When it comes to managing your workforce, the day-to-day tasks can add up quickly. This is especially true for companies that utilize temporary employees, who operate under different rules and regulations than permanent employees. 

As a result, many businesses choose to partner with an “employer of record,” otherwise known as payrolling services. But what exactly does that mean, and how is this service different from the other workforce and talent management solutions that exist today? 

What is an employer of record (EOR), and what do they do? 

An EOR, is a third-party partner that takes on critical administrative and payrolling responsibilities for a client’s contingent workforce. 

Partnering with an employer of record company frees up internal resources to focus on other important duties. Payrolling services include handling administrative tasks like background screenings, onboarding, timesheet management, and benefits enrollment. In addition, an employer of record will reduce risk by ensuring compliance with all relevant payroll and tax laws. 

Related: What is an Employer of Record (EOR) 

What’s the difference between an employer of record and a staffing agency? 

While the two are related, an employer of record is different than a staffing agency. 

An employer of record focuses on the tasks and liabilities that come towards the end of the hiring process, once an employment offer has been made and accepted. A staffing agency, on the other hand, is responsible for sourcing employees. This includes crafting job postings, finding and interviewing candidates, and negotiating offers. 

Some companies use one vendor to fulfill both their staffing and EOR needs, while others source candidates in-house and then hand them off for onboarding and payroll. 

How can an employer of record help companies cut costs? 

A good EOR saves its clients critical time, resources, and money. 

Anyone who has been responsible for payroll knows what an arduous task it can be. Adding contingent workers to the mix might stretch your internal HR resources even thinner. 

Offloading payroll and other administrative tasks is a cost-efficient way to ensure you’re maximizing your temporary workforce and limiting legal risk. After all, the whole point of hiring contingent workers is to create more efficiency, and it shouldn’t come at the expense of losing efficiency elsewhere within your organization—for example, your payroll department. 

Related: Employer of Record Benefits [Video] 

How does an employer of record reduce liability for businesses? 

As the worker’s legal employer, the EOR assumes liability for any employment issues, along with payroll compliance and tax laws. 

By partnering with an EOR, you’ll have an entire team of experts working for you who understand sensitive co-employment and misclassification issues. They also keep up to date on the everchanging labor laws that pertain to your temporary employees. 

To sum it up, why should businesses partner with an employer of record? 

Simply put, an employer of record will help ensure your non-permanent workforce is being managed efficiently and effectively from start to finish. Their services can save you time and money, while freeing up internal HR resources to focus on other essential parts of the business. 

Related: Should Your Partner With an Employer of Record? 

Contingent workers can bring tremendous value and efficiency to your organization, but it’s important to have an infrastructure in place to ensure their proper management and oversight. Learning more about Broadleaf’s employer of record services is a great first step. 

Related: Employer of Record Success Stories 

The post Employer of Record vs. Staffing Agency: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

In this blog, we’re sharing a few real-life success stories that highlight how payrolling/employer of record services can alleviate administrative burdens for your direct employees and protect your company’s bottom line. 

Related: Video: Employer of Record Benefits  

Success Story #1: Utilizing an EOR within an MSP 

As part of our partnership with an MSP client, Broadleaf took on payrolling responsibilities from an incumbent employer of record that was taking up to 15 days to payroll candidates. Our team was able to reduce this timeframe and have candidates payrolled within five to six days, saving the client valuable time and resources and allowing their new hires to begin working more quickly. 

Success Story #2: Large-Scale, Quick Transition 

A national HR and financial services organization needed to transition a portion of its headcount—over 200 workers—to Broadleaf’s payroll. This urgent project had a two-week deadline over the holidays. We worked diligently to meet the timeline and ensure a seamless transition, allowing the client to kick off a new year with fewer administrative burdens and liabilities. 

Success Story #3: Payrolling + RPO 

Payrolling services can also bring value to businesses utilizing recruitment process outsourcing. A rapidly expanding hospitality brand partnered with Broadleaf on an RPO program to fill various finance, professional, and customer-facing roles. When the client required additional onboarding support, our EOR team jumped in to process paperwork, facilitate drug screenings, and conduct background checks for almost 50 contractors—all within a three-day window. In total, our average time to onboard each individual was less than 2.5 hours. 

Should I Partner with an Employer of Record? 

