Thinking About Shared Service versus a PEO?

By Nicole Martin | July 26, 2021

Opinion: My Biggest Takeaways after Working with Both

With some luck, hard work, and determination, my quarter landed heads up, giving me the luck that I needed to land an HR position with a great company. I gained tons of great experience during my six-year tenure and gained first-hand knowledge of working with a PEO (professional employer organization) model during that time. I became the HR liaison between the company and the PEO – their go-to person for anything regarding a payroll, benefits or other HR question or concern.

We had great health benefit offerings, a dedicated team on the PEO side for administering payroll, and an excellent HR Specialist on the PEO side who was on stand-by to answer compliance questions, employee relations issues, or other topics where we needed an unbiased perspective.

Sometimes the PEO model worked well for my previous company. Sometimes it was limited because our employees were their employees too, which meant, at times, we were limited with what we could do, especially if it had anything to do with payroll or benefits. Thinking back on the experience working with a PEO, I can now recall feeling a bit stuck in some situations, but not realizing what I was feeling at the time.

Eventually, the coined flipped to tails. A different kind of luck came my way. This time, it came in the form of an HR consulting opportunity with HRBOOST®, the PEO alternative that takes pride in using the shared services model with a unique approach. While the shared services model is not unique – many large organizations use shared services – HRBOOST® takes the best of the shared services model and customizes its solutions for small to medium size businesses.

Any small or medium size business that works with HRBOOST® gets a dedicated HRBOOST® team that works with them to meet their needs, customizing solutions along the way. Rather than getting a cookie-cutter approach that many PEOs offer, HRBOOST® is embedded in the organizations we work with, learning how and where we can serve so they can reach their business goals. There are many benefits to working with HRBOOST® as an alternative to a PEO. Now that I’ve worked with both types of models throughout my career, here are the biggest takeaways most important to consider when thinking about going with a shared services model versus a PEO model:

COMPLIANCE: My experience with a PEO is that compliance is extremely important to them and the clients they serve, and therefore there is very little leeway when it comes to anything compliance related. For example, I recall the PEO would not accept a document from an employee that was signed via DocuSign. While DocuSign e-signatures are considered a legally sound signature, the PEO would not accept it. Period. They wanted a wet signature from the employee, which meant printing, signing, scanning and emailing the document over to them. I’m not saying that strict compliance is bad – it is not whatsoever – but a little flexibility could have helped ease some administrative burden. HRBOOST® ensures the organizations we serve are in compliance, but we do it in a way that is flexible for the organization to get their compliance needs met in the most efficient way possible.
RECRUITING: The PEO that I have experience with did offer recruiting as a service. The company did try out the recruiting service a few years before I joined and was not impressed with the results, so the company invested in hiring internal recruiters instead who knew our business and industry better than the PEO. HRBOOST® offers recruitment for our clients as well, but we have an edge. Since we are already embedded with the organizations we serve, we know each business, culture, and environment, which helps us to recruit top talent in a more meaningful and productive way.
BENEFITS: The benefits offerings from a PEO can be great for small businesses who would otherwise not be able to afford a comprehensive benefit package for their employees. There are many good things that come out of this, in my opinion. It gets tricky when the small business grows, and grows so fast that they become a medium size business that may want more choices and flexibility with their benefits offerings, but are locked in to a contract with a PEO provider. HRBOOST® partners with our clients to help them create the best benefits package they can offer to their employees, on their terms and with their insurance broker. It gives our clients the flexibility they need to make choices that are best for them and their employees, with the expertise and guidance from HRBOOST® to help them navigate options and best practices.

The PEO model may not be the best option for all organizations. When it comes to shared services, HRBOOST® offers a unique shared services model using a team-based approach to provide the expertise, flexibility, and customization to our clients, while adding collaborative strength, presence, and living for life affirming work.