Starting a small business is tough, and keeping that business running is no small feat either (especially during a global pandemic). That’s why so many leaders at small businesses and nonprofits like Next City choose to partner with companies that streamline and simplify running a business.

Justworks is one of these companies — as a Professional Employer Organization (or PEO for short), Justworks handles things like payroll, benefits admin, and compliance through an all-in-one platform. Justworks also offers resources like HR tools and guidance on best practices, all backed by 24/7 customer support. But how does this translate into time saved for small business owners and leaders? Let’s break it down.

Payroll

Crunching numbers isn’t everyone’s specialty, and running payroll probably wasn’t the reason you started your business. That’s why Justworks handles payroll for small businesses. Justworks knows that paychecks shouldn’t be prone to human error, so their user-friendly software automates payroll (and associated deductions) for their users.

That was a big draw for Next City. Staff had been manually entering payroll into a clunky system for years before joining Justworks. Now, Next City saves time and stress with Justworks’ automated payroll offering. Not only does running payroll take much less time, but Justworks also simplifies making payments. With Justworks, Next City is now able to pay contractors via direct deposit (which contractors everywhere would likely appreciate).

The Justworks platform is also valuable for small businesses that work with a bookkeeper. Rather than having to download and provide payroll reports to your bookkeeping partner, the Justworks platform enables bookkeepers to login and find the data they need on their own. This makes the process that much easier (and faster) for both business leaders and bookkeepers.

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Benefits Admin

Assembling and maintaining a health insurance offering for your employees can be difficult for small business owners. Between the cost and the legwork required, it can be quite the undertaking. Among the benefits of using a PEO, however, is they provide small businesses with access to high-quality health insurance that might otherwise be out of reach. Before Next City joined Justworks, the nonprofit wasn’t able to offer as many benefits as they’d like to employees. But after joining Justworks, Next City could offer more health insurance options, along with vision and dental coverage, an FSA program, 401(k), and even commuter benefits.

Justworks also makes plan selection and benefits enrollment easier for everyone. When it comes to choosing which health insurance plans and other benefits to offer, Justworks provides education and support to better understand what coverage is available, so you can make selections that will serve your employees best. Options are consolidated under one platform and explained with helpful resources. Employees also have an easier time enrolling in their benefits with Justworks’ user-friendly platform, which means fewer questions for you to answer.

Compliance Support

It’s a difficult job to keep track of all the employment laws and regulations that apply to your small business, especially in light of the pandemic. That’s why Justworks aims to make this aspect of running a business easier. Between their skilled teams and tech-forward platform, Justworks handles many compliance-related tasks on behalf of your small business.

When it comes to tax compliance, Justworks handles withholding, reporting, and remitting payroll taxes, plus they file W-2s and 1099s. Justworks also helps you secure workers’ comp and state unemployment insurance so your business remains covered and in compliance everywhere you operate. The Justworks platform also helps you and your employees remain compliant with state and city harassment-prevention training requirements. Since the training is hosted in the Justworks platform, your team can complete the EVERFI training courses on their own, and you can easily track their progress as needed.

Employment laws and regulations can be among the most intricate and important for compliance, so Justworks’ clear approach is one that Next City values. In addition to The Scoop — Justworks’ new go-to resource for recent employment law changes — Justworks also regularly send emails that remind business owners when changes are coming up. During the pandemic, this information was especially useful for Next City, and it provided peace of mind to know experts were staying on top of fast-moving details.

HR Tools

Many small businesses don’t have someone dedicated to human resources, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t HR tasks that need to be tackled. And after a while, another spreadsheet just won’t get the job done.

For many small businesses, onboarding takes up a lot of time for employees and managers alike. Being able to streamline some of those new-hire tasks would free a big chunk of time, and that’s exactly where Justworks can help. Their user-friendly platform automates much of the onboarding process, enabling business owners to track progress as employees complete new-hire paperwork online. Next City loves this feature of Justworks, as it replaced yet another manual task on the to-do list.

In addition to onboarding tools, Justworks offers a range of reporting options that help business owners see the bigger picture. In addition to viewing onboarding status, Justworks users can access a company census, headcount, payroll details, and time tracking. Tracking time off is another task that took lots of time before Next City joined Justworks. The old homegrown system involved multiple spreadsheets, whereas the Justworks platform streamlines requesting, approving, and tracking time-off requests in a way that makes it easy for both employees and managers to navigate.

Customer Support

Knowing someone has your back can provide a sense of relief to small business owners. At Justworks, they make a point to ensure there’s always someone available to help answer your (or your employees’) questions, 24/7. Not only that, but Justworks also provides multiple channels you can use to reach someone. Next City loves reaching out via Slack and the staff always finds the help they need.

In addition to the 24/7 customer support team, Justworks offers access to HR Consultants and ThinkHR for tools, document templates, and guidance around HR best practices. This can be really helpful for new small business owners or leaders who are tackling unfamiliar territory. Next City, for example, used ThinkHR resources to update the employee handbook. With Justworks and all the resources they provide, small businesses are in a better position to tackle the tough stuff and reach their goals in less time and with more confidence.

It can be surprising how much there is to do when running a small business. And oftentimes, it’s not apparent just how long your to-do list can get as a business owner or leader until you’re in the thick of it. But that’s why a PEO can be so beneficial. By joining a PEO like Justworks, you’ll have someone on your side to help streamline and simplify the day-to-day. And you know what that means — more time to spend on what matters most.