You are shopping PEOs – Congratulations!
We applaud the steps you are taking towards improving your business’s efficiency and cultivating increased value for your employees. If we’ve already had our first chat, you’ve probably received the ARC PEO Proposal Checklist – a list of documents necessary for us to initiate the submission process and begin collecting proposals on your behalf.
Whether you’ve been with a PEO before, currently offer company health insurance through the open marketplace, or are a virgin group, that documentation list may look a little daunting.
You may be wondering, why do we need all of this information we’re asking for?
The answer is: The Underwriting Process. If you’ve been in business before (or even if you’ve ever shopped for personal insurance) you are most likely familiar with the basic underwriting process necessary to take out any insurance policy such as Workers’ Compensation insurance, company health insurance, or even when you hire a payroll or HR company. You go through a submission process where they ask for personnel information, past bills, and any information you have for your current policy. This same process applies to a PEO.
The goal of the underwriting process is two-fold. First, to ensure the PEO will generate a proposal that accurately reflects your company’s needs and covers all the bases to protect you and insure your business from whatever scenarios may come up, for you and/or your employees. Second, to verify that your business meets the qualifying criteria to join the PEO.
Enter the PEO and your soon-to-be relationship. The difference between obtaining a policy via the standard market is that the PEO is agreeing to take on your employees in a co-employment relationship. This means that any risk your company carries is going to be co-carried by the PEO. Therefore, it is critical for the PEO to verify that bringing on your company will complement theirs, not hurt their book of business, and work well for both you and them.
As you collect your documentation, the ARC team will be working to identify the best PEO matches for your business. As soon as your documentation is assembled, we will process the submission request for the PEOs that will serve your business best. Upon receipt, the PEO analyzes every piece of your paperwork to form a picture of what your company looks like, determine your company’s needs, how your company will qualify for their master plans, and determine if their PEO is the best fit for your company’s needs. The areas the PEO will assess include:
- Payroll: The PEO will review the size of your company and assess payroll needs.
- Workers Compensation: The PEO will evaluate the risk exposure of your company through industry-type, company history, and the job duties of your employees.
- HR: The PEO will identify your HR challenges and determine which of their tools and services will best serve your company’s needs.
- Benefits: Utilizing the demographics of your company and your preferred benefits package, the PEO will determine the best rate they can offer.
Note that each of these is an entire world unto itself – and ARC PEO Consultants and the selected PEOs will be stepping in to help you with all of them! Rather than submitting your paperwork to each of these carriers separately on their own schedule, you’re doing it all at once in one place.
Yes, that can be daunting.
No worries, though, ARC PEO Consultants is here to help!
We’ve spent over a decade refining this process to ensure a smooth and speedy submission process. We review each piece of your documentation to ensure it accurately reflects your company and its needs and position you to make the most advantageous match.
Next week, we’ll begin to deep-dive through each category – Payroll, Workers Compensation, HR, and Benefits to provide you with more insight on what you’re submitting, why, and how it will help you and your business!
Hit the comments or schedule a call to learn more!
Not sure if a PEO is right for your company? Take the “Is A PEO Right For You?” quiz to find out!
