The Benefits of Employee Leasing.

You may save money by leasing your staff through an employment service agency. Staff may even get a better benefits package.

If you own or run a business, imagine ditching the drudgery of administering employee records. Instead of toiling over payroll, employment taxes, workers' compensation, employee garnishments, quarterly reports and unemployment taxes or claims, you could market your business, generate new customers and stay on top of day-to-day operations.

It may sound like wishful thinking, but operators of employment service agencies say they can take over such time-consuming paperwork, provide employee benefits, ensure stability and reliability, and still save clients money.

"Most of the time, we come in less than they're paying themselves to do it," said Cindy Schebler, president of Personnel Plus Employment Agency Inc. of Anchorage. "The reason we can be cost effective is we're already doing (the work)-it's our business."

Known as "employee leasing" or "outsourcing," the employer service industry has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade. The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations estimates that up to 3 million Americans are co-employed through leasing arrangements.

In Alaska, the trend has yet to catch on, but local leasing companies predict strong growth in the next few years, particularly among businesses with one to 50 employees. For small companies and start-ups, the leasing relationship saves time, money and resources, while tapping into an employer service company's size and expertise.

"You're getting a human resources department without having one in house," said Hank Swan, owner of Swan Employer Services of Anchorage. "We become the employer of record and take the burden of managing those employees ... but you do the hiring, the firing and the daily direction of the company."

"(Businesses) will often save on the workers' compensation alone," said Schebler. "Sometimes we can get them a better rate or, if their premium is small and they're in a work comp pool, which has a 25 percent surcharge, we can save them that surcharge."

Generally, Personnel Plus charges about $50 a month to carry a leased clerical worker, but each client pays a different rate based on a percentage of gross payroll--determined by the risks associated with the business, workers' compensation records and costs, the number of employees and other factors.