll call seven yards wide, but 70 miles deep. Uh, so we have seven practice areas that we operate, and we and we target specifically the HR outsourcing and the associated, uh, organizations around that, such as, uh, staffing companies, uh, insurance brokers, tpas, things like that. So we have seven practice areas. The first one we talk about payroll and then payroll tax is another one, benefits an HR administration that sort of falls into the garnishment falls under that. We have the finance and accounting, uh, where, you know, we’ll close books for people and manage their, uh, their GL and things like that. And then we also have sales support, sales and underwriting support. So within the industry, uh, when when they’re doing quotes, the insurance is a is a product piece in there. So there’s there’s quoting and things like that and information gathering that you have to do around underwriting. And then we do implementation. So we’re one of the things uh, implementation around we’re we’re technology agnostic. Like people contract with us. They don’t have to take on technology. We integrate with their existing technology. So we have broad knowledge across all the different platforms that are in the space. And then one of the newest obvious practice areas that we’ve gotten into is AI automation, where we assist companies that are, you know, doing these processes, automate more of them, and use the existing technologies today to help them do that. So. So those are our areas that we work in where we don’t get into programing. We don’t get into call centers. You know, the other type of things that people might associate with with outsourcing, but that’s sort of our core niche area that we stay in.
Lee Kantor: Now, are your clients typically enterprise level or do you work with kind of the smaller folks as well?
Jeff DeLoach: We have the we have the full scope. Uh, I would tell you that most of our clients would be mid-market. Uh, but we definitely have some clients that are, uh, you know, small, smaller HR outsourcing companies, uh, smaller gauges, maybe, uh, 1 or 2 of our knowledge associates to, you know, engage with larger public companies where we have 100 plus people working with the organization.
Lee Kantor: So how do you get those clients, like if they, um, maybe you were serving a larger enterprise and then these individuals spin off and start their own consultancy or start their own business and they’re like, well, can Cognet come along for the ride here? Because I know that they do good work.
Jeff DeLoach: Uh, we definitely have some of that. But I’ll tell you, the we gained most of our, uh, our revenue and new growth around referrals, referrals and relationships. Uh, our business depends on, uh, trust and transparency of we can perform, uh, with their organization and, uh, they, uh, that’s really how how we how we built it up over, over these many years. And we’ve had a lot of success these last several years. Uh, you know, we made the Inc. 5000. Uh, we’ll make it again this year. So we’re, we’re having some, some good success.
Lee Kantor: So any advice for other leaders that would like to get more referrals and build enough deeper relationships where they come about in a manner that cognitive is able to achieve them. Is there some do’s and don’ts when it comes to building out a strategy that really allows word of mouth to to really, um, kind of grow and work in the way that you envision rather than that sounds like a good idea on a whiteboard, but in practice, it’s not kind of bearing fruit.
Jeff DeLoach: Yeah, I’ll tell you. And I don’t know if it is replicatable to every, every type of business, but I’ll tell you that what’s driven us over these last several years of success is we have a we have a little acronym internally we use it’s called the tackle. And the first two, the T and the A are trust and accountability. And we firmly believe in, um, transparency. For example, um, people don’t usually think about processes like, you know, payroll or benefits administration as being something that you that you manage like a metric that you might with a, you know, with a manufacturing company or something like that. But we we manage our time, monitor our time, and evaluate the processes down to the minute for everything that we do. So so we have the data there that we can we can share and be that transparent and accountable partner, uh, to so they understand what their cost is, what they’re spending time with us doing, what to what their, uh, you know, spend is around around what, what our non-core but critical processes, I mean, uh, being compliant and payroll tax is not something companies think this is how I’m going to be successful. But if they don’t do it right, or if they’re ineffective at it, it can completely derail your plans. So, uh, we really have to build that, uh, that trust and accountability piece around that. And I think that at the end of the day, gives our clients not only comfort and expanding their own business, but also taking it to other businesses and recommending us so.
Lee Kantor: So now how would that happen? Like, I understand the word of mouth internally, like, hey, you know, a bunch of executives have a meeting and they’re sharing what’s working, what’s not, and they’re like, hey, we got this cognate thing. And if you haven’t been using it over here, you might want to think about it. That makes perfect sense. But how do you get it outside the building? How do you get them to tell their buddy playing golf that, hey, if you’re struggling over here, these guys are the ones to work with?
