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It can be quite a painful fact that many managers, when faced with having to fire someone, forget, or are unaware of the emotions that are experienced by the person being fired. Nor are they usually aware of the behavior that most often results from these emotions. It has been well documented that the death of a loved one, a marriage or long term relationship breakup and the loss of one’s job, have an equal and similar impact on one’s emotions — and life. Think for a moment about the loss of one of your dear relatives or friends through death — how did you feel? That’s exactly the same feeling that people have when they suddenly and unexpectedly lose their jobs.
One factor that is often overlooked when firing someone, is that the way it is done can have as much impact (positive or negative) on the people who remain. They will be watching (and will invariably get a first hand report from their colleague) about how well or otherwise the process was managed. The people who remain in the organization, and whom I assume you want to keep, get a good look at both the manager’s and the organization’s real people management skills when under the stress of firing someone. They’ll most certainly ask "Could this happen to me?"
When a client company partners with a PEO, like Workforce Solutions, Inc., they gain valuable access to our in-house legal council to help them through the firing process. Workforce Solutions, Inc. helps our clients by coaching them and providing them with the needed resources and will even conduct the firing process.

Small-business owners focused on finding and keeping customers in a difficult economy have little time for managing human-resource functions. Here are some questions asked of Matt Peterson, C.O.O. of Workforce Solutions, Inc.. Workforce Solutions, Inc. is the leading HR Outsourcing company along the Wasatch Front and has now expanded throughout the United States. Matt Peterson helps companies with the task of managing employees.

What sort of demand are you seeing for your services?

Our clients are placing a stronger emphasis on cost reductions and cost containment without affecting their strategic plans. We have received requests to review payroll processes, employee benefit programs and overall HR processes. Most of these requests are geared toward ensuring the value of the current process. We operate as HR generalists, allowing us to provide support in all areas of HR, including payroll, benefits, workers compensation, hr legal compliance, recruiting and training.

Is outsourcing human-resources functions an enduring trend?

This is the best way to do things in this economic state. We are seeing an increase in business because people can no longer devote their own time to HR functions when they need to be focusing on growing or retaining their business. Workforce Solutions, Inc is on-site as much as our clients want us to be.

HR is one of the biggest expenses and it’s hard to find qualified employees to do what we do. Generally companies have a benefits person, a payroll person, a recruiter and an employee-relations person. We provide a single source for these functions.

How does the cost of outsourcing compare with handling these functions in-house?

We operate under a co-employment relationship with our clients. As co-employers we are able to group or client base together and thus are able to provide lower costs on Health Insurance, Workers Compensation, Unemployment Insurance, Payroll Processing and Hr Legal services then if our clients were to try and handle those functions in-house.

Are employers taking a selective approach to outsourcing, giving consultants domain over certain areas but not all HR functions?

Companies are really doing both. For some companies, outsourcing the entire function is ideal. For others, it makes sense to have help with a few areas of HR management. It just depends on the company and its needs. We help companies identify which approach would work best for them.

Employee relations must be taking a hit as employers ponder or act on staff reductions. Can outside HR expertise help?

We have a unique perspective on the situation. Sometimes it’s difficult to see all the angles when it’s your company and you are making decisions from the inside. Quite often we find we are able to offer insight and direction that helps business owners reach the right decisions.

What are the growth areas in your business?

The overall management of health-insurance programs is a major emphasis right now. We partner with clients to help with the entire process of designing a program, vendor selection and rollout of the program. Clients want to know what happens if they do something different with their health insurance. Benefits have a huge financial impact on companies.

You offer employee training. Isn’t that one of the first expenses cut when businesses face a downturn?

Frankly, quite often yes. Training is the first area to go. However, it certainly isn’t needed any less. The need to train employees is constant. Companies often suffer because they choose to cut this particular area. Again, this is an area where we can most effectively assist our clients. We are a less-expensive avenue to critical training.

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