Choosing your company’s Missouri PEO is important because the right professional employer organization (PEO) will support your company and help it grow.
The right PEO will take on the human resources tasks that are bogging you down, freeing up more of your time and leaving you with less mental stress, so you can focus on other crucial business tasks.
The wrong PEO will cost you more money and time, leaving you too financially and mentally drained to properly attend to other areas of your business necessary to facilitate growth.
I looked at more than 900 different Missouri PEO companies, then thoroughly researched the top 9 and ranked the best 3. Through this process I’ve identified the best professional employer organization (PEO) in Missouri.
But before I start giving you my reviews, you should know more about PEOs.
The Best PEO Isn’t Always the Right PEO
I’ve spent countless hours investigating more than 900 different Missouri PEO companies and ranked them according to a variety of factors (which I’ll discuss later in this article), with the best PEO on my list rating the highest overall. But just because they rank the best according to the factors I used to rank them doesn’t mean that they’ll definitively be the best PEO company for your specific business needs.
- Some PEOs cater to specific industries, offering different benefits and services to meet the needs of businesses in these industries.
- Some PEOs have developed good working relationships with health insurance providers, allowing them to give you more insurance options and benefits at lower costs.
- Other PEOs specialize in compliance and offer a slew of tools and services to ensure your business meets compliance requirements.
The only way to choose the right Missouri PEO company for your business is to compare a list of your needs with the service offerings of each PEO in Missouri, and then choose the one that best suits your needs. This will enable you to choose not the best overall Missouri PEO, but the best PEO for your business based on the factors that are most important to you and your employees.
If you’d like a free analysis of your business needs and a personalized PEO recommendation, fill out the form below. I’ll get back with you within 24 hours with your personalized analysis and PEO recommendation.
If you’d rather learn about my overall recommendations for the best Missouri PEO, keep reading.
1. PEO Companies — 9.45/10 (Best Overall PEO)
I chose PEO Companies as the best Missouri PEO company not because they offer any standout services, but because they deliver all their services well. You’re not likely to have any critical issues with their services.
Pros
They provide all the basic services you’d expect from a quality Missouri PEO company:
- Human resources paperwork
- Employee benefits
- Tax withholding
- Compliance
- Tax rates
- Payroll
- 401k
- Employee contracts
- Dental insurance
- Risk management
- Health insurance
- Workers’ compensation insurance
- Administrative services
- Employee benefits administration
- Human resources support
On top of all that, their customer service is decent. If you have a general question that you don’t require an urgent answer to, you can shoot their customer service team an email and they’ll get back to you within 24 hours. If you do need help urgently you can call their customer service team and they’ll quickly connect you with a representative.
PEO Companies has the technological ability to support large corporations, but they’re focused on supporting small-to-medium businesses. This means that they can support your company at every stage of its growth, and that you’ll never outgrow their PEO services.
Cons
Of course, there are drawbacks to PEO Companies' Missouri PEO services. They offer a variety of services, but they don’t offer any services worth writing home about.
- Their services are comprehensive enough to cover any business, no matter its size, but they don’t offer any unique or luxury services.
- Their customer service agents are knowledgeable enough to walk you through any technical problem you may have and answer your questions. But you’ll find that they don’t go out of their way to make the customer service experience personalized or different.
- Their prices are average in comparison to other professional employer organization companies in Missouri, but it’s not so low that I can count it as one of their best features.
While PEO Companies' professional employer organization services are good overall, they don’t offer any services that will truly blow you away.
Overall
PEO Companies earned the top spot on my list of the best Missouri PEO companies because they offer all the basic PEO services that Missouri businesses are likely to need, and they do a good job of delivering them. They offer prices for their services that are competitive enough to compete with other Missouri PEO companies as well.
As is the case with every Missouri professional employer organization (PEO), they base their prices on factors like the size of your business and the benefits that you want to offer your employees. To get a Missouri price quote from PEO Companies, click here.
NOTE: If you want to know more about my research and review process, click here to skip the reviews.
2. Flexible PEO — 7.90/10 (Best Customer Service PEO)
Flexible may sit in the #2 spot on my list, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re not a great option. PEO Companies only beat them by a small margin, and they have PEO Companies beat in one area in particular.
Pros
The same as PEO Companies, Flexible PEO offers a range of basic PEO services for you and your employees, such as managing health insurance, assisting with a number of human resources tasks, handling unemployment claims, workers' compensation, employee benefits management, and payroll management, and helping to ensure compliance.
They offer pricing similar to that of PEO Companies, and it’s easy to get set up in their system.
Of course, there are some drawbacks to their services, but Flexible does have one area where they really shine: their customer service.
