Rat Race Armaggeddon: Best HR Outsourcing Services

Want to jump straight to the answer? The best HR outsourcing service for most people is definitely ADP or Insperity.

Human resources is a critical aspect of any business.

Historically, HR departments were reserved for larger organizations. Small businesses might just have a bookkeeper handle HR responsibilities.

But today, businesses of all shapes and sizes can leverage HR outsourcing to perform crucial tasks. Large businesses can use HR outsourcing to reduce operational costs. Outsourcing tasks and roles is much more cost-effective than in-house employees.

What’s the best HR outsourcing service? Find out below.

The 8 Best HR Outsourcing Services of 2020

Lots of companies offer some form of HR outsourcing. Human resources is offered by most of the best PEO service providers on the market.

After researching dozens of HR firms and outsourcing services, I’ve narrowed down the top eight for you to consider.

ADP — Best HR outsourcing service for benefits administration.
Insperity — Best HR outsourcing service for mid-market companies.
Paychex — Best HR outsourcing service for payroll.
Zenefits — Best HR software for small businesses.
Engage PEO — Best HR outsourcing service for legal compliance.
TriNet — Most flexible HR outsourcing solutions.
G&A Partners — Best HR outsourcing for employee onboarding and development.
Tandem HR — Best HR outsourcing service for growing small businesses.

I’ll give you an in-depth review covering the features, benefits, and other considerations for each one of these providers below.

Best HR Outsourcing Services Reviews

ADP (Best for benefits administration)

Visit ADP

Full-service HR solutions
Flexible plans and services
Solutions for any size business
Top notch customer service

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ADP offers both HR software and services. They provide solutions for small businesses as well as mid-sized organizations and enterprises.

ADP is also very flexible. You have the option to outsource all or just part of your HR management team.

Some of ADPs HR services include:

Payroll
Time and attendance
Retirement plans
Insurance

This provider offers business insurance as well as group health insurance for your employees. Since ADP is such a large company, they have leverage and bargaining power with all major health insurance providers.

So even small businesses can get access to exceptional plans for their employees, that they wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere outside of this network.

ADP has a support team of knowledgeable HR professionals that can be reached via phone, email, or live chat. They can create and distribute all of the necessary forms, policies, and job descriptions for your organization. You can even create a custom employee handbook in compliance with local and federal laws.

They also give you guidance to help you get the optimal HR experience.

From benefits packages to compliance and setting up employee self-service tools, ADP has it all.

Their pricing is obscured on the website, but you can get a free quote through their website.

Insperity (Best for mid-market companies)

Visit Insperity

Full-service HR solution
Individual & custom HR packages
In business 35 years
Best for mid-sized organizations

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Insperity offers a full-service HR solution.

From technology to benefits, they fully customize HR packages based on your organization’s needs.

Insperity gives your employees access to Fortune 500-level benefits. This includes medical, vision, and dental coverage.

Outsource processing payroll, handling W-2s, W-4s, and employment verification to Insperity.

They’ll also help you with liability insurance, workers’ compensation, and other areas of risk management. This service provider helps with HR-related compliance for things like unemployment claims and government reporting.

Every business wants to retain the best talent. Insperity will help you create recognition programs, an employee handbook, and improve your employee training process.

I’d recommend Insperity to mid-market organizations. They do have solutions for businesses with 5-149 employees. But their main focus and expertise is for businesses with 150+ employees.

In addition to the full-service HR packages, you can also use Insperity for individual solutions like:

Recruiting
HR consulting
Retirement
Insurance
Accounting and bookkeeping

Like most of the best outsourcing services, Insperity offers new and up to date technology for all of its services.

With nearly 35 years in business and 70+ offices across the country, Insperity is a top consideration for HR outsourcing.

Paychex (Best for payroll)

Wide range of HR services
Pricing based on # of employees
Great for smaller organizations
Knowledgeable HR professionals

Paychex is one of the best online payroll services on the market today.

In addition, they also fantastic HR outsourcing services.

Some of their great feature:

Retirement services
Insurance services
HR professionals
Benefits administration
Compliance services

While Paychex does have HR services for businesses with up to 90+ employees, it’s one of the best providers for businesses with 50 employees or less. As such, it’s a great service for small businesses.

Paychex has an awesome mobile app that can be used to track things like hiring, labor costs, and employee turnover.

The app can also be used for employee self-service tools and employee training.

More than 670,000 organizations use Paychex. So this is definitely a company that you can trust with your most critical business needs.

For those of you who have an existing HR department in place, Paychex can act as an extension of this department by providing you a dedicated outsourced HR manager. They can assist with hiring, onboarding, and retaining top-level talent.

An outsourced HR manager from Paychex will handle workforce analytics, benchmarking, corporate culture strategy, manage benefits, and basic employee training.

