PEO Services

Odds are you’re not familiar with PEO Services. To be honest, much of the world isn’t. It’s not a commonly used acronym and its vagueness leads to assumptions/presumptions that could be related to literally anything.

PEO, short for Professional Employer Organization, are Human Resource support services to small and medium-sized companies. These services work closely with HR to administer payroll-related taxes, benefits and similar administrative functions that do not require an advanced level of thought or insider knowledge of the business at hand. They were born out of the desire (and need) for small and medium business owners to be able to focus more intently on strategic, business-related issues and less on time-consuming, HR items.

Payroll

At a payroll level, data is entered, employee social security numbers registered, and the corresponding salary amounts already computed. The PEO Service enters and handles the administration of monthly or more frequent payroll delivery. Vendor and contractor changes, sick pay, maternity leave, all these nuanced, month to month changes that take time and are frankly more tiresome than sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic are now effectively outsourced.

Benefits

Anything surrounding onboarding, claims or similar benefits-related paperwork is handled by the PEO Service. This is especially helpful as the contracted service will also investigate (and if need be) negotiate medical, dental and vision coverage for the team. PEO models are adept at aggregating employees of multiple businesses to in turn obtain a critical mass with which to negotiate more favorable terms regarding the above-mentioned areas. This is a value added that only large businesses count on currently.

Compliance Support

A particularly onerous area, keeping up with W-2 and 1099 filings, unemployment insurance filings, workers’ compensation, these are areas that if neglected or put aside will cost small and medium size businesses much more in the long-term. A smartly integrated PEO Service can handle these issues and report on their progress monthly. Additionally, many PEO Services will also provide perks to customers (depending on their size) which could mean discounted gym memberships, commuter benefits, or pre-tax dollars to be used for transportation costs.

The best first step if you’re interested further is to tap into the National Association of PEOs website. Here you can review what all is involved in entering a PEO Service relationship with your business, average costs and exactly how this relationship can save money over the long-term. Considering that over one-third of businesses get dinged every year for payroll mistakes alone, PEO Services seem to be a smart solution.

For some of the top rated PEO Services, check out: Riffbuddy - PEO Services.