By Alex Yohn
Sep 10, 2013
Small companies have something that big companies often don’t: soul. Big companies have something that small companies often don’t: a good benefits program. Which is worth more? Probably soul. It’s also harder to get. If the 53% of small companies who don’t offer benefits would do so, they’d be in a much better position to reel in good hires and retain their most talented team members. As for soul, well, we’ll leave big companies and their vast resources to figure it out for themselves.
Tin man in search of: heart
Back in 2006 when my partners and I left our jobs at large agencies and founded We Are Mammoth, the least of our worries was leaving our benefits behind. We were single, antsy, and overworked. We ditched our gigs because, while we busted our butts on great projects, it was for companies that seemed void of any commitment to both personal and organizational fulfillment.
One thing they did get right though? The salaries were good and the benefits were even better. We had great health insurance, a huge employer-matched retirement plan, flex days in summer, free life insurance, legal services, and the list goes on and on. Big companies know a great benefits program is critical to being competitive as an employer.
But benefits often aren’t enough for any company to hold on to its talent. Of all the folks we used to work with, I’d be hard pressed to count a single person who wouldn’t jump ship for another company for a few grand in extra cash and a token change in title. Cash is king. Loyalty isn’t. That’s a sad state of affairs for tech and marketing businesses that depend on creative, passionate people to drive products forward. But why? The answer lies in something small companies do inherently.
Scarecrow in search of: brain
Here’s a few truths about small companies: We don’t hire that often. We hire from the same pool that the big guys do. We can be more competitive and alluring to creative, talented people than the big guys because culture, camaraderie, and opportunities to grow are up for grabs at most small shops.
Small companies can forge their own workplace. A single addition to the team can have a huge impact on a team’s culture and productivity. We can tweak an organizational process, and toss it if it stinks. Small shops can stay in touch with every soul on the team. As a prospective employee considering working at a smaller shop, that’s all pretty alluring.
But benefits? Hmmm. That’s a tough one. From a recent article by a fellow business owner here in Chicago, too many creative and tech-leaning small companies fail to build a basic benefits program early on. For fear of the unknown, I guess, or maybe everyone’s caught up thinking it’s too expensive or time consuming to manage.
Small companies aren’t too small for benefits.
With the exception of pure financial reasons, there really is no excuse for a small company to not have its organizational act together to win a candidate. With just a little bit of research and administrative work, small shops can be miles ahead of the tin man, especially considering we win on all the cultural perks listed above.
We’ve always had a benefits program for our team. The main reason is that when we were just three smelly dudes sitting in a 15×15 ft office, we created one for ourselves. We got individual health insurance and paid ourselves for it out of the company coffers (note: we’ve since moved to a more kosher group policy). We set up a SIMPLE IRA for retirement accounts and matched our own contributions to it. We had both programs running in our first year of business. Over the years, we’ve folded in other benefits too, like transportation reimbursement, life insurance, and disability coverage.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Folks leave our company from time to time and we have lost the ideal candidate for one reason or another. But, it’s not for lack of operational efficiency or a good benefits platform. Those are no-brainers we chose to take care because, frankly, they’re low hanging fruit.
Too expensive? Then consider it a part of compensation.
Alas, benefits can be expensive, and it’s never easy to watch your operational expenses go up. One way to reconcile the cost, though, is through the lens of employee compensation. Benefits sit right on top of salary to create what’s called “total compensation” in the corporate world. Yes, that’s right, employees are getting paid in benefits AND cash. Total compensation helps companies communicate how much an employee is truly being paid, and it draws attention to the fact that cash isn’t the only consideration on the bargaining table. For prospective employees, you can use total compensation to draw attention to the fact that you, dearest business owner, have a suite of employee benefits waiting to be scooped up.
Keep in mind, a lot of folks would prefer to have certain benefits over a raise and that’s a major advantage for small companies who provide benefits and perks.
Too much administration? There’s an app for that.
As for administration, there’s not a lot of it once you’re up and running. Adding people to programs is as easy as filling out a form or two and helping your employee understand the ins and outs of the program. Then, every year or so, you have to let folks change plans or increase their contributions (this is called open-enrollment).
In addition there are some really cool services out there these days which will manage your benefits for you. Companies like Maxwell Health pride themselves on making it easy to enroll and onboard employees to your plans. Often, these services come at little or no additional charge to you.
