If you’re leading HR, finance, or operations at a mid-to-large organization, you know the feeling: too many vendors, too many systems, too many conversations, and not enough time to actually move your business forward.
What if you could streamline every people-related function, from sourcing your first candidate to managing your entire payroll, through a single, trusted partner? That’s exactly what Preference Employment Solutions offers. And it’s why more enterprise HR teams across North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana are making the switch.
The Problem with the Patchwork Approach
Most mid-to-large companies have unknowingly stitched together a fragmented workforce infrastructure: one vendor for temporary staffing, another for executive search, a national payroll company, a separate benefits broker, and an HR consultant they call when things get complicated.
The hidden costs of this approach add up fast:
- Duplicate data entry and communication breakdowns between systems
- Compliance gaps that fall between the cracks of multiple vendors
- Inconsistent candidate quality and onboarding experiences
- Leadership time spent managing vendors instead of growing the business
- No single point of contact to provide solutions
When a Solid Plan Still Falls Short
Consider Sarah. She’s the HR Director at a regional construction company with 80 employees and a reputation for running a tight operation. She has a payroll vendor, a staffing agency for seasonal labor, and a compliance consultant she calls twice a year. On paper, it looks solid.
Last spring, Sarah’s company brought on 8 framing contractors through a staffing agency to hit a project deadline. The agency classified them as independent contractors. Sarah assumed that was the agency’s job to manage. The compliance consultant wasn’t looped in. The payroll vendor processed checks and asked no questions.
Nine months later, a U.S. Department of Labor audit flagged all 8 workers as misclassified employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The company owed back wages, unpaid FICA contributions, and penalties totaling over $74,000. Sarah’s plan had been solid. Her vendors just weren’t talking to each other.
Worker misclassification is one of the most common and costly compliance violations in the construction industry. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, misclassifying employees as independent contractors allows employers to sidestep FICA taxes, overtime obligations, and workers’ compensation requirements. When audited, the liability falls squarely on the employer, regardless of which vendor made the call.
This is not an unusual story. It plays out across industries whenever workforce functions are split between vendors who have no shared accountability. The smartest HR leaders and CFOs we work with have recognized it: the patchwork approach isn’t saving money. It’s creating exposure.
What End-to-End Workforce Solutions Actually Look Like
At Preference, we’ve built our model around one simple idea: your people strategy shouldn’t require a dozen different phone calls. Here’s what working with a single integrated partner looks like in practice:
Staffing and Recruitment
Need to fill warehouse roles? Backfill a key position while your team interviews? We move fast, finding job-ready candidates across Industrial, Administrative, and Professional disciplines.
Executive and Professional Search
When you need to place a VP of Operations or a Director of Finance, our dedicated search team engages passive candidates your internal team can’t reach, with the regional market knowledge national firms simply don’t have.
Payroll and HR Administration
Through our PEO division (Payroll Express), we handle payroll processing, tax filings, and HR administration, so your team isn’t bogged down in paperwork and your employees are paid accurately, on time, every time.
Benefits and Compliance
We give your employees access to Fortune 500-level benefits at rates a small or mid-sized employer can’t access alone. And when labor laws change in North Dakota or Minnesota, we make sure you’re always on the right side of compliance. Not because a vendor flagged it after the fact, but because we’re watching it proactively as part of your team.
What This Means for Your Leadership Team
When you consolidate your workforce functions with Preference, your leadership team gets something invaluable back: time and clarity. Instead of managing five vendors, you have one Account Manager who knows your business. Instead of patching together compliance from three sources, you have one team tracking it all. Instead of re-explaining your culture and hiring standards to a new staffing rep every quarter, you have partners who already know exactly what you need.
Ready to Simplify Your Workforce Strategy?
If your organization is ready to stop managing workforce chaos and start working with a single, integrated partner, we’d love to have a conversation.
Staffing. Search. Payroll. Benefits. Compliance. One partner. Zero gaps.
Contact Preference Employment Solutions today to schedule a discovery meeting. Let’s build your workforce plan together.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “Employee Misclassification,” dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa