PEO Overview
What is a PEO?
A professional employer organization (PEO) is not a staffing agency or human resources outsourcing company. A PEO works on behalf of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to manage HR management, employee benefits, compliance, payroll, retirement plans, and more. PrestigePEO is a professional employer organization, otherwise known as a PEO. We help you manage HR so you can focus on growing your business.
Many people associate PEOs with health insurance and other employee benefits, but that’s not all we do. PEOs offer SMBs a full spectrum of HR services and solutions that help lower employee benefit costs, reduce administrative workloads, and manage critical HR functions.
What Does a PEO Do?
A PEO works in partnership with SMBs to offer affordable healthcare options that would otherwise be difficult to access, handle payroll, ensure risk management, manage human resources administration, and more. Partnering with a PEO is also a simple and secure way for employers to ensure HR compliance across the board.
1. Reduce employee turnover
Employee turnover is expensive. Attract, reward, and retain top talent with premium employee benefits options and perks that won’t blow your budget.
2. Get Full-Service HR Support
A PEO isn’t a replacement for your HR team – it’s a full-service extension of it. PEOs enable SMBs to offer employees the benefits of a large-scale HR team at a fraction of the cost.
3. Mitigate Risk
Managing a workforce means employers must comply with a plethora of local, state, and federal regulations. A PEO works on behalf of SMBs to ensure compliance and proactively mitigate risk.
Did you know that most PEO partners would recommend a PEO to a colleague?
What’s the Difference Between a PEO and an HR Outsourcing Company?
Human resources outsourcing companies (HROs) and professional employer organizations (PEOs) offer similar services, but their approaches are quite different in practice.
HROs are private entities typically enlisted by large enterprises with robust HR departments to handle specific HR functions, such as payroll. HROs do not assume co-employer responsibilities or offer additional HR support.
PEOs serve as an extension of a business’s HR department and assumes certain responsibilities and liabilities on behalf of their client. This enables PEOs to deliver more value-added services to clients.
What is the Difference Between a PEO and a Staffing Company?
There are similarities between staffing companies and PEOs because of the nature of their business which focuses on HR. Businesses utilize staffing agencies to find talent, both part-time and full-time to fill positions. Therefore, the major difference between both a staffing agency and a PEO is around hiring. A PEO manages the HR tasks of your organization like employee benefits, payroll, and risk and compliance management. A PEO does not handle hiring. Staffing agencies help to place potential employees at your business. But PEOs leave the management of hiring, terminations, and wages up to the employer.
What is the difference between a PEO and a payroll company?
There are vast differences between a PEO and a payroll company. The major difference between a payroll company and perhaps the biggest con is that they are siloed in what they offer, in fact, they only offer one service: payroll execution and management.
The biggest pro of partnering with a PEO is that they become your full HR services and solutions team. This means that not only does a PEO put together your payroll for your employees, but they also make sure your business stays compliant both federally and statewide. This mitigates any potentially costly risks to you as the business owner. Additionally, and most notably, a PEO can offer your business fortune 500 employee benefits that obviously a payroll company does not provide, but also most businesses would not have access to. A PEO is a well-rounded team of HR specialists that provide all your HR services and solutions, whereas a payroll company can only check one item off your to-do list.
Why Partner with a PEO?
According to the National Association for Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO):
- Small businesses grow 7-9% faster when they work with a PEO
- Employee turnover is 10-14% lower
- Small businesses are 50% less likely to go out of business
Source: NAPEO
Areas of Expertise
Our experts deliver one-on-one support to clients ranging from small businesses to large enterprises – no chatbots here. Whether you have 10 employees or 500, you’ll have access to a dedicated team of certified HR specialists to guide your business forward.
We offer the following services and solutions:
- Premium health insurance options at competitive rates
- A wide variety of additional employee benefits and perks
- End-to-end payroll processing and tax remittance
- A dedicated team of certified HR management professionals for expert guidance as needed
- Compliance support for all applicable local, state, and federal laws
- Workers’ Compensation insurance and EPLI at reduced costs
- Support for recruitment, hiring, salary benchmarking, and background checks
- Automated time and attendance tools
- Administrative support for employee benefits, HR management, payroll, and compliance services
- Risk management best practices
- Employee Handbooks
Partnering with a PEO: How Does a PEO Work?
Once your business partners with a PEO, it assumes certain financial responsibilities on behalf of your business. This includes payroll administration and compliance with local, state, and federal tax laws. A PEO also assumes responsibility for employee benefits administration, legal and regulatory compliance, and any additional HR support required.
We work with your HR team to reduce their administrative workload across the board and provide comprehensive support for payroll services, employee benefits, risk management, and HR consulting. You retain ownership of day-to-day business operations and the direct management of your worksite employees. Watch our PEO video to get an inside look at what we can do for your business.
How Do Your Employees Benefit?
While internal HR managers are an integral component to success, SMBs tend to lack the bandwidth and resources required to tackle the sheer volume of HR tasks and processes at hand. By partnering with the right PEO, you can ensure your business has all the HR support it needs to help nurture and grow your workforce.
- Access to premium benefits at reduced costs
- Secure, accurate, and on-time payroll
- Full-service HR support from a dedicated team of certified experts
- Quick and efficient insurance claims processing
- HR technology and tools for a seamless employee experience
- Benefits advocacy
- Employee leave management
- Access to exclusive employee benefits, discounts, and perks
PEO Certifications: What Are They, and Why Do They Matter?
A number of organizations work to ensure PEOs adhere to strict regulatory standards that confirm their ability to take on financial risk and responsibility on behalf of clients.
Only 1% of PEOs in the United States maintain all three of the PEO industry’s primary certifications consisting of IRS certification, ESAC’s gold standard accreditation and financial assurance, and CI’s workers’ comp risk management certification.
- Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO): This IRS certification confirms a PEOs financial stability and strict financial and tax reporting requirements.
- Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC): This accreditation proves a PEO’s financial stability, ethical business practices, adherence to regulatory requirements and provides surety bonds that help protect the payment of wages, payroll taxes, employee benefits and insurance premiums.
- CI Institute Workers’ Compensation Risk Management Certification: This assures a PEO can deliver risk management best practices to reduce work-related accidents and health exposures and control workers’ compensation insurance losses.