Professional Employer Organizations, or PEO’s, provide a number of cost saving benefits to small businesses.  First and foremost, PEO’s can provide access to large group employee benefits for health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, usually providing better coverage at lower costs than a small company could obtain on their own.  Then there is access to 401(k) plans with access to better funds and with administrative fees that are significantly lower than a small business could expect with their own stand-alone plan.  Given that employee morale and retention is based more on the value of benefit plans available than compensation, this should be enough to get your attention.  As a matter of fact, employers who work with a PEO employee turnover that is more than 10% lower than other companies.

But there is more.  Besides access to better benefit plans at lower cost, PEO’s save their clients on average 35% on human resource administration costs.  This translates into more operating efficiencies translates into higher revenue for 70% of PEO clients.

So, what exactly is a PEO?  It is basically a corporate HR Department that allows small businesses access to the same level experience and service as large corporations.  This frees up the time of owners and managers to focus on running and growing the business instead of dealing with HR issues of which they have very little knowledge.  However, it also saves them money since the client only pays for the level of services they need and do not need to hire full time payroll, benefits and HR staff to handle these matters.

The following is a summary of the PEO services available to small business clients:

• PAYROLL – full payroll services, including I-9 verification, direct deposits to employees, filing and payment of quarterly tax returns and issuing year end W-2’s
• BENEFIT ADMINISTRATION – administration of all employee benefit plans, including annual enrollment meetings, resolution of claims processing issues and COBRA administration
• EMPLOYEE RELATIONS – Advisory services to assist in preparation of employee handbooks and job descriptions, recruiting, employee performance management, workers’ compensation administration and handling unemployment claims
• REGULATORY COMPLIANCE – Provide guidance and advisory services to ensure clients remain compliant with all government regulations, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Affordable Care Act, OSHA, EEOC and the many other federal and state regulations with which all companies must comply

For more information on how hiring a PEO can save your small business time and money, contact John Morlock at Total Team Solutions at 800-836-9678 or email him at jmorlock@ttspro.com.  Also, check out the company website at www.ttspro.com.