It’s crucial to choose the right professional employer organization (PEO) to aid the growth of your small business in Arizona.
The right Arizona PEO will free up valuable mental resources by handling human resources and other responsibilities on your behalf, letting you focus on the hundreds of items on your list that were due yesterday.
The wrong Arizona PEO will drain even more valuable hours and cash flow from your already tight budget, leaving you without the mental and financial resources required to advance your business and lead it down the right path.
I’ve found the best Arizona PEO company after evaluating over 900 Arizona PEOs, analyzing the top 15, then rating the top 9.
But before I make that suggestion, there’s something you should know.
The Best PEO Isn't Always the Right PEO
I have spent more time than I want to admit reviewing more than 900 Arizona PEOs and have determined the Arizona PEO with the greatest average score across a variety of factors. However, the fact that it received the highest average score does not always indicate that it is the best Arizona PEO for your business.
- Some Arizona PEOs have extensive industry expertise and may provide specialized services and perks to Arizona businesses in specific industries.
- Some Arizona PEOs have strong working ties with insurance carriers, allowing them to offer a greater variety of health insurance benefits.
- Some Arizona PEOs have considerable experience in the compliance field and can guarantee that you adhere to state and federal regulations.
The only way to determine which PEO is best for your business is to compare your unique needs to the primary benefits of each professional employer organization (PEO). This will guarantee you not only choose the PEO with the highest score, but also the Arizona PEO with the highest score according to the parameters that are most important to you.
Enter your information here for a free analysis of your business and circumstances, as well as a personalized suggestion for the best Arizona PEO for your business. I’ll send you an analysis and professional employer organization (PEO) recommendation tailored to your business within 24 hours.
If you just want to know which Arizona PEO scored the highest, here are my top picks.
1. PEO Companies — 9.45/10 (Best Overall PEO)
PEO Companies is my recommendation for the best PEO overall because, although they don’t stand out for any reason in particular, they do everything you need with a great degree of efficiency. You might say that what sets them apart is that you’ll never really encounter any problems with them.
Pros
They provide all the services that Arizona employers need from a professional employer company:
- Human resources paperwork and outsourcing
- Employee benefits
- Tax withholding
- Compliance assistance
- Tax rates
- Payroll services
- 401k
- Employee contracts
- Dental insurance
- Risk management
- Health insurance
- Workers’ compensation insurance and assistance with claims
- Administrative services
- Compliance notifications
- Benefits management
- Employee benefits administration
- HR support
They also provide excellent customer service. If you have a general inquiry, you can get a response by email within 24 hours, but if you have an urgent matter to discuss, you can simply contact them by phone.
Even though PEO Companies has the technical capacity to handle the requirements of huge Arizona businesses, its primary emphasis is on small- and medium-sized businesses.
This indicates that they can meet you where you are and scale up to your desired level.
Cons
The only true downside to PEO Companies, if you can call it that, is that they don’t excel at anything.
- Their product selections are comprehensive, but they don’t provide any high-end or unexpected professional employer organization (PEO) options.
- Their customer service will respond quickly to any inquiry, but they won’t do anything over-the-top like sending you a birthday card.
- Their prices are not as cheap as those of the other professional employer organizations, but they are quite nice and more than competitive in the professional employer organization market. However, their prices are not so cheap that they would go out of business to help you save a buck or two.
The company is excellent overall, but there is no one feature that will blow you away.
Overall
PEO Companies is my top pick since they provide every PEO service you need, and they do it well. They provide a comprehensive selection of PEO goods and services at rates that are more affordable than the competition, backed by great customer service.
The cost varies depending on the size, number of employees, and demands of your business, so to get a quote for your business, go here: PEO Companies.
2. Flexible PEO — 7.90/10 (Best Customer Service PEO)
Flexible PEO is my second choice, but that doesn’t imply that they’re not a suitable Arizona PEO option. They narrowly missed becoming my top suggestion, but they do have one area where they outperform PEO Companies.
Pros
Flexible provides the whole spectrum of PEO products and services. You can get health insurance, human resources outsourcing and responsibilities, employee benefits management, payroll services, risk management, workers’ compensation and assistance with claims, compliance alerts, and more to help you manage your employees.
They provide cheap prices and a straightforward, user-friendly interface for getting set up in their system.
The one area where they really stand out is their customer service.
