Advantages of a PEO From a User's Perspective

Katrina Faessel:
We're now very excited to hear from some of our customers. Our customers will be sharing firsthand accounts of their PEO experience and why it works for them. Please help me welcome Erin McGinty, DVP, Benefits Services, TriNet, Bill Auvil, Chief Customer Officer of Flycast Partners, and Kevin Lynch, Chief Financial Officer at Collegium Holdings.

Erin McGinty:
I'm Erin McGinty with TriNet and I'm very excited to be here today to talk to two of our customers who are going to share their real-life experiences and the highs and the lows of working with a PEO. So without further ado, I'm going to let Kevin, how about I start with you? Could you please introduce yourself?

Kevin Lynch:
Sure. My name is Kevin Lynch. I'm the chief financial officer for a group of companies called Collegium Partners. We have six subsidiaries and we're in the consulting business, and we provide other services to professional, er… we provide professional services to nonprofit entities. So we're a for profit company and our customers are nonprofit companies. And we've been with PEOs for about eight years. We've been with TriNet for about five years. We made a switch a few years ago and we're very happy about it and we have a total of about 60 employees.

Erin:
Excellent. Thanks for being here. Bill, how about you?

Bill Auvil:
Hi. I'm Bill Auvil. I'm the chief customer officer and partner at Flycast partners. We're headquartered in Saint Petersburg, Florida. We have about 60 employees. We're a VAR, value added reseller. We represent several of the software publishers like BMC, Avanti and Freshworks. I'm responsible for technical support, customer success, maintenance renewals and I co-chair our HR department within our company. Our company was founded in 2012 and I joined in 2014.

Erin:
Excellent. Well, thank you both for being here today. Exciting to have you. To have your real experiences. So, we’re going to have a nice open conversation and look forward to your transparency and honesty around the questions.

So, you know, PEOs are a game changer. As customers, I think you, you understand that, in your time with PEOs that it helps streamline operations, the PEO can help mitigate compliance risk for companies and it really can help in a lot of ways to improve the overall workforce management.

But it can be scary to change the way you do business and start partnering with a PEO. So I just want to ask you a bunch of questions today to help our audience really understand what it's like to work with a PEO. So Bill, I'll start with you. Kevin, feel free to chime in. That one question goes to each. Everyone can answer every question. We'll keep it casual. So Bill, how has partnering with a PEO positively impacted your business operations and your overall efficiency?

Bill:
No, it's been very positive. We actually have been with TriNet now for eight years and prior to me joining the company, I grew up in an HR background, if you will. My father was a vice president of HR for a company by the name of Florida Tile here in Lakeland, Florida. And we really didn't have… the company was just kind of starting out. Like I said, the company was about two years old when I joined. We didn't really have successful, we had a benefit program, or what have you. And by partnering with TriNet, they've given us a lot of opportunity, it made our company look a lot larger.

No, we had great benefits. The employees are very happy with that. And what I like with TriNet, I call it a single throat to choke. That's what health care is, our dental, optical, long- and short-term, life insurance, 401k and the Marketplace.

Our employees are very pleased with the employee portal that you guys have where they can go out there and they can see their paychecks. They have access to their W-2s, they see all the benefits, their PTO, org chart, company holidays, forms, policies and there's also good training that's out there.

We could have, all our employees have to go through sexual harassment when they first come on board. And there's also a lot of good training out there. Your Management 101 for our new leadership, they come into management and it's just been a very positive experience.

Erin:
That's excellent. And I think it's interesting too, because when you think about the time savings for you, I imagine, and your staff, so that you don't have to answer the questions, you know, the W-2s, right online make it just… Examples like that makes a little bit easier so you can focus on your business. That's fantastic.

How about you, Kevin? And I can repeat the question.

Kevin:
No. no, no need. I, you know, Bill actually mentioned something that I hadn't thought about and, which is, that it really did, it made us look bigger than we were at a time when we were growing and allowing us really to provide world class benefits and which helps us attract people. And that, let alone the efficiencies of it.

We do business in, last year, we filed 33 state tax returns, so we did business in 33 different states and that means 33 different ways of doing unemployment, workers’ comp, withholding taxes for state taxes and state unemployment, all these things that could take up a tremendous amount of time.

