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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
How the Best Companies are Skipping HR and Winning the Future of Work with People Ops People Operations: Automate HR, Design a Great Employee Experience, and Unleash Your Workforce explains how leaders at small- and medium-sized businesses can stop spending time on HR administration--"paperwork"--and start focusing on the "peoplework" that truly fuels employee growth and productivity. Authors Jay Fulcher, Kevin Marasco, Tracy Cote of Zenefits, the leading people operations platform, provide readers with a playbook for creating a massive competitive advantage by eliminating antiquated approaches to HR. The book takes a look at how work has changed and what companies need to do about it, and the new approach they must take to processes, systems, and best practices. You'll learn how to eliminate busywork and hassle, and how to use that newfound time and capital to empower your biggest asset: your people. You'll receive the end-to-end guide to: * Digitizing legacy HR functions * Using robots for the busywork you hate * Employing software to design and improve your employee experience * Assembling and empowering your "people team" * Utilizing the included plans and templates to guide each stage of your business transformation Perfect for managers, leaders, small business owners, and executives, People Operations is perfect for anyone who wants to optimize HR, maximize their workforce investment, support their employees, and modernize their business.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Table of Contents
Cover
Praise for
People Operations
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface: Leveling the Playing Field for the “Other 99 Percent”
We Get It: It's Hard to Be a Small Business
How This Book Helps Tilt the Advantage
Where to Start: With Your Advantage
PART I: The Rise of People Operations
CHAPTER 1: The Great Pivot:
The New Work Order!
Here Come the Robots
The Rise of the Fluid Workforce
The Office is Dying … Kind Of
Your Employees Don't Work for You
CHAPTER 2: So Long, HR
Quick History of a Controversial Topic
Why Everyone Loves to Hate HR
But, HR Matters … a Lot
An Identity Crisis
CHAPTER 3: The Rise of People Ops
People Ops Defined
Work That Really Matters
What People Ops is Not
The Shift to People Ops
The People Ops Methodology
The Benefits of People Ops
Why Is People Operations Such a Hot Topic Now?
CHAPTER 4: People Ops in Action
Introducing the People Ops Maturity Model
What Does People Ops Maturity Mean and How Does It Work?
The People Ops Roadmap
PART II: Automate HR: Kill Paperwork
CHAPTER 5: Make the Stuff You Have to Do Easy (Go Digital)
Automation: The Power Behind the People Team
Keys and Benefits to Automating HR
Where to Begin
CHAPTER 6: Step 1: Create Digital Employee Records
Create an HR System of Record
Digitize Your Org Chart
Keep All Employee Documents in the Cloud with E‐Signatures
Define User Permissions for Your HR and Employee Data
Important Tips When Building Out Your HR System of Record
Hey, Congrats … Step 1 Is Now Complete!
CHAPTER 7: Step 2: Automate Hiring and Onboarding
How to Automate Hiring
How to Automate Onboarding
What to Look for in Hiring and Onboarding Technology
And Just Like That, Step 2 is Complete!
CHAPTER 8: Step 3: Automate Time and Pay
How to Automate Time and Attendance and Pay
What to Look for in Time and Pay Technology
Boom! You Just Finished Step 3!
CHAPTER 9: Step 4: Automate Health Insurance Benefits
How to Automate Your Health Benefits Administration
What to Look for in Benefits Administration Technology
Way to Go—You Just Finished Step 4!
Tie It All Together: Create and Upload Your Digital Employee Handbook!
PART III: Build an Incredible Employee Experience
CHAPTER 10: The Bones of a Successful People Operation
Aligning to Business Goals
Focus on Productivity
CHAPTER 11: Employee Motivation
Breaking Down the Fiscal Impact of Motivation
Employee Motivation Models
Building the Motivation Muscle in Your Company
CHAPTER 12: Fair Pay
The Three Components of a Strong Compensation Strategy
Taking Compensation to Mastery Level: Using Pay Data to Inform the Business
CHAPTER 13: Rethink Communication
What Is a Communications Strategy?