In the three customer service tests I conducted, the average response time to customer support emails was 46 minutes, but the average wait time to talk with a customer service representative by phone was less than two minutes.
Their assistance was not only prompt but also highly beneficial. They handled my inquiries without transferring me to another agent (and making me describe my issue again) or involving management.
Although they’ve yet to send me a birthday card, that’s really the only thing they could have done to enhance their customer service and increase my customer satisfaction levels.
Cons
Even though their system is user-friendly and their price is affordable, Flexible falls short of my top pick, PEO Companies.
There were times when their system was confusing, and I needed to contact their exceptional customer service to figure out how to navigate it. Flexible’s pricing is excellent, but the three estimates I received for my three fictional Arizona businesses were each around 10% more than those from PEO Companies.
These are hardly deal-breakers for most business owners, particularly if you place high importance on customer service, but they were just enough to knock Flexible down to the second spot on my list.
Overall
Flexible is an excellent Arizona PEO that checks a lot of boxes. They provide a wide variety of professional employer organization (PEO) goods and services at more than competitive prices, as well as outstanding customer service. Their system isn’t the easiest to use, and they’re somewhat more expensive than PEO Companies, but they’re still a great PEO option, particularly if you value customer service.
As with any Arizona PEO, their cost depends on the needs of your business, its size, and how many employees you have, so fill out your information here to obtain a full quote: Flexible PEO.
3. Vensure PEO — 7.41/10 (Best Value PEO)
Vensure PEO is my third suggestion for the best Arizona PEO. They’re a good and dependable professional employer organization option with competitive prices, but they fall short in a few areas.
Pros
Vensure PEO, like the other two Arizona professional employer organizations on my top Arizona PEO company list, provides a broad variety of products and services. Health insurance, compliance support, payroll services, human resources responsibilities, human resources outsourcing, risk management, employee benefits management, workers’ compensation and assistance with claims, and everything you need to manage your employees.
Their system is quite simple to get started with, though I did have some difficulties navigating it after I was set up. Their customer service was certainly knowledgeable and able to address my concern in a timely manner.
But it was in price that they truly excelled. All three quotes I got were in the top three cheapest, with my small business price coming in at #1. These quotes contain every professional employer organization (PEO) option available in every other quote from Arizona PEOs, demonstrating how excellent their value is.
Cons
As I’ve previously indicated, although Vensure PEO is an excellent deal, it does have certain limitations.
Their system was simple to set up, but I had some difficulties navigating it after I was set up and trying to perform some fairly standard tasks.
I contacted their customer service team for help with these difficulties, and although they answered within a decent time span, their response was nothing near that of Flexible.
They’re competent, but nothing exceptional.
Overall
Vensure PEO is a dependable, well-supported Arizona professional employer organization with competitive prices. While their system may be a bit complex at times and may be difficult for individuals that lack strong technological skills, and their customer service isn’t always the most helpful or patient, they were the most affordable Arizona PEO I got quotes from.
Vensure’s cost, like the other Arizona professional employer organizations on my list, is based on your needs, size and how many employees you have. So contact them here to receive a detailed quote: Vensure PEO.
4. Justworks
Justworks is a rising star in the Arizona PEO industry. It was founded in 2012 and is presently growing to serve not only Arizona, but businesses across the whole United States.
They, like the other Arizona professional employer organizations on my list, provide you with all the services that business owners need—human resources responsibilities and outsourcing, employee benefits management and insurance, payroll, compliance notifications, workers’ compensation insurance and help with claims, risk management, and more to help Arizona business owners manage their employees. Justworks has one feature that no other professional employer organization on my list has: transparency.
Anyone can access their price structure on their website. This is a huge bonus in the Arizona PEO industry because Arizona PEOs try so hard to hide their costs and force each prospective customer to tell them about their needs in order to get a proper quote.
But the reason I placed Justworks fourth is their age, which is a big deal. When it comes to a PEO, Arizona business owners can’t afford to get a new one over and over again every time their Arizona PEO fails.
Before entrusting Justworks with your business, allow them a few more years to establish themselves and show that they’re in it for the long haul.
You can learn more about Justworks by visiting their website here: Justworks.
5. Infiniti HR
Infiniti HR has distinguished itself in the congested industry of Arizona professional employer organizations.
They offer all the services that the other Arizona professional employer organizations on my list provide, such as human resources responsibilities and outsourcing, workers’ compensation insurance and help with claims, payroll assistance, employee benefits management, compliance alerts, and other tools to help Arizona employers manage their employees and make office life easier.
