Name: Costly HR Compliance Mistakes to Avoid
Uploaded: 2025-05-01T18:16:04.756Z
Duration: 1 h 16 s
Description: Costly HR Compliance Mistakes to Avoid

Transcript for "Costly HR Compliance Mistakes to Avoid": Wonderful. Okay. Well, we are at the top of the hour. So hello, everyone. Good morning. Good afternoon depending on where you are in the world. Thank you for joining us today for our webinar on chaos to clarity, the costly HR compliance mistakes to avoid. So over the next forty five minutes, we are going to break down the three most common compliance mistakes. We will share a framework used by top companies to stay ahead and then we'll also explore practical ways to manage compliance risks without wasting that precious time and money. But before we get started, just some quick housekeeping items. This session will be recorded and distributed to everybody in attendance afterwards. And for the SHRM certified professionals, following this webinar, you will receive an email from SHRM about your credit. And then we also will leave time for q and a at the end of the presentation. But in the meantime, you can always use the q and a function on the right side of your screen to submit any questions that you have as we go along. So to get started with introductions, I am Alexis Lochead, and I lead one of our PEO and HR services teams here at Rippling, where, really, I just work to help customers and even potential customers manage their benefits and compliance needs. Now compliance is one of those things that most people don't even know how to do and quite frankly don't even wanna learn to do, but it's something that must be done right. And there's always that nagging feeling that you're probably doing things wrong and you're worried about the consequences. So needless to say, it's all very stressful, and I'm very excited to chat with an expert who can really help you navigate this complex topic and offload it somewhere else. So today, I am joined by Alena Vlasova, and she is a SHRM certified HR expert with over ten years of experience in the space. She is also on our HR advisory team. So day in, day out, she is helping our PEO and HR services customers navigate these complex HR topics ranging anywhere from performance management issues to even creating policies for leave of absences. So we are very lucky to have her joining us today. So before we get started, I do want to get a sense of your priorities and your interests. So we're gonna do a a quick couple of polls. So I'm gonna stop sharing my screen. Cybil's will pop up. And poll question number one, we wanna hear what is your biggest compliance headache? Is it, number one, handling quarterly and annual filings? Is it hiring employees in a new state? Is it handling terminations or setting up company policies? And what you'll see on the right hand of your screen, there'll be a tab that says poll where if you click on that, you should be able to submit your responses. So I will give you folks a few moments to submit on what is your biggest compliance headache. And even once you've selected one of the polls, if there is something that isn't listed, feel free to drop it in the chat. We would love to hear what you guys are experiencing today. So is it quarterly filings, employees in any state handling terminations, or setting up policies? Give you guys a couple moments to submit your responses if you are just now joining us. Okay. So the votes are in, and it looks like the biggest compliance headache that most people are dealing with today are handling quarterly and annual filings. Yeah. It's that's a big one. So makes a ton of sense. Now we also wanna know what your biggest compliance concern is. So now we will see or you should see poll question number two pop up shortly on what is your biggest compliance concern. And is it number one, wasting too much time on it? Number two, getting things wrong? Number three, missing a deadline. Or number four, receiving a fine or penalty. And just as a reminder, if you're just now joining us, you will be able to submit your responses if you click on pull on the right side of your screen. We are taking a pulse on what's the biggest compliance concern you guys have today are. So I'll give you guys a couple minutes. Alright. Wasting too much time. Yeah. Oh, getting things wrong. So I'm just now realizing we can scroll. So it looks like wasting too much time getting things wrong, missing a deadline, receiving a fine or penalty. Getting things wrong right now has the most votes. Let's see if it continues that way. Yeah. It's when you get things wrong, it's stressful. Right? Because sometimes all of these things can come into play. When you get it wrong, you might miss a deadline, and, thus, you will receive a fine or a penalty. So I really appreciate you guys sharing your priorities and your challenges and really looking at these results. It's clear that many of you are facing similar hurdles when it comes to the compliance world. Now the good news is that we are going to cover many of these issues in today's conversation. So with that, I would love to welcome Alena Vlasova to our virtual stage. Now as a reminder, Alena Vlasova is a member of our HR advisory team. She is an expert on all things HR. So thank you for joining us today, Alana. My goodness. Thank you so much for the warm welcome, Alexis. It's such a pleasure to be here today. Great. Well, to get things started, I think it will be great for the audience to hear a little bit about your background. Can you tell us about your experience in managing compliance? Yeah. Sure. I'm delighted to be here, and I'm so delighted to give you a little bit of an overview on my experience and my where I am now. I've spent my entire career in the HR space, and I'm so delighted to work in the HR space. Started out in the generalist capacity working at companies like Moleskine and Barry's Boot Camp. But, you know, at the back of my mind, I always had this big dream of helping small businesses. I first saw what a huge impact the PEO and HR services space has on small businesses during the height of the pandemic. I would say around 2019, '20 '20 towards the end of 2019, more so specifically. It was a sink or swim situation, and