Item: TriNet HR Platform
Rating: 7
Author: Erin Leonard

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Zenefits to run payroll, manage payroll taxes, hire and onboard employees, manage employee benefits (health, retirement, etc), and keep track of & pay contractors. All of our employees use Zenefits. Because we are a small company, using Zenefits has helped us outsource our HR & payroll department. It would be a big pain for small organizations like us to handle these things in-house.

Pros and Cons

Simple platform for running payroll. It is easy to adjust pay, see deductions, reimburse employees, manage bonuses, etc. It takes literally 5 minutes or less to run payroll - which is huge.
Zenefits has a great system for getting new employees on boarded with the employee handbook, financial stuff, legal employment verification, and more. Makes it so that I can be a little more hand-off during that process.
Zenefits does a great job of reminding me if there are things coming up like benefits renewal, or legally mandated updates to renewing our employee handbook, new tax laws, etc. - so that I don't feel like there are important things slipping through the cracks.

Zenefits has pretty bad customer service. Sometimes there are pretty serious issues that inevitably come up (like mis-calculations for payroll taxes), and in these cases Zenefits won't get back to you in less then about 15 business days. Which is sometimes long enough for important payments to go past their due date. This is extremely frustrating.
When you contact zenefits, you will never get the email or phone number of an actual customer support person. They communicate with you through one generic email, and you will never have a single point person who you can follow up with on ongoing issues. Right now I have anywhere from 5-7 different open cases open with customer service agents from Zenefits, and the process is not streamlined at all. A single point person would be helpful. You have to pay extra to get a dedicated "payroll adviser" which is something I think should just come with the service inherently.
They are quick to get back to you if you want to upgrade your plan, but take forever if you need actual help.
The user interface can be extremely confusing from the administration side. Not everything is housed in the "settings" section, sometimes you really have to hunt around to adjust the setting for a particular app that you are working with. For the users (employees) the UI is easy to navigate but for an admin it can be very confusing.

Return on Investment

Overall, the fact that we don't need to devote a ton of time to payroll makes Zenefits a worth-it expenditure.

Support Rating

Not good at all. Basically I typically feel like they can solve the issue at hand. However, they take forever and it never feels like they really care. It can be frustrating that the agent will never speak with you on the phone or just give you their direct contact info so that you can continue to follow up on the same issue. Once they "close" the issue - you have to go back to the main customer service email or line again, even though it may be related to something you've contacted them about in the past.

Key Insights

Do you think TriNet HR Platform delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with TriNet HR Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did TriNet HR Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of TriNet HR Platform go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy TriNet HR Platform again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Because we are small, Zenefits is priced correctly and has all the features we need. Additionally, now that all of our employees are set up in there, and we have now built our systems around the platform it would be too hard to switch. If they had better customer service - I would easily recommend them to a colleague. However, because it is so hard to get issues solved it can be very frustrating so I would know that going in, and maybe go with a different platform if you're a larger or more complicated business. Our payroll needs are simple so relatively few issues come up. It is impossible to get a quick response from them.

Overall, Zenefits has everything we need - except a responsive customer service team

Overall Satisfaction with Zenefits