I’ll give inspiration for this post to awesome HR Pro Trish McFarlane. Trish posted a small little vent on Facebook this week about all these HR companies who use “People” as part of their corporate name – and none of us really know what the hell they do.  So, I’m going to help you out and tell you what I think they do based on their company Name!  Here we go:

PeopleClues – I’m going to assume they are finding out ‘clues’ about people – probably people we want to hire into our companies.  The problem is I don’t want ‘clues’ – I want ‘Facts’!  Please change your name to ‘PeopleFacts’ – and then I will work with you. Truth be told – I have no clue.

PeopleScout – Seems like a never easy one – a company who is going to go out and ‘scout’ people for you.  Not Boy or Girl scout. Scout as in find.  As in pilgrim days when you went to go ‘scout’ out a site to build your cabin.  Solid.  I hope that’s what they actually do!

PeopleFluent – Um, I’ve got nothing.  But that never stopped me before!  When I think ‘fluent’ I think language – “Why Yes, I’m fluent in Spanglish!” So, this clearly is a company who will help out your company when you have interpreting issues, language barriers and such.   I don’t have that issue, but it’s good to know such a niche company exists.

PeopleTalent – I’m guessing staffing firm – only a staffing firm would think “You know what the world needs – they need people and they need talent – PeopleTalent”

PeopleCorp – No idea.  A corporation that is run by people and not machines, but it’s really run by machines – but they want you to think it’s run by people.

PeopleMatch – This screams assessments – but it could also be staffing.  Either way I’m betting on a catchy slogan like – “We Match People!”

PeopleSoft – This is clearly an American company.  We are people.  We are soft.  Thanks for point out we are fat and miserable.

PeopleAnswers – I’m hoping this is a company that you can call and they will have answers for you about your employees that you don’t get. “Why does Tim have tuna fish on Tuesdays each week?”

PeopleClick – Probably started in late 90’s, early 2000’s – the computer mouse goes ‘click’ – we’re techy and in the HR space – People + Click = PeopleClick.  Potential million dollar ad campaign – “We’ll find you Talent in the Click of a button”

PeopleReport – Sounds like a company started by a bunch of ex-principals.  What’s better than HR and the ability to report what everyone is doing wrong!?  Absolutely nothing!

PeopleMatter – No they don’t.

PeopleNet – This is probably a late 80’s, early 90’s – even before ‘click’ – we had ‘The Net’ – another tech savvy HR company who wanted a techy sounding HRish name.  No idea what they do – could be a sourcing company – ‘We throw a wide ‘net’ around talent’  (I really should have gone into used car sales marketing)

PeopleQuest – True story – on my son’s baby name list – ‘Quest’ – was an actual option!  Can you imagine growing up with a name like – Quest!  The world would be your oyster. You would be unstoppable – Watch the F out -here comes Quest!  In terms of this company – I’m guessing staffing again – you’re on a quest to find talent or some lame thing.

People-Results – First off let me tell you this company almost didn’t make the list because of the Hyphen in the name!  What People-Results are you too good to eliminate the hyphen, or do you feel people are too stupid to understand it’s two words and not one?  Performance Management all the way – People and Results – it’s all we ever wanted!

PeopleVerified – Background checking.  We need to know is this is a verified person or not.  Apparently is takes 48 hours to find this out from a background check company – or you can Google – it takes 48 seconds!

I honestly didn’t look at any of these companies before I gave my assessment!  How close did I come?  To be fair – I actually knew PeopleSoft and PeopleReport – I’ve worked with both. All the others?  No idea!  Really. How’s that feel marketing pros?