June 26, 2023 • 39 mins
Are you a business owner who is looking for ways to streamline your human resources functions? Have you heard of professional employer organizations (PEOs), but aren’t quite sure what they are or if they’re right for your company?During this event, you will have the opportunity to learn from Rodney Bolton, CEO of HR Bizz, in the field of PEOs and human resources, who will provide an overview of:
- Services PEOs offer
- Discover PEOs advantages and disadvantages
- Define the different types of PEOs and non-PEO options
- Discuss the factors you should consider if choosing a PEO or leaving a PEO
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Everybody. This is Jeff Turner,your host for Benefits of Brief. Welcome
to another session. We have agreat topic today. Super excited to have
the guests that we have on ourshow today. It's a good friend of
mine, Rodney Bolton South from HRBusiness. He's in a lyric group company
as well. How's it going,Rodney? Excellent? Jeff, thanks for
(00:27):
having me on you So today you'rebeat. Yeah, I'm just good top
Um. We've got to kind ofNorCal SoCal little vibe going today. Right,
you got the SoCal thing you're bringingand I'm bringing NorCal so I'm ready
to rock and roll. So justkind of um staying in um, in
(00:50):
tune with what we envisioned this thispodcast would be. We're talking about topics
that are business related, the impactthe business. We've done a lot.
We started this at the pandemic andquite frankly, it's been well received and
then and depending on the topic,we get a good good turnout. But
(01:11):
regardless, we don't care if weget one person or none. And we
take this information, we put iton our website, we put it out
on social media. We're we're famous, We're on YouTube now, you know.
So we got got that going toso uh it's super cool. Uh
we're going to talk about today isan interesting topic and in my industry UM,
(01:34):
as an employee benefits consultant, thisparticular solution, if you will,
UM is something that we come upagainst every once in a while and occasionally
it works for a client, UM. A lot of times we find that
UM it doesn't work really well.And that's what we're going to talk about.
So topic is what's the deal withPEOs? So PEOs are something that
(02:02):
Brodney you can get into this ina second and how they work. But
the concept basically is you're you're handingyou off your employees to another entity and
they're they're basically taking them from Ato Z from enrollment to termination and everything
in between, having all the HRissues. And there are certain or aspects
(02:24):
or questions that we want to covertoday and I'll just summarize them real quick
before we jump into them. So, if you're a small employer and you're
considering a PEO, this is goingto be a great UM podcast for you.
We're going to do a deep diveinto it. You know, the
advantages, the disadvantages, the questionsyou should ask you really that you need
to know? And are all PEOscreated equal? You know, get better
(02:49):
best? Are some better than others? And I think that's something that's very
important to understand. And not allof them are as good as the guy
down the streets. So and whatkind of should you ask them? What
do you need to know? Sowe're going to kind of jump into that.
Rodney, why don't you go aheadand just kind of introduced yourself and
tell folks you know who you are, your background, where you came from,
(03:13):
why you started HR biz. Thanksfor Jeff. So, I'm Rodney
Bolton. I'm ann certified HR consultantwith over twenty years of experience. I
have a master's degree in Human ResourceManagement as well as certification senior certification from
the Society of Your Resource Management HRBusiness really formerly a ten years ago because
(03:36):
I saw a need to really assistemployers with some of the day to day
HR issues to day. Another thingthat I found is that many of the
keels are charging our clients just fourto five percent of the gross revenue for
human resource services. So at thatpoint, here's a good for me to
(03:57):
come in start a great company normallyservice that enjoy. So for the last
two years H business clients and wedo manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, etc.
And I joined the lar group abouteighteen months ago so I can connect
(04:17):
with people like get turned throughout thestate. We're getting Ah, you're having
a hard time picking you up yourvoice? Oh y is it better now?
Yeah? There you go. Yeah. So I joined hr biz roughly.
I joined a LARA group about eighteenmonths ago, and during that time
(04:38):
my ideal was to really to comeinto a group that allowed me to be
able to work with benefit brokers andPNC brokers so that we could combine our
services to go after larger, largerscale accounts as well as combat the pl
H. Yeah. So Rodney,to that point, you and I worked
(05:00):
together and helping a company come outof a PEO. We're not going to
name any names today, but nowyou ask you that question, Rodney and
your experience are there are there situationswhere it does make sense for a small
employer to go into a PEO.So one of the things Chef I would
say, if a small employer wantedto adventure into a PEO, it would
(05:24):
be because they have extremely high moderatenear a four hundred or five hundred moderate
and they couldn't get insurance from anyoneelse's except for Stay Compensation Insurance Fund.
In that case, I would say, yeah, go ahead and joined the
PO, but be careful what youget into. Really take a look at
(05:45):
your contract and see can you getout of it, because once you're in,
it's a lot easier to get ina PEO than is to get out.
Okay, so you're saying that onthe worker comps side, it might
make sense from that stownpoint, andwhy would that be? Can you kind
of explain what how that bet?Sure? So that really lends more to
economy of scale. A PEO thatparticular point, because of their size,
(06:11):
may be able to offer them abetter work comp rate a lower premium.
But again there's a catch twenty two. That premium may only be good for
the first year and a second year, and he hit the market with established
loss runs, it's going to triggera renewal that could be twenty to thirty
to forty higher. And so whatI tell people is that when you join,
(06:35):
ask them to give you a projectionof your total cost for three years.
So maybe you'll say quite a biton your first year, but your
second year and your third year,you'll probably end up making it up.
And lastly, if it sounds toogood to be true, it is too
good to be true. Yeah.Yeah, we're going to get into that
(06:56):
second. Huh. I kind ofI'm trying to be fair right to the
PEO market, if you will,especially those who might be watching this.
But why if I'm a small employer? Okay, the workers comment makes sense
to me, But why would Ieven consider a PEO? What is the
attraction to an employer? What isit that you know? Hey, this
(07:17):
is the holy grail right over here. Yeah, so, Jeff, I
think what makes it really attractive toemployers is it's one check, So they
don't have to chase HR, theydon't have to chase P and C,
they don't have to chase benefits andpayroll and sometimes form one K. They
could simply just write one check atthe end of the month. And if
(07:41):
you're short on time, that maybe a good option for you. Yeah.
So it's kind of the idea thatI can just hand off all of
that responsibility to an entity that's goingto manage all of that for me.
Correct. It benefits the insurance,it's as well HR at all all sounds
(08:03):
good. It's all wrapped up inone nice little package, right correct.
Yeah, So yeah, if I'man employer, I'm looking at that and
I'm thinking, well, you know, I'm a small employer, especially if
say, you know, fifteen twentyemployees and I don't want to I don't
have an office manager. I don'twant to deal with payroll. I don't
want to deal with you know,hiring, firing, and I can get
(08:26):
the benefits set you know, alarge group rate composite, rates workers,
concrete. So it all sounds reallygood to me. So I get in.
