Want better benefits? Start with a PEO

Numbers report projects that medical costs for employer group plans will grow by an average of 8.5% from 2025 to 2026, the steepest climb since the Great Recession. Years of rising costs have already reshaped C-suite priorities—90% of US employers say rising costs now dominate their benefits strategy, up from 67% just two years ago.

When Open Enrollment is on the horizon, that kind of cost inflation means your usual checklist—price-comparing carriers, tweaking deductibles, and hoping for the best—likely won’t cut it. You need leverage strong enough to beat medical inflation and the administrative drag that comes with annual plan changes.

This is where a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) can help. By pooling thousands of employers together under one master policy, a PEO lets a 50-person company gain access to Fortune 500-caliber benefits at affordable rates—all while providing expert HR and compliance support. Ready to see how a PEO can turn this year’s cost crunch into a dedicated advantage—and make every Open Enrollment feel less like crisis management and more like strategic HR? Your journey toward a successful Open Enrollment starts here.

Offering benefits comes with a lot of pain points

There's a reason no one in Human Resources looks forward to Open Enrollment. Offering benefits, especially healthcare, can be a complex, time-consuming, and often frustrating process.

One of the most prominent pain points is the cost of healthcare—it's no secret that healthcare expenses are on the rise. PwC projects medical cost trend to increase 8.5% in 2026. For small businesses who would look for small group insurance rates, a KFF analysis found that on average, ACA Marketplace insurers are raising premiums by about 20%—the largest rate increase in over five years. Feeling the squeeze of rising costs, 63% of US employers say they plan to reallocate or rebalance their benefits spending within the next three years, but there’s little data so far about exactly where they plan to shift those dollars amid what feels like an impossible balancing act of finding comprehensive coverage in an increasingly unaffordable healthcare landscape.

Here are some of the other pain points businesses are feeling as they prepare for Open Enrollment season:

• Decision paralysis:

  PPO vs. HDHP, in-network coverage, Rx formularies, whether to offer GLP-1 coverage—there are so many variables to consider that they can delay even seasoned HR teams.

• Competition:

  In a market where businesses are vying to attract and retain top talent, offering a competitive benefits package, with perks like mental health apps and fertility support, is a necessity, not a luxury. Yet, for smaller companies or those with tighter budgets, this competition can feel like a steep uphill climb.

• Administrative burden:

  Managing benefits programs isn't just about choosing a plan once a year. It requires continuous maintenance, including compliance with regulations, benefits administration, and employee communication. For companies with limited HR resources, this can quickly become an unwieldy, time-consuming task that diverts attention from their core business operations.

Navigating Open Enrollment isn’t just about picking a plan; it's about contending with rising costs, deciphering complex options, staying competitive, and managing administrative tasks. It's enough to make anyone's head spin. However, there's a better way.

The solution: Joining a PEO

By partnering with a PEO, these pain points can be significantly alleviated, if not eliminated altogether.

What is a PEO?

A Professional Employer Organization, or PEO, is a firm that provides comprehensive HR solutions for small to mid-size businesses. These solutions often include benefits administration, payroll processing, HR management, and compliance assistance.

When you partner with a PEO, you enter into a co-employment arrangement. This unique relationship allows businesses to outsource many of their HR tasks and responsibilities, and gain access to a wide range of employee benefits typically only available to larger cor

Big-company benefits and expert support

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How a PEO helps businesses get the best ROI on their benefits plans

Making every dollar count is the mantra for any business, but it's especially crucial when it comes to employee benefits. Partnering with a PEO is a strategic way businesses can maximize their ROI during Open Enrollment, and here's how.

Access to large group benefits

One of the many primary advantages of joining a PEO is gaining access to large-group benefits. This is where the power of scale truly shines.

To give you an idea, let's imagine you own a small but thriving design agency with 20 employees. On your own, you're only able to access small group health insurance plans. Plans and pricing options are limited and costly. With small group insurance, plans are less comprehensive; you have access to fewer provider networks (aka less hospitals and doctors to choose from). Additionally, plans are costly because they use community ratings, which are based on factors like geographic area, industry, group size. As a result, you and similar employers all pay the same standard rate.

However, when you join a PEO, your 20-person agency joins a pool of thousands of employees from other small and mid-size companies. With this scale, you're suddenly part of a large group, which allows you to access a broader range of healthcare plans, pricing options, and wellness services typically reserved for large corporations.

Competitive rates through access to large group plans

Having access to large group healthcare plans that are risk-rated is a game-changer for many businesses. When you price to risk, costs are based on the medical history of your group. This can result in cost-effective rates for groups, especially if your workforce is young and healthy. In Fact, Aon notes that moving onto a large-group plan typically shaves 6-8% off premiums compared to Affordable Care Act small-group pricing.

The PEO represents your interests and those of thousands of other employees. This means you can easily access more competitive, cost-effective healthcare options during Open Enrollment.

Personalized benefits packages

In today's diverse workforce, a one-size-fits-all approach to benefits simply doesn't cut it. Employees have varying needs, and a personalized benefits package can be a significant differentiator.