They also go above and beyond by helping with recruitment. If your experience is similar to other Arizona employers, you understand how much value great employees can provide, and having help locating the perfect employees is a huge benefit.
The disadvantage of Infiniti, like with Justworks, is their age. They’re still children in the Arizona PEO world, just 10 years old, and lack the proven track records of some of the more established players, so give them a few more years before you join up.
6. TriNet
Trinet is the market’s oldest and most established PEO. They began business operations in 1988 and now have over 16,000 enterprises and 330,000 employees under their umbrella.
While they supply all the Arizona PEO services that Arizona business owners need, such as workers’ compensation and help with claims, human resources services, compliance notifications, benefits management, payroll services and other tools for business owners to manage their employees and keep office operations running smoothly.
However, they seem to depend on their big name in the Arizona PEO industry to attract clients rather than supplying quality PEO services.
They don’t go above and beyond to supply quality customer service to their clients, they don’t innovate or find new solutions to current issues, they’re not eager to impress, and they don’t try to acquire your business.
This means that, although TriNet will be a consistent, dependable, and functioning Arizona PEO, they will never surpass industry norms, or your own expectations.
7. Oasis Outsourcing
Oasis is another member of the Arizona PEO industry’s old guard. They’ve been helping small business owners for over 20 years and were recently purchased by PayChex (although they still operate under their own name.)
While Oasis does provide a variety of industry-specific PEO services for hotels, banking, retail, and education (among others), they also cover all the PEO services that any Arizona businesses might need. They supply things like employee benefits management, payroll management, workers’ compensation, compliance alerts, human resources paperwork, insurance and more office services to help Arizona business owners manage employees.
They ultimately scored so badly as an Arizona PEO because they force clients into 12-month contracts for their Arizona PEO services.
In the Arizona PEO industry, month-to-month contracts for PEO services are standard, which means that locking prospective clients in for a year seems both strange and unnecessary, so Oasis lost some points for that.
8. ADP Totalsource
ADP Totalsource is another big name in the PEO industry, with services in more than 140 countries.
They offer a robust range of services, like insurance and benefits, workers’ compensation, human resources paperwork, compliance alerts, payroll management, and more. Also, just like Oasis Outsourcing, they offer industry-specific PEO services to Arizona businesses in certain sectors.
The main advantage of ADP Totalsource is that Arizona business owners aren’t the only ones with access to their customer service team. Your employees also have access to customer service. This employee access means that if your employees have issues regarding their pay, benefits, tax rates, or any other concern that falls under HR’s jurisdiction, they can phone ADP instead of calling you. Removing these time-consuming phone calls from the schedule is a boon for Arizona business owners.
The disadvantage of ADP Totalsource is the same one experienced with TriNet. If a small business in Arizona joins up with Arizona, then you’ll find that you’re virtually unimportant to their overall operations and do not receive the attention your business needs to grow and prosper.
9. Insperity
Insperity is an Arizona PEO company that had a lot of potential, but let me down massively.
They offer all the Arizona PEO services that you need for your business, like payroll management, insurance, workers’ compensation, compliance alerts, and other tools to help you manage your employees and make office work a breeze so that you can focus on other business operations.
With a 30-year history of winning awards for their products and customer service, the company’s promise began to take shape. When I saw this, I was filled with anticipation for an easy and rewarding experience with this Arizona PEO company. Then I found out that they allow clients to cancel their subscriptions at any time (with 30 days notice), and I thought perhaps this was an Arizona PEO company that really cares about providing a quality product.
I was persuaded differently by one little detail: health care.
Health care is a complex subject that requires a high degree of flexibility in order to meet the diverse requirements of your workers. You need a wide range of options to ensure that your employees receive the coverage they need, since each one is unique.
The only health insurance plans available through Insperity are those provided by a single insurance company. Only one. Why? I have no idea. That’s just what they provide.
The health care options for your workers will be significantly limited if you go with Insperity, and there’s a strong risk they won’t get the coverage they need.
The Best PEO for Your Business
There are more than 900 Arizona PEO companies for Arizona businesses to choose from, so finding the right one for your company may be a challenge.
I reviewed the Arizona PEO industry for over 230 hours over the past six years and found that the top three best Arizona PEO options are PEO Companies, Flexible, and Vensure.
