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Ask HN: Do you really lose control of your company with a PEO?

1 points by adntigger710 ↗ HN
There is a general consensus that you lose control of your company if you use a PEO to handle your HR, benefits, etc. Do you find this to be the case? Do you have issues when onboarding/offboarding employees? Creating your culture, time off policy, etc? Do you feel the PEO has any control over how you decide to operate your business? Would love to hear the negatives or positives you've found when using a PEO for you business. Thanks!

3 comments

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cauterized
I don't really understand the question.

I've been at several startups that used PEOs and founded two.

A PEO has nothing to do with your culture, and almost nothing to do with your onboarding. It handles payroll and benefits for you. Some try to provide communication or project management tools, but every company I've been at has completely ignored those.

So on day 1, the employee brings in proof of identity and work eligibility, fills out a couple of government mandated forms, provides direct deposit information, enrolled in your benefits plans, etc. That would have to happen regardless of whether or not you use a PEO. The only difference is that they have to create a login on the PEO's site.

That's the tiniest portion of onboarding, if you're doing onboarding right.

How do you think a PEO would interfere with developing your own culture?

adntigger710
I don't -- our CEO does. I came from another startup that used a PEO and I didn't notice any interference -- and I worked in ops. He's heard that he can't tailor the company exactly as he wants to with a PEO. After posting this question I did finally see one person note that there were decisions he couldn't make like deciding the timeline people were eligible for benefits or 401K, etc. Maybe this is what he's referencing. Overall though, I haven't been able to find any people complaining about this. What PEO's have you used? Might be helpful to hear your experience for our search.
cauterized
I've used TriNet and Namely. Granted, even at the companies I founded, I was not the one to choose the specific package of benefits we decided to offer, and neither of those companies offered a 401k at all (though I've since had 401ks through both of the above PEOs).

The timing of when 401k benefits kicks in is the least of ones concerns in terms of developing a company culture, IMO.

Edited to add: I do know that some of the companies I was at had benefits begin immediately; others had a one to three month delay.