For growing businesses, replacing a PEO (Professional Employer Organization) is often the next natural step. Whether you’re looking to regain control over your HR operations, reduce costs, or unlock more flexibility with your systems, understanding the process of transitioning away from a PEO is essential to making the change successfully.
At EmphasisHR, we specialize in helping growth companies moving to the Paylocity platform navigate the post-PEO landscape with confidence and clarity. We’re not just an HR outsourcing provider, we’re your partner in scalable success.
Here’s what you can expect when replacing a PEO and why the right support makes all the difference.
1. Replacing a PEO: Why Businesses Make the Move
The decision to leave a PEO is usually driven by one or more of the following:
- Cost transparency: With a PEO, fees are often bundled and opaque. Many companies realize they’re paying for services they no longer need, or can manage more cost-effectively elsewhere.
- Loss of control: PEOs assume co-employment status, which means you share employer responsibilities. For many companies, that limits flexibility in hiring, compliance decisions, and vendor selection.
- Scalability needs: As your company grows, a one-size-fits-all PEO model often can’t keep up with the unique needs of your business.
- Desire for tech-forward solutions: You’re most likely considering the move to Paylocity because you value smart HR technology. You shouldn’t be locked into a PEO that limits how you use it.
2. The Transition: What the Process Looks Like
Replacing a PEO is not as simple as flipping a switch. It’s a coordinated transition that requires strategic planning. Here’s how EmphasisHR approaches it:
Step 1: Strategic Exit Planning
We begin by reviewing your current PEO agreement to identify renewal deadlines, termination windows, and final reporting requirements. Timing is everything here, our team ensures you exit cleanly and compliantly.
Step 2: Paylocity Configuration & Optimization
We are mutually exclusive to the Paylocity platform. That means we don’t just support it, we specialize in it. Our team will configure Paylocity to match your organization’s needs, from payroll and benefits to performance management and onboarding.
Step 3: Benefits & Compliance Transition
PEOs often bundle benefits plans. When you leave, you’ll need to secure and implement your own. EmphasisHR helps design and broker benefits plans, ensures ACA compliance, and handles the required notices and enrollments.
Step 4: Employee Communication & Onboarding
Change can be confusing for employees. We’ll help craft messaging and conduct onboarding sessions to make sure your team understands what’s happening, why, and how it impacts them, positively.
Step 5: Ongoing Support & HR Partnership
Post-transition, we serve as your full-service HR team. From compliance and employee relations to recruiting support and HR strategy, our experts help drive your business forward.
3. Why Choose EmphasisHR for Replacing a PEO?
If you’re making the move to Paylocity, or looking to fully leverage its capabilities, EmphasisHR is the only HR partner you need. We are:
- Exclusively aligned with Paylocity. We know the platform inside and out, and we optimize it for our clients every day.
- Experts in HR Outsourcing. Our team has decades of experience supporting growth-stage businesses.
- Hands-on and responsive. We don’t offer cookie-cutter support. Our solutions are built around your goals.
- Focused on your growth. We free up your time so you can focus on growing your business, not managing HR.
4. Key Considerations When Leaving a PEO
- Timing matters: Many PEO contracts renew annually, often with 30-day notice periods. Start the conversation early.
- Payroll dates & tax IDs: Post-PEO, your business resumes full employer-of-record status. EmphasisHR handles all required tax filings, new ID set-up, and payroll synchronization.
- Benefits plan implementation: Don’t let coverage lapse. We ensure seamless benefits continuity for your team.
- Risk management: We manage HR compliance risk from day one. From updated handbooks to job descriptions and training, we’ve got it covered.
Let EmphasisHR Do the Work
Leaving a PEO doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With EmphasisHR, you gain more than a partner, you gain a team of dedicated experts who know the Paylocity platform inside and out.
We’ve helped countless companies navigate PEO exits and come out stronger on the other side, with better visibility, more control, and HR strategies built for scale.
Ready to Replace Your PEO Agreement?
Let’s talk about your transition. Schedule a free consultation with us today and find out how we can help you move forward with confidence.
