Do you know what to do if a worker comes to you with an injury claim? Workers’ compensation is a benefit you must offer by law. If your Tallahassee business does not have this coverage, or if the plan isn’t administered correctly, you could face severe penalties and even lose your business.
Our Tallahassee PEO brokerage can help you find a PEO that offers excellent workers’ compensation services. Professional employer organizations give smaller businesses access to experts in HR and payroll to cover vital tasks like regulatory compliance and benefits management, including handling workers’ compensation claims.
Workers’ Compensation Is the Law
Under Florida law, depending on your industry, you need to carry workers’ compensation coverage once you have employees. It’s best to get it before you hire any employees; it will cover any injuries you get on the job as well.
The workers’ compensation system keeps employees from taking you to court for any injuries caused by their job, barring rare exceptions. It keeps you from costly legal fees and gives your employee a fast way to get compensation without the need to prove fault.
You’ll need to work with a workers’ comp insurance provider, the workers’ compensation board, and a doctor in the network of your insurer to process claims. However, your insurer could pounce on any mistake you make, to the detriment of both you and your workers. You can protect yourself by working with a Tallahassee PEO to handle claims instead.
Why It’s Dangerous to Handle Workers’ Comp Claims on Your Own
If you’ve grown your business to where you need to hire staff, you’re already a success in a certain industry. However, businesses are under a lot of regulations. Some are simple to learn, but others require expertise.
Workers’ compensation laws bind both employers and employees to the rules of the workers’ compensation board. If you violate your rules and responsibilities, you open yourself up to fines. In some cases, you may open your company up to a liability claim from your employee.
It’s not worth it to make an error in these claims. Your employee will demand compensation to help them heal so they can get back to work, and workers’ compensation is the fastest way to do that. If you don’t have a provider already, or if you’re inexperienced in processing workers’ comp claims, it’s best to turn to an expert.
Could I Hire Someone In-House?
You could, but hiring a full-time employee to handle HR tasks like workers’ compensation may cost you too much if you’re a small business owner. At a certain size, you may need to hire full-time HR employees to handle the workload, but it rarely makes economic sense to do it when you’re small.
Outsourcing HR tasks is an option, but it comes with risks. An outsourced employee won’t have loyalty to your company and could be recalled or replaced at any time. For sensitive tasks like HR or payroll, you can’t afford to have your employee suddenly drop the ball.
Getting workers’ compensation services from a Tallahassee PEO is the better way to go. It is cheaper than hiring a full-time employee, and PEOs are bound by a co-employment contract to your company. This gives them skin in the game with your success and solves the risks of outsourcing.
You Could Lower Your Rates
There is another reason to go with a Tallahassee PEO for your HR needs. When you partner with a PEO, they can combine your employees with the employees of other companies to create a large labor pool. This gives them great leverage with benefit providers.
With more employees, an insurer is more likely to offer a lower rate since there are more people to spread the risk around. This could translate into lower premium rates for workers’ compensation or any other benefit you provide like group health insurance.
Furthermore, you could get even better benefits through a PEO than you could on your own. Poor insurance is almost worse than no insurance. If an employee is paying for insurance and the insurer won’t cover them in their time of need, they’ll start looking for another place to work.
Other Services You Can Get Through a PEO
You can hire a PEO to only handle workers’ compensation, but you can also hire them for a wide range of other HR and payroll tasks, including:
- Regulatory compliance
- Benefits management
- Payroll and tax compliance
- Policy creation
- Employee handbook creation
- Web portals for HR and payroll needs
- Hiring, onboarding, training, and terminating employees
- Risk assessments
- Guidance in delicate workplace situations (e.g., sexual harassment claims)
- And more
When you work with NetPEO, we’ll discuss what needs you have and help you and the PEO create an agreement where each sides’ tasks are clearly spelled out. You get the power to decide what tasks will go to the PEO and which you’ll keep in-house. You can even have your existing HR or payroll staff work with the PEO to share tasks.
How NetPEO Helps You
NetPEO connects businesses large and small with PEOs in Tallahassee for their HR and payroll needs. We discuss your needs with you and consult our network of PEOs to find the right ones for your industry, current needs, future needs, and your budget.
If you find one you like, we will help you negotiate your contract so you’ll feel comfortable with the co-employment arrangement. What sets us apart from other PEO brokers is what we do after the contract is signed.
We will regularly check in with you to make sure the relationship is going well and take any feedback you have back to the PEO. If we see that the relationship isn’t working for you anymore, we will help you find a different PEO. Going the extra mile to monitor your satisfaction with your PEO is why NetPEO has a 97% customer satisfaction rating!
Contact NetPEO to Get Started
If your company needs workers’ compensation services, get in touch with a Tallahassee PEO by contacting NetPEO. To learn more about how we can help you or to get started, call or email our offices to schedule an appointment for a free quote.
