OPINION:
In these divisive times, there’s one thing that everyone, regardless of political persuasion, agrees is critical to the future of our great country and our economy: small businesses.
America’s more than 33 million small and midsize businesses represent realized dreams for entrepreneurs, food and financial security for families, great jobs and benefits for workers, and economic opportunity for communities from Maine to California.
Increasingly, these companies are turning to professional employer organizations, known as PEOs, to manage their back-end payroll, benefits and compliance needs so they can remain focused on why they got into their business in the first place.
Today, we’re kicking off National PEO Week to celebrate the role PEOs play in enabling small and midsize American businesses to thrive. It’s the one time of year when our industry steps out from behind the curtain to share stories about the 200,000 American businesses that today are delivering for millions of Americans across every sector of our economy.
In recognition of National PEO Week, Rep. Erin Houchin, Indiana Republican and a PEO industry veteran, summed up our work perfectly:
“PEOs take away the headaches of being a business owner.”
We tend to agree.
Working with a PEO, pharmacies, restaurants, construction firms and everyone in between can focus their efforts on expanding their business with the assurances of making payroll, offering competitive benefits to attract and retain high-caliber talent, and operating in compliance with the extensive patchwork of local, state and federal regulations.
Research from the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations proves that working with a PEO pays off.
Your clothier or artificial intelligence startup will grow 7% to 9% faster if it uses a PEO. The home improvement contractor will have employee turnover that is 10% to 14% lower. The new restaurant or dry cleaner is 50% more likely to keep the doors open than companies that don’t use a PEO.
As the national association representing this great business-enabling industry, NAPEO is on the front lines, ensuring the role we play is understood and supported, and the business certainty our members (and all businesses) require is achieved.
In the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we secured loans through the Paycheck Protection Program and loan forgiveness for our clients, enabling them to stay afloat through a once-in-a-generation economic crisis. Robin Clendening, vice president and chief financial officer of Indianapolis-based Music for All, says her nonprofit wouldn’t be here today if not for the PPP. “And we wouldn’t have been able to get that had it not been for our PEO,” she says.
And now, we stand shoulder to shoulder with Main Street businesses, fighting at the federal level to make sure small businesses receive every deserved dollar of Employee Retention Credit funds that remain frozen in the IRS’ fraud-laden backlog. As their legitimate claims have stagnated, the backbone of our economy has been forced to take out high-interest loans, lay off employees, and in the worst cases, shutter operations entirely. We’ll continue to bang on the doors of Congress and the IRS until this situation is rectified.
As the regulatory landscape across the country has become overly complex and burdensome, the PEO industry has grown (quadrupled in the last 12 years, to be precise) to meet the needs of its clients. We’re actively engaged in state capitals and in Washington, helping to craft a legislative and regulatory environment that allows PEOs to deliver for small-business clients everywhere.
Put simply, PEOs are in the business of small business, helping small businesses — and the communities they’re in — thrive.
• Casey Clark is president and CEO of NAPEO, the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations.
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