Choosing the best professional employer organization (PEO) to help your small business in Connecticut develop is key.
The right PEO will free up time and valuable mental energy by handling human resources and other chores for you, letting you to concentrate on any of the hundreds of items on your list that were already due yesterday.
The wrong PEO will drain even more valuable time and money from your already limited supply, leaving you without the cognitive faculties or ample finances needed to propel your business forward.
After evaluating more than 900 different Connecticut PEOs, researching the top 15, and examining the top 9, I've discovered the best PEO service in Connecticut.
But before I offer you that advice, there's something you should know.
The Best PEO Isn't Always the Right PEO
I've spent more hours than I'd like to mention reviewing the 900+ Connecticut PEOs and then choosing the PEO with the highest average score across a range of factors. But just because it has the highest average score doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best PEO for your Connecticut business.
- Some PEOs have lots of experience in certain industries and may offer additional benefits and assistance to businesses in those sectors.
- Some PEOs have good ties with insurance providers and may offer a broader selection of health insurance plans and benefits packages.
- Some PEOs have decades of experience in the compliance field and can guarantee that you adhere to all Connecticut state and federal regulations.
The only way to choose the best Connecticut PEO for your business is to match your unique requirements to the main benefits of each individual PEO. This ensures that you don't simply choose the best-scoring PEO, but the best-scoring PEO on the variables that are most important to your Connecticut business.
Enter your information below if you'd like a free analysis of your business and its circumstances, as well as a customized suggestion of the best Connecticut PEO. I'll get back to you within 24 hours with a customized analysis and PEO recommendation.
If you're merely interested in finding out which PEO received the highest rating, here are my suggestions for the best Connecticut PEO.
1. Flexible PEO — 9.6/10 (Best Overall PEO)
Flexible PEO is my first choice for a Connecticut PEO, and they outperform other PEOs on this list in most areas.
Pros
Flexible offers a comprehensive range of PEO products and services.
They provide health insurance, HR outsourcing and solutions, payroll services, benefits administration, workers’ compensation insurance, HR technology, tax administration, assistance with unemployment claims, and compliance support. They have a user-friendly interface for getting set up in their system, and they provide cheap rates.
But the one area where they really stand out is their customer service – it's truly top notch.
The average response time to customer service emails was 46 minutes, and the average wait time to talk with a customer service representative by phone was less than 2 minutes in the three customer service tests I conducted.
Their assistance was not only timely but also really, really efficient. They addressed my problems without transferring me to another agent (requiring me to repeat my problem to several people) or involving management.
The only way they could really improve their customer service, in my opinion, would be to send out holiday cards or add some other personal touch.
Cons
Flexible's system is simple to use and their pricing is reasonable, but there were a few times when their system was a little confusing, and I had to phone their excellent customer service to figure out how to navigate it.
Although Flexible offers some fairly competitive rates, all three quotes I got from them were around 10% higher than the quotes PEO Companies gave me.
Most people wouldn’t consider these deal breakers (especially if great customer support is a priority for you), but these drawbacks are worth a quick mention.
Overall
Flexible PEO is a great Connecticut PEO company that checks a lot of boxes. They provide a full range of service options, as well as competitive pricing, and they back it all with truly stellar customer service. It’s not always easy to navigate their system, and they’re sometimes a bit more expensive but they’re still a good professional employer organization option, and they’re an excellent option if you’re looking for a PEO that delivers outstanding customer support.
Of course, all professional employer organizations in Connecticut base their pricing on the size of your business, how many employees you have, and which services and benefits you want to provide for your employees. You can reach out for a quote here: Flexible.com
2. PEO Companies 9.25/10 (Best Range of Choices)
PEO Companies is a strong choice for the best PEO but was narrowly knocked off the top spot by Flexible. Although they don’t stand out for anything unique, they handle everything you need effortlessly. Their key distinction is that you’ll never have any major problems with them.