I'm involved in the peo, Solet's talk a bit about what I
really should be asking them when Iam looking at this. You know,
(08:48):
what are the nitty gritty details thatreally I need to be aware of.
Yeah, so I think the firstthing you want to ask the PEO is
how does the voice work? Youknow, what are they paying for?
Is that invoice consistent for a twelvemonth period, a twenty four month period,
(09:11):
a thirty six month period. Ithink it's really important that you really
know what you're getting into. Thesecond thing I always ask is who is
going to be your month to month, day to day representative. Is there
one person you could reach out toor is it going to be a fairs
wheel? Right? And then lastly, what I think is really really critical
(09:37):
is with the PEO, right,are do they understand your business? Right?
Because a PO sometimes work in avery cookie color manner, and it's
important that they have a concept ofwhat you're actually doing. If they want
to ensure a healthcare facility the sameas they would a factory, I don't
(10:03):
think it's going to work. Soyou're really gonna know. You know what
you're getting into, what's the contract? Who is your representative? And have
you to have experience in your industry? So when you say what you're getting
into, are you referring to theactual costs associated? Exactly? What are
the costs? What are the costsbreakdowns? What does it cost for comp
(10:28):
workers? Compensation? Was it costsfor benefit? Is there a been admin
system in there? Right? Howdoes that ben admin system work? Will
you be enrolling the employees or willthey be enrolling the employees? You know,
benefit design is very intricate, right, and so it's important for us
(10:50):
to know as employers, right,what are we giving our employees? Right?
Because we want to give them benefitsthat they really can utilize, and
really it becomes kind of like aa feather in our cap, so that
we're really providing something that our employeeslike and want to utilize, right,
(11:13):
which is a really good retention tool. So you must asked them that,
right, what's in those benefits?Are you going to be doing it?
Do you have have been a AD, this has been ad enrolled? Do
you enroll? When do you startopen enrollment? What information is sent?
How do you do your your enrollmentswith the plus one with the family.
(11:35):
There's just it's just the same questionsyou would ask your P and C,
your benefit or your HR, youhave to ask the PEO. Yeah,
yeah, I want to. Iwant to dive a little deeper into this
part of it before we talk aboutcontracts and um, you know the service
side of it. So, um, are all PEOs transparent in there and
(12:01):
what they charge? No? Okay, yeah, let's talk about that.
Yeah. So, I think whathappens is that the one I find that
is the most elusive is the admincosts. So generally speaking, somewhere muddled
in their monthly invoice would be anadministration costs. That cost I've seen it
(12:24):
anywhere from two percent of your payrollto seven percent of your payroll. But
trying to get a direct and consistentanswer regarding the admin cost is very difficult.
And what I say is before yousign on the dotted line, find
(12:45):
out what that admin costs is,does it cover payroll? Is it for
stamps? And let's hope it's notfor stamps, which I was told one
time because four percent of my totalannual payroll just respects a stamp and mailing
forms seems to be outrageous. Sofind out what that cost is, right,
(13:07):
And if you're looking to be toPEO, that's the kind of like
the main thing that you really wantto look at because you can eliminate that
admin costs and utilize that those fundsin other areas like for HR or to
balance out the benefit costs, etc. Yeah. So, if I'm looking
(13:31):
at a PEO and I asked thecompany, the PEO representative, what are
your administration costs? They should beable to break that down for me correctly.
Right. If they don't, thenthat's that's the ring flag. Yeah,
they should be, But I findmany of the sales reps are really
(13:52):
trained not to know what that costis and the reason why they don't want
to they don't know what the costis because because it did tell you the
costs and you don't agree with thecosts, well, chances are you're not
going to sign with them, right, And so what I encourage you to
do too, if you're meeting withthe PEO, don't only meet with the
(14:15):
sales rep, right, meet withseveral different members of the PEO team so
you can find out what are theirduties, what costs are associated with what
they're giving you, right, andreally separate the sales pitch from the actual
plan service that you're giving. Right. Yeah, I think that's a really
(14:37):
important aspect of it. This seemsto be kind of the the area where
people get surprised and are you know, got that get that that that bite
if you will. So, um, I heard recently from a very reliable
source of mind, a good friendof mine who's a labor logged ernie who
(15:01):
was involved, was got a callum from somebody that had a PEO and
it turned out that um, they'dbeen you know, paying for workers comp
for many many years and they hada claim finally and they came to find
out that there was actually no insuranceUM. I don't know who the PEO
(15:24):
was, but I think that's anotherarea I would like you had mentioned.
I want to know who who's thecarrier? Can you validate that you know
you're you're offering me workers comp insurance? I need to know for sure that
I have workers comp insurance UM employeebenefits seems pretty straightforward, but the workers
comp I was I was appalled athearing that. That was good, very
(15:48):
very concerning. Yeah, and Jeff, let me jump in on that.
So I think in dimnification it's criticalas well because you have sometimes they saw
in cases where you may not knowwhat's going to be covered. So it's
really important to find out what yourcoverage, what you're getting for your coverage.
(16:11):
Who's indemnified is the employer covering theemployees? Is the owner of the
company covered? You know it's ajoint employer situation, right, so they
become co employers. Right. Youhave to really take a deeper dive into
that and say what does co employmentmean? Right? When am I covered?
(16:33):
When aren't I covered? Right?And so that's really significant because let's
say, for example, you havea worker shop injury on your facility and
the PEO picks up the coverage,but then somewhere down the line, they're
doing the CEO personally, right,and then you have to find out are
(16:55):
they indemnified for that or if it'sa libel suit, are they indemnify for
that? Sexual harassment already covered forthat, right. So there's a lot
of coverage issues that come up allthe time, And that particular story where
the PO didn't have coverage, I'veheard tons of time. Right. Yeah,
(17:15):
Yeah, that brings a thought tomy mind, and I wanted to
ask you this question. So youjust use the phrase called co employment and
that's what you say, that's thearrangement then when you're entering a PEO.
So what that sounds like to me, What that tells me is that I
still have liability as an employer eventhough I've handed off all these responsibilities.
(17:37):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And Ithink the tricky part about that is to
really just starry when you're liable andwhen you're not liable. And I think
the common sense would tell us thatthey're not going to take the burden of
the greatest liability, right, SoI think it really makes some really astute
(18:03):
work on an employer's part to reallyfind out what type of coverage they have.
I had recently a gentleman who's inthe construction industry and he has to
provide certificates of insurance for various sites. And the great guy, he's probably
has about four hundred employees. Butone of the things that he found out
(18:26):
is the search who were not gettingto the site and they weren't getting to
where they were supposed to be ina timely manner. And he had a
couple of accidents, right, andit really created issues with where to cover
because you didn't have the certificate atwhat point where they covered? Well,
why didn't he have it? Andalthough in the end was all straightened out,
(18:49):
but it was a big mess.He end up getting fired from a
sixteen million dollar job before that.Right, So something is simple as producing
certificate, you need to know who'sgoing to do it, what are they
going to do it, how arethey going to do it? You know,
are they going to email them toyou? Are you going to pick
them up? Are they going todrop them off? So there's so many
(19:11):
little details that you take for granted, right that may or may not be
covered. Yeah, well, wellsaid, I think that's really important.