Positioning a Communications Plan as a Critical Value‐Add to the Business
Attributes of an Effective Communicator
What You Say and How and Where You Say It
Communication Tech Tips
Measuring Success
PART IV: Unleash Your Workforce
CHAPTER 14: Performance Alignment
Pillar 1: Performance Alignment Aligns to the Overarching Business Goals
Pillar 2: Performance Alignment Occurs Frequently and Consistently
Pillar 3: Performance Alignment Is Measurable and Adaptable
Pillar 4: Performance Alignment Drives the Intended Actions
Pillar 5: Performance Alignment Treats Your People as Adults
Putting It All Together, Rolling Out the Plan
CHAPTER 15: Closing the Engagement Gap
Ask Questions
Assimilate Answers
Develop Employees
Reward Great Work
Measure Engagement
Types of Engagement Surveys
Empirical Measurement of Employee Engagement
A Note on How You Track Employee Engagement Data
Iterate How You Work
Closing the Gap
CHAPTER 16: Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace
Documenting Your DEI Philosophy and Vision
Creating Subtle Shifts in Culture
CHAPTER 17: Making Remote Work,
Work
Knowing If Remote Work Can Work for You
You're Going Remote! Now What?
Remote Work Could Change Your Hiring and Onboarding Process
The Future of Remote Work
PART V: The Future of People Operations
CHAPTER 18: The Rise of the CPO: Building a Modern People Ops Team
What a POPS Pro Should Bring to Your Business Plan
The POPS Organization
Tips on Team Building
CHAPTER 19: Measuring People Ops
From Gut Instinct to Data‐Driven Decisions
People Analytics: Metrics That Matter
How to Track Your Progress
CHAPTER 20: POPS Technology
The Shortcomings of HR Technology
A Better Way
CHAPTER 21: Turning POPS into a Competitive Advantage
APPENDIX APPENDIXDigital Tools and Resources
Glossary
References
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Jay Fulcher
Kevin Marasco
Tracy Cote
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
TABLE 1.1 Humans only versus humans plus computers.
TABLE 1.2 Static workforce versus fluid workforce.
TABLE 1.3 From physical office work to digital remote work, 2021.
TABLE 1.4 Top‐down environment versus bottom‐up environment.
Chapter 3
TABLE 3.1 The differences between human resources and people Operations.
Chapter 4
TABLE 4.1 Description of a “Level 1: Chaotic” in the People Operations Maturi...
TABLE 4.2 Description of a “Level 2: Reactive” in the People Operations Matur...
TABLE 4.3 Description of a “Level 3: Moderate” in the People Operations Matur...
TABLE 4.4 Description of a “Level 4: Scaling” in the People Operations Maturi...
TABLE 4.5 Description of a “Level 5: Mastery” in the People Operations Maturi...
Chapter 6
TABLE 6.1 Aspects that are included in an employee record. This information c...
TABLE 6.2 Contract workers require a different subset of information on their...
TABLE 6.3 HR information that is required for change history logs.
TABLE 6.4 Additional information that is supplementary to the employee profil...
Chapter 7
TABLE 7.1 What can be managed by computers in most hiring and onboarding flow...
Chapter 8
TABLE 8.1 What can be managed by computers in most time tracking and payroll ...
Chapter 9
TABLE 9.1 What can be managed by computers in most benefits administration wo...
Chapter 10
TABLE 10.1 A simple three‐column list to align people operation goals to larg...
TABLE 10.2 Examples of productivity indicators for select industries.
Chapter 11
TABLE 11.1 The cost of losing an unengaged worker assuming a backfill in “mon...
TABLE 11.2 Chart of Doshi and McGregor's Model of Motivation.
TABLE 11.3 Daniel Pink's explanation of how autonomy, mastery, and purpose re...
TABLE 11.4 An example of how POPS leaders can start to gather simple, consist...
TABLE 11.5 A motivation matrix can help POPS leaders personalize motivators u...
TABLE 11.6 Examples of how employee motivators can translate into core values...
Chapter 12
TABLE 12.1 Example of how salary benchmarking tools work with hypothetical in...
TABLE 12.2 A list of examples of monetary compensation and nonmonetary compen...
TABLE 12.3 Example of clearly defined incentives structures.
TABLE 12.4 The cost of losing a top employee assuming a backfill in “month 4”...
Chapter 14
TABLE 14.1 Key differences between performance management and performance ali...
TABLE 14.2 An example of a completed V2MOM.
TABLE 14.3 Example of a completed Objectives and Key Results form.
TABLE 14.4 Example of a completed the Whats and the Hows.