Now that you’ve seen the success stories, you might be wondering—are employer of record services right for my business? There are several scenarios when partnering with an EOR makes sense: 

• You need to hire and onboard contingent workers quickly. 
• You need to grow your workforce but are facing budgetary constraints. 
• You have a small HR team whose bandwidth is already stretched thin. 
• You want the option to convert your temporary workers to direct hires in the future. 
• You are hiring outside of your local area. 

In each of these cases, the additional resources and legal protections that an employer of record provides can greatly benefit the organization.  

Related: Employer of Record vs. Staffing: What’s the Difference? 

To learn more about Broadleaf’s payrolling/employer of record services, contact us today. 

The post Payrolling Success Stories: How Employer of Record Can Help Your Business Save Money appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

Employer of Record: Defined

An employer of record’s purpose is to serve as the official employer for a contingent worker (or set of workers) on behalf of another company. The EOR can handle a wide range of administrative tasks when growing your team. From payroll to screening, to workers’ compensation insurance, and more. Many of the most grueling parts of the hiring process can be taken off your plate, freeing up time and resources to focus on other aspects of the business.

When Should You Partner With an Employer of Record?

When you need to hire contingent talent, FAST

By partnering with an EOR, you significantly cut the amount of time you have to spend on finding and hiring employees. Your employer of record will take on many of the administrative and logistics duties associated with hiring, including sourcing, drug screenings, back-end onboarding paperwork, and more. Your employer of record partners are experts in all of these tasks and can handle them quickly and efficiently so you can get the help you need fast.

When you’re looking to hire, but have budgetary constraints

Let’s face it, finding talent is expensive, and time is money. It takes time to find and onboard candidates, which is time taken away from other essential, important business-related tasks. Many EOR companies provide payrolling services at very competitive rates. Freeing up the time your team would have spent on administrative tasks will allow them to make more valuable contributions to your bottom line.

You have a small HR or administration department and don’t want to overburden them

Your human resources team manages countless important business and personnel tasks. When you add onboarding and hiring to their list of to-dos, your team will be stretched pretty thin. Partnering with an EOR takes some of the administrative pressure off of your HR team, so they have more time to help you manage your business.

You are looking for contingent employees

Regularly onboarding and offboarding temporary workers can monopolize your time. EORs can take over those duties, and other personnel duties so you can focus on your full-time hires.

You want the option to bring your temporary employees on full time in the future

Even after sorting through resumes, screening, and interviewing, you can never be sure if an employee is the right fit until you actually put them to work and have them interact with your team. The EOR model is a great option for businesses who want a little more assurance before formally adding a new member to their team. EORs allow flexibility to hire temporary or part-time workers now, with the EOR serving as the statutory employer. If it turns out that these workers are a great fit for your team, many employer of record partners will convert them to your payroll at little to no cost.

You are hiring outside of your local area

Hiring remote workers in another region or state can come with a whole slew of challenges and risks. It’s important to ensure that these employees are being paid at a fair local rate and are provided with benefits that comply with local laws and regulations. An employer of record can help you stay compliant no matter where your employees are located, giving you peace of mind that your remote hires are being treated fairly.

Are there any reasons not to use an EOR?

Of course! An EOR partnership isn’t for everyone, and there are a few reasons you might want to avoid working with an EOR.

You only need a payroll company

If you are looking for someone to handle timesheets, salary calculations, cutting checks, and/or directly depositing funds for your current employees, you are not looking for an employer of record! This is a common misconception, as another name for an EOR is a “payrolling service,” not to be confused with a “payroll service.”

You are looking to hire direct employees, rather than a contractor

While you can easily transfer contingent employees managed by an EOR to full-time employment under your management, if you are looking for a permanent employee from the start, an EOR is most likely not the right fit for you.

You are looking for a more hands-on hiring experience

If you are looking for a strong connection with new hires from the start and hoping to be able to have a large amount of control over the hiring process of temporary employees, you will not find that in an employer of record. One of the benefits of partnering with an EOR is that the stress and work of hiring are out of your hands, but this can also be a stressor if you want to be an integral part of that process. In this case look to an RPO solution.

You have a robust, built-out HR and recruiting department

If you have built out your recruiting department, you most likely already have employees whose primary responsibility is to recruit, onboard, and manage employees. There’s no need to use an EOR.

Are you the right fit for an EOR?

If you need to onboard contingent workers, partnering with an EOR could be a critical step in your hiring journey. A good employer of record partner will take the stress out of hiring, onboarding, and talent management processes so you can focus on other important tasks. If you still have questions about EOR or are ready to talk about employer of record services for your business, contact us!

