Finding the right back-office administrator to help with your employee management can be daunting. It’s time consuming and researching, understanding which PEO would best suit your needs/goals isn’t a priority for an owner, controller or HR director. Using a PEO broker is like using a broker for any other industry, they have extensive knowledge, understanding and relationships with many PEO’s in the industry. If you’re interested in buying a house, a real estate broker will do their due diligence by understanding your goals, needs/wants, price range and search the market using their relationships, industry knowledge and experience for showings of houses that would be a good suit for the future home owner. A very similar process is used with a PEO broker. A PEO broker will gather your goals, needs/wants identify 4-5 different PEO’s and obtain quotes in order to present the best options available to meet your objectives.
Every company has different objectives, from cost reductions to service improvement, workers comp coverage, health benefit plan improvement etc. A PEO broker will be able to direct the company in the right direction and the right PEO that would be a better suited for that company. A company owner may ask, “Why wouldn’t we want to go direct to the PEO?”. A great question, if an owner, HR director, controller is happy with meeting with 4-5 different PEO’s, hearing sales pitches, cost-comparisons and reasons why they’re the best PEO out there, then a PEO broker may not be best suited for you. However, many business owners, HR directors and controllers understand the value of time and money where they do not have the time to meet and communicate with 4-5 different PEO reps. A PEO broker will come from a consultative approach and they will do all the leg work in order to find the right PEO placement for you by gathering quotes and presenting the advantages and disadvantages of each company and collectively making the right choice for your company without any favor of PEO.
Once a final decision has been made to take next steps, there is an interview process with 1-2 PEOs. The PEO broker will organize a meeting with those specific PEOs and it’s more of an interview of the PEO to get a touch and feel of who they are, what they’re about, their HRIS (Human Resources Information System) and see if that PEO is a great fit. Lastly, which is the best part, there is no extra fee to use a PEO broker. A PEO broker acts as an outside sales rep for many PEO’s he/she has relationships with. If there was a final decision to move forward with a PEO, that PEO would pay the PEO broker directly as there is no extra “broker fee”. Even if there is a change in a PEO or starting a new PEO, the owner, HR director, controller will get a full understanding and education of current costs using their current PEO or moving to a different PEO.
If you’re interested in reviewing your current PEO or wish to explore more about using a PEO, please contact Jeff Schield at SchieldPEO.