Advantages of a PEO From a User's Perspective

Please note that these sessions are for educational purposes only. TriNet provides HR guidance and best practices. TriNet does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. The materials in these sessions and the products, advice and opinions expressed in these sessions are solely those prepared by the presenter and not necessarily those of TriNet.

Katrina Faessel:
We're very excited for you to hear from some of our current TriNet PEO customers. Our customers will be sharing their first-hand accounts of their PEO experience and why it works for them, as well as taking a few of your questions. Please help me welcome to the virtual stage, Erin McGinty, Divisional Vice President, Health and Welfare Services, TriNet, Priscila Bala, Chief Executive Officer, Life Labs Learning, and Brandee Dodd, Owner and Chief of Innovation, Grace Care Consulting.

Erin McGinty:
Hi there.

Brandee Dodd:
Hey friends.

Erin:
Hi, good to see you all. And everybody, welcome to PEO Edge. As stated, I'm Erin McGinty, and we have a wonderful and exciting panel of TriNet customers who are going to share their real-life experiences and the highs and lows of using a PEO. So I want to start with introducing our panelists and in no order, I'm just going to go left to right with what's on my screen.

Brandee, we're going to start with you. So if you could please introduce yourself.

Brandee:
I'm Brandee Dodd. I am the owner, along with my husband, Chris, of Grace Care Consulting, and I'm the chief of innovation there. Grace has been in business for, we're entering our 13th year in business, and we started with two employees, my husband and I, and we are today, about at 96ish. And we focus in the healthcare sector and consulting in a specific niche within the healthcare sector. We're a solutions-based company focusing on people first and then processes and programs in the lean setting.

Erin:
Awesome. Thanks for being here.

Brandee:
Thanks for having me, Erin.

Erin:
Yeah. Priscila, let's turn to you.

Priscila Bala:
All right. Well, I'm Priscila Bala, the CEO of LifeLabs Learning. We're the source for instantly useful and delightfully unusual manager learning and development that sticks. So we generally help teach managers and teams the people skills that help them have really effective teams and high performing workplaces. We've been in business also for over a decade. We have 110 employees across 20 different states in the U.S. So really excited to be a client of TriNet.

Erin:
Well, thanks for being clients, both of you. Thanks for being here and congratulations on all your success. Wonderful. So I think we're gonna learn a lot from the both of you today. And I think what's important to start with is, let's be honest, we know a PEO can be a game changer for businesses who want to streamline their HR operations, mitigate compliance risk and improve overall workforce management, but we know it can be a scary change. It's a big leap for a lot of companies.

So I want to thank you both for being here today to talk about your insight. So Priscila, I'll start with you. How has partnering with a PEO positively impacted your business operations and your overall efficiency?

Priscila:
Yeah, no. So, I love that question. First, because as a CEO, I care a lot about business operations and efficiency. So I think that, for us, it does a number of things. So I think that the first one is this ability to let us focus our energy and resources on the things we do best, right? Like, I feel like when it comes to ensuring that we are fulfilling the mission of LifeLabs, which is really to, you know, teach people life's most useful skills, a lot of that time is not best spent trying to understand the intricacies of compliance or benefit packages, or even trying to parse different technology solutions to ensure that all of our operations are effective. Instead, coming to a PEO and having the full bundle in one place gives us the kind of simplification that really allows my team to really focus on what they do best so that we can rely on the experts to handle a lot of the other stuff that we now don't need to become experts at.

Erin:
Right. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Brandee, how about you?

Brandee:
I think Priscila just said that so beautifully. I think I would add to that, I would echo the fact that we, too, at Grace focus on your skill sets being used in the area where your skill sets are best utilized and where you thrive as a human being who's employed through our company.

And I don't want my team getting caught up in all of these extra things that really, we can just utilize a source like TriNet to handle for us. I always make the joke that unless your company is an HR company, why would you not want to use TriNet? You know, for real, I've built the business. It's kind of funny because I actually, about year five was looking for this type of solution, and through year five, we found TriNet at year 11 and so over that six-year period, I interviewed, met with different types of PEOs and I just started firm with, "well, right now I can do this better myself," even though I didn't want to, because I just couldn't. They weren't there yet—the people that I spoke to, not TriNet. You know, as far as pricing and innovation and scalability and thinking about the small business growing to the medium or large size business, every large size, every large business started small.

