Business Tools Blog

A PEO (Professional Employer Organization)  is the solution Zayo uses to manage human resources. 

Zayo is growing really fast - from 7 employees a year ago to over 300 employees in 14 states today.   

We decided to stay focused on our business plan and not try to grow a competency in HR (the regulatory environment in HR varies from state to state, keeping up would require experts with knowledge of each state’s laws).  We wanted a single solution, with a vendor we could trust.  We needed a solution that  provided maximum automation, cutting edge Human Resources and payroll management, and fantastic employee benefits.

We are currently working with ADPTotalSource.  They provide the following services:

• Payroll, time tracking (the time tracking is even available for contractors)
• Workers’ compensation insurance
• Human resources expertise
• Employee benefits that are as good or better than Fortune 500 companies (health, dental, vision, HSA, Flex Spending, life, disability, legal, pet insurance, and more)
• 401K administration
• Training and development (free manager training and carreer development courses for <$50 each)
• Recruiting
• Performance management
• Wage and hour assessment
• Risk management and safety
• Regulatory compliance
• Fully automated, online Human Resource Management System
• Automated reporting
• Job description development
• Employee assistance program
• Legal support
• State unemployment claim processing
• Employee handbook
• Personal discounts for employees
• Employee Service Center staffed Monday - Friday from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm EST
• Employee trouble ticket tracking
• HIPAA compliance

According to ADP’s annual report, ADPTotalSource is the “largest PEO in the United States in terms of number of worksite employees paid.”  This is important, because we benefit from their buying power for benefits.  Rather than buying as a 300 person company we have the buying power of a 160,000 person company. 

Last week we took on the monumental task of de-integrating our payroll.  We had been on a regional model (one paygroup per aquisition) and needed to move to one paygroup per business unit (Zayo Bandwidth, Zayo Managed Services, and Onvoy Voice Services).  It sounded simple, but was a ton of work.  We complicated matters by wanting to pay everyone on the 15th and last day of the month.  This required changing the dates people are paid, and changing the way our time tracking system works.

ADP Totalsource led by Jeff Davis in Payroll and AJ Andersen in Benefits worked tirelessly with Bonnie Peterson (Zayo’s new Payroll Manager and only person employed by Zayo to work exclusively on HR activities).  They completed the migration in 1 week, and while there were a few problems, I am very pleased with the result.  When problems came up during the migration, ADP Totalsource made themselves available 24×7 to assist our employees.  They didn’t charge us extra for this service.  They didn’t complain.  They didn’t tell us that we were asking for the impossible.  Instead, they listened to our needs, then developed and quickly implemented a solution. 

That’s the type of service we’ve come to expect from ADPTotalsource.  Because we partnered with a company that has made HR and payroll their core competency, we benefit from their expertise and we can focuse on our business plan.