PEOs to support for Talent Acquisition: An Efficient Path to Excellence

Professional employer organizations (PEOs) help SMBs attract top talent by offering recruiting tools that enable clients to efficiently connect with to top candidates, streamlining the recruitment process, providing access to competitive benefits and strengthening employer branding.

Businesses are swimming against the tide as they try to find skilled workers. They are in short supply, costs are rising and modern hiring practices are essential if businesses want to compete.

A report from Georgetown University projects that from now through 2032, there will be an ongoing shortage of skilled workers in the U.S., especially for workers who have college or graduate degrees. Nearly 5 million more people with those qualifications will be retiring than will be entering the workforce.

At the same time, an estimated 685,000 new jobs requiring postsecondary education will be created. Shortages of skilled workers will be especially severe in management positions, business, technical fields and healthcare.

Small and medium-sized businesses encounter particular challenges in recruiting the talent they need. They face competition from larger employers. Without the resources of big firms, SMBs may struggle with weak employer branding, poor job candidate experiences and a lack of strategic hiring practices.

By working with a PEO for HR solutions, small businesses can get access to talent-acquisition support. This strategic differentiator can help even the playing field in a cost-effective way that fits an SMB's budget.

How PEOs Reduce Administrative Burden

When much of an SMB’s limited HR resources must be devoted to essential administrative tasks, there is often little left over for enhancing the talent acquisition process. PEOs help by providing services that make day-to-day HR administration more efficient and cost-effective, including payroll processing, HR expertise andbenefits administration.

Their services can also make the recruitment process more efficient and effective:

• Analytics reports help you pinpoint which skills your company may need and whether it would be better to develop these skills in-house by training current employees or by seeking new talent from outside.
• Targeted hiring strategies attract the right people with the desired skills.
• Specialized software helps you keep track of where each applicant is in the hiring process so that nobody falls through the cracks.
• Onboarding programs help your new employees quickly become productive members of the team.

The efficiency that PEOs bring to both day-to-day human resources tasks and the recruitment process frees up the time of your internal teams to focus on candidate experience and talent-pipeline development.

Compliance and risk mitigation

PEOs with HR expertise in multiple jurisdictions can simplify multi-state compliance for companies that have employees working in more than one state. SMBs benefit from the HR best practices. A PEO's knowledge in the recruitment process can also help your company’s expand its talent pool.

Data and performance metrics

Access to sophisticated HR analytics and performance metrics can help with workforce planning by providing the basis for making data-driven decisions. These analytics can do deep dives into the HR data of your company, your industry and your region to inform your strategic planning.

Job market analysis can highlight the current range for salaries and benefits for specific roles in your industry and geographic area. You can then create compensation packages that hit the sweet spot where they are attractive enough to draw in the top talent you want while still aligning with your overall budget. Analytics can also help you identify and develop promising in-house candidates for succession planning and promotion to leadership roles.

Competitive Benefits that Attract Top Talent

PEOs help SMBs attract and retain top-tier talent by providing access to premium employee benefits. PEOs offer access to wide range of other benefits such as retirement plans, perks, and voluntary benefits.

A recent Gallup survey on employee retention and attraction asked U.S. employees why they would consider working for a different employer. More than half (54%) said a “very important” consideration was whether they could significantly increase their income or improve their benefits package.

Aligned benefit packages can also support diverse goals, enhance workplace culture, and strengthen values.

Strengthen Employer Branding and Candidate Experience

PEOs support for the talent acquisition process can help you build your brand. When employees are satisfied with their employers, word spreads. The company’s reputation as a top employer grows, attracting even more applicants, and the positive cycle continues. PEOs also help you support a positive recruitment process and onboarding experience, which helps employees feel valued and engaged from day one.

Professional HR services

A polished, consistent hiring process creates a positive experience for everyone who applies. A sophisticated recruitment technology accessible through a PEO and communication tools help to keep candidate documents, interview schedules and reviewer comments organized and readily accessible. The advantages continue through the onboarding process.

Employer brand support

PEO support for the talent acquisition process can help you build your credibility in the employment marketplace. Your SMB can offer prospective hires the advantages of both large and small employers, sending the message that you have big company resources but also an agile company culture. A PEO’s professional HR support and organizational development resources can help strengthen your employer branding in the marketplace.

Enhanced employee value proposition

A Gallup meta-analysis of data from millions of employees found that teams where employees did not feel engaged had turnover rates as much as 43% higher than teams where the employees were actively engaged. Engaged teams also had much lower rates of absenteeism, better safety records and higher productivity, and their units were 23% more profitable.

Only 32% of U.S. employees feel engaged with their employer. Your company might have plenty of room to achieve a higher-than-average rate of employee engagement and gain the competitive advantages that come with a highly engaged workforce.

PEO services and retention strategies can help you increase your employee engagement in several ways:

• Leadership development supports employees in pursuing the career growth that matters to them, encouraging them to grow with your company.
• Talent management increases employee satisfaction with clear goals and expectations, useful feedback and action plans.
• Succession planning provides a path for your key employees.

A virtuous cycle

By using PEO services, a business can build a powerful positive loop:

• Enhanced benefits access can lead to ...
• Strong employer branding, which can lead to ...
• Top candidates, which can lead to ...
• Enhanced workplace culture, which can lead to ...
• Strong retention, which can lead to ...
• Strengthen employer branding.

PEOs Checklist to Support Talent Acquisition 

If you are wondering whether an HR solution, like a PEO, can help talent management for your company, ask these questions:

• Does your hiring process deliver the quality and speed you need?
• Do you lose candidates to competitors that offer compensation packages?
• How much time does your leadership spend on HR administration vs. strategic hiring?
• Can you compete for talent in multiple markets/states?
• Do your performance metrics give you the insights you need for talent decisions?
• Do you have retention strategies and employee engagement tools to help protect your investments in talent acquisition?

If you answered "no" or "unsure" to any of these questions, exploring PEOs for talent acquisition process may be your next strategic move.

Get Support so You Can Find the Talent You Need

TriNet’s PEO services can support the talent acquisition process throughout every stage of the hiring process. They can help you:

• Draw top-flight potential employees into the talent pipeline with access to premium benefits that you can offer to your employees.
• Organize and streamline the application process.
• Provide a tool to help with the onboarding experience that can efficiently turn new hires into productive team members.

With a PEO, you could attract top employees by offering the best of both worlds—access to big company benefits and small company agility.

Explore more insights on talent strategy that can boost your ability to attract top talent in a competitive market, download our free eGuide Six Ways to Attract Top Talent: How to Become an Employer of Choice.