Chapter 18
TABLE 18.1 List of responsibilities included in people operations.
Chapter 20
TABLE 20.1 HR technology landscape.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1.1 Robot intelligence versus human intelligence.
FIGURE 1.2 The percent of jobs forecasted to be run by machines by 2025.
FIGURE 1.3 An artful representation of the modern workforce.
FIGURE 1.4 Explanation and comparison of all five generations working side b...
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3.1 Smart companies are looking to automate the tasks that take 80 pe...
FIGURE 3.2 Google Trends data for “people operations” 1980–2020.
FIGURE 3.3 Google Trends data for “human resources” 1980–2020.
FIGURE 3.4 The number of job titles for people ops increased 5.7 times faste...
Chapter 4
FIGURE 4.1 A visual representation of the five stages within The People Oper...
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5.1 The HR service value chain.
FIGURE 5.2 An example of a software guardrail.
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6.1 An example of a digital employee record in Zenefits. All employee...
FIGURE 6.2 Digital HR platforms automatically track changes to employee data...
FIGURE 6.3 A digital org chart can show team structures and relationships be...
Chapter 7
FIGURE 7.1 An example of an offer letter template. The highlighted sections ...
FIGURE 7.2 An example of creating an automated email based on an employee‐ba...
Chapter 8
FIGURE 8.1 An example of assigning a hiring date, department, employment typ...
FIGURE 8.2 An example of predefining pay types into templates that can be us...
FIGURE 8.3 An example of using drop‐down menus for preloaded earnings types ...
Chapter 9
FIGURE 9.1 With benefit plans fully digital, employees can review, select, a...
Chapter 12
FIGURE 12.1 The impact of incentive compensation on desired outcomes in a bu...
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13.1 A general guideline regarding the recommended cadence of communi...
FIGURE 13.2 An example of types of appropriate communication channels by top...
Chapter 18
FIGURE 18.1 The many aspects of employee well‐being.
Chapter 20
FIGURE 20.1 With people operations software, employees can collaborate with ...
FIGURE 20.2 An example of a consulting agreement provided for a 1099 employe...
FIGURE 20.3 An example of the Zenefits Compliance Assistant, a digital featu...
FIGURE 20.4 A snapshot of the Zenefits all‐in‐one employee dashboard.
FIGURE 20.5 An example of a Business Intelligence report including data on t...
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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Praise for People Operations
“Cultural value statements are not enough—companies need to live and embody their purpose. People Operations provides a practical guide to support healthier teams and healthier businesses.”
—Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global
“Regardless of your business’s size, if you employ people, you want to empower them to create the most value they can for your customers and their fellow employees. That is the core of any business. But there are lots of other demands on your time that can take your eye off the ball, from compliance regulations to workforce benefits to a myriad of other things. People Operations shows you how you can use technology and tools to offload all that other stuff so you can focus your energies on the stuff that really matters.”
—Geoffrey Moore, Author, Crossing the Chasm
“People Operations is critical reading for businesses of all sizes. The book expertly lays out an updated vision for what had traditionally been considered ‘human resources’ and makes clear that a new way of thinking about engaging with and managing employees is not just needed, it is critical for the success of businesses in the 21st century.”
—Seth Levine, Co-author of The New Builders;Partner and co-founder of Foundry Group
“In many ways, now is the easiest and hardest time to be a small business in the US. The thesis of People Operations is that if small businesses master the emerging disciple of People Operations, they will have a sustainable competitive advantage. As someone who has studied human motivation and performance for my whole adult life, I couldn’t agree more.
People Operations is a practical must-read guide for small business owners. Have your to-do list handy when you’re reading it, because you’ll get a very long list of ideas you’ll want to implement immediately.”
—Neel Doshi, Co-author, Primed to Perform;Co-founder, The Vega Factor.
“Don’t just teach for the role, teach for the human. The conversation around the future of work starts with people. People Operations tackles this very notion by sharing actionable steps on how to invest in people, help unleash the full potential of teams, and focus on the importance of a truly engaged workforce.”
Ryan Patel, Global Executive, Board Director andSenior Fellow, Drucker School of Management
“People Operations is the go-to-handbook for replacing conventional HR with People Ops (POPS). POPs is the powerful way to build a team and fuel your business. Using helpful frameworks like the POPs Maturity Model, you can accurately identify your organization’s stage of development and create a vision for a future where, at maturity, people and culture becomes a true competitive advantage.