That's just the facts of it and so when I would search, you know, I would just continue, for the lack of a better word, to suffer personally, because I was the human TriNet. I was the nuclear in all of the pieces that TriNet handles. We were handling all those, we were handling them all well, but they were siloed.

And so, running siloed operations, someone's got to be the nucleus. That nucleus was me. I can speak for days and passionately about TriNet because, you know, as a business owner and a human being, TriNet came at the perfect time for me, saved me personally as a human being, as a business owner, as a high achiever of, as somebody who has, you know, been building a business and needed all those things many years ago, but that we weren't quite there.

I mean, it was there, but what I was looking for was not being offered to me until I met Trevor at TriNet. And, I will forever, you know, see him with kind of angel wings because me personally, I was tired. I was tired.

Erin:
It's exhausting. Right? And I love what you're both talking about, focusing on doing what you do best. Right. Like good is okay. Okay is okay. But being able to be really good at what you do and finding a company to help you in the places where you can be better than good is really important and you're both clearly focused on your people, which as a people person, I love.

So that's wonderful. Thank you both for that insight. So, Priscila, we'll go back to you. So, in what ways has a PEO helped you navigate the complex HR, right? We've got the HR compliance requirements and being a business owner and running businesses, you've really got to focus on mitigating those risks. And so I'm curious how the PEO has helped you do that.

Priscila:
Yeah, no, a hundred percent. So one thing that's really interesting is, so LifeLabs was a remote company or, as I like to say, like office agnostic company, even before the pandemic. So we used to have a policy where folks had to be in the office one day a week and they could be out and about all of the other days, but then with the pandemic happening, we really both saw a number of our employees express a desire to move to different locations so that they could be closer to family, so that they could be in areas that were going to be easier for them to spend time with their children. And we recognize that was also a massive business benefit, right? If we could be recruiting in every different state, what an absolute delight would that be.

But once you start thinking through all of the requirements to maintain compliance in every single state, that would have been an absolute nightmare. As I mentioned, we have more than 20 states that we have employees in, and just the administrative burden of having to keep track of all of the requirements and do filings for every single one of those states was going to be mind boggling for us.

So it truly wasn't an option unless we were using a PEO because I did not want to have to invest in that kind of operational infrastructure internally, especially because either I would have to have, you know, an expert guiding the operational staff to ensure that we were auditing it properly and keeping abreast of all of the new rules and I just couldn't, I didn't want to make that investment. So it's been really interesting because TriNet has acted as an advisor for us, even in certain areas, like, for example, when, you know, California updated, what are the required steps of discipline that you need to implement to ensure that if there's a case of underperformance, you're following all of the necessary steps before there's a termination.

Those are things that they audited in our systems and said, "Hey, here are some recommendations we would make to ensure that you're going to be fully compliant." And that partnership and conversation and seeing them really audit, and that's what I love about the co-employment relationship is because since you have some skin in the game as well, you have an incentive to ensure that everything is done really well.

And we benefit greatly from that because if it is going to be something that supports, you know, TriNet's results, it's also going to be really beneficial for LifeLabs. So all of that has been super useful.

Erin:
It's quite the partnership, right? We're all in it together, which is great. And I think, you know, you hitting on 20 plus locations, two plus locations is hard enough. And if you think about California, even in other states, it really gets dense, not as it’s state, it’s county, it’s city. I mean, the rules just keep getting granular depending on where the employee is located. So really, really good stuff. Thank you. And I'm always happy to repeat the question if anyone needs me to, but Brandee, I'm interested in your thoughts on the HR compliance and mitigating risks.

Brandee:
So compliance is big for me. I'm a nurse by training, and quality and value is my jam. And risk mitigation is also my jam. And I would again say, I mean, it's in a similar situation as Priscila, you know, you don't want to. We've actually operated fully remote since our inception in 2011. I personally have led remote teams since about 2007. So that's what we talked about—skill sets. That's one of my skill sets.