Smaller is better, with a little effort.
Smart job candidates will closely compare their options: “Go with the big company, the one with its employment ducks in a row where they can pay me all the money and benefits I want, but lose out on the culture aspect” or, option B, “go with the small guy where I’ll be an integral part of the team but, hmm, maybe they’re not quite on top of their workplace operations yet.”
So, sit down and do a little math. By including benefits as part of your compensation plan, and starting lean with just a couple of programs, you’re going to extend your worth to your current employees and broaden the field of candidates who’ll consider working with you. That’s worth a lot more than the money you’re dropping on health insurance and it hopefully means you come out on top in the hiring tug of war. Not to mention the simple fact that you, dearest business owner, are taking better care of your employees.
By Alex Yohn
Sep 5, 2013
We released a couple of great new updates to Kin last night: tracking compensation, and a new type of user we’re calling “The Manager”. Both updates were frequently asked for by customers, so this should make quite a few people smile or even giggle a little bit.
The Manager Role
The new role in Kin, called “Manager”, can be given to all users who approve time off at your company but who do not need access to employee data such as address and bank information (note: in some states and countries this is actually a law).
To use the new role, visit the Manage Account Roles page and add an employee to the Managers section.
The new manager role allows managers to manage time off requests but restricts access to sensitive employee data.
Next, visit each employee’s page where you’d like that Manager to approve/decline the employee’s time off and make the selection inline under “Manager”.
Assign a manager to an employee, and view a Manager’s direct reports.
Now, anytime a direct report (an employee of a Manager) requests time off, the manager will be notified and will need to sign into Kin and take care of business. Just like with HR Managers, Managers will also be assigned a task with each request, which they can track on their Overview page in Kin.
NOTE: All users in Kin who were assigned as Managers prior to this update will inherit the responsibility of managing the time-off requests of their direct reports. If you don’t want this madness to happen, then you’ll need to remove the user from the managers listing on the Manage Account Roles page.
Now. Managers aren’t perfect, and often times they’re overloaded with other stuff to do. So, Kin cc’s an employee’s HR Manager anytime a time-off request is made, and they’re able to approve/decline too, just in case.
Lot’s of customers asked about this role, and while time-off approval was the #1 reason for the request, we’ve also heard that giving access to certain employee fields would also be useful. This may be something we look into in the future as part of a custom-roles feature we’ve discussed.
Track Compensation Over Time
On every employee’s general information page, there is now an optional section called “Compensation” where salaries, hourly rates, bonuses and all other forms of compensation can be tracked. We made it historical too, so you can store multiple entries along with an effective date to track changes over time.
Store and track employee compensation over time.
This section is only editable by HR Managers in Kin, so employees viewing their own profile will only be able to view their compensation history.
Da-d-d-d-dat’s all folks
We’re continuing to bust our behinds here at Kin. Next up we’ve got a great data export feature which will help hr managers report all personnel and time-off changes to their payroll services.
By Alex Yohn
Aug 22, 2013
Kin’s been live for a little over a month now. It’s been a busy time for us, but every minute has been gratifying and challenging. Here’s a little summary of how our fledgling company has been doing. →
By Alex Yohn
Aug 4, 2013
We just released a nice new feature called Custom Fields. A lot of companies need to store employee data which is unique to their business, employment laws, or specific country. Custom Fields is the perfect way to do that.
When you create a new custom field, Kin adds a new category with any number of sub-items to your employees’ profile pages. Similar to how Emergency Contacts and Bank Information are currently being handled, Custom Fields allows you to create and track any type of information you need.
For example, let’s take computer hardware and accessories. Each person on our team has a Mac, a monitor, a keyboard, a wireless mouse, and an extra charger. So, we created a new category called “Computers & Accessories” in our Kin account to track serial numbers, AppleCare info, and other similar data so we know who has what. Here’s what it looks like on a team member’s profile:
“Computers & Accessories” category on an employee’s profile
Creating Custom Fields
To set up a new custom field, visit the “Manage Company” section and click “Custom Fields.” First, create a new category. Next fill in the items related to that category. With each item, you’ll be able to store additional specifics later, on the employee profile pages. Using our example above, we created items for Computer Type, Computer Serial Number, AppleCare ID, Monitor Type, Monitor Serial Number, and so on. Hit “Save,” and you’re ready to go.