Despite the fact that these Arizona PEOs are dependable providers for any company, you need a customized and tailored recommendation for your business based on the following criteria:
- The number of employees on your payroll
- What you want the PEO to help with (payroll management, HR compliance, workers’ compensation insurance, etc.)
- Employee benefits you want to offer to your team (such as health insurance and workers’ compensation insurance)
- How much you can afford to spend on employee benefits
- The location of your small business in Arizona
- The location where you conduct your business (if outside the office)
- How much customer support you will need
- Your technological capabilities
- How large you plan to scale your company
- Your business industry
If you would like to find the right PEO for your Arizona company, simply enter your details below and I will provide a free assessment of your company needs.
The Best PEO Selection Process
Choosing the best Arizona PEO took a long time and extensive research. But before I tell you about that, I need to tell you a few things about myself.
Why You Should Trust Me
Trust me, I know Arizona PEO service providers better than nearly anyone else on earth. I’ve built my own small businesses and helped others to do the same in Arizona, so you can trust my Arizona PEO recommendations.
My first encounter with PEO service providers was through my health company. Due to the overwhelming amount of work I was doing to understand the fundamentals of starting a small business in Arizona (creating websites, writing articles, and managing my employees), I had no time to focus on the HR nonsense and employee benefits issues that were taking up so much of my free time.
After a failed attempt at using a staffing company to manage my employees, I decided to join a PEO company.
I took some downtime after dealing with all of that, before I moved on to my second small business venture—a cafe! Saying that owning an online small business was different than owning a cafe is a massive understatement.
Both small businesses had one thing in common, despite their vast differences: HR troubles. That’s why I turned to PEO companies once again to take care of my HR requirements and employee benefits. It took me a lot of time and effort to sift through websites, reviews, and sales pitches in order to get the answers I was looking for. There was a LOT of information. Once I found the right PEO company for me, my small business was able to develop and grow.
I quickly discovered that I don’t have the personality required for hospitality, so I sold my cafe and spent some time thinking about my next business move. Then, old friends from my website and cafe days contacted me unexpectedly for assistance with their back-end company operations, and that’s how my next move was thrust upon me.
As more individuals sought me out as a result of my PEO recommendations, I began writing the recommendations down. I’ve helped more than 1,200 clients find the right PEO companies for their small businesses since then, and it’s given me extensive expertise in the Arizona PEO industry.
How I Selected the Best PEO
I used a four-stage investigation process to narrow down a list of over 900 different Arizona PEO companies on the market to a short list of finalists.
Stage 1: Reviews
To begin my investigation, I looked at internet reviews.
The majority of Arizona PEO companies who have been in business for over a year have amassed a multitude of online reviews from their clients. This feedback enables me to determine which Arizona PEOs are worth further investigation and which companies I can reject from consideration without wasting much time on them.
I examined the main online review sites to find the PEO companies that don’t fulfill the minimum requirements for Arizona PEO services, product offers, price, and customer service so I could exclude them from my in-depth investigation.
Stage 2: Offering Analysis
There is a lot of variety in the Arizona PEO industry. Different companies supply a wide variety of goods and Arizona PEO services, which they supply to clients at a variety of price points.
The second stage of my research is to examine which Arizona PEOs provide which goods and PEO services and at which price ranges. This helps me to exclude the Arizona PEOs who either do not provide a comprehensive range of services or do so at an excessive price.
Stage 3: Speaking with Real Customers
Online reviews are an excellent resource for gaining a basic understanding of a PEO company, so reading these helped move my investigation along. However, they have two major drawbacks.
The first constraint is that clients only post online reviews when they have had an extraordinarily favorable or terrible experience. This means that if you rely on online reviews from clients to form your judgment of a PEO company, you will get a misleading image of how the business operates.
The second constraint involves space. Most online reviews include less than 200 characters, which is insufficient for clients to leave a full review, and not adequate for me to determine if a PEO company is worth using.
To circumvent these restrictions, the second phase of my investigation consists of speaking with actual customers. I contacted actual Arizona PEO clients via my website and existing ties, and gathered their feedback. I asked in-depth questions, received well-reasoned responses, and was able to piece together the full picture of what it’s like to deal with various Arizona PEO companies.
Stage 4: Speaking with Their Sales Teams
Next, I assessed what it would be like to work with each Arizona PEO company in the long term by seeing how they handle criticism and negative feedback. Are they fixed in their ways, or do they continually evolve? Do they attempt to place blame on the clients, or do they accept responsibility for their mistakes? These traits and values distinguish the real A-level players from the rest of the competition.