And the fact that our workforce is moving around, you know, closing accounts in states and opening of the new states and stuff. And so we've been able to hand that off to TriNet. And it's been tremendous for us. It's really saved us, in the end. It's saved us from having to hire people to do that. And we know that it's being done right. So it really, I believe it's really improved our efficiency quite a bit.

Erin:
Yeah, that's great. I mean, 33 states, that's a lot. That's not just one person. To find one person who would have the expertise to understand. All right. So that's a really good point. And so, Kevin, I'll continue with you then. So in what ways has working with the PEO helped you navigate the complex HR compliance requirements and mitigate those risks that come with the, you know, the easy HR stuff I think some people can manage, but some stuff gets really sticky.

Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah. And again, you know, with the number of states that we're in, they have different requirements for things like sexual harassment training, discrimination training, being able to do background checks. COBRA is something totally off our plate that used to be a big pain in the neck whenever somebody went on COBRA. And so we have an HR person, but we don't have to have an HR department.

And I think that's a big difference that our HR person is able to concentrate on things that bring value. They've been able to get a lot of benefit from TriNet resources in creating and maintaining our employee handbook, which, you know, again, has to factor in multiple states' requirements for things like leave and, you know, you name it all these other requirements. So what it's really done is, it's allowed our HR person to focus on things that add value like recruiting and training.

Erin:
Right.

Kevin:
You know, kind of moving the company forward as opposed to compliance-related issues.

Erin:
Yeah. I also have an HR and benefits background. So, everything you're saying resonates so much. And, you know, it's, I've always said it's really hard to be a one man or one person, excuse me, HR show, right? So having HR is critical to your business, but having one person who has to know everything is, that's challenging. And Bill, you with an HR background, can we talk to you a little bit about your complex HR challenges and how PEOs have helped you?

Bill:
Oh, certainly. You know, it's funny, Erin, when I joined Nathan, and I knew him before because he was actually a customer when I was an executive. It's now called Avanti, but when I was there, it was called Front Rate Solution. And he was our number one VAR and I just had a lot of respect for him the way they ran the company.

And gosh, has been nine years ago I was going to retire. That lasted about three weeks. My kids and grandkids were like, “Grandad, you have to go back to work, you're driving us crazy.” And at that time we had about 13 employees. And like I say, today we've got over 60.

But I'd always told Nathan, I really didn't have that much experience with a PEO, but we put this out to bid and we talked to several different folks and TriNet was one of them, and we brought it in-house. But what I initially thought that Nathan, once we get to 50 employees, we're going to bring this back in-house. Well, we surpassed that and I would not bring this back in-house now, even if we had 200 employees. That's how pleased I am with the partnership that we have with TriNet.

I'm a spreadsheet guy. And it's much more cost effective. Several of the things that Kevin was saying because laws are different in all the different states. If you terminate employees, sometimes if you terminate an employee, they have to have their final check that day. There's other states that you have up to a week to get it. There are some that you can do it on the regular payroll run and we couldn't do this with even two people. And again, we're in 20 different states and the tax laws and what have you. And it just really makes it to ensure that we're in compliance with all the different states.

And just again, very pleased with the partnership. And I got to tell you, my guy is Craig Bauer with you guys. He's been with you for a number of years. I have the utmost respect for him, and he'll tell you I was not a fan when you guys went to the 360. You’re now looking at an individual that is pleased with it. Several of your execs reached out to me because I've been with you a number of years and I've been a reference customer and what have you, and they're like, Bill, give us some time.

Erin:
Yeah.

Bill:
And you guys, did. You listened to everything. Now I can tell you that with the 360 approach, very, very pleased with it. We had a lady by the name of Sue Store before and some of your competitors will say, "Well, what we hear with TriNet, you know, there’s not the relationships."

Totally disagree. You guys are definitely an extension of my leadership team and if I need anything, now, I'm comfortable with the 360 I can reach out and someone gets very responsive, and they get back to me very quickly. So you can tell I'm a fan because I put you guys to the test. Talk to your leadership team and they'll tell you that.

