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How Canal HR Focuses on the Individual

For three decades, it’s been Canal HR’s core mission to connect small businesses to the HR infrastructure they need, enabling them to thrive, adapt and grow over time. In addition, we’re deeply committed to helping business owners take care of their valued employees, redirecting time and money spent on administrative tasks towards overall growth and productivity. 

But focusing on the “big picture” should never preclude a healthy and necessary emphasis on personalized care and planning. No true success story would be possible without maintaining an acute focus on the individual at every stage of the process. 

How Might Outsourcing HR Affect the Process?

In 2022, according to TeamStage, research shows that over one-third of small businesses outsource one or more components of their operational processes. This fundamental shift is relatively recent, one of the many ways small businesses have adapted to deal with an increasingly globalized marketplace. 

Because small businesses often don’t possess the resources they need to realize internal HR departments and management fully, it’s become common practice to hire a professional employment organization (PEO) to oversee essential programs such as worker’s compensation, payroll, and employee insurance plans (among other facets). 

Though outsourcing HR is generally considered wise, many small businesses remain skeptical of outsourcing to a third party for fear that it may lead to depersonalization, high overheads, and reduced response time/effectiveness. The upsetting truth is that not all PEOs are equally committed to “seeing the forest for the trees.” But with the right mindset and HR company behind the helm, there certainly is a balance between a business’ micro- and macrocosmic operations.

While it’s important to acknowledge that in-house expertise and management do exist in more immediate proximity to their workplace’s needs and mission, a reliable PEO will always take care to invest themselves in understanding their clients from the inside out. Through a holistic combination of learning, intensive listening, and active communication, a PEO should always integrate and embed themselves in the landscape of the businesses they serve. Building a professional relationship based on reciprocity and awareness will lead to an effective partnership that circumvents pitfalls stemming from impersonal outsourcing. 

Because we operate in and around the Gulf South, Canal HR is familiar with regional systems, workplace cultures, and regulations and is thus highly equipped to address the needs of small businesses growing within similar economic conditions. In addition, whereas large PEO conglomerates operate at a distance, Canal HR is invested in maintaining close ties and relationships with the organizations we serve. This commitment is reflected in our mission’s dedication to focusing on the individual—in all the areas where it matters most. 

Canal HR’s Core Principles

For both new businesses and seasoned organizations, the most critical variable along the path to success is the well-being of their employees. By upholding the following core principles and in conjunction with the expertise of our dedicated account executives, Canal HR can guide businesses towards helping their employees thrive in the workplace and beyond. 

Personalization

Every business has different growth incentives and internal prerogatives based on factors such as size, age, and industry field. In a collaborative process, Canal HR assesses the needs of our clients and builds custom solutions accordingly. We’re not satisfied until our clients feel entirely assured by their coverage and are certain that all their administrative needs are met. 

Centering Options

When it comes to business administration, one size does NOT fit all. A formulaic approach to HR is a recipe for disaster; taking a prescriptive or homogeneous approach to small businesses’ needs neglects to address their precise operational postures.

Canal HR is here to ask questions on the front end and subsequently use those generative answers to highlight gaps and illuminate each client’s specific needs. This process acknowledges that what might work well for one business may not be suitable for the next. As a result, our solutions are as diverse as the businesses we serve; by centering options at the heart of the planning process, we’re able to tailor and modify our services rather than rely on conformity as the main latticework for growth. 

Customized Offerings

Across the southeastern region of the United States, we represent hundreds of companies and over 4,000 employees. That’s why our plans, packages, and programs are entirely customizable, accounting for various HR-related needs. We’re here to fill in operational gaps instead of applying redundant blanket solutions. 

Adaptability and Flexibility

Adaptability 

Having been in business for thirty years, Canal HR has built with the businesses we serve over time. The past three decades have seen impressive changes and fluctuations in the economic landscape of our country, meaning that salient management plans must be both long-term and flexible to accommodate changing times, protocols, and workplace regulations. Most recently, we helped our clients thrive despite the distressing effects of COVID-19 on both the physical health and emotional culture of the workplace.

Flexibility 

We’ve worked alongside our clients through unprecedented times and critical upheavals, offering our support and administrative services so that small businesses have more time to focus on their unique and demanding duties. Not only that, but our employee assistance program extends the same support to our client’s employees who may be facing personal difficulties. Because flexibility is built into the fabric of Canal HR’s operations, we pride ourselves on sustained innovation over time, revising and adjusting our strategies as our clients need.

Communication Through Dedicated Account Executives

There are tremendous benefits to having a consistent account manager to oversee client accounts. At Canal HR, we strongly believe that this system creates a healthy foundation for open channels of dialogue between our organization’s resources and clients’ needs.

Singular Point of Contact

Often, PEOs involving multiple parties dilute inertia during the planning process and may confuse clients attempting to follow seemingly convoluted chains of command. Having a singular point of contact (SPOC) on every account reduces redundancies and miscommunications, saving valuable time end-to-end. No matter the industry or professional field, SPOCs are proven to streamline workflows and increase overall productivity. 

