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AlphaStaff Review Summary
Score 8.6 out of 10
Currency
USD only
Monthly fees
Not publicly available
Payment options
Direct deposit or check
AlphaStaff is a popular US Professional Employer Organization (PEO) providing cost-effective co-employment solutions for startups and small to medium-sized businesses. Customized HR solutions and competitive pricing make it the ideal PEO for a budget-conscious company.
AlphaStaff is a fully customizable PEO, payroll, and HR consulting partner. All packages are designed for the unique needs of clients. The company works with many franchise owners and startups, and has extensive experience in crafting packages to the needs of these businesses, though all packages are custom designed for the unique needs of each client.
AlphaStaff Company Overview
As a company expands from its primary location to establish subsidiary offices or take on new projects, it can come across new state tax codes, reporting requirements, and other compliance issues. The expanding workforce required by expansion also necessitates larger HR departments and other non-revenue generating staff. Tracking work hours, time off, and payroll also becomes more complicated. Investors in franchised businesses may face these challenges quickly, as their business model requires moving out into new territory. In the face of these challenges, many businesses hire consultants to help plan their growth and strengthen their internal capabilities. Full-service Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), such as AlphaStaff, provide a solution to workforce growth management with a customizable combination of co-employment and consulting services.
As co-employers, PEOs have the ability (and obligation) to help administer payroll, benefits, and tax filing. They can also offer competitive insurance and benefits packages due to their buying power as large employers.
AlphaStaff is a long-established PEO, in operation since 1997. Since 2000 it has been accredited by the Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC), an agency that rates PEO business practices and financial dependability. In 2019 and 2020, AlphaStaff was the only PEO recognized by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) for its Dedication to Eliminating Unemployment Waste and Abuses.
How AlphaStaff simplifies HR and payroll
AlphaStaff Key Features
1. AlphaStaff PEO
AlphaStaff becomes a co-employer for its clients’ workforce; it is responsible and liable for compliantly processing payroll, and for providing legally required benefits.
In contrast to many other PEOs, employees who move to the AlphaStaff service are able to continue with their pre-existing health plans. This ability may make the switch to a PEO model simpler and more attractive for many organizations.
Many other businesses, however, choose to switch to PEO co-employment specifically for the higher quality, lower priced healthcare and benefits plans that PEOs can offer. AlphaStaff offers a number of flexible health plans from national carriers that offer minimum essential coverage, Qualified High Deductible Health Plans, Flexible Spending Accounts, open access HMO, Hospital Indemnity Insurance, full dental and vision coverage, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, flexible spending accounts, and health savings accounts.
Other benefits provided and fully administered by AlphaStaff include short or long-term disability coverage and group life insurance (either employee or employer-paid), and critical illness, accidental, specified disease insurance.
AlphaStaff also administers its own 401(K) plan, which employees can choose to pay into.
2. AlphaStaff Payroll
AlphaStaff offers a comprehensive payroll and tax filing service that simplifies the entire process for businesses. Payroll is seamlessly processed through their platform, with full tax compliance and deductions handled automatically. Employees can access their payment information via direct deposit, check, or pay card, while management can easily manage payroll reports and data audits.
- Payroll Processing: Upload employee hours, pre-processing reports, final audit, and payments via direct deposit, debit card, or check.
- Tax Filing: Automatic filing of federal, state, and local taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), including ACA compliance (1095c and 1094c) and Form 5500.
- Deductions: Wage garnishment, child support, levies, and other deductions processed and remitted to the appropriate authorities.
- Employee Self-Service Portal: Co-branded access to pay stubs, W-2 reprints, and personal information updates.
- Custom Reporting: Reports for job costing, union tracking, PTO accruals, tip allocations, and more.
- Unemployment Management: Internal administration of unemployment claims with support for claim resolution.
3. AlphaStaff Human Resources
Provides tailored HR services, ensuring each client is supported by a dedicated team that includes a Human Resource Account Manager. This team helps businesses align their HR needs with customized solutions, covering everything from compliance training to leadership development.
