Insperity is a comprehensive professional employer organization (PEO) service with HR, payroll, benefits, training, and employee education packages, plus much more. It does not quote prices until a full HR team evaluates your business; however, during our Insperity review, we found it has high customer satisfaction and a lot to offer businesses needing to outsource their HR.
Insperity scored favorably (4.2 out of 5) in our best PEO companies for small business guide. While the service is higher priced than others on our list (based on user feedback), it is good for businesses that need in-depth employee training.
Insperity Overview
Pros
- Excellent training opportunities for employees
- 50 pre-built reports, including job costing
- Competitive large company benefits in all 50 states
Cons
- Getting a quote requires a meeting and company evaluation
- Help section hard to find, not in-depth
- Features may be overwhelming for users
Supported Businesses | Small businesses with high profit margins and mid-size businesses focused on learning and development |
Pricing | |
Standout Features |
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Ease of Use & Customer Support |
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- Midsize businesses focused on employee development: From employee rewards programs to self-paced courses, Insperity excels in engagement, productivity, and employee learning programs.
- Small businesses in high-margin industries: Insperity may be more expensive than other PEOs, but it offers a lot of benefits. Businesses with high profit margins and a small workforce, like tech companies, may find the solution cheaper than hiring an in-house HR professional and usually enjoy getting enterprise-level benefits packages regardless of their size.
- Businesses wanting qualified HR contacts and strong customer support: Managers with HR concerns have a direct line to their Insperity HR team, which may include a host of specialists (from benefits to payroll to recruiting).
- Companies that want basic onboarding support and payroll processing: You’ll most likely spend more than necessary hiring a PEO for services you can get from simple software. If you want basic HR and payroll functions without benefits management, consider using software. Check out our roundup of the best HR payroll software for some options.
- Microbusinesses with only a few employees: Insperity only works with businesses that have five or more full-time employees. If you have fewer than that, check out other options from our best online payroll services for small businesses.
Why You Can Trust Us
With almost two decades of human resources and payroll expertise centered around small businesses, I bring a unique perspective on determining the best PEO service.
For this article, I evaluated Insperity in terms of pricing, HR administration features, additional software and tools, licensing and reporting, payroll features, and ease of use to deliver an expert review of the software.
See our full methodology below
How Insperity Compares to Top Alternatives
Best For | Monthly Fees | Our Review | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Mid-sized businesses that need employee training | Custom-priced | |
 | Businesses that expect to grow, internationally or domestically | Custom-priced | |
 | Small businesses wanting to outsource HR at an affordable rate | $59-$109 per employee | |
 | Businesses with remote workers or a global workforce | Custom-priced | |
Insperity Pricing
Insperity’s pricing is non-transparent. If you’re interested in using Insperity and its professional employer organization (PEO) services, you must contact its sales team to assess your needs and provide a custom quote. It charges per employee and requires a one-year contract, although you may be able to cancel with 30 days’ notice if your business has fewer than 150 employees.
Insperity offers a standard set of HR features—employee benefits, risk management, HR-related compliance, HR support, HR admin, payroll, talent management, and HR technology. You can also add on other services, such as pre-employment screening, expense management, and organizational planning. These cost extra.
Insperity lost points in our expert review due to the lack of pricing available on its website. There is also a set up fee to start services.
Insperity HR Administration
When you enroll with Insperity, you have a team assigned to your account, so it’s like having an on-call HR staff. Your team may include an HR manager, client liaison, HR specialist, payroll specialist, performance specialist, benefits specialist, recruiting specialist, and safety consultant.
You get their direct phone numbers and email addresses—and, according to user reviews, the team generally responds to requests within two hours during regular business hours. Besides answering questions and providing support, they keep you up-to-date on changes to local, state, and federal HR-related laws and regulations.
Insperity’s co-employment offerings (Source: Insperity)
Other HR functions include:
- Counseling supervisors on employee relations, from interview tips to tackling workplace problems
- Employee handbook development
- Job descriptions
- Onboarding management
- Performance management, including developing goals and coaching supervisors
- Developing competitive compensation and hiring packages
- Company culture development that includes climate surveys, developing mission statement and company values, and fostering communication
- Custom reward programs
- Workers’ compensation
- Hazard and safety training and compliance
- Unemployment claims assistance
- Labor law posters
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) compliance services, including a hotline for employee grievances
Insperity Additional Software & Tools (Non-payroll)
Insperity provides more than just HR compliance and task management. It also assists in providing large employer benefits, thus reducing the cost to you and your employees, time and attendance capabilities, recruiting assistance, applicant tracking, and full-service learning management options.