that truly made me proud to help businesses prosper. And so now with over ten years of HR experience in the space, I have a professional SHRM certification. Now here at Rippling, I'm on the HR advisory team. And collectively, as you can imagine, we have well over sixty years of generalist HR experience. We work with HR services, with PEO, and with US EO clients. And we go through daily tricky situations in related to employees' life cycle, performance related issues, and other HR questions. We're here really when customers really need it. That second opinion from an expert or they just wanna think out loud, bounce around those ideas with somebody who can provide them with feedback. Many of our clients, they're small teams. They have teams of one or they have a couple of people, but they may not have too much HR knowledge if any. Now a little bit about me personally, in my spare time, I love travel. You'll find me on a plane somewhere different probably every every two months or so. And then I have my my lovely dog, Yorkie, Louie, who love to spend time with. I love that. Thank you for sharing a little bit about yourself. And to really get in, I guess, to the meat and the potatoes, I think a lot of people believe that compliance is a boring subject. Right? It's not as fun as traveling or Yorkies. But why companies even compete even care about compliance? Yeah. You know, that's a really good question, and I absolutely agree with you, but it is really important. Most people think that compliance really is a check the box type of exercise, but it's not just about avoiding fines. It's also very important about unlocking business growth. Noncompliance can be so costly, not just financially, but also in terms of legal implications, employee claims, potential lawsuits. Right? And so these issues, they create a Rippling effect. No pun intended, of course, impacting your talent pool, your employee experience, your retention, and workplace culture. Ripple effect. See what you did there. Very clever. Yeah. I always make sure that, you know, have a little bit of fun, right, when we work with clients even though it's such a serious topic. Love those Rippling puns. Anyways, more importantly, if you can put compliance on an autopilot, saves you a lot of time and I know some of you do have that issue you brought up, reduces your risk and frees up your team to focus on the initiatives that really grow your businesses like talent development and retention. It also helps you easily expand your talent pool to anywhere within the 50 US states, making it super easy to grow into the new states without all of that compliance burden on your shoulders. Yeah. And, I mean, you just said it, state specific, but there is just so much in general to unpack around compliance. How do the most effective companies think about it today? Yeah. So most companies that I speak to really aren't experts on compliance or HR. Right? Most effective companies, they handle compliance proactively, not reactively. So I find that these companies think about compliance in three different ways. And so the first way is legal. Right? So how do I make sure I'm complying with any federal, state, or local requirements so that I can focus on my business, having that peace of mind and avoiding any penalties or fines? Think about it that way. And then, of course, the second is cultural. So consider how different policies fit into other company values and how employees feel about that. This is so relevant for things like leave policies, like parental leave, like terminations, and, you know, how do those get handled at a company on a repeated basis. And then finally, the area of operational. Consider that, who is responsible for handling compliance issues at your company? What's the burden on those individuals? Right? What's the trade off to take care of those manual super tedious tasks that are so hard to figure out? They're annoying to complete, but they're so important. Right? Plus, there are the questions of who covers for the business when different people are out on leave. So when Susie is about to go off and have bonding time with her child, who's gonna cover for her? Right? You wanna make sure that that is thought of in advance. The hardest part is knowing how to handle how to actually implement all these ideas. So ensuring compliance with tax accounts, registrations, quarterly and annual filings, it can be such a headache. Right? So that's why I always recommend using some sort of software to help. It's really a really great way to proactively stay compliant without even thinking too much about it. Yeah. That that makes a lot of sense. And I know that was one of our poll questions. Right? Or one of our poll responses was that people don't wanna get things wrong. Now is there a specific time when companies really need to be on the lookout for compliance risks or specific needs? Yeah. I mean, the answer is always. Right? The reality is that compliance is always relevant. And so you need to be in compliance for your entire company's existence, whether you're just starting out with a couple employees, one or two, or maybe you've grown quite a bit, you know, thousands of employees. But there are a few key moments that it is rather critical. And so I find it helpful to break that down by looking at the employee life cycle. First, it's when you're hiring in that new state, right, where you haven't had somebody before. I talk to clients at least a couple of times a week about this. So, you know, in states like California, Colorado, New York, DC, there's always a lot of regulation and require filings. And I know that is at the top of your minds seeing the beginning of this call. And then another critical moment is when you're dealing with employee performance related questions. Always a tricky time. Right? At that moment, you're bound to come across these issues as you hire and you develop your talent. This needs to be handled very, very sensitively. I can't express that enough because any issues could result in a potential claim from a current or a former employee. Yeah. Now what about when employees leave? Yeah. You know, that's another really great question. So this is definitely important