Business owners often think of an HR outsourcing company as someone to handle payroll, benefits, and HR-related government compliance issues. But, there’s much more these organizations can do to impact your business for the good.
The fact is: Most business owners are not employment experts. Management of employees, benefits and legal compliance is time-consuming and something for which most business owners are ill-prepared.
But, HR outsourcing companies understand how to organize people and processes around a common purpose to help you attain business goals. They can provide professionals who collaborate with your company’s leadership to diagnose problems and offer solutions geared at helping to minimize employment-related risks and improving company profitability.
Take time to visit the HR outsourcing company’s website and see what services it provides. Read your contract. You may be surprised to learn a professional employer organization (PEO) not only gives your employees access to benefits that would be far too costly for most small businesses to provide, but also offers a wealth of services to help you energize your employees and improve engagement and productivity.
Build a thriving company
HR outsourcing complements a business, no matter where it is in its growth cycle. Start-ups, growing mid-market businesses, and companies focused on stability or reinvention, can all benefit from an HR outsourcing partner who can develop and implement a plan that aligns management and employees with business goals and objectives to achieve optimal results.
At a minimum, an HR outsourcing company frees a business owner from having to handle many common, time-intensive issues such as inaccurate paychecks, employee leaves of absence, unemployment claims, and updating policies due to changing HR-related government laws.
In addition, your HR partner should be able to provide your employees with a number of expected and desirable benefits, such as medical plans, retirement plans, life and disability insurance, employee assistance programs, and health care flexible spending accounts, all managed online. Such companies can also help you implement flexible hours and remote work arrangements, which are particularly popular with employees.
Best of all, an HR outsourcing company automates processes and makes many resources available and easily accessible online, giving employees 24/7 access to their information and freeing hours once spent handling employee administration on paper. Such technology also gives company leadership the ability to easily run reports to analyze issues related to people management.
If you’re having trouble hiring or keeping employees, your HR consultant can analyze compensation and benefits across the organization, then make recommendations to keep your company competitive.
Develop your team
An HR outsourcing company can help you find, interview and hire strong candidates for job openings. First, your consultant will have skills and experience in crafting job descriptions and identifying the core competencies and behaviors expected of successful employees. They also have knowledge of the best places to advertise open positions to attract qualified candidates.
While it may seem like a small detail, the job description may be a candidate’s first impression of your company and its culture. A poorly written, vague or overly complex job description doesn’t allow your company to put its best foot forward.
Once you’re ready to interview, an HR coach can help you and your hiring managers improve their interview skills and learn ways to identify people who will fit your company’s culture. Once you’ve hired a new employee, your PEO consultant can provide an onboarding and orientation program to help the newbie acclimate faster.
Then, once you’ve got them in the door, your PEO partner will have the resources to help you learn to be a better leader. Maybe you need coaching on how to handle a difficult employee situation. Or, maybe you need someone to gather the relevant information and documentation necessary for a round of layoffs.
An experienced HR consultant can provide the support you need to help ensure such complex employee interactions are handled in ways that are both caring and compliant with HR best practices.
They can also conduct climate surveys and offer unbiased feedback on ways to address issues impacting employee morale. Since there’s a direct correlation between employee happiness and profitability, addressing “soft” issues could lead to better productivity without a large cash outlay.
Find your HR sidekick
Join a team of quirky office workers as they plunge into the world of HR outsourcing. With a blend of humor and practical insights, they navigate how to find the right HR partner for their business needs.
Support for business growth
Common scenarios where an HR professional can support your business as it grows include:
- Analysis of possible HR issues related to a potential merger or acquisition
- Cultural integration post-merger/acquisition
- Coaching and training for mid- and executive-level leaders
- Strategic planning for your workforce and infrastructure
- Succession planning
Say your company needs to open a new office. Your PEO should be able to handle much of the employer-related compliance you encounter when opening a new office in another city or state. For example, your PEO partner may be able to help you with certain employment laws and regulations applicable to your new location, including unpaid leaves of absence and paid sick leaves.
HR issues can be complex. Your HR outsourcing company has the resources to handle much of that complexity and free you to focus on running your business.
An HR outsourcing company can help your business perform more effectively, improve profits and reduce risk by handling or assisting you with certain HR-related issues. By connecting with an outsourcing provider to assist with managing human resources and organizing your people to execute on your business strategies, your business growth and revenue will likely accelerate.
Still not sure a PEO is right for you? Consider hiring an HR outsourcing company to handle a one-off project, such as a salary review or conducting a compliance review of your existing employment policies and practices. Such a trial run will help you judge whether this is the HR services company to partner in your company’s growth.
Dare to compare HR outsourcing companies. Download our free e-book, A buyer’s checklist: how to compare professional employer organizations.