people ops stuff
Understanding the HR alphabet soup 📎
There are many aspects of People Operations. There's the people-focused side, which involves employee engagement and what I consider the "fun" stuff. Then, there are the more complex parts that become more challenging as you delve deeper. One challenging element is determining your tech stack, or the tools you use to ensure everything runs smoothly, such as paying employees on time and doing so compliantly. Some people are wizards at this; I am not.
There was so much I had to learn coming into this space. First, every HR platform is trying to do everything. And, secondly, most HR platforms aren’t actually effective and do everything at a mediocre level.
Not to mention, there’s a tool for everything. Performance Reviews? Yep. Employee anniversaries and birthdays? Bot-away. Compensation bands and leveling? HEARD.
When deciding on our tech stack, I would scour Reddit threads, community groups such as TroopHR, personal recommendations (major love for my network of HR smarty pants), LinkedIn diatribes, and the like. What I quickly realized is that most platforms weren’t going to check all of your boxes (at least in a way that was compliant and didn’t get me fired).
To be honest, it’s a lonely and tough process, especially since it hinges on a critical part of operations. It was like speaking in a language I wasn’t even quite sure I understood, much less translating for someone else. To everyone else at the company, I was just spewing acronyms left and right.
Some top line acronyms of tools you’ve probably heard:
(Obvi disclaimer: could be wrong, could be right)
PEO – this is a Professional Employer Organization; most small -mid-size businesses lean into a PEO for broader HR support such as payroll. They act as a co-employer, allowing small biz to tap into enterprise-level benefits e.g. health insurance. As a small business and, depending where you are, leaning into a PEO will help save $ and streamline a lot of disparate operations. In some cases, it also means better options for insurance. Also, this helps with being compliant because fines are real. Examples include Justworks. Rippling, etc.
EOR – an EOR or Employer of Record is an entity that employs employees on your behalf and supports businesses through global compliance, payroll, and benefits and the like. Generally, most EORs also have entities in other countries that can help with different employment laws so you are compliant with global labor laws. Again, this is really helpful for small businesses who are hiring internationally. I am not an international labor law expert so this comes in handy. Examples include Remote, Deel, PapayaGlobal, etc.
HRIS – An HRIS or Human Resources Information System is software that manages employee data. Some HRIS tend to be built in with payroll but not all the time. But, you can see how having one central source of truth can be extremely helpful and efficient especially as a company scales.
My brain hurts even describing these to you. There are many more out there, but these tend to be top of mind for me, especially when it comes to tools. For us, having a PEO was mission-critical because of health insurance support. Without a PEO, if you’re lucky and have a low-risk staff, you can use New York's open marketplace. Some companies use insurance brokers to navigate the various policies and plans.
The purpose of any tech stack is to help streamline operations and, in my case, to perform all of these important tasks compliantly. This doesn't even take into account the cost, the total number of employees, determining which package makes the most sense, assessing benefits, and understanding various state laws regarding PTO, pay, FMLA, etc.
I’m not sure if I helped you understand my alphabet soup, but I hope you get a little glimmer of the joy I have in making it feel seamless. You’re welcome.
therapy stuff
hinged therapist advice 🗒
You can let go of that core belief about yourself that isn’t true. You know the one.