Zenefits

Our business was ready to proceed with Zenefits… until we finally got all of the details…
We spent several hours researching this PEO system which seemed to be an answer to several headaches we currently have. After several emails, a long phone call explaining the system and watching the tutorial videos, we were ready to move forward and switch our payroll/​timekeeping system to Zenefits. We were upfront when we started this process, stating we weren’t going to immediately switch our insurance from our current broker and were told that was fine. However, when we were ready to move forward with the other programs, we were told that we couldn’t do anything until after April unless we immediately made the switch with our health insurance. Talk about bait and switch! We were upfront but the sales person was not.
When we called to complain and discuss why this isn’t a great business practice, the sales person laughed at us. This was after he described his customers as being loyal for forever (being in business less than five years does not give you the right to use the term forever).
Bottom line — after reading other reviews on multiple sites, it sounds like this company is a joke.

Warning — you may not be «approved» for their free service.
I stumbled upon Zenefits while researching PEO options for our business. After spending a couple hours researching the company and their offerings, I was sold. I entered all our company, payroll and employee information into their system and thought I had arrived an the nirvana of a more streamlined HR and payroll solution for our business. That was until the next day when I received an e-​mail from Zenefits saying our company’s application has been «declined». Of course, they can’t tell me why.
Naturally, their sales agents still want to contact me to try and sell me something. Bait and switch?
Bottom line — research the company first and don’t enter any company or employee information until you are comfortable that they won’t treat you the same.

First and foremost, this is our 1^st time trying Zenefits, and let me tell you, their service SUCKS! I have been on the phone with them since 8:30am and its almost 2pm and so far nothing has been resolved at this point. My issue with this company is… their system are slow, not user friendly, and mind you, I’m very computer savvy, since this is a brand new company, they are still working on a lot of features but again, if you call them, expect to be on hold for more than 15 minutes, if you have issues, expect to wait all day or maybe all week. If my problem is not resolved i am switching back to ADP.

A few hours after my review I received a call from the customer care dept. @ zenefits. They explained how speeding up loading is a top priority for their team and apologized for the issues I encountered.
This goes a long way for me, as every company will have issues at some point, it’s how they handle the issues that matter.
Zenefits handled this very well (the fastest reply I’ve had to a review ever!), and I’m excited to see future updates to the platform!

Great customer service when I called but I really don’t understand how I can contribute money to my transit account every month (my employer contributed nothing)…then when I leave the company, anything left on my transit account went to my employer. I don’t understand why my money wasn’t refunded to me since I was the one adding money in. So instead of this account being a benefit, the money I lost now cancels out any tax free dollars I had used towards transit. Total hassle.

I can’t speak to their product because I didn’t even get past the unpleasant sales call. Someone named Roland was bombarding my nonprofit with calls. When he reached our Administrative Assistant he was very rude and evasive regarding what he was calling in regards to. When I got on the phone and let him know that we were not interested he was extremely rude and combative. These tactics don’t work with me or my company. I don’t care that you work with other companies like mine, that does not give you a free pass to 30 – 40 minutes of my time for a «free demonstration».
Give it a rest!

As a user of the software since May for whole gamut of functions from on boarding to health insurance, dental, workers comp /​benefits (even 401 k and esop) to paying contractors and linking with existing payroll solutions, if you are running a start up or a small business, we would recommend it.
This is a free software, they do not charge clients any fees except when you use their backend to pay contractors (not employee payroll), they will charge small amount of fees to do ACH payments. Primarily they make money from the carrier by becoming your insurance agent. They do not have payroll feature. But they do integrate with third party softwares like zenpayroll.
Running a small (18 employee) distribution and marketing company with offices in FL and TX. Employee and contractor on boarding and benefits administration is constant activity.
My personal experience as customer:
1. Got rid of local agent who was good at giving one carrier per state and only showed up once a year to collect the renewal paperwork. Replaced them with zenefits who not only worked with us in identifying right carries that can satisfy needs of employees in all states but also provided required inputs in how the affordable care act would impact small business and how we were covered.
2. The software provides great backend where we can have a compete employee On boarding workflow, we upload our individual employee contract, company handbook and send a invitation to new employees in email to join. They login and start the On boarding process by getting access to their employment contract, employee handbook for review and electronic signature. They also fill in necessary info that goes in straight to their w2. We save ton of time and don’t have to keep up with stipulated paperwork, it’s all automated in a electronic workflow.
3. Empress also get access to portal after their initial wait period (if you set one up) to enroll in benefits like insurance, PTO and any specific benefit that you have configured for your emotes like travel allowances, Starbucks cards etc.
4. All the above HR features are free and any company can enroll to use these features. What zenefits is banking on is the fact that they can become insurance agent for the client using the software. The commission as an agent that they will get by selling us the insurance policy will be their revenue.
4. Zenefits offers health, dental, vision, life, disability, workers comp and other Sunday insurance.
5. The company was started by Parker Conrad and his name will be on your carriers paperwork as insurance agent. Parker Conrad was as instrumental in starting SigFig.
6. Zenefits also integrates with payroll softwares like zenpayroll and intuit etc, the interface is buggy and not reliable so we don’t use the integration feature.
7. Software also provides tool for company to set up a 401 k plan for employees and also ESOP’s.
8. There is a feature that allows for setting up org Chart and abort for employees to request the PTO and their managers as per the org chart will receive notification, following which they can approve or deny the vacation (time off) request.
9. There are also features that enable employees to go on cobra if needed after termination. Zenefits backend takes care of notifying the carrier.
Cons and Challenges:
1. Zenefit is a startup which is great in its conceptualization but still lacks good operational team. We were introduced to three people by our sales rep. It was not very clear as to what each of the three folks were responsible for individually.
2. After three weeks of sending redundant info to two of the colleagues working in zenefits we were frustrated and after calling the call center multiple times. We were transferred to Sarah Blanchard .
Wow what a lady, she took the bull by the horn, took notes of the issues and challenges with on boarding and put on a more mature I boarding team and we were on the platform in a week. Sarah later told us that she knew Conrad the founder of zenefits very well and has been part of his A team in other startups that he had founded. We got lucky our issue reached right ears.
3. The challenge zenefits has is that what they are offering is very my much needed and they don’t have enough experienced and mature people at their backend to handle the stream of clients that are ready to sign up.
4. The reason they had three people on boarding is because one is a licensed to talk insurance (to sell insurance you have to have license), one was sales /​account management, third was more of a person who coordinated all info like census info etc, all three had no coordination amongst themselves nor it was clear who was leading the process. As a result lot of redundant questions were asked and process of on boarding had become a nightmare before Sarah Blanchard got involved and we were put in good hands.
So guys when in challenging situation with zenefits ask for Sarah Blanchard. Sorry folks Unilocal has a text li