I ran three separate tests on their customer service, and they responded to emails on average within 46 minutes. When I called their phone support, I was usually able to get someone on the phone within two minutes.
Speed wasn’t the only positive quality of their customer service. Their representatives were competent and helpful. They didn’t transfer me to multiple agents to solve my problem or leave me feeling as though they didn’t really answer my question, and no managers were ever involved, which is a rarity when dealing with customer service.
They don’t add any unique personal touches, such as sending a birthday card to clients each year, but that’s honestly the only thing I can think of that could improve their customer service.
Cons
There are two reasons that Flexible PEO didn’t beat PEO Companies.
First, their price is fair, but it’s not as good as PEO Companies'. All three price quotes I got for my three fictional businesses were around 10% higher than PEO Companies' quotes.
Second, their system can be confusing in places and I had to call their customer service team to walk me through it.
These two factors aren’t deal-breakers. If you’re looking for a Missouri PEO that offers your business excellent support, then Flexible is still a good option. However, these factors were enough to shave points off their ranking and land them in my #2 spot.
Overall
Flexible offers all the basic Missouri PEO services to meet the needs of most companies. They offer good price rates, and their customer service team is out-of-this-world. Their system is confusing to navigate, and their prices aren’t as low as PEO Companies, but it could be worth it to you to pay the extra expense if you want quality support from your Missouri PEO company.
Because Flexible asks for additional information about your business before they tell you about their prices, click here for a quote.
3. Vensure PEO — 7.41/10 (Best Value PEO)
I chose Vensure PEO as my third recommendation because they’re a reliable Missouri PEO with good prices. However, they let me down in a couple of areas, which is why they’re in my #3 spot.
Pros
Just like the other two professional employer organizations on my list, Vensure offers all the basic PEO services you should expect from a quality Missouri PEO, like health insurance, workers' compensation, assistance with unemployment claims, human resources services, benefits programs for your employees, and payroll management, and they’ll provide you with the tools you need to maintain compliance.
It was easy to get set up in their system, but I did have some difficulty navigating the system once inside. I found their customer service professionals responded to me within a reasonable amount of time and were able to adequately answer my questions and get me pointed in the right direction.
The area where they really beat out the other professional employer organization companies on my list was price. I got three different quotes for fictitious businesses, and all three quotes they gave me wound up being the top three best price quotes I was given from any Missouri PEO on my list, with the quote for my small business being the best. What’s most impressive about this test was that I chose all the options and service add-ons, which makes their prices even more remarkable.
Cons
Although Vensure offers Missouri PEO services at value prices, their services have some noticeable shortcomings.
As I mentioned previously, it was quite easy to get set up in their system, but after that I had trouble navigating the system. What makes this particularly bad is that I was attempting to complete some fairly routine tasks.
I contacted their customer service team because of my difficulties with the system, and they were competent enough to answer my questions thoroughly, and they responded to me in a reasonable time. But their customer service didn’t hold a candle to Flexible’s excellent customer support team.
This is another instance of a Missouri professional employer organization that provides good services, but offers no exceptional services.
Overall
Vensure has a good list of service offerings, and they offer the best rates in the PEO industry. Their system can be confusing and people who aren’t technologically savvy will likely struggle with it. Their customer service is simply adequate and hardly the best you can get for your money. But you honestly won’t find a Missouri PEO with better rates.
To get a price quote from Vensure PEO, click here.
4. Justworks — 7.25/10
Justworks is a new Missouri PEO that has emerged on the scene. They first started in 2012, and since then they’ve become a national PEO licensed to provide PEO services in every state.
They provide all the basic PEO services you need for your business and your employees, like health insurance, human resources support, help with unemployment claims, workers' compensation, and employee benefits programs, they help you with your compliance requirements, and they manage payroll. But there’s one feature that no other Missouri PEO on my list offers: transparency.
Justworks lists their pricing structure on their website so you can see exactly what factors affect their pricing. Most professional employer organizations hide their pricing structure and tell you that you have to give them more information about your business before they can offer you a quote (which is a sneaky tactic), so transparency really makes them stick out in their industry.
The reason they’re fourth on my list despite their pricing transparency is their age. When it comes to professional employer organizations, age matters.
It takes time and a lot of work to get set up with a Missouri PEO, and it’s time and effort that some people can’t afford to repeat if they choose a start-up PEO and it suddenly goes out of business.
I’ll let Justworks establish themselves in the industry before seriously recommending them for your business.
5. Infiniti HR — 7.18/10
Infiniti has a trick up its sleeve to set itself apart from other professional employer organizations.
