Stacklet was founded to help organizations run their cloud operations securely, consistently, and in line with regulatory requirements. At its core, it unifies complicated and disparate processes with standardized language and software—the Stacklet team is obsessed with simplifying the complex in a secure way. This ethos drives all facets of the company, including HR.
As Erica Woods, Stacklet’s Head of People and Culture, notes, “So much about the culture we’re creating at Stacklet makes it a wonderful place to work, but I joined because I felt our founders’ deep commitment to transparency, people first practices, and ability to inject joy into as many work experiences as is possible.
When Erica joined Stacklet, she was tasked with streamlining the company’s HR processes in preparation for an ambitious 3x growth plan as well as a DEI initiative in 2022. An HR leader for almost 30 years, Erica had previous experience working with TriNet, Stacklet’s incumbent PEO. That experience was far from satisfactory. She had a hunch that TriNet would pose significant challenges to the company as it entered its growth phase.
A few months into her time at Stacklet, that hunch turned into an unfortunate reality as TriNet took 3+ months to resolve an issue of their own doing (the PEO had taxed a bonus payment improperly). After using Rippling Payroll, Erica realized she would have been able to fix the issue on her own with Rippling’s technology instead of waiting for someone to fix it for her. Her teams were also exposed to fundamentally insecure processes during onboarding, like providing their CEO with their social security numbers over video calls instead of entering that information directly into the platform. A red flag for any company, let alone one that specializes in cloud security.
Referring to TriNet, Erica remarks, “From what I’ve seen, they’re like a dinosaur. They haven’t changed in several years. They do not scale well and onboarding is not self-service.”
Erica understands PEOs well. She knows that there eventually comes a time when businesses might outgrow their benefits and need to make the transition to a larger-scale HRIS platform. That’s why Erica was “thrilled” to find Rippling—which allows her to use its PEO and then transition seamlessly to the Workforce Platform, avoiding the search and onboarding drudgery of a new HRIS vendor. Stacklet made the switch to Rippling in 2021. The transformation in HR processes, Erica says, “was instant.”
Onboarding that took up to 60 minutes with TriNet takes only 6 minutes with Rippling, thanks to automation and integration within the PEO. New employees now enter their information directly into the platform, eliminating any security concerns associated with sharing sensitive data via email or phone. Rippling also helps ensure Stacklet is SOC 1 and 2 compliant—streamlining the regulatory processes so the team can concentrate on growing their business.
The experience for employees has also been positive. “Everyone loves it,” notes Erica. “The little things like the ‘you got paid’ images are talked about over the virtual watercooler.” She adds that when employees do have questions or issues, “Rippling is there to help immediately—it means a lot.”
She notes, “One of my OKRs is to ensure that everyone in the company takes at least 10 days off per year. Now I can use Rippling reports to quickly see vacation time and notify their managers accordingly. I’m loving that!”
As an organization that specializes in cloud security, Erica points out that, “everyone is very security- minded,” and that she frequently fields questions regarding the handling of HR and other personal data. “There’s no reason I would need to provide any sensitive data directly to an employee, it’s all there in Rippling for them to access for themselves. This gives me and the team real peace of mind.”