And, you know, I didn't want to be tied by state lines. Like top talent is out there. It's everywhere. And we just have to make that connection with people. And so when you're expanding to other states, I agree with exactly what Priscila said. Like, this was going to be things that my team needed to remember in regard to compliance. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be non-compliant, but I don't want to think about that. I just don't. You know, I build programs. My team builds programs. We build people. We upskill folks. We want, you know, the compliance and risk to be built into a framework. Why not? Why would you not want that kind of plug and play template that just keeps you in line?

And I'll give you a quick example. We operate, like I said, multiple states also. I can't keep track of all of that stuff. My team cannot keep track of all that stuff. I, last week got an email, honestly choked up and that's how corny I am. But this is the kind of stuff that I would have been responsible for thinking of. So it chokes me up when it happens for me. I got an email from TriNet, just, you know, an automated email, "Hey, your worksite employees in this state, as of January 1st, minimum wage changes to this. If there's anyone under that, it'll automatically change for you." And yes, thank you. I mean, knowing that, first of all, is 90% of the battle.

So now I know it and not only do I know it, but if I get busy or my team gets busy and we forget, no worries, because on January 1st, it just occurs for you, so you're compliant. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you can feel how much TriNet has honestly impacted our lives as human beings. I'm just going to talk about mental health, my mental health period. You know, TriNet really, I was exhausted. Yeah, I was exhausted.

Erin:
There's a lot of peace of mind that comes with knowing someone's got your back. Yes. And yeah, I don't know about you two, but I have a thousand things a day, I think, on a list. And if I'm lucky to get to 20 of them, and everything just rolls over, and it's one less thing you need to write on the list if it's just done for you, right?

Brandee:
Correct. That's correct.

Erin:
So, Brandee, let's forge ahead a little bit into the benefit space. Do you have any examples on how your company has benefited from the employee benefits and perks that TriNet offers?

Brandee:
The fact that they exist for my people is the overarching benefit. And then it is again, another benefit to me. I know that my team, just a side note for anyone out there who has the privilege of employing other human beings, that is a huge responsibility and anybody under my employment. The first and foremost thing they're going to know is I have their back and I have their back when it comes to benefits because benefits actually, that's an area where your employees go home and they're laying in bed at night and they're fearful.

"What if I have a medical emergency? What if I have a catastrophe that destroys the future of my financial capabilities to provide for my family? What if, you know, I die and I have nothing to leave for my family because I don't have access to life insurance?"

Those are things that matter to my people and I care about my people for more than just the eight hours they're there delivering a product. I care about what they're thinking about at night in bed, and the benefits that TriNet allows us to, you know, kind of collaborate and be a part of are things that I wouldn't necessarily have had access to without TriNet. And so, you know, for me, my people come first, and I'm going to front load my cost to my people.

And then I'm going to streamline processes and cut costs elsewhere so that I can take care of my people first. Right? If you're not taking care of your people first, you won't have a business for long and that's no, so no worries there, folks.

Erin:
I couldn't agree more. And it's interesting because, you know, then, speaking of like the financial piece of it, then you have options with how you want to fund, whether that be different levels in the organization or, you know, a certain plan. So, it gives you that level of flexibility for you to think about that on an annual basis, what that looks like to you, because every company has different philosophies there.

Brandee:
Correct, and I do think that's a such a valuable point, Erin, and something that TriNet really helps you when you're doing your benefit. You know, when you're redetermining your benefits each year and your structure and how you're going to do that, the system in itself helps you come to those conclusions, compare costs, look at spends and then data analytics within the TriNet platforms, a whole ‘nother story. And I do want to say too, one thing my team had mentioned to me the other day when I asked them for their input about TriNet in preparation for this, and one thing that my chief of people said is that she really loves the way the benefits are described that, you know, you don't have to have a healthcare background.

You don't have to have a benefits background to understand them. It really does walk our employees and us as employers through the whole process in a really, honestly, down to earth way. It's not this, you know, what does that mean? It really tells you what you're looking at, what you're getting into, what you're spending, what you're not spending. And I appreciate that.

Erin:
Oh, that's great. Good feedback. Thank you. All right, Priscila, how about you? How have the benefits, you know, any examples on how the benefits work for your company? What you love and don't love about PEO benefits?

