Does it feel like you're more in the business of running an HR department than a school? Hiring, onboarding, paperwork, payroll and health insurance — the job never ends. And chances are, you're not alone.
Until earlier this year, Adam Wilson felt that way, too. But he says a new software program — Zenefits — is helping to eliminate many of the HR tasks he was spending so many hours doing, giving him more time to focus on the real reason for his role: the kids.
"It's rare for people like us to have a passion for HR and tax forms," said Wilson, director and co-founder of the Griffin School, a private college preparatory high school in Austin, Texas. "I was always sort of doing it on the fly and probably not doing it all that well."
Zenefits acts as a cloud-based HR platform that automates much of the paperwork schools and other small and medium-sized businesses are accustomed to doing manually. It allows organizations to manage hiring, payroll, health insurance, taxes, paid time off, employee life events and more.
The company is the brainchild of CEO and co-founder Parker Conrad, who founded the tech startup in April 2013 after becoming fed up with trying to manage time-consuming HR details while running another tech company a few years ago.
"It was a real pain and a completely inefficient way to run a business, since I was wasting time filling out paperwork instead of focusing exclusively on growing the company," Conrad said. "I decided I had to do something to fix this problem."
And the solution seems to make sense, with 98 percent of the country's businesses being classified as small businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Currently, more than 2,000 organizations across 47 states have signed up to use the software, according to the company.
A look at the Zenefits dashboard. (Image: Zenefits)
As an additional benefit, Zenefits helps schools and businesses navigate the complications of health insurance. Organizations using the program can choose to make it their health insurance broker, since the company is licensed to do so in all 50 states. It does so by producing a price quote for insurance online.
Conrad noted that's how his company is able to offer its services to businesses free of charge — it collects commissions from multiple benefits providers, including health insurance carriers. So it collects the fee schools would normally be paying to an insurance broker.
This goes against the traditional model of healthcare, which is becoming necessary in the new era of care being ushered in by the Affordable Care Act, Conrad said.
The Griffin School worked with a health insurance broker prior to using Zenefits, and it wasn't always smooth, Wilson said.
"It was just more of a hands-on process to get the support we needed," he said, adding that Zenefits has helped simplify things.
While Zenefits hasn't completely eliminated HR tasks for Wilson, it has automated most of them, taking a large chunk off his already-full plate.
For example, employees can simply log into an online portal to check information about their benefits package or paid time off, rather than coming to Wilson with questions. Or take tax forms — employees can file those online themselves, eliminating the paper trail he had to manage before.
And that makes his actual job — working with people — seem a little bit easier.
"For what it is, it's been wonderful for us," Wilson said. "It's just nice to feel like it's been covered."
