If you've shopped PEOs for more than five minutes, you've probably heard some version of this: Insperity is a fantastic company, but they're going to cost more than the alternatives. I sat down with my longtime Insperity rep — coming up on seven years with the company himself, which tells you something about their retention — to talk about what that extra cost actually buys.
Why the Price Is Higher, On Purpose
The honest answer: service model. In the Southeast, Insperity's service team is local and named — you get one person for payroll, not a call center ticket queue. There's also a client liaison layer if you'd rather route through one point of contact. "If somebody is looking for a high-touch, white-glove solution, that's the people we're going to be a good fit for," he told me. "If somebody's in cost-reduction mode and just needs something lean and tech-forward, I'll refer that to Susanna all day long." That's not a sales pitch — that's an honest read on fit, and it's exactly the kind of answer I want from anyone I partner with.
The Incubator Work Most People Never See
A meaningful part of his job is mentoring pre-revenue startups — through Emory's incubator program, Techstars, and similar platforms — years before those companies are big enough to need a PEO at all. The goal is relationship first, transaction second: "We don't want to be the transactional salesperson who's in there to help the business and then gone." One of his oil-change franchise clients grew from one location to a tenth in under three years, built almost entirely on retention — they salary their techs instead of paying hourly, so competitors offering fifty cents more an hour can't poach them. That kind of talent strategy is exactly the layer a PEO's HR support is built to reinforce.
A Company That Shrank From 600 Employees to 20 — and Still Needed the Same Support
One story stuck with me: a company that wound down from 600 employees to just 20 still needed the robust benefits and HR infrastructure they'd built at scale. Company size changes. The compliance and benefits complexity that comes with running a business doesn't shrink at the same rate.
The Real Question Isn't "Which PEO Is Cheapest"
His closing point is one I make to my own clients constantly: "It's like flying Delta versus flying Spirit — they'll both get you from point A to point B, but it's a different experience getting there." The right question isn't which PEO costs the least. It's which level of service your business actually needs, and whether you're paying for more (or less) than that.
If you're not sure which end of that spectrum fits your business, that's exactly what a PEO comparison should sort out. Grab our free checklist to start figuring out where you land.
Suzanna Martinez, President | PEO For The CEO