Priscila:
I think that, you know, Brandee hit it on the head. It's like having the availability of all of them is something that's really fantastic because it allows you to really provide a really world class, robust benefits package experience for folks, without having the operational complexity of having to piecemeal all of these different vendors yourself. And I think that when we transitioned to TriNet, my team was so excited to get pet insurance, which is not something that I would have prioritized otherwise, right?

So. Pet insurance, access to legal counsel, which was a massive benefit, extended life insurance and disability insurance that went above and beyond. So like if employees wanted to pay extra to have much higher coverages, they could do that on their own. Of course, the suite of, you know, health vision and dental benefits was much better. And we can talk about the benefits on it because of what that saved us, as well, but I think that the robustness of the full package and, you know, the ability to have almost like a concierge service. I forget what you call the employee assistant line.

Erin:
The assistance program, the EAP.

Priscila:
The employee assistance program, the EAP, like all of those have really made such a massive practical, tangible difference in people's day-to-day lives because when they want access to information, benefits or resources, there is actually a fully fledged suite available to them.

Erin:
Yeah, one of the things, so I work very closely in both the HR and the benefits space here. And, "benefits are personal" is something we say often, because they really are. Everyone's in a unique circumstance, and I think being able to, through a PEO, to offer that suite of benefits, but to your point on the employee assistance program, it gives you the opportunity to help employees have access to whatever's going on, you know, within their world without you having to get involved because employees may or may not want to involve you.

But you knowing that, hey, something's going on. They have the resources that they need to get the care in whatever way that looks like to them, because it is personal. Paychecks and benefits are very personal. Everybody needs them. So, Priscila, I'll keep it with you right now. How has outsourcing your HR responsibilities to a PEO helped you focus more on your core business objectives and the strategic initiatives of your company?

Priscila:
Yeah, so what I love about ensuring that, again, everything, compliance systems, access, payroll, benefits, leave is being handled by a PEO, is that it frees up even my HR's team time to focus on other strategic things like manager development, succession planning, compensation benchmarking that we don't necessarily would get, but that are things that have much higher strategic value from kind of the employee experience for us. So it is really exciting to know that I can actually change, like take the opportunity cost of that work and instead focus my internal team on some of the high leverage HR initiatives that are really going to drive our business forward.

Erin:
Right. Really looking at your people, your HR team as your people partners to get you to the next level rather than dealing in the day-in and day-out of the HR.

Priscila:
Exactly, and there's so much more, you know, capacity planning and succession planning and skills development and performance coaching that we can do, because rather than spending time on all of the nitty gritty of the compliance forms and the operational side, we can actually use their time and resources on some of those bigger conversations.

Erin:
Right, right. And not everybody wants to research HR and compliance laws. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound fun to me. How about you, Brandee? How has it helped with your strategic initiatives and the work that you want to do?

Brandee:
I would again, I think Priscila does such a great job summarizing all of those things that are really important. And I would echo that, again, my chief of people and my vibes patrol officer, I want them along with TriNet. That's the triad of the first impression, you know, of our company. But I want my chief of people and my vibes officer to really be able to spend more of their time on creating the company culture, which is so much more of a feel and creating that sense of belonging among our team, you know, soon to be family members because we built a big family there.

And it does allow them, plus they're super conscientious folks, they don't like to do things wrong. And so that gives them comfort. But it really allows us, and them in particular, more time to do the feely kind of things in upscaling our folks, mentoring them, helping them just get used to how we create a team remotely. It's a different kind of vibe, right? There's a lot of intentional interactions that are done when you're leading a remote team that you don't necessarily do face to face. Actually, I think it's more valuable because of that, because you're a little more intentional with your interactions.

So again, I would say frees up our time to do what we do best. You know, if something doesn't need to take our human time to do it, we should not take our human time to do that. You know, I mean, these systems and resources really keep us in line and free our brain up to do more of the viby culture belonging type of things that we, you know, want to build within Grace.

Erin:
That's wonderful. Thank you. So Brandee, what kind of cost savings, you know, administrative efficiencies and cost savings have you experienced with working with a PEO?

Brandee:
You know, I'm a numbers gal. I'm a data gal, but I'm also a value gal. So I think that there's a number of things that you can touch on here as far as an ROI goes, and some of them are not quantifiable. They're simply felt. I would say I haven't done the numbers, but I've done them in my brain. And I would say that probably our ROI, just a number ROI is probably around 30%, but it's a 100% peace of mind and that's kind of the real sticking point for me.

