What It Looks Like to Partner With Questco

Questco stands out among outsourced HR partners because it consistently delivers on the full promise of what Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) are capable of attaining for clients. That means simultaneously increasing profitability, cost savings, and employee satisfaction. Partnering with the right PEO means your company grows 7% to 9% faster. This growth is possible regardless of industry because the degree to which employees are effectively managed acts as a competitive advantage since it increases productivity. Increases in productivity are known to cause increases in sales and profitability. 

A common concern from business owners is that outsourcing HR will negatively impact the morale and engagement of employees. While this is a valid worry when it comes to many HR outsourcing partners, research shows that the employees of businesses partnered with a PEO are 9% more likely to expect to work at their current place of business until retirement. Employee length of stay is positively correlated to how many years a business has partnered with a PEO.

Questco In Action

The key to our success lies in relieving business owners of the administrative and compliance burdens that take up time which could be spent on revenue-generating activities. No one goes into business to coordinate with insurance carriers or answer complex questions about health benefits. Yet, without an HR outsourcing partner, business owners find themselves stuck with this burden.

Alongside the administrative burden, there is a compliance burden. Businesses must follow all federal, state, and local laws regarding the workplace. An error as simple as wrongly classifying an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) can lead to major fines such when General Atomics Aeronautical Systems was forced to pay $951,456 for back wages and related expenses. 

Keeping up with the constant changes in these regulations can be a full-time job. For instance, the government’s interpretation of the FLSA changed on January 13th, and companies will be liable for those changes starting March 16th.  Partnering with us means continual access to HR experts in all areas of compliance. 

Some take this as a sign that employees will have a hard time getting their HR questions answered. However, the opposite is true; survey data has found that the employees of businesses that outsource their HR expertise are 5% more likely to know who to contact for benefits questions.

In fact, the majority of the cost savings (54%) from using a PEO comes from not having to pay more HR salaries and benefits. Another source of savings is the consolidation of providers and software.

Saving Through Consolidation

Most small businesses find themselves stuck with multiple service providers. There may be different ones for providing:

• Benefits 
• Benefits administration
• HR advice
• Payroll service
• 401k retirement plans
• 3rd Party Administration for Flexible Spending Accounts/Health Savings Accounts

We can offer all of these functions, meaning there is no need to pay multiple providers and coordinate multiple independent services yourself. Importantly, if a company does want to stay with a particular partner, we can customize their offerings to integrate them. Most other PEOs offer “all-or-nothing” packages which force business owners to sever ties with any HR-related services.

Beyond saving money, we save you valuable time by offering a fully-integrated HR software solution. Instead of manually pushing data between programs such as Excel and Quickbooks, the Questco HR software cloud integrates:

• Payroll
• Employee Self-service portals
• Benefits administration
• Reporting for managers
• Timekeeping and time-off requests

Questco HR software saves time while empowering managers with flexible reporting abilities.

While consolidation is essential for saving both time and money, an even larger source of cost savings is due to a unique feature of PEOs: the co-employment agreement.

Benefits of Co-Employment

Unlike most HR outsourcing partners, Questco and other PEOs can give businesses access to health and benefits plans that were negotiated on behalf of thousands of employees. This is possible through a co-employment agreement which makes the PEO the employer of record for payroll and tax purposes. This has no effect on the business owners’ control over his/her company; the agreement simply states how the business and PEO will share responsibility for HR tasks.

Because PEOs negotiate for health insurance at scale and with HR experts, they have access to benefits and health plans that at a lower price than would be possible for businesses on their own. 

This allows business owners to recruit top talent and retain employees by offering competitive and comprehensive benefits packages. According to Glassdoor's Employment Confidence Survey, 80% of employees would choose additional benefits over a pay raise. By offering higher-value health coverage with lower monthly premiums, employee satisfaction, and retention increase. That increase in satisfaction and retention translates into increased business productivity.

That may be why the employees of PEO clients are 10% more likely to say that their employee benefits are “generous” compared to employees of companies without a PEO. Employees of a business with a PEO are also more likely to believe:

• “Our company is taking the right steps to be competitive.”
• “Our company is innovative.”
• “Learning and employee development are valued and rewarded.”
• “Our company is taking the right steps to enable our business to grow.”

Certified PEO Status

Questco is one of the small number of outsourced HR providers that has been named a Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO) by the United States Internal Revenue Service. To achieve and maintain CPEO certification, we must continue to meet IRS requirements including tax compliance, background reports, experience, financial reporting, and bonding.

CPEO certification provides regulatory and cost certainty for current and potential clients. Specifically:

• Some wage base tax restarts are eliminated. A CPEO has successor employer status for federal payroll taxes, which means that a business that contracts with a CPEO during the year will not face double taxation on FICA and FUTA.
  
  
• Tax liability is clarified. A CPEO is solely liable for the federal employment taxes paid to worksite employees. Once the CPEO invoice that includes these taxes is paid by the client, the IRS can only collect these taxes from the CPEO.
  
  
• Tax credit eligibility is continued. A client that uses the services of a CPEO remains eligible for certain specified federal tax credits.

Our CPEO certification removes obstacles to becoming our client and provides lasting peace of mind to all of our clients.

The IRS does not endorse any particular certified professional employer organization.  For more information on certified professional employer organizations, go to www.irs.gov. 

The Questco Difference: Customizability

Beyond certification, we emphasize flexibility. While many clients want to access a comprehensive set of services, we use a flexible model that allows you to pick and choose which services you need. This creates an incomparable advantage against the many “one size fits all” outsourced HR services in the market today.

The foundations of our offering are payroll and HR services; it is up to you whether we also offer the chance to join our own insurance plans, offer insurance brokerage services, or work with your existing relationships and providers. That means we can deliver the right mix of services for you, no matter where your business is in the growth cycle.

Here at Questco, we are passionate about providing exceptional services that go beyond the basic services offered by regular PEOs. The average ROI for partnering with a PEO is 27.2%, and we are not your average Professional Employer Organization.

We participate in an extensive, ongoing relationship with the IRS by virtue of our status as a Certified Professional Employer Organization. Our Certified status, combined with our customizable service offerings, sets us apart from other PEOs. Working with us means more flexibility, less liability, reduced administrative burdens, and reduced risk. It means you get to spend your time focusing on your core business instead of HR-related administrative functions. 

That is The Questco Difference.