So we're talking, we kind ofmoved from the admin fees to the liability
aspect of They're both very important questionsthat need to be asked. Right,
Um, you mentioned the contracts,So are all contracts the same? Um?
(19:37):
What? What? What is myUM? What my flexibility? You
know? Am I stuck for awhole year? Am I stuck for two
years? Um? Yeah? Sopretty much all the contracts are pretty close
to the same. Right, Butgenerally speaking, you are stuck for one
year, so at the end ofthe year, the pos usually go a
(20:03):
month to month. However, that'snever clarified at the time you sign your
contract, so it could be reallydifficult to just jump out. Maybe you
missed the end of the thirty days. Maybe you've already paid payroll taxes,
right if you're paying, you know, approximately three point four percent of payroll
tax of the first seven thousand,maybe you want to wait until you paid
(20:27):
that seven thousand. Or if youswitch, how would you know exactly how
much you paid? Would they provideyou information on exactly what you paid so
that you could subsequently make an adjustments, as in a case of the client
that we work together, or requireseveral adjustments to make sure that they didn't
(20:48):
overpay their payroll tax and their particularcase of PEO continue paying that three point
four percent long past the seven thousanddollars per us, which created an issue
for my team really to try andfigure out where the heck was that money,
which later we found out it wasPEO profit. Yeah. Is there
(21:12):
a early withdrawal penalty that they cancharge is I'm sure that's yeah. So
there's a massive early cancelation if youlead the PEO you in my experience,
it's never worth it. If yousigned it state a year, it's just
(21:33):
not worth the disruption in terms ofthe penalty knowing if you have proper coverage
the benefits, will something go wrongwith the benefits? Will they pick up
an injury? If an injury happened, if you have a catastrophic medical situation,
who what would happen? I thinkwhat you really want to do if
(21:55):
that's the case about the six monthsend, you really want to start preparing
to get out. Look at whatyour lost runs are, gathering at information,
look at your benefits and see whatyour usage is. Check and see
you know what doctors your employees like, etc. And what are the critical
hrs and then really the next fiveand a half six months should be spent
(22:18):
on moving forward in um leaving thePEO. Yeah, yeah, I do
want to come back to that point, UM in a little bit. You
know, if I'm exiting a PEO, what steps I should consider and how
soon I should do it? Thereare there are some areas that are very
important to know. So let meask you this question. UM. Let's
(22:41):
say somebody's looking at a PEO,They've narrowed it down to one or two.
Um, what would be their greatgreatest asset or resource in terms of
somebody being able to review the orwhom to review contracts. Is that something
that you could do? Yeah,I think that's something we could do.
(23:04):
We also have another partner in aLarra did this something similar. But I
think what they want to do istake an internal look in an external look.
So what I mean by that ishave the PEO give you a thorough
explanation of every detail and make sureyou have a complete understanding. Then I
(23:26):
think what you want to do isgive it up the people like myself or
one of our Laryer partners that canreally help kind of unwind that invoice and
really take a deeper dive into exactlywhat you're doing. Right. Yeah,
I'm glad brought that up. Wedo have your in addition to yourself,
(23:47):
we have another firm that is veryinvolved in in this, uh this discussion.
Yeah, you're representing representing the WestCoast and we can and certainly a
facilitate thatt UM. So let's talka little bit about UM. You mentioned
the representatives and who I'm you know, who I'm working with on a daily
(24:10):
basis, and some of the bulletpoints that you sent over to me in
this in this regard is UM dothey have do they can I get access
to a resume and a bio onthem? Is it somebody that UM is
going to be there every day oris it or is that going to be
a different person that I'm talking toon a daily basis? Do they handle
(24:33):
payroll, HR, risk management?What's their background in each of these areas?
UM? Can we meet them?So those are some of the bullet
points you mentioned, So you wantto speak to that a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, just so inthat case, I would treat man just
like how we treat a new hire. You know, what are your attributes?
(24:56):
What can you do what have youdone? What you say you've done,
But show me your resume? CanI have references? Can I speak
to people regarding specific skills, specificabilities? Right, and really look at
that as a partnership, not ashey, we came in, we got
(25:18):
a great rate, trust us,and we'll move forward. I think it's
the opposite. I think that youreally have to have an I a suspicion,
and they really think that you haveto really want to do your homework.
You wouldn't bring an employee in andhe says, hey, I used
to work at NASA and I wasa top scientist. And you say,
(25:38):
okay, you're higher. It's butwhy so why would you do it with
a CEO? Right? Yeah?Yeah, you need to know who you're
working with. Yeah, I don'tknow what you're working with. Yeah.
That was one of the complaints thatwe had in the employer that we took
out of the PEO was that theywere talking to somebody different on a regular
basis. They weren't getting direct Yeah, yes, that's very correct. They
(26:00):
weren't getting the TLC and the lovethat was promised. Yeah yeah, and
this this is something that happens allthe time. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I think that's super important. Um, you did bring up ben admin,
so correct? What is that involved? And what questions should I ask
around benefit administration? And when yousay been an admin, is that are
(26:23):
you encompassing HR as you? Imean the whole the whole banana, if
you will. Yeah. So Ithink when I when I addressed ben admin,
Jeff, what I'm talking about ishow are they going to administer the
benefits? What is that entail?And what does that imply? Right?
(26:44):
One thing I found is that it'sreally critical to understand how the benefits are
going to be administered because you wantto know wins open enrollment, what tools
should they use for open enrollment?What system do they used for open enrollment?
Right? So all the typical questionsdidn't you would normally ask of your
(27:08):
clients, those are the same questionsyou're going to ask of the PEO,
right, And so I believe it'sjust fundamentally critical to understand what is the
plan design, what's the plan designlook like? Do you have ease?
Do you have a self enrollment portal? You know, particularly since many people
(27:33):
are working at home these days,I think it's really important to know can
they enroll from home if they can, where does that information go? Who
checks that information? There's just aplethora of things that you know better than
I do that they're associated with theBenefit administration that really fall through the cracks
(27:53):
when you move over to the PEO. Yeah. Yeah, and I think
had mentioned you know, how muchtraining will they provide? Correct and there
are there are been advanced systems thatare better than others. Yeah, definitely
others. So that's that's also anotherimportant one because if I'm handing, if
(28:17):
I'm handing this off and the intentis to get stuff off my play and
I'm still having to induce, youknow, to be involved, then it's
not working correctly. They start workingcorrectly in Gill tell you a situation I
had recently. Well, I havea furniture company for about three hundred employees,
very highly productive company that sells roughlya billion dollars a year in furniture.
