Personnel Concepts and the Dreaded ‘Final Notice’
Personnel Concepts claims to be the pioneer in the “labor law poster compliance industry.” I have no idea if that claim is correct, but I’ll take them at their word.
I’ve used Personnel Concepts for employment posters and labor law information for quite some time, so I’ve never been on the receiving end of one of their infamous Final Notices, letters sent out to prospects advising them they could be fined if their labor law posters aren’t up to date. From what I understand, these mailings look like letters coming from the IRS or some government agency. Scary.
Some recipients have freaked out and written about the Final Notice online. Some of the comments seem downright comical, like they’re taking mass mailings too seriously. I know on some of my snail mail subscriptions to magazines, I get “final notices” to renew frequently. If I don’t want to renew, I just heave them.
Another common criticism I’ve read is that these posters are available for free from different government agencies. This is all true. However, finding which posters you are required to display is a really time-consuming job. Try going to OSHA.gov and figure out what your business needs to post. It ain’t easy.
Also, even when you find the posters, they’re just electronic files. So unless you want to just tack a bunch of easily destructible and defaceable laser printouts on your wall, you’ll have to aggregate them in some way and then protect them behind glass or some such. Places like Personnel Concepts put all the posters together in both a logical and easy-to-read combination that is available already laminated. Voila, instant compliance.
Personnel Concepts will also keep you advised when any of the individual posters changes on your overall poster. For instance, this past January some 12 states changed their minimum wage laws, so if your business was in one of those states, you needed to update that portion of your labor law poster. PC will warn you in advance and offer you an update. If you follow all their advice, they’ll even guarantee to pay your fines should you be zapped for not having your posters up to date.
Anyway, I totally sympathize with people who get a chill up their spine when they receive a “Final Notice” and confuse it with a government mailing. Like I said, I’ve never received one, but I have had fairly good success using Personnel Concepts.
I suggest you take a view at the Personnel Concepts Web site if you’re in business and want to stay current with all the government laws and regulations affecting you.
POSTSCRIPT: Since this was written, Personnel Concepts did indeed end its use of the Final Notice.
Subscribe
Labor Law Guy 
I agree. It takes way to long to find all the posters necessary for your business. Just staying up to date is a pain. I remember spending a entire day looking for all my posters and when I found them I downloaded them and then posted what looked like a barrage of information splattered all over an entire wall. I have never seen something so stupid.
I remember getting a “Final Notice” and just being completely irritated and freak out that I was out of compliance including after I spent all that time to get the right posters. I called and soon found out who they were but also realized that one of my posters was out of compliance. Not wanting to continue the hassle I took what they called a compliance subscription and they provide me all updates with no extra cost and any work on my behalf. On the other hand I had a friend who was a business owner that received the same notice and wasn’t out of compliance. Of course he discarded the company however eight months later he got hit with an employee lawsuit that was the direct result of not having one of his posters updated. All of sudden that Final Notice irritation became regret.
I’ll deal with a small amount of irritation to avoid a huge hassle any day.
What a great idea…labor law posters. I wish I thought of that.
I’ve received and mentioned these Final Notices to fellow employers and most of them say their reaction is what the F***. After they call the 800 number it soon becomes a “whatever” and they take care of the situation if it needs to be addressed. But when I go online it seems people really want to take things a step further and scream to the world how they felt taken advantage of because of what piece of paper looked like and instead of what it said.
I guess it only takes a few people to make something small big.
Didn’t these guys make a statement saying they were no longer going to use this tactic of Final Notice. Hopefully they do…it’s a great company that has made my life a lot easier. It’s unfortunate bad press like this final notice has more emphasis than the value provide by their service.
I haven’t heard anything but it sure would be nice. I wouldn’t have such a problem purchasing my labor law posters from them if they were a little bit friendlier than they are. I now of a lot of people that use Personnel Concepts products and swear by them. I choose not to just because I don’t like to feel pushed. If they changed their way of getting business perhaps I would change who I get my labor posters from.
