If ever the PEO model could prove its value to an organization, it’s now, during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Finding and engaging the right PEO partner for your company will help your human resources executives guide your company’s executives in many ways, not the least of which will be helping them identify key business functions, roles and processes, as well as helping them determine what areas – including which type of employees – should be cut, if necessary.
What’s more – and perhaps most importantly for an HR department – the right PEO services partner can help show a company’s top brass how critical HR roles are to not only the survival of the enterprise, how HR will help it thrive once the crisis has passed. (This can be particularly so for small companies in which owners wear many different hats – including the HR function. A PEO can help company owners do what they do best – focus on growing their business.
Transitioning to Work-From-Home
Possibly the first task of your PEO partner at this time will be helping your company get those employees who can work from home the tools they will need to work remotely.
We’re several weeks into “stay-at-home” guidelines in many states across the country, so your company already may be managing remote team members. Still, chances are good even now that you’re still putting Band-Aids on different issues or dealing with ones you never saw coming.
Identifying Key Business Functions
Many experts believe the U.S. already is in a recession. It’s, therefore, not far-fetched that your company may need to make cutbacks at some point in the near future.
Now’s the time – before these cutbacks become needed – to figure out which functions and employee roles, skill sets, and even activities will be critical moving forward.
You and your PEO services partner can identify necessary business functions by determining how they affect the priorities you’ve designated as critical (such as sales and customer relations)
You can then work together to identify which employees – or roles and positions filled by your employees – could be suspended for a time or cut completely without hurting your prioritized business activities.
Transitioning Laid Off Employees Properly
One of the most important HR roles is helping a company furlough or lay off employees. Working with a PEO partner, your company can help workers:
- File for unemployment
- Sign up for COBRA
- Connect with an outplacement service for help in resume writing, as well as job search and interviewing skills
- Keep your remaining and former employees informed regarding additional layoffs/furloughs
- Provide information on job openings
- Announce when employees will be called back to work
Long-term: Preparing for Business After the Pandemic
The right PEO can help your company’s business functions grow quickly once the crisis passes because while the pandemic continues it can work with those in HR roles of leadership – as well as with company executives – in important tasks such as:
Business-Continuity Planning
Delineating how your company will recoup its business functions deemed not critical during the crisis (and whether such functions should even be recovered).
Determining which Employee Roles to Re-Hire or Even Modify
Not all roles may be needed once the crisis passes. Or many may be changed or modified. For example, some positions at your company that you believed prior to the pandemic could never be performed remotely, may have worked well as a telecommuting position. (Customer-service representatives, for example.)
Ensuring that Hiring Remains a Priority
Hiring no doubt will move far to the back of company executives’ minds for the near future. But many positions will still be hard to find post-crisis and if you’ve allowed your talent pipeline to deflate during the pandemic, you could be hurt once you need to hire again. Your PEO services partner can help you with confidentiality agreements, employee orientation, retirement plan enrollment, etc. so that you and your recruiters can get up to hiring speed quickly
This pandemic WILL pass; a PEO services partner helps you now… and when you grow again.
If your company doesn’t have a separate HR department, or, if your company is growing – and you’re now overwhelmed with administrative tasks related to the pandemic – the right PEO can help your company operate as best as possible during this difficult time. And, then thrive once it’s behind us.
PEO Consultants can help your company find the best PEO for you. At no charge. Contact us to learn more and to speak with one of our expert advisors.
Considering a PEO? Learn everything you need to know about the pros and cons of hiring a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to determine if it’s the right choice for your organization.