Moreover, this system understands that personalization helps to foster trust and nurture confidence between parties. Finally, because they are dedicated to specific clients, our account executives can better prioritize and focus on ongoing agendas and are always reachable by phone and email. 

Customer Support and Assistance

At the end of the day, the most important thing is the well-being of both our clients and their employees. We want our clients to feel heard, satisfied, and comfortable with the plans that we collectively design. Human resources is a specifically delicate and complex department simply because of the sheer diversity of interpersonal situations that can arise daily.

If problems or confusion arise regarding our offerings or services, it’s crucial to provide our clients with multiple channels to troubleshoot and ask for assistance. Whether over the phone or through our portal online, our account executives are always on standby to help straighten things out. 

Gone are the days of bottlenecked support hotlines with inconvenient wait and call-back times; valuable time should never be siphoned away from your business by the need to constantly explain and re-explain your issues to anonymous agents one after another. Our account executives make prioritization their priority. They will always respond to your needs, suggestions, and questions as quickly as they arise. 

Accessibility

A PEO’s relationship with their clients is only strong insofar as their clients feel confident reaching out and can do so easily if they choose. Our account executives understand that accessibility is a top priority in any professional relationship and act as the constant conduit for any concerns that may arise. Not only is accessibility important between a PEO and their client, but it’s also critical that the client’s employees find help accessible whenever they need it. Canal HR exists as a reliable resource for them as well. 

Our Customizable Offerings

Below you’ll discover a brief selection of the many administrative services we handle and how Canal HR expertly tailors each program to seamlessly fit the needs of our clients, their companies, and the employees that populate them.

Download: How Canal HR Focuses on the Individual

Risk Management and Workers’ Comp

When it comes to the health and safety of your employees, Canal HR is proud to take a proactive stance by creating highly specific risk management programs to prevent issues from occurring due to lapses in oversight. Suppose a workplace injury or accident does come to pass. In that case, we’re more than prepared with a wide variety of both group and individual insurance plans that are sure to fit the specific needs of your employees and industry. Because workers’ comp laws vary state by state, Canal HR is proud to help businesses across the southeast determine what they need to comply with specific local regulations.

Employee Benefits and Insurance Plans

There is an incredibly wide range of employee benefits offered by Canal HR—we cover everything from medical and life insurance to dental, disability, and cancer insurance plans. In addition, we are a 401k plan provider that delivers cost-effective retirement plans for employees, whether traditional 401k plans or more modern Roth 401k variations. We can also assist employers in discovering what plans and what sort of contribution matching makes the most sense for their business.

Other employee benefits include access to a free prescription savings coupon that lowers prescription drug costs at pharmacies nationwide (even if they’re not otherwise covered by insurance). Canal HR is also proud to offer convenient employee pay cards for those without bank accounts, Christmas savings programs, and employee assistance programs if individuals encounter any personal difficulties.

All of our benefits and insurance programs are designed with the individual in mind; with the right plans in effect, employers and employees should feel safeguarded and supported from the get-go.

Payroll Preparation

Canal HR knows that keeping up to date with employment and tax laws can be incredibly challenging. By outsourcing payroll preparation, we can assist in handling employee classification, payroll policy formation, state and federal paperwork, taxes, and withholding. We also have experience personalizing pay structures by bundling payroll with health insurance payments. By bundling services together, we consider your business’ unique operational structures and determine how best to save everyone time and money.

The Benefits of Benefits: Why Individualized Care Matters

Reinvigorating an emphasis on the “human” portion of human resources means that Canal HR’s bottom line will always be to help clients and employees align the incentives between business goals and personal prosperity. We recognize that the importance of focusing on the individual goes far beyond our desire to provide top-quality customer service; extensive data shows that when employees prosper mentally and physically, so will the businesses they serve.

When you build a competitive benefits package that works for everyone, research shows that you’re more likely to have greater employee retention on in-house talent while attracting experienced new hires. Comprehensive benefits also improve workplace culture and productivity; when employees feel seen, heard, and cared for, the workplace becomes a collaborative setting within which meaningful strides can be made.

Canal HR helps business owners invest in their employees’ health and well-being so that in-house teams can invest themselves in their work without worrying about whether they’re being appropriately cared for. This creates a positive feedback loop between happiness, wellness, and productivity. We understand that a business is only as healthy as its individuals, so creating a versatile and personalized human resources infrastructure should always be a top prerogative.

Make PEO Personal With Canal HR

When it comes to businesses in need of a PEO in Louisiana and beyond, Canal HR always focuses on the individual. We know that local businesses and their unique employees should be treated case-by-case instead of formulaically. We recognize that every detail matters—from the planning phase to implementation on the ground and beyond.

While the range of services and plans we offer is undoubtedly diverse, they are all administered with the same core principles in mind: personalization, adaptability, flexibility, clear communication, and customer support through the attention and vigilance of our dedicated account executives. Contact us today to get in touch with some of our dedicated account executives who have worked alongside burgeoning entrepreneurs and their businesses for decades.

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