From the people I’ve spoken with at Personnel Concepts, a phase-out is indeed in the works, but I haven’t heard of a timetable yet.
How about mail? These guys are slobs when it comes to sending mail. Once a week is fine…two, three, and four times a week it starts to become a problem. Maybe once every two weeks. I dedicate time in my day to take care of my mail. I pay my bills but when someone is constantly in your face about a deadline that is a month away…give me a break. I like their posters and a few of their other products but get off my back.
Final Notice…hah. I can’t believe anyone gets pissed off about this. IT’S A PIECE OF MAIL. I used Personnel Concepts for years and I just now thought I would google their name. WOW! There is all sorts of crap out there…of course those that have used them know that it’s exactly that…crap. The internet is a great place for idiots to gather. I think they should keep using the that FINAL NOTICE and perhaps maybe some of these jack asses will jump off a cliff and then pershaps we wouldn’t have some many stupid people in business.
I’m sure the recession will weed out a lot of what you call “stupid people in business.”
I find this final notice to be kind of amusing. I got one recently and felt a certain kind of “oh sh**!” feeling hit me in the gut, and while I sat there thinking this, baffled at how I could of let something like this slip by me I started to realize as I read every bit of copy on the page that it wasn’t real.
I have to say this is one slick piece of creative. Very ingenious. I own a marketing agency and I appreciate this kind of new refreshing thought. No wonder why all sorts of people are unhappy and Personnel Concepts is paving the way for the compliance industry. What good press this could be for a company. What benefits has Personnel Concepts seen from this.
Even though those people are unhappy I’m sure they are all in compliance. Great thought…great company. I’m going to use this to and practice my paper air plane skills and play with my kids.
Watch out, the Feds may come confiscate those paper airplanes with “final notice” written all over them. LOL
I see a lot of comments about the final notice but I don’t think that’s problem. I think it’s just because they send out so much mail and it has final notice on it. Eventually people get annoyed because they get reminded of that scared feeling they got from the first one they received, and every time they receive it after that it’s like jabbing them in the side.
Who cares about this final notice. I can’t believe anyone cares at all. Get your damn posters and stop your belly aching. Personnel Concepts and their labor law posters are some the of cleanest, most accurate posters out there. You should see some of the crap some people sell to businesses and low and behold who takes the hit…Personnel Concepts. I think the message of the final notice and the crapiness of other vendors gets unjustifiably mixed with Personnel Concepts being the culprit.
What ever…I just see the world as a bunch of cry baby winos. It still amazes me how we make people act like 1st graders when there 40 years old.
I hate that Final Notice. It’s so annoying and it always gets me. I throw mail away all the time but this one always gets me to open it and then I find out I have been tricked. How good of a company can you be when your tactics promote sneakiness?
I just got one of these final notice mailings. It totally appears shady but I really don’t get it but how have they been in business for the last 20 years and are able to get away with this. Does all their mail go out like this or do they have variations. Something doesn’t add up.
I don’t really care for it but once I got over it I just chuckle a bit here and there when I read this stuff. I get my labor law posters from Personnel Concepts and I don’t receive those crappy letters any more. Instead I get new ones selling me programs I may or may not need. When I have the time I contact them and discuss.
Any company that markets like this sometimes needs to be questioned. I got mail like this but I’ve never really heard about it as if it was that big. Usually it’s about getting your labor law posters for free. While some might think it’s not money spent well to buy posters you can get for free, I think spending all your time trying to stay up to date is a waste of money and your businesses time. People don’t buy insurance because they want to have accident they get because it’s a safety net. Then again there are those people out there that think insurance is a waste of money but wish they had it when it was too late. What a bitter sweet life it is.
Personnel Concepts has questionable marketing tactics but there is nothing wrong with the product. It’s all legit. The combination of their mail message and the ability of being obtained for free I think gets people upset.