Pros
They provide all the PEO services that a good PEO company should:
- Human resources paperwork
- Employee benefits administration
- Tax administration
- Compliance assistance
- Strategic services
- Payroll services
- Benefits packages and 401k
- Employee contracts
- Dental insurance
- Risk management
- HR technology
- Health insurance
- Assistance with unemployment claims
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Administrative services
- Employee benefits administration
- HR outsourcing and solutions
They back all their PEO services up with a reliable customer support team as well. If you email them, you can expect a response within 24 hours for general questions. But if you have a more pressing issue you can call them and get a more prompt response.
One of the best aspects of their services is that even though they have the technological might to support even the largest of corporations, they focus on small- and medium-sized businesses.
This means they can support your company at any stage of growth.
Cons
There’s only one real downside to PEO Companies PEO services. They don’t provide any truly exceptional services.
- While they offer all the PEO services and HR solutions that small- and medium-sized businesses need, you won’t find any luxurious or high-end services among their offerings.
- Their customer support team is competent enough to answer your questions, and they’ll respond to you reasonably quickly, but they don’t add any personal touches to their support (such as sending out a birthday card).
- Their prices are competitive, but they aren’t as low as some of the other PEOs on my list. They don’t go out of their way to provide you with excellent rates, and they’re definitely making sure they’ll make a nice profit from their fees.
So, while the company scores well across the board, you won’t find any unique services that will really blow you away.
Overall
PEO Companies is my second best pick since they provide services to meet all your business needs, and they do them efficiently without delivering anything truly unique or A++.
Costs vary depending on the size and needs of your business and employees, so reach out to them with the specific details of your business and see what they can do for you.
3. CoAdvantage PEO— 7.41/10 (Best Value PEO)
CoAdvantage is my third choice for the best PEO in Connecticut. It’s a reliable and reputable Connecticut PEO service with amazing prices. However, I was disappointed in a few areas.
Pros
CoAdvantage, like the other two Connecticut PEO companies on my list of the best Connecticut PEOs, offers a wide array of products and services. You can enjoy health insurance, employee management, onboarding support, safety compliance and legal issues, employee wellness programs, flexible spending plans, payroll processing, reduced HR costs, less paperwork, workers’ compensation, risk management, time-saving tools, and additional benefits for your employees.
I had a couple of difficulties navigating its system after I was set up, despite the fact that it is quite simple to use. Customer assistance was very knowledgeable and was able to address my concerns in a timely manner.
The one area in which PEO Companies outshined the other Connecticut PEOs was cost. My small business quote was the lowest of the three quotes I got, placing it in the top position. But all three quotes I received from PEO Companies were the lowest I received from Connecticut PEO companies. This includes every option available in every other quote, demonstrating more value with its low pricing.
Cons
As I previously said, while CoAdvantage is a remarkable bargain, there are a few drawbacks to its services.
The system was straightforward and easy to get set up with, but after I was established with it and tried to conduct pretty ordinary operations with it, I had some navigational difficulties.
I contacted the customer support for help with these difficulties, and although they answered my questions in a decent amount of time, the service was inferior to the other PEOs higher on this list.
CoAdvantage is a competent Connecticut PEO, but nothing it does is truly remarkable.
Overall
CoAdvantage is a competent, well-supported, and extremely reasonably priced Connecticut PEO. While its system may be a little confusing at times and may be difficult for folks with limited technological skills, and its assistance is neither exceedingly helpful nor patient, it was the absolute cheapest PEO in Connecticut, of the ones I got quotes from at least.
As with the other two PEO companies on my list, costs depend on your requirements and business size.
4. Justworks
Justworks is a PEO upstart that was founded in 2012 and is presently growing to serve the whole United States.
Like the other Connecticut PEOs, Justworks offers health insurance, employee management, onboarding, safety compliance and help with legal issues, payroll processing, employee wellness programs, flexible spending plans, workers’ compensation, risk management, time-saving tools, less paperwork and woes from your HR department, and more among its main services.
Justworks delivers one thing that none of the other Connecticut PEOs on my list do: transparency.
Anyone can view its price structure publicly on its website. In an industry that strives to conceal prices and requires every prospective client to divulge detailed business information as well as their needs just to receive a quote, this was a big advantage.
