In the March issue of HRO Today, the cover story “Fighting for Jobs” addresses the issue of why organizations need to consider veteran hiring programs.

Since 2010, the federal government has increased its focus on veteran employment due to an interest in reducing unemployment costs and aiding those who have served our nation at war. This includes the passage of the Hiring Heroes Act of 2011, new tax credits for hiring veterans, and the creation of the White House’s Joining Forces initiative.

Veteran hiring stems from humble beginnings.

During the past two decades, a variety of factors have combined to spotlight just how valuable the U.S. military veteran population is as a source of talent for corporate America.  A noteworthy percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs are veterans.  More than 180,000 veterans leave active duty military service each calendar year, so the military offers a highly qualified pool of jobs candidates. Perhaps most importantly, the performance, development, and bottom-line impact that veterans have had across multiple industries has been significant.

As part of the American Jobs Act signed by President Barack Obama in November 2011, the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits offer tax incentives to businesses that hire unemployed or disabled veterans. Through Joining Forces, Pres. Obama is challenging the private sector to hire and train 100,000 unemployed service members or their spouses.

In addition, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched Hiring Our Heroes, a nationwide program to help veterans and military spouses find employment.

Corporations are also joining in the fight. GE plans to hire 5,000 veterans over the next five years and sponsor 400 veterans’ job fairs this year.  And JPMorgan Chase, along with other partners, launched the 100,000 Jobs Mission last March, with the goal of hiring 100,000 transitioning service members by 2020.

Let us know how you think you can help.

Trying to establish and maintain a business presence in today’s marketplace is difficult enough for large companies but even more difficult for the smaller ones. This is why the little guys on the block are getting big help by choosing to take advantage of human resources outsourcing for recruitment services, HR management, government compliance, employee/labor relations as well as other HR functions.

The current economic climate is making it harder for small businesses to thrive. The high costs of employee benefits and government compliance are forcing organizations to explore new strategies to lower their operating costs to remain competitive. Human resources outsourcing provides the HR consulting and HR management that relieves employers of the many pressures of hiring, training and maintaining their staff.

Small businesses are cutting costs and increasing their efficiency by having an administrative services organization take over the responsibilities of payroll services, safety and worker’s compensation, employee leasing and other HR services.

Whether you have 2 employees or 2,000, utilizing a PEO can help businesses find talented employees as well as offer their management expertise to train and maintain them while lowering costs and saving the employer both time and energy.

A company’s goal is to succeed and become profitable. In many cases this means growth and expansion. A PEO understands the needs of both employer and employee. Their sole focus is to minimize costs while implementing an HR management structure to maximize efficiency.

Taking advantage of the cumulative experience of a PEO provider will help manage everything from employee relations to interpersonal communications between employees and customers.

Regardless of the competition, small business owners do not have to compromise on productivity or profitability. Small business owners can take advantage of the many opportunities for growth and success by using a professional employee organization to achieve the competent HR management that will give them the competitive edge.

With advancing technologies currently dominating the marketplace, companies are seeking the help of Professional Employee Organizations (PEO’s) to find the qualified employees they need in order for to stay competitive.

Searching for talent can be a big ticket item and many businesses are finding they are coming up empty handed without enlisting the help of human resources specialists whose sole focus is to find, train and retain skilled employees.

The Benson Strategy Group released a 2009 study indicating that as high as 62% of employers reported difficulty finding employees that met the criteria of the positions they needed to fill. Based on the online surveys and telephone polls of 1,000 workers and over 600 employers, findings indicated that the shortage of qualified employees has had, and continues to have, a negative impact on businesses.

As a significant percentage of the jobs that are opening up are in fields such as advancing technologies, medicine, clean energy research, biotech and engineering, many companies are struggling to gain access to a job pool with the required skill set.

The biggest problem seems to be a discrepancy between the supply of qualified applicants and the demand for them. Most of the higher paying jobs with attractive benefits packages once drew plenty experienced candidates, but the tasks of filling these positions has become more time consuming and expensive than many businesses can afford in a down economy.

This is why many small and mid-sized businesses are adapting to the times and hiring PEO’s to do what they can’t: fill open positions for skilled labor. A professional employer organization offers recruitment services and HR management that includes human resources outsourcing, benefits outsourcing, employee/labor relations, employee leasing, HR consulting, payroll services, safety and worker’s compensation and many other HR services.

A full service PEO provides solutions for businesses staffing shortages and specializes in matching the most qualifies employees with the right employers. A PEO’s goal is not only to recruit the best candidates for their clients but also to increase job satisfaction and retention rate.

Utilizing the Hr services of a PEO is the ideal solution for businesses that are experiencing staffing shortages. Many companies are realizing they are not only cost effective, but are an advantage in regards to their production rate as well as to their bottom line.

Companies who outsource are not willing to compromise by demanding less than peak performance form their personnel. This is why they rely heavily on the management skills of the Professional Employment Organizations to take over the responsibilities of managing their employees.