I agree with the previous poster. You may be able to get posters for free which would make spending money to get them unreasonable. But free doesn’t mean it’s better or the way to go. As a business owner an hour of my time amounts to over $100. I can spend 5mins and $30 and take a risk there won’t be any changes for rest of the year or I can spend $70 and never think about it all for the entire year. It’s a lot better than frequently going back throughout the year and spending large amounts of time to find something someone is willing to do for me for a fraction of the price.
Plus, what you get for free from the government are PDF files that you have to print out and figure out how to display. Compare those pieces of easily destructible paper with the laminated all-on-one posters that Personnel Concepts markets. Post those and they’re just about indestructible.
I just discovered this guy over at Gov Regs who’s looking into Personnel Concepts as well.
I thought I would download my poster and then laminated with my machine. OMG I don’t think I have seen something look so stupid on my wall. It look like a broken mirror of white pieces of paper all over my wall. Needless to say I broke down when I got this notice from personnel concepts and spent $40. Things look a lot better now and a bit more colorful. More importantly after I got my labor law posters I got to see how much time I would of saved my self and what an ass I made of myself for getting PO’d about this mail thing called Final Notice.
Personnel Concepts and final notice…I’m not sure which is the lesser of two evils. Their labor law posters and osha safety posters are pretty good but something makes me wonder about them.
Personnel Concepts is just one company. There are several out there that do this kind of marketing. Final Notice or not the reality is every one would be wise to update their labor law posters once a year. Whether you choose to waste your time calling and investigating those changes or if you choose to just pay $30 and be done with it is your choice. A final notice marketing tactic is a small piece of the big picture.
The funny thing about Personnel Concepts and their final notice, the government is all about compliance and not being misleading however Personnel Concepts puts up this final notice and one can be mislead to think the government is involved and out of compliance. a fine line it is. This would make for a great debate.
Good point, it does make for great debating material.
I’ve used Personnel Concepts posters in all my restraunts and I have never seen the final notice until now. My recent restaurant I lagged getting my labor law posters up and it was only a matter of time until I did get it. So when I did get I got all pissed off and fired up and ready to do something about. I get on the phone and I find it’s Personnel Concepts. I spoke to a nice lady on the phone and she explained it was one of the their infamous mailers and their was talked that it would finally be going away. After everything was said and done it was something so stupid I got mad about but I could see why some folks just can’t handle it. It’s pretty agressive.
Any news on when this is happening. Does that mean we are also not going to get mail as much as before. Personnel Concepts has this issue with sending out mail way to much. I can deal with the final notice if we could just cut back on the mail.
No word yet, but I hear they’re currently experimenting with alternatives.
“Dreaded”….Hah!!! I like your choice of words. Oooo…so scary. This blog is great…Labor Law Guy you’ve definitely got some humor and wit on your side and this final notice thing I think has gone to far for some people. For me it’s gone to far to handle. I could care less about the damn mail. Is there not more important things in the world to talk about. I’m assuming you wrote this because it keeps coming up. Can you write an article for small business owners called “Rude Awakenings.” I think that would be a great title kind of Darwin awards but intelligent people trying to get away with being stupid.
If Personnel Concepts gets rid of this “Final Notice” you would think it would kill perhaps their sales. I’m only guessing because it’s so popular. I’m sure they have made a load of money. As a labor attorney this is a big issue so I guess people have to pick who they want to give their money to. Me and the government or Personnel Concepts. My professional recommendation. Stop crying about the mail and pay the damn people and then you don’t have to worry.
I own a bar and these posters are a mandatory must for any business owner. I have no problem with the mail I get from Personnel Concepts. If you ask me I think anybody that throws a fit about a “Final Notice” and or rather spend all their time looking for posters on line for free and then trying to keep up with the changes, I believe they are wasting the most time out of everyone.
Personnel Concepts should stick to labor law posters and stay away from the mail. I don’t like that Final Notice and I’m sure several others would agree. They need to stop that before it stops them.