to watch out for compliance risks at that point. I always recommend having as much documentation as possible. More documentation, the better, frankly. And that you're ensuring that you're complying with those state and federal employment laws. I spent a lot of time helping our customers understand the required separation notices, the final pay laws specific to the state where that employee is located out of, and whether or not they need to pay out their PTO, all while mitigating risk. And then finally, another important moment is when you're setting up the employees leave. Different states have different benefits and requirements. So it's really important to have those right policies in place and to educate your employees on the benefits that they do have access to. There are so many nuances with each and every one of these subjects. And like I mentioned earlier, I really don't expect everyone on this webinar to be an expert in any or all of them. Our HR advisory team can help you navigate these topics or just serve as a sounding board for decision making, especially for those of you who have small companies or you don't really have a big team or have that expertise in house. We can help you provide that solid peace of mind. In many cases, I really helped our customers with things like setting up new state tax accounts or registering in a new state or complying with employer practice liability insurance that we call EPLI. So you really don't have to think too much about it. You feel secure. Yeah. I think you said providing a peace of mind. I like to call it sleep insurance. But at the end of the day, it's that same, like, confidence that you feel in your policies and your procedures. So Mhmm. Yeah. Do you have a specific example that you can share to really bring this to life for everyone? I have more examples than I can think of, honestly. Let me think of one that may be extra interesting. Okay. I have one. So recently, I had a customer reach out to me about parental leave issue. Right? She informed that me that an employee is living in Oregon and that state obviously has parental leave. She gave him the instructors instructions on how to apply, then she discovered that unfortunately, he didn't qualify. The employee, as you can imagine, was upset and was super confused that the employer wasn't sure what was going on, honestly. Right? Imagine having a newborn applying for the leave that that you have through the state. Your manager says, hey. Apply here. You're gonna get x amount of money. Everything is gonna be fine, and then you find out you're not getting that money and you have a child at home and you have to care for. Right? Chaos. So the customer called me to figure out what's going on and we came up with a super viable solution. We quickly figured out that she had accidentally put him on a fully paid company leave. Oops. Right? Which would obviously disqualify him for the state benefit. Little bit of a caveat there. When you have an employee that's getting their regular wages and they apply for a state leave, chances are they're not gonna qualify such as this case because an employee can never get more than a % of their income. And so that is something that we educate our clients on as part of the process. We came up with that solution to provide him with a twelve weeks of partial pay from the state with the top off pay from the company. Oh, awesome. That's, amazing, honestly. Like, I can't imagine how they were feeling. But what ended up what was the impact for the company and for that employee? How did it go? Yeah. The company really didn't need to cover his entire leave. So as you can imagine, that was a relief for the company. They saved a little bit of money there in the future too, right, now that they have this new policy. That employee was also able to take an additional six weeks off to bond with his child. And I love sharing this example because it really illustrates all of the nuance situations that come up company to company. It's so difficult to be able to handle every single one of these cases. So that's why it can be really helpful to have an HR expert troubleshoot these questions with you and give you that peace of mind. Yep. We said it again, peace of mind. That's what people want, right, is to know that they are not getting things wrong. Yep. So what are some of the ongoing compliance tasks that companies should be aware of even when they're not hiring or they're not off boarding employees? That is such a good question, Alexis, and I hear this come up at least once a week with my clients. Well, the first thing that really comes to mind is maintaining an up to date and fully handbook. Right? And so every company, long story short, needs to have clear policies around things like remote work or time off. These policies need to evolve with ever changing laws and company culture. So recently, little bit of a story here, I worked with a customer who is struggling to put together an employee handbook that met compliance requirements across various states that they're located in. So instead of consulting with an external attorney on the subject, instead, they came to us. They said, hey. Can you help us out? We said, absolutely. We have a tool called Rippling which offers rippling HR services to be able to generate an employee handbook right then and there. Gave them editable templates to build the guide in minutes. It provided clear guidance on the required and the optional policies so that the client was able to see it right then and there and provide a real time alerts when the regulations have changed so that they're able to go back in, review those policies, acknowledge them, and then overnight have the handbook populate within minutes, saves them thousands of dollars instead of working with an attorney. Really so much better in my personal opinion. Yeah. It's I mean, it sounds like a huge time and money saver, and I know that's two important topics to a a lot of people. And keeping up handbooks is just a pain, especially with how often the rules change. Tell me about it. Now are there other areas other than the handbook that come to mind that employers really should be paying attention to? That's definitely a