As a small business owner, you have a lot on your plate. As your business grows, you’ll need more employees on your roster, which adds human resource administration to your growing list of stressors. Luckily for you, human resource outsourcing is a convenient and accessible option that can help to lighten your load.
Working with a company that specializes in human resource organization can save you both time and money. In addition, the peace of mind knowing that you have experts on your side to help you mitigate any potential risks surrounding employment law allows you to focus your time and energy on what matters most to you - growing your business.
What is a PEO?
PEO stands for professional employer organization. In essence, it is a term used to describe an organization that is in the business of offering specialized HR help. They are often a full-service HR resource, offering everything from HR policy advice to payroll management and employee benefits administration.
How does a PEO Work?
When working with a professional employer organization, you are entering into a partnership in which you and the PEO co-employ your staff. This partnership serves to provide support, guidance, and administrative responsibility for your growing business.
As the business owner, you retain full management of the employee’s day-to-day responsibilities: you establish their wages, make hiring and termination decisions, and are responsible for tracking their performance/growth.
The PEO’s responsibility is to manage the associated administrative work, such as onboarding paperwork, payroll and risk management, employee benefits, and workers’ compensation.
Why Use a PEO?
For a small business owner, it’s daunting to feel as though, in addition to managing business development, you also have to become an expert in employment law and administration. That’s where the benefit of a PEO can come into play. Here are a number of specific ways that outsourced HR can help your small business.
1. Time and Cost Savings
As a small business, time and money are the most valuable resources at your disposal: with that in mind, research shows that the time and money saved by using a PEO has proven to be beneficial for business development.
As shown above, studies show that businesses partnering with a PEO average a 40% higher revenue growth, 14-16% lower employee turnover rate, and 50% lower likelihood of going out of business versus organizations managing their human resources solely in-house.
What’s more, a study conducted by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) found that an employer partnering with outsourced HR professionals can average a 27.3% return on their investment and a business growth rate 7-9% higher than that of their counterparts.
These growth statistics are exactly the results your small business needs to see. Having a PEO on your team to manage your HR and help you mitigate its associated risks sets you on the right path to success.
2. HR Compliance
Legal compliance in the field of human resources is extremely complicated. HR laws cover a wide array of legal subjects including discrimination, immigration, leaves of absence, wage and hour, and more. Without the expertise to navigate these various subjects and all of the special situations they present, a small business can land itself in court, costing time and money.
3. Payroll Services
Also in the list of confusing resource management topics is employee tax and payroll administration. Thankfully, you can count on a PEO to help you with these services as well.
Outsourcing for payroll administration safeguards that your payroll is processed in an accurate, timely, and consistent manner. By leaving paycheck remittance and withholdings to payroll professionals, you can run your business with the peace of mind that employment taxes have been allocated correctly. Moreover, you are contributing to employee satisfaction and retention by sending your employees the right amount of money on time every time.
4. Attract and Retain Employees
On the subject of employee satisfaction, PEOs can be a contributing factor to this, as well. We are currently in the midst of a volatile job market that has been termed “The Great Resignation” by economists. As such, it’s more critical than ever that you offer an attractive benefits package to your employees.
This can be an expensive feat for small business owners, but working with a PEO can grant you access to a wide range of employee benefits at a reduced cost. Here at FrankCrum, for example, we are able to access benefits programs at discounted rates, which we pass on to you. 
As a small business owner, it’s important for your company to attract top talent - having great employees can set you on the course for success, and is the best way for your business to take off.
Moreover, it’s important to keep the right people, once you’ve hired them. According to a Gallup survey, the cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee's annual salary. That’s money that can be spent in business growth ventures instead, so finding the right fit is critical.
Businesses that partner with a PEO report 14-16% lower turnover rates. This translates to fewer expenses allocated to finding and onboarding replacements, and more resource allocation toward business growth and development ventures.
Our sister company FrankCrum Staffing can help you find this talent, and working with a PEO like us here at FrankCrum can help you keep these people with a great benefits package.
In Conclusion
Working with a PEO offers support for your startup or small business in a variety of ways. They offer payroll, staffing, and worker’s compensation services all packaged into one place, giving you time to focus on the goals and the future of your business.
At FrankCrum, you are working with a designated team who knows your business, so you have a reliable and recognizable point of contact. Reach out to us today to find out more and to receive your own personalized quote.