New to POPs? Expect to reach for this book often. Experienced POPs professional? You’ll find the frameworks accessible for helping others understand the goal of POPs, and you’ll be left with some gems to consider like high performance reasons your team works and how to tap into them.”
—Amy Dalebout, VP People & Culture, MotoRefi
“Since retiring from the NFL, I’ve dedicated my time to leveling the playing field for others, including small business entrepreneurs. Here’s the thing that the People Operations book does that small business entrepreneurs don’t get in business school, from investors, and certainly not from HR Tech providers: practical, actionable ideas and examples to build your people and your business. The authors of this book, who are also small business leaders, recognize the obstacles and the opportunities that many business books overlook: winning is a team sport.”
—Ronnie Lott, Small Business Owner,Investor and Hall of Fame Athlete
“Adapt or die. It really is as simple as that, and yet no one has time for all of that adapting. Keeping up with the Kardashians of business is incredibly hard when you’re a small business, yet small biz is the engine behind incredible economies. Here’s a book written by a company that gets it; written by small business for small business. Often business books can be drier than toast, but this book is great for new and established businesses to reset your priorities and get solid footing in an ever-shifting landscape of the operations of being, and employing, people.”
—Sarah Shepard, COO, StringCan Interactive
“People Operations provides a prescriptive and pragmatic playbook for going from paper work to people work, giving small businesses a competitive advantage by bringing the human back in the center.”
—Pat Wadors, Chief Talent Officer, Procore
“For the first time, the intersection of brain science, psychology, AI, and neuroscience offers exciting insights into what’s possible as companies build and grow their organizations. People Operations taps into this potential by enabling small businesses to adapt to the shifting landscape of work across the intersection of motivation, collective purpose, and technology.”
—Jeff Stibel, Part
“Business leaders know that their only true competitive differentiator is their people. Knowing how to transform from traditional HR practices to an employee experience set of approaches means disrupting status quos without adversely impacting business outcomes. People Operations explains why the shift is important and provides the practical insights and tools that small business leaders can use to transform how their people experience work without risking business results.”
—Patti Fletcher, CMO, Workhuman
“One of the biggest challenges for business owners today is attracting and retaining employees. People Operations will help you create a great employee experience, which will help you keep your staff and grow your business.
—Rieva Lesonsky, CEO, President & Founder at GrowBiz Media/Small Business Daily
JAY FULCHER · KEVIN MARASCO · TRACY COTE
PEOPLE OPERATIONS
AUTOMATE HR, DESIGN A GREAT EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, AND UNLEASH YOUR WORKFORCE
Copyright © 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Fulcher, Jay, author. | Marasco, Kevin, author. | Cote, Tracy, author.
Title: People operations : automate HR, design a great employee experience, and unleash your workforce / Jay Fulcher, Kevin Marasco, and Tracy Cote.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021018709 (print) | LCCN 2021018710 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119785231 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119785309 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119785316 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Personnel management—Data processing.
Classification: LCC HF5549.5.D37 F76 2021 (print) | LCC HF5549.5.D37 (ebook) | DDC 658.3/03—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021018709
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021018710
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: Business Woman: © Sorbetto/Getty ImagesMultitasking Icons: © Rudzhan Nagiev/Getty Images
This book is dedicated to small business owners, hustlers, people who have dreams, and people who create opportunities for others to follow their dreams.
Preface: Leveling the Playing Field for the “Other 99 Percent”
One in five small businesses fail within their first year. One in two go out of business within five years. In 2020, that rate was even higher (Hannon 2020).
These aren't nameless, faceless statistics. Small businesses are the manifestation of the American dream. Ninety‐nine percent of all businesses in the United States are “small” as defined by the Small Business Association's definition of employing 500 people or fewer. They're also the lifeblood of the US economy. Thirty‐two million small businesses employ 47 percent of the US workforce, about 60 million people. And they have contributed 66 percent of all new jobs since 2000 (SBA Office of Advocacy 2018).
The good news is that even in the dire economic realities of the COVID‐19 pandemic and globalization, small businesses in America are getting stronger. Although the average lifespan of a small business is 8.5 years, the failure rate (percent of year‐over‐year failures) is actually shrinking (Todd 2020).
