Carter Faison joined Literati, a children's book distributor, immediately before it acquired a school book fair company in early 2022. The acquisition, a significant milestone for Literati, required Faison’s team to onboard nearly two dozen new employees in two weeks, on top of their normal HR & IT management workload.
It’s Faison’s job to ensure all employees are supported and feel engaged. His tools must complement those goals. Managing a remote workforce can be complex, as employees don’t interact with Faison face-to-face.
Without Rippling, he notes, “We'd likely need an additional IT tech and an additional HR admin. I can generally handle payroll and benefits, but if we went with something like Workday, we'd need additional HRIS support, an extra IT person for device management, and an HR admin to assist with onboarding tasks.”
Faison continues, “My CPO asked me recently when I thought I would need additional support with payroll and benefit/compensation administration and I told her, in all honesty, that until we were above 1,000 employees and/or switched HRIS providers, I didn't anticipate needing any additional support.”
Workday-level automation, minus the Workday-level headaches and costs
“Rippling helps me stay proactive, automatically,” says Faison. “I set up Rippling’s Workflow Automator to automatically send me an email when an employee moves states. It puts me ahead of the curve—I can remedy any tax and payroll inconsistencies before they become an issue.”
Automation is essential for Faison’s lean team to operate with the consistency and professionalism their roles demand. For Faison, who came from a company using Workday, Rippling’s Workflow Automator was a revelation.
This blend of simplicity and power is not lost on Literati’s IT administrator either. As Faison points out, “We have an IT department of one. Device Management through Rippling saves us money. It saves us multiple headcount. We are able to get by as a 160-employee company with a one-person IT operation, thanks to Rippling.”
From ADP and Paycom to Rippling: superior experience and significant savings
“We onboarded 23 people in the first two weeks of January—with three people. Rippling made that process easy.”
Faison continues, “And our new employees, who all came from [companies that use] ADP, were raving about how easy it was to onboard with the platform. It was the best possible introduction to our company.”
Doing more without additional employees can be the difference between success and failure in a fast-moving startup. And while Rippling’s automation and ease of use can help businesses operate successfully with fewer people, it can also help eliminate the need to hire specialists for one-off integrations.
Faison explains, “We're planning on getting a 401(k) off the ground in 2023, and there are many plug-and-play options that integrate with Rippling. Coming from Paycom and Workday, this ease of integration was just not a thing. With those platforms, you’d have to hire an integrations specialist or write custom code. As a People Operations professional, the ease of integrations within Rippling has been a total gamechanger.” He adds, “Rippling is a breath of fresh air.”
When asked to reflect on alternatives to Rippling and their perceived ROI, Faison noted,