I agree the labor law posters from Personnel Concepts are some the cleanest most professional posters out there though I can’t stand how they communicate. I know I shouldn’t get upset but please change your message. One of these days they are literally going to give some old lady a heart attack.
Final Notice…more like first notice. I know what they are saying but you have to admit most people aren’t that smart. I’ve read other blogs and it appears no matter how you scream what your doing people still do not listen. I always use to get frustrated with people that were stupid until a friend told me it wasn’t my fault they were stupid. I don’t have a problem with this but it can they continue to use it and grow at the same time.
So what do they mean by phase out. How about just stop.
Noting is more irritating than someone making you feel as if you did something wrong and nothing has been done wrong. I know I can get labor law posters from the government for free but I choose to get them from a provider i.e. Personnel Concepts. I’m already a customer but why do I have to be bothered by this message over and over. They should keep better track of their customer information.
Personnel Concepts would be wise to get rid of this. I don’t mind it and I get my labor law posters from them but I can’t see it benefiting them any longer. They are a big company and they need to represent themselves in a respectable way and by the looks of it people aren’t having it any more.
They should have a final notice burn bash…sounds like it would be fun.
DOWN WITH FINAL NOTICE…LONG LIVE PERSONNEL CONCEPTS …LOL
Any new word on this. Personnel Concepts and this final notice has to stop. I like the company and it’s labor law posters. In fact it would be nice if they tried to sell something else than labor law posters. They have so many great products for HR managers beside labor law posters. I just purchased the I-9 compliance kit they have it makes the changes so simple to implement.
So any new news?
I like this final notice. I think it’s totally a kick ass piece of work. Personnel Concepts should get a high five for this. If there was an award for the scariest marketing piece Personnel Concepts would be giving an acceptance speech. Labor Law Posters and kits. What great ideas.
I see though everyone and their mother is doing it now, so I can’t imagine how much more they can grow. That’s unless they diversify. If they do that then I think naturally the Final Notice will disappear or become less evident in their press.
Personnel Concepts, I believe hasn’t done anything wrong. I think they are being unfairly judged by the public. Primarily the uniformed small business owner. No one wants to be told their an idiot and rather point the finger at someone else. Being informed might be considered reading this blog and understanding what the Final notice is all about instead of reacting to a look.
Any new updates on this. I’m still getting this notice. It would be nice if they just cut down on the mail. Of course I feel sympathy for those that get the final notice the first time. However, every time after it’s just another notice that goes in the trash
I get my labor law posters from Personnel Concepts and a few other items though I have never really dealt with them. My experiences haven’t been bad…actually quite the contrary very nice. To each their own.
I hear that they’re experimenting with different approaches to replace the final notice, but nothing has been confirmed.
Personnel Concepts I thought was a fly by night company with the all the bad things are being said about them. But as it turns out they seem to be pretty big and have been around for quite a while. Why continue with the same message if all it does is cause them problems. Then again maybe the profits it’s making for them out weighs their concerns. If thats the case and they get rid of this notice it may turn out to be Personnel Concepts will have a loss in business.
I get these type of notices all the time. What I don’t understand is I have no employees. Why do I need the posters…I don’t. To be fair Personnel Concepts isn’t the only one that uses this type of mail message. I have received many pieces of mail with a very similar message but when I looked into it it was their competitor selling the same labor law posters.
I recently received mail form Personnel Concepts (not the first time) and it was a different title. Same similar layout but much more define and noticeable. It still has some of those qualities of looking like the government but there is much more disclosure of Personnel Concepts i.e. PCI Compliance Department is gone.
The funny thing about this kind of marketing tactic, it only works once on a business. Once it’s been discovered who they are then it no longer matters what the mail piece is. It gets thrown away right after it’s opened. I’m not sure what’s so hard about that.
FYI I use Personnel Concepts posters. I could care less that I could get them for free. Free doesn’t always mean it’s better or right.
