New research from the Economic Policy Institute shows public sector employees may be getting a bad rap.

According to this research, contrary to popular belief, public sector employees are not paid better than private sector employees.  Government workers actually earn an annual average of $6,061 less than their private sector counterparts.  Even including the government’s oft-touted benefits packages, public workers still make $2,001 less per year.  The study also made a point of controlling factors such as education and number of hours worked, since public sector employees tend to be more highly educated and work fewer hours.

These findings may come as a surprise to the half of Americans who, according to a Washington Post poll, think federal government employees are overpaid.  The poll also found a third of Americans think private sector employees are more skilled than government workers.  A whopping three-quarters of Americans believe federal employees receive higher pay and benefits than their private sector counterparts.

It’s clear old stereotypes are hard to break, but an interesting trend may be afoot.  The Washington Post poll noted adults over 65 harbored more negativity toward government workers, while adults under 30 were far more likely to believe government employees were fairly compensated—or better yet, not compensated enough.

As a small business owner, how much do you enjoy thinking about payroll management?  Let’s face it—getting payroll just right requires time and effort.  Upcoming federal health care reform is about to create more payroll work while you’ll already be worried about W-2 distribution and year-end figures.  That leaves less time to stay on top of other changing regulations and to make sure your numbers are accurate.  Whether you think payroll isn’t so bad or whether you call it the dreaded P word, wouldn’t you rather concentrate on your already busy schedule and let GHRO take care of your payroll needs?

Here’s a look at the many ways your small business can benefit from outsourcing payroll management.

Cost Reduction

Does your small business pay a premium for an in-house payroll service?  Perhaps you have one employee saddled with all your business’ payroll operations.  However you manage your payroll, is that method the most efficient and cost-effective choice?  If your business has fewer than 20 employees, outsourcing your payroll operations could likely save you money.  Crunch the numbers for yourself.  Calculate the wages dedicated to payroll-related activities and be sure to include time and money spent on paycheck printing, paycheck distribution, and tax document preparation.  Compare your business’ numbers to the payroll service packages offered by GHRO.  You might be surprised!

Accuracy

Payroll errors can wreak havoc on your books, anger your employees, or worse—cause you to receive a certified letter from the government.  With over one hundred years of combined HR experience, GHRO’s experts will keep your payroll error free and will help your business avoid costly IRS penalties caused by late or incorrect filings.

Consistency

Government forms, regulations, and withholding rates are changing at a pace that makes it tough to keep up!  Something as simple as using outdated tax tables can mean hefty penalties for your business.  GHRO’s staff works to stay on top of the latest federal, state, and local requirements.  You can feel confident the latest knowledge will always be at hand; it won’t rotate out with your business’ bookkeeper or payroll officer.

Cost reduction, accuracy, and consistency are just a few ways that outsourcing can improve your business’ payroll management.  Most important, outsourcing with GHRO provides peace of mind that your payroll services are in good hands.  If you’re ready to spend less time worrying about the dreaded P word, contact GHRO today.

It is not Wall Street, the large multi-national corporations or even the vast banking institutions that are the driving force behind the American economy. Small businesses remain the dominating factor that figure into the continuing success of the U.S. Economy. Small businesses with less than 500 employees support more than half of the private sector American workforce. By hiring a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to help stay profitable in turbulent financial times, small businesses are able to reduce their operating costs, raise the efficiency of their management and stay competitive in the marketplace, thus keeping them playing a successful role in U.S. economy.

Small businesses do the following:

• Employ over half of America’s private sector workforce.
• Are responsible for hiring at least 40 percent of workers in the technological fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.
• Include over 50 percent of home-based businesses.
• Make up nearly all of the firms dedicated to employment.
• Generate the majority of new inventions and innovative breakthroughs in science and technology.

Despite the fact that banks and other lending institutions are currently creating more barriers than providing assistance to small businesses relying on loans to establish credit lines for commercial mortgages, vehicles, equipment and leases; as well as the fact that government regulations are making it increasingly difficult and more expensive per employee to stay in compliance, it has never been more crucial for small businesses to survive in the down economy.

Your PEO to the Rescue

For the reasons above, Professional Employer Organizations are coming to the aid of small business and providing hope for the future to many small business owners.

Why use a PEO? To help small businesses survive in a down economy,­­ a PEO will offer the following solutions:

• Establish an employer relationship by contractually assuming many employer risks by becoming the employer of record for government compliance, safety and worker’s compensation and employee/labor relations.
• Incorporate optional health benefits, 401k administration, general liability coverage, background checks, recruitment services and payroll services.
• Provide relief from the burden of HR management, employee benefits, employee leasing and HR audits.
• Improve employment practices, compliance and risk management in order to reduce a business’s liabilities.
• Allow access to a comprehensive administrative service, employee benefits and HR Consulting.

