Employee issues: Leasing employees

One way to delegate the time-consuming tasks of handling payroll, insurance, employee regulations and benefits is to transfer your employees to an employee leasing firm and lease them back.

Also known as Professional Employer Organizations, these agencies take over all the human resources responsibilities. You pay a fee for the management, plus any other expenses.

Due to the large volume of staff that agencies usually manage, they can offer you more benefits at a reduced cost, thereby sweetening your company benefits package for potential employees.

As testimony to their popularity, employee-leasing firms managed more than 2.5 million workers in 1996, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.