They offer all your basic Missouri PEO services, like health insurance, help with human resources tasks, and workers' compensation, and they’ll give you tools to ensure compliance, as well as employee benefits programs.
But they offer one service that the other PEOs don’t: employee recruitment. If you’ve ever worked with a truly stellar employee, then you know how valuable one good employee can be to the entire company.
The drawback to Infiniti’s PEO services is the same as Justwork’s: their age. At only 10 years old, their business is in its infancy compared with other PEOs on my list. Because they haven’t had long enough to earn a good track record, I can’t recommend them as a quality Missouri PEO for your business.
6. TriNet — 7.05/10
TriNet is the most well-established professional employer organization on this list. They’ve been in business since 1988, and they’ve since created a massive umbrella company that contains more than 16,000 organizations and employs 330,000 workers.
Like the other Missouri PEOs on this list, they provide every PEO service your business needs, such as health insurance, human resources support, workers' compensation, help to manage employee benefits programs, and tools to ensure compliance. The problem is that they appear to use their big name and reputation to draw in new customers, rather than offering quality services or great prices.
They don’t try to improve their services or offer anything new, and they won’t try to impress you or convince you to partner with them because they know that if you don’t choose their PEO services, there are still many other businesses that will.
So while TriNet will likely provide you with average Missouri PEO services to meet your business needs, you’ll never find anything among their service offerings that’s impressive or exceeds your expectations.
7. Oasis Outsourcing — 6.72/10
Oasis is another seasoned veteran of the professional employer organization industry. They’ve been in business for over 20 years. They were recently bought out by PayChex, but they kept their Oasis name.
They do offer a lot of specialized services for various industries, but they also offer basic services to cover the needs of any business. Some of these services include workers' compensation, human resources and organization tasks, and help while you manage payroll and employee benefits. But the reason they’re so far down the list is that they require you to commit to a 12-month contract.
Literally every other professional employer organization in the industry serves clients on a month-to-month basis, so Oasis is really doing itself—and its customers—a disservice by demanding clients lock themselves into a year-long contract.
8. ADP Totalsource — 6.70/10
ADP Totalsource is one of the biggest names in the professional employer organization industry. They provide PEO services in more than 140 countries all over the world, which means they’ve expanded their Missouri PEO services to become a licensed national PEO.
Just like the other Missouri PEOs on my list, ADP Totalsource provides access to human resources services, and they will manage workers' compensation, manage employee benefits, and manage payroll.
The best part of ADP Totalsource’s Missouri PEO service is that the business owner isn’t the only one with access to their customer service. This means that if an employee has questions regarding human resources, workers' compensation, or employee benefits, they can access ADP’s customer service themselves. This cuts out the middleman (you) and lessens your responsibility in regard to PEO services, which allows you to focus on the more important tasks around your office that require your attention.
The downside of ADP’s Missouri PEO service is much the same as TriNet’s. If you own a small business and use ADP as your Missouri PEO, then you’ll simply be one more business added to their lengthy list of clients. Your business will never gain access to the services and attention it needs from a Missouri PEO in order to achieve success and grow.
9. Insperity — 6.48/10
Insperity is a Missouri PEO company that gave me high hopes, but then ultimately left me disappointed.
They’ve been in business for 30 years, so they have an excellent reputation as a licensed Missouri PEO, as well as numerous awards for their customer service and products. When I saw this I expected a Missouri PEO company that could provide excellent human resources services and a great customer service experience. And then I found out that they also allow your business to cancel their PEO services at any time (so long as you give them 30 days notice). I was really starting to think that this was one of the best Missouri PEO companies to grace my list.
They provide all the services a quality Missouri professional employer organization company should, like taking on the responsibility of various human resources tasks, helping to manage employee benefits packages and payroll for your business, and providing both health and workers' compensation insurance.
But the problem with Insperity’s Missouri PEO services is that they only provide you with access to one health insurance provider.
Every business owner knows how crucial health insurance is to the whole company. Not only does it need to be cost efficient for you as the business owner, but it must also provide comprehensive coverage to meet the employee health needs of your company. Your business needs a Missouri PEO that will give you access to a number of insurance providers so that you’ll have options and your employees will be happy with their employee benefits package.
I have no idea why they only provide companies with access to one provider because they never adequately answered that question for me. What I can tell you is that if you choose Insperity as the Missouri PEO company for your business, your employees likely won’t have a comprehensive employee benefits package to cover their needs.
The Best PEO for Your Business
The PEO industry is booming in Missouri with over 900 different Missouri PEO companies, which can cause a lot of confusion when it comes to deciding which licensed professional employer organization company to trust with human resources solutions for your business.