Ranking Factors
I ranked each Arizona PEO based on five factors to determine the best PEO service in Arizona.
Factor 1: Offerings
The first factor is a list of their Arizona PEO services.
There is no use in collaborating with an Arizona PEO company to handle health insurance if the PEO company does not provide health insurance, therefore to ensure that you choose the ideal PEO for your business, I compiled a complete database of goods and Arizona PEO services that each company provides.
Factor 2: Price
The second factor I considered while evaluating each PEO company was the cost.
The pricing of various goods and services seems to vary greatly amongst PEOs in Arizona (and this information is only accessible by engaging in a sales call—very sneaky), so I rated each PEO based on the value they deliver for the cost of their services.
Factor 3: Ease of Sign-Up
The third factor I considered while trying to evaluate each Arizona PEO company was how simple it was to sign up with their system.
With some Arizona PEOs, you might spend weeks searching through drawers for obscure information you don’t actually need, but other Arizona PEOs can gather a substantial portion of your business information through government agencies.
To ensure that you choose an Arizona PEO company that won’t waste your time, I rated the efficiency and automation of each Arizona PEO company’s onboarding process.
Factor 4: Ease of Use
The fourth factor I evaluated was the system’s usability.
Some Arizona PEOs have spent millions simplifying and automating their back-end systems while making user experience a top concern, whilst other Arizona PEOs have merely added new capabilities to old systems and then created lengthy manuals to explain their confusing navigation systems.
Clearly, working with a customer-centric, user-friendly system is FAR preferable to being bound to an obsolete legacy system. To help you make an informed decision, I rated the usability and navigation of each PEO’s system.
Factor 5: Customer Service
You’ll eventually run into questions, and it doesn’t matter how much effort or money is invested in designing the most user-friendly system possible. Here is where the customer service department of each company comes into play.
Some PEO businesses will keep you waiting on the phone for hours until they connect you with a bored college student who can do nothing to remedy your problem other than promise to report it to management (which they never seem to do). Other PEOs will answer your call within a few minutes and address your issue in an even shorter amount of time, freeing you up to focus on the rest of your day.
The Best PEO for Your Business
While PEO Companies is an excellent PEO company for most small businesses, it is hard to propose the ideal PEO company for your business without first gaining an in-depth understanding of your business’s circumstances.
I won’t be able to recommend the best PEO for your circumstances until I have more information about your business, such as its industry, size, number of workers, and the benefits you want to provide for your employees.
You can get a free business analysis and recommendation if you would like a tailored recommendation for your small business. All you need to do is add your business information in the space below.
When you’ve finished filling out and submitting the form, I will help you find a PEO that is best suited to meet your needs free of charge.
Simply input your information into the form below, and I will do the legwork for you to identify the best PEO for your small business.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to use a PEO?
The cost of using a PEO varies and may be determined by a variety of factors. This might include which PEO company you decide to work with, the services you choose, the employee benefits you choose to provide, and the number of workers you have. However, a decent starting point would be between $1,000–$2,000 per employee per month.
How does a PEO charge?
PEO service providers may employ one of two payment methods that they charge their customers: a flat fee or a percentage of payroll fee.
A flat fee system will charge you a predetermined sum for each member of your staff. A company that needs a very high degree of certainty about their monthly payments might benefit from choosing this payment method.
A percentage of payroll arrangement is one in which the PEO will charge you an amount based on a percentage of the monthly salaries you pay out to your workers. Employers in low-wage sectors should strongly consider this method, as it’s a money-saving alternative to the flat-fee payment structure.
How long does it take to get set up with a PEO?
It takes time to establish a small company with PEO service providers. To get you up and running they will require a lot of paperwork from you, and then they will have to submit a lot more paperwork on their end with the relevant government agencies.
This whole procedure may take anywhere from three to six weeks, although the average is around four weeks.
Does it cost to change PEOs?
There are no particular exit costs connected with any of the professional employer organizations (PEOs) that I’ve mentioned in this article. But, owing to the complex nature of setting up an account with PEOs, every PEO charges a setup fee. This means that if you opt to leave your current PEO for a new PEO, you will not be charged any money to leave. In short, leaving a PEO costs nothing. But you will be required to pay the setup fee with the new PEO.