But you're looking at a raving fan right here and not just Bill Auvil, but also my employees are. They're very pleased, you know, with the different insurance plans that you have that are available to them or what have you, you guys always help us through open enrollment. You help me when I do my offer letters. You help me with my separation letters to ensure that we're very fair to the employees and also protect, Flycast, my company. So couldn't ask for a better partner.

Erin:
That's great. I think we need to put you on a billboard.

Bill:
Well, talk to Craig and several of your executives because, again, I was not a happy camper and I turned around completely. And that's the other thing, and I mean this seriously, you guys do listen to what your customers say, what our needs are our requirements, and you address them. Sue Store, who's been with you for a number of years, I had her for like, five years, and, again, I could call her on the weekends. Probably abused her a little bit, but so appreciative to her. And then, again, when you went to the 360, they gave me Craig and I couldn't be happier. But now I don't have to just really single him out.

Erin:
Right!

Bill:
I'm very pleased with the skill set and the confidence that you have dialing into the 360, my employees still say that you've done a wonderful job of getting your hold times back. So now it's just like having my independent individual. But yet now I have a team of excellent people that can assist me.

Erin:
Well, that's great. That's so great. And I've known Sue and Craig for years. I've been here a long time, so that's the good work with both of them. So that's, those are wonderful examples.

Kevin Let's talk about the benefits. How has your company benefited from the benefits that and the perks that a PEO offers? We talked a little bit about, I think it was Bill's examples that you also highlighted it, it makes you feel bigger to work with a PEO.

Kevin:
Yeah.

Erin:
So tell me a little bit about how that works with your company.

Kevin:
Yeah, and it's actually allowed us, you know, because TriNet is better at picking benefits than we are, it's allowed us to have benefits that we wouldn't have necessarily picked.

Erin:
Right.

Kevin:
To not have to be in the mix. TriNet picks really good companies to provide the health insurance, for example. So in our case, we picked the United Healthcare option and, but they have lots of options for dental and vision. And so, and then the process in the time that I've been here with TriNet, the process for renewing and setting rates and having our company contribution has become very, very streamlined and online. And I love it.

It was, it used to be just a big ordeal every year to try to figure out the best way to do it. And when we, when we switched from the, I guess this is when we originally switched from a health insurance provider to a PEO, a different one, we tried to do it with making minimal changes and what the premiums were paid by the employees, but that led to some crazy formulas.

And so, but what TriNet has been able to really help us with is, over a period of time getting our formulas of how much the company is going to contribute into a more stable and predictable and something that we can communicate to people very easily. And we didn't always have that before.

You know, one story that we had of a benefit that comes with the deal with TriNet, came in very handy a couple of years ago. We had, one of our six companies had an elderly employee who passed away and she was a long-term employee. And her family was very, very surprised and happy to hear that she had life insurance that came. And we had just bought that company maybe two years prior to that and under the old ownership, before they became part of our group, they, she, their family wouldn't have had that benefit.

So it's just a nice little story of a benefit that was there that nobody really thinks about a lot because, you know, people don't usually die too much while they're still working. But there was a benefit there and, you know, that really helped the family out a lot in their time of need.

And then the final thing I would say is we get a lot of really good reviews about the EAP, the employee assistance program. I mean, a lot of people have used it. They like it. We want to try to actually let more of our people know about it. And then even one of our companies, they buy all their computers. They found the kind of the computer to say, like through the marketplace and they buy all of their computers through that marketplace. So we've kind of taken advantage of, to a lot of that stuff.

Erin:
I love that with the discounts and I'm sorry about your colleague who passed away. The EAP is a really good benefit for folks and we have lots of data sheets we can provide you, Kevin, so we'll get those to you and then you can put them out for your employees. Obviously, they can go online, but you know, I'll make sure that gets done.

All right, So how about you, Bill? Let's talk about the benefits. I mean, you started with really focusing in on the big-company benefits. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?

Bill:
Well, kind of what Kevin was saying, our folks love Marketplace. I personally have AT&T. Been with, I have the same phone number for 40 years now. And you know, the discounts that you get and my employees really do like that. A lot of them have Sprint and they've also taken advantage of the Dell relationship that you guys have. I mean, just to name a few, and movie tickets and just all kinds of things.

