AlphaStaff Review 2024: Features, Pricing And More

AlphaStaff is one of the top PEOs that provides a range of HR services to businesses of any size that want to partially or entirely outsource their HR responsibilities. AlphaStaff takes a tailored approach to serving its clients, allowing them to choose only the services they need.

AlphaStaff offers the following services:

• HR services
• Payroll and tax administration
• Benefits administration
• Recruiting services
• Risk management
• Performance management
• Employee training and development

AlphaStaff also offers its own technology solutions for:

• Employee self-service
• Time and attendance
• Applicant tracking system
• Reporting

AlphaStaff offers Cyber Insurance to mitigate the consequences of a cyber breach to your business data. The insurance covers privacy, data and network exposures, including first- and third-party coverage. This means that it not only protects your business from the direct effects of a security breach, but also any affected entities that you do business with.

First-party cyber insurance covers crime and social engineering and the costs of:

• IT forensics
• Notifications to those affected
• Credit protection
• Crisis management
• Contract breaches
• Negligent protection of data
• Network security breaches
• Software virus transmission
• Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks
• Defense fees, fines and penalties as a result of regulatory actions
• Payment Card Industry (PCI) fines, penalties and assessments

The insurance also covers your company’s liability to third parties you work with, including costs related to a breach of personally identifiable information, such as:

• Credit card numbers
• Social Security numbers
• Banking information
• Personal health information

AlphaStaff’s cyber insurance also covers:

• Multimedia, i.e., in matters of copyright or trademark infringement, libel or slander in electronic or non-electronic media material that your company distributes
• Cyber extortion
• Cyber business interruption
• Hacker damages
• Digital asset damages

AlphaStaff offers payroll, benefits administration and more in its lineup of services.

HR Services

AlphaStaff’s HR services are designed to help your company manage growth, retain talent and focus on HR strategy and initiatives, all in a compliant manner. Its HR services cover the following areas:

• Compensation management in the form of salary survey and benchmarking data
• Employee handbook
• Compliance research, consultation and training
• EEO-1 preparation and filing for federally required workforce demographics data
• FMLA and FLSA consultation and administration
• Termination assistance
• Planning and execution of HR strategy

Payroll

AlphaStaff’s certified payroll team ensures your payroll is timely, accurate and compliant.

AlphaStaff uses a web-based payroll system to administer automated payroll, including deductions, time off and garnishments. However, you as the client have to manually upload employee hours. From there, AlphaStaff’s payroll takes care of the rest. Employees can receive their pay through direct deposit, debit pay card or paper check.

AlphaStaff also calculates, files, deposits and reconciles local, state and federal withholding taxes. AlphaStaff’s payroll team also works with tax authorities on your behalf to resolve any potential issues.

In addition, AlphaStaff keeps track of your payroll data in the event of an audit by keeping record of payroll registers, deductions made, PTO accruals, tip allocations, payroll check verifications and more.

Benefits

AlphaStaff enables your company to provide the following benefits, including but not limited to:

• Medical, vision and dental insurance
• Commuter benefits
• 401(k) plans
• Flexible savings accounts (FSA)
• Health savings accounts (HSA)
• Life insurance
• Disability insurance
• Dependent care savings accounts

Companies can also offer their employees certain perks through AlphaStaff, such as discounts on entertainment, retailers, travel, pet insurance, identity theft, prepaid legal services and home and auto insurance.

AlphaStaff enables employees to enroll online, via phone or via paperwork when they’re newly hired, experience a life event or are changing their benefits during open enrollment.

AlphaStaff also provides benefits advisory services to you as the employer. This includes, for instance, administering insurance for separated employees in accordance with COBRA and giving guidance on compliance with ACA-required eligibility tracking, monitoring and reporting.

Self-Service Portal

Employees and managers can access their personal information and payroll data anytime in the self-service portal. The portal enables employees to:

• Update personal information
• View and print pay stubs and tax statements
• Activate a payroll debit card
• Read company messages
• Request time off
• Access company documents, such as the employee handbook

Recruiting and Onboarding

AlphaStaff offers both services and an applicant tracking system to support your recruiting needs. Services from recruiting experts include crafting effective job descriptions, conducting comprehensive screening, reaching out to passive candidates and administering pre-hire assessments in partnership with Criteria Corp.

If you don’t already have an applicant tracking system (ATS), you might want to consider using AlphaStaff Hiring ATS in order to manage applicants through the hiring process. There, you can post jobs, organize and sort applicants, conduct interviews, keep track of notes on candidates and onboard new hires. The ATS can be used in conjunction with AlphaStaff’s recruiting experts but doesn’t have to be. You can use the ATS if you want more control over the hiring process.

AlphaStaff enables you to onboard new employees electronically. In the onboarding portal, new hires fill out their paperwork electronically. Then, the system notifies relevant departments of paperwork completion and securely stores the files. All employee data collected from the paperwork automatically transmits to AlphaStaff’s payroll and HR database, eliminating manual data entry and the potential for errors.