I spent countless hours during the past six years learning about the PEO industry, and it led me to choose the top three Missouri professional employer organization (PEO) companies in the state: PEO Companies, Flexible, and Vensure PEO.
The top three PEOs on my list will cover the overall needs of nearly any business and its workers. But there are a few things you need to consider in order to find the right Missouri PEO to serve your company and your workers:
- The number of employees on your payroll
- What you want the PEO to help with (payroll, human resources, maintaining 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 workers’ 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 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 used an extensive process to select the best Missouri PEO. But before I go into detail explaining my process, here’s some information about my background.
Why You Should Trust Me
You can rest assured that my recommendation for a Missouri PEO company is trustworthy because I’ve spent more time learning about the PEO industry than probably anyone else. I may even know more about the PEO industry than some people who work for the Missouri PEO companies on my list.
I first got my feet wet investigating the professional employer organization (PEO) industry when I was running my first business, an online health company. I was too busy handling the other aspects of running my business—such as building websites, writing articles, and managing employees—to focus on human resources tasks and workers' compensation for my employees.
At first I tried hiring a staffing company to help with some of the extra administrative tasks for my business. But that didn’t quite do the trick, so I eventually hired a Missouri PEO company to help me out.
After I sold my online health company, I took a break before starting my next business, a cafe. The difference between these two companies was night and day.
However, even though they were completely different businesses in different industries, I still had to deal with the same human resources issues with both companies. So I started researching Missouri PEO companies again so that I could find a company that would provide my employees with access to adequate benefits and workers' compensation, fulfill my human resources needs and maintain compliance for my company.
I read through company websites and online reviews from clients, and I stayed on the phone with customer service agents who made sales pitches when I only wanted answers to simple questions about their services. It was a LOT of information to take in. Eventually, I was able to find the right Missouri PEO to fill the needs of my business and my employees.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that I don’t have the right kind of personality to run a business in the hospitality industry, so I sold my cafe. Again, I took some downtime to consider my next move. The answer fell in my lap when clients and friends from my online health business and my cafe started asking me for information about how to deal with their Missouri PEO needs.
I made more and more recommendations, and this caused more people to come ask for PEO recommendations. I started writing my Missouri PEO recommendations down. From these humble beginnings, I’ve grown and helped more than 1,200 different people find the right Missouri PEO company to provide the support they need to focus on growing their business. And all of this has given me more knowledge of the PEO industry than nearly any other person.
How I Selected the Best PEO
I used a four-stage process to whittle a list of 900 different Missouri PEO companies down to the 9 best professional employer organizations on the market. Here is how I discovered the best PEO companies.
Stage 1: Reviews
My first stage involved reading through online reviews.
If a Missouri PEO company has been open for more than a year, they should have online reviews from their clients. I used these reviews to determine which Missouri PEO companies I should immediately eliminate from my list without wasting much time investigating them.
Stage 2: Offering Analysis
Unfortunately, not all Missouri PEO companies are the same. Some professional employer organization companies offer services that others don’t, while some PEO companies offer different prices for their services.
This is why the second stage of my investigation was reviewing the services that each Missouri PEO offers, and comparing their services to their prices. I then eliminated the Missouri professional employer organization businesses with scant PEO service offerings and expensive prices.
Stage 3: Speaking with Real Customers
While you can get a lot of information from online reviews, they do have their limitations. Online reviews are biased because most customers only review Missouri PEO companies if they’ve had an extreme experience with the company, whether it was good or bad. And the majority of online review platforms limit reviews to 200 characters, which means customers can’t voice detailed opinions about Missouri PEO companies.
To deal with these limitations, I reached out through my website to clients of the professional employer organization companies on my list. They were more than happy to tell me about their customer experience with each Missouri PEO company. This gave me all the information I needed to know about what it’s like to work with the professional employer organization companies I investigated.
Stage 4: Speaking with Their Sales Teams
Learning how a professional employer organization's staff reacts to criticism is important, as well, which is why it was the fourth stage of my investigative process. Does the PEO company use their feedback to improve their services, or do they simply blame their shortcomings on their customers, shirking responsibility for their failures? The way the Missouri PEO companies handled feedback allowed me to sort the best from the rest.
Ranking Factors
I used five factors to rank each Missouri professional employer organization and determine the placement of each PEO on my list.
Factor 1: Offerings
The first factor I used to rank the Missouri PEO companies on my list is their service offerings.
There’s no point in choosing a Missouri professional employer organization if they don’t offer the PEO tools that you need, like specific health insurance options to meet the needs of your employees, or workers' compensation insurance to give you peace of mind. So to make sure that you get the best PEO services for your company I checked out the services that each Missouri PEO company provides and compared them with other PEO services.