So again, very pleased, and, you know, kind of like everyone saying it definitely makes us look like a larger company because a lot of our employees do come from larger companies and they're very surprised with the size of our company how good the benefit plan is. So that's been very advantageous for both us and for our employees.

Erin:
Good. I got to look at the movie tickets. I haven't gone to the movies in a while. So you're going to inspire me, Bill, to get out of here and do something fun. All right, so my next question, you know, it's basically how outsourcing the HR responsibilities to a PEO has allowed you to focus on your core business.

So when you think about the amount of HR work, we talked about this a little bit earlier as well. There's a lot of work to do that really does take you away from what you are doing what you want to do and what you love to do every day. So, Kevin, how about you? How does working with a PEO help you focus on what you love to do?

Kevin:
Well, the uh, one of the tools that we recently, earlier this year actually learned about and had not been using was the applicant tracking system. And we were paying an outside company to do the exact same thing. And we, we moved over to the TriNet system and it's getting rave reviews. I mean, it does an excellent job and our HR person uses it religiously.

So it's been really, you know, what she really wants to focus on is talent recruitment, training, onboarding, things like that. And the compliance and the benefits are just something she does not want to do, and you know. So, she really appreciates the fact that TriNet handles that stuff. And so it allows her to spend time interviewing, recruiting, bringing in people. We're always looking for new, good people to bring into the company. And so, you know, that's very important to her.

Erin:
Good, good. How about you, Bill?

Bill:
I always joke that Bill Auvil nor any of my managers here at Flycast will ever go to HR jail. And the reason for that is the partnership that we have with TriNet. We will not make an HR decision without inquiring with TriNet, get guidance and direction. I'm proud to share with you we've never been sued.

Erin:
Good!

Bill:
But on Glassdoor, you'll see that most our reviews are extremely positive. And again, I'm solid and believe that it's a solid relationship, a partnership that we have with TriNet that kind of keeps us out of trouble. And, you know, we probably adhere to 95% of what you guys tell us.

You know, you're not attorneys. But that's the other thing that I'd like to bring up. You know, you guys have offered, we've had, we've spoken to attorneys before and have had very positive experience. I also had an employee that passed away and we've got life insurance. And his spouse was just so impressed with how quickly they were paid out. So we've had to use that, unfortunately, benefit as well.

But in the open enrollment I said this before, but you guys are really good about that. Sue actually used to come over to our office and now, you know, we do it on Zoom meetings and what have you. And if our employees have any questions. And what we've seen the last few years has actually been complimentary where some of the plans have been enhanced significantly. So our employees really do like that. You know, this is something that we would not have known had we not had TriNet.

I've got probably a half a dozen employees that live in Colorado. Well, a couple of years ago, Colorado had a plan, I mean, they changed the law that you now are eligible for carrying your PTO over. And we had a program very similar to most companies—use it or lose it. And because Colorado did that you know, I talked to Nathan. I said, “Nathan, we've got to give this for all employees. I mean, our employees in Colorado, that's just not fair.”

So we did. We changed it over where our employees can now carry their PTO over. And so they were very pleased with that. That's just one of many examples that had we not had the partnership with TriNet, we would not have known that.

Erin:
Right.

Bill:
And it's also very nice because Kim Ganyon, who is our Director of Operations, like I say, she and I co-chair HR, if you will, but we have very minimal involvement because I'll tell my managers, okay, if you have someone on performance review, that's the other thing TriNet has a lot of very good forms.

And then they have people that you can talk to that are experts in the personnel field and they can help you, give you guidance and direction on, you know, first you want to do a verbal and then you want to do a written, and then what have you. And we go through all the steps because our goal is to turn the employees around where we don't have to get rid of 'em. And a lot of times that happens because again, the great guidance and direction that we receive from the professionals at TriNet.

Erin:
That's great. Yeah, it's, you can't know everything, right? And none of us is superhuman.

Kevin:
I'll tell you one with that. One of Bill's comments prompted me, but we have some employees in San Francisco, and there's a minimum wage for salaried employees in San Francisco and, you know, again, we come across as being professional and on top of things because when we see that coming, and if, we were just that ourselves, that is definitely one of those things that would slip between the cracks.