challenge in this space. State and federal employment laws are always changing rapidly, and it's something that you have to keep up with to remain in compliance. So that reminds me of another important area to cover where which is really providing ongoing employee training. Right? I hope everyone's doing this, but, you know, there is there is that compliance requirement, like, for example, anti harassment or workplace safety trainings. These requirements differ by state, so it's really hard to keep track of who's required to be trained in it, who's not. Right? Especially for anti harassment training, there are the manager level trainings or the employee level trainings. So many questions out there. Right? So recently, I worked with a team that was really struggling to keep up with all the mandatory employee training requirements across various states. So, of course, I help them roll out already made course bundles to meet mandatory requirements. And Brooklyn can recommend course enrollments based on employee work location, and that lets you track progress and completion rates. So that way, you can just set it and you don't have to worry about it. Just set it and forget it. Big time saver. Yeah. And that's what we're looking to do, right, is save time and make sure things are correct. And I know you touched on how changing regulations impact employee handbooks and trainings, but what about filings? Are there similar compliance issues there too? And I know this is a hot topic for a lot of you, so happy that we're going through this right now. Filings are so important. They are reoccurring reports that that we can provide to you, to have file, to be able to file. So for example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, plus additional ones that really vary by state depending on where your business operates. Missing those deadlines can get so expensive, and there are some pretty steep penalties there. Oh, Alena, do you have an example of maybe a time that you worked with the company and helped them navigate complex filings? Well, Hovercraft definitely comes to mind. They have employees in Colorado, and then they also have employees that are remote across nine other states. So from an HR standpoint, they really needed to ensure compliance with their local labor laws. They needed to administer state payroll taxes in 10. 10. Can you imagine that? 10 separate states. My god. That must take so much time normally, you know. Each state has their own requirements, their own website, their own nuances such as unemployment contributions and paid leave laws. So unless you're a local employment law or tax expert expert, handling this manually really is a really tall task. So anyways, hovercraft was handling this themselves and it was eating up their time. Oh my. Once they started using our HR services offerings, they ended up saving around thirty hours a week just from offloading all of those compliance task onto our team. Imagine that. Yeah. I mean, I would love to save thirty hours a week, but saving thirty hours a week on compliance is honestly pretty unbelievable. And that way, they could put it either back into revenue generating or even more strategic initiatives. Yeah. So I love I love to hear that. Now I do want to transition to talking about some of the common pitfalls. So with that, what are a few of the pitfalls that you have seen companies that are not handling compliance today adequately fall into. Yeah. So three major pitfalls. Right? Sometimes companies don't even really realize that they fall into them. The first one and what I would say is the biggest one is your time wasting. Right? I have seen companies waste a lot of time on compliance, which really doesn't move your business forward at all. In the best case scenario, you get by, you handle everything sufficiently, and you avoid penalties. That's a win. Right? But even in that best case, you're wasting time on those tedious manual compliance work instead of strategic priorities. That brings me to my next pitfall, which is the missed opportunities to make the business and the employee experience so much better. Spending time on compliance means that you miss opportunities to drive a bigger impact like attracting, developing, and retaining talent or growing the business. Right? So and finally, there's getting hit with the penalties and fees. Penalties and fees, not fun at all. Far too often, I see employers overlook compliance only to face costly employee claims. Yikes. I hate when that happens. One common area is the EPLI insurance, for example. These claims can start at thousands thousands and reach up to you'll never guess it. It's just crazy. Millions millions of dollars depending on the claim. A lot of our customers love that we provide them with EPLI with our HR services. And so that way, when claims do arise, hopefully, they don't, but if and when they do, we partner on making that process so much easier. That way, you're having the right support in place. It's so essential. Yeah. That's I mean, that's a lot to keep an eye on just in the twenty minutes that we have been speaking, but I think the examples are really resonating. So do you have an example of a company that ran into one of these pitfalls? Okay. So I do have this example. I tell all of my clients this example when we're setting up parental leave because I want to prepare them. Right? Estee Lauder, classic. Everybody knows the company Estee Lauder. But did you know that they had two different parental leave policies at one point? One was for the birth giving parents and the other one was for the non birth giving parents. And most companies, when they're setting up their policies, they don't realize realize that that's kind of an issue. The issue was that fathers were given less paid parental leave and fewer return to work benefits than the new mothers. And this was separate from the medical leave. This was specifically the the parental leave piece, the bonding leave piece. That difference ended up costing Estee Lauder wonder if anybody knows this. Does anyone know how much it ended up costing Estee Lauder? No? No. I do, baby. Put it in the chat. One point oh, I said it. I got excited. My apologies, everyone. 