Factor 2: Price
Next, I considered the price of each Missouri professional employer organization on my list.
Unfortunately, the prices and services of PEO businesses can vary widely. The difficulty in determining a good price for Missouri PEO services is compounded by the fact that they hide their pricing by requiring you to take part in a sales call to learn about it. But I went through all the information and then ranked each Missouri PEO according to the value of their services for the prices they charge.
Factor 3: Ease of Sign-up
The third factor I checked out was how easy it was to sign up to each Missouri PEO’s system.
Sometimes PEO businesses require you to obtain obscure information or forms, or complete mountains of paperwork. Other Missouri PEO businesses get the majority of the information about your business through other government services, allowing you to focus on other aspects of the start-up process.
I checked out the sign-up process of each Missouri PEO company so that you don’t waste time with a PEO that has a complicated sign-up process.
Factor 4: Ease of Use
The next factor I assessed was how easy the system of each Missouri PEO is to use.
It’s easy to see that some Missouri PEO businesses spend loads of money to streamline their systems and servers so that their clients have little trouble navigating them. However, other Missouri PEO businesses just add new features to an already decrepit system or give you huge user manuals to explain their unnecessarily complex PEO systems.
Of course, it’s preferable to choose a Missouri PEO that favors a user-friendly, automated system, rather than using a slow, glitchy, confusing system. This is why I assessed the system of each Missouri PEO.
Factor 5: Customer Service
It doesn’t matter how expensive or user-friendly the system of a Missouri PEO is, you’ll eventually have questions about either their system or their services that require you to call customer service.
Some Missouri PEO businesses will leave you waiting for hours, only to have your call answered by an inexperienced agent that doesn’t know about the company’s system or their PEO services. But other Missouri PEO services are quick to answer your call and provide helpful answers that solve your problem the first time you call so that you can get on with your day and focus on other important tasks.
The Best PEO for Your Business
While it’s true that PEO Companies is a great PEO for nearly any Missouri company, it’s not possible to recommend the best Missouri PEO for your company without obtaining more information about your company and the needs of your employees.
I can’t recommend the right Missouri professional employer organization for your company until I find out about your business industry, the size of your company, the number of employees, and the benefits you want to offer your employees.
If you’d like a customized Missouri PEO recommendation for your company, fill out the form below to get a free Missouri PEO recommendation and business analysis.
After you submit the form, I’ll send you a free Missouri PEO recommendation that will meet the needs of your company and your employees.
Just fill out the information about your company and submit the form, and I’ll take the guesswork out of searching for the right Missouri PEO for your company.
While you’re waiting for a recommendation, another thing you should consider for your Missouri business is how to structure it. There are several business structure options to choose from in Missouri, such as a corporation, sole proprietorship, or limited liability company (LLC). To learn more about forming an LLC, check out my article about how to start an LLC in Missouri.
When it comes to learning how to form an LLC, you should also learn about LLC formation services. They can make the formation process go more smoothly. If you’d like to learn more about LLC formation services, check out my article about the best LLC services in Missouri.
If you’re checking out Missouri PEOs, it’s a good time to check out Missouri registered agents, as well. A Missouri registered agent is a person or business that accepts mail or legal documents on behalf of your business. To learn more about registered agents, check out my article on the best registered agents in Missouri.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to use a PEO?
The pricing of Missouri PEOs varies and is dependent on several factors. Some of these factors include which Missouri PEO you choose, the services you use, the benefits you offer your employees, and how many employees your business has. However, I can tell you that the average price of a Missouri PEO is $1,000–$2,000 per employee per month.
How does a PEO charge?
Two different fee structures are used by Missouri PEOs: flat fees or percentage-of-payroll fees.
A flat fee is a fixed price per employee. If your business requires detailed budgeting, or you want to avoid unexpected costs, this is the way to go.
A percentage-of-payroll fee is when the Missouri PEO charges a percentage of what you pay your employees each month. If you’re in a low-wage industry, this is a good option for you.
How long does it take to get set up with a PEO?
It takes time to get set up with any PEO service. They need to complete a lot of paperwork on their end and deal with the government authorities, as well as receiving paperwork from you before they can get the ball rolling with their services.
The whole process takes between three and six weeks, but the average is typically four weeks.
Does it cost to change PEOs?
You don’t usually get charged exit fees when you leave a PEO. But you need to keep in mind that every PEO charges a setup fee because of the lengthy, labor-intensive start-up process. So while you won’t be charged to leave your PEO, you will be charged to get set up with a new PEO.