Its about time a blog like this appears. All I see is people complaining about deceptive messaging but none of them talk about whats required. Some go as far as to say you can get the labor law posters for free from the government and then post the federal DOL’s website as if that is all you need. Unfortunately much more needs to be done. Personnaly I would like to see some employers be hit with a fine and then see what they write about and then maybe they will write blogs titled “waste of time or not”
I don’t think Personnel Concepts started the poster industry. I think it was the government. Either way I don’t think it matters. Personnel Concepts sells a service not necessarily a product. Most business owners use Personnel Concepts because of the notification process. You can get your posters for free but if you don’t know when and where exactly then you could waste a lot of your time. I see links posted for federal posters but that is only half…what about the state posters. In addition to knowing when and locating you need to know if it pertains to you and what you need to do to be legal. Its a small price to pay for some professional service. Personnel Concepts provides me what I need when I need it and they tell me how. Well worth the money.
Personnel Concepts and their labor law posters seem to be the some of the cleanest posters out there. Mail is mail but I have never seen any one get so mad about the mail and then point the finger at one company. I’m not sure how this is helping them but I will definitely give two thumbs up for the creative work.
Business owners who are concerned about deception and scams from mail like this have bigger problems to worry about. Labor and OSHA fines become a huge irritation when avoiding them could have simply came from posting a notice. Those that choose to update their labor law posters regularly are wise and are headed in the right direction those that do not make me rich. Personnel Concepts isn’t the bad guy, no one really is. However it’s better to do something rather than nothing at all instead of how it’s conveyed.
I see the bad press about this and clearly there are two sides to this kind of mail. Those that have better and more intelligent things to do and those that don’t have enough business to keep them making money. Personnel Concepts is a very reputable company it just happens to be this one mail tactic out of the several that makes people think they are bad. The internet is full of information but you have to use your intuition. Sadly, most people in the world lack the brain power to realize the bigger picture…like pig flu has nothing to do with pigs
Everyone gets mail they don’t like what makes this one so special. I understand fraud but I don’t see it here. Deceptive perhaps but the posters are required and if someone wants to solicit a service to provide all the posters put into one what should it matter. I don’t think I have ever seen so much drama built against any one piece of mail from only one kind of company. If you ask me Personnel Concepts should focus on all their other products and use their labor law posters as a service and not a product.
I found this interesting comment by the founder of Personnel Concepts over at another blog called Eyeing Marketing, whose author thinks the Final Notice is a great piece of marketing. I’ll try to leave the link here and see what happens:
http://eyeingmarketing.com/2008/02/26/personnel-concepts-direct-mail-piece.aspx
Personnel Concepts has done nothing wrong. It’s the public’s responsibility to understand what they are reading. If they want to sell a poster with all posters on it and then provide a service to keep you up to date then why can’t they. Perhaps the real concern might be how often they send it out. If they actually discontinued it then I would like to see the difference in the value of the complaints.
I get “Final Notice” letters from magazines all the time, but I guess the point is that they don’t look governmental, but even the government-looking letters I get don’t scare me because you can tell by the postage that it’s not from Uncle Sam.
I was googling for something entirely different but came upon this discussion. Very interesting, but I don’t see what all the fuss is about, even though I’m not familiar with Personnel Concepts. It’d simple. People shouldn’t take direct mail or spam e-mails so seriously. Hit the trash can or the delete button if you’re not interested.
Signed// Mellow in Seattle.
This is old news. Personnel Concepts makes too much money off to many other items. Final Notice or not everyone needs to get a life.
I haven’t seen this for a while. Does Personnel Concepts use it still? I think all of their mail looks kind of misleading but in the last 4 or 5 months I have been receiving emails that have a totally different appearance. They definitely don’t look government like. In any case I don’t see what the real fuss is about. It looks like Personnel Concepts has several different marketing tactics and this is just one of them. So you don’t like it….throw it away like most here say.
