Planning Your US Business Expansion? Here’s How Deel PEO Can Help

If you’re looking to build or grow your US workforce this year, you’re not alone. Half of small businesses in the US plan on expanding in 2024, and 46% of mid-sized companies are aiming to hire more employees before the end of the year.

And it’s not just domestic companies looking to grow across the states—businesses in the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, and more have pinned the US as the top destination for business expansion.

Whether your company is already based in the US or you’re looking to enter the market from abroad, you can use a PEO (professional employer organization) to expedite and simplify the process of expanding your US footprint.

What is a PEO?

A PEO is a third-party company that provides outsourced payroll and HR solutions to small and medium-sized client companies. Services often include managing payroll, HR tasks, benefits administration, workers’ compensation, tax administration, claims assistance, and ensuring regulatory compliance.

When a company partners with a PEO, they enter into a co-employment relationship. This means the PEO provider shares in some of the company’s legal and financial liability for the services provided. 

To use a PEO, companies must:

• Have a US entity
• Be registered in each state they hire employees in
• Meet minimum headcount requirements (in certain states, a minimum headcount may apply for insurance reasons. For example, employers based in Maryland and Maine require at least 50 employees to be eligible for PEO medical plans)

Learn more in our Guide to Professional Employer Organizations.

Challenges of expanding into the US market

While building and scaling a US team is a top priority for many small businesses, market entry is often overwhelming due to the varying state-by-state requirements for compliant workforce management. This includes:

• Labor and employment laws: Understanding and adapting to layered federal, state, and local regulations, including anti-discrimination laws, pay transparency laws, and termination rules
• State-specific payroll management: Establishing a payroll system that handles diverse state laws on minimum wages, taxes, and withholdings, ensuring accurate and timely employee payments
• Taxation and reporting compliance: Navigating federal and state tax compliance obligations, along with meticulous reporting requirements to avoid penalties and legal issues
• Benefits administration: Designing competitive, compliant benefits packages that conform to regulations like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Attracting and retaining talent: Building a strong employer brand and offering competitive compensation packages to attract skilled workers in a competitive market while managing cultural integration

How Deel PEO makes US expansion easy

As an all-in-one payroll and HR solution for global teams, Deel is designed to scale with growing companies. When it comes to US expansion, Deel PEO offers a simple and streamlined path to success by taking on benefits administration, payroll, tax reporting, and common human resources tasks. 

Here’s a closer look at Deel PEO services for companies expanding in the US:

Benefits administration and compliance

Deel PEO enables you to provide comprehensive benefits while reducing the administrative load and keeping everything compliant. It’s a win-win if you want to focus on your business growth and leave the complex benefits tasks to the experts—your employees get great perks, and you get peace of mind.

With Deel PEO, you get access to big-company benefits for less, with streamlined enrollment and administration, COBRA administration and compliance, and ACA compliance. 

Primary benefits include:

• Major medical
• Direct care
• Dental and vision
• Retirement plan (401k) administration
• HSA and FSA

Ancillary plans include:

• Basic, whole, and term life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability
• Critical illness protection
• Hospital indemnity
• Accident protection

While Deel handles open enrollment and ongoing benefits administration, clients can also retain their own medical benefits or third-party 401(k) provider, though these would be managed separately from Deel.

Payroll and tax administration

US payroll and tax requirements will vary depending on which state—and sometimes even municipality—you hire employees in. For example, in New York, the minimum wage is higher in New York City, Winchester, and Long Island than in the rest of the state.

Instead of burdening your team with the time and resource-intensive task of staying on top of payroll and tax regulations in each state, you can leave the work to Deel.

