Item: TriNet
Rating: 2
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have used TriNet for about 5 years, as we grew from 4 employees to 15 employees. TriNet's pitch is that they take care of all the details of having employees (from payroll to benefits, to compliance, etc.). To some extent, this is true—we didn't have to deal with many of those details at the beginning of our time with TriNet, however, at the end of 2020, they stopped offering a dedicated account service rep and all of our questions got sent to a giant mailbox where no one ever answers. They advertise a 48-72 hour response time, but in our experience, it's been far longer. We've gotten quotes from a variety of other PEOs that are all about half of the per-employee cost (approximately $200 per month at Trinet) and do offer a dedicated account rep (so you at least can get an answer to quick questions). I would recommend against TriNet. They will take care of the details for you, but you'll spend a lot of time if you have any questions or complications.

Pros and Cons

Providing zero-touch payroll.
Providing moderately good healthcare with little effort from the employer.

Responsiveness has fallen to almost zero; no dedicated account rep.
They are expensive for what they offer, about twice as much as competitors.
The healthcare is not as good as you'd get from a broker for the same price, but it is hassle-free.
There is little or no support for employee healthcare problems ("I got this claim denied" kind of stuff).

Support Rating

Now that there is no dedicated account rep, there is little support. Sure, there are blogs and resources, but I'm not going to read thousands of pages to find the answer I want. This was our major concern with Trinet and the reason that we recommend against it. Generally, their website and processes on a "normal day" are perfectly fine. It's when you need them to fix a mistake or approach a problem that it gets so bad it drove us to leave.

Usability

It's a good portal. Look, these portals are all kinda the same. Can you find what you want? Sure. I view it as a compliment that there was nothing that really bothered us about it.

Return on Investment

I have been so distracted chasing answers from TriNet that it hasn't saved me much time.
At fewer than 5 employees, it did save us money. Beyond that, it was expensive.
Once it became a distraction, taking more time than it saved, it was time to leave.

COVID-19 Support

Not at all. We didn't really require much. We got newsletters with blog posts on occasion.

Alternatives Considered

I have gotten quotes from 6 other PEOs. TriNet is around $214 per employee. CoAvantage is $125, ADP's PEO is $130, Emplova is $160, etc. And they all offer dedicated account service reps. We're switching as we speak.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you only have a few employees, and you care more about having a big-name PEO than getting good service, Trinet will work well. If you are willing to go to almost any competitor, you will get better service at a lower price. That was our concern—we liked the PEO model for when we had fewer than 5-8 employees when you don't mind overpaying for each one. What we didn't realize is that many of the PEO options offer the same general services at wildly different price points.

Service has really fallen off, we're leaving and I would recommend against joining.

Overall Satisfaction with TriNet