(28:44):
So they're not going to the PEOwould be the solution for because of
the Benefit administration. It was anightmare. They found that they have people
at the Port of LA, theyhave people at nighttime, at working in
the weekends. A drive in aTexas trucks all over and they didn't account
for the movement of the staff andhow would they actually connect with them.
(29:07):
And what they did was they asenset three days. I think it was
a Tuesday, a Thursday in thefollowing tuesday, and if you couldn't get
enrolled. But you had some peoplethat hadn't been in office in years,
some of the logistics people were workingat home, some of the trucking people
were on the road. And Ithink those are the questions chef to ask,
right, what's the dynamics of yourcompany? Because every company kind of
(29:32):
has a different dynamic, right,And I think that that's a great thing
that working with you on your team, that you guys are really able to
see say, hey, how doyou want to do this enrollment? You
want us to come there? Whereare the people are we going to go
to them? Are they going tocome to us? Are the people working
at night, weekends, etc.There's a lot of factors that you need
to incorporate, right, Yeah,Yeah, I just was looking over some
(29:57):
of the questions that you'd sent overto me and there was one that popped
out, and I think this isreally important to talk about. Is the
PEO a strategic partner? And intoday's environment that I talk a lot about
strategic planning. When I sit downwith an employer, do they do their
(30:18):
employee benefits match their mission their companymission statement? Do you actually have an
employee benefits mission and a strategy oris it transactional? So I think this
is a really important area to considerand to kind of project and look forward.
(30:40):
Is the PEO going to help meget to where I want to go?
Right as an employer? Yeah,many of them are still in the
age where they may have kids,right, And I think it's really going
to be critical, Jeff, tounderstand what's your demographics? Right? What's
important? Um? For medical what'simportant for medical insurance? Right? Do
(31:03):
they want medical insurance? They wantwhat particular benefit do they want? Do
they want childcare? Do they needmaternity? I just lost them the require
a strategic partner. We kind oflost you a little bit there. You're
(31:23):
cutting out. That's okay, noworries. I think you know, to
be fair to uh the PEO partnersout there, UM, I probably will
have one of them on the podcastat some point to to kind of tell
their story, if you will.Um, I think there are some good
(31:44):
ones out there. But um,there's definitely some really really bad ones.
Yeah, and Jeff, I thinkthis The notion really is not whether they're
good ones or bad ones. Thequestion is is it right for you?
Yeah? Right? Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's good. So that's
(32:04):
sort and so in total honesty thereagain, there are situations where they're right
for people. But if they're notright for you, right, the only
way you're going to find that outis by taking a deeper dive and really
I understanding what's out there for you? Sure, So what other solutions can
they explore? You know, Let'ssay, you know, I'm a small
(32:30):
employer. I'm growing, you know, I started out really small, but
you know, things are going greatand I'm up the twenty five thirty forty
fifty employees now, um, andI just can't quite um, you know,
either don't have the financial wherewithal orfind the right HRUM support staff.
(32:52):
Um, what other solutions can webring to the table? You know,
I think that any other solutions,I like to say, is more of
an ASO model, and an IFOmodel is where you would take a qualified
HR, a qualified benefit, aP and C REP, and a payroll
(33:14):
partner and really come together in functionlike a PO but without the co employment
for all the other things that sometimesdrive us crazy. Right yeah, yeah,
So so there was a little plugthere, and who who who would
(33:35):
you recommend? Rodney? Then whowho's who's the go to for that?
You know, I have to startwith me, you know, And if
you ever want to have a conversation, you could reach out to me and
just really picked my brain. Oneof the things is I'm into solutions at
work for everyone to win win.So I'm not going to advise you to
(33:57):
come to myself Jeff for Scott forbenefits in P and C in HR.
If I don't think it's a goodsolution, Let's just sit down have a
nice objective conversation about what are yourneeds, where do you see yourself?
Where do you want to go?And I think that as long as it's
strategic in nature, we can alwayscome up with a concept. Look.
(34:22):
I recommended BBSI to a client onetime, right, it's just their product
and what they had was so uniquethat I said, you're not ready yet.
And about a year later he cameback and said, hey, you
know what I did. What yousaid, are you ready to sign me?
I said, absolutely, buddy,right, because he had to straighten
(34:42):
some things out. He had tostraighten some things out financially, right.
Yeah, yeah, I agree totally. Yeah. So as a group,
that's one of the reasons why inthe first place, why we formed Alara
from the start is to be ableto better service our clients and to bring
experts into the discussion, the strategicdiscussion, like Rodney and Hr and Scott
(35:07):
Menneth on the PNC side and myselfon the employee benefits side, and there
are some believe me, on myside and play benefits side. I have
some of the best minds in myindustry at my disposal across the nation.
I mean, some really really brightpeople that are doing some incredible things.
(35:27):
And the same on the workers copsside. So we can get like to
Rodney's point, you know, let'sjust have a discussion. You know,
their chances are that we can solvea problem with internally with the ALERTC group.
Would you agree with that, Rodney? Yeah, I always think it's
true, and I think that reallywhat I like about the Litter Group is
(35:51):
that we're nationwide, so we're workingwith clients now in Minnesota, New Jersey,
Boston, Flora to North Carolina,etc. And it's really seamless when
you have so many great partners.Yeah. Yeah, Is there any industry
that we won't talk to? No, I'm pretty much industry agnostic and I
(36:17):
have clients across the board, sowe're ready to go in pretty much any
industry that I know of, right, Yeah, I would agree with that.
We have a lot of experts indifferent vertical markets. Usually pick up
the phone and bring in one ofthose specialists for sure. So well,
(36:38):
Ronney, we're about a quarter afterthe hour. We normally run about thirty
minutes, but I thought it wasimportant that we really hit all of the
key questions, advantages, disadvantages foranyone that's considering a PEO. So I
wanted to go a little bit longer. But is there anything else you want
to add to this before you know? We? Yeah? What are the
(37:00):
things I do want to add?Is someone experience that Jeff and I have
working together is that we're able toassess the PEO and give your proposal.
And I think that's really critical becauseif you look at the proposal, then
you can compare to PAO apples toapples, all right, and employers need
(37:22):
things that are tangible, like whatis my HR, what are we going
to do? What does it costs? The same with you, what are
the benefits? What did it benefits? Costs, what's it going to do?
