What PEO providers are out there other than TriNet? What questions should I ask potential PEO providers? [closed]

If you ask around amongst startups you'll probably hear our name "Ambrose" - we have numerous startups (& VCs) as clients. Look in to www.ambrose.com to learn more & you can get a quick quote. You can also go to www.esacorp.org (Employer Services Assurance Corporation) as it talks about Accredited PEOs and allows you to verify who are the accredited ones in your state.

I will say that TriNet is a very good firm & you'd be well taken care of with either Ambrose or TriNet - just comes down to the service model that fits you best (we never treat clients like a # - that's the whole point of providing a dedicated, single point of contact to your entire firm). The other PEOs (including the big names) aren't very well set up for startups & often will refuse to work with a small group.

A fewquestions to ask are: 1. what is your service model? (single point of contact/dedicated HR manager or a call center approach) 2. will I have a direct contact & will all my employees have access to that person? 3. do Partners or Members have to take a W2 salary in order to have access to benefits (only relevant if your corporate structure is going to be a LLC, LLP, LP, PC, etc. 4. what plans/benefits do you offer & can I offer a range of them?

I am a broker of PEO services. Just to add a couple of points to Andrea's very sensible comment:

1. Every employer's needs are different, and there are many PEO's to address those needs: for example, almost 700 are licensed to do business in Florida alone. This includes the major PEO's mentioned in other comments and many smaller ones. A good broker will access that whole marketplace, canvass the PEO's that are in the ballpark, and help an employer to decide whether the PEO option makes sense and if so which PEO is most appropriate.

2. Not mentioned previously in this thread is the fact that PEO's are particularly useful to companies doing business in several states. The right PEO will handle the filing, reporting, payment of taxes and other legal requirements that are unique to each state, while at the same time providing a good choice of health plans across the country. Electronic onboarding, mentioned above, web portals for individual employees and web-based training, are a great convenience for employers with multiple locations.

3. Several comments suggested that PEO's cost more than the alternative. However, in Florida, at least, for employers with 10 or more employees on medical insurance, there are almost always cash savings in using a PEO. I have seen savings ranging from $1000 to $3000 per year per employee for comparable coverage.

Great feed back people! So many areas to comment on, we shop PEO's and standard market strategies. If you switch to a PEO make sure just like you should if you had health insurance or workers' compensation insurance, shop it, they all go up and everything is negotiable. If you have been with a PEO for a few years chances are you have a savings if you shop it and negotiate it. When we price compare we do find ADP/Asparity are the highest and hardest to unbundle to detect cost - they will do it, but you must push them. Use the big PEO firms and the small because leverage is power - decide who you want and push the price. If you don't want to do this work hire a contingent based consultant to do it for you. When speaking with most PEO providers we ask who is choosing a PEO, they all agree tech firms who are small start-up that do not want the hassle of HR and may have rapid growth and have to offer high level benefits, and with rising insurance rates you may see some troubled companies that can go with a self insured PEO and capture a better deal with the insurance cost provider. By the way, many insurance agents are now selling PEO too. Be savvy though and shop as many as you can or get someone to do it for the best advantage.

Andrea Luoni

I agree with Bob McKenzie's assertion above "There are other options besides continually changing PEO's."

There are very specific circumstances when it makes sense to use a PEO. Most small businesses would fare far better, both from a product and cost standpoint, by going with a customized unbundled solution under a single platform.

By going this route you get to choose your health insurance company (or companies), your payroll provider, HR consultant, Workers' Comp carrier, Retirement plan and manage it all under a single platform. And you aren't in it alone, you have a specialist that helps you choose the best of each of these services for your organization. This usually results in dramatic cost savings over a PEO and allows you to get rid of the things that don't work and keep the ones that do.

Somehow, PEO's have been missold to start-ups (particularly in SF and South Bay) over the past five years or so.

Sachin, There are over 700 professional employer organizations across the United States. Most are small regional providers. Our firm works with over 20 of the leading PEOs who provide a wide range of services and expertise. Some are better suited for high wage employers in IT, medical, pharmaceutical, and white collar professions. Others are excellent for agricultural, construction, manufacturing, and other blue collar trades. Others work with recruiters and staffing companies serving as their back office.

The best resources are the industry association website NAPEO.org, PEO.com, PEO-quote.com, and for consulting firms that will help you find the most suitable partners, so you won't have to.

Thanks guya, I will be looking into some of yoru suggestions, But I've also come across a couple other's that look competitive with regard to cost's and service. surepayroll, APex payroll, Paypros, paycycle. Just a couple other names to throw into the mix. I am currently aquiring quotes from each of these and hopefully we will make a decision soon . We are a small start up looking for payroll services.