The other thing too, that I think about on when I'm thinking about a return on my investment is I'm thinking about scale. For example, right now, I told you we have about 100 employees and I have two, three, two people plus the true team of TriNet. That's my triad in the HR world. And so, and I lost my train of thought there when I put them. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's two people, TriNet per 100. If I did not have TriNet, my best guess is that would probably be five to 100. And so when I think about scale, if I go to 200, without TriNet, that's a team of 10 in HR. If I go to 200 with TriNet, it's a team of four in TriNet. And so what I really think that, what I wouldn't want a potential business or a business owner to overlook is that point, is if you're thinking about scale, the ROI is difficult to come up with from a number sense, but if you can envision in your mind, how that scales, I mean, I just showed you cost savings at a scale of 100. That cost savings only continues to save.

Erin:
Right.

Brandee:
Yeah, and then you're not trying to remember all that stuff.

Erin:
Right. Exactly. And really, I mean, then not only do you not need to hire, but you don't need to oversee them. You don't need to audit their work to ensure the accuracy is there. So, yeah. Very good points. Thank you. Priscila. How about you?

Priscila:
No, I think that those are super, super well-taken points. I think that the operational leverage that you get from being able to not have to have those resources in-house because it does, like it takes the hiring, the onboarding, the training, the supporting, the coaching, the auditing, the overseeing, the growing, and if you lose that person now, you have to rehire someone. So it does simplify operations a bunch in that regard. So there's definitely the staffing benefit, but for us, we also had a very tangible benefit in so far as comparing like medical plans that we had access to, like, when we looked at our bundle of benefits that we were getting outside of TriNet and with TriNet. I mean, it was a flat like $200, 000 savings right off the bat. And so that really made a big operational difference for us as well. And I think that, as I've been seeing, y'all continuing to build your suite of offerings and products so that the value goes up the equation because, of course, that is attention we have to balance constantly, right?

And there will come a point where, as the organization grows, you're like, wait a second. I'm paying this much to TriNet. But I think that, you know, the more y'all can keep investing on what are the additional value-add benefits that are going to make that value sticky, the relationship can be long lasting.

Erin:
Right. Right. Yes. Obviously, we are always continuing to evolve. All of us, right? We're all in the business of evolution and innovation. And so, yeah, that's wonderful. So, Priscila, how have you noticed improvements in employee satisfaction, engagement, perhaps retention since partnering with the PEO?

Priscila:
Yeah, so I think that partnering with the PEO has enabled us to be much more creative in how we were structuring our benefits package and to offer people a greater variety of options, as I mentioned, right? Like, there were things that we initially were able to do and then just recently. So, like, I wanted to improve their access.

And historically, we had a 401k, but not a match. So we decided to implement a match and even having TriNet through the process of like counseling and guiding us on what are all of the different, you know, safe harbor things that we were going to do and is it going to be vested or invested? And are we truing up at the end of the year and all of their counsel and support in the operational execution of that just made it much more feasible because if we had had to sit down and figure all of that out ourselves and then we wouldn't have had the bandwidth. So even the ability to open up these creative solutions, similarly, like we wanted to shift from an accrual vacation policy to a flexible vacation policy.

And in that scenario, TriNet was also a great supporter in helping us understand what were going to be the requirements to execute on it. And so being able to feel like, okay, I have the infrastructure to actually offer to my employees things that might look complex at first view, but because I have this entire team that can actually support the execution of it and the maintenance of it, then options that would feel out of reach or unviable for us end up becoming a reality.

Erin:
I love that. And I'm really loving that you had a good experience with the retirement team. Cause I oversee that team.

Priscila:
It was also great because they were counseling me. They're like, "You should take this much time." You know, I'm like, "How about a third of that time? Can we do it in a third of that time? Will that work?" And they were like, "Okay, we can do it."

Erin:
Oh, that's so good. Love that. Love that. Shout out. You didn't even realize it. How about you, Brandee? You know, retention, employee satisfaction looks different for every company. How do you think the PEO has contributed to that aspect of your organization?

Brandee:
I want to be fair. One of Grace's strengths, even prior to TriNet's retention, we have a super high retention rate and I credit that to my team. But what I can say. Yes, what's that?