1,100,000.0 in settlement for the EEOC. I mean, can you believe that? No. Like, 1,100,000.0, that is a hefty fine and quite scary to think about. And I know for a lot of maybe small and medium sized businesses that could put them under. So, oof, that's crazy. But let's let's talk solutions. Like, what are some of the ways that you've seen companies handle these compliance requirements successfully? Yeah. So I've seen companies handle compliance in a couple of different ways. Some companies just work on it themselves without any expertise. Right? Turning on Google or chat GPT might seem convenient. Right? Everybody has access to it, so why not use it? But it is a huge time suck, and it doesn't always give you the most accurate up to date information. It could also be so difficult to decipher all of the requirements on your own without guidance. This can put your company at risk. If you're gonna go out on your own, I recommend setting up super strong checklist, making sure that you have appropriate documentation, and using software to streamline things where you can. And then another approach is maybe hiring more people. This sometimes works. It it could work. Don't get me wrong. But it's really expensive to hire people just to handle compliance. If you're going to bring someone on, you'll want to hire someone based on the stage that your company is in and what you are trying to resolve for. Right? So if you have a small team, you may want to hire a jack of all trades, a generalist who can create policies, administer leave, handle recruiting. But if you have a bigger team, you might want somebody with more expertise. So somebody who can be more strategic, a strategic HR business partner that can handle everything as well as the the the day to day tasks like the onboarding and offboarding and, you know, who understands the knowledge of the state rules. Yeah. Now what about the option of working some with someone maybe outside of the organization, outside of the house? Do you ever recommend kind of offloading that? Yeah. I mean, yeah. Why not? You could consult with an employment attorney, but and some companies do that. Don't get me wrong. And so they do have great expertise and they can help get get those things done, but it's going to be so expensive for you. They're gonna bill you so much money. You have no idea. If maybe you already do. I don't know. So really quickly, it it's a great add on, but they may also not really be well informed of all the states that you're located in. Are they barred in every single state you're located in? You sure about that? I don't know. The last option I do wanna mention is finding an HR services provider like Rippling. I'm a little biased. Right? I work at Rippling. But this is where you get the end to end HR and compliance support so you can focus on your business and minimize the risk and penalties. It's a software you need to stay compliant while also having the opportunity to partner with a knowledgeable HR adviser, such as myself, for example, who can help troubleshoot all those Nuance solutions. Yeah. And, I mean, these are all great options, and they should all be considered because different organizations are going to have different needs. So I'm wondering if as we start to wrap up the fireside chat sort of thing, if you could share really any main takeaways that you really hope that our audience walks away with today. And at the same time, they leave this webinar, this is what I want them to know. Yeah. Well, what I would say is if there's one thing that I hope that you walk away with, it's that compliance isn't just a legal requirement. It's a strategic advantage when handled proactively and effectively. That's why getting the right partner, it's that important. Yeah. I could not agree more. And this is the perfect segue into the next part of the webinar in which we really wanna bring this to life with a real world example. So I think it would be helpful for everybody to walk through how compliance takes shape at different parts within the employee life cycle and really how an HR services offering similar Rippling will help in all of those scenarios. And then after this, we will go ahead and kick it off into some q and a. So with our HR services offering, and there are multiple different out there, but Rippling has actually built this technology and offering to take all of that payroll, HR compliance work off of your plate, and we built it on the most modern software available today. It'll help you with everything from the compliance issues that we just talked about and that were in our poll. And as we dive into each of the four stages of your employee's life cycle, we're gonna talk about the compliance checklist. We will talk about how many of you are probably handling compliance today, and then what that could look like when you are using something like HR services to help. So as Alena highlighted in our conversation, compliance is a huge part of the entire employee life cycle. So when an employee is hired, you need to make sure tax accounts are set up properly. When an employee is going through the onboarding process, you have to make sure that they are issued the required state mandated trainings. And all of this to say that there is a ton that you're required to do as employees move from that initial hire and onboarding stage into their development while they're at their at your company and then ultimately when they leave. So this is just a very brief look into what your compliance checklist probably looks like today. And we know that in every stage of the employee life cycle, there are countless tasks you need to handle. And this is just the items or these are just the items that you know. Because every day, there are new items that are going to be added in each one of these areas. Because things like employment laws change, pay rate requirements change, new hire notices need to be updated, trainings need to be refreshed. Even employees have to have performance reviews. And then you have the life events that you have to be able to support. So things like a leave of absence or a birth, marriages. And whether you've been in this industry for one year or for ten years, you know all too