What Does Your PEO Actually Include? An Insider's Breakdown
Short answer: Beyond payroll and benefits, many PEO plans include HR consulting, compensation support, training, safety support and organizational development resources. Exactly what you get depends on your PEO and your plan. The catch is that most of these services only help if someone at your company actively uses them, and most small companies don't.
I spent nine years inside a publicly traded PEO. This isn't a criticism of PEOs. It's a guide to getting the value you're already paying for, written from the inside.
The core: what everyone uses
These are the services almost every PEO client uses, because they run automatically:
Payroll processing and payroll tax filing
Employee benefits through the PEO's larger group plans
Workers' compensation coverage and claims
HR technology for employee records, time off and onboarding
An HR service team you can call for guidance
The services clients often pay for and rarely use
Depending on your PEO and plan, these may be included too. In my experience, they're where the unused value hides:
1. Compensation benchmarking
Market pay data and help building pay ranges. Without it, raises and offers become guesswork, and pay inequities creep in quietly.
2. Manager and harassment training
Onsite training sessions for your team, plus a learning platform with courses employees can take on their own. Most employees never log in unless someone makes training part of how the company runs.
3. Safety audits
A walk-through of your workplace to identify OSHA risks before an inspector or an injury finds them. Especially valuable for construction, manufacturing, healthcare and anyone with a warehouse or job site.
4. Organizational development consulting
Leadership assessments like DISC, 9-box talent reviews and leadership development training. This is how growing companies build a bench of future leaders, and it's one of the most underused resources I saw.
Why these go unused
None of these services start themselves. Someone has to request them, schedule them, get managers to show up and follow through on what comes out of them. At most companies with 10 to 75 employees, that person is the owner, and the owner is busy running the business.
That's the real PEO gap. It's not that the PEO doesn't offer enough. It's that nobody inside your company owns using it.
How to find out what your plan includes
Ask your PEO rep for a list of every service included in your current plan.
Ask which of those services your company used in the last 12 months.
Pick the two that would make the biggest difference this year and put them on the calendar.
Assign one person to own follow-through. If you don't have that person, that's your answer about whether you need HR support inside the business.
For a fuller checklist, see How to Get Your Money's Worth From Your PEO.
Frequently asked questions
Does a PEO provide an HR manager?
Most PEOs provide an HR service team and specialists you can work with, but they support many client companies. They aren't an HR manager working inside your business day to day.
Is a PEO worth the cost?
For many small companies, yes, especially for benefits and administration. It's worth much more when someone actively uses the consulting, training and development resources included in your plan.
Does every PEO plan include training and safety audits?
No. Services vary by PEO and by plan. Ask your PEO representative for a written list of what's included in yours.
See what you're missing
Take the free PEO Gap Check. It takes about two minutes and shows the top three places your PEO investment isn't paying off.
UNTIL NEXT TIME,
Stacey
Stacey Dennis, SHRM-SCP, is the founder of Possibilities Unlocked, a fractional HR firm for growing companies. She spent nine years inside a publicly traded PEO before starting her firm.