Frequently asked questions about our services

PEO stands for professional employer organization. A PEO is an organization that teams up with other businesses to relieve the burden of administrative tasks and reduce risk and liability. In a PEO relationship, a service agreement will outline the duties and responsibilities in areas of payroll, workers’ compensation, benefits, and HR for both the PEO and their client.

For most companies, UAP can actually provide services at no additional cost to the business.  In fact, businesses that team up with UAP typically experience a net reduction in cost.  Our combined size allows us to qualify for greater discounts in a few key areas, giving us the ability to offset our fees and still pass a savings on to you.  Therefore, the more appropriate question to ask is “How much money will I save with UAP?”  This question can be answered by providing UAP with just a few pieces of information, followed by a simple conversation with one of our representatives.

For most clients, this seems to be one of their primary concerns before using UAP, and ends up being a non-issue. UAP makes the process seamless.  Regardless of the format of your current employee data, UAP will build a custom integration to import your information into our system.  We do all the work.  In no time at all, your data is moved to our system, uploaded to our robust, secure on-line web portal, and our payroll team is calling to set up a training session with you.  In this session, you will be taught to navigate our user-friendly site so you can access all of your data, make changes, and maximize your productivity.

All types of businesses can take advantage of the benefits available through working with a PEO. However, the average PEO client nationally is typically a small business with 15-20 worksite employees. UAP’s average is higher, and UAP can accommodate groups from 5 to over 1000 employees. The number of PEO clients is growing at a phenomenal rate every year because of the savings and benefits that a PEO can provide to small businesses.

Yes! You are always in control! Teaming up with UAP will actually result in a greater control of your employees. You have the ultimate say in all decisions regarding your employees. You should think of UAP as an “enhanced payroll company” who is partnering with you in the administration of your employees. This allows you to focus your time and efforts to making a profit. You still manage the employees and run the day-to-day operations. We relieve the administrative burden of being an employer.

Yes, the PEO industry is a licensed industry regulated by the State of Michigan and the federal government.  There are over 900 PEOs nationally, servicing upwards of 200,000 client-companies and processing payroll for nearly 4 million employees.

Change is essential to the success of any business. Chances are you are not running your business the exact same way as when you first began because you have learned new processes along the way to eliminate cost and improve your efficiencies and profitability. UAP can give your company these same advantages. Working with us will likely be the best decision you will ever make for your business.

Yes, we handle a variety of clients with employees numbering from five up to hundreds. Our services are designed to take away the burden of the responsibilities of human resources and employee management from business owners. For that reason, any small to medium sized business will find that our services fit together nicely no matter the number of employees.

We work with companies that provide a wide variety of products and services, such as medical and dental offices, printing companies, automotive businesses,  construction companies, manufacturing companies, technology firms, and many others.

Not a problem – our job is to be the human resources expert. We currently have clients in many other states and have made it our priority to understand all of the intricacies for different cities and states across the country to better serve our clients.

You will run your business just like you’re doing now, minus all the employee administration headaches. You still make the day-to-day decisions about hiring, firing, and training. We just help you with all the details and busywork.

Since you are still doing all the hiring, firing, raises, and making the day-to-day decisions, they will see very little change. Their paycheck will look a little different and their insurance benefits may change (usually either with better coverage or lower rates), but most employees appreciate the added efficiencies and expanded benefits.

Working with a co-employer does not affect the qualification status of any rules/regulations or employment laws. State and federal laws recognize that UAP is the employer of record for purposes of payroll and work comp, while you remain the employer for purposes of hiring/firing, assigning job duties, pay rates, and more. Therefore, you would not have to be concerned about having to be subject to additional rules or regulations by working with UAP any more than you would by just outsourcing your payroll to a simple payroll company. In fact, with UAP, the opposite is true. The advantage of working with a co-employer over a simple payroll company or handling everything in-house is that you actually have less liability when it comes to your employees because we share that liability with you.

We can do as much or as little as you’d like; we customize our services to the needs of each client. For those clients that want a lot of control over their payroll process, our on-line, self-service system allows you to control the whole process. You can enter new employees, add or remove deductions or types/rates of pay, and all other payroll and HR related functions. We have a very robust payroll program that can do everything you need it to and more. Some clients don’t want to deal with the details, and simply send over hours and let our trained staff do all the work. Everything in between is also available, and you can change this as often and whenever you want. This is what helps us achieve our extremely high level of client satisfaction.

Yes, any payroll can be handled, even if you have: over 1,000 employees; dozens of special pay types and deductions; multiple tier job and department costing; certified payroll; multi-state duty days; custom union reporting; same day checks; reimbursement expense logs; multiple locations or invoices; several frequency periods; checks using multiple tax tables; minimum wage balancing; and much more. Plus, you would have access to all of your data and reports, with the ability to view, change, add, or delete information from any computer at any time.

There are many perks to working with a PEO rather than just a payroll company, such as no more workers’ compensation audits, renewals, or premium deposits.  However, there are also more significant benefits that can really have an impact on your bottom line. With so many changes taking place in employee-related government regulations, employers have less time to focus on their business because they have to spend too much time making sure that they don’t get hit with penalties for not keeping up with these changes. UAP can reduce your risk and liability by notifying you of changes in government regulations to keep you compliant, by offering you free access to legal advice from the number one employment law firm in Michigan at no cost to you (which is unheard of in our industry), and by placing your employees on our workers’ compensation policy so that your rates don’t go up in the event that you do have an injury.

Most clients provide their hours over the internet. We would provide you with a password-protected internet page where you enter all of your employees’ hours. For some clients, we can build a custom interface between your time clock and our payroll software so there is no need to re-enter hours. We can also receive payroll hours via fax or e-mail. Your Client Service Representative will provide you with an easy form for tracking hours.