well that the only constant that you get in the HR space is change. So I really wanna frame this in a real world example. So everybody meet Sarah. She is a marketing manager based out of Chicago, Illinois, and she is actually the very first hire in both the city of Chicago and, obviously, the State of Illinois. And what I wanna do is walk you through what it looks like to hire onboard, develop, and then off board Sarah. So as I just mentioned, we have never hired in the state of Illinois before. So I wanna just start with what needs to get done on our checklist just to hire Sarah. And if you have ever set up shop in a new state before, you know that you'll need to create payroll tax accounts in that state and send out new hire notices. Well, obviously, doing that takes a lot of time and a lot of work, and then there's gathering all of that business information and working with the state and submitting all of those forms just to get those pieces set up. Now with HR services, that's actually taken all off of your plate. So the things that you know you need to do and even the things that you don't know that you need to do are now handled for you so that Sarah can get up and running in no time, and then you can just focus on the core values of the business. So now that we have that initial hire set up, what about actually onboarding, Sarah? So we gotta get her ready to go on day one. Right? And many of you have probably experienced Rippling's seamless onboarding experience, But here is where our HR services offering helps even more to really help get that onboarding flow to Sarah in no time. But wait, Alexis. We haven't hired somebody in Illinois before. The last person we hired was in Massachusetts, and there were some state specific laws that we needed to learn. Are there Illinois specific laws? The answer is yes. And in fact, there is even so much as Chicago specific laws and regulations. Like, for example, Chicago has its own sick leave policy that needs to be delivered to Sarah on day one. Rippling will automatically detect all of that, and we are able to deliver those state and even local specific documents to Sarah so you don't have to track it down. That way, Sarah can get onboarded in no time. And when she logs into Rippling, she'll have all of the state mandated trainings. She'll have the up to date handbook with specific Chicago and Illinois language, and then the required digital workplace posters provided also. So we've got Sarah up and running. She has been onboarded for three months. She's doing great. Now what? Well, big cities like Chicago, New York, LA, they have regulations that change every year from the minimum wage to even just additional audience ordinances. And it's hard to keep track of all of these changing laws, especially when you are either a one person show or operating as a lean team. Now what if your current HR professional is not an expert in Illinois law? Or what if they're not even an expert in compliance? Or for many groups, like, what if they don't even have an HR professional in house? As regulations change, Rippling will automatically update and deliver the new hire trainings to Sarah and will help automate your handbook as well. So things like automatically updating the state unemployment insurance tax rates in your payroll accounts. Those are just examples of things that Rippling will take off of your plate so you don't even have to think about it. That way, you can stay in the driver's seat when it comes to making strategic business decisions, and you don't even have to worry about all of the, what I like to call, administrivia. So finally, Sarah is moving on to her next role. She is leaving the organization. What do we need to do now? Well, with any termination as a company, you want an amicable relationship when that employee to ensure that you have that peace of mind or that sleep insurance after their time with you comes to an end. I think I could speak for a lot of people in the HR admin space that sometimes we just say, the employee's gone. It'll be fine. Don't worry about it. But it's actually a lot more nuanced than we think really as Alena hinted to earlier. So as an example, Sarah is based in Chicago. So you'll need to make sure that you have the right termination regulations in place for Illinois and then really all of the states because every city and state has its own rules. And that's one area where our HR advisory team can help. So we know that everything is super nuanced, and you might want reassurance that you have everything from the right policies in place. So touching base with someone like Alena on our HR advisory team with our in house experts, it can really give you that peace of mind and make sure that Sarah and really any other employees who leave, they have a smooth transition process. So to recap, if you are doing this solo today, you're going need going to need to figure out how to set up tax accounts, update employee handbooks, send out new hire notices, navigate the terminations. And as you saw with Sarah, there are a ton of things that need to get done. And Chicago was not unique with their laws, their PTO policies, their taxes. Every city, state, town, and even county is unique with how they operate. So, hopefully, that was a great example to frame what that HR checklist looks like for an employee who is onboarding during their duration of the relationship with your company and then from termination. So with that, we would love to get into the q and a portion. So, Alena, if you would come back to the state, we would love before you guys could drop some questions either about managing compliance or the employee life cycle, use the q and a panel on the right of your screen, and we are gonna go ahead and start to answer some questions. Let me find the q and a panel. Okay. So question number one, Alena, is from Noel. Is this HR service with Rippling an additional cost or already included into most basic great question. So the HR services is a separate solution. So if you are a current Rippling client, this is a service that sits on top of your current technology platform for that additional lever of HR and compliance support. Good questions. Let's see. What else? Oh, we have