Employee Benefits
One of the great advantages of a PEO is that you can qualify for enterprise-level benefits packages not available to small businesses acting alone. Insperity works with major vendors like UnitedHealthcare to provide several choices for plans for your employees. Insperity negotiates the contracts, handles the vendor relationships, and ensures the plans comply with applicable laws. Plus, employees can call Insperity with questions or go online to the employee portal.
Insperity’s group health plan dashboard (Source: Insperity)
In addition to health, vision, and dental benefits, Insperity offers:
- Flexible and health spending accounts (FSA/HSA)
- Life insurance
- Accident insurance
- Basic disability insurance
- Employee assistance program
Insperity also runs a customized 401(k) program that can be designed for your specific situation, including options for eligibility, vesting, employee and employer contributions, enrollment, and loans or in-service withdrawals. It also has other third-party 401(k) programs to choose from.
Time and Attendance
Insperity’s software-as-as-service (SaaS) time and attendance product, TimeStar®, allows employers to track employee time for payroll, as well as create schedules. With TimeStar®, you can track employee hours, paid time off (PTO), holiday time off, sick leave, and more.
Timesheets can be set up to show hours logged, mileage, units, and more. (Source: Insperity)
To learn details about Insperity’s TimeStar® product, you must contact sales for evaluation and full information. Pricing is also customized based on your specific needs.
Recruiting
Insperity offers recruiting support services and outplacement support to help you find the best talent for your open positions. It will review and offer recommendations for an in-house recruiting program, help develop job descriptions, and provide interview training.
Pull reports on current employee pay for compensation evaluation when hiring. (Source: Insperity)
Insperity will also help you build competitive compensation packages to help entice new hires and remain compliant and competitive within your industry. Additionally, they will work with you to build a company culture that keeps employees engaged and motivated.
Applicant Tracking
Insperity will help you attract quality candidates and improve the applicant experience with its applicant tracking services. It will help you with the following:
- Job ad descriptions
- Finding job boards for posting
- Customized applications
- Creating interview questions
- Employee referrals
- Candidate filtering
- Candidate ratings
- Employee online enrollment
Track applicants in your applicant tracking dashboard (Source: Insperity)
Applicant tracking services are available for an additional fee above your regular monthly costs. Like with all its products and services, you must speak with an Insperity sales representative to get a custom quote.
Learning Management
Insperity offers a plethora of training and development opportunities to educate and grow your workforce. Insperity offers the following learning management options:
- Professional education units for select courses
- Course completion tracking
- Online learning assets
- Harassment prevention
- HR compliance
- Communication
- Customer service
- Management and leadership
Insperity’s learning and development dashboard with different genres of training programs. (Source: Insperity)
With Insperity’s training programs, you can get assistance in identifying and addressing performance issues, plus leadership development for your supervisors. Further, Insperity gives your employees access to over 300 online courses and e-learning materials in business, technology, compliances, and more.
You can also work with its training team to get instructor-led virtual training with professional education units (CPE and PDU) for select courses. If your business relies on having a well-educated workforce, this could be more cost-effective and useful than providing tuition assistance.
Mobile Application
Employees can access their information on the employee portal online or via the mobile app (employers can log into the same app). In either, they can see their 401(k), paychecks, FSA, benefits, and more. They can also change information on their profile, like updating an address. If you have time tracking with Insperity, employees can clock in and out using their phones.
Easily track time and attendance, payroll, PTO, and 401k all from a mobile device. (Source: Insperity)
Users rate the mobile app at 4.6 out of 5 stars on Android and 4.7 out of 5 stars on iOS. The biggest complaints concerned problems logging in or clocking in with the app. Otherwise, people appreciate the ease of use and the ability to see their information and pull up their insurance cards.
Insperity Licensing & Reporting
Insperity is an Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC)-certified PEO. ESAC evaluates PEOs for integrity, financial stability, and ethical conduct. It is also certified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Insperity has 50 pre-made reports, including job costing. The reports include graphics to make the information easier to understand, and there are HR specialists who can help you analyze the data further. You can also get customized reports built into the system.
The reporting module includes job costing and custom reports. (Source: Insperity)
Insperity Payroll Features
Insperity has a full-service payroll program for wage-earning employees. You can pay by direct deposit, payroll debit card, and checks. Unlike some payroll providers, Insperity does not charge extra for check processing.
Insperity manages payroll seamlessly so you have all the necessary information to successfully run payroll. (Source: Insperity)
If employees have garnishments, it will remit them to the proper government agency. This includes child support, student loans, and levies. It handles all your payroll tax needs, from getting W-2 information at onboarding to issuing the reports and filing employer taxes.