Handling the administrative duties of payroll services, employee/labor relations, safety and worker’s compensation, recruitment services, government compliance, risk management and employee benefits as well as providing workers with a solid infrastructure set up to deal with specific personnel issues takes an experienced management team.

Effective management not only wears the alternating hats of mediator and diplomat but also serves up the inspiration employees need to reach their full potential.

A capable PEO will also maintain a smoothly running management system that will help businesses attract talented job candidates, reduce employment costs and liability, smoothly initiate transactional HR and raise output and productivity while continually meeting and exceeding profit goals.

Top Strategies PEO’s Utilize for Successfully Managing People:

•    Competitive Salary: Pay is the first area a potential employee will consider before accepting a job position.

•    Benefits: Health insurance, dental insurance, retirement and time off are crucial requirements to attract skilled employees.

•    Fair and Equitable Management: Employees need to feel empowered and comfortable with the management style of their prospective employers.

•    Availability of Human Resources Liaison: A responsive HR is the key to ensuring employees that policy is there to benefit them as well as the hiring company.

•    Informed Job Placement: Recruitment is not only beholden to the employer but also to the potential candidate. Competently placing an individual in a job they are well qualified for should always be a high priority.

Global Human Resources Outsourcing not only offer businesses over 50 years of experience, they also offer superior administrative services that utilize the successful strategies it takes to attract superior employees and keep them satisfied in their jobs.

Managing people is what HR is all about and Global Human Resources Outsourcing offers businesses the employment solutions that are proven to work.

Some of these common misconceptions include:

•    Outsourcing means all risks are passed on solely to sub-contractor.
•    Outsourcing means companies no longer share responsibility for paying out benefits.
•    Outsourcing means functions are independent entities and no longer require expert management.

The benefits of outsourcing are the reasons organizations large and small are opting to outsource many of their functions.

These benefits include:

•    Reduced Costs
•    Elevated Levels of Efficiency
•    Generated Income
•    Entering Into New fields of Technology , Research and Development
•    Greater ROI, Customer Satisfaction and Share-Holder Value
•    Increased Flexibility

These advantages are currently driving the popularity of outsourcing. More and more, companies are transforming their models to incorporate HR outsourcing into their business strategy.

In order for organizations to move beyond the outsourcing for routine administrative functions such as annual benefits enrollment, recruiting, employment processing, healthcare administration and retirement plan administration into more comprehensive outsourcing practices, they are looking for providers of expert management services to avoid the many pitfalls of an inadequate outsourcing structure.

This is why large corporations and mid-sized companies as well as smaller business are finding that a professional employer organization (PEO) is the safest and most secure way to maintain successful HR outsourcing.

PEO service companies share the human resource management responsibilities and provide expert administrative functions to ensure the outsourcing relationships between companies and contactors are streamlined and operating smoothly.

PEO services also enable businesses to offer enhanced benefits packages which elevate the level of efficiency and attract more qualified recruitment possibilities.

A Professional Employment Organization will relieve the burdens of employee/labor relations, government compliance, HR audits, safety and worker’s compensation, employee development, training and much more.

When deciding to utilize HR outsourcing, companies understand that by hiring a PEO for expert management they are able to focus on their core business, productivity and profit margin.

More companies are deciding they no longer want to place capital expenditures solely onto their own human resources and are opting instead to outsource to stay competitive.

In the last ten years outsourcing has become more popular among companies who want to expand but want to control costs by eliminating full-time in-house positions that don’t directly make a significant contribution to the bottom line.

Human resource outsourcing has become a viable strategy and is growing rapidly in the United States as well as overseas. Companies that have made the decision to outsource HR find that they are receiving a higher quality of expertise at lower costs which improve their bottom line.

Another shift taking place is being made towards selective outsourcing. Companies are beginning to use multiple vendors and are only choosing to outsource specific departments and job functions.

However, using multiple vendors requires management to become more adept in contract management as well as to become more knowledgeable in service costs, standardization and detailed protocols when dealing with external providers.

As HR outsourcing is becoming increasingly popular, managers are looking for guidance and information to help them make their decisions about recruitment services and how to find the right professional employer organization.

The following are some of the benefits of using a professional employer organization (PEO) for the outsourcing process.

•    A PEO will enable companies to effectively outsource the management of human resources, risk management, employee benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation, training, development and other services.

•    A PEO will perform extensive searches for qualified candidates with expertise in a required field such as technology or programming.

•    A PEO will reduce legal liabilities such as safety and worker’s compensation, employee/labor relations, government compliance and other regulatory processes involving human resources.

•    A PEO will often offer more attractive benefits packages and attract employees with a higher skill set.

HR outsourcing has become more common in recent years because it is a very effective way for companies large and small to contain costs, reduce administrative burden and minimize risk.

