Use a Professional Employment Organization and Save on Recruitment Costs
Posted on April 18, 2008
If your business is successful enough to have numerous employees, then you'll be aware of how costly it can be to administer. Whether it's employee benefits, health plans, simple payroll details or more, the costs to maintain your employee base can soon mount up. If you're finding that it's a cost that's draining your finances, then you may want to consider using a Professional Employment Organization, or PEO.
What is a PEO?
The best way to look at a professional employment organization is to consider it an outsourced part of your existing HR department. They can handle everything that an in-house HR department can, and often much more as well. For example, because experts in HR staff an outsourced HR company, you can be sure that people who know what they're doing, as opposed to a single HR specialist in-house with normal administrative assistants, are meeting all your employee details.
Additionally, as well as the cost-effectiveness of a professional employment organization, they can also handle the legal aspects that having a business with employees can entail. This includes hiring the employee; setting up their payroll details, insurance and taxes; and generally employing your staff member for you.
One area not to confuse a PEO with is that of a temporary employment agency. Although a PEO is providing you with your staff, it's actually as a full-time employee, as opposed to a temp who could move on at any time. This means that should an employee provided to you by a PEO wish to leave your company, they have to work to your requirements. So if you need one month's notice or three months, that's what they have to abide by.
The Benefits of a PEO
One of the biggest benefits of using a PEO is the overall savings it can make to your company's finances. Since you're not responsible for any of the employee's costs, you don't have to worry about the extra costs that these can incur - setting up taxes and the related admin costs, health plans, training, etc. All these costs are taken care of by the PEO.
Additionally, since a PEO handles all of the employee's financial details, they can also offer benefits that you might not be eligible for with a normal recruitment agency. For example, you could enjoy the benefits of group insurance, enabling you to save even more money on your usual employee costs. A PEO can offer you this package since it supplies numerous small businesses with employees, and can therefore offer the savings involved back to the employer.
If your business looks set to expand and you need new staff, consider a PEO before you set any advertising in motion for recruitment purposes. Not only will it save you the cost of the advertising, but it can save you much, much more in the long run.
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