The reason Justworks is ranked fourth is their young age and inexperience. Experience is important in the PEO world because it lends an air of trustworthiness to the provider.
It takes a long time and a lot of work to get your company set up with a PEO, and all of that time and work are something you’re not likely able to afford repeating if the startup PEO you chose suddenly goes out of business.
I recommend giving Justworks more time to establish themselves on the market before fully trusting them with your business, just so they have time to prove they’re going to be around for the long haul.
5. Infiniti HR
In an oversaturated market for Connecticut PEOs, Infiniti HR has succeeded in standing out.
Like the other PEO companies in Connecticut, it offers health insurance, onboarding support, safety compliance, payroll processing, employee benefits programs, flexible spending plans, workers’ compensation, risk mitigation, and other PEO services to increase your Connecticut insurance cost savings and create less paperwork for your HR department.
Infiniti goes above and beyond by helping with recruitment of more employees in addition to providing the complete spectrum of HR support and PEO services. If your experience is typical of other Connecticut business owners, you’ll be aware of the immense value that a great employee can provide, making receiving assistance in hiring the best employees for your Connecticut business a huge advantage.
The one drawback of Infiniti is the same one I encountered with Justworks: its youth. Give it a few more years before you partner your Connecticut business with Infiniti since, at just 10 years old, it’s still young compared to other of the more established PEO companies in Connecticut and doesn't possess the lengthy track records that make other Connecticut PEOs trustworthy.
6. TriNet
The market's longest running and most reputable Connecticut PEO service is TriNet. It began operations in 1988 and now serves more than 330,000 employees across 16,000 companies.
Some of the PEO services TriNet provides include health insurance, payroll processing, workers’ compensation, risk mitigation, HR compliance, and other services to increase your Connecticut insurance cost savings and take some of the workload off of your HR department.
Although it provides all the services you want and does the necessary tasks, it seems to depend on its well-established name in the Connecticut PEO industry to attract new clients.
TriNet doesn't go above and beyond in providing quality customer service, it doesn't innovate and come up with new ways to solve known issues, it doesn't have a thirst for success, and it doesn't strive hard to earn your business.
This means that TriNet will never truly exceed industry standards or your expectations while also being a trustworthy, consistent, and competent Connecticut PEO service.
7. PayChex
PayChex has been in business for a while and recently acquired Oasis Outsourcing, a PEO service provider that has been serving Connecticut businesses for more than 20 years. (You may associate PayChex with your paycheck from your first job—it’s been around that long.) Existing Oasis clients will continue to get assistance from Oasis through PayChex, while new clients will register for services with PayChex.
You can find all the PEO services that Connecticut businesses need among PayChex’s offerings. Some of the services it offers include health insurance, workers’ compensation, risk mitigation benefits packages, and other services to make your HR department’s job easier and increase your Connecticut insurance cost savings.
While PayChex does provide a variety of solutions tailored to the meet requirements of Connecticut businesses in the hotel, banking, retail, and education industries (as well as other industries), I docked points from this PEO service provider for its inflexible 12-month contract minimum.
PayChex drew criticism from me for locking prospective clients and Connecticut business owners into 12-month contracts, which is quite frankly ludicrous in the PEO industry due to the prevalence of month-to-month contracts among other PEO companies in Connecticut.
8. ADP Totalsource
When it comes to professional employer organizations, ADP Totalsource is the big dog, with PEO services not only serving Connecticut businesses, but also businesses in more than 140 countries.
It offers PEO services that save companies money and frustration, like health insurance, payroll services, and workers’ compensation. Like PayChex, ADP offers the full array of PEO services that Connecticut business owners expect, as well as several industry-specific services available to Connecticut businesses in specific sectors.
In addition to being available to Connecticut business owners, ADP Totalsource's customer support team is also accessible to your employees. This means that instead of contacting you directly, your employees can contact ADP for information on their salary, benefits, tax rates, and other HR-related matters they have questions about. Getting rid of these time-consuming phone calls is a huge help to Connecticut business owners.
The disadvantage of ADP Totalsource is the same as that of TriNet. If you own a small Connecticut business and are thinking about signing up with ADP, you should know that you will not get the kind of attention necessary from your professional employer organization for your company to succeed.
