Does a PEO Really Save Me Money?

The short answer-

A PEO is the iPhone of human capital – payroll, hr compliance, HRIS systems, time and attendance, performance management, PTO, health insurance and workers comp and unemployment, benefits admin (one bill), easy onboarding – everything annoying, time-consuming and that you can waste money or be sued for – all in one easy integrated bundle that can often save you a ton on health insurance because they are giant buying groups, and a ton of time because it is all integrated, and with HR and legal back up  –  those are the good ones.  The bad ones can make you more miserable. (so how do you make sure you don’t pick the wrong one? – see below in these FAQs) 

Watch a quick video here

There are 700 and growing, and our guess is you should do business with about 650 of them. Of the 50 left you have some that specialize, while others are local, and you even have some that are national – some have great service, some have great technology, some a history of great renewals, others are about to be purchased, there are some that hide so many fees you will never know about, some are CPEOs (see the FAQ on this), some are putting in new i.t. systems, some were good last year and now omg they are so terrible it’s baffling and–  wow that was a mouthful. So, in short, they all will tell you they do everything a PEO should do, but most don’t and most just don’t do them well.  Basically it’s like most businesses, but because this one encompasses so many aspects (things like medical, PTO, 401k, payroll, OSHA, etc) the worst thing you can do is pick the wrong one and end up having to switch the next year (DON’T be like Caesar in our picking the wrong PEO video linked).  Finally, once again we must caution you – the direct reps from the PEO’s are paid a lot and to do one thing – sell you the PEO they are working for that year. Our informant spills ALL!

So, who do you get objective advice from?  See our FAQ about the shopping process.

You would think going directly to a provider is the least expensive way to shop – but it isn’t, and here’s why.

• Direct sales forces are very expensive – see below for more on how much they cost you. Buying through large channel partners is almost always guaranteed to be less expensive, and give you a better deal. Amazon, Wayfair, Hotel Tonight, Priceline, etc.
• A direct rep only sells that company, and once you call them and get in the PEOs salesman’s Retail pricing Sales system, you are often stuck at higher prices. Don’t get sucked into the rabbit hole before it’s too late!
• Direct sales reps have quotas – the more they charge you the more they make and the closer they are to their quotas. When they’re talking to you, they don’t care about you or your business, they just want to hurry up and close a deal so they can move on to the next unsuspected business owner.
• Direct sales reps don’t have the buying power of a large distributor – see below how much this can cost you in all the fees.
• Direct sales reps can only sell one company – so with that being said do you really think they’ll keep you up to date on that company’s issues, or just recommend one that is better?
  • For example – when times get tough they conveniently “forget” to tell you about how they just lost a lot of clients and/or staff, how the modules really aren’t fully integrated, how they’re about to be sold, the ‘new’ software isn’t working well, a bad block of renewals is coming, e They’ll string you along for a client until the absolute last day, and then leave you hanging.
  • Do you think they are going fairly spreadsheet all the competition (all fees, services, medical plans) and break it down in a way that lets you accurately see the best option out of all of the ones you have? No – you’ll have to do all of these comparisons on your own and learn how to do it right. The problem is, doing it right isn’t actually the easiest thing to do unless you know the behind the scenes real facts on this business game-changing decision)
• Do you think they will negotiate with all the other competitions as hard as a large distributor? Do you think they even have the power to? (hint: they don’t).
• You use brokers now – for medical, and workers comp – for a good reason. Would you hire someone who’s just painted a small shed in his backyard to paint your house, or would you rather hire a fully serviced professional painting crew? That’s the difference.
• Don’t call direct and get stuck paying retail. As soon as they answer the phone their one objective is to get you added to a spreadsheet as another client, paying way more than they should for a lot less of the services than they should be getting.
• Don’t call direct – People get stuck on average spending 63 hours talking to each direct rep, looking at their demos, and comparing everything. 63 Whole hours? You would definitely be better off spending all that time optimizing and expanding your business, wouldn’t you? That’s almost 3 days’ worth of time just trying to find the right PEOs and Services when you could meet with a broker and get it done in a fraction of the time!

Want to compare PEOs? Click here to view a sample of potential savings.