Insperity Expert Score
In our expert evaluation of Insperity, we determined affordability, HR compliance, reliability, and ease of use of the software. Insperity scored high in all categories except the following:
- Affordability: Insperity doesn’t list their prices online, however, user reviews report the software can become quite expensive
- Leaving PEO: While it has been stated that companies can get out of their agreement within 30 days of registration, typically the service is contracted for a year at a time
Aside from the above, we found Insperity to be ideal for small businesses in their HR and payroll compliance and somewhat easy to use, provided you are familiar with PEO software.
Insperity Ease of Use
- Friendly, helpful staff
- Online guides and how-to articles
- Steep learning curve
Insperity’s software has a lot of functions, so it can take longer to learn if you’re not familiar with PEO software or HR and payroll platforms. However, the online resources section is full of blogs and videos to help you adjust to its software.
Insperity provides your business with a dedicated HR support team specifically assigned to your account that can be reached by phone or email. You can also reach out to a non-dedicated specialist via chat if you have a quick question about the software.
Insperity Reviews: What Users Think
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Excellent support; dedicated account representatives | Cost structure not transparent, hidden fees |
| Helps outsource HR responsibilities | Software is difficult to navigate |
The most common complaint about Insperity was cost—not simply the overall expense, but also the lack of transparency. However, employees and employers both said that the representatives are friendly and helpful. They also appreciate the excellent selection of benefits available at reasonable prices.
Users did report that customization was limited and the software was difficult to learn. Others, however, said the site was easy to navigate and the mobile app was user-friendly; therefore receiving mixed reviews based on users’ comfort level with the software.
- ConsumerAffairs: 4.5 out of 5 based on 479 reviews.
- G2: 3.8 out of 5 based on 57 reviews.
- Capterra: 0 (Insperity has no reviews on this platform)
Methodology: How We Evaluated Insperity
To determine if Insperity was the best PEO provider for your business, we looked at pricing, HR administration features, additional non-payroll software and tools (if any), licensing and reporting capabilities, and payroll features. We also used our expertise to rank the software based on our expert opinion.
Click through the tabs below to learn more about how we evaluated Insperity.
20% of Overall Score
In our evaluation, we looked at overall pricing and whether or not it is published on the software provider’s website. We also took into consideration any set-up fees required, and if it charges a per-employee price or a percentage of payroll.
20% of Overall Score
We looked at each service provider in terms of the HR tasks and services offered, such as employer liability insurance and other risk management features, online onboarding and enrollment, offboarding and termination support, HR compliance, and whether or not they offer competitive benefits in all 50 states.
10% of Overall Score
In our review of the software and tools offered, we looked at whether the provider offered the following add-on features—time and attendance, recruiting, applicant tracking, and learning management.
5% of Overall Score
For licensing, we looked at whether the software was IRS or ESAC-certified. As for reporting, we checked if it provided basic payroll and HR reports, and if they were customizable based on your specific business needs.
15% of Overall Score
Our review of payroll features looked at whether the provider runs payroll for small businesses, if they offer flexible payment schedules, the direct deposit options provided, and whether or not they calculate and file payroll taxes, local taxes, and year-end tax reports (W2s and 1099s).
15% of Overall Score
Our expert score was a compilation of all features provided by the service. We looked at how affordable the software was for small businesses, if the software was easy to use, and if the PEO was reliable. We also looked at how easy it is to leave the PEO, if necessary.
15% of Overall Score
Ease of use looks at several factors, including how accessible the software is to both employees and employers (through online and mobile), whether or not a dedicated representative is available, and if they can be reached by phone, chat, and/or email, and quick problem resolution. We also looked at user reviews and how they feel about the software.
Insperity Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Insperity PEO works as a co-employment agreement. It acts as the employer-of-record to bring you Fortune 500 benefits and full HR services, such as payroll and administrative tasks. Your company remains the parent company, in charge of your employees.
PEO is an acronym that means professional employer organization. It is a provider that handles all HR-related matters, including securing large company benefits, payroll processing, tax and compliance, and more.
Insperity does not publish its prices on its website. In order to get the pricing, you must contact a sales representative and do a formal company evaluation. Pricing is custom-based on your business needs. However, users online have reported a monthly fee of anywhere from $50 to $100 plus a per-employee fee (around $5-$10) per month.
Bottom Line
For busy companies looking for a full-service PEO that allows robust training options, consider Insperity. While it is reported to be fairly expensive for small businesses, those with high profit margins and mid-size companies with specific training needs may benefit from its services. Contact an Insperity sales rep to find out if it’s right for your business.