Armhr
CEO, Armhr
Don Cahalan, who took over as Armhr’s CEO in December 2023, likes to think outside the box—and color outside the lines, too. Literally.
He recently posted on his LinkedIn feed a picture of a clown that he colored back in 1970. He also scribbled outside the lines.
What is the business connection? “What that means to me,” he says, “is if you’re gonna do the same thing as everybody else, you’re gonna get the same results as everybody else. So don’t be afraid to think a little bit differently.”
He adds, “What I like to talk about is why? Great, that is the first question. Then, ‘Why are we doing it that way?’ … and you keep grinding until you get the answer.”
For Cahalan, the core answer lies in “putting on the ritz.” Armhr wants to bring a “Ritz-Carlton”-like experience to the Professional Employer Organization space. Cahalan says building a modern PEO operation starts with three things:
- Creating an ideal client profile because working with the right companies is essential for success.
- Building a flat organization where an employee can go directly to a CEO to discuss challenges or share ideas while removing red tape.
- Partnering and building a relationship with a software company to bring roadmap alignment and efficiency to a PEO and its clients.
“That’s thanks to the strategic alignment of the engineering teams at both organizations to deliver a unified experience from the client administrations and employees alike,” Cahalan says. So Armhr is able to use the platform to its full advantage by being able to add functionality on top of it when necessary.
And with an advanced Application Programming Interface, “Administration support that is exposed to the APIs by PrismHR just increased by 5x,” he says. You can color us impressed.
Through a state-of-the-art HRO solution:
- Armhr saw a 5x faster integration.
- Tilson saw 80% faster benefits enrollment.
Tilson
President & CEO, Tilson
In Brent Tilson’s book, Go Slow to Grow Fast, he addresses the so-called “S-Curve,” which is a period most, if not all, businesses go through where growth can be followed by downturns.
Part of the problem, especially for smaller businesses, is they have challenges handling the growth. By using a PEO like Greenwood, Indiana-based Tilson, SMBs get tech that is scalable to meet their needs as they grow. “We have built and partnered with PrismHR to have a sustainable HRIS that can handle the growth,” the longtime CEO says.
Scalability is key. “If a company has five employees and grows up to 50,” he says, “they don’t feel it when it comes to the underlying operational functionality of the HR systems and the support.” The key is integration.
Full-integration capability allows Tilson to integrate data into other solutions, and their clients “are just loving the fact.” Data portability is easy with a state-of-the-art HR information system built specifically with PEOs in mind, especially when the system features a modern Unified Employee Experience (UEX) that is intuitive and easy to use.
Such innovations deliver big impact. Tilson estimates that the benefits enrollment process, for example, is about 80% faster than before.
“We used to have paper forms or go out and do these group meetings,” he says. “It’s truly remarkable to think of the efficiencies we’ve picked up in the benefit side.”
Tilson’s advice for a startup PEO or a PEO looking to compete in 2025? “Rally around technology” and use “technology as their wedge into the PEO world.”
It’s the best way to help straighten out any S-curve.
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