Paychex HR Outsourcing Review

• Paychex has a long history in the payroll and HR outsourcing industries and is especially well suited to small businesses.
• This HR outsourcing service has an easy-to-use platform and full-service mobile app.
• Paychex offers flexible pricing and terms and does not lock you into a long-term contract.
• This review is for small business owners who are thinking about using Paychex as their human resources outsourcing provider.

When partnering with Paychex, businesses can expect to access comprehensive human resources (HR) services, including risk management, payroll, employee benefits, HR administration, and training materials and courses. Additionally, when signing up, customers gain access to a dedicated HR professional who can serve as an advisor to the business throughout its partnership with Paychex. Paychex Flex, the most popular plan for small businesses, serves as an all-in-one solution. For these reasons and more, Paychex is our pick for the best HR outsourcing service for small businesses.

Usability

Paychex was among the first companies to provide payroll service and, later, HR outsourcing support. The platform is user-friendly, quick to learn and intuitive to navigate. The full-service mobile app also makes Paychex stand out; in fact, some customers use the Paychex mobile app exclusively, rather than the desktop client. The comprehensive mobile app provides access to many of the products found in the cloud-based application, including the well-designed user dashboard that allows for administrators and employees to quickly complete their tasks.

Source: Paychex

Key takeaway: Paychex has a user-friendly cloud-based platform and a comprehensive mobile app.

Features

Paychex has multiple features that differentiate it from its competitors. For example, the company's training programs, which cover topics such as HR onboarding and safety, are some of the most extensive of any HR outsourcing company we reviewed. Paychex also offers comprehensive payroll processing software and HR policy development. 

HR Services

Paychex has long been known for providing extensive HR support and thus knows that solutions must be compliant, comprehensive and timely. Paychex offers a robust set of HR services, including onboarding and recruiting resources, handbook and policy development, HR assessments and consulting, termination and dispute assistance, benefits orientations, and employee screening and training.

Employee Benefits

Through the HR outsourcing model, Paychex offers guidance on benefits support and related needs. The company provides advice without getting too involved, since many benefits vendors are not under the Paychex umbrella of services. You and your employees can manage your benefits online through the Paychex platform. Paychex also helps you find the right benefits plan for your business and educates you on the various health options.

Tip: Select an HR outsourcing service that supports the employee benefits packages you intend to offer.

Payroll and Taxes

After reading many customer reviews, we can confidently report that Paychex payroll runs exceptionally smoothly. It is well designed for small companies, which often have only one person dedicated to payroll. Paychex customers can use the payroll processing software to track employee hours, paid time off and sick days. The payroll service also includes compliance with government regulations and state and local taxes, time-clock technology and other payroll features. Paychex also provides a well-tested mobile app for payroll and HR management on the go.

Source: Paychex

Risk and Compliance

Remaining compliant with state and federal regulations is critical for any business. Failure to do so could result in fines and lawsuits, which, if severe enough, can even lead to permanent closure. To help you avoid these pitfalls, Paychex makes sure your business complies with all existing HR regulations and all legal requirements, including COBRA, required annual reporting, workplace safety training, development of workplace safety policy and guidelines, workers' compensation, return-to-work programs, unemployment insurance and on-site safety inspections.

Training and Development

Paychex's HR outsourcing model offers scores of training materials and related courses. This breadth of training resources ensures you can offer the right education programs for your business. 

Recruitment and Onboarding

Paychex supports customers with their recruitment and onboarding needs. In addition to providing an HR support team, Paychex offers training on how to write and post job ads, interview and onboard. That way, your team will be prepared to manage future recruitment challenges, such as location specification; diversity, equity and inclusion requirements; and/or unique skill sets that are required for a particular job.

Source: Paychex

Cost

Paychex Flex is designed for businesses of any size and offers three plans. Paychex Go is perfect for small businesses with up to 10 employees, and Paychex Flex Select is well suited for businesses with 10 to 49 employees. The Paychex Flex Enterprise plan serves larger companies with more than 50 employees. 

Because Paychex's HR outsourcing plan is available to businesses of all sizes, even those with just one employee, it offers a lot of flexibility. There are no minimum-salary requirements or required contract lengths, and you can cancel at any time by providing 30 days' notice.

Like many other HR outsourcing services, Paychex does not openly advertise its pricing. Paychex is great for small businesses that have unique HR outsourcing needs, as it offers a variety of features packaged into different HR outsourcing options. The plans are scalable, so you can add services or products as your business grows. 

Did you know? You can use Paychex's HR outsourcing services even if you have only one employee.

Setup

It's easy to get set up with Paychex. The company also integrates with other popular business programs, such as QuickBooks, so you can import data from those platforms as well.

Customer Service

Paychex provides a designated team of payroll and HR experts, which is especially useful for new small businesses. Each HR expert specializes in a different area. For example, there is an HR generalist who acts as a liaison between Paychex and your business and doubles as a consultant or coach, helping you to develop policies and troubleshoot issues as they crop up.

Paychex also has a variety of online resources, including articles, webinars and tools such as tax calculators. As your business grows and changes, Paychex can scale with it. And thanks to its dedicated team of HR professionals, Paychex will be intimately familiar with the circumstances affecting your business.

Drawbacks

One downside of Paychex is that it has a lot of complaints on its Better Business Bureau (BBB) profile, although that is to be expected for a large company that's been around a long time. However, our research corroborated some of the customer service challenges referenced in the negative customer reviews. It is worth mentioning that Paychex appears to proactively respond to negative reviews and customer complaints, resulting in an A+ rating from the BBB.  

The area with the most room for improvement, however, is within the various channels for communicating with customers. Although Paychex does have an online chat option, support is often delayed. The best way to connect with a representative is to call the dedicated HR expert assigned to your account. If you are looking for an HR outsourcing provider with excellent customer support, consider TriNet, which provides a team of dedicated HR experts to answer your questions.

Summary

You will be hard-pressed to find a stronger all-around HR outsourcing provider than Paychex, especially if you are a small business. 

We recommend Paychex for:

• Small businesses, even those with only one employee
• Businesses that want demos and sophisticated features
• Businesses that want an advanced, mobile-friendly platform that provides a consistent experience across mobile and desktop devices

We do not recommend Paychex for:

• Businesses with 500 or more employees
• Businesses that put a lot of stock into BBB customer reviews
• Businesses that need quick access to customer service reps