Why? Small organizations are typically more creative. They're more in tune with their customers. They can move faster, and are more nimble. They have a better finger on the pulse of their employees. And now, they have newfound access to services, tools, and technology that let them do more—much more—with less. They're using these tools to better operationalize and automate their business processes. They're using these tools to turn adversity into advantage.
Perhaps the least operationalized business function—and the one with the most potential impact—is the people function. You know, the function that oversees a company's greatest asset, expense, and source of competitive advantage: its people.
This book is all about bringing that function into focus—and up to speed—to meet the massive shifts in the new world of work.
By “people function,” do we mean HR? No, actually we don't. Human resources, formerly the personnel department or “policy police,” might have worked in the twentieth century. It still might have worked before the 2020 pandemic. Actually, at best, it might have worked. At worst, it was strangely separate from the business—seen as a necessary evil, an overhead, and a hassle. Business leaders and employees often don't like HR, or their idea of HR. We agree. This book is about a new approach to a timeless challenge.
People Operations (People Ops, or POPS) is a people‐centric business approach that emphasizes workforce empowerment to drive growth. POPS focuses on automating administration, using data to drive decisions, and delivering tangible results. When you empower your people to do their best every day, you build a more resilient culture that becomes a sustainable competitive advantage.
People Ops is the future of work. If you own, run, or work for a small business and are responsible for people in any capacity, this book is for you and your future.
We Get It: It's Hard to Be a Small Business
The playing field for 32 million small businesses like yours is markedly stacked against you, as compared to fewer than 20 thousand enterprise companies with workforces larger than 500 people (SBA Office of Advocacy 2020).
You don't have the big companies' budgets, departments, depth of sophistication, or tools they have access to. And you likely lack the benefits, perks, and employee experience to compete as effectively for the best talent.
What you do have is an equal amount of the same compliance overhead. There are 180 federal labor laws alone for businesses of all sizes to manage. Compound that with state and city ordinances, and that's where small business owners' sleepless nights begin.
You also share the challenge of employing, engaging and retaining five generations of workers with fundamentally different expectations from their employers. Seventy percent of them will be from the Millennial and Gen Z generations in 2025 (Lettink 2019). And they're in it for purpose over paycheck, for lifestyle over the corporate ladder, for inclusion and empathy over titles. They expect their work experience to include tech that's as easy to use as the apps on their iPhones.
And what you have even more of: costs for providing insurance coverage. On average, small businesses pay 8–18 percent more for healthcare insurance coverage per employee than large firms who can negotiate better rates with more people, ostensibly in exchange for lower risk to insurance carriers (Ferguson 2020). And that's on top of a more frightening reality: the average cost of healthcare for a US family of four in 2020 was $28,653 (Girod et al. 2020). That could equate to 38–100 percent of total family income, according to Brian Melanson at M4 Innovation. Therefore, it's scary, but not surprising, that less than half of small businesses offer health insurance.
Because salaries and benefits represent the top two costs for businesses, and labor compliance is one of your greatest risks, you cannot afford to manage your people function by “gut” or good intention with occasional swag and fun events. Profit leaks, regulatory risks, and people issues are among the top reasons for small and medium‐sized business (SMB) failure, and you need to be on your game.
How This Book Helps Tilt the Advantage
First of all, as authors of this book, we absolutely subscribe to the notion in The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz (2014):
There's no recipe for really complicated, dynamic situations. There's no recipe for building a high‐tech company; there's no recipe for leading a group of people out of trouble; there's no recipe for making a series of hit songs; there's no recipe for playing NFL quarterback; there's no recipe for running for president; and there's no recipe for motivating teams when your business has turned to crap. That's the hard thing about hard things—there is no formula for dealing with them … [The most successful CEOs] … have the ability to focus and make the best moves when there are no good moves.
So we've established what we don't have. What is it that we do have? We have a pretty close and sober view of the realities facing small businesses.
We authors have each started and/or contributed to the growth, success, and profitable exits across a number of businesses—many of them focused on technology and automating people programs. Individually, and collectively, we've been motivated by solving hard problems. And you'd better believe we've learned a lot of hard lessons in the process.
Over the past decade, we've worked with more than 30,000 of the most successful small businesses across the country, leaning in and learning with them—and from them—about the market, social, demographic, environmental, political, mobile, health, and well‐being dynamics that impact their people and therefore their businesses.
