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In the big three of PEO: Insurances, Technology, Service 

 

THE hardest one to pin down in terms of quality by PEO is Service.  This is largely because Service is cyclical.  The pendulum is constantly swinging between "We don't have enough quality service people so service sucks" and "We're going to invest a ton of money into service because we've heard the feedback of the marketplace that our service is awful".

 

Even extremely expensive PEOs that tout amazing service like Insperity go through periods of struggle with respect to their NPS  (Net Promoter Score).

 

So how does one approach service in the PEO environment when HR guidance is in the top 5 for reasons why companies go with a PEO?  To quote Viktor Frankl, the famed Austrian Psychiatrist, "You must Control your controllables"

 

So lets talk about what you can control:

 

You have more control than you probably think over whom you work with at the PEO...

 

1.) Don't like your Payroll specialist?  ASK FOR THEM TO BE SWITCHED OUT!

HR Business Partner giving you suspect advice or punting the football with things like "Call your attorney"?  ASK FOR A NEW ONE!

 

If you advocate for yourself in the PEO relationship you will get better service.  We've seen it first hand.

 

2.) Control your method of interaction.  Whenever possible, pick up the phone and call your PEO contact.  If you ask a hard question via email like, "Hey one of our employees just stole a printer when we terminated her... what can we do?" You're likely to get a canned corporate response like "Contact your attorney or call our attorney hotline for a free 15 minute consult".  If you call your HRBP you are likely to get a much more human response because it isn't recorded.

 

3.) Involve your sales rep.  Often times a sales rep (at least the good ones that we work with) will have access to Get Stuff Done contacts within each department.  An inevitable part of sales (provided you sell something) is putting out the fires within your book of business... and few people can advocate for their clients better than their sales reps.

 

4.) Involve your Distiller.  If you've used us we will have landed you in the appropriate PEO relationship.  Our job doesn't stop there, we are well versed and have quite a bit of sway in how our referrals get treated.  We send a lot of business to these PEOs and should our clients not be getting the service they deserve we will rectify it or they'll lose out on our referrals.