There are other options besides continually changing PEO's. Get out of the co-employment arrangement altogether and watch your costs go down significantly. Additionally, you will have more control over your unemployment as in a PEO, you are lumped together with so many other companies that it is impossible to control your unemployment costs. If you go independent you may also save on your workers comp rates as you may also qualify for W/C discounts and premium dividends that the PEO does not offer.

Then ask yourself if the administration fees outweigh the cost of group insurance for your employees.

Go independent and save a lot of money. Work with a firm that specializes in HR to oversee all of the services provided by the PEO.

Bob McKenzie

This is a great thread. I just called Administaff, now called Insperity, and their minimum supported company size - at least for health insurance - was 5 full-time W2 employees in case anyone is considering them.
Also interesting for research was the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO)NAPEO link

I worked for Groupon..You know, Groupon, the fastest growing company EVER according to Forbes? They use a PEO called EMSI, Inc. out of Naperville, IL. EMSI has an on-site (at Groupon in Chicago) HR person who handles all the HR/benefits/payroll needs and questions employees have, which is excellent. I never had a problem with my benefits or payroll since working there, and now that I am starting my own internet based company, I am going to use them for my HR as well!

I've been with Trinet in the past and they are terribly expensive and DO in fact treat you like a number. For two weeks I kept trying to reach our HR rep and rec'd a "this number has been disconnected message". Their software is NOT user friendly and their reporting capabilities are very archaic at best. Finally, their healthcare costs are out of this world. On average in our area they have risen 30-40% and I now pay double in premium from what I paid with ADP at my former employer. I am on the ball to get my new employer to switch. NONE of the employees are happy with Trinet. NONE.

As an end user, we are not happy with TriNet and their health insurance offerings in WA state. Aetna is the only affordable provider their PEO offers. Their plans are twice as expensive as you can get on the private market. The least expensive plan (which we still cannot afford) is a high deductible plan of 3K per person/6k per family. This costs us almost $900 a month for a healthy family. Before employed with the company who uses Trinet as their PEO, we were paying $450/mo for a comparable HD plan on the private market. We have never reached our high deductibles in the over 8 years we've held a HD plan. This year alone, premiums will cost us over $11k for virtually no benefit. What a horrible investment this is from a financial standpoint.

To make matters worse, we've been told that TriNet is doubling their prices starting the month of reenrollment (Aug 2010)! At this juncture, we miss out on the September 23, 2010 Healthcare bill provisions which go into effect only after this date. This means that we would have to wait until next August enrollment period to benefit from some of the positive changes granted through healthcare reform.

When I called to get pricing for the new enrollment period starting Aug 1, their customer service advised that they don't have pricing information until after that date, so we are unable to plan prior. Consequently, there is only a two week window from which the pricing is distributed and plans must be chosen. As a result, we will be dropping the Trinet Aetna plan and finding our own on the private market once again, effective September 23rd (when the reform kicks in). I would encourage others to do the same if in the same situation. It's important to educate ourselves, compare plans and PEO's, and to know when plans reflect market values. Beware - we now know that Trinet overprices their policies here in WA state compared to other Washington plans.

Yeah Tri net is great until you have to use them for Cobra, they are sky high and just canceled me for making a mistake and sending my payment by the bank instead of mailing it where it would be postmarked. The bank had the weekend and Memorial Holiday before the check could be sent. I thought they would understand a couple days late with the holidays. No they dont, and they canceled me without telling me. Here I am 64 years old, a substitute teacher and now uninsured. I hear this is their big loophole, waiting like a spider for someone to be late. I cant buy insurance, due to previous existing conditions and was even supposed to have a surgery this month. HMMMMM sounds suspicious to me.

PEO TriNet vs Administaff and ADP Total Source

(1) With TriNet, new hires have health coverage from date of hire (even if it's not the first of the month) and charges begin the first day of the month after hire.

(2) No wait for new hires to participate in 401 k

(3) More than two health plan choices

(4) Paperless onboarding and ongoing service delivery results in significant hidden internal costs.

(5) Side-by-side comparisons yield major savings over Administaff.

(6) Certified Human Capital Consultants won't treat you like a number.

The acquisition and integration has gone better than forecast with the highest retention rate in the industry. TriNet's focus is on delivering superior services to its clients--including strategic HR services which is not the bench strength of other PEOs.

Each business has unique nuances. Assess how well each PEO addresses your particular nuances and have them tailor their reality to your business (rather than the other way around).

Look at Oasis Outsourcing. They are the largest privetly held PEO. Probably the only other PEO that is as large as the big 3 public guys, but has more flexibilty. I would have to say the best 2 in the market place are ADP Total Source and Oasis, due to benefit offerings, services, comp rates and admin pricing. Only complaints on ADP are they treat clients like a #. Trinet took on Gevity's back book and will be going thru major changes for years. Administaff is the Cadilac of the industry . American made, over priced, average quality compared to it's competition.