Hovercraft uses Rippling HR Services to seamlessly manage its remote workforce across 9 states

Pain Points

The Challenge

After weathering a pandemic-induced period of volatile cash flow, Hovercraft is “leaning into our identity more,” said Lisa Koluvek, the experiential marketing agency’s Director of Finance and Operations. 

“We want to focus on building our portfolio and filling it with projects we’re passionate about.” With its team of 35 employees—mostly producers, designers, and software developers—that means prioritizing creative strategy over paperwork. Easier said than done when your workforce spans multiple states and leaves only two employees responsible for all things people operations.

Hovercraft is headquartered in Denver, and in addition to having employees in Colorado, has remote workers across the US in Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. From an HR standpoint, that means ensuring compliance with local labor laws and administering state payroll taxes in nine separate states, each with their own requirements, websites, and nuances like unemployment contributions and paid leave laws. Unless you’re a local employment law or tax expert, handling this manually is a tall task. 

“It’s almost hard to describe because it’s so inconsistent from state to state,” Lisa said. She’s a self-described “Jane of all trades” who found herself researching niche local labor laws, juggling different account credentials on state websites, and manually logging tax information in each new state where Hovercraft hired. “It would eat up a whole day or two. It’s bananas confusing.”

The Solution

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Hovercraft was a Rippling customer before Lisa joined the company, using a bevy of its products to help run payroll, administer benefits, and manage other administrative tasks. An admirer of Rippling and in need of support, Lisa approached Hovercraft’s partners a couple months into her new job and recommended they join the recently launched HR Services, which automatically creates and manages state payroll taxes on a company’s behalf. 

“We made the case that it added value,” she said. “If you calculated my hourly rate and how long it would take to figure out each individual state website, it made sense fiscally to sign up for Rippling HR Services.”

The Impact

• Time saved: With Rippling HR Services, Hovercraft’s people team saves 30 hours a week on state tax registration and compliance work.

• Headcount spared: The saved time meant Hovercraft could keep its two-person operations team lean and forgo hiring a full-time administrator.

• More strategic bandwidth: Rippling now handles state taxes and digital labor poster distribution, so the operations team can focus on growing the business.