Traditionally, hiring and paying new people meant the painstaking process of getting them on payroll, setting up their tax deductions, and enrolling them in workers' compensation and other insurance plans. And if you're like many small businesses owners, this meant spending nights and weekends doing all this work yourself.
But if you're still doing your own payroll and benefits paperwork, you're leaving money on the table and putting your business at risk. A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can not only save you time and money, but reduce your risk of HR-related problems. Here are a few ways a PEO service can benefit your business:
PEO Companies Let You Stay Focused on Your Business.
Chances are, your vision for building your business did not include hours a week working through payroll and insurance paperwork. PEO providers will handle all this for you, ensuring your team gets the pay and benefits they've earned while freeing you to take your business to the next level.
Complete payroll management includes paychecks, direct deposit, and pay cards for compensation of your employees.
Also included are:
- Payroll compliance
- Record maintenance and management
- Online pay stubs
- Deduction administration
- Wage garnishments
PEOs Keep You in Legal Compliance.
Even the best-intentioned business owners find it challenging to keep up with the legal landscape when it comes to HR: Is your workplace ADA compliant? Are the policies you've included in your employee handbook consistent with current labor, anti discrimination, and privacy laws (for that matter, what if you never had the time to put together an employee handbook)?
Your PEO company will take all these concerns off your hands— PEOs are staffed with HR experts who will work with you to ensure your policies are clear, transparent, and compliant with current regulations.
PEOs Offer Affordable Employee Benefits.
To attract great people, you need to offer great benefits—but for some small businesses, the price can be prohibitive. When you work with a PEO, the PEO offers them group healthcare benefits, not you.
And because PEO providers can very often get better rates for high-quality health and workers' compensation insurance than you can, your team enjoys better benefits while you enjoy significant savings. It's a win-win for everyone.
Depending on your industry and the PEO you partner with, you may enjoy a surprising range of benefits. Some PEOs offer benefits including vision and dental insurance, HR training for your staff, support with hiring and interviewing, or workers' compensation plans for high-risk industries.
A PEO Can Boost Your Employee Productivity and Retention.
It's tough for many small businesses to ensure rules and policies for employee conduct are enforced fairly—and some may not even have fixed rules and policies in place at all. But inconsistently applied rules can lead to friction and resentment, which can result in lower productivity and team member retention.
With a PEO company, you have a trusted partner who can help you develop and enforce transparent, fair, and consistent policies. This ensures everyone on your team is on the same page and keeps your team morale strong by eliminating guesswork and perceptions of unequal treatment.
According to a recent study by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO), PEOs have established their ability to increase employee engagement, retention and profitability. Businesses who use a Professional Employer Organization report high scores on key measures related to employee satisfaction:
- Levels of employee engagement (+5)
- Belief that employer is taking the right steps to be competitive (+8)
- Confidence in employer's approach to growing the company (+5)
PEO Companies Free You from Red Tape.
Professional Employer Organizations handle all your HR-related paperwork, from maintaining employee records to conducting employment verification and background checks and tracking vacation hours. And because all your paperwork is done by seasoned HR pros, you can be confident it will be done right.
ELQ Finds the Perfect PEO for You.
ELQ works with a broad range of PEOs that offer services for small, mid-sized, and large businesses. PEOs vary in their specialties, terms, and pricing- and we save you the time and effort required to interview each one.
Just one call to us covers all of the bases, because we put our expertise to work for you. Plus, our negation and leverage in the industry ensure you get the BEST pricing. Fill out our online request form or give us a call. Since 2001, we've helped business owners just like you save time and money.
