Insperity HR Outsourcing Review

• Insperity offers one of the largest ranges of HR outsourcing services and products tailored to companies with employees in multiple states and/or more than 1,000 employees overall.
• Its customizable HR services include employee recruitment and onboarding, training, policy and handbook creation, performance evaluations, and job description development.
• Among the HRO providers we researched that offer comprehensive, consistent, and cost-effective services, Insperity is our best pick for large businesses.
• This review is for small business owners and managers considering Insperity for their HR outsourcing partner.

Insperity has long specialized in comprehensive human resources solutions for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees. A la carte HR solutions are also available through Insperity, allowing companies to get as much or as little support as they need in any area of HR. Insperity has an established following of more than 100,000 client businesses, within all industries, throughout the U.S.

Historically, Insperity has billed itself as great for midsize businesses, but it's making strong gains in the market for larger businesses (1,000 employees and up) as it refines its service model and products. Insperity allows businesses to customize the features they need and add new HRO services over time – a flexibility that large companies commonly require. These are some of the main reasons we've chosen it as the best HRO for large businesses.

Usability

Insperity solutions are easily customizable to ensure you get what you need for smooth and effective operations. Its HR management services can help your company with recruitment, employee onboarding and offboarding, online training, policy and employee handbook development, conflict resolution, termination, performance management, and leadership development.

Insperity's online self-service portal is available to every person in your organization. Your employees can access all their HR-related information and edit most of their own data, such as their home address or W-4 withholdings.

Insperity's portal is user-friendly and intuitive, which is a big boon for companies that only maintain small HR teams who don't have time to train every employee and answer a lot of questions on the platform. It also is helpful for businesses with complex benefit packages and workplace policies that may need regular review by employees; they can review them through the employee handbook within the self-service portal.

Source: Insperity

Insperity HRO Features

Insperity has many features and services that make it great for large businesses as well as other companies, including payroll, policy and handbook development, retirement planning, and business insurance.

HR Services

You can customize Insperity's HR management services to meet your company's needs. Insperity offers partnership in all the common areas of HR management, including recruitment and onboarding, online training, employee handbook and policy development, performance management, termination and dispute assistance, and leadership development.

Source: Insperity

Employee Benefits

Insperity stacks up well against other PEOs and HROs that offer comprehensive benefits services. Insperity's offerings span 401(k) plans, healthcare, short- and long-term disability, employee assistance programs, and life insurance. Your employees can use Insperity's self-service online portal to modify and review their benefits as needed.

Payroll and Taxes

Insperity automatically provides standard payroll processing software as part of its HRO platform. Similarly, it features a section for time and attendance tracking, which allows managers and employees to request and monitor paid time off, including sick and vacation time. You and your staff can also access your important tax forms on demand.

Risk and Compliance

Insperity's wide-ranging risk and compliance services include claims management, workers' compensation, and employee development and training. The company can also cover recruiting and hiring tasks like employee screenings, employment practices liability insurance, termination and unemployment claims assistance, drug-free workplace policy development, and EEOC services. These services are critical to ensure your business doesn't run afoul of the law or open itself up to potential lawsuits.

Training and Development

Insperity offers extensive training and development opportunities for employees, including more than 5,000 online courses that your team members can follow at their own pace. It also offers 30,000 online books and resources that can help any members of your staff improve their knowledge on various HR topics. For companies that want a one-on-one training and development experience, instructor-led virtual training is also available.

HR Technology

Transforming your business into a smooth, well-supported machine is one of Insperity's main goals for its HR services. It achieves this goal through its cloud-based, integrated platform, which allows you to automate and organize your company's HR functions and gives your employees access to all their information. Additionally, the Insperity Premier solution gives you all-in-one access to HR, payroll and business performance tools.

Insperity's time-tracking solution is TimeStar, which allows your employees to clock in and out by badge (you can use Insperity's hardware for employee badges), biometrics (fingerprint), mobile app, or web punch on a company computer.

Insperity Human Resource Outsourcing Cost

Insperity's cost matrix is complex, since its service packages are customized to its client businesses' needs. Likely because of this, Insperity does not list basic pricing on its website. One helpful note, however, is that Insperity charges per employee instead of by payroll percentage, which allows a little more consistency in pricing of the service over time, as your payroll is likely to fluctuate more often than your staff size.

On the more positive side, Insperity does not require lengthy contracts; a 30-day notice is adequate to part ways with the company. If you want individual HR services without a co-employment model, you can opt for Insperity's Workforce Acceleration program. This option still requires you to enroll in Insperity's payroll service, but it offers every other service a la carte. For example, you can add or disregard its accounting, recruiting, insurance, 401(k), and retirement services as you please.

Key takeaway: Insperity's costs depend on the size of your team and the scope of services you require. Most agreements require only 30 days' notice in writing to cancel service, rather than making you sign a long-term contract.

Setup

Insperity makes the setup process straightforward. Its full-service HR software can integrate with most other business software platforms and works just as fluidly on macOS as it does on Windows.

When you sign up with Insperity, you will be paired with a dedicated account executive who oversees your company's implementation of the software. This account executive serves as a liaison between you and Insperity, and they can help you add or subtract services from your plan as needed.

A user portal for employers and employees enables you and your staff to review your key compensation and benefits information. The app includes two-factor authentication, guaranteeing security, and provides access to pay stubs, 401(k), employee benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, time and attendance software, performance management software, and the many training materials that Insperity offers.

When you start with an HRO service, you should check its credentials. Insperity is accredited with both the ESAC and the IRS. It also ranks well with the Better Business Bureau, where customers give it an A+. These accreditations and endorsements demonstrate Insperity's reliability as an HRO service provider.  

Customer Service

Insperity provides dedicated account management teams, which means you will have points of contact at the company who know your business and your circumstances. Insperity also maintains a team of experts in key HR areas, including payroll, performance management, recruiting and hiring, and workplace safety. They can help you craft policies and make the right choices for your business's situation.

In our experience, Insperity takes a customer-centered approach, whether customers contact the company by phone, live chat or email. Its service representatives do not try to upsell customers when solving their problems, seeming to understand that business owners and managers need quick, complete answers from Insperity when they reach out.

Drawbacks

One of the longtime drawbacks that customers have reported on is Insperity's five-employee minimum, barring the smallest companies from working with Insperity. For possible exemptions, contact Insperity's customer service.

Tip: If you're looking for a service that caters to smaller businesses, check out our review of Paychex.

We also struggle with the lack of clarity on the fees for service. Potential customers must call ahead to discuss pricing with a sales representative. We would like to see base prices or estimates on Insperity's website at least, giving you some guidance as to how the service will fit in your budget before you take the time to reach out.

Lastly, Insperity offers no maneuverability in the healthcare, 401(k) and other types of plans. Insperity can manage these benefit services for your company, but you must accept the plans exactly as offered, with no customization available.

Summary

Insperity's primary focus is to help businesses succeed so that communities can flourish. It executes this vision through its consistent and readily available customer support and relationship management. Although its tools are comprehensive and excellent for large businesses, its interest in seeing businesses reach their goals is what keeps its service customer-focused and fully engaged over the long term.

We recommend Insperity for:

• Companies that want thorough guidance during the setup phase and beyond
• Midsize and larger businesses with a cutoff around 1,000 employees

We do not recommend Insperity for:

• Companies on a tight or very specific HR budget that want to compare prices online before contacting companies
• Companies that want highly flexible, customizable employee benefit plans
• Very small businesses and startups (under five employees)