Erin:
I think that's very fair. It starts with you. Yeah.

Brandee:
The things that jump out to me that really help. I mean, in the past, you never want to lose top talent because you couldn't offer something that was important to them in their life. So I go back to benefits and really just wanting to be able to provide all of the choices to my team about things that are important to them. What is important to me may not be important to them. What I experience may not be what they experience. My life is not their life. I want them to have that choice.

And so I would say, prior to TriNet, you know, I always wasn't confident sometimes when I was talking to potential candidates about what we were offering because, you know, I didn't like it. So, you know, I say it's hard to talk to somebody about something that you yourself don't even believe in. And so I think that from a retention and recruitment standpoint, what TriNet has given me is a level of confidence. The other thing is, is the platform is so beautiful. It's aesthetically pleasing. It presents professional. I mean, you know, you guys get it. If you put yourselves in somebody else's shoes, I don't want to take a new job and then everything's disconnected at onboarding—red flag to me. I probably wouldn't go for my first day if those kind of red flags were present, like, if you don't even know how to onboard me in a structured way that makes sense, what do your programs look like and how are you going to treat me when I get in there?

And so I really love, I feel confident with that first impression, that professional looking appearance. We hear all the time from employees about how easy onboarding is. It is so simple yet so enlightening. It's not simple because it's, you know, it's cheaper, half-assed, for the lack of a better word. It's solid. It's solid. It's professional. And it really speaks to people. So when it comes to, you know, we're good at retention. We retain our people, but I would say, more so in attracting talent for me, because it's really just this employee facing process right from the get go that presents in a much more professional manner and then gives the people access to the things they need, which again, you don't want to lose top talent because you couldn't offer pet insurance and that was a sticking point for them. Sorry. It might be.

Erin:
A lot of people want the pet insurance and, you know, it's interesting what you say because I firmly believe that both of you, you know, you're there to do what you do and you're going to put your people first and it's not that you wouldn't retain them anyway, because if you put forth that kind of energy towards your people. And I love how you keep calling them humans, right? They're people, they matter to you and matter to the business. Yeah. You're in business to make money, but you're also in business to employ people, to treat people well. So it's more of like, if I hear you correctly, an icing on the cake. It helps you do what you want to do in a nice package. It's how I'm hearing you. I don't want to put words in your mouth.

Brandee:
No, 100%.

Erin:
Yeah. Yes. I love that. And I was going to lead into attracting and retaining employees. And it sounds like you answered my question. You knew exactly what I was going to ask. So Priscila, how about you? How do you feel that working with the PEO helps you attract and retain talent?

Priscila:
Yeah, I mean, I'll just echo how Brandee this time around perfectly summarized it too, right? It is about the marketability of the entire suite because I think that it is important for us to recognize that different people have different preferences based on the moment in their lives that they're, in their family situation, whether they have pets or not, like that is going to shift a lot of like what they prioritize and when, and having the flexibility to both offer a world class package makes us marketable when we're trying to hire. And then the variety inside it to ensure that we can address the needs of different populations within our team ensures that we can maintain them over time and retain them over time. So I think that the breadth of the offerings makes us much more competitive on both of those fronts.

Erin:
Yeah, and I think, too, you know, benefits are important and obviously, right, but until you need them, until you have a life circumstance, that whether you were expecting it or not, you know, to be able to have the comfort to say, you know, we've got this benefit package and now you can use it to how it works, you know, how it will help you and your family. It's wonderful and that always will help with retention, in addition to all the wonderful things you do for them.

How about staying on top of changing labor laws and, you know, we talked a lot about regulations and compliance before, but how does working with the PEO help you stay on top of labor law regulations? Either one of you. I didn't call on you. That was really unfair. Whoever wants to take it.

Brandee:
I mean, I would say it does, because first of all, and I do want to say, we keep talking about TriNet as a system, then we talk about human beings, but I want to be clear that there's a whole slew of human beings, obviously. Erin, at TriNet, who we also interact with, and TriNet truly is an extension of our team. My chief, my HR team, my chief of people, my vibes officer, they talk about the people at TriNet by their first names and we just all know, that's oh, that's in the TriNet pod. That's our family over at TriNet.