Jeff DeLoach: Yeah. So, um, the HR outsourcing space is is a community. Um, you know, people, you know, for the most part, everybody knows everybody, particularly when you boil it down to the PEO space where we have deep penetration. That’s a, that’s a what I call a smaller pond where people have been involved in the industry for a long time. So we spend a good amount of time at conferences, uh, around the industry, uh, you know, and building out those relationships, uh, and, uh, over and we’ve done it over years now, but, uh, you know, and then there’s places like where there’s the bigger pool of places like HR, tech, uh, where, uh, you know, we, uh, you know, spend time there. And then also, uh, we, we develop partnerships. Uh, so when we develop partnerships with, uh, some, some HR consulting firms that we work with who are into the implementation space or doing other, uh, support services for, uh, HR systems. Uh, they bring us into deals as well as their partners. So that’s where so we build out these partnerships in these specific spaces. And, uh, that’s how, uh, you know, the word gets out, how they share, how people, uh, uh, you know, are able to come to us and we go to them, uh, for, for opportunities. So and then, you know, of course, we do some marketing as well, but, uh, we, we Three. Frankly, because of what we do and the strategic nature of it, it’s not necessarily a dialing for dollars type of type of relationship. It’s, uh, I would I would parallel it more to how perhaps in an Accenture or somebody or TCS, you know, partners with engagement. We just do it at the at the lower end while those guys are chasing the fortune 500.
Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working in a space like AI and automation, that is just, you know, fast and furious, the information is coming and the opportunities are kind of blossoming in ways that, um, it’s hard to even keep track of because it changes in a minute by minute basis. So how do you are you listening to your customers to say, okay, what are your pain points? Is that even possible, or do you have to just keep staying ahead of them to say, hey, you know, if you’re not kind of doing this now, there’s going to be a cost of inaction here later. Um, so how do you kind of balance that? Because that seems it’s it’s moving so fast. It’s like jumping into, you know, um, the rapids that, you know, there’s no great time to start. So you better just jump in and, you know, figure some stuff out as you go.
Jeff DeLoach: I gotta tell you, Lee, you are hitting the nail on the head because there’s there’s two parts to my answer to your question. Because you covered it so well. The first part is we as a as a process organization, uh, and we are a process organization. We actually had to take a hard look at ourselves and say, okay, this is coming. We how do we adjust our business model, even internally, to take advantage of this technology? That’s this sort of quiet revolution, I’ll call it. Maybe it’s not so quiet that it’s happening around, uh, AI and automation. And so we had to look at that. How do we be a more efficient partner for our partner and for for our clients? And, uh, so, so we took a hard look at that, and that’s where it sort of began. And then we realized that, you know, our clients are not being able to take advantage of. Can we be a partner there to help them do that. And so there’s a there’s a quote, I saw a woman one time that I thought was fantastic that talked about I, as you said, uh, you know, I don’t know that I want to ai to do my, uh, my writing and painting, uh, while I do the dishes and do the laundry. I’d rather me do the writing and the painting, and I do the dishes and the laundry.
Jeff DeLoach: And so because we focus on non-core, uh, but critical activities, we really are in the space of the laundry and the dishwashing, and it’s it’s primed for automation. So we have we have really leaned into that a lot. And one of the things we do is we try to bridge that gap that you talked about, about people really don’t still don’t know actually how they’re going to use an automation. Uh, we were at a staffing conference, and, uh, the, uh, analyst said, uh, everybody talks about AI, but only about 10 to 15% have actually figured out how to utilize or maximize it to assist their business. So we’ve, uh, because we do these processes on a regular basis because we, we’ve, uh, we’re applying it to our own organization. We’re able to come with a solution and a recommendation to clients on certain processes we handle for them to better automate that and utilize the powers of AI. And that’s where we start. And then it gets into, oh, wow, can we look at this? And we can we look at that? Because, uh, I can tell you personally, I’ve been I’ve been amazed at what, uh, what it brings to the table and even the potential of the future for it.
Lee Kantor: So now, is any part of working in AI and automation? Is it something that you’ve achieved kind of monetary savings for a client where it’s like, hey, we used to do it this way, but if you take this thing that we figured out with an AI and automation kind of combo, this is going to save you time. This is going to save you money. This is going to be, you know, there’s a tangible benefit. It’s not a hey, this is a cool thing we can do. It’s a this is a bottom line thing that’s going to benefit everybody if we can really just become more efficient. I mean, that’s what everybody’s shooting for is just be more efficient.
