THE REAL PROBLEM OF A GROWING COMPANYBurt Brothers Tire Company started off as a small business perfectly suited to help its small community. But over the course of 20 years, what had been a family-run automotive store had grown into an entire chain sporting nearly 250 employees.

While the growth was impressive, it had reactive processes and systems that were devel-oped organically. According to Brandon Burt, the chain's General Manager, "We had one person handling all that needed to be done with HR, from payroll to benefits, hiring new employees, doing all the paperwork, and managing all the people problems in between.” Even though the HR person was a veritable rock star, the workload wasn't sustainable.

Aside from the lack of hands to do the work, there was another problem: non-compliance risks. Employment laws governing the company's growing workforce meant new regulations and expectations that the company had to meet, with potential penalties and lawsuits at stake. Not only was this one employee not specifically trained in HR, no one else was, either. And every time the Burt Brothers' team grew, the risk of non-compliance became an even bigger burden.

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25-35%

20%

Small business owners spend 25-35% of their time on HR*.(1)

Federal paperwork and compliance costs are up almost 20% since 2000.(2)

The Real Cost of HR

7-25%

7-25% of all HR work is employee paperwork.(1)

GROWING PA NSHOW A SMALL, FAMILY-RUN BUSINESS BECAME A STEADILY GROWING AUTOMOTIVE CHAIN.

*HR can include recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, handling people problems, training, providing corrective action, employee turnover, exploring benefits options, workplace accidents, dealing with claims, researching laws, and so on.

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HIRE OR OUTSOURCE?What Burt Brothers needed was more hands to handle HR, as well as expertise to keep them in compliance. But finding the solution wasn't so clear. When considering their options, they could:

The auto service center quickly ruled out the second option, knowing that contracting out payroll was more of a bandage than a long-term solution and wouldn't help position the organization for future growth. That left two options: hire or outsource.

Hiring would mean a new, full-time dedicated staff member at the company’s beck and call. But it would also be costly, as the more skilled the HR person, the more expensive, even before calculating in benefits. It also meant going through the recruiting and hiring process, determining which tasks to hand off to the new hire, training and onboarding, and the usual downtime for both the job being learned and the existing staff involved with recruiting, hiring, and training. Then there was the risk that if the new hire didn't enjoy the company culture or felt the job wasn't a good fit, the auto service center would be right back in the same position. And was one person all Burt Brothers would truly need for future growth?

Outsourcing to a PEO, however, seemed out of Burt Brothers' reach. While the organization would immediately have access to the expertise it needed in terms of compliance and the skills required to manage payroll, training, benefits and everything else, would they really be able to afford this kind of solution?

As it turns out, the answer was “YES.”

Processesstreamlined

Securityimproved

Riskimmediately

reduced

Outsourced team of experts that includes comprehensive, cloud-based technology not typically afforded by small businesses.

Full-time employeewith benefits

One Staffer or 4 Experts? For most small businesses, one in-house FT employee with benefits costs much more than an outsourced team of experts in payroll, HR, benefits and risk management.

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A. Hire a full-time employee with an HR background to help with payroll, benefits, and compliance; or

B. Contract out payroll to an accountant and have the employee continue handling everything else (build in HR and certification training); or

C. Outsource all HR functions to a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) with experts in payroll, HR, benefits, risk management, and more.

50%

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A BETTER WAY TO KEEP THE WHEELS ROLLINGAfter carefully weighing both options, Burt Brothers opted to outsource all of its HR functions to Stratus.hr, a PEO with nearly 20 years experience helping other small- and medium-sized businesses grow. Their existing HR person was moved into a supervisory role and became the point of contact for their internal employees as well as for Stratus.hr.

Like other companies that have shifted their HR to a PEO, Burt Brothers immediately joined an elite group of businesses that are less likely to go out of business within the next year and are poised for 7-9% faster growth.(3)

Moving to Stratus.hr was was surprisingly easy, too. Stratus.hr was able to get the entire auto service company’s team up and running on fully functioning cloud-based software solutions, including an employee time card system and a self-service portal. Knowing time was of the essence, staff members were setup and trained on the new system, all within a week.

“We know down time has real costs to a business,” said Colin Thompson, HR Director with Stratus.hr. “When we start a project we are laser focused on getting the team up, running and fully trained, in approximately one week, depending on the size of the company.”

Looking back, the decision to move to Stratus.hr was the right choice. “We’ve saved a ton of money on employee costs because Stratus.hr helps us stay in compliance with all of the state and federal regulations. No more late fees, no more fines… no more nightmares about what we did or didn’t file,” says Brandon Burt. “Every person at Stratus.hr has our best interest at heart. I would recommend them to any business, small or large. Stratus.hr helps us be better at what we do.”

Being better at what you do; that’s the kind of change worth making.

Businesses that partner with a Professional Employer Organization are 50% less likely to go out of business from one year to the next.(3)

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ABOUT STRATUS.HR With a team of HR experts ready to give you real answers, paired with our advanced, online tools, Stratus.hr cuts HR costs, reduces exposure to risk, and lets you get back to running your business. How much can you save? While every company is different, NAPEO estimates that clients enjoy at least a 35% cost savings on HR administration overall. Talk to a Stratus.hr representative to find out what that would mean for your business.

RESOURCES:(1) https://www.score.org/resource/work-me-people-statistics-small-business-human-resource-trends(2) https://cei.org/blog/how-much-does-federal-paperwork-and-tax-compliance-cost(3) http://www.napeo.org/docs/default-source/Member-Resources/infographicpeobenefitsnov2015.pdf

What is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO)?

Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) manage all aspects of human resources for businesses — including employee benefits, workers' compensation claims, payroll processing, payroll tax compliance, unemployment claims, HR consulting, and all the paperwork and administration that comes with having employees. To do this, the PEO becomes a co-employer to your staff, taking on the risks associated with HR and compliance. PEOs also have better buying power in the benefits marketplace, allowing their clients to offer Fortune 500-level benefits at economies-of-scale pricing. This allows small businesses to compete with larger companies when attracting top talent.