You can pay for gross wages, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, and the company’s portion of benefit cost each pay period by either initiating a wire transfer or C.O.D. with a cashier’s check. Initiating a bank wire can be as simple as picking up the phone and calling your banker. Many of our clients ask us to initiate the wire for them, which is not a problem. By using a “same as cash” payment collection method, you can rest assured that UAP will never run into problems because of another client’s cash flow problems and remain financially secure into the distant future.

That’s 100% your choice. Your employees could continue communicating with the same person they do now if they have questions about their paycheck, or you could direct them to UAP.  You continue to maintain control over how much and when your employees are paid. UAP then provides the check and takes care of all the necessary reporting. If a problem arises or a correction is needed, then your payroll contact calls UAP and instructs us on how the problem should be resolved. If you prefer, we can direct your employees to call us directly regarding any payroll issues. Again, the choice is yours to make.

For unemployment purposes, those wages are still reported by UAP under your UIA account number. The state requires wages to be reported under the client unemployment number in a PEO relationship but all other taxes are to be reported under the PEO number.

By paying workers’ compensation pay period by pay period, you are able to regulate your cash flow. Since we carry the workers’ compensation and process the payroll, there are no year-end audits at your location and no year-end adjustments. There are also no initial or annual 25-percent deposits due! If you have surcharges or other increased costs due to past injuries and a bad experience modification factor, moving your employees to our policy will instantly eliminate those added costs. Also, due to the sheer volume of workers’ compensation insurance that UAP purchases for our employees, our rates are typically lower because of increased discounts for our larger, combined premium amounts. This saves you, the business owner, money and time which allows you to concentrate on revenue generating functions.

Yes, we offer safety programs to train your employees on safety practices, OSHA requirements, and possible workplace improvements. A safer work environment for your employees means lower workers’ compensation rates for you and a more productive work environment for your employees.

Whenever you choose to leave the PEO relationship, you can always opt to return to the State Pool for workers’ compensation coverage. They are required to take all applicants without showing any history so you cannot be denied coverage. If you were with UAP long enough, all your past claims would drop off your old policy due to their “look back” period, and you would reset with an experience modification factor of 1.0 with them.

Yes.  When using UAP’s workers’ compensation policy, we handle the administration of the claims for all work-related injuries. This also means that, upon request, we can supply you with certificates of insurance for your business. Usually these certificates can be provided to you within an hour.

We do! We keep track of all injuries that result in OSHA recordable cases and will provide you with your OSHA 300A log by January 31^st every year.  We can also supply you with any of your OSHA 300 or 301 data upon request.  If you are a qualified employer, we will also enter your OSHA log data on your behalf online to OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application by the date required.

No.  If you already have an established occupational clinic that you send your employees to, you do not have to start sending your employees somewhere unfamiliar.  Instead, we will work with the clinic to make sure that we take care of all the medical bills while still keeping you in the loop with their work status.

No problem!  We’ll set up an account with an occupational clinic near you so that you know where to send your employees in the event an injury ever happens.

No, we’re not a temporary or temp-to-hire company. The responsibility of hiring employees is still controlled by you. We administer all the employee paperwork including payroll, benefits, and human resource compliance as long as the employee continues their employment with you.

You are the worksite manager. You know your business and your employees better than anyone, so you stay in charge of the hiring and termination process. We are happy to provide advice if you find yourself in a situation that may require some extra thought. When it comes to the everyday hiring and firing we are simply the administrative business partner that administers your decisions.

An employee handbook is your first line of defense against employee-based lawsuits and claims of discriminatory practices. The employee handbook enables you to communicate company policies to all employees and provides additional protection for you, the employer, on all compliance issues. UAP will provide you with a comprehensive questionnaire to determine your specific practices and policies. From that, we will design a customized handbook for distribution to your employees included as part of our services.

Human resource management involves a great deal more than just a handbook. UAP helps you stay in compliance with the complicated federal and state regulations such as ADA, FMLA, EEOC, HIPAA, OSHA, COBRA, Title VII, etc. We also provide counsel to our clients daily regarding hiring, termination, disciplinary action, performance evaluations, wage and hour reports, and any other HR issue.

Yes, UAP can assist you in developing non-compete or confidentially agreements. Through our affiliation with one of the largest employment law firms in the State, you would have direct access to the firm’s resources for your questions. They can also review existing handbooks or agreements that your company is using and make suggestions for improvement.

Yes! UAP will process all unemployment claims so you don’t have to. Our experts will timely protest all unjust claims and represent you in any claim that results in legal proceedings.

We can provide the following for our clients plus any other services you may need, including:

• Background checks
• Pre-employment drug screens
• Department of Motor Vehicle records
• Credit checks
• Sexual harassment investigations
• FMLA consulting
• Create customized forms
• Much more!

All medical markets are available. Whether you want Blue Cross, a PPO plan through another carrier, a more affordable HMO plan, or even an HSA, we can provide the plan that best fits your needs. We will aggressively shop carriers to find the best pricing for the coverages you desire.

Yes, you can still maintain your own benefits.  However, assigning UAP as your agent will streamline the process for you. We would still collect the premium amounts from the checks of the employees that sign up for benefits; however, rather than crediting that amount back to you to make the payments on your own, UAP would send in the payments, process terminations, and handle all the details so that you don’t have to. This would all be done at no additional cost.

No. However, we have found that employers who do contribute a portion of the cost have higher participation levels from their employees. Certain benefit plans and carriers require minimum participation levels. We will be glad to make possible employer / employee contribution split recommendations that fit your particular situation concerning which medical and life plans to offer and much more.