Helping Clients Understand PEO Benefits

The life of a small business owner involves a constant juggle of countless tasks while keeping an eye on ever-changing compliance regulations. In an ideal world, they’d be focused on growth and innovation.

Instead, regulatory pressures and competition from larger companies force small business owners to spend a significant portion of their valuable time on administrative tasks, such as HR and benefits management.

A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can simplify all of this. As an insurance broker or trusted advisor, being able to offer the services of a PEO to clients in need instantly gives you a leg up on your competition.

In today’s blog, we’ll help you understand the core benefits of working with a PEO and how to explain those to your clients - especially ones with concerns about working with a 3rd party.

Understanding PEO Services

To offer the best possible explanation to your clients, you’ll need to be an expert on the benefits working with a PEO provides. They’ll want to know the decision-making that led you to partner with a PEO, including the full scope of what a PEO offers.

Making Life Easier for Small Business Owners

SMB owners have a difficult problem to solve. For their smaller organization to be successful, it needs to be agile and fast enough to take advantage of market inefficiencies and drive growth.

Yet they’re subject to the same compliance laws, regulations, and administrative challenges that larger companies are; and they’re facing them with a fraction of the resources.

PEOs exist to bridge the gap between administrative burdens and the limited resources that SMB owners have access to.

Today’s PEOs offer services like:

• Human Resources: PEOs assist with recruitment, employee relations, and compliance, freeing up your clients to focus on the core of their business.
• Benefits Administration: PEOs offer access to competitive benefits packages that small and mid-sized businesses might be unable to secure on their own.
• Compliance: Navigating federal and state employment laws can be daunting. PEOs provide expertise to increase compliance, helping clients protect themselves from legal risk.

Ultimately, working with a PEO reduces businesses' administrative load by offering a wide range of useful services. Emphasizing this fact allows brokers to position themselves as strategic advisors who can offer comprehensive solutions to more than just benefits-related or workers’ comp issues.

Outlining PEO Benefits

Choosing to work with a PEO can be a powerful way to add value to your services and improve the lives of your customers.

Here are just a few ways that PEOs benefit companies that work with them:

Cost Savings and Efficiency

For small businesses, especially those in saturated or growing industries, competition is fierce. They must find ways to offer great products at a reasonable price with only a fraction of the resources large corporations can access.

To succeed in this difficult environment, they have to take every opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiency. 

By utilizing economies of scale, PEOs can provide these businesses with access to better rates for benefits and insurance. In addition, they can streamline HR processes and reduce the administrative overhead of benefits management.

Most importantly, they give SMB owners the freedom to focus on growing their business instead of getting bogged down in an administrative fog.

Compliance

Keeping up with compliance is a never-ending process. Laws and regulations change constantly, necessitating a watchful eye to keep everything afloat.

PEOs offer this vigilance on behalf of their clients. In addition to staying up to date with changing regulations, they can also advise on how to avoid costly legal issues due to noncompliance with employment laws. Combined, this makes them a powerful defender in an uncertain regulatory environment.

Enhancing Benefit Offerings

A top-tier benefits package is a key way to attract and retain top talent. However, shelling out revenue for the best health insurance plans is a burden most SMB owners can’t afford.

PEOs can level the playing field when it comes to benefits. By partnering with a PEO, an SMB’s employees can have access to benefits that the SMB may have difficulty reaching on its own.

This means better health and retirement plans, higher employee satisfaction, and lower turnover rates.

These are just a few of the many benefits a PEO can offer their clients, but it’s a good baseline to help you understand their value. Now we’ll get more specific, and talk about 5 common questions clients may have and how to answer them.

Answering 5 Common Questions from Clients about PEO Benefits

Every client will have unique concerns about partnering with a PEO. Here are 5 of the most common questions you’re likely to encounter, and how you can use them as opportunities to explain the value of PEO benefits.

1. “How much will using a PEO cost us?”

PEOs do come with an initial cost that can make SMB owners pause. However, when you choose the right PEO, those costs are offset by the long-term savings of better rates on benefits, compliance support, and improved efficiency.

2. “Will we lose control over our HR functions?”

Businesses retain control over all HR decisions. A PEO is there to support and enhance HR functions, not take over decision-making.

3. “How does a PEO impact our employees?”

When you partner with the right PEO, your employees only stand to gain. They’ll see better benefits and support at competitive  rates. Additionally, by freeing up management, they can expect better employee development at work.

4. “Are we too small/large for a PEO?”

PEOs cater to businesses of all sizes with scalable solutions tailored to specific needs. This is true whether you’re a small startup or a larger enterprise.

5. “What if we’re not satisfied with the PEO?”

Most PEOs offer flexible contracts and dedicated support to address concerns. Businesses can discuss needs upfront and adjust as necessary.

The Right PEO Benefits Companies of All Sizes in Any Industry

PEO benefits are wide-ranging. They include streamlining HR processes, ensuring compliance, and providing cost-effective benefits, significantly lightening the load for small business owners. For brokers and trusted advisors, recommending a reliable PEO like BBSI can enhance their service offerings and client satisfaction.

At BBSI, we value this “win-win-win” situation, because we know it’s the key to mutual prosperity.

We’re committed to helping our clients and partners in any way we can, which is why we offer services that range from HR support to staffing, compliance, and strategy.

If you're seeking a PEO partnership that prioritizes your success, contact BBSI today and discover how we can help elevate your brokerage and your clients’ business.