Another option for small businesses to collaborate with a professional employer Organization (PEO).PEO, also known as employee leasing companies, human resource management functions of companies of any size, but focus mainly on Small and Medium Enterprises. Some of the functions of human resources executives of a typical OPE are:

Payroll

Direct Deposit

Compensation insurance for workers’

Health insurance

Dental Insurance

Life insurance

Retirement

Deposits and Tax Reporting

Caution

A group of PEOand companies to get all sizes to reduce the best prices for services and personnel costs to a minimum. To work with a PEO will be asked to fill out an application and a setup fee of $ 50.00 to $ 300.00 depending on the size of your company are. Monthly rates will be determined by the EPA, are generally in number of wage controls during the month shall be granted and the number of employees. Your company will be billed at least once a monththe cost of taxes, benefits, taxes, etc. are not paid employees.

After signing a contract with a PEO your employees need to work forms and taxes, which will fill then forwarded to the PEO. The PEO is the employer of record for the staff and then takes care of all the tasks of payroll and benefits. Timesheets, benefits enrollment and any changes will be sent to your PEO and receive annual reports planned. At the end of a calendar monthYear, the PEO provides all employees with a W-2.

Some PEO collaboration with the companies in each state and others are specific to them. You can only OPE using a search engine like Google to find. You can time running free services of a clearing house as OPE http://www.StaffMarket.com. SEO can also find a visit to the National Association of Professional Association of Employers (neck) on http://www.napeo.org. NAPE provides a list of members for researchCompany name, state or country and offers guidelines to help screen and select a PEO.

A PEO company can not be the ideal solution for all small, but it is an option for individuals and companies willing to outsource functions of human resources management resources necessary for one to many benefits of continued operation to improve and save time can be better used to grow the business.

They keep you from wasting time
The employee leasing company gets rid of things that take the employer away from focusing on growing their company. Business owners do not go into business to worry about government regulations, payroll taxes, or administrative duties. The Professional Employer Organization allow you to get back your time, and get back to revenue increasing tasks.

Help You Improve Your Cash Flow
The employee leasing company takes all your employment fees (FUTA, FICA, etc) and combines them into one known monthly fee. After all, what better way to understand your expenses than to work with an employee leasing organization that provides predictable payments each payroll period. Also, rather than increasing internal investments in new employees, PEO’s help you keep your HR/employee related costs to a minimum.

Provide Predictable Medical Benefits
A PEO uses an umbrella method and takes on many small business companies and consolidates them to offer each lower premium medical benefits. This essentially takes your 15 person company and incorporates it into a medical benefits pool of 1000 employees or more. Using this method, levels out the playing field and allows you to offer comparable benefits to much larger companies.

Government – Understanding Rules and Regulations.
An employee leasing company will help the business owner understand the various rules affecting them and provide guidance as to what they should do in various situations that may arise. They help in compliance of federal, state, and local laws. In addition, the Professional Employer Organization will provide and store legally required employee forms and paperwork.

Maintain and Reduce Risk
Additional benefits are acquired in companies with workers comp modifiers that are relatively high (greater than 1). The employee leasing company that you work with may have a modifier that is less than that, therefore offering your small business a better rate. Also, employee leasing company employees provide great advice for improving workplace safety and how to reduce claims. An employee leasing company will proactively manage their clients’ workers comp claims and help to reduce claim costs, including identifying fraudulent claims.

Even with the vote in Massachusetts in January 2010, there is a thought throughout the country that health care reform is inevitable. In fact, there are many states looking at doing something themselves as a cost cutting measure, providing greater access to medical insurance reduces their costs on programs for the uninsured. Ironically, we believe that the professional employer organization is the original health care access reformer, by providing small business employers with access to affordable benefits, not to mention help with compliance on many government regulations. Still, with reform comes greater employer burden. Today we will review 5 items that were recently in the Senate version in December 2009 and how a PEO will help you to comply.

Reason #1 – Companies with 50 or more employees will be assessed a fee for having an employee on the payroll that is using a tax credit for the health insurance exchange (we will review exchanges in a future article). The PEO is ideally made for the tracking, reporting and remittance of this type of fee. Look for PEO’s to provide this as part of their service offering for their larger clients.

Reason #2 – The language states that providing employers with 25 employees or less, and an average salary of $40,000 or less that provide health insurance for employees will get a tax credit. This is perfect for your PEO. By providing access to insurance, the PEO ensures you can receive the credit, but better yet, the PEO will also be helping you to get the correct paperwork together for this credit – in effect paying for the PEO’s services (depending on credit size).

Reason #3 – Wellness program equals win-win. The government will provide credits and/or subsidies to employers that provide access to a wellness program. The goal is that this will reduce health care costs overall. So, in addition to medical benefits, the PEO will provide access to these types of programs, allowing you to take advantage as soon as the law takes affect. In fact, the PEO will help assist you on reporting requirements to take advantage of the savings.

Reason #4 – Tax changes, HSA changes, and tax reporting of employers providing benefits. Need we say more? A PEO helps you with payroll and tax reporting, they will do this for all of their clients once it’s enacted, so why worry about it – it will be automatic.

Reason #5 – You will be more competitive then ever before. Quite honestly, there will be a number of employers that will throw their hands up and take the hit on penalties and other ramifications. However, overall this increases the costs for many of your employees and as we know, the #2 reason employees stay with an employer is medical benefits. So, while your competitors are losing employees, your PEO will be helping you keep the good ones, now more then ever.