The post Should You Partner With an Employer of Record? appeared first on Broadleaf Results.

I’m here to provide clarity to employer of record (EOR) services—and the tremendous benefits they can provide to your business.

What is an employer of record?

An employer of record—otherwise known as a payroll service provider—is a third-party organization that is accountable for employing a worker on behalf of a client and taking responsibility for handling all worker taxes, benefits, insurances, and other statutory and administrative costs associated with that worker’s employment. Organizations partner with an employer of record to outsource temporary labor that has been self-identified by the company. Outsourcing eliminates the tedious administrative and payrolling burdens that come with managing temporary employees. While these workers provide services for—and often sit onsite at—your organization, you will not legally serve as their employer; instead, that responsibility falls on the EOR partner who will keep your business compliant with ever-changing legal and HR regulations and the employment and taxation laws across multiple states.

The employer of record handles all personnel functions, including:

• Background screening and drug testing
• Completion and retention of I-9 forms
• Onboarding and training of workers on safety, time, and expense reporting
• Timesheet management
• Processing, funding, and distribution of payroll
• W-2 form issuance
• E-Verify compliance
• Health care benefits administration and review of plan information with workers
• Registering and filing employment taxes
• Unemployment administration
• Workers’ compensation claims
• Ongoing worker care to ensure job satisfaction
• Conversion of contingent workers to direct employees
• Termination of workers

Who assumes responsibility?

The organization and the employer of record have different partnership obligations.

• The company where the employee works will retain control of business operations and is responsible for workplace safety and compliance. An EOR does not replace the organization’s human resources department—it augments it.
• The EOR assumes liability for employment issues—and is the worker’s legal employer— along with payroll compliance and tax laws.

Why should I partner with an employer of record?

When a company hires a worker, it assumes responsibility for all employment tasks, costs, and liabilities associated with having that employee as a member of its team. Not all organizations want to handle these obligations—especially ones that operate in multiple states and/or countries. Partnering with an employer of record offers another option that provides the advantages of time and cost savings, reduced co-employment risk, and greater workforce flexibility.

Related: Employer of Record (EOR) Workflow Video

Related: Employer of Record Workflow Infographic

Related: Should You Partner With an Employer of Record?

Time savings

For many organizations, temporary labor isn’t something that any specific resource owns. It is commonly seen as a burden to managers who have to spend time on laborious administrative and payrolling tasks to get a worker started. Outsourcing these activities to a proven employer of record not only frees up time for internal resources to pursue more valuable business objectives but ensures a more consistent and compliant engagement process for the worker. No longer will you have to worry about managing paperwork or tracking down candidates to submit information—with help from an EOR partner, these responsibilities will be removed from your plate entirely.

Cost savings

On the same note, liberating your HR managers and talent acquisition resources from these tasks will also contribute to cost savings. Allowing these employees to dedicate themselves to more value-producing activities will give a boost to your company’s bottom line. Outsourced EOR providers offer payroll services at very low rates—often only a few percentage points more than the statutory cost. This alternative can be significantly less expensive than doing the same work and employing the worker in-house.

Reduced co-employment risk

There are legal advantages to working with an EOR partner for your indirect hires, as well. Your payrolling provider will take ownership of employee classification efforts and protect you from expensive misclassification findings and liabilities. W-2 payroll services also offer mitigation from sensitive co-employment issues. Not only will EOR free up time for your internal resources, but it will also alleviate concerns from your legal team by taking on a portion of the employment liability.

Contact our team today to learn more about how you can partner with a proven employer of record.

Greater flexibility

Partnering with an employer of record enables your organization to take advantage of a “try-before-you-buy” model when it comes to talent. Interested in bringing on a resource, but unsure if they’ll fit within your team? You can choose to payroll workers before deciding whether to bring them on full-time or release them upon completion of the project. Most EOR providers offer free payroll conversions, allowing you to transition a worker to your staff at no cost.

Summary

As workforce flexibility and cost savings will continue to remain high organizational priorities for the foreseeable future, the prevalence of employer of record services should expand in the years to come. And due to the generation of time savings and an overall reduction of employee liability, your business can significantly benefit from partnering with an EOR provider. If you’re seeking a proven workforce solution that can bring value to your business, take a closer look at employer of record services.

Contact us to learn more.

The post What is an Employer of Record (EOR)? appeared first on Broadleaf Results.