Jeff DeLoach: Uh, absolutely. Uh, we have we have multiple examples of that. Uh, I’ll give you something, an example. It’s something, uh, you probably hadn’t even contemplated. But, uh, when companies do transitions from one system to another. So let’s say they’re leaving one vendor, one payroll vendor, and going to another payroll vendor. Uh, particularly in this mid and larger corporation, one of the things that gets lost is the amount of documents, employee documents that you collect everything from W-2s, I mean, W-4 and I-9. As you’re collecting and at the beginning when somebody comes on board, then all the things that happen in between performance reviews and all that, well, those sit there and there’s no, there’s no, uh, automated way to transfer them to one system to the other. It’s literally a download, upload, download, upload process. So we were able to apply some orchestrations and automations that saved our clients thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time in doing this via via automation. And that’s been a that’s been a real growth and success here. Excuse me here for us because and the reason why it’s, it’s it’s difficult is because each company is different. Each company has documents in different areas. Each company has certain things they want and don’t want. It’s so it’s, uh, so automation was a real, uh, successful application there that we orchestrated and developed. So we’ve we’ve done it across dozens of platforms at this point now.
Lee Kantor: So yeah. And this is one of like you were saying earlier, when you have kind of that miles deep understanding of the the nuances of systems and processes, it gives you a, a unique perspective to solve problems in that space as opposed to somebody who is just kind of dabbling.
Jeff DeLoach: Right, exactly. That’s a that’s sort of what we, uh, you know, why we stay with within our, our niche and, and really, uh, you know, we’re, we’re at ISO 9001 company as far as process goes. So having done this for you know, we’re almost approaching 20 years now, our, our SOPs that we have around all the processes that are involved in managing HR and managing HR processes across multiple platforms gives us a knowledge base. And matter of fact, I played a role in that because one of the one of the things we say to our clients and internally is our people are our product. And so we sort of had to treat our, our people that we, that we put into our engagements, uh, from a almost like manufacturing where we, we take people who perhaps have good education but don’t necessarily understand, uh, the, the depths and intricacies of US payroll, US HR laws, benefits, etc.. So we used AI to develop help us develop a broad LMS tool, uh, learning management system, uh, that, uh, literally, you know, test them. We can and we’re able to get people, you know, straight out of college to active, successful, uh, participant in these spaces within three to 3 to 6 months. Uh, and where they’re where they’re actually, uh, on the brink of being almost an SME, uh, to that. So that’s, uh, but I played a big role in that in helping us build out the content and, you know, doing the you know, we have, uh, you know, AI driven, uh, uh, agents that, uh, you know, talk to them, do the testing, have interactive responses? It’s really fascinating. So.
Lee Kantor: So what’s the pain that your ideal client is having right now? Where, uh, they should be calling Cognito. Are they just frustrated, or are they, you know, is something happening internally that they’re, you know, falling behind? Like, like, what’s the trigger that that has a conversation with Cognito has the answer. Yeah.
Jeff DeLoach: The trigger is, is this is 90% of the time the trigger is needed capacity either because of growth. Uh, they just they’re just unable to handle it, though. They made an acquisition, and it’s, uh, they need help. Uh, in the transition. They lost some staff, and they just don’t, you know, they can’t they can’t keep up with the turnover. Uh, it’s typically those things. And we believe we’re in a good space because, uh, the accounting, uh, sort of career in the US has been on the, on the decline for some time now. Uh, for whatever reason, you know, uh, the youth of today are more interested in other in other avenues. And so there is a true labor shortage, uh, in the, in, in the US, uh, in general. And then, uh, so we’re, we’re we find that, uh, you know, when someone has, you know, this, these capacity issues that they need a partner that can, uh, that, that has the knowledge, can scale up quickly, uh, like, like we are and can, uh, you know, um, immediately give them, uh, you know, within 30 days, uh, 30 to 45 days, be ready to roll and operating. So and then, yeah, those are, those are the main drivers that, that capacity, the needed capacity for whatever, whether it’s a negative creation of capacity or a positive creation of capacity.
Lee Kantor: And then your clients are here in the US, but global as well.
Jeff DeLoach: Yes. Yes, we do have some clients global as well.
Lee Kantor: So and if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect.
Jeff DeLoach: Yep. Yeah a cognitive it’s cognitive. Com so cognitive.com is our website. And uh you can reach us there or you can reach me directly at (404) 863-1245.
Lee Kantor: All right. Well, Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.
Jeff DeLoach: Thank you Lee I appreciate it. Enjoyed it.
Lee Kantor: All right. This Lee Kantor.
Jeff DeLoach: Great.
Lee Kantor: Day. We’ll see you next time on High Velocity Radio.