NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN Though Euro-Tech initially contacted Administaff, the company ended up not using the PEO. Finn was uncomfortable with the idea of co-employment, and wanted a set figure as to what the company would be billed, which, he says, Administaff wouldn’t guarantee.
Moreover, Euro-Tech’s payroll and payroll taxes functioned smoothly and the company already offered health care and dental benefits under a plan that was competitive and satisfactory. And sales and marketing managers were responsible for recruiting for their respective departments, as is typically the case at home improvement companies. “I didn’t want everything,” Finn says. “I wanted an employee manual and I wanted to get employee files up to speed.”
That said, he shopped around and contacted Cbiz (www.cbiz.com), a service provider whose menu includes human resources. Cbiz, which is not a PEO, sent an attorney to Euro-Tech to meet with its owners. For a flat fee, Cbiz organized a functioning HR department with filing systems and training.
“Fred wanted to outsource the setup of his HR program, the implementation of the program, and the training of someone within the company to run it,” recalls Jennifer Berman, managing director of Human Capital Services, the division of Cbiz that Euro-Tech contracted with.
Cbiz started by conducting an HR audit — in which it looked at every aspect of human resources from recruiting to record-keeping — and interviewing company managers before beginning to create a working HR template that could be managed by someone at Euro-Tech.
Today an administrative employee spends roughly 40% of her time managing the company’s HR systems, including benefits. Euro-Tech offers paid holidays and vacations, and medical and dental insurance secured through an insurance agent and managed in-house.
“What will keep you out of trouble,” advises Berman, an attorney, “is having an appropriate policy and a reporting structure. Next, make sure that people are trained to understand that this is not a joke and that it’s something they need to know about. Let them know they can have a fun time at work, but that there are boundaries. And,” she says, “be careful who you hire.”
Finn says he’s grateful to have learned how to stay out of trouble. “The more prepared you are,” he adds, “the less chance you have of getting into a lawsuit. But when you get to a certain size, it’s more efficient to [handle HR] in-house.”