Most importantly, we've recognized the force multiplier of pairing an eyes‐wide‐open awareness of the dynamics of the new world of work, to better build, engage, and unleash a team of people against a hard problem or unexplored potential.
The keys: take the time to understand the changing market, business, and people dynamics, and their impact on your business. Then, continually challenge your assumptions.
Where to Start: With Your Advantage
The great thing about running a small business is your ability to adapt.
Throughout the pandemic we were awed by and grateful for how our own Zenefits team rose to the challenge and changes with grit, tenacity, and innovation. Instead of slowing our product development, we sped it up, delivering a host of products, features, and content geared directly at making it easier to manage during the crisis—from applying for Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans, to supporting paid sick time off and managing related tax incentives and loan forgiveness criteria.
We were inspired to see the phenomenal bravery, determination, and humanity across our customer base finding new ways to exist, transform, and even grow in spite of the obstacles in front of them.
You, too, likely have access to easily tap these same tremendous small business advantages right now for better resilience:
Speed: Your lack of size means fewer constraints to move quickly on new ideas.
Agility: Your ability and appetite for continual iteration and improvement make your business more agile.
Digital‐readiness: Your scalable, cloud‐based technologies allow you to connect, pivot, and communicate.
People‐first: You treat employees like customers, partners, and trusted counselors.
These are your strengths, and this is where you have the competitive edge over the lumbering big corporations.
The average S&P 500 company today is up to 20 years old (Sheetz 2017). Their supply chains and infrastructure that once gave them a competitive advantage have become a ball and chain that is immobilizing them. Meanwhile, smaller organizations like yours disrupt their business by providing easier and better ways for their customers to get greater value from you.
Technology is often the engine at the heart of that disruption. Technology has changed the potential for small businesses to start with significantly less capital, and continue with more ease. Software in the cloud has replaced prohibitively priced hardware and the tech staff needed to support it. High‐speed internet allows your team to work from home—or increasingly, wherever—versus maintaining an expensive office space. And of course Zoom has become as ubiquitous as a lightbulb, connecting us in our digital Brady Bunch boxes.
Technology is also the catalyst that's helped build rigor and data to transform: your bookkeeping with financial operations; your customer acquisition with sales operations; your brand awareness with marketing operations. Now it's time to leverage your huge investment in finding, hiring, and training your people to accelerate their success and the success of your business with people operations.
For sure, technology is a piece of it. Automating the paperwork is a start. But there is a science, a practice, and practical changes required for your small business to unleash the potential of your people and your profit. And it's not a nice‐to‐have; it's a have‐to‐have.
The COVID‐19 pandemic fast‐tracked many concepts about the future of work—at warp speed—to the present. In 2020 you may have managed a remote team for the first time; you may have dealt for the first time with life‐and‐death health and safety decisions for employees and customers; you may have been truly afraid for the emotional well‐being of yourself and your team.
Healthy people are critical for a healthy business.
It's the new world of work. Work has changed, and continues to change. Have you? That might be why you're here. We're glad you're here.
Our company mission—or noble purpose as we like to think of it—is to help take the stress, headache, and complexity out of difficult, perplexing (and sometimes frustrating) business processes.
We're in business to give small businesses like yours the right data in the right place, seamlessly. We enable you to easily shop for benefit options all in one spot to get the same coverage and capabilities that large companies have. To curate and democratize access to content and open resources for anything from health and well‐being to mentoring and developing employees. You know—like big companies do.
Yes, we provide a people operations technology platform that supports onboarding, HR, payroll, and all levels of healthcare, engagement, performance, and well‐being. And sure, we'd love you to become a customer. But more than that, we'd love you to succeed.
Through all of our work and our learning alongside the nation's community of small businesses—many of which grew up to be large businesses—we've noticed how they do work differently. This helped to shape our thinking about tech, strategy, practice, process, and the integral role of the right data for decision making. This puts you and your team in the best possible position to be successful.
All of this—and a deep passion for small business—informed this book.
We've consolidated the information in this book to offer you guideposts and mile‐markers, questions, options, and real‐world “POPS Star” examples so that you're prepared to make the best choices when there are no good ones. So you can build a team and business resilience to meet the future.
Here's to your success, and to your success with people operations.
Because your people are your business. And your success powers our economy.
We're in it, together.