Here's where a PEO's large-group benefits come into play. With access to a more comprehensive range of healthcare plans, you can offer options that cater to your employees' individual needs. For instance, some employees might prefer a plan with lower monthly premiums but higher out-of-pocket costs, while others might opt for the opposite. With a PEO, you have the flexibility to curate plans that meet different needs, thereby increasing the perceived value of your benefits.

PEOs are also a great way to support a distributed workforce, with access to plans that have nationwide eligibility, so your employees get the benefits they need, no matter which state they’re in.

Additional benefits bolster your program

Partnering with a PEO doesn't just help you secure cost-effective healthcare plans. It can also unlock additional benefits that can further enrich your program and contribute to the holistic well-being of your employees.

Many PEOs offer access to extra perks—telemedicine, Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), mental health counseling—at rates small businesses couldn’t even touch on the open market. These types of benefits deepen employee engagement and help smaller employers compete head-to-head with enterprise brands for top talent.

Be ready for the next (and every) Open Enrollment season with Rippling PEO

With Rippling PEO, you can access big-company benefits at affordable rates, automate your compliance and HR busywork, and evolve your benefits strategy as your business changes—all on the top-rated HR software.

Access competitive benefits packages to help you attract (and keep) top talent—at your budget

Your headcount may be small, but your benefit options don’t have to be. Rippling PEO helps you access to Fortune 500-level medical, dental, and vision plans, all at affordable rates.

With Rippling, you also get:

• Transparent renewals:

  Many PEOs come with hidden fees and extra costs associated with supplemental services that cause costs to balloon year after year. Rippling PEO is the first and only PEO to publicly share its actual annual renewal rate increases. Health coverage costs go up year after year, but Rippling aims to keep coverage affordable for worksite employees—which is why 99.5% of customers renew.

• On-demand benefits concierge:

  Employees can message Rightway’s clinical guides to decode bills, compare providers, and book high-quality care—so HR spends less time fielding benefits questions.

• Whole-person support:

  Support your employees through challenges with free therapy and coaching via Spring Health, an EAP, caregiving services via Wellthy, and more.

• Set-and-forget enrollment:

  Rippling nudges new hires to choose their coverage during onboarding, then syncs every deduction straight to payroll—no spreadsheets or copying and pasting required.

Save time on compliance and money on penalties—and invest in growing your business

Regulations are always changing, but Rippling PEO keeps you ahead of them. It automatically opens and maintains all state and local payroll tax accounts and handles dozens of local and state filings other PEOs can't, keeping you more compliant than any other provider. Plus, Rippling helps you protect yourself against claims with built-in workers’ comp and EPLI coverage.

Rippling PEO protects you with:

• Compliance without the hassle:

  Rippling sets up and maintains state and local payroll tax accounts on your behalf, even Secretary of State registrations as you expand into new states.

• Hands-free filings:

  From city payroll taxes to multi-state new hire reports, Rippling handles dozens of federal, state, and local compliance filings unlike other PEOs.

• Real-time rules tracking:

  Get instant alerts and policy templates through Mineral whenever legislation changes impact your business and automatically update your employee handbook.

• On-demand HR expertise:

  Get expert guidance from SHRM-certified HR advisors for sensitive issues like terminations, performance plans, leave policies, and more.

• Auto-assigned trainings:

  Rippling Learning Management

  enrolls employees in mandatory compliance courses the moment they onboard, no matter where they work.

The only PEO that grows with your business

Your company today won’t look the same in three years (or 10).

Rippling is the only PEO built on a single, natively integrated platform, so you can adjust your benefits model without migrating data or retraining employees. As your business evolves, you can move off PEO to HR Services or just stay on the platform and bring HR fully in-house.

You can:

• Stay on Rippling PEO as long as you need

• Graduate to Rippling HR Services when you’re ready to bring benefits fully in-house

• Move seamlessly back and forth as your needs change without having to rip and replace systems

Because everything is built on a single source of truth for employee data, your HR, payroll, and IT data stay put, and employees keep the same login and keep using Rippling the same way no matter how you evolve.

Rippling PEO: Built on the #1-rated HR software

Running on Rippling means every workflow—benefits, payroll, onboarding, device provisioning—lives in one platform, enabling powerful automation and better reporting. For example, if an employee updates their flex benefits coverage, their deductions are automatically updated in payroll.

That means our offerings don't stop at benefits administration. With Rippling PEO, you can:

• Run payroll in just 90 seconds

• Quickly onboard new hires

• Easily manage employee documents and time off

Ready to transform your next Open Enrollment season? Schedule a consultation or demo today to explore how Rippling PEO can give you access to top-tier benefits at affordable rates and expert compliance and HR support. We're here to help you make the most of your benefits program—not just for the next Open Enrollment, but every one thereafter.

Already a Rippling customer and want to learn more? Visit our app shop page to request a demo with your Account Manager, or reach out to them directly. Open Enrollment is an opportunity — make it count with Rippling PEO. Let's create a healthier, happier workforce together. See Rippling today.