9. Insperity
Insperity is a PEO service provider that I saw immense potential in, but despite that
I was ultimately quite disappointed by their PEO services in a few areas.
Insperity offers the same basic services that other professional employer organizations in Connecticut offer, such as health insurance and workers’ compensation, to save companies money and reduce the HR woes of Connecticut business owners.
Its 30 years of award-winning service and product development was the first sign of its integrity. Seeing this gave me optimism for a stress-free and empowering working relationship with this professional employer organization. I knew this was a PEO service provider committed to providing a top-notch service when I read that Connecticut business owners might terminate their subscription at any time (with 30 days' notice).
Health care was the real clincher for me, and it's the area that completely changed my mind about Insperity.
Health care, as owners of Connecticut businesses all well know, is a mammoth concern that calls for a great deal of adaptability to meet the varying requirements of your staff members. To make sure that all of your employees' diverse health requirements are met, it's important to provide them with a wide variety of options.
Health insurance from just one company is available via Insperity. Just the one. Why? I haven't got the faintest idea. That's just how Insperity operates.
If you go with Insperity, your staff members' health care alternatives will be very constrained, and they may go without the treatment they need as a result, which is not a good look for Connecticut businesses.
The Best PEO for Your Business
Finding the best professional employer organization for your company may be challenging, since there are currently more than 900 PEO companies in Connecticut that are accessible to Connecticut businesses of any size.
After spending over 230 hours researching the professional employer organization industry over the course of six years, I've narrowed it down to the three best PEO companies in Connecticut: Vensure, CoAdvantage, and PEO Companies.
While any of these professional employer organizations would be a solid choice for Connecticut businesses, you'll want a recommendation specially tailored to your company's needs if you want to find the best professional employer organization for you.
Your personalized PEO service provider recommendation is based on the following factors:
- How many employees are on your payroll
- What services you want the PEO to help with (payroll, 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
- 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 industry
If you would like to find the right PEO service provider for your company, simply enter your details below and I will provide a free assessment of your company needs.
The Best PEO Selection Process
I put in a lot of time and effort to find the best PEO. But there are a few things about myself that you should know before I get into that.
Why You Should Trust Me
You can put your faith in my professional employer organization recommendations since I have more experience than almost anybody else in the world when it comes to the PEO service provider industry. I've spent a lot of time developing small Connecticut businesses and assisting others to find their ideal professional employer organizations, both of which have allowed me to become an expert on PEO companies in Connecticut.
The beginning of my personal experience working with PEO providers was with my online health company. I simply did not have the time to look after all the HR nonsense, such as employee benefits, workers’ compensation, and all the stuff that was sucking up so much of my day because I was swamped with learning all the essentials of everything related to starting a small business, such as trying to build websites, write articles, and manage my team.
I started using a staffing company to handle my personnel, but in the end I decided that it wasn't enough and I switched to using a fantastic professional employer organization instead.
After resolving all those issues, I gave myself some much-needed rest before launching my second small business, a café. It would be somewhat of an understatement to state that it was rather dissimilar to operating a small online business, though.
But despite the substantial disparities between the two small Connecticut businesses, the one thing that stayed the same was the unpleasantness associated with HR. As a result, I got back into the world of PEO providers in order to satisfy my requirements for human resource management and to take care of the benefits for my employees.
I went to the trouble of reading websites, going through reviews, and listening to sales teams attempt to sell me their products when all I needed was answers to some simple questions. It was a LOT of work and information to go through. Eventually, I was able to find the right PEO to partner with who made it possible for me to expand the size of my small business.
I quickly came to the conclusion that I didn't possess the personality traits that are crucial for working in the hospitality industry. So I decided to sell my café and take some time off to figure out what I should do with my life. The solution was suddenly presented to me when old colleagues from my days working on the website and the café came out to me for assistance with the back-end business operations of their companies in Connecticut.