Being the little guy on the block is never much fun. However, small businesses are discovering finding that competitive edge has become easier with the help of a (PEO) professional employer organization.

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.

To help reduce costly mistakes, an increasing numbers of companies are turning to a professional employer organization (PEO) to have better access to experienced HR consultants who can help with many time-consuming HR functions.

A Professional Employment Organization is a single source provider of HR outsourcing that will serve as a human resources department for client companies who want to utilize their services to reduce costs and raise efficiency.

PEO’s provide experienced human resources specialists who perform the duties of a staffing agency while also extending HR consulting and management of payroll services, risk management, employee benefits and other human resources functions.

The reason PEO’s work so well for small and mid-sized companies is because they assume the responsibilities and risks of employee maintenance.

When hiring a PEO, client companies enter into a practice referred to as co-employment. They take on the burdens of procuring and retaining employees as well as the tasks of assuring government compliance and the requirements of safety and workers compensation by becoming their employer of record for tax and insurance purposes.

A  PEO supplies companies with administrative services, reduced liabilities, benefits outsourcing, employee benefits, employee handbook, employee/labor relations, employee leasing, HR consulting and HR management.

A full service PEO will provide the following:

• Payroll Services
• Recruitment  services
• Risk Management
• Employee Benefits
• Human Resource Services

Hiring a PEO means a company can focus on their core business and cost-effectively outsource the expense and often complex employee relations that can strain a company’s budget as well as deflect from achieving their overall goals.

A professional employer organization will enable business owners to enter into a co-employment relationship knowing that the successful management of employees is in the experienced hands of human resources administrators whose number one priority is to save their client company time, money and effort.

Two major conferences were held this month to address the challenges facing government contractors and the Human Resources industry. We attended the GSA Opening Doors 2010 business-to-government conference in Los Angeles August 9-11 and the Navy Gold Coast Conference held at the San Diego Convention Center August 17-19 to discuss HR functions for government contractors.

Our representatives attended the conferences and focused on finding solutions for effective HR contracts with the US Government.

Our representatives had booths set up to speak to attendees about how government services can best utilize Professional Employee Organizations (PEO’s). “We started off as a prime contractor for the navy and do a lot for the Department of Defense as well as the Department of Labor,” states Brandon Carl, Business Development Manager for GHRO. “This experience has spun into us handling a lot of the HR functions for other government contractors because of how difficult it is. We have been doing it since 1955 so we’ve been navigating those waters effectively for a long time.” He continued by saying, “Since we’re good at what we do it is the perfect opportunity to talk about partnering, obtaining new contracts and helping the government maintain what they’re doing.”

The conferences were held to connect businesses with government agencies to promote opportunities in a recovering economy. The government has budgetary restraints just as the private sector does and as a result has enlisted the help of Human Resources Outsourcers to provide viable business efficiency solutions to better serve the public.

Our representatives were happy to be among the attendees and found the conferences had successfully addressed many of the pressing issues the government is having in regards to contracting PEO’s for recruitment services, safety and worker’s compensation, payroll services and many other HR functions.

Did you see us there? How was your experience at the conferences?

Human resource outsourcing is becoming a commonly used business solution for companies who want to lower their expenditures while expanding their labor pool. Most companies are seeking creative and effective strategies to improve their profit margin in a troubled economy.

One of the most popular alternatives is the outsourcing of non-core business such as HR management and payroll services to save money and increase output without cutting back on quality.  Human resource outsourcing is important to any business because it is more cost efficient and time saving to hire an agency to recruit and train employees rather than to do it in-house. Outsourcing workers also relieves companies of the burden of assuming all of the risks and responsibilities of employee/labor relations, safety and workers compensation.

From employee benefits services and payroll processing to HR consulting and technology services, more and more companies are relying on outsourced employees to bring specialized skills to their businesses. High quality employees are any company’s most critical asset.  Outsourcing for fields such as technology and professional services has been proven to be advantageous for companies who want to focus on their core business and but still progress in the marketplace.

Your company more likely than not already outsources some services for these reasons. The most common functions outsourced by employers include:

1.    Call Centers
2.    IT
3.    Distribution
4.    Security
5.    Customer Service
6.    Tax Advisory
7.    Applications Management
8.    Bank Tellers
9.    Technicians
10.    Front Office Administration

Using the recruitment services of a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) or an Administrative Services Organization (ASO) allows a company to rely on their recruitment services and employee leasing services without having to pay the additional high price of employee benefits.

Keeping up with the competition is more difficult to do in a down economy. Utilizing human resources outsourcing is an efficient way for businesses to raise their performance while lowering costs. HR outsourcing is an invaluable tool for recruiting the right people with the experience and expertise that will help a business stay competitive.