“Computers & Accessories” category items from the Manage Company > Custom Fields page
Using Custom Fields
Next, visit any employee’s profile page and toward the bottom you’ll see the new category appear, ready for you to start tracking specific information and details. Custom fields are global. They show up for every employee. However, they’re completely optional, so you don’t need to complete them for every employee if they don’t apply. When there’s no information added to a custom field category, the employee doesn’t see that section. Employees only see custom fields when there’s info to display.
Ready-to-use “Computer & Accessories” custom field category and items available to HR Managers on employee profile pages
Enjoy, and please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions for how to improve this new feature.
By Alex Yohn
Jul 26, 2013
One of the most important ingredients in a collaborative workplace is familiarity. Knowing a bit about the people you’re working with and the role they play on the team builds trust and empathy, and that adds to productivity. Well, we’re working on a couple of beautiful new features to help your team get to know each other even better.
Bio Pages
Everyone has a story, and Kin’s bio pages gives your team a way to share theirs. Employees can provide their story, social networks, and personal links, and Kin will do the rest by providing contact information and a link to that team member’s job description. What’s nice is a user can quickly navigate through the entire company using the simple and quick navigation at the top of the page.
Sneak peek of Kin’s new employee bio page.
Job Descriptions
Job descriptions are a great way to keep individuals focused on the most important responsibilities laid out for them when they first started at their job. Unfortunately, most job descriptions are filed away right after day-one on the job. If you keep ’em fresh and up to date in Kin though, it’s a great resource for everyone to revisit to keep objectives and productivity in check.
Functionally, Kin’s job descriptions are cool because you can sort your entire team by a job to see how the entire company is split up taxonomically. This is a great way for new hires to get to know the different facets of your team’s skills.
A sneak peek of Kin’s new job description page.
Friendlier form fields for Non-US customers
One of the biggest requests from our customers outside of the US has been to ease up the validation on form fields like telephone numbers. So, we did it. You can now enter any format you like for Tax ID (Social Security # in US), Telephones, Bank ID’s, and so on. We also added a country and open-text state/province field, to better assist Non-US addresses. Next Friday, we’ll also be releasing custom fields, which provide a way to track any type of information you’d like, such as passport numbers, license and serial numbers, etc.
Your Feedback
Like the stuff above? It’s because you’re requesting it. Use that great little “Need Support?” button in Kin to tell us what you want or need. Or, email us anytime at TheTeam@KinHR.com.
By Alex Yohn
Jul 25, 2013
A few customers have asked what the best practice is for using Kin with a team that’s a mix of contractors and permanent employees. It really comes down to two features in Kin: managing time off, and managing paperwork.
First, what’s the difference between employees in Kin?
If you’ve added a couple of employees to Kin, you’ll notice there is a field to designate what kind of team member they are: contract, full-time, and part-time.
These fields are informational only. That means there’s no difference in the user’s permissions or anything else in Kin. It’s purely for your use and will come in handy down the road when we release reporting.
The Employee Type field found on the employee profile page.
Time off policies for contractors and freelancers.
As you may know, you can create as many time-off policies in Kin as you’d like. So, creating unique policies for each type of employee you have makes sense. We’ll use your vacation policy as an example.
Create individual policies called “Vacation-Permanent” and “Vacation-Contractor”, then apply the applicable balances and accrual types to each. Next, under the eligibility for each policy, assign the appropriate employees/workers.
When each employee signs into Kin, they’ll only see the time-off policies and balances for which they’re eligible, not all three.
You can rinse and repeat this process for each type of policy you have at your company. For example, we have 3 types of policies at our company: Vacation, Sick Days, and Conference Days.
Create distinct time-off policies for permanent and contract employees.
Managing files
Files work in much the same way as time-off policies. You can upload as many files as you want, and use categories to organize the documents which are specific to contractors and permanents (or both).
In terms of permissions, files are all one-to-one. So, Kin doesn’t distinguish between groups or employee-types when you choose with whom a file gets shared. So, just like with any file, select the people (contractors or permanents) to whom a unique copy of the file should be sent and only those folks will have individual access to it.
Use categories to organize contractor-only files.