Financial and human resources professionals can make or break any business. Salaries, especially executive salaries and benefits, cost organizations a lot of money. But what about mistakes? How much do they cost?

I can’t imagine HR professionals who don’t want to scream when they hear commercials claiming that for a mere $99 a month, all your HR issues will be magically taken care of by someone who doesn’t even work with your people on a day-to-day basis.

It seems like professional employer organization (PEO) services are popping up all over. These services could manage some or all of your company’s employee benefits, payroll and workers’ compensation as well as recruiting and risk and safety management functions.

Providing these services is effected by the PEO service hiring your employees, thereby establishing a co-employment relationship. In this case, the PEO service is the employer of record for tax and certain insurance purposes.

In some cases, PEO services provide invaluable services, but are businesses going a little too far?

More importantly, do businesses so fixated on the near-sighted gains of wage and benefit reductions fail to miss the far-sighted necessity of really, truly understanding the effects of organizational culture?

Sure, smaller businesses probably can benefit from a PEO service. But is that really where the focus should be?

More importantly, who in your organization really knows the breadth and depth of human relations? Who in your organization knows what’s required to motivate employees to the levels you need to remain a step ahead of competitors?

In running several facilities during my career, I came to appreciate two positions more than any other. If you don’t have a trustworthy financial controller, you’re seriously walking a high wire of fiscal accountability and responsibility — with customers; financial institutions; and, of course, the federal government.

If you don’t have a trustworthy HR professional within your organization — I mean someone who can and will tell you whether the ship needs to be turned around and how fast  — you could be one insensitive remark away from hostile workplace litigation.

Financial and HR professionals are worth their weight in gold. Paying $99 a month isn’t financially or fiscally responsible. That only ensures some of the paperwork gets filed correctly.

Regardless of their wages and benefits, financial and  HR professionals are worth a lot more to your organization than you think.

I’ve written and spoken on topics like this for a lot of years. It still amazes me when organizations become too myopic and lose sight of why there’s absenteeism, disgruntlement, turnover and a lack of true engagement. If you want, I’ll be happy to come to your business and provide a model. It will show the tremendous downside to revenue when you don’t have financial and HR professionals in your employ. The slow bleeding from your organization when engagement and empowerment aren’t fostered is no joke. It will more than offset that $99 a month you’re paying.

If you don’t have financial and HR professionals in your employ, go get them. If your financial and HR professionals aren’t any good, get some who are. These two positions, more than any others, will allow you to sleep at night.