AlphaStaff also stands out with its professional recruitment services, offering end-to-end support for hiring, from job postings to pre-employment assessments. The onboarding process is fully electronic, simplifying documentation like W4 forms and state withholding.
- Human Capital Management: Consultation, execution, and administration of HR strategies, compliance support, and investigations.
- Recruitment Services: Job descriptions, postings, screening, pre-employment assessments, and candidate replacements within 90 days.
- Training & Development: Compliance and leadership training, performance management, and employee development.
- Performance Management: Goal-setting, career development plans, and support for managers in handling corrective actions and complex HR issues.
- Employee Handbooks: Review and development to ensure compliance and best practices.
4. AlphaStaff Technology Solutions
AlphaStaff’s technology solutions offer comprehensive tools to streamline essential HR functions, making processes more efficient and user-friendly for both businesses and their employees. These systems cover key areas like onboarding, applicant tracking, time management, and employee self-service, ensuring seamless integration and reducing administrative workloads. Here’s a breakdown of the core features:
Electronic Onboarding: Simplifies the candidate-to-employee transition with fully digital documentation. Federal W-4, state withholding, and corporate forms are completed electronically, synced automatically into payroll systems, and stored securely for easy access.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS): Streamlines the recruitment process by managing job postings, sorting applicants, tracking interviews, and onboarding seamlessly. Integrated tools like screening questions help evaluate candidates quickly and effectively.
Time & Attendance Solutions: Provides reliable tools for tracking employee hours, monitoring PTO, and managing schedules. Web-based timesheets, overtime approvals, and powerful reporting capabilities ensure accurate records and efficient payroll processing.
Employee Self-Service (ESS): Empowers employees to view pay statements, update tax withholdings, request PTO, and manage personal details through an intuitive portal, reducing HR team workloads.
AlphaStaff’s suite of technology solutions is designed to simplify HR operations, minimize errors, and enhance transparency. By leveraging these tools, businesses can focus on growth and strategic goals while maintaining efficient and compliant HR processes.
5. AlphaStaff Compliance
AlphaStaff provides a number of compliance services beyond payroll processing, tax filing, and benefits administration.
AlphaStaff works with ProWriters to provide cyber liability insurance that includes credit protection, IT forensic costs, crisis management, breach of contract costs, network security breaches, denial of service attacks, defense costs, fines and penalties, breaches of personal information, extortion, damages from software viruses, and digital asset damages.
The service also offers Workers’ Compensation Insurance from an A-rated carrier, with no deposits and pay-as-you-go coverage. It also provides licensed claims managers, files notice of injury reports, performs risk analysis, and assists with OSHA compliance. Unemployment claims are administered internally by AlphaStaff.
AlphaStaff provides Affordable Care Act compliance consultation, HRA and HSA administration, and COBRA administration
6. AlphaStaff Platform
AlphaStaff provides an online portal where managers can view up-to-date labor data, review and approve payroll, authorize overtime, and track bonuses and incentives.
Key elements include:
- The platform allows up to 5 security levels of approval for employee timesheets, and sets up reminder notifications for both employees and managers.
- It also provides detailed and customizable reports on work hours and overtime, predefined work schedules, individualized employee holiday schedules, and allows custom payroll rules for employees of different classifications.
AlphaStaff works with owners and management to create a library of custom reports based on those previously used, and projected future needs. These reports graphically illustrate analytic data and can be downloaded in XLS and PDF formats.
The employee self-service portal allows employees to request time off, change their tax withholdings, view pay and tax statements, activate payroll cards, request Paid Time Off, and change their personal data.
AlphaStaff Pricing
Pricing information is only available via direct request.
