Contact: David Carew
(615) 661-0249
ext. 8077
dcarew@mleesmith.com

theHRedge-an Innovative New National Consulting Service-Launched by M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC

New Team of HR Consultants to Help Businesses Nationwide
Effectively Meet Growing Human Resource Needs

BRENTWOOD, TN, April 12, 2000 - theHRedge, an innovative new consulting division of M. Lee Smith Publishers that will provide highly-focused, customized consulting services to human resource professionals and companies nationwide, has been officially launched by the company.

"We are introducing theHRedge to respond to the accelerating need among HR departments to outsource critical aspects of their work, in order to both alleviate heavy workload and to benefit from specialized outside expertise," said M. Lee Smith, Chairman & Publisher of M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC. "To meet this growing demand, we have assembled a premier team of HR consultants, who will offer highly-specialized, highly-focused, specific-to-that-company strategies and solutions. By turning to theHRedge, organizations can receive cutting-edge solutions to their HR problems, without having to hire new people or increase their overhead."

Margaret N. Morford, a leading Nashville-based HR consultant, has been hired to serve as Executive Director and will oversee and coordinate theHRedge team of consultants, Smith said. Prior to assuming this position, Ms. Morford was Senior Vice President of Human Resources Consulting for Martin/Frankel Associates of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has been Vice President of Human Resources for several large companies in both union and nonunion environments. For the past 15 years, she has worked with diverse employee groups in distribution, manufacturing, and the service industry. As the Vice President of Human Resources, she conceived and developed internal training programs for her last two corporate employers. An attorney who specialized in employment law for several years, she received her law degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

"A crucial aspect of theHRedge is that it is the answer to the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach to HR consulting," Morford said. "When organizations call us with a particular need, we'll team them with one of our consultants who specializes in that HR area. That consultant will fashion specific, tailor-made solutions that are an outgrowth of a close, highly-informed relationship between the organization and consultant."

Among the areas in which theHRedge can assist organizations nationwide are:

• Management & Employee Training
• Compensation & Benefits Systems
• Compliance Audits
• Departmental Effectiveness Audits
• Strategic Facilitation
• Corporate Policy and Procedure Manuals
• Employee Surveys & Other Feedback Mechanisms
• Executive Coaching

About M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC

Founded in 1975 by Tennessee Attorney M. Lee Smith, M. Lee Smith Publishers today is one of America's most influential publishers of newsletters and other information products and services for human resources professionals, business executives, and attorneys. The company now offers 130 publications, including 50 state-specific employment law newsletters, as well as the Human Resources Executive award-winning Seven Danger Zones for Supervisors video-based training series, HR Executive Special Reports, guidebooks, software, and Internet-based research services.