Case Study: Human Resources
at a Small Company
At a small medical equipment dealer, sales associates are constantly leaving for positions with biotech startups, creating more work than the HR Department can handle. The company decides to outsource all HR duties and have the Department focus on recruiting college graduates. The HR Director is asked to hire a professional employment organization, or PEO, to take over payroll and benefits administration. Although it's not part of her official job description, the HR Director also negotiates the company's supply contracts and leases, so she needs to find a provider who supports these functions as well.
Understanding what the various PEO providers actually do proves to be difficult. Some services are called HR outsourcing, others are called employee leasing, co-employment, risk management, or professional staffing. Some claim to assume all liabilities, others carve out items like insurance coverage.
James River's expertise in services contracts reaches a level that transcends practice areas and vertical markets. The Director employs James River to not only negotiate a package of professional services from one provider or a team of providers, she relies on James River to measure their performance against metrics and make changes as necessary. A formal competitive bidding process is used to incentivize providers to draw up proposals that meet the company's needs and to obtain the best financial terms. James River also takes over management of the company's procurement contracts.