As a result of the increasing number of people who sought my advice, I ultimately began documenting my recommendations for the best PEO in Connecticut. Since then, I've assisted over 1,200 clients in finding the right PEO companies for their developing small businesses. As a result, I now have more expertise than almost anybody else working with PEO providers in Connecticut.
How I Selected the Best PEO
My process consists of a four-stage method that progressively narrows down the list of more than 900 Connecticut PEO companies to a shortlist of potential candidates.
Stage 1: Reviews
Reading customer feedback on various websites is the first step in my analysis of Connecticut professional employer organizations.
The vast majority of professional employer organization (PEO) companies who have been operational for longer than a year have generated a substantial amount of consumer feedback online. With the help of this input, I'm able to determine which professional employment organization (PEO) services are worthy of further investigation and which ones I can exclude from consideration without spending too much time on them.
I looked through the most popular internet review sites to find the professional employer organization (PEO) services that don't supply the bare necessities in terms of product offerings, price, or service so in order to remove them from the further in-depth research.
Stage 2: Offering Analysis
There is a lot of variety in the professional employer organization (PEO) industry in Connecticut. Various Connecticut professional employer organizations supply a wide variety of goods and services, which they then sell to their clients at a variety of price points.
The second stage of my PEO investigation was to research which products and PEO services are provided by various professional employer organizations in Connecticut, and at which pricing tiers. This allows me to exclude professional employer organizations in Connecticut that either do not provide a comprehensive range of services or do so at an excessively high price.
Stage 3: Speaking With Real Customers
Although reading online reviews is a terrific approach to get a basic grasp of a PEO in Connecticut, one should keep in mind that online reviews have two major drawbacks.
The first and most obvious drawback is that individuals will often only post a review after they have either had a phenomenally positive or extremely atrocious experience with a PEO. This means that if you base your judgment about a PEO in Connecticut solely on the feedback provided by online reviews, you will get an inaccurate image of how the Connecticut PEO functions.
The availability of physical space is the second drawback. The vast majority of PEO reviews seen online are limited to less than 200 characters, which is not enough information to gain a thorough picture of whether or not a PEO in Connecticut is worth partnering with.
Speaking with actual PEO customers was the third stage in my investigation, which allowed me to circumvent these obstacles. I sought out actual clients of various Connecticut professional employer organizations, both via my website and the ties I already had, and I asked them for their opinions. I was able to get a detailed understanding of what it’s like to collaborate with other Connecticut professional employer organizations as a result of my in-depth questions and the thoughtful responses I received about each PEO.
Stage 4: Speaking With Their Sales Teams
To determine what it would be like to work with each PEO in Connecticut over the course of an extended period of time, the most significant thing I did was look at how the COnnecticut PEOs responded to constructive criticism and comments from customers. Are they fixed in their ways, or do they continually adapt to new circumstances? Do they attempt to place blame on the consumer, or do they accept responsibility for their own shortcomings? The A players are distinguished from the rest of the other Connecticut professional employer organizations by these traits and values.
Ranking Factors
When I was deciding which is the best PEO, I ranked the Connecticut professional employer organizations based on five different factors.
Factor 1: Offerings
The first is a rundown of all the services that the professional employer organizations have available.
There is no use in working with a PEO in Connecticut to take care of health insurance if the Connecticut PEO does not provide adequate health insurance. So in order to be sure that you have the best PEO services for your circumstances, I prepared a comprehensive database of the products and services that are supplied by Connecticut professional employer organization (PEOs).
Factor 2: Price
The cost of a PEO in Connecticut's services was the second factor I used to evaluate the Connecticut professional employer organizations.
Because the prices of various products and services may vary greatly amongst Connecticut professional employer organizations (with this information only being accessible by engaging in a sales call—very sneaky), I evaluated each PEO in Connecticut according to the amount of value their services deliver for the money.
Factor 3: Ease of Sign-Up
My third consideration while assessing a Connecticut PEO was how straightforward it was to sign up to its PEO system.
When working with some Connecticut PEO services, you may be required to spend weeks digging through drawers to uncover obscure bits of information that you really don't need for their PEO onboarding process, but other Connecticut PEO services are able to pull major portions of your information from government agencies.