And so that's very critical for us, right for you to know that
(37:45):
we can put this in writing sothat you can take a look at the
proposal. And I got to tellyou, mister Turner's proposals are outstanding,
right and compare things dollar for dollar, service for service. So it's not
just a bunch of talk, right, because I think that what happens is
(38:07):
in this process there's a lot ofcommunication back and forth. But boy,
it's awful nice to see something inwriting and then you can say, oh
I see what these guys mean.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate
that very well said. So appreciateyou getting on the show today, Jeff,
I thank you for having me andyou know, as always good to
(38:30):
see you and Caitlyn. I appreciateeverything. Yeah, So will we'll be
seeing you soon, Okay, thanksagain? Coming up north right, Yeah,
yes, sir, I'll be upthere soon. I'm working on a
couple prospects and a couple of myclients and see if we can get you
in there, all right, buddy, Okay, you bet take care of
(38:51):
Okay, take care of
Everybody. This is Jeff Turner,your host for Benefits of Brief. Welcome
to another session. We have agreat topic today. Super excited to have
the guests that we have on ourshow today. It's a good friend of
mine, Rodney Bolton South from HRBusiness. He's in a lyric group company
as well. How's it going,Rodney? Excellent? Jeff, thanks for
(00:27):
having me on you So today you'rebeat. Yeah, I'm just good top
Um. We've got to kind ofNorCal SoCal little vibe going today. Right,
you got the SoCal thing you're bringingand I'm bringing NorCal so I'm ready
to rock and roll. So justkind of um staying in um, in
(00:50):
tune with what we envisioned this thispodcast would be. We're talking about topics
that are business related, the impactthe business. We've done a lot.
We started this at the pandemic andquite frankly, it's been well received and
then and depending on the topic,we get a good good turnout. But
(01:11):
regardless, we don't care if weget one person or none. And we
take this information, we put iton our website, we put it out
on social media. We're we're famous, We're on YouTube now, you know.
So we got got that going toso uh it's super cool. Uh
we're going to talk about today isan interesting topic and in my industry UM,
(01:34):
as an employee benefits consultant, thisparticular solution, if you will,
UM is something that we come upagainst every once in a while and occasionally
it works for a client, UM. A lot of times we find that
UM it doesn't work really well.And that's what we're going to talk about.
So topic is what's the deal withPEOs? So PEOs are something that
(02:02):
Brodney you can get into this ina second and how they work. But
the concept basically is you're you're handingyou off your employees to another entity and
they're they're basically taking them from Ato Z from enrollment to termination and everything
in between, having all the HRissues. And there are certain or aspects
(02:24):
or questions that we want to covertoday and I'll just summarize them real quick
before we jump into them. So, if you're a small employer and you're
considering a PEO, this is goingto be a great UM podcast for you.
We're going to do a deep diveinto it. You know, the
advantages, the disadvantages, the questionsyou should ask you really that you need
to know? And are all PEOscreated equal? You know, get better
(02:49):
best? Are some better than others? And I think that's something that's very
important to understand. And not allof them are as good as the guy
down the streets. So and whatkind of should you ask them? What
do you need to know? Sowe're going to kind of jump into that.
Rodney, why don't you go aheadand just kind of introduced yourself and
tell folks you know who you are, your background, where you came from,
(03:13):
why you started HR biz. Thanksfor Jeff. So, I'm Rodney
Bolton. I'm ann certified HR consultantwith over twenty years of experience. I
have a master's degree in Human ResourceManagement as well as certification senior certification from
the Society of Your Resource Management HRBusiness really formerly a ten years ago because
(03:36):
I saw a need to really assistemployers with some of the day to day
HR issues to day. Another thingthat I found is that many of the
keels are charging our clients just fourto five percent of the gross revenue for
human resource services. So at thatpoint, here's a good for me to
(03:57):
come in start a great company normallyservice that enjoy. So for the last
two years H business clients and wedo manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, etc.
And I joined the lar group abouteighteen months ago so I can connect
(04:17):
with people like get turned throughout thestate. We're getting Ah, you're having
a hard time picking you up yourvoice? Oh y is it better now?
Yeah? There you go. Yeah. So I joined hr biz roughly.
I joined a LARA group about eighteenmonths ago, and during that time
(04:38):
my ideal was to really to comeinto a group that allowed me to be
able to work with benefit brokers andPNC brokers so that we could combine our
services to go after larger, largerscale accounts as well as combat the pl
H. Yeah. So Rodney,to that point, you and I worked
(05:00):
together and helping a company come outof a PEO. We're not going to
name any names today, but nowyou ask you that question, Rodney and
your experience are there are there situationswhere it does make sense for a small
employer to go into a PEO.So one of the things Chef I would
say, if a small employer wantedto adventure into a PEO, it would
(05:24):
be because they have extremely high moderatenear a four hundred or five hundred moderate
and they couldn't get insurance from anyoneelse's except for Stay Compensation Insurance Fund.
In that case, I would say, yeah, go ahead and joined the
PO, but be careful what youget into. Really take a look at
(05:45):
your contract and see can you getout of it, because once you're in,
it's a lot easier to get ina PEO than is to get out.
Okay, so you're saying that onthe worker comps side, it might
make sense from that stownpoint, andwhy would that be? Can you kind
of explain what how that bet?Sure? So that really lends more to
economy of scale. A PEO thatparticular point, because of their size,
(06:11):
may be able to offer them abetter work comp rate a lower premium.
But again there's a catch twenty two. That premium may only be good for
the first year and a second year, and he hit the market with established
loss runs, it's going to triggera renewal that could be twenty to thirty
to forty higher. And so whatI tell people is that when you join,
(06:35):
ask them to give you a projectionof your total cost for three years.
So maybe you'll say quite a biton your first year, but your
second year and your third year,you'll probably end up making it up.
And lastly, if it sounds toogood to be true, it is too
good to be true. Yeah.Yeah, we're going to get into that
(06:56):
second. Huh. I kind ofI'm trying to be fair right to the
PEO market, if you will,especially those who might be watching this.
But why if I'm a small employer? Okay, the workers comment makes sense
to me, But why would Ieven consider a PEO? What is the
attraction to an employer? What isit that you know? Hey, this
(07:17):
is the holy grail right over here. Yeah, so, Jeff, I
think what makes it really attractive toemployers is it's one check, So they
don't have to chase HR, theydon't have to chase P and C,
they don't have to chase benefits andpayroll and sometimes form one K. They
could simply just write one check atthe end of the month. And if
(07:41):
you're short on time, that maybe a good option for you. Yeah.
So it's kind of the idea thatI can just hand off all of
that responsibility to an entity that's goingto manage all of that for me.
Correct. It benefits the insurance,it's as well HR at all all sounds
(08:03):
good. It's all wrapped up inone nice little package, right correct.
Yeah, So yeah, if I'man employer, I'm looking at that and
I'm thinking, well, you know, I'm a small employer, especially if
say, you know, fifteen twentyemployees and I don't want to I don't
have an office manager. I don'twant to deal with payroll. I don't
want to deal with you know,hiring, firing, and I can get
(08:26):
the benefits set you know, alarge group rate composite, rates workers,
concrete. So it all sounds reallygood to me. So I get in.
I'm involved in the peo, Solet's talk a bit about what I
really should be asking them when Iam looking at this. You know,
(08:48):
what are the nitty gritty details thatreally I need to be aware of.
Yeah, so I think the firstthing you want to ask the PEO is
how does the voice work? Youknow, what are they paying for?
