Keeping compliant – what small businesses need to know about employee benefits

If you run a small business, it’s essential that you keep your business compliant with your state’s business laws – particularly around employee benefits.

Failure to meet the requirements of your state law can result to not only having to pay a bunch of penalty fees, but sometimes even the termination of your business. So how can you ensure you remain compliant with employee benefits? And why are they so important?

Employee benefits and small businesses

When searching for a new job, applicants heavily weigh the type of benefits that come with the job. And, when faced with two choices, the chances are the potential employee will end up at the job with better benefits.

As a small business, it is important to offer benefits to your employees in order to take your business to the next level. The first step to choosing employee benefits, is understanding how to stay compliant with your state’s laws as well as making sure your employees are covered in everything from proper retirement plans to paid vacation days.

However, times are always changing, and it can be difficult to stay on top of state laws, especially when it comes to things like healthcare and employee benefits. It is also tricky to get proper, affordable coverage for your employees when running a business with only a few employees.

As a busy small business owner, the best way to ensure your business will always be under state law requirements (without having to do all of the busy work) and to have affordable access to benefit packages is through a PEO service. 

Using personal employer organizations to manage employee benefits

What is a PEO? PEO stands for Professional Employer Organization. It’s a service that will work hand in hand with you to manage a wide variety of needs for your company including access to employee benefits and staying on top of HR compliance.

PEO services will also take care of things like payroll processing, tax management, workplace productivity and employee performance. They are especially great for small businesses because they will pool employees from all types of businesses into one group to get access to better healthcare packages.

This way, no matter how small your business is, you can have access to healthcare and employee benefit options that Fortune 500 companies are using, at a price that won’t hurt you or your employees wallets!  

PEO services are a game changer for small businesses. Not only do they provide proper, compliant, and affordable coverage, but they also make it super simple for you and your employees to have access to it all.

PEO helps with HR compliance

If you have employees all over the country or world, a PEO service is your best friend when it comes to HR compliance. Without it, you would have to spend hours not only understanding the state requirements for your state, but the requirements for your employee’s locations too.

Taking the time to understand all of this information is something that most small business owners don’t have the time to do on top of their day to day work schedule. PEO services are great for knowing all the facts so you won’t be second guessing every decision you have to make.

You will no longer have to spend hours falling asleep at your desk reading about the ever HR changing compliance standards! PEO services will show you everything you need to do to keep your business compliant and your employees happy.

Finding a balance between diversity and compliance

It’s important to be open with your employees about benefit options and healthcare priorities before choosing the appropriate package.

Send out a survey your employees can fill out anonymously about their medical and benefit desires so you have an idea for what will be the best course of action. It is easy to just pick out the bare minimum for what will keep your business complaint with state laws, but – if you want to keep your employee retention up, you will want to make sure you are paying attention to their needs too.

You may have employees with all types of medical needs, and making sure they are properly insured will keep them around for the long run.  

Just keep in mind, it is impossible to make everyone happy in this kind of situation, but it is certainly possible to try! If your budget can only handle a basic benefit package, maybe add in extra vacation days. Prioritizing a healthy work/life balance is important to keep the peace in the workplace.

The last thing you want is for your employees to feel like they are not in a safe and fair environment.

The bottom line

Having affordable, accessible and state compliant employee benefits for your small business will do nothing but keep your employees satisfied and take your business to the next level.

As a small business owner, it can be tricky getting proper coverage at the right price for your employees. It is even trickier understanding the ever changing HR compliance standards.

This is why PEOs are your key to success in this department. No more spending hours upon hours drowning in paperwork, or spending way too much money on benefits. Not only will your business thrive, but your employees will be happy too.

Photo by Shridhar Gupta