Performance Management

AlphaStaff’s HR experts consult you on how to craft a performance management strategy that’s in line with your company’s culture and business goals. This includes defining compensation strategy, goals for employees, teams or departments and career action plans for employees. AlphaStaff also provides managers with support and training to help them become more effective at their jobs.

Risk Management

AlphaStaff gives its clients expert guidance and resources for managing risk and compliance. The first step in the process is to conduct a risk audit to identify potential risks that need to be addressed. After that, AlphaStaff’s experts work with you to create an action plan. AlphaStaff can also provide safety training and material, so employees are informed and can play their part in creating and maintaining a safe work environment.

AlphaStaff advises you on how to handle tough scenarios that require investigations and disciplinary action, such as theft, substance abuse, violence and other complex scenarios. These situations require care and resolution in a compliant manner that mitigates your company’s financial and legal exposure.

Finally, AlphaStaff provides access to pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation insurance coverage and claims management.

AlphaStaff does not publicly post its pricing, but it allows clients to pick and choose which services and products they need.

AlphaStaff customers receive support from a dedicated HR account manager. Otherwise, customer support is available via phone and email Monday–Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

	AlphaStaff	ADP TotalSource	Engage PEO	Insperity Workforce Optimization
Rating
Starting Price	Custom pricing	Custom pricing	Custom pricing	Custom pricing
HR Tools	Yes	Included	Yes	Included
Payroll	Yes	Included	Yes	Included
Benefits	Yes	Included	Yes	Included
Time Tracking	Yes	Included	Yes	Included
Recruiting	Yes	Add-on	Yes	Yes
Onboarding	Yes	Included	Yes	Included
Performance Management	Yes	Add-on	Yes	Consultation services
Learning and Development	Yes	Included	Yes	Yes
Employee Engagement	No	Included	No	Yes
Reporting and Analytics	Yes	Included	Yes	Yes
Compliance	Yes	Included	Yes	Yes
Risk Management	Yes	Included	Yes	Yes
IRS Certified/ESAC Accredited	ESAC only	Both	Both	Both
Third-Party Integrations	Unknown	Included*	Unknown	No
Mobile App	No	iOS and Android	No	iOS and Android
Dedicated Expert	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Customer Support	Email, phone	Email, support ticket, phone, chat, knowledge base	Phone, support ticket	Email, phone
Learn More	—	On ADP TotalSource’s Website	—	—
Read Reviews	—	Read ADP TotalSource Review	—	Read Insperity Review

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*Depending on the app, third-party integrations available via ADP Marketplace may be included or come at an additional fee. Custom integrations cost extra.

AlphaStaff vs. ADP TotalSource

AlphaStaff is a smaller player than ADP TotalSource in the PEO space. However, AlphaStaff may provide more flexibility for small businesses because you can choose which services and products you want. ADP TotalSource, on the other hand, includes employee engagement and learning and development. These are functionalities that small businesses don’t necessarily want or need.

An advantage of ADP TotalSource is, first and foremost, its ESAC accreditation and IRS certification status. In addition, it’s a more reputable name in this space and gives potential clients straightforward information about what’s included and what’s an add-on.

AlphaStaff vs. Engage PEO

AlphaStaff and Engage PEO are quite comparable, as they both offer some flexibility in terms of choosing the services and products you need rather than committing to an entire package. An important distinction to note between the two, however, is that Engage PEO is both IRS certified and ESAC accredited, while AlphaStaff only carries the latter credential. AlphaStaff, on the other hand, offers cyber insurance to its clients for added security.

AlphaStaff vs. Insperity

Insperity is somewhat more transparent about what’s included and what’s available as an add-on. Plus, Insperity’s clear edge over AlphaStaff is that it’s both IRS certified and ESAC accredited. Insperity also offers but does not include employee engagement, which might appeal to some small businesses that may want to add that on later, especially if most of their workforce is remote. For its part, AlphaStaff offers cyber insurance, while Insperity does not.

If your company needs flexible levels of HR support and prioritizes company data security, AlphaStaff is an excellent choice. It offers services, consultation and technology solutions to fit your current HR needs.

AlphaStaff is best for:

• Small and midsized companies with no internal HR team
• Companies of any size whose growth and needs outpace their internal HR team’s capacity to perform routine HR tasks
• Small and midsized companies that prioritize legal expertise in their PEO of choice
• Companies that need flexible HR support that they can add to or scale down
• Companies that want the option of implementing technology solutions from their PEO
• Companies that want cybersecurity protection from their PEO
  Payroll for salaried employees

AlphaStaff is not recommended for:

• Companies with large, in-house HR teams that can adequately handle HR responsibilities
• Companies that already have cyber insurance
• Companies that do not already have a self-service portal for employee benefits
• Companies with mostly hourly employees, as manual upload of employee hours is required