Is that invoice consistent for a twelvemonth period, a twenty four month period,
(09:11):
a thirty six month period. Ithink it's really important that you really
know what you're getting into. Thesecond thing I always ask is who is
going to be your month to month, day to day representative. Is there
one person you could reach out toor is it going to be a fairs
wheel? Right? And then lastly, what I think is really really critical
(09:37):
is with the PEO, right,are do they understand your business? Right?
Because a PO sometimes work in avery cookie color manner, and it's
important that they have a concept ofwhat you're actually doing. If they want
to ensure a healthcare facility the sameas they would a factory, I don't
(10:03):
think it's going to work. Soyou're really gonna know. You know what
you're getting into, what's the contract? Who is your representative? And have
you to have experience in your industry? So when you say what you're getting
into, are you referring to theactual costs associated? Exactly? What are
the costs? What are the costsbreakdowns? What does it cost for comp
(10:28):
workers? Compensation? Was it costsfor benefit? Is there a been admin
system in there? Right? Howdoes that ben admin system work? Will
you be enrolling the employees or willthey be enrolling the employees? You know,
benefit design is very intricate, right, and so it's important for us
(10:50):
to know as employers, right,what are we giving our employees? Right?
Because we want to give them benefitsthat they really can utilize, and
really it becomes kind of like aa feather in our cap, so that
we're really providing something that our employeeslike and want to utilize, right,
(11:13):
which is a really good retention tool. So you must asked them that,
right, what's in those benefits?Are you going to be doing it?
Do you have have been a AD, this has been ad enrolled? Do
you enroll? When do you startopen enrollment? What information is sent?
How do you do your your enrollmentswith the plus one with the family.
(11:35):
There's just it's just the same questionsyou would ask your P and C,
your benefit or your HR, youhave to ask the PEO. Yeah,
yeah, I want to. Iwant to dive a little deeper into this
part of it before we talk aboutcontracts and um, you know the service
side of it. So, um, are all PEOs transparent in there and
(12:01):
what they charge? No? Okay, yeah, let's talk about that.
Yeah. So, I think whathappens is that the one I find that
is the most elusive is the admincosts. So generally speaking, somewhere muddled
in their monthly invoice would be anadministration costs. That cost I've seen it
(12:24):
anywhere from two percent of your payrollto seven percent of your payroll. But
trying to get a direct and consistentanswer regarding the admin cost is very difficult.
And what I say is before yousign on the dotted line, find
(12:45):
out what that admin costs is,does it cover payroll? Is it for
stamps? And let's hope it's notfor stamps, which I was told one
time because four percent of my totalannual payroll just respects a stamp and mailing
forms seems to be outrageous. Sofind out what that cost is, right,
(13:07):
And if you're looking to be toPEO, that's the kind of like
the main thing that you really wantto look at because you can eliminate that
admin costs and utilize that those fundsin other areas like for HR or to
balance out the benefit costs, etc. Yeah. So, if I'm looking
(13:31):
at a PEO and I asked thecompany, the PEO representative, what are
your administration costs? They should beable to break that down for me correctly.
Right. If they don't, thenthat's that's the ring flag. Yeah,
they should be, But I findmany of the sales reps are really
(13:52):
trained not to know what that costis and the reason why they don't want
to they don't know what the costis because because it did tell you the
costs and you don't agree with thecosts, well, chances are you're not
going to sign with them, right, And so what I encourage you to
do too, if you're meeting withthe PEO, don't only meet with the
(14:15):
sales rep, right, meet withseveral different members of the PEO team so
you can find out what are theirduties, what costs are associated with what
they're giving you, right, andreally separate the sales pitch from the actual
plan service that you're giving. Right. Yeah, I think that's a really
(14:37):
important aspect of it. This seemsto be kind of the the area where
people get surprised and are you know, got that get that that that bite
if you will. So, um, I heard recently from a very reliable
source of mind, a good friendof mine who's a labor logged ernie who
(15:01):
was involved, was got a callum from somebody that had a PEO and
it turned out that um, they'dbeen you know, paying for workers comp
for many many years and they hada claim finally and they came to find
out that there was actually no insuranceUM. I don't know who the PEO
(15:24):
was, but I think that's anotherarea I would like you had mentioned.
I want to know who who's thecarrier? Can you validate that you know
you're you're offering me workers comp insurance? I need to know for sure that
I have workers comp insurance UM employeebenefits seems pretty straightforward, but the workers
comp I was I was appalled athearing that. That was good, very
(15:48):
very concerning. Yeah, and Jeff, let me jump in on that.
So I think in dimnification it's criticalas well because you have sometimes they saw
in cases where you may not knowwhat's going to be covered. So it's
really important to find out what yourcoverage, what you're getting for your coverage.
(16:11):
Who's indemnified is the employer covering theemployees? Is the owner of the
company covered? You know it's ajoint employer situation, right, so they
become co employers. Right. Youhave to really take a deeper dive into
that and say what does co employmentmean? Right? When am I covered?
(16:33):
When aren't I covered? Right?And so that's really significant because let's
say, for example, you havea worker shop injury on your facility and
the PEO picks up the coverage,but then somewhere down the line, they're
doing the CEO personally, right,and then you have to find out are
(16:55):
they indemnified for that or if it'sa libel suit, are they indemnify for
that? Sexual harassment already covered forthat, right. So there's a lot
of coverage issues that come up allthe time, And that particular story where
the PO didn't have coverage, I'veheard tons of time. Right. Yeah,
(17:15):
Yeah, that brings a thought tomy mind, and I wanted to
ask you this question. So youjust use the phrase called co employment and
that's what you say, that's thearrangement then when you're entering a PEO.
So what that sounds like to me, What that tells me is that I
still have liability as an employer eventhough I've handed off all these responsibilities.
(17:37):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And Ithink the tricky part about that is to
really just starry when you're liable andwhen you're not liable. And I think
the common sense would tell us thatthey're not going to take the burden of
the greatest liability, right, SoI think it really makes some really astute
(18:03):
work on an employer's part to reallyfind out what type of coverage they have.
I had recently a gentleman who's inthe construction industry and he has to
provide certificates of insurance for various sites. And the great guy, he's probably
has about four hundred employees. Butone of the things that he found out
(18:26):
is the search who were not gettingto the site and they weren't getting to
where they were supposed to be ina timely manner. And he had a
couple of accidents, right, andit really created issues with where to cover
because you didn't have the certificate atwhat point where they covered? Well,
why didn't he have it? Andalthough in the end was all straightened out,
(18:49):
but it was a big mess.He end up getting fired from a
sixteen million dollar job before that.Right, So something is simple as producing
certificate, you need to know who'sgoing to do it, what are they
going to do it, how arethey going to do it? You know,
are they going to email them toyou? Are you going to pick
them up? Are they going todrop them off? So there's so many
(19:11):
little details that you take for granted, right that may or may not be
covered. Yeah, well, wellsaid, I think that's really important.