AlphaStaff Reviews
We analyzed customer and employee reviews of AlphaStaff, revealing the scores below:
The average scores (as of the time of writing) were:
- AlphaStaff Glassdoor = 3/5 (80 reviews)
- AlphaStaff G2 = 4.5/5 (1 review)
- AlphaStaff Indeed = 3.7/5 (84 reviews)
AlphaStaff Pros and Cons
- Pros
The flexibility of AlphaStaff services, which allows clients to create a custom package based on their own needs. This will be useful for growing companies with changing needs as well as those that only need a few services offered. The company is also experienced in working with franchise owners and labor-intensive startup businesses, suggesting that its teams already have processes and offerings in place to best serve these companies.
Converted employees may keep their pre-existing healthcare plans if they wish. This, and the many consulting services available, will make the conversion to a co-employment model much simpler for many clients.
Optional recruitment services can be combined with onboarding, administration, payroll and compliance services to provide a complete staffing solution.
- Cons
AlphaStaff takes on many administration tasks and provides training for internal teams but it does not provide full HR outsourcing. Though some will find this more attractive than handing over all HR duties to a third-party, companies trying to keep their internal teams as lean as possible may not.
The service is not specifically geared toward knowledge workers, remote teams, or international hiring. Companies hiring remote knowledge workers may still choose AlphaStaff for the benefits packages and insurance options, however, it does not provide international co-employment services.
Unique Selling Point (USP)
A flexible solution covering recruitment, PEO services, statutory and optional insurance, business insurance, HR consulting, payroll processing, and administration. AlphaStaff provides the tools a growing business needs to compliantly increase its workforce in various jurisdictions, stay on top of insurance and benefits requirements, and learn the best practices and strategies to grow its internal capabilities.
RemotePeople Score for AlphaStaff
8.6/10
Our expert score for AlphaStaff
Our team came to this score by considering the following components in the following weightings:
Employer of Record features
25%
Payroll features
10%
HR features
10%
Compliance features
10%
Platform features
10%
Pricing
20%
User reviews
15%
For each component, Alphastaff received the following score:
PEO features
22/25
Payroll features
9/10
HR features
9/10
Compliance features
9/10
Platform features
9/10
Pricing
18/20
User reviews
10/15
Conclusion
AlphaStaff is best suited for small and medium-sized employers who own franchised businesses or operate in labor-intensive industries. They will appreciate the custom reporting tools that allow them to track a large geographically distributed workforce using metrics of their own choosing, the flexible benefits options that can accommodate the needs of varied industries, the ability to keep their pre-existing benefits packages if desired, the recruitment services that allow them to build a workforce quickly, and the HR consulting services that help them build their own capabilities. Companies looking to convert a large workforce to PEO co-employment, or quickly add many new PEO co-employees, will appreciate the many add-on consulting and other services available.
AlphaStaff Alternatives
Insperity
Insperity provides full-service HR solutions with a focus on benefits, talent management, and risk mitigation. As a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), Insperity handles the complexities of HR, helping businesses optimize operations and stay compliant.
💡 Read our in-depth review: Insperity Review
Paychex
Paychex offers comprehensive HR and payroll solutions tailored to small and medium-sized businesses. Its platform covers payroll processing, benefits administration, and compliance support, streamlining HR tasks so companies can focus on growth.
💡 Read our in-depth review: Paychex Review
BBSI
BBSI provides comprehensive HR management and business consulting services, with a focus on payroll, risk management, and employee relations. BBSI partners with businesses to support growth and operational efficiency, tailoring its PEO services to enhance productivity and reduce administrative burdens.
💡 Read our in-depth review: BBSI Review
Infiniti HR
Infiniti HR delivers adaptable HR outsourcing and payroll solutions that support workforce management, benefits, and compliance for companies of all sizes. Infiniti HR’s platform allows businesses to streamline HR processes and focus on strategic growth.
💡 Read our in-depth review: Infiniti HR Review
FAQs
AlphaStaff was founded in 1997.
In 2009, AlphaStaff acquired Selective HR Solutions.
As a privately held PEO, AlphaStaff does not publicly reveal its revenue or turnover.
AlphaStaff is privately funded and has not gone through any formal fundraising rounds.
AlphaStaff is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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