Highlights
- An administrative Services Administration (ASO) provides flexible outsourcing solutions for HR functions like payroll, compliance, and onboarding.
- ASO services help small businesses get relief from daily admin tasks and have more time for higher-impact activities.
- At National PEO, we take care of back-office tasks so you don’t have to. Discover our ASO services and contact us to get started!
How much time of your day is spent on time-draining, administrative tasks? If your HR team is buried under paperwork, it might be about time to explore new alternatives. Administrative Services Organizations can take over the heavy lifting and free up your team so they can focus on more strategic work.
Small businesses can hire ASO services to delegate payroll, compliance, and benefits administration to an experienced partner. Keep reading to find out more about ASO solutions and how they can fit your business needs.
Let’s dive in!
ASO Services vs. PEO Services: Main Differences
When speaking about HR outsourcing solutions, ASO and PEO are two acronyms that you’ll probably come across. But do you know their meaning and (more importantly) the differences between them? Let’s clear the air on this!
ASO stands for Administrative Services Organization. It refers to HR outsourcing providers that help businesses handle certain administrative HR tasks.
Instead of offering a fixed package of services, ASOs give you the flexibility to pay only for the specific tasks that you’d like to outsource.
ASO services may include:
- Recruitment support
- Employee onboarding
- Payroll processing
- Benefits administration
- HR compliance
- Risk management and safety programs
- Workers’ Compensation administration
PEO, on the other hand, is short for Professional Employer Organization. A PEO is an external company that becomes a co-employer of your business. This means that besides offering similar services as ASOs, PEOs also take control over the legal aspects of employing your personnel.
These are some of the main differences between ASO services and PEO services:
1. Employer of Record vs Admin Support
PEOs act as the “employer of record” for tax and insurance purposes. This means they take on certain employer responsibilities such as payroll taxes, Workers’ Compensation, and benefits administration.
ASOs, on the other hand, provide administrative support without assuming a co-employer role. That way, you retain full responsibility and control over your business’s HR functions and decision-making.
2. Fee Structure
When you hire PEO services, you agree to pay a fee based on a percentage of your business’s total payroll. This fee includes a fixed package of HR services, benefits administration, payroll processing, and other administrative functions.
ASO services are structured a bit differently: They are often based on a fee-for-service or subscription model. That way, you pay for the specific services they need, such as payroll processing, HR consulting, or benefits administration.
With ASO services, it’s easier to expand or reduce your outsourced services based on how your business evolves.
3. Approach to Employee Benefits
One of the main reasons why small and mid-sized businesses turn to PEOs is because they provide access to comprehensive employee benefits packages, including health insurance, retirement plans, and other perks. Because PEOs have multiple clients, they can offer cost savings and access to more competitive, premium options.
ASOs, on the other hand, don’t sponsor employee benefit packages. However, they do support your business with benefits administration services.
These are some of the things an ASO can help you with:
- Find healthcare coverage for your business
- Assist employees with insurance enrollment
- Manage paid time off, pension plans, 401ks, and other employee benefits that you might be offering.
National PEO’s Tailored ASO Service Approach for Small Businesses
ASO services are the best way to get started with HR outsourcing. Rather than entering a co-employment relationship — and losing control over certain aspects of your business — or committing to a fixed package of services, you can choose HR tasks á la carte and upgrade or downsize along the way.
Yes, you still get access to HR experts and state-of-the-art technology, while keeping flexibility and tailoring HR services based on your unique needs.
At National PEO we provide both PEO services (as you can tell by our name) and ASO services, so you can choose the outsourcing solution that best fits your small business. Ready to get started? Contact us to learn how we can support your business growth by taking over your most time-consuming admin tasks!