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TriNet PEO is a must for IT providers
June 07, 2019

TriNet PEO is a must for IT providers

Catherine Baird | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with TriNet

Outsourced HR for the whole organization
Addresses problems of:
1. Lower cost for benefits allowing us to offer more perks to employees
2. Automation and management of HR functions and reporting
3. HR expertise that I and my other managers lack
This allows us to concentrate our time on functions directly to the business to generate more value
  • Pricing is excellent. Rather than % of employee salary, like other providers, they charge a fixed fee. This does not discourage me from raising people's salaries (i.e. I don't have to "share" that cost by added costs from Trinet thereby limiting my ability to improve compensation packages.
  • Benefits are incredible. I know from competitors of mine who directly source their own benefits packages and just outsource payroll that we're paying 15-25% less for critical need items like Medical Insurance and can offer benefits like Disability , AD&D, Life that much larger companies than mine cannot afford. This makes me competitive against even the largest and most established providers. Key when you're in a field where competition for top-notch employees is very, very fierce.
  • Sales / Account Management are very experienced, knowledgeable and didn't make me do all the legwork to get the numbers and comparatives I needed to make and accept the business case to switch. And they maintain a relationship going forward which is most helpful.
  • Auto-generated notifications from the various HR regulatory and enrollment/administrative requirements and updates are frankly impossible to understand. These need to be written in plain English with clear instructions on what exact next steps need to be taken.
  • They also need to be tailored to the right recipients. i.e. many do not apply to companies with less than XX number of employees. The TriNet system should determine that and not send me urgent "must dos" that aren't applicable to me.
  • While I really appreciate having a dedicated HR representative assigned to help me with any payroll, benefits or HR activities, it would be better if that person was trained in the full range and able to take the initiative to walk me through / assist with new activities as are periodically needed to perform. Basically I'm looking for the care and attention I received being onboarded whenever a new function is required (or I have a problem). One major thing I look for in outsourcing this function is a vast reduction in the amount of time I have to spend on it. If I have to research and talk to all sorts of different departments, this does not save me time.
  • The web interface of the TriNet online application is very difficult and cumbersome for: Simply approving/entering Time Off requests; Viewing my invoices and other "reports"; and we won't even talk about Annual Enrollment setup - that was a nightmare!
TriNet makes sure the Workmans Comp setup and management is performed in accordance with regulations which is a great relief. They provide me with all the necessary employee posters and guidelines (saved days of work when I did it myself). W-2 and Payroll remittance is top notch -- I don't even have to think about it.
And Benefits are stellar. Where they're less helpful is with explaining various government regulations -- most times I struggle to read the communications then realize they don't even apply to me -- and with proactively managing my account through annual re-ups and changes.
It's a breeze for the day to day operations and the employee views are pretty simple (except for Benefits enrollment). It's awful for getting and downloading my invoice each pay period or generating basic financial reports I need for compliance. The time off request is way too cumbersome - employees should just be able to go to one screen, choose dates, add note submit and I should be able to approve 1 step when I click the email link. I should be able to enter approved time off for any of my employees with 1 page - select employee, dates, hours and click submit. Setting up the benefits plan for the coming year was terrible. I couldn't even pull up the rate charts for the various options. Only by working with support which wasn't my dedicated rep and took almost a day to engage was I able to get a simple compare of last years rates to this and make the necessary selections so we could proceed. That needs serious improvement.
  • Positive - Save me and my managers time. Huge impact.
  • Positive - provide highly competitive benefits at affordable costs making my company more attractive to highly desired talent and retain the excellent talent I've already required. A huge boost to employee satisfaction.
  • Positive - improve payroll accuracy, stay withing HR compliance and make sure I'm doing all the right things
  • Negative impact on how easy it is to manage my HR costs from an Accounting Perspective (added a burden to budgeting, payables, bank cash management) and an unease that TriNet really understands and is caring for all the obligations I have with State as well as Federal regulators / gov's for tax reporting.
I can't find the listings or products (and don't really care) that other PEOs use.
I did compare TriNet against Administaff, Oasis, Paychex and ChoiceHR
TriNet was much more affordable for me than any of them and let me offload the time as well as get the advantage of top-notch benefits for my staff.
I honestly think the only scenarios where TriNet is not well suited would be those with large numbers of low-paid (hourly, non-exempt) W-2 employees -- retail, hotel staff, etc. Or if the employer for some reason cannot co-employ their staff with a PEO. Otherwise it's a better solution than having internal HR across the board for any Professional Services / Information Worker / established companies.

TriNet Feature Ratings

9.2
Employee demographic data
Not Rated
Employment history
10
Job profiles and administration
10
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.
10
Organizational charting
10
Organization and location management
10
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)
5
10.0
Pay calculation
10
Benefit plan administration
10
Direct deposit files
10
Salary revision and increment management
10
Reimbursement management
Not Rated
5.5
Approval workflow
1
Balance details
10
Annual carry-forward and encashment
Not Rated
10.0
View and generate pay and benefit information
10
Update personal information
10
View job history
10
View company policy documentation
10
Employee recognition
Not Rated
Asset Management ()
Not Rated
3.0
Report builder
3
Pre-built reports
4
Ability to combine HR data with external data
2
Integration with other HR capabilities ()
Not Rated
Not Rated
Performance plans
Not Rated
Performance improvement plans
Not Rated
Review status tracking
Not Rated
Review reminders
Not Rated
Not Rated
Candidate search
Not Rated
Candidate development
Not Rated
10.0
New hire portal
10
Manager tracking tools
10
Not Rated
Corporate goal setting
Not Rated
Individual goal setting
Not Rated
Line-of sight-visibility
Not Rated
Performance tracking
Not Rated
Not Rated
Job Requisition Management
Not Rated
Publish to Social Media
Not Rated
Job Search Site Posting
Not Rated
Applicant Tracking
Not Rated
Notifications and Alerts
Not Rated