What are Professional Employer Organizations? Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) are HR service providers that outsource most or nearly all of a business’s HR functions. They offer organizations a combination of HR software and professional services, such as payroll processing and tax compliance assistance. PEOs are primarily used by small to midsized businesses. Their goal is often to be able to manage the full employee lifecycle administration at a company through the PEO’s software ...
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Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) are HR service providers that outsource most or nearly all of a business’s HR functions. They offer organizations a combination of HR software and professional services, such as payroll processing and tax compliance assistance. PEOs are primarily used by small to midsized businesses. Their goal is often to be able to manage the full employee lifecycle administration at a company through the PEO’s software platform and services.
PEO’s function primarily as co-employers of clients’ employees. More specifically, PEOs will often be the “employer of record,” primarily for tax and benefits purposes, but also to share a range of employer responsibilities with the client company. These responsibilities range from administrative tasks, like payroll processing, to material provisions like benefits options and coverage.
PEOs provide several key benefits for smaller organizations. They reduce the need for larger in-house human resources teams. PEOs can often offer better benefits options to employees at smaller companies by leveraging economies of scale across many small businesses that collectively work with the PEO.
PEO and HR management software platforms can look very similar and overlap in many technical areas. For instance, they both provide software tools for conducting and managing a business’s HR processes. However, HR management software leaves the HR administration and management processes themselves to companies’ internal HR personnel. In contrast, PEOs go a step further by outsourcing and automating many, or most, of those processes entirely. However, PEOs are less likely to have some of the strategic HR tools, like specialized performance management tools.
PEOs may be more expensive than HR management software as single budgetary line item. However, PEO companies argue that the additional costs are offset by the reduction in in-house HR costs a company shoulders with a standalone HR management system.
There are common capabilities and offerings across all PEOs. While PEOs may specialize in certain areas, they should have at least a presence in most or all of these capabilities:
When comparing different professional employer organizations, consider these factors:
PEO pricing is usually on a per-employee basis, either by pay period, month, or year. While most PEOs don’t publicly disclose standard pricing, most estimates place PEO pricing on a per-employee basis from $900-$1,500/employee/year. Some PEOs also offer pricing as a percentage of gross payroll, often from 3%-15% of payroll at the higher end.