a good question. Somebody asked Alena, what is EPLI? Yeah. That's a good question. Employer practice liability insurance. It's essentially it helps you navigate, it helps you navigate when when you have a claim filed. It it helps cover some of the claim. Not every claim is covered, but many are. And we help you with that. We partner with you on on that process. You don't have to worry about it. Okay. Thank you. Zee asked, is there a video or blog to walk us through that situation? One of our employees is going on maternity leave, and we have no clue what to do, but we want to do the same top off pay. Yeah. That's a really good question. Our team is happy to help you with that question. It really just depends on where the employee is located out of whether they're birth giving parent or non birth giving parent, what your policy looks like within your organization, what the process looks like to set them up for that. So, yes, to answer your question, our team can definitely assist you with that process. Wonderful. We have another one. I think we need some context. So z said, wait. Why? Because you have to have the same policy across the board. So I'm sure this question popped up at some point during our session. So, z, I don't know if you wanna put into the comments a little bit of context that we can use to answer that question. So it sounds like Zee is referencing to the Estee Lauder case. I can give a little bit more to add on to that. So when you're creating a parental leave policy, you want to make sure that it is equal and fair and nondiscriminatory again across your entire organization. Right? Regardless of whether they're a birth giving parent or not, you want to make sure that you get the same amount of time to each and every single one of the employees that you have. And this is specific to bonding. This isn't specific to the medical leave. Got it. Okay. So it sounds like if I'm kind of summing things up, when you say you can't discriminate, it's more around gender. Correct? Like, you can't give, right, yeah, around gender. That makes sense. We have another one, offboarding. When is the best time to terminate an employee? Is it their last day or the day after with a retroactive date? That way, they do not lose access while working on their last day. Great question. It's a really good question, and it's really important because various states such as California, you must pay the employee on their last day of employment. And so with that said, their last day of employment, you wanna make sure you have that conversation with them. You provide them with all of the the paperwork that the state requires, and provide their final pay as well as their their PTO. If if you're not offering unlimited PTO and you wanna process that within the system that same day. But the system allows you to set it up in advance so that way they are terminated in the system the day of. Okay. Hopefully, that answers your question, but thank you. Another good one. Our organization has an unlimited PTO policy. Can the HR team help guide us to make sure we remain in compliance with state and federal laws? Absolutely. We actually see a lot of our clients offer unlimited PTO to their employees, and we can have that set up on the pay stubs. You don't have to worry about that. Essentially, all organization for all organizations, all states allow this. And, yes, to answer your question directly, we can help you set it up so that you're compliant in each and every state that you're located in. Wonderful. Love that. Another one. It's tricky to keep up with the change in policies in San Francisco and California. Does Rippling have a dedicated link to these policies? Yes. And actually, Mineral is is what comes to mind when this question is asked. Mineral actually shares all of the updates and that is shared on your Rippling platform, and you can go in through Rippling SSO and directly into your handbook where you will see all of these policies and you can review them, you can accept them, and you can go on with your day. Wonderful. Another one we got is when I look at adding the HR services app, it asks to book a demo. Where do I find the pricing assuming it's a fee per user like most Rippling apps? I'm happy to take this one. Yes. So because it is an additional service that sits on top of your current instance, there is a subscription fee associated, and it is a flat dollar per employee per month fee. It varies based upon company size, industry, growth trajectory, that sort of thing. So if you are interested in learning a little bit more about either pricing or how the HR services team can offload some of your current administrivia, there should be a book a demo button either at the top or somewhere on your screen that will connect you with a consultant who can better provide you an answer specific to your organization. Good questions. Keep them coming. We have another one from Connie. Our organization has an employee handbook. Can that be imported into mineral or do we have to start from scratch? This is such a good question. And what I will say is depending on if you're with another PO or similar type of organization such as Rippling, if you already have Mineral and an employee handbook through Mineral, then I can actually personally help assist you with taking that handbook and administering it into your Rippling Mineral account. If it's a handbook that you created on your own, you can take bits and pieces of it and include it into the Mineral handbook that you built, but it's that would be a little bit trickier. But it would still take five minutes at most, ten minutes maybe at most to do so. It would be easy. Got it. Wonderful. Another question that came in is, is there an additional cost for mineral? The answer is no. That is included with the HR services solution. So some added perks. And it's cool too. Like, even with our demo accounts, we have specific states. And so overnight, where when I'm sleeping, like, I'll wake up the next morning and get an alert that says, hey. This state law has changed. So it's actually very cool. Mhmm. Let's see. What other questions do we have? Does Rippling offer a leave policy? If so, where do we find it? Such a good question. So