[Mike Finley]

Anybody have any experience with Employee leasing companies?

 

[ConcreteGuy]

There are day laborers I know about, and a topic which touched on this subject. I know of hiring "consultants" and contracting executives.

Tell us what you know of this twist, Mike.

 

[Mike Finley]

Employee leasing is where a small company can get the benefits of a fortune 500 caliber benefits for it's employees, such as retirement plans, life insurance, health insurance, vision and dental care, while reducing admin costs and paperwork hassles.

You pay a PEO to put all of your employees and yourself on its corporate payroll, the PEO takes over payroll, human resources, taxes, unemployment insurance, all the admin for health care benefits...

Because PEOs are able to bundle thousands of employees under one umbrella they can bid for more favorable group rates on various types of insurance and retirement plans. They will keep you compliant with state and federal hiring and employement laws and become liable for all of this and all the reporting. Most have direct deposit capabilities for your payroll also.

Basically they are supposed to be able to give you all the employement benefits of being a giant company even if you are tiny. The PEO employs your employees for you, but they work for you.

The catch seems to be you need to have at least 5 employees to start for it to be cost effective, and I am wondering if anybody in the construction industry has been able to use something like this to their advantage?

 

[bob]

In my area I know of some contractors that are tired of all the paperwork related with employees so they hire there own employees through a company like Labor Ready. they make a deal with the company to pay wages and workers comp and they keep their crew buzy full time.
The only way this is realy cost effective is if you have a high workers comp X mod

 

[Teetorbilt]

My biggest problem has been in finding the caliber of the employees that I require. Many have problems cutting a 45* angle despite excellent references and using a tool that is preset to to the job. Most just do not pay attention.
Why are they at an agency inthe first place? Construction is at an all time high, why can they not find or keep a job?
As an aside, I do hire some vets. Many of them can not put in a full day due to disabilities. I also pay some of them in cash so that it does not interfere with their meager gov't benefits. I'm one too, just got lucky and helping out my bros.

 

[Mike Finley]

Teetor - you have a common misconception about PEOs, these aren't agencies, they don't supply you with the workers (actually some do offer a recruiting service, but not in the construction fields), you find your employees as you normally would, you then transfer them to the PEO who employs them and leases them back to you.

 

[ConcreteGuy]

This is interesting. Sounds pretty cool.

Could you give us a real world "fer instance" example?

 

[bergenbldr]

A lower cost alternative is to use a full service type payroll service such as adp. Deductions for benefits taxes and even workers comp are made automaticly.I should note adp will not provide w/c for contruction clasiffications,but they can provide it for clerical/sales employees.

 

[mdshunk]

If the main motivation in this employee leasing setup is to get a better rate on benefits, there's other options. Around me, members of the state bulider's association can get their employee benefits through the state bulider's association. There's about a zillion employees in that pool, and the rates are very competitive. I wonder if that's an option for you?

 

[Mike Finley]

This is interesting. Sounds pretty cool.

Could you give us a real world "fer instance" example?

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking for. I thought it is explained pretty well here already, but give me more of an idea and I will see what I can do.

 

[Mike Finley]

A lower cost alternative is to use a full service type payroll service such as adp. Deductions for benefits taxes and even workers comp are made automaticly.I should note adp will not provide w/c for contruction clasiffications,but they can provide it for clerical/sales employees.

Yes, I was aware of that for the benefits of more of a hands off approach to getting your payroll done, but it doesn't address a lot of the benefits that PEOs provide.

 

[Mike Finley]

If the main motivation in this employee leasing setup is to get a better rate on benefits, there's other options. Around me, members of the state bulider's association can get their employee benefits through the state bulider's association. There's about a zillion employees in that pool, and the rates are very competitive. I wonder if that's an option for you?

I believe from what I understand so far that the better rates on WC is a big factor to it, I'm not so sure that it is also about getting a better rate on other benefits, but more about even being able to afford to offer them!

Retirement plans, life insurance, health insurance, vision and dental care are pretty scare things in this field.

I certainly would like to be able to provide for the future of my employees (once I get some!) and offer them a decent future after being with me for a long time.

You bring up a good point that there might be other things out there that would work also. That's what I was hoping to hear from others here, because I don't know enough about this yet.

So MD, what type of benefits are you refering to specifically?

 

[mdshunk]

So MD, what type of benefits are you refering to specifically?

Medical, Dental, and Eye is what I was referring to mainly. That's the big three most guys are after. One possible drawback... I hired a pretty decent guy and he was especially excited about full medical benefits. When the benefits kicked in, he went absent for 3 weeks and got all the dental work done that he's been needing for the last 10 years. Then I fired him...

 

[Grumpy]

If the main motivation in this employee leasing setup is to get a better rate on benefits,

This is something I've looked into, as Mike knows I sent him a C&P of some data I had collected. For me the biggest motivation is convenience, which translates into less paper work and less stress... and allows me more time to sell.

 

[PeoBigWig]

Please read our rules on advertising before you post again.

Thank you.

 

[Mike Finley]

I tried calling you, but all I got was a message about ordering some kind of canned meat that won't ever go bad?

 

[ProWallGuy]

Damn Mike, I had to read your post 3 times before it sunk in as to what you were saying. :nerd: :laughing:

 

[Mike Finley]

Sorry, you gotta be able to read between the lines sometimes!

|s|p|a|m|

 

[Grumpy]

Mike what ever happened to this? I remember awhile back I sent you a page I saved from another forum on this topic. Did you ever got the route of employee leasing or do you use subs or what happened?

I currently use a payroll service for my employee payroll. They take out a big portion of stress and headache but it's still more cumbersome than an employee leaseback program.

So, what's up?

 

[Mike Finley]

I did look into all this, but I looked into it more for getting to know about it as an option later.

Currently I am using subs and day labor agency, anything else is poor old me so far. I am busy, but I need to get busy to the point where I am too busy.

Hopefully that is coming, I am redoing the company with new corporate identity and moving into more marketing.

I finally put out some door hangers. I had a company distribute 1500 hundred for me. Got 3 calls. 1 was a guy complaining about the crack heads who put them out, the 2nd was about a job I didn't want, but the 3rd is a $25,000 bathroom remodel. (Can't beat that ROI - $150 spent to land a $25,000 job!) So I'm pretty happy with the result which was what I want to accomplish which is targeting a higher dollar customer and getting to quality over quantity results.