It’s essentially everything you’d need in an HR manager, without having to hire a full-time in-house staff member.

Zenefits (Best for small businesses)

Best HR software
Built for small businesses
Streamline your HR tasks
Pricing starts at $8/month

Zenefits is a bit different compared to some of the other options on our list. Technically, Zenefits is not an outsourcing service; it’s software for human resources.

But it serves the same purpose as an outsourced service in terms of ease and cost reduction. Zenefits will be a cheaper alternative than a full-service outsourcing firm.

This HR software was built for small businesses. It has everything you need to streamline your HR tasks and administration.

Some of the top HR features available on Zenefits include:

Creating compensation packages and sending them to new hires
Self onboarding for new employees
Employee management tools
PTO policies and managing time off requests
Intelligence reports for your workforce
Mobile accessibility (for administration and employees)

Zenefits has dozens of integrations already built into the system. The platform also has options for payroll, employee benefits, employee scheduling, and time tracking.

Most HR outsourcing services require you to get a custom quote from the provider. But Zenefits’ pricing is straightforward and available on the website. Here’s a quick overview of the plans and pricing for Zenefits:

Essentials — $8 per month per employee

All core HR features
Employee time and scheduling tools
Integrations (G Suite, Slack, Salesforce, etc.)
Zenefits mobile app

Growth — $14 per month per employee

All Essentials features
Compensation management tools
Performance management

Essentials — $21 per month per employee

All Growth features
Track and measure employee well-being
Personalized tools, tips, and training advice
Relevant well-being content automatically triggered based on employee actions

All of these rates are based on an annual plan. Zenefits does offer month-to-month rates for about 30% more per month. In addition to the base plans, you can add-on the following features to your Zenefits subscription:

Payroll — $6 per month per employee
Advisory services — $8 per month per employee
Benefits administration (with your own broker) — $5 per month per employee

If your small business needs to improve the way you handle HR tasks but don’t have the funds to completely outsource the service, Zenefits is the perfect solution for you.

Engage PEO (Best for legal compliance)

Full service PEO provider
Manage complex HR legal needs
Every consultant is an attorney
Strict compliance standards

As the name clearly implies, Engage PEO is a full-service professional employer organization. This company provides a PEO experience that always aims to put the client’s needs first with its innovative business model.

Founded in 2011, Engage PEO quickly became one of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. They are licensed and serving businesses in all 50 states.

What makes Engage PEO so unique as an HR services provider? It’s the people.

Every member of their HR consulting team is an attorney. These legal professionals have significant experience with labor and employment law.

For those of you with complex HR legal needs for industries with strict compliance, Engage PEO will be a top choice for you to consider. Here’s a quick overview of some of the top outsourced HR functions offered by this provider:

Employee policies
Employee handbook
EEO, ADA, and FMLA compliance
State and US Department of Labor and Hour compliance
Administration of unemployment claims
Hiring and recruitment assistance
Background check and drug screening
Employment practices liability insurance
Employee training

As a PEO provider, Engage PEO also offers payroll and tax administration, workers’ compensation, risk management, employee benefits, and integrated technology solutions.

TriNet (Most flexible HR outsourcing solution)

Full-service HR solution
Wide range of industries
Comprehensive HR platform
Flexible plans and services

TriNet is another full-service HR outsourcing solution. They provide flexible plans and services to meet the needs of all businesses, regardless of size.

They work with with businesses in a wide range of industries, including:

Retail
Financial services
Architecture
Engineering
Manufacturing
Nonprofits
Wholesale
Marketing and advertising
Technology
Consulting
Life sciences

TriNet’s services will give you more time to focus on your business. These industry-specific solutions will help you attract and retain top-level talent.

The HR outsourcing services consist of HR consulting, benefit options, payroll services, and risk mitigation. You’ll also benefit from TriNet’s comprehensive HR platform. This technology contains tools for employee self-service and mobile access.

TriNet works with some of the best insurance carriers on the market today. You can give your employees medical, dental, vision, life, retirement, and disability coverage.

Some of TriNet’s top carriers include MetLife, Kaiser Permanente, Transamerica, Aetna, Aflac, MassMutual, and UnitedHealth Group.

G&A Partners (Best for employee onboarding and development)

In business for 20+ years
Full-service or á la cart
Payroll, recruitment, & more
Best for niche industries

G&A Partners has been providing professional services to businesses for more than 20 years. They offer full-service HR outsourcing for things like payroll, benefits, compliance, workplace safety, performance management, and recruitment.

There are two different ways that your company can work with G&A Partners.

You can allow them to act as the employer of record with a PEO (professional employer organization) plan. Alternatively, you can pick and choose the services you need with their ASO (administrative services organization) options.

Think of it like this. The first choice is full-service, and the second is á la carte.