1. Their broker told them they are terrible. 
2. They don’t want to spend the time on getting another quote (p.s. it doesn’t take a lot of your time if you use the right PEO broker). 
3. They love their broker and think PEOs are like getting quote from another insurance broker (but it is far from that – it is accessing bulk buying that your broker doesn’t have access to and doesn’t want you to know about. 
4. You got a quote years ago and it wasn’t good – (but the industry has changed dramatically after the federal act came out to regulate this industry and technology has allow you do things you couldn’t before, and the private market health rates still keep going up.) 
5. A major reason to get these quotes is honestly it is your job and now the courts have just made you actually personally liable if you don’t make sure you get the best deals for your employees under ERISA. 

Ok – Glad you asked.   This is all we do.  We have professional staff. We have clout with all the PEO’s. We have infrastructure and systems. We have been doing this for years. We love what we do. On average we save clients 25% but we are totally objective and will help you determine the ROI if a PEO is right for you in the first place.  Our clients use us for years – for renewals with PEOs, for ongoing service issues and even to change PEOs if they have different needs or the PEO isn’t doing their job.  Click here to find out more about us, our history and testimonials. 

We wrote the book on the industry.  We are straight forward and make this exploration of yours efficient, honest and a pleasure. 

Who is SBE479?  You will see that on some of our literature – years ago we had this as our name – it is because this is all we do and SBE479 stands for the Small Business Efficiency Act #479 – this is the federal act that governs the industry.  

We are a PEO Broker.

Will a PEO integrate with your existing accounting and point of service systems?

This is right to the point. It’s not selling you want from your PEO, it’s not an “I’ll tell you all the great things I can do and show you all the things you gotta lookout for” situation – but don’t forget as you’re reading this that they really are great and they really do amazing things. The purpose of this is to make you realize that the shopping process itself and the selection process is fundamentally important to decide, whether you decide, to use a PEO in the first place, and which PEO to choose.

Technology Changed EVERYTHING:

In the past, most PEO‘s were not really fully integrated. The systems just really didn’t work well together even if they were the same platform, and most were simply a patchwork of systems.

Now many – but definitely not all – have fully integrated systems that: Are user-friendly, easy to implement, and seriously help with running a business.

We have plans for every vertical.

Including:

• Technology
• Manufacturing
• Medical
• Staffing
• Hospitality
• Venture Capital
• and so many more!

Our underwriters have quality providers in every vertical and industry- in every state, and every size from 25 to 5,000 employees.

Set up a meeting here to get fast quotes.

Of course not! We eliminate the annoying and expensive parts of running a business so that you can focus on growing your business.

It all started originally as staffing companies or employee leasing companies that primarily operated in employee leasing services. Sometimes the PEOs were even used to play recruiting companies to assist businesses in getting Worker’s Comp. When the state wouldn’t provide it or for highly paid doctors who wanted to get defined benefit plans and pensions for themselves but not give it to their employees.

Today a PEO has the ability to focus your time on building your company into what you have always dreamed it could be.

Read more here.

Finding the right PEO and employee leasing solutions is our business.

Read more here.

We have the clout to get you lower admin rates, lower set up fees, lower medical costs, and lower worker’s comp costs. We leave no stone unturned and have decades of experience choosing the right services for you, getting the modules you wouldn’t normally get! We tell you everything you can get and make sure nothing is left out, while also getting them for less than the PEO direct salesperson (who you will never see again after the sale) would!

They’re a big franchise supermarket chain – they couldn’t care less about the average, daily customer as their way of thinking is “We’ll just get more,” but we treat you like family, like a valued member of the community.

Because that PEO salesperson is only representing a single company, they will only try to steer you toward their direction.  They aren’t telling you what is inferior with their only product, and they’ll do whatever it takes to turn you into just another client on their list. It’s easy to overlook the problems they have if they hide all of them from you in the first place. You need to go to the people who care about getting the best for you and your employees. Macy’s doesn’t sell Gimbels.

The difference between us is we treat you like a person – they just treat you like another client on a spreadsheet, and once you sign on the dotted line with that salesperson that’s usually the last, you’ll see of them. They’ve got 299 more customers to sign-up and you’re immediately put on the backburner.