we can share with you templates, our team. We do have a leave portal that you can utilize, and we can actually help you with, just best practices around how you can update the the leave policy that we share with you. Wonderful. Love that. And you guys are asking some really great great questions. Great questions too, but great questions. Does Rippling offer a la carte employee training? I could speak to that one. Yes. So we do have a specific line item for that learning management, so anybody can add it on. However, if you enroll in the HR services solution, that learning management is also included. So, yes, they have a la carte employee training, especially when it comes to, like, the anti harassment and those different state required trainings, but it is also included in the HR services offering. Let's see. Okay. Here's a good one. Is there a standard report that Rippling releases for best in class business practices or industry benchmarking. Yes. We do have a state HR report that just came out, actually. Oh, cool. I love that. And that's something that I even learned. So wonderful. Let's see. I think we have a couple minutes for a few more. Let me scroll through. Oh, this is interesting, and it's kind of a one off case, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts, Alena. What do we do? And if if an employee doesn't provide a resignation letter, sign a termination letter, or just no show, no call? It's a very complicated question. One that my team would typically get on a on a Zoom call and discuss with you. And, really, I don't wanna answer it directly on this call because there are so many nuances that are included. But if you connect with our team, then we can help you out with that. Perfect. Yeah. I mean, for one off questions, just chat with somebody, you know. Either click a book a demo or even if you go to our website, a little box box will pop up where you could speak with someone, and they're happy to help. Very happy to help. Can we get leave policies for California in Rippling? My team can assist you with that. And, yes, to answer your question, we can share with you templates. Mhmm. Yes. Great questions. Oh, this is an interesting one from Bonnie. What compliance tasks does an accountant handle, if any, compared to an HR professional? I think it just depends on your business. Right? It's different with every company. Yeah. You know, payroll is one of them one of those tasks. Yeah. Definitely. I mean, if you, as an accountant, are handling, like, the payroll and the taxes and the filings and things like that, then just off the top of my head, like, maintaining the state unemployment insurance tax adjustments as they come up, monitoring those, doing all of the different filings, keeping track of the filings, those would all fall under an accountant depending on how the relationship is structured with the organization and the accountant. Mhmm. Oh, here's one. How do you manage sick leave when in multiple states? That depends on your preference. You can either create a one policy based off of the most generous state that you're located in, or you can create a separate policy for every single state that you're located in, and we can help you walk through that process. Yeah. I know some states have, like, crazy policy crazy generous policies, I should say, and others have no policies. So, yeah, it's definitely up to company preference, but whatever whatever is easier for the organization. Mhmm. Is top up for a parental leave a common practice? So a top up meaning, like, maybe they don't get full from the state and the company comes in and provides the delta to get them to their full wages. Is that common? Yeah. It's common. We talk through that with our clients probably daily. We always recommend that so that way your employees whole. The the something I would recommend is when an employee goes out on leave, never promise them an x amount of money that they're gonna get through the state or through Guardian because that is something that is the state's decision. But you can definitely take them off payroll. You could top off their payments once they confirm how much they get. Wonderful. One we probably have time for one or two more. This is a good one. Can you speak to how the new state requirements are shared with the company representative slash HR member in addition to the new employee? It is shared with the admin, and it is shared via Mineral, which is then, goes directly into the Rippling app. And you as the admin would go through that information, and then you would educate your employees. And, of course, your employees will all have access to an employee handbook. That handbook will be up to date, and they'll be able to review it, educate themselves on all those laws and regulations, and they'll be able to acknowledge it. And you'll be able to run a report seamlessly to see who's acknowledged and who hasn't. Got it. So it's a very proactive approach is what I'm hearing is that, hey. Once it happens, you'll be notified. You can action on it. It'll be automatically added to your handbook, pushed out, and then the employees will be able to see that updated handbook. Is that accurate? Yep. Exactly. Okay. Well, with two minutes left, thank you everybody for these great questions. Now if you take just a couple of minutes, we would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on this session. So we do have a survey that is going to pop up on your screen, and it'll also ask if you are interested in a personalized follow-up. So if you wanna see how Rippling would work specifically for your team, we have dropped, I think, both links in the chat or there's that schedule a demo button, and you can have a quick call with someone to kind of assess your needs. But some also final housekeeping items, we will send you an email with this recording if you, are interested in watching it later on. And then if you are a SHRM certified professional, you will also get an email from SHRM about your credit. So take a couple minutes, answer that survey for us. Let us know your thoughts. Feedback is a gift, so stay out everything. And thank you for joining us today, and have a great rest of your day. Thanks, everyone. Bye bye.