Why do TLAs and FLAs (Three and Four-Letter-Acronym) make things so confusing for business owners?
Let's face it, today you need an online database for all the acronyms that are used as business categories, to be readily available on your blackberry, i-phone or, yep, "PDA".
From an HR perspective, I've always had a question about the TLA, "PEO". PEO stands for Professional Employer Organization and as the PEO Network describes it,
"A PEO can be utilized to outsource a significant portion of the administrative burden of being an employer. The PEO can process payroll, handle the payroll tax administration; provide workers' compensation and employee benefits. PEOs can also assist in labor law compliance, risk management, EAP, hiring, firing and other HR functions.
Theoretically, PEO is a vendor consolidation and outsourcing management tool, which is facilitated through a co-employment agreement."
That may or may not clarify things for you, but it sounds like Human Resources Outsourcing or HRO (Lite) to me. It seems that every PEO has a page on their website labeled "What's a PEO"! From a marketing perspective it would be great if you didn't need to explain the industry you are in. And if the "shopper" is on your site... the good news is s/he is already there! It maybe best just to explain the value you will bring to his/her organization.
Question: Does the co-employment arrangement require the vendor to wear the "PEO Badge"?I think the PEO concept makes a lot of sense for a small business (10-100 employees). Utilizing a viable PEO should allow you to focus on "what's ahead" for your business vs. the time consuming tasks of HR administration.
PEO's have a long history of helping the blue/grey collar company benefit by "pooling" their employees with the PEOs to ensure better health care and worker's comp insurance; and have continued to sell that "formula" as the solution. I think there may be a great opportunity for a new or existing PEO to cater to the Professional Workforce delivering comprehensive technology (self-service and reporting tools) vs. just insurance savings.