I evaluated each Connecticut PEO based on how efficient and automated its onboarding process is so that you can be sure you choose a Connecticut PEO that will not waste your time.
Factor 4: Ease of Use
How easy the Connecticut PEO system was to use was the fourth factor that I looked at while evaluating it.
Some Connecticut PEO services have simply grafted extra features onto old PEO systems and then created enormous manuals to explain the complicated navigation systems, while other Connecticut PEO services have spent millions of dollars on simplifying and automating their back-end PEO systems while making user experience a key focus.
Being forced to use an antiquated legacy PEO system is obviously a much more aggravating predicament than a user-friendly PEO system that focuses on the customer's needs. So that you can make the best decision, I rated each Connecticut PEO based on how easy it is to use their PEO system and find your way around it.
Factor 5: Customer Service
You'll inevitably run into questions, no matter how much effort or money a Connecticut PEO service has invested in designing the most user-friendly PEO system possible. Here is where a good PEO customer service department comes into play.
Some Connecticut PEO services will keep you waiting on the telephone for hours until they connect you with an uninterested college student who can do nothing to remedy your problem other than vow to report it to management (which doesn't ever happen). Other Connecticut PEO services will answer your phone within a few minutes and address your issue in an even shorter amount of time, freeing you to carry on with the rest of your day.
The Best PEO for Your Business
Even though Vensure is an excellent PEO choice for most small businesses in Connecticut, it is hard to propose the best PEO for your Connecticut company without first gaining an in-depth understanding of both your business and the circumstances surrounding it.
I won't be able to suggest the best Connecticut PEO for your circumstances until I have more information about your business, such as its industry, how many employees you have, and the benefits you want to provide for them.
You can get a free business analysis and Connecticut PEO recommendation below if you would like a tailored recommendation for your small company. All you need to do is input your Connecticut business information in the space provided below.
Simply enter your information into the form below, and I'll do the homework for you to identify the best Connecticut PEO for your small business.
You should probably consider registered agent services while you are here learning about PEO and other business services. A registered agent is a person or business who receives mail, service of process, and other critical legal documents on your company's behalf. Read my article, the Best Connecticut Registered Agents, to learn more about the ways a registered agent can help you.
If you have not yet selected a business structure, it’s a great time to think about it while you’re choosing PEO services. There are several business structures to choose from, including a partnership, corporation, sole proprietorship, or limited liability company (LLC). If you'd like to read more about the intricacies involved in the process of creating an LLC in Connecticut please read my post How to Form an LLC in Connecticut.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to use a PEO?
The cost of using a Connecticut PEO is highly variable and can be determined by a variety of different factors. This could include the professional employer organization (PEO) that you decide to work with, the services that you make use of, the employee benefits that you provide, and how many employees you have. However, a decent starting point would be between $1,000 and $2,000 per employee each per month on average.
How does a PEO charge?
Connecticut PEO service providers may use either a flat fee or a percentage of payroll as their method of charging customers for their PEO services.
A flat fee system will charge you a predetermined amount for each employee on your payroll. Any Connecticut business that needs a very high level of certainty about its monthly billing might benefit from selecting this payment structure.
A percentage of payroll payment structure is one in which the Connecticut PEO will charge you a proportion of the overall payroll that you pay out to your employees each month. Connecticut employers in low-wage sectors should strongly consider this payment structure when researching Connecticut PEO services.
How long does it take to get set up with a PEO?
It takes some time to establish the relationship between a small Connecticut business and the PEO service providers. To get you up and running, the PEO company will require a lot of documents from you, and then they will have to submit a lot more paperwork with the relevant government agencies on your behalf.
The time it takes each PEO service can vary widely. This procedure may take anywhere from three to six weeks, but the average duration is about four weeks.
Does it cost to change PEOs?
There are no particular exit costs connected with any of the PEO services that I've mentioned in this post, but owing to the complex process of setting up an account, every PEO charges a start-up fee. This means that if you opt to leave your PEO for a new PEO, you will not be charged anything to leave your current PEO, but you will be required to pay the start-up fee with the new PEO. But leaving your current PEO won't cost you anything.