So we're talking, we kind ofmoved from the admin fees to the liability
aspect of They're both very important questionsthat need to be asked. Right,
Um, you mentioned the contracts,So are all contracts the same? Um?
(19:37):
What? What? What is myUM? What my flexibility? You
know? Am I stuck for awhole year? Am I stuck for two
years? Um? Yeah? Sopretty much all the contracts are pretty close
to the same. Right, Butgenerally speaking, you are stuck for one
year, so at the end ofthe year, the pos usually go a
(20:03):
month to month. However, that'snever clarified at the time you sign your
contract, so it could be reallydifficult to just jump out. Maybe you
missed the end of the thirty days. Maybe you've already paid payroll taxes,
right if you're paying, you know, approximately three point four percent of payroll
tax of the first seven thousand,maybe you want to wait until you paid
(20:27):
that seven thousand. Or if youswitch, how would you know exactly how
much you paid? Would they provideyou information on exactly what you paid so
that you could subsequently make an adjustments, as in a case of the client
that we work together, or requireseveral adjustments to make sure that they didn't
(20:48):
overpay their payroll tax and their particularcase of PEO continue paying that three point
four percent long past the seven thousanddollars per us, which created an issue
for my team really to try andfigure out where the heck was that money,
which later we found out it wasPEO profit. Yeah. Is there
(21:12):
a early withdrawal penalty that they cancharge is I'm sure that's yeah. So
there's a massive early cancelation if youlead the PEO you in my experience,
it's never worth it. If yousigned it state a year, it's just
(21:33):
not worth the disruption in terms ofthe penalty knowing if you have proper coverage
the benefits, will something go wrongwith the benefits? Will they pick up
an injury? If an injury happened, if you have a catastrophic medical situation,
who what would happen? I thinkwhat you really want to do if
(21:55):
that's the case about the six monthsend, you really want to start preparing
to get out. Look at whatyour lost runs are, gathering at information,
look at your benefits and see whatyour usage is. Check and see
you know what doctors your employees like, etc. And what are the critical
hrs and then really the next fiveand a half six months should be spent
(22:18):
on moving forward in um leaving thePEO. Yeah, yeah, I do
want to come back to that point, UM in a little bit. You
know, if I'm exiting a PEO, what steps I should consider and how
soon I should do it? Thereare there are some areas that are very
important to know. So let meask you this question. UM. Let's
(22:41):
say somebody's looking at a PEO,They've narrowed it down to one or two.
Um, what would be their greatgreatest asset or resource in terms of
somebody being able to review the orwhom to review contracts. Is that something
that you could do? Yeah,I think that's something we could do.
(23:04):
We also have another partner in aLarra did this something similar. But I
think what they want to do istake an internal look in an external look.
So what I mean by that ishave the PEO give you a thorough
explanation of every detail and make sureyou have a complete understanding. Then I
(23:26):
think what you want to do isgive it up the people like myself or
one of our Laryer partners that canreally help kind of unwind that invoice and
really take a deeper dive into exactlywhat you're doing. Right. Yeah,
I'm glad brought that up. Wedo have your in addition to yourself,
(23:47):
we have another firm that is veryinvolved in in this, uh this discussion.
Yeah, you're representing representing the WestCoast and we can and certainly a
facilitate thatt UM. So let's talka little bit about UM. You mentioned
the representatives and who I'm you know, who I'm working with on a daily
(24:10):
basis, and some of the bulletpoints that you sent over to me in
this in this regard is UM dothey have do they can I get access
to a resume and a bio onthem? Is it somebody that UM is
going to be there every day oris it or is that going to be
a different person that I'm talking toon a daily basis? Do they handle
(24:33):
payroll, HR, risk management?What's their background in each of these areas?
UM? Can we meet them?So those are some of the bullet
points you mentioned, So you wantto speak to that a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, just so inthat case, I would treat man just
like how we treat a new hire. You know, what are your attributes?
(24:56):
What can you do what have youdone? What you say you've done,
But show me your resume? CanI have references? Can I speak
to people regarding specific skills, specificabilities? Right, and really look at
that as a partnership, not ashey, we came in, we got
(25:18):
a great rate, trust us,and we'll move forward. I think it's
the opposite. I think that youreally have to have an I a suspicion,
and they really think that you haveto really want to do your homework.
You wouldn't bring an employee in andhe says, hey, I used
to work at NASA and I wasa top scientist. And you say,
(25:38):
okay, you're higher. It's butwhy so why would you do it with
a CEO? Right? Yeah?Yeah, you need to know who you're
working with. Yeah, I don'tknow what you're working with. Yeah.
That was one of the complaints thatwe had in the employer that we took
out of the PEO was that theywere talking to somebody different on a regular
basis. They weren't getting direct Yeah, yes, that's very correct. They
(26:00):
weren't getting the TLC and the lovethat was promised. Yeah yeah, and
this this is something that happens allthe time. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I think that's super important. Um, you did bring up ben admin,
so correct? What is that involved? And what questions should I ask
around benefit administration? And when yousay been an admin, is that are
(26:23):
you encompassing HR as you? Imean the whole the whole banana, if
you will. Yeah. So Ithink when I when I addressed ben admin,
Jeff, what I'm talking about ishow are they going to administer the
benefits? What is that entail?And what does that imply? Right?
(26:44):
One thing I found is that it'sreally critical to understand how the benefits are
going to be administered because you wantto know wins open enrollment, what tools
should they use for open enrollment?What system do they used for open enrollment?
Right? So all the typical questionsdidn't you would normally ask of your
(27:08):
clients, those are the same questionsyou're going to ask of the PEO,
right, And so I believe it'sjust fundamentally critical to understand what is the
plan design, what's the plan designlook like? Do you have ease?
Do you have a self enrollment portal? You know, particularly since many people
(27:33):
are working at home these days,I think it's really important to know can
they enroll from home if they can, where does that information go? Who
checks that information? There's just aplethora of things that you know better than
I do that they're associated with theBenefit administration that really fall through the cracks
(27:53):
when you move over to the PEO. Yeah. Yeah, and I think
had mentioned you know, how muchtraining will they provide? Correct and there
are there are been advanced systems thatare better than others. Yeah, definitely
others. So that's that's also anotherimportant one because if I'm handing, if
(28:17):
I'm handing this off and the intentis to get stuff off my play and
I'm still having to induce, youknow, to be involved, then it's
not working correctly. They start workingcorrectly in Gill tell you a situation I
had recently. Well, I havea furniture company for about three hundred employees,
very highly productive company that sells roughlya billion dollars a year in furniture.
(28:44):
So they're not going to the PEOwould be the solution for because of
the Benefit administration. It was anightmare. They found that they have people
at the Port of LA, theyhave people at nighttime, at working in
the weekends. A drive in aTexas trucks all over and they didn't account
for the movement of the staff andhow would they actually connect with them.