For those of you who already have an in-house HR department with the infrastructure in place, the ASO model will likely be a better option for you. If not, I’d recommend the PEO services.

In addition to human resources, G&A Partners offers payroll services, benefits packages, and HR technology.

This provider isn’t for everyone. Common industries served by G&A Partners include:

Nonprofits
Health care
Manufacturing
Professional services
Franchises

One unique standout of G&A Partners is its employee development services. This HR function includes candidate sourcing, job description, job postings, resume screening, and pre-hire assessments.

Once an employee is hired, this outsourced firm will handle onboarding, benefits enrollment, and performance management as well.

Tandem HR (Best for growing small businesses)

Fully customized plans
Easy to scale
Wide range of services
Full-service PEO provider

Tandem HR offers a wide range of human resources solutions for small businesses. This provider has the tools and expertise to help small businesses as they scale.

If your business is growing rapidly and you need an outsourced HR firm to grow with you, Tandem HR will be a top choice for you to consider.

I like Tandem HR because they do not believe in cookie-cutter solutions. Every business gets a fully customized plan based on its needs. As a full-service PEO provider, Tandem HR has tools and solutions for:

Payroll
Human resources
Benefits
Risk management
Technology

Most small businesses don’t have much of an HR infrastructure in place. Tandem HR can help you set that up and manage the entire department. As your organization grows, Tandem HR will grow with you.

These custom HR solutions will help you save time, save money, boost employee productivity, retain talent, and remain compliant at the state and federal level.

How to Choose the Best HR Outsourcing Service For Your Business

Every business has unique needs. That’s why choosing the right HR outsourcing service for your company is so important. With so many options at your disposal, how can you possibly know which one is the best? This is the methodology that we use here at Quick Sprout. You can use it as well to help narrow down your choices.

Compare Quotes From The Best HR Outsourcing Services

Get matched up with a HR outsourcing service that fits your needs.

Current HR Maturity

Outsourcing firms typically have experience working with certain types of businesses. It all really boils down to if you have an HR system already and—if you do—how long you have had it.

For example, if you’re a small business owner with no HR infrastructure, you want to choose a service that has experience building from the ground up with smaller organizations.

Large companies might not need that type of assistance. Instead, a larger business might just need a certain role or task outsourced.

No matter what, decide whether or not you’re looking to simply add onto your current HR infrastructure, or if you’re looking to fully outsource it. For example, you might be a growing company that needs to fill a few gaps like onboarding, or you might be a very large company looking to outsource routine elements like payroll.

ASO vs PEO Providers

Nearly every HR outsourcing firm has similar services. They might vary slightly from company to company.

Some of the companies on our list are PEO providers. These services provide businesses with big HR services like payroll, benefits such as insurance and 401k, and worker’s comp.

PEO providers are also considered a “co-employer” of workers. That means if there’s a legal issue with your employees, both you and your PEO provider assumes responsibility. You agree beforehand how liabilities you each assume.

There are also ASO services that also provide assistance in payroll and benefits. However, they’re not co-employers of your workforce.

They’re both typically the same in cost. All that it really comes down to is how much responsibility you’d like to assume over your employee’s benefits. Since PEO’s are co-employers they’ll be more hands-on with any issues that may arise with your employees.

Streamlining Routine Tasks

Look for an HR outsourcing service that has the tools and technology to streamline your HR processes. Mobile apps and employee self-service tools should be standard.

That way, tasks such as clocking in, clocking out, measuring task times, and possible field work can be managed automatically. Also, benefits electing and taking time off can be automated.

Alternatively, you could consider using platforms like Zenefits. If you don’t have the funds to hire an outsourced HR service, this platform provides software to improve your HR tasks.

Specialty

Does your business need something specific?

For example, maybe you own a company in an industry with strict labor compliance laws. In a situation like this, you’d benefit from an outsourced HR service like Engage PEO. They have attorneys that specialize in employment law.

Or maybe you need an HR service that can improve your payroll process. Paychex would be the best option if you fall into this category.

Whatever unique circumstances your business might have, there is usually a human resource outsourcing service that specializes in it.

Conclusion

What’s the best human resources outsourcing service? Here’s a recap of the top options reviewed in this guide:

ADP — Best HR outsourcing service for benefits administration.
Insperity — Best HR outsourcing service for mid-market companies.
Paychex — Best HR outsourcing service for payroll.
Zenefits — Best HR software for small businesses.
Engage PEO — Best HR outsourcing service for legal compliance.
TriNet — Most flexible HR outsourcing solutions.
G&A Partners — Best HR outsourcing for employee onboarding and development.
Tandem HR — Best HR outsourcing service for growing small businesses.

From payroll assistance to benefits administration and HR software, there’s an option for every business of all shapes and sizes on this list.