It’s a risky bet for a movie studio to rely heavily on theskills of one actor to achieve box office success. In most cases, astrong production team and supporting cast help make a film ablockbuster. A broker, like a movie star, also needs a strongsupporting cast to provide the best value to clients. For manybrokers, this means teaming up with partners like a professional employer organization (PEO) tooffer clients a complete service package.

There’s been a big shift recently in brokers’ willingness topartner with PEOs, driven mainly by two factors:

1. Companies are looking to their brokers to support the entirehuman capital experience, especially around talent, and it’sdifficult for brokers to build this support modelinternally.

2. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has driven more small andmidsized businesses to look at PEOs as a good option to help managehealth care costs and compliance.

As trusted advisors on “all things HCM,” the best brokers arehaving proactive conversations with their clients and prospectsabout business strategies to manage their needs around talent, compensation and benefits, and risk andcompliance — and that includes PEOs. By building inspecific processes to identify signs that a client could benefitfrom or be interested in exploring a PEO, a broker will be betterable to maintain his or her trusted advisor status. Recognizing keyevents such as rapid headcount growth, expansion into new states,shift in talent needs, or even new senior leadership, is critical.Brokers then need to ensure they’re having a proactive conversationwith clients to educate them about the benefits of PEOs andillustrate how they would partner with a PEO. I’ve seen brokerslose clients to PEOs even though they work with them because theclient wasn’t aware the broker could bring a business strategybeyond benefits to the table.

Why go PEO?

According to a recent study by the National Association of ProfessionalEmployer Organizations (NAPEO), 14 percent to 16 percent of smallbusinesses — those with 10-99 employees — were using PEOs in 2015to provide payroll, benefits, regulatory compliance assistance andother HR services. Further, companies that used a PEO grew morequickly, and had lower employee turnover and higher rates ofbusiness survival than comparable small businesses.

Another benefit of PEOs: Helping with the burden of complyingwith increasingly complex regulations. Aside from navigating thechanging requirements of health care reform, companies facesignificant state-level regulations as well. According to theWorkplace Policy Institute, state legislatures enacted over 100labor- and employment-related bills during the first half of 2016,and at least 20 employment bills were signed into law at the statelevel in June alone. These laws mean learning about newrequirements related to everything from background checks to paidsick leave.

For small companies with one-person HR teams, just managingpayroll and benefits can seem like a herculean task, and that isbefore adding compliance complexities to the mix. Partnering with aPEO can help businesses deal with HR, benefits management andcompliance challenges so they can focus more on their people andgrowing their business.

According to ADP TotalSource President Maria Black, “As the workforce continues to undergo significantgenerational shifts and increasing competition in the war fortalent, startups — by the sheer nature of their size — are facedwith challenges in delivering the attractive benefits that comemore easily to larger organizations.” As a result, moreentrepreneurs are considering PEOs to give them an edge inattracting top talent. We all know that in the war for talent,benefits are key and PEOs can provide access to highquality, cost effective benefits. Plus, PEOclients are more likely to provide employer-sponsored retirementplans and other benefits that help them attract and retainemployees, according to NAPEO.

Brokers are starting to shift their mindset about partneringwith PEOs to ensure they are part of their clients’ evaluation, andpossibly share in the revenue stream if they partner with a PEOthat offers a referral program. In the end, partnering with a PEOis a true win-win for brokers. It allows them to extend theirservice offerings while meeting the expanding needs of theirclients. When it comes to adding more value, it’s not aboutbeing the star of the show; instead, it’s about best understandinga particular situation and teaming up with the right supportingcast to tell the best holistic HCM story.