(29:07):
And what they did was they asenset three days. I think it was
a Tuesday, a Thursday in thefollowing tuesday, and if you couldn't get
enrolled. But you had some peoplethat hadn't been in office in years,
some of the logistics people were workingat home, some of the trucking people
were on the road. And Ithink those are the questions chef to ask,
right, what's the dynamics of yourcompany? Because every company kind of
(29:32):
has a different dynamic, right,And I think that that's a great thing
that working with you on your team, that you guys are really able to
see say, hey, how doyou want to do this enrollment? You
want us to come there? Whereare the people are we going to go
to them? Are they going tocome to us? Are the people working
at night, weekends, etc.There's a lot of factors that you need
to incorporate, right, Yeah,Yeah, I just was looking over some
(29:57):
of the questions that you'd sent overto me and there was one that popped
out, and I think this isreally important to talk about. Is the
PEO a strategic partner? And intoday's environment that I talk a lot about
strategic planning. When I sit downwith an employer, do they do their
(30:18):
employee benefits match their mission their companymission statement? Do you actually have an
employee benefits mission and a strategy oris it transactional? So I think this
is a really important area to considerand to kind of project and look forward.
(30:40):
Is the PEO going to help meget to where I want to go?
Right as an employer? Yeah,many of them are still in the
age where they may have kids,right, And I think it's really going
to be critical, Jeff, tounderstand what's your demographics? Right? What's
important? Um? For medical what'simportant for medical insurance? Right? Do
(31:03):
they want medical insurance? They wantwhat particular benefit do they want? Do
they want childcare? Do they needmaternity? I just lost them the require
a strategic partner. We kind oflost you a little bit there. You're
(31:23):
cutting out. That's okay, noworries. I think you know, to
be fair to uh the PEO partnersout there, UM, I probably will
have one of them on the podcastat some point to to kind of tell
their story, if you will.Um, I think there are some good
(31:44):
ones out there. But um,there's definitely some really really bad ones.
Yeah, and Jeff, I thinkthis The notion really is not whether they're
good ones or bad ones. Thequestion is is it right for you?
Yeah? Right? Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's good. So that's
(32:04):
sort and so in total honesty thereagain, there are situations where they're right
for people. But if they're notright for you, right, the only
way you're going to find that outis by taking a deeper dive and really
I understanding what's out there for you? Sure, So what other solutions can
they explore? You know, Let'ssay, you know, I'm a small
(32:30):
employer. I'm growing, you know, I started out really small, but
you know, things are going greatand I'm up the twenty five thirty forty
fifty employees now, um, andI just can't quite um, you know,
either don't have the financial wherewithal orfind the right HRUM support staff.
(32:52):
Um, what other solutions can webring to the table? You know,
I think that any other solutions,I like to say, is more of
an ASO model, and an IFOmodel is where you would take a qualified
HR, a qualified benefit, aP and C REP, and a payroll
(33:14):
partner and really come together in functionlike a PO but without the co employment
for all the other things that sometimesdrive us crazy. Right yeah, yeah,
So so there was a little plugthere, and who who who would
(33:35):
you recommend? Rodney? Then whowho's who's the go to for that?
You know, I have to startwith me, you know, And if
you ever want to have a conversation, you could reach out to me and
just really picked my brain. Oneof the things is I'm into solutions at
work for everyone to win win.So I'm not going to advise you to
(33:57):
come to myself Jeff for Scott forbenefits in P and C in HR.
If I don't think it's a goodsolution, Let's just sit down have a
nice objective conversation about what are yourneeds, where do you see yourself?
Where do you want to go?And I think that as long as it's
strategic in nature, we can alwayscome up with a concept. Look.
(34:22):
I recommended BBSI to a client onetime, right, it's just their product
and what they had was so uniquethat I said, you're not ready yet.
And about a year later he cameback and said, hey, you
know what I did. What yousaid, are you ready to sign me?
I said, absolutely, buddy,right, because he had to straighten
(34:42):
some things out. He had tostraighten some things out financially, right.
Yeah, yeah, I agree totally. Yeah. So as a group,
that's one of the reasons why inthe first place, why we formed Alara
from the start is to be ableto better service our clients and to bring
experts into the discussion, the strategicdiscussion, like Rodney and Hr and Scott
(35:07):
Menneth on the PNC side and myselfon the employee benefits side, and there
are some believe me, on myside and play benefits side. I have
some of the best minds in myindustry at my disposal across the nation.
I mean, some really really brightpeople that are doing some incredible things.
(35:27):
And the same on the workers copsside. So we can get like to
Rodney's point, you know, let'sjust have a discussion. You know,
their chances are that we can solvea problem with internally with the ALERTC group.
Would you agree with that, Rodney? Yeah, I always think it's
true, and I think that reallywhat I like about the Litter Group is
(35:51):
that we're nationwide, so we're workingwith clients now in Minnesota, New Jersey,
Boston, Flora to North Carolina,etc. And it's really seamless when
you have so many great partners.Yeah. Yeah, Is there any industry
that we won't talk to? No, I'm pretty much industry agnostic and I
(36:17):
have clients across the board, sowe're ready to go in pretty much any
industry that I know of, right, Yeah, I would agree with that.
We have a lot of experts indifferent vertical markets. Usually pick up
the phone and bring in one ofthose specialists for sure. So well,
(36:38):
Ronney, we're about a quarter afterthe hour. We normally run about thirty
minutes, but I thought it wasimportant that we really hit all of the
key questions, advantages, disadvantages foranyone that's considering a PEO. So I
wanted to go a little bit longer. But is there anything else you want
to add to this before you know? We? Yeah? What are the
(37:00):
things I do want to add?Is someone experience that Jeff and I have
working together is that we're able toassess the PEO and give your proposal.
And I think that's really critical becauseif you look at the proposal, then
you can compare to PAO apples toapples, all right, and employers need
(37:22):
things that are tangible, like whatis my HR, what are we going
to do? What does it costs? The same with you, what are
the benefits? What did it benefits? Costs, what's it going to do?
And so that's very critical for us, right for you to know that
(37:45):
we can put this in writing sothat you can take a look at the
proposal. And I got to tellyou, mister Turner's proposals are outstanding,
right and compare things dollar for dollar, service for service. So it's not
just a bunch of talk, right, because I think that what happens is
(38:07):
in this process there's a lot ofcommunication back and forth. But boy,
it's awful nice to see something inwriting and then you can say, oh
I see what these guys mean.Yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate
that very well said. So appreciateyou getting on the show today, Jeff,
I thank you for having me andyou know, as always good to
(38:30):
see you and Caitlyn. I appreciateeverything. Yeah, So will we'll be
seeing you soon, Okay, thanksagain? Coming up north right, Yeah,
yes, sir, I'll be upthere soon. I'm working on a
couple prospects and a couple of myclients and see if we can get you
in there, all right, buddy, Okay, you bet take care of
(38:51):
Okay, take care of
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