And then, maybe you have an employee who thinks, “Oh, they were trying to cheat us, or worse, they didn't know about it. You know, how can they not know about this stuff?” So all those kind of things are really helpful.

Erin:
Right. I mean, you can run into trouble so unintentionally, right? San Francisco, as an example, they have this health care ordinance that you're supposed to follow, how to, when you get really down to, federal, state, local, it's it gets so complex and I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend my day reading about all the law changes throughout the country.

That's great. So um, Bill. So from a cost savings perspective, or any other administrative efficiencies maybe besides the HR, have you experienced as a result of working with the PEO?

Bill:
Again, like I've said before, you know, we'd need a tax person. We need someone in HR that specializes, in uh, again, I, like, I keep saying the single throat to choke. And it just really it's, a great partnership and it has saved us a lot of money. Being a spreadsheet guy, I've put together a lot of different formulas to try to see if we can do this ourselves.

We can't. Not to the same benefit. Kind of what Kevin was saying, all the different health insurance and how great it is. You know, I get bombarded, especially around this time of the year, because it seems like, in your space, everyone knows when the other person's renewal is up. And I just get bombarded.

Erin:
Yeah.

Bill:
I know. And I do, you know, I'll narrow it down to about four people, but we always go back to TriNet. And again, because our employees, they don't complain. I mean, you know, I've worked in bigger companies before, worked at IBM and what have you, and people would always get upset with HR. I really don't get any complaints, you know, because you guys are very, TriNet's very responsive in getting back to our employees. And again, they like all the different choices and the options because we are in about 20 different states. It's kind of tailored to the state that they're in and making sure that the benefits are very fair and equitable to all the employees. So I couldn't do this. As cheap as it is, I want you to keep your rates down. But I couldn't do it when we needed probably about four people.

Erin:
Yeah, and having happy employees is, oh my gosh. We could, we could have a whole segment on that, right?

Bill:
Oh, sure could.

Erin:
A lack of turnover, it's so critical. And Kevin, you're a CFO. I mean, so from your perspective, you know, I'm sure you're looking at the dollars and cents closely as well. How have you seen cost savings or administrative savings?

Kevin:
We see it all over the place. We were introduced to TriNet through, as I said, we were working with another PEO company that had a different business model, really a methodology. I would call it the black box methodology, and they would do some calculations with us and they would determine, "Okay, here's your number for next year. You know, 17% of your payroll, that's your fee and that's going to cover everything that's going to cover workers’ comp, it's going to cover Medicare, it's going to cover Social Security, it's going to cover health care, health insurance, etc.”

But I didn't like that. I mean, it's simple. It's easy to calculate what your fee is, but one of the things that is as you kind of put it under the microscope, there are instances where we have kind of, I would say, is a relatively high paid workforce. So many of our people hit the maximum Social Security benefit. And so, as an employer, when they hit that number, that saves us money. We stop paying Social Security on them as they do on themselves.

Erin:
Sure.

Kevin:
But with this other PEO, we didn't get the benefit of that. We didn't. Somebody else got the benefit. Right?

Erin:
Yeah.

Kevin:
And same thing if we, if we pay bonuses which we typically do once a year. On those bonuses, that's just incremental compensation to people, but we were paying that same percentage fee.

Erin:
Sure.

Kevin:
That covered all those other things. And so, it really didn't reflect—what I liked about TriNet was that the fee structure, it's very transparent, it didn't reflect incremental. You pay only the incremental costs of things like that. And so that really appealed to me because I didn't like the black box approach.

And then I'll say one other thing in recent years with COVID that really made me a big fan of PEOs and TriNet in particular, was the whole process of applying for PPP money that we, along with many, many other businesses, did. But had that happened before we were using TriNet or even another PEO, we would have been using six different payroll companies, running six different sets of reports, trying to accumulate that data into a monster of an application form.

And so TriNet really, by having all of our companies in the same platform, we were able to get the data we needed to do the calculations with the help of templates created by TriNet and assistance from our TriNet contact people, to get the thing submitted to our banks and paid.