So I do want to be clear in that we're talking a lot about how the system works and that is so important because the system is everything, but there are human beings there. And there's another side to that. My chief of people, we may have asked you the same question 17 times, but it's a different person, it's a different livelihood, it's a different scenario. And we still want to make sure we're getting it right. And so I do want to just say outside of the system, they are human beings. And that is everything to me, because for a lot of the years growing the business, there was just no one for me to ask, right?

You know, I'm making a lot of decisions on my own, you know, my own gut feeling, my own experience, but there's a support team there of people that, you know, I'll tell my chief of people, "Hey, call Tara. That sounds right, but call Tara, make sure we're not doing anything wrong there." So, that in regard to compliance, just having somebody else say to you. "Yes, we're all on the same page. We're all thinking the same thing. You're not missing anything, Brandee, because we all take that so seriously when it comes to our humans, right?" But the system then itself, you know, I said to you, I was kind of a human TriNet. So when I'm in the system and I type in Washington as the state for a new employee, my brain sees everything that TriNet is doing behind the scenes, which I'm assuming codes to all of Washington's regulation rules and helps with those prompts.

And so, it's built in. It is difficult to be noncompliant unless you're trying to be. You won't need TriNet for very long if that's the case, so…

Erin:
We do like to be compliant. And it's funny what you say, because it's kind of like meet you where you are. Right? A lot of people want more technology. A lot of people want more of the human interaction, which serves you better or best, depending on the circumstance, is available depending on what you need that day.

Brandee:
Absolutely.

Erin:
How about you, Priscila?

Priscila:
Yeah, no, I think that those are all spot on. And I would say one thing that I love about this working relationship is that it's no longer just a push. It's also a pull, right? Like, I am being fed information from TriNet on an ongoing basis, as is my team. So one quick example is the weekly newsletter that you send and you're like, "Here are all of the compliance updates for these different states." And I'm like, "Oh, that's fascinating. Like, I had no idea that this was now a thing."

So rather than us going, "Okay, do we have to do the work of going out and researching and finding this?" It's more, "Here's all of the information that you're going to need." And I think that even the project management of going, "Hey, we're starting the new year,” or “We're ending the year. Here are the tasks your team needs to complete,” or “Here are the documents that you need to get ready”, or “Here are the processes to look into,” or like, “Here are the important announcements for different compliance updates that are happening. Here are reminders of resources that are going to be beneficial."

All of those things being fed to us makes it so much easier to deploy because now we don't have to have it be an item on our list that we need to go research all of these different states. You have a team that's doing all of that work and just feeding us whatever is relevant. And so that makes a massive difference.

Erin:
Yeah, it's interesting. Yes. Compliance is very cyclical, right? And the year end and then the year start, there's a lot that's happening there, probably within your own business and then on the people side and the compliance side and being able to balance all that is, you know, you're supposed to be enjoying the holidays.

Brandee:
I'm glad you mentioned that newsletter, Priscila. That is one of my favorite, like, it's such a short blurb of a lot of information that you just quickly can make a mental note of. And then I would add to that, too, I loved the end of the year checklist videos that TriNet put out. I watched that and it prompted me to have my chief of people check some different things, check their addresses at the end of the year, make sure everybody's reporting their correct work state, you know, those kind of things that we may otherwise have missed. Like, I agree with what Priscila said, you know, it really prompts us, "Hey, think about this. You should be thinking about this."

And I kind of need that because I'm thinking about a lot of other stuff. You know, as business owners, we can't keep it all straight. And that's where TriNet really proves to be such a great partner, because like Priscila so eloquently said, they feed us information also.

Erin:
Well, it's hard to be a one-person HR function, right? Just all the things you need to know in general. Well, it looks like we're at time. We're even a minute over. So, no one is yelling at me behind the scenes that we are a minute over. But that is what a good conversation looks like. So, I think we could keep on talking for a while, but I know our time is up and I cannot thank you both enough. It's been a pleasure to spend this time with you. Your insight has been very interesting. Great conversation. So thank you. And thank you for being valued customers.

Brandee:
Thank you, Erin. Good to see you, Priscila.

Priscila:
Nice to spend time with you, Brandee.Erin:
Bye. Take care.