How Using a PEO Gives You Back Your Business
Unless you've lived under a rock for the last few years, you've probably heard of "Professional Employer Organizations" or PEOs. For those of us who enjoy the under-a-rock lifestyle, I wrote this quick brief on what exactly a PEO does and how it can save your business potentially thousands — and give you weeks of your life back.
What does a PEO do?
A PEO helps small-medium size businesses in four ways:
In a nutshell: a PEO eliminates the need for a dedicated HR staff/staff member or multiple vendors while streamlining core support services for employees. It does this through a concept called co-employment — in essence, the PEO becomes a business partner who manages all the details of your employees while you manage your employees.
What's that look like during your day-to-day?
Payroll
A solid, reliable payroll solution is the easiest shortcut to keep happy employees. A PEO ensures your employees are paid correctly and on time. Come tax season, the PEO handles your W-4’s, I-9’s and ensures your employee’s W-2’s are correct and sent out. You don't lift a finger — probably an improvement from last January.
Health Insurance
PEOs are best known for allowing their users to offer your employees affordable, quality benefits from top-rated carriers at prices not available on the open market. You're leveraging the buying power of the entire PEO to get rich benefits for your employees at no extra cost — a guaranteed talent magnet.
PEOs also give you access to dental, vision, group life, and disability insurances, once unthinkable for small to mid-sized businesses. Add the fact that a PEO also handles your enrollments, claims, COBRA, and your annual renewals, and your work life just got easier, more affordable, and most importantly, more full of benefits.
Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation insurance is a non-negotiable necessity, but a PEO helps take out the sting of paying premiums for your employees. You're added to their master policy, guaranteeing you lower rates than you could get individually — but you'll also enjoy no year-end audits and no obligation to put up money to begin the policy.
Human Resources
HR is vital to have a solid, sound company. PEOs allow you to not only be compliant in your respective states and on a federal level but give your employees the benefit of a fully-staffed, always-available HR department for all of their needs — without having to outfit a full-sized HR department yourself. Additionally, a PEO helps you with your handbooks, training, offer letters and even recruitment. Imagine having a corporate 500 HR department at your service — now imagine not having to pay even a fraction of a full-time salary for their help.
What's the big picture?
Long story short: a PEO helps you alleviate multiple vendors, streamline the most important functions of having employees, and gives you the ability to attract the best talent. Thanks to the inherent economy of scale within a PEO, you'll save bundles while gaining advantages well out of reach for the average small business.
Meanwhile, you get to focus fully on building your business, rather than maintaining it and chasing claims, renewals, forms, and tax filing.
Interested in a PEO?
Start and finish your search here in ten minutes. You read that correctly — our free service will compare your current costs to the best PEO quotes from our partners without you making any calls or contacts. You've got nothing to lose, and potentially thousands to gain.