And now we're on the part about the, you know, the employee retention tax credits. And again, it's a very, very complicated application process and we're taking full advantage of TriNet's ability to decipher through that and get these numbers figured out and submitted. So that is worth its weight in gold. I mean, we would have had to pay outside accountants and attorneys and whatever to do these calculations and get that submitted. And it all kind of came as part of the deal with TriNet.

Erin:
Yeah

Bill:
And I want to chime in on something that Kevin said. This is what your competitors drive me crazy. And I say, you don't do any more work for a $50,000 employee than my $300,000 employee. Basically, what Kevin’s saying. And I tell them, your fee structure... I'm comparing apples and oranges.

Erin:
Sure.

Bill:
And again, I'm not going to give you more money, because we all are salespeople make quite a bit of money. And again, you do no more for them than you do my entry level person. So I definitely like that. And then also just adding to what Kevin said, we were fortunate to get our PPP money as well, and the reports that you, even just your canned reports, are excellent. And I had Craig do a report or two extra for me, had it turnaround the next day. And so it really made the entire process wonderful. And again, I like the reporting. I use it myself because again, I'm the numbers guy and I really do like to look at that and then slice it and dice it and in many different ways. So kudos to you guys on your administrator portal and also your employee portal.

Erin:
Well, thank you. And don't forget about COBRA. We talked about that earlier, COVID and COBRA. And you just start adding to the lists and just one more complexity after another. And nobody cares about COBRA until they care about COBRA.

So have you noticed, Bill, has already answered this question a little bit. So Kevin, I'm going to turn it to you and then see if Bill has anything to add. But have you noticed an improvement in employee satisfaction, employee engagement, by using a PEO and even retention, right? We talked about applicant tracking and bringing folks in, being so critical, are you seeing more retention as a result?

Kevin:
I mean, we, during COVID, did have some retention issues. And so it's kind of hard to say exactly. You know, one, I think the point we made earlier, both of us, about the professionalism and the look and feel of the, and the ease of use of the of the platform, definitely helps on the attraction side. And then for the current employees who are using it, they're able to get all of their problems solved. And we hardly ever get calls from people directly. And if they do, we just we tell them where to call and then they get their problem solved. So, I don't have statistics on it, but I have to think that that really does help with retention.

Erin:
Yeah.

Kevin:
Just making life easier to be an employee, you know.

Erin:
Good. And Bill, you highlighted a bit earlier, I don't want to have you come up with anything else unless there's something else there.

Bill:
It's responsiveness. And that's what I tell my employees as well. We've got over 1,400 customers now, and that's what I'm really proud about, is the responsiveness. You're getting back to people in a timely fashion and your folks do a wonderful job with that. And so I couldn't be more pleased because, again, I've worked at the larger companies and they'd get upset, they'd have a question about benefits or what have you, and someone wouldn't get back to them in a timely fashion.

And you guys have many different vehicles. You've got your chat, you can call in, you can email. So there's many different vehicles that an employee can use if they need assistance. But again, the turnaround time has been very good. So I'm pleased with that.

Erin:
That's great. And I think you got to meet people where they are, right? So I think that's part of it is with the chat versus the phone call, some people like to stay on hold and get their answer and so I think, you know, being able to work with a PEO and have the opportunity to have different avenues.

I mean, I don't know about you both, but I'm on calls all day long, so it's challenging when I have to call someone, 'cause, when am I going to do that? So I think that's great having those, that they can appreciate those avenues.

And when we look at recruiting and attracting, one of the things I think a lot of companies run into these days is getting the top talent right? It’s about really attracting and retaining someone who is going to be at the top of their game and then seeing them there for the long haul. So if a PEO can help with that, I think that's fantastic.

Let's talk about labor laws and regulation and compliance. I mean, when we talked a little bit earlier about employee handbooks and compliance and multistate. So Kevin, do you feel as though working with a PEO, how has it helped you stay not only where you need to be with laws and regulations, but really upping your game as far as being on top of that?

Kevin:
Well, I mean, I'll say what I, what I like about the system for handling local and state labor laws is, you know, a lot of it deals with training and then getting the right training, depending on where you live or work. And so TriNet's got that figured out. If you live in New York City, there's certain training things that New York City requires, right? And the other things that New York State requires. If you're working from home and you live in New Jersey, well, they'll have a whole different set of requirements.

