Kim Marinucci has spent 26 years in HR, 16 of them working inside the PEO space as a senior-level consultant across dozens of industries and company sizes. I asked her about something that's been true her entire career but has accelerated dramatically since COVID: the sheer pace of new employment legislation.
The Legislative Landscape Changed Almost Overnight
"I've never seen legislation roll out like it has since COVID," Kim told me. It used to be that a handful of states — California, New York — were the ones you had to watch closely. Now leave laws, pay transparency requirements, and pay equity rules are rolling out state by state, county by county, and even city by city. Kim's blunt assessment: "I can't even keep track of it anymore" — and she does this full-time.
An HR Team of One Isn't Replaced — It's Reinforced
One of the most common misconceptions Kim runs into is that partnering with a PEO means replacing your internal HR person. It doesn't, and it can't — there's no substitute for the person on-site who knows your company and your people. What a PEO does is take the parts of the job that never get done because they're never urgent enough: the handbook that's three years out of date, the job descriptions that were never written, the compliance gaps that only surface during an audit or a lawsuit. "I remember I never could get the handbook updated," Kim said, describing her own years on the employer side. "I had great intentions."
The Question That Should Scare Every Business Owner
Kim shared a story about a manager trying to terminate an employee for "poor performance," only for it to come out that the employee had filed a harassment complaint and felt retaliated against after a leave. Without documentation built *before* that claim surfaces, a business is exposed. Her rule: "Document, document, document" — before the fact, not after.
Holiday Parties Are a Bigger Liability Than Most Owners Realize
I asked Kim about a topic that comes up more than people expect: company holiday parties. Her answer surprised me a little — she recommends limiting the bar, not opening it. An employer's obligation to protect its team doesn't stop at the office door, and it doesn't matter whether the party is company-sponsored or off-site. She's seen it go badly enough at a past employer that they eventually cut alcohol from parties entirely. "As an HR professional, my goal is to mitigate as much risk as possible on the front end."
The Bigger Picture
Kim's advice for any growing company boils down to this: get an internal HR partnership in place with real compliance backing behind it, do your due diligence on your current setup at least once a year, and don't wait until an audit or a claim forces the issue. As she put it, "COVID taught us how quickly your company can change literally overnight" — from fully compliant to out of compliance without anyone noticing.
If you want a clear-eyed look at where your own company might have compliance gaps, our free PEO checklist is a good place to start.
Suzanna Martinez, President | PEO For The CEO