Don’t Recreate the Wheel When the Wheel Already Exists
There’s one driving element that all startups share, whether you’re a tech startup with an innovative new solution or a service-based startup that fills a distinct need in your respective market. That’s people. They create solutions, provide services, engage with customers and partners, make decisions, and impact growth every day.
For the first few years of your operation, people- and HR-related matters were most likely managed in-house, either by the founder, another executive, or a dedicated person on the team. As you grew, those responsibilities may have eventually shifted to a more experienced HR person, or you might have started building a small HR team.
The pivot point is when you obtain outside investment to scale your growth. When you partner with a venture capital firm, an angel investor, a debt financing lender, or another investor, they’ll have a singular focus for your business: exponential growth.
Your partner will likely be with you for some time, so they want to ensure that you as a leader are focused almost exclusively on growth-related efforts: building a strong team, developing your platform and technology, and growing your market position. While you should still consider hiring a Head of People to help you focus on recruitment and retention, you should not be bogged down with the nuances and complexities of HR.
This is where a professional employer organization (PEO) comes into play. A PEO is an HR services provider that assumes some of the risks associated with HR while tackling everything from payroll and benefits administration to strategy and employee development. When you partner with a PEO for HR services for startups, they’ll take the daily administrative aspects of HR off your plate while serving as a consultative ally to help you make decisions that support and accelerate growth.
HR is hard: Learn about today’s many challenges of hiring to fill open HR roles.
There’s a Gap in HR Services for Startups
While there are a number of PEO providers in the market, they tend to fall into one of two camps. The first is VC-backed just like your tech startup. They’re newer to the market, are rapidly expanding (meaning they’re primarily focused on finding ways to be disruptive), and typically provide their services in the form of a SaaS solution. This means there’s no consultative approach to their HR services for startups. Apart from the solution itself, the only support you’re likely to receive is a FAQ page and a chatbot to route your questions to their support staff.
The second consists of the larger, more institutional HR and payroll companies. While they provide an advanced, proven solution and may offer consultative services, these are mostly for larger organizations. Because they’re larger and more bureaucratic, they have a siloed service approach — relying on different departments to get things done versus a nimble team. They’re slower to adapt to the changes in the market and thus slower to adapt to your needs. And, as you might expect, their services are vastly more expensive — and often come with hidden fees.
Cognos HR Fills the HR Services for Startups Gap
Rather than deal with the first option only to be met with automation when you need consultative insights or the second only to be met with high fees and slow results, what tech startups need today is a partner that offers proven technology and services while remaining flexible enough to be responsive, adaptable, and — perhaps above all — available. Cognos HR fits this gap perfectly.
We’re an experienced PEO provider that offers dedicated fractional HR and payroll support. This means there are real people supporting your company from the start who take the time to get to know you and what you’re looking to achieve. These team members serve as an extension of your internal HR team, whether that’s a few people or only one. Our approach combines the best of HR services for startups while adding in the consultative support you need to make strategic decisions, navigate conflicts and change, and scale alongside you as you grow.
Go deeper: Explore a variety of case studies on our PEO services for startups.
Examples of Our PEO Capabilities
Implementing HRIS technology to support employee self-service
Managing and supporting your payroll processes and compliance
Providing group insurance solutions to attract and support top talent
Developing, implementing, and managing policies and procedures
Creating and managing employee handbooks and fielding questions
Assisting with job descriptions, interviews, and onboarding processes
Handling payroll tax filings, state registrations, and ACA compliance
Managing unemployment insurance and Workers’ Compensation
Providing ongoing employee education and leadership coaching
You Focus on Growth, We’ll Handle the Rest
Whether you’re looking for a solution to support your growth needs or your investment partner has been pushing you to find a provider, our team is here to help. We’ve provided HR services for startups across multiple industries for years, ensuring they’re able to focus on what they do best and achieve meaningful results without HR requirements and processes slowing them down.