2019-09-13 Co-ops + HR convo

Date: Fri, Sept 13 @ 11:00-12:00 ET
Who’s here? patcon, elisha gray
Call Link: https://appear.in/hyphacoop

Email

My friends and I doing this co-op are in the process of sorting our platforms and processes for the hard internal stuff, relating to payroll and accounting and CRMs. Wondering whether you have any recommendation on software we should highly consider for a Canadian org starting out? Wondering between these options:

• Humi https://www.humi.ca/about
• Knit https://www.knitpeople.com/
• don’t worry about it for now

And since all the accounting software (Quickbooks, Xero, Wave) seem to be trying to do payroll for us too, wondering if we should be deferring getting too attached to anything we set up now, as maybe it’s something we’d rather have the HR software handle?

Notes

• HR platform ~= HRIS
• Other product not yet mentioned: collage.co
  • Toronto-based
  • personal fave
  • processes payroll
• eg: Do we plan to offer benefits?
  • pc: not right away, but we care about offering them
  • eg: asking because with software, per-user fee is often waived if we use them as our benefits broker
  • if we know we won’t have benefits, then we pay full, which can be high
  • when they’re our benefits broker, they earn fees from that instead of platform fees.
• humi + collage are favoured, bc in Toronto.
• all HR products are very early stages.
• HR tool is just a CMS
• elisha: what’s your plan and aspirations for growth?
  • pc: right now, some hoping for fulltime soon, many parttime, with no near-term plans to fulltime. 7 people. no plans to grow until stablized, but growth is part of working with new ppl (with co-ops, contractors must eventually be onboarded as members or otherwise cut loose)
  • elisha: probably doable to DIY HR up to 20 ppl. no full-time HR role. (no system either? – Ed.)
  • but even if not hiring for HR position, important to keep all the work centralized in one person (even if work being done off side of desk)
  • elisha: yes, you may all be owners, and have equal access. but don’t want all ppl knowing HR details. it would be careless. by “careless”, bc when things go wrong, it can really go off the rails. when subject matter of conflict is personal, that’s hard to recover from if everyone has access.
• building own system in GDrive mostly involves being thoughtful folders structure (and wary of permissions).
• more to HR than the software. HR = education. and legal aspects.
  • admin should know about, like
    • e.g. tax forms
    • e.g. vacation pay, and crafting policy. if org has no explicit policy, then required to legally take 4% from wages for vacation pay.
• HR software won’t tell you the sort of thing like vacay policy tedium. just need to know that.
  • will just do things like: payroll integration will tell you how much we owe to CRA, but won’t keep us up to speed on what you should be doing legally
  • just houses data and automates admin tasks
  • won’t tell you about compliance
  • people who will tell you: lawyers, accountants, HR consultants, etc.
  • not about leaning less on professional services. mainly helps you create things to give to these ppl (e.g. payroll)
  • will make the experience of new employees really great.
• admin person still needs to know what they’re doing
• recommendation: monthly check-in from HR professional
• patcon: what are your HR consulting rates?
  • for longer engagements, it’s $1,300/day for time together, plus prep work around that
  • for smaller engagement or conversations, $160/h
    • no extra for travel if downtown
    • highly prefer in-person visits
  • elisha: can work with patcon or person in role
  • elisha: can offer support in implementation/setup of HR software
    • can implement humi in a day or so
• recommended resource: founded.co (new business basics)
  • might just be legal
• #todo will send folder of HR resources (elisha)
• another good resource: https://www.hrdownloads.com
  • prob will become friends. great for choosing HRIS.
  • personal reco is for collage over humi (payroll services if want, but can just used HRIS – wagepoint. humi payroll provider. chris is building it. elisha cna intro.)
• elisha: don’t think humi has expectation that scale will happen. though i use idea of scale as a negotiation tool.
• collage easiest from admin perspectives. new feature speed is fast.
• where does HR consult normally start? size today. size in future. next month. who’s going to admin. who’s going to run? where do you want to go? what do you see happening?
  • normally ppl contact elisha when they’ve outgrown something, and want to effectively put dollars behind.
    • Hypha is different from that, and contacting earlier
    • elisha: glad we’re thinking about these things early. most people leave it until way too late.
• recommendation: build your own. don’t want to see us bringing on cost early. but glad i’m caring oabout HR early.
  • there are workarounds as we figure out roles and strengths, and which professional supports we want.
• recommendation: ensure we know what needs to be in hard-copy
  • patcon: doesn’t it say in Ontario Co-operative Act that digital copies are fine?
  • elisha: employment law not same as incorporation act. employment law needs hardcopies. very diff.
  • “no one will know, but you should be aware where you’re outside letter of law”
  • best early question for any professionals we might work with: “what’s going to get me in hot water?””
• recommendation: #todo book demos with all the HRIS folks.
  • ask: future roadmap? education for admins?
  • personal opinion: startups are not hiring experienced leaders in early days, esp re: HR. and so we are perhaps well-positioned to affect these platforms by asking intelligent questions of what their directions are. Many people on these call-in side of these demo calls will be quite ignorant of good leadership.

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