6 Problems a PEO in Oregon Can Solve

A way to manage the human resources of your business and be cost effective at the same time is by outsourcing the management of your HR, payroll, employee benefits, workers’ compensation and government compliance to a Professional Employer Organization (PEO).

In businesses today, these matters are becoming more and more complex and have even expanded to include other optional services such as acquisition of talent, training of employees, and the management of employee performance. For that reason, your best approach is to turn to the experts for the management of human resources provided by a PEO in Oregon. This will allow you to focus and dedicate your time to the operational aspects of your business.

According to the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO), PEO’s offer businesses the following:

• Administration of employment
• A team of experienced professionals to provide guidance services and human capital strategies
• The reduction of employer liability through an improvement in practices of employment, risk management and compliance
• A means for smaller businesses to be competitive by providing access to an employee benefits package that is highly comprehensive
• The improvement of both productivity and profitability of businesses.

If your company is seeing a constant rise in workers’ compensation claims, you need to know the reason. But often, you simply don’t have the time to find out why. You are simply too busy managing your business, and workers’ comp claims are not high enough on your “to do” list.

That’s when you should partner with a PEO. A PEO can discover what is causing your claims as well as assist in the development and management of a plan of action to reduce these occurrences. For example, a PEO may offer the implementation of safety classes in order to promote safety and, therefore, reduce the cost of your claims.

Your workers’ compensation program, as well as other office duties, may require you to hire additional administrative staff for your office. However, the option that is more likely to be within your means is a PEO.

Besides a PEO being more affordable, a business that partners with a PEO gets lower rates for their workers’ compensation for the first two years of the partnership due to discounts. Therefore, by working with a PEO, your workers’ compensation program will cost less because of the speedy and significant discounts you receive.

If you’re having a difficult time keeping up with the ever-changing regulations and laws that may affect both your business and its employees, then a PEO may be the answer. A PEO can keep you informed and up-to-date, and they can assist you with plotting your course to get through these regulations and laws. A PEO will help with government compliance by handling your reporting to the IRS, managing unemployment claims as well as wage claims, and performing audits.

All too often business owners and management do not know the legal codes when hiring a person. They don’t understand how they may be discriminating (albeit unconsciously) against their age, disability, or other factors. Not only is this an issue during the process of hiring, but it can also be an issue afterwards when a person is on the job.

For instance, it is illegal to not hire a person because he or she has bad credit or a criminal record? It’s not illegal to do a credit check as well as a background check, but it is illegal to use bad credit and criminal records in your hiring decision. Additionally, there’s a series of rules by the ADA for disabled workers, not to mention discrimination laws based on age for people over 40.

Of course, the settlement cost of losing a discrimination suit can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. One option many businesses try is to buy insurance for employee lawsuits. This will, however, cost you a premium to be paid monthly. It will not prevent you from being sued, but it will cover the cost of settlements and your defense. In addition, lawsuit insurance is limited and you may have to pay an amount that goes over the cap of coverage.

A much better solution is to partner with a PEO in the first place. This is because not only will the PEO enhance your human resources department, but they can also assist you with setting up a structure for hiring employees, programs for training and more. Preventative measures such as these will make it far less likely that you will ever be faced with a lawsuit by an employee and paying fees due to not conforming to the government rules and regulations for compliance. Since PEOs know these rules and regulations, they will certainly help with keeping you informed.

All too often, a business can operates better when it is possible to provide professional development opportunities to employees. A PEO provides you with access to over 11,000 e-learning courses, assessments of skills and videos in many different disciplines, industries and categories of jobs. These equip employees with additional competence while adding to their professional skills. Competent and skilled employees are important to the success of any business.

Time and time again, the demands of business owners in daily human resources’ duties seem to simply be too much. Have you ever felt like what you need is a clone of yourself? Are you often faced with the seemingly impossibility of coping with an employee getting sick or going on vacation with their responsibilities left for you? With a PEO, the human resources’ duties such as payroll can always be done and on time. A PEO provides you with a complete team of human professionals that are always available.

By partnering with a PEO, a management team will recommend to you how to meet the needs of your company. They will make recommendations that will assist you, strengthening your workforce, enriching your vision and, most importantly, helping you accomplish your individual business goals.