And so, frankly, we don't really have to spend any time on that other than taking the same training ourselves based on where we are. But there's really a lot of comfort. I think Bill said it, you know, we're not going to get in trouble for violating compliance laws because we know we feel very comfortable that we're doing what needs to be done, you know. I'll also say, I think Bill and I are both really good examples of people who have tried out the PEO model and are sticking with it. We like it.

And actually, we have an advisory board and one of our board members left, he had no idea what a PEO was. I gave him a good lesson in it and he went, he took a new job for a new company. Boom. Put them right on TriNet. And then two or three years later, he left that job and went to another one. Same thing.

Erin:
Well, he needs to keep moving around then.

Kevin:
So, you know, he liked what he saw, too. And generally, I think any other TriNet customers that I've run into, I don't, I don't hear any gripers. In fact, I hear the opposite. I hear people praising it and they're happy with it. And so, I second that.

Erin:
That's great. That's great. Bill, how about you?

Bill:
Ah, there's really nothing more that I can add, you know, with what Kevin has said, because making sure that we're in compliance is very important to me and very important to our leadership team. And we don't have any issues because TriNet, you guys are the experts in that and we know that we're going to be fair to our employees and we're going to be in compliance. So we've never gotten in trouble, you know, with all the different states that we do business in and all the different states that we have employees in.

Erin:
That's right. Because you've never been sued. Love that you threw that out there. Well, and I think, too, it's you don't know what you don't know, right? So if you're if you're working with a company that can help support you to tell you, "Hey!" you know, "Come knock on the door, there's some things that you need to know about." I think that's critical.

Well, that's all the questions I had for today. So I'm really grateful for both of your time. I know you're very busy and so appreciate the business. And I really enjoyed talking to both of you. Unless you have any questions for me.

Kevin:
I would just like to make one shout out to our TriNet to people, too, which is Nick Celentano, Serena Hitt and Valentina Garcia. And they have all been tremendous and as with the reps that Bill mentioned, when we reach out to them, they get back to us and they get back to us with answers and solutions. And so, it's really helpful, you know, even though a lot of the stuff is automated, if we need a person to kind of dig and find something for us, we have a great team assigned to work with us and to really get things done. So again, we're very happy.

Erin:
And that's actually a good point because you've both talked about automation and people, right? And I think we're living in a world where we all want something done a little bit faster. So I think the automation is key. It builds efficiencies, but that human touch and that human piece is there. So I think having the balance of both when you're in a relationship with a company is really important. And it was, I've heard that from both of you. So I think that's fantastic.

Bill:
And Erin, your extended hours of support, that's wonderful.

Erin:
Oh, good.

Bill:
And then the other thing is that, as we were talking, I was just thinking about this. You guys do a wonderful job sending out bulletins or information to us via email, you know, when there's been changes and different laws and stuff like that. So I'm always very appreciative of that because wanting to be consistent with our employees, again, when it's offered in one state, if we can, we usually are able to, offer it and enhance the benefits for all the employees. Right?

Erin:
Right. It's about treating people equitably, right? Not every state's going to have the same rules but looking at that from the bigger picture to say, are we being equitable across the organization.

All right. Any final thoughts? You guys have been great. I'm going to miss, I'm going to miss you.

Kevin:
And no, I'm great. Thank you. We're very appreciative. And that's why when we were asked to be on I, you know, I also am a fan, so I'm happy to spread the news.

Erin:
Thank you.

Bill:
And you guys used to have these meetings and, well, face to face before COVID in Tampa. And I would always go over there. And it was funny because Sue would try to bring some potential customers to me because I am a big fan.

Erin:
Oh, yeah.

Bill:
And I can be vocal, a bit, but I just, am very appreciative that you guys have really got this 360 working great now, and I told Craig I got another year 'til I retire, so you got me at least for another year.

Erin:
Wow.

Bill:
So tickled to death for you guys.

Erin:
You may not retire because last time you did that you went right back.

Bill:
Thanks again.

Erin:
Thank you both for your transparency and your time today.