Deel PEO’s payroll services include:

• Accurately processing payroll (with monthly, semi-monthly, and bi-weekly payroll cycles)
• Federal and state tax calculations, filings, and payments
• Administering Form W-2 to employees 
• Form I-9 management (submissions, approvals, and rejections)
• Generating and filing Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C 
• Distributing direct deposits and payslips
• Ensuring tax code and payroll compliance in all states and municipalities
• Instant payroll adjustments and extended cut-off dates

HR administration and compliance

Deel PEO includes comprehensive HR administration and compliance to simplify workforce management in the US, enabling you to expand in lockstep with local, state, and federal laws.

Seamless onboarding

Deel simplifies the employee onboarding process, making it a smooth and welcoming experience for new hires. This includes self-service portals for employees, easy-to-follow checklists, and automating the collection of necessary compliance documents to ensure everything aligns with their local labor and employment laws.

Expert support

With Deel, you have access to in-house HR experts who can assist in building policies, providing labor law guidance, managing healthcare enrollments, and answering employee questions. This expert guidance is invaluable for understanding and managing sensitive employment issues and mitigating risks as you expand.

Compliant documentation 

When it comes to creating compliant documentation and processes (employee handbooks, job descriptions, HR policies), Deel helps your company stay compliant with state and federal HR laws. For example, you can tailor state-level leave policies so they not only comply with local laws but also meet the specific needs of your employees.

Deel also provides all state-required training resources, such as New York’s sexual harassment training, and keeps your company informed about compliance updates, including changes to minimum wage laws across different states.

Free download: US Employment Contract Template

Employee claims and reporting 

Deel PEO handles workers' compensation and unemployment administration on your behalf, reducing the administrative burden on your company and helping to manage these essential aspects of employee welfare. Companies also receive support for claims related to unemployment, workers’ compensation, and workplace harassment. 

Deel also manages compliance with OSHA reporting requirements for serious incidents like fatalities or significant injuries, ensuring all necessary reports are filed within the required timelines.

Learn more by watching Navigating Employment Law Compliance, Benefits, and HR in the US.

How Deel supports your growth across all 50 states and abroad

With Deel, clients not only have a trusted PEO provider but a complete global hiring solution. Here’s a look at some of the additional services and features that support companies as they expand into the US and beyond:

Entity setup and state registration

In the US, entity setup and registration requirements—including filing fees, compliance requirements, how business activity is determined, and processing times—vary by state. If you don’t already have an entity set up in the US or need support with state registration, Deel can help. 

See also: How Can I Expand My Business in the US: 3 Options for Startups

Data and reporting tools

Deel PEO clients have access to detailed reporting tools that can be customized to fit a variety of requirements. You’ll be able to view all employee data (with editable access controls), as well as custom reports that cover benefit usage, payroll, start dates, and more.

Customer support

With Deel PEO, you always receive white-glove support, which includes a dedicated customer success manager (CSM), implementation specialists, and 24/7 in-app chat with a 1.25-minute response time to guarantee fast and high-quality support.

Continuous compliance

Deel’s Compliance Hub has three powerful features to help strengthen your international workforce compliance. Monthly Workforce Insights analyzes your workforce data to proactively identify and alert you to non-compliance risks. The Compliance Monitor automatically collects and explains the latest relevant regulatory changes across 150 countries. And lastly, Deel’s Worker Classifier combines AI and award-winning research to help classify workers with over 90% accuracy.

Everything you need for a growing workforce

As your forever people platform, Deel scales with your team by providing a full suite of services to help you hire, pay, and manage an evolving workforce.

In addition to Deel PEO, you can use:

• Deel US Payroll to run payroll across the country
• Deel Employer of Record (EOR) to hire employees globally without setting up entities
• Deel Global Payroll to pay direct employees under owned entities, everywhere
• **Deel Contractor ** to compliantly manage independent contractors worldwide
• Deel HR to unify reporting and automate HR admin for your entire workforce, all in one free HRIS
• And more—including background checks, immigration support, equity, and equipment provisioning

Learn more about Deel PEO or book a 30-minute demo to explore the platform, speak with a specialist, and get all your questions answered.