As a business owner, you get to make the rules in your own company. However, there are still plenty of regulations and laws that can impact your business.
It can be difficult for owners to keep track of every single rule and avoid non-compliance costs when they’re busy, well, running a business. That’s why it can pay to invest in human resource outsourcing through a Professional Employer Organization. A PEO can help your business stay in line with complicated regulations to help you keep your HR functions in order. Here are areas where a PEO can help save you some money.
Four Areas Where Non-compliance Can Cost Businesses
Workplace Safety
OSHA takes safety very seriously and can dole out some significant fines for non-compliance. According to the OSHA Penalties list updated Jan. 13, 2017, serious violations can cost a business a whopping $12,675 per violation. It’s 10 times that amount for willful or repeated penalties.
Workplace inspections and guidance on compliance can do more than just avoid costly OSHA fines. They can make your workplace safer and minimize risk for workplace accidents.
Hiring
Hiring employees can be a costly experience if you aren’t compliant with appropriate policies and practices. There are several laws enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that can trip up companies that aren’t careful, leading to lawsuits from disgruntled applicants over improper job applications, discrimination, or other issues.
Healthcare
Even with the current political administration in power, businesses should still plan for Affordable Care Act compliance. As our own Andrew Szczesniak wrote earlier this year about the future of the ACA , “it’s impossible to predict with any certainty what will happen in the next 12 months, let alone the next two years.”
With many people committed to the ACA through at least 2017, businesses still need to make sure that they stay compliant. Failure to offer coverage under current legislation could end up costing a company thousands of dollars each month, depending on the number of employees at your company and how/if you offered employees coverage. The specifics can get complicated, so The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation has an easy chart that you can follow to see where you fall.
Payroll
Businesses have to deal with tax liabilities and responsibilities. If you don’t stay compliant, you could end up having to cut a few more checks as a penalty.
Bloomberg reported back in 2014 that “the IRS issued 6.8 million penalties totaling $4.5 billion” for business in the U.S. over the course of a year. That’s a lot of lost cash that could be avoided by making sure your business is compliant with tax liabilities and responsibilities.
Stay Compliant through Changing Regulations
It can be tricky enough for some businesses to stay compliant with every rule and regulation. It gets even harder when laws are created or updated.
The ACA is a great example of how changing legislation can create questions about what you need to do to keep your business compliant and avoid costly penalties. A PEO has a dedicated team of HR specialists who can help you stay up to date on the legislation and regulations that may affect your business.
With a PEO, you don’t have to toil away for long nights trying to make sense of every little detail. PEO experts know how to do that so your business is safer and stronger in the long run. Contact us today to talk to one of our experts about how a PEO can help your business with compliance.