According to the Association for Talent Development’s 2014 State of the Industry Report, organizations spend an average of $1,208 per employee on training and development. For companies with fewer than 500 workers, that number is even higher, coming in at $1,888 per employee.

But time is money. According to that same study, companies are spending an average of 31.5 hours per year training employees. That’s time you aren’t billing to an account or turning prospects into clients.

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Back in January, I wrote a blog post called “Are You a Union Shop? Are You Prepared to Be?” In it, I talked about how an NLRB ruling split 3-2 along party lines was making it easier for unions to unionize a place of employment.

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You have to make a lot of decisions when you own a business, and they’re not always easy. The decision to partner with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to manage your payroll, human resources, risk management strategies, and benefits is a perfect example of this.

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Many small business owners can tell you in a given day what they are paying for fuel in their fleet of vehicles, how much their labor costs are, what their inventory costs are, etc., etc., but most cannot tell you their Unemployment Tax Rate.

No, it's not because owners don't care about the bottom line. More likely, this is because many business owners do not understand that Unemployment Tax is an expense that can be controlled.

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Whether you’re dealing with workers’ compensation or unemployment claims, risk management can be a struggle for any business. You only have a certain amount of hours and budget to handle everything that needs to get done to run a successful organization, so having to deal with potential risks can put a damper on your profitability.

Fortunately, a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) like Group Management Services (GMS) can help. Our trained professionals know human resource functions like risk management inside and out, allowing you to breathe easy and save both time and money in the process.

Here’s how.

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If you’re like most business owners, you probably didn’t go to school to learn the intricacies of human resource management. As a result, you’re either spending too much time on HR or too little. Neither is good for your bottom line.

I’m Spending Too Much Time on HR Management 

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), there are 45 components to successful HR management. Forty-five!

If you’re trying to be proactive about HR management, good for you. But if you have to manage multiple vendors who are working in “silos” while trying to make sense of everything they’re doing for you, you’re probably not spending as much time as you’d like growing your business. Either that or you’re burning the midnight oil to keep up. 

Neither option seems that appealing, do they?

I’m Not Spending Enough Time on HR Management

On the other hand, if you’re not spending enough time on HR management, you’re more likely to be at risk for non-compliance fees, inefficiencies that slow down your production schedule, lower employee morale, and more. And you’re probably losing sleep at night because when it comes to HR, you don’t know what you don’t know.   

HR Management is never a problem… until there is a problem and then it’s too late.

Manage HR Functions Effectively and Efficiently With a PEO

Regardless of which path you’ve chosen when it comes to HR management, a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can be a good fit for your business.

When you partner with a PEO, you get access to a full team of HR experts that can help you:

• Maintain / obtain COBRA, ERISA, HIPAA, ADA, FMLA, EEOC, and DOL compliance
• Find and recruit top talent
• Write detailed job descriptions 
• Develop employee handbooks
• Set up training and rewards programs 
• Ensure that you’re compliant for employee terminations, and more

Additionally, because PEOs can also help you with risk management, payroll administration, and employee benefit administration, you can find money-saving opportunities that would have been much more difficult to spot with siloed vendors.

Best of all, you get the final say on all decisions. PEOs just make those decisions a little easier.

Stop living in fear of HR problems and get back to growing your business. Contact GMS online or give us a call at 888-823-2084 today.

Good businesses need good employees, and good employees look for good opportunities. A competitive benefits package plays a major part in attracting quality talent to your company, as well as retaining current workers. 

Employee benefit administration can be a time-consuming and costly endeavor for a small- to mid-size company, especially one that wants to offer a complex benefits package. Instead of just accepting the hassle as a necessity, you should consider the possibility of teaming up with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) like Group Management Services (GMS) to benefit your benefits.

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It’s always good to research your options before making a business decision. The questions may differ depending on the industry your company is in, but payroll plays a factor in every business, and it sure isn’t cheap. 

Statistics show that it costs small- to mid-size companies an average of $2,000 per employee per year to handle payroll. Even if you’re a small- or mid-size company, a Professional Employer Organization like Group Management Services may be a good fit to help streamline your payroll needs.

Of course, working with a PEO is a big decision, so you’ll want to find out what they can offer your business. Here are some ways to find out if a PEO is good fit to handle your payroll.

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Administrative professionals in a wide variety of industries work long and hard to make sure that their office provides the proper support it needs to succeed. Given their contributions to an organization’s wellbeing, it’s only appropriate that you show your appreciation for these important employees. 

Conveniently enough, April 22 marks Administrative Professionals’ Day in the U.S., giving employers a chance to reward the office administrators, secretaries, and every other person in a position that helps to hold the office together.

Photo Credit: "Gift Basket” by Calvert Café & Catering is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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A few months ago, I wrote an article about pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. Specifically, I wrote about how the EEOC ruled in favor of government regulations treating an employee’s pregnancy no differently than it treats a worker’s comp injury.

Well, the Supreme Court recently weighed in on this topic in a case between UPS and former employee Peggy Young.

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