Dreaded….since when is anything that comes in the form of mail considered a dreaded piece. I hate mail giving me the bad news that I screwed up and I wish it would stop i.e. my bills I haven’t paid, but I’m still legally obligated to pay. Maybe I’m seeing this wrong. Personnel Concepts I feels isn’t doing anything different than anybody else. Is there a reason why we should critize them and not someone else?
I hate that notice…but I haven’t seen it lately. I’ve been getting these notices that say Update. My problem is how much mail they send. Perhaps they could save some trees and give their local postman a break. There’s nothing wrong with Personnel Concepts the just need to relax on the advertising a bit.
Anybody heard if PC actually stopped using the Final Notice or just morphed it into something better packaged?
i dont care what you people say, i hate personnel concepts. this guy called me to “verify” an order and when i told him to ship out what i ordered, i recieved a bill for over $500 with things i didnt authorize.
Most of us know how to handle matters such as the one above and we don’t over react. That seems to be the big issue with the complainers…they over react and never really stop and think what was the problem. Was it really Personnel Concepts or did you do something wrong.
As far as the poster above named “Manny” I would say that sounds like a sales rep issue or data issue and not so much a Personnel Concepts issue. I’ve had similar situation arise. I call the vendor and tell them I didn’t authorize such a purchase and they refund my money and I send the items back. I’m not sure if I ever felt “hate” towards a company. I only hate companies that inconvenience me or ruin my life. What stated above hardly comes close to that, or does it.
Is your life ruined because they sent you some posters that you didn’t order?
Good God Manny….watch the language. Hate then vulgarities. It looks like a pattern is developing here. My recommendation is to get on the phone and tell them to please not mail or call you. You have that right and it’s the law…so use it.
I agree sometimes the message is to much. Equally, the law is to much either. I think things need to change every where and perhaps business at Personnel Concepts needs a little changing also, but I don’t think that’s the only problem.
People feel the message Personnel Concepts sends out is deceptive but when you read it all it is is one big quote of law. I often read about how people say personnel concepts says you have to get the poster from them but it’s not stated that way. It’s stated as it’s in law…YOU HAVE TO HAVE YOUR LABOR LAW POSTERS POSTED! There is nothing there about who you should get it from.
The comments here seem to have tapered off now that the Final Notice has been finalized into extinction. I wonder how business is for Personnel Concepts without the so-called “fear factor.”
Ahh so this must be the fan blog for Personnel Concepts. No big deal. Just cruising by and checking out the comments. I’m not sure if they are bad or good but I see the point the point of view from each side. Hate em’ or like em’ I really don’t think it matters…does it?
All this hype is over rated. Personnel Concepts plain and simple sells labor law posters. There are several people that do. You can get labor law posters for free from the government, but what a mess, both finding and posting them. Choose who you want but I don’t think it really matters if you get them from Personnel Concepts, someone else, or the government. Everyone is crooked.
You know, I get “official”-looking letters in the mail all the time that resemble federal government directives or some such. Most of them are mortgage refinancing or credit consolidation offers. I kind of laugh them off since even a half-wit could see they’re not really from any governmental agency. You people are getting carried away for nothing.
I’ve been dealing with Personnel Concepts for quite some time now and find them aggressive but professional and responsive. The Final Notice is not used anymore, evidently, but they still use marketing jargon to move people into action. If you don’t like receiving their e-mail or letters, there’s a function on their website to get off their lists.
This is hilarious to me. I worked in the mortgage industry for years, so I know all about the perils of sending direct mail to simpletons. Um, read your mail, people. Actually read it. It’s not that hard. Mailings from the government actually have the name of the government agency on the envelope. Also, “Community of Christ,” when did the IRS file a patent on a specifc font?
I’m a freelance writer and these notices started coming in the mail after incorporating as an LLC last year. I’m not confused about “Personnel Concepts Inc” being “US Department of Labor,” but I’m a sole proprietor. Do I really need to hang an OSHA poster in my guest bedroom/office?