What To Do Before You Cancel Your PEO Contract

November signals the time of open enrollment season. This is usually right about the time any frustrations anyone has had with their PEO contract get highlighted in technicolor green. Nothing feels more empowering than knowing you have an opportunity to end a bad relationship free and clear. Now would be the best time to call up your PEO and tell them you are not going to renew; instead, you will cancel your PEO contract as of the last day. Just thinking of it loosens the shoulders, right?

You very well might have great reason to call up your PEO, both guns ablazin’, and tell them to get out of your town. Perhaps there are some things you can do to save yourself and your employees the burden of having to undo things they already have in place with their healthcare providers and existing benefits services. Don’t shoot yourself and everyone else in the foot by acting too hastily.

Have You Voiced Your Concerns Before Deciding To Cancel Your PEO Contract? 

This question is a little more obvious than most. For the other group of people who have been quietly simmering in their frustrations, why? If this is your first PEO experience, the tendency is to throw your hands up and say to yourself, “This is how PEOs work.” You couldn’t be more wrong. What is the source of frustration?

• Billing ambiguity?
• (Lack of) Customer Service?
• Benefits offerings lacking depth?
• Healthcare providers not meeting expectations?

It could be as simple as getting a better understanding of how your current PEO works and see what they can do to either help you with your misunderstanding or tell you what else they can offer you that might work better. PEOs can have many packages with the same provider. What you contracted for may be able to be altered when you renew. Find out before you pull the ripcord on the one you have. If you do decide to cancel your PEO contract, at least you’ll have a full understanding of why before you have to communicate the change to your employees. 

Ask Your PEO For A Renegotiation And Tell Them You Won’t Renew Unless You Do 

Any business hates to lose a good customer. Letting your PEO know that you are not happy and adding in that you won’t continue in the relationship unless they create a scenario that works for both of you is an excellent way to save what you have and get rid of what doesn’t serve. 

If your rate is an issue, perhaps there is something they can do to make your PEO services more affordable. 

Just like your cable bill, there is no reason you can’t ask for something better than what you have and see what they say. If nothing else, when you tell them you are going to cancel your PEO contract you can say you tried and they didn’t. 

Start Looking For a PEO To Replace The One You Have 

How did you find the PEO you have? Did you spend hours on the Internet researching them? Chances are you learned a few things along the way. Before you fire up Google and get crackin’, it would be good to take stock in what you like and what you want to avoid.

Ask your employees what they enjoy about your current PEO. Make a list. Put it in a spreadsheet. Now, what do you like about your PEO as the one managing the contract? Put that down too. Next question, you guessed it, what would they change if they could? What would you change? Your needs and theirs need equal footing in this decision. Get it all down on your spreadsheet. 

You’ll need two columns; What’s Good and What’s Not So Much. Did you get all that down? Next step is to research only those PEOs who have all or close to everything on your What’s Good list. Now you can start with your Google searches. That doesn’t sound very fun, does it?

Many PEO customers have found that working with a PEO expert has helped them make a lot more progress in finding the right PEO for their needs than any search engine ever could. Good news is they exist. PEO Spectrum helps businesses like yours every day to find the right PEO the first time, or find a better PEO the next time. 

There is a lot you can do to find a workable PEO contract that benefits your employees as much as your bottom line. Before you cancel your PEO contract, reach out to PEO Spectrum and let them help you find the right PEO contract for you.