The goal of most businesses is to create operational efficiencies, maximize profit, and minimize risk. That’s the concept behind co-employment models, which seek to divide employer responsibilities (and risk) between an Employer of Record (EOR) like FoxHire, and your company. Let’s look at the idea of co-employment and how it can benefit your business.
What is Co-Employment?
Co-employment is a contractual agreement between an employer and an EOR or a professional employer organization (PEO). This agreement is documented in the form of a client service agreement (CSA) that specifies the co-hiring of a particular employee or group of employees. Typically, the responsibilities are divided by the business owner, who typically maintains control over:
- Business and hiring decisions
- Operations and workflows
- Daily job responsibilities of the worker(s)
The EOR or PEO typically is responsible for:
- Payroll and issuing paychecks
- Taxes and benefits deductions
- Preparing, filing, and depositing payroll taxes
- Providing/administering employee benefits
- Workers’ compensation and claims management
- HR advice and support
The responsibilities within these duties are carefully defined in the CSA document. This eliminates the risks associated with sharing employment responsibilities.
What are the Benefits of Co-Employment?
There are tremendous benefits associated with co-employment arrangements:
- Even small organizations have access to big benefits with an EOR like FoxHire. This makes the job much more attractive to those top candidates that you’ve been trying to attract. It will also help you retain your best workers. This also means you won’t have to worry about managing the benefits process.
- These benefits could include:
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- HSA flexible savings accounts
- Retirement plans
- Live and accident insurance
- Long- and short-term disability
- Commuter benefits
- Education reimbursement
- And more
- Easier management of payroll and even hiring if you want your EOR to handle that. Reporting wages and taxes are eliminated because your co-employer organization handles it. This helps ensure you remain compliant with all local, state, and federal regulations. FoxHire often assists their co-employer client with those difficult HR questions, such as who are exempt/non-exempt or how to handle overtime pay—to name a few.
- Workers’ compensation coverage and claims management are increasingly complex, but not if your EOR handles it. Companies can receive hefty fines if they fail to properly administer these programs. A co-employer agreement gives you a resource for investigating claims and communicating with doctors and the injured employee, as well as return-to-work arrangements.
- HR strategy, support, and proactive planning are a common benefit of working within a co-employment arrangement. Firms like FoxHire can help you with everything from managing employee paperwork to designing base compensation structures that fit your budget and are competitive within the marketplace. We can also help with engagement surveys to help you retain existing employees, or, you can leverage our help to create job descriptions and advertisements that attract more candidates.
Work With FoxHire!
These are just some of the benefits of a co-employment arrangement that a company like FoxHire can offer. We specialize in taking the risk out of employing your workforce. Talk with us about a comprehensive or partial co-employment arrangement that best suits your needs.
