Melissa Benzo is the Director of People by Wagepoint. She has worked in HR tech since 2013, and loves helping small businesses streamline processes with technology. Melissa enjoys talking about workplace culture, wellbeing, and remote teams. Some of her non-work interests include culinary arts, LEGO, and beagles. Melissa works from her home in South Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Francesco. We chatted with Melissa on the recent acquisition of KinHR.
What is KinHR (People by Wagepoint), and what does it bring to the startup and small business tech marketplace?
KinHR is a simple people management software built specifically with startups and small businesses in mind! The addition of KinHR to Wagepoint’s line of products will create a single solution that takes payroll, time and attendance, and HR tasks and makes them easy, streamlined, and user-friendly. Small businesses will have the features they need, without the bloat (and cost) of a more complicated solution geared towards larger businesses.
You have always focused on empowering small businesses with the best people solutions. How does this acquisition help support current customers of Wagepoint?
We’re bringing current customers another arrow for their quiver and hope that we empower small businesses to do what they’ve created their business for. Most of the time, small business owners or executives are also the ones doing tasks like payroll and HR. People by Wagepoint can help organize HR-related information and tasks so business owners can get back to doing literally anything else.
We know HR tasks can get overlooked and be tedious for small businesses. How does People by Wagepoint simplify this?
Often, we see small business leaders come to us when they’ve had it with keeping information up-to-date on various spreadsheets. Generally speaking, the person managing HR at a small business is doing at least one other job (and usually five). With People by Wagepoint, they can streamline spreadsheets with employee information, reviews, time-off, etc. into one, easy-to-use system. The system comes along with notifications so you’ll never miss an employee anniversary, time-off request, or information update.
You mentioned your mission is about bringing happiness to small businesses. What does this entail?
This is our favourite question! We’re passionate about creating products and solutions that are “right-sized” for small businesses with excellent, friendly service. We hear time and time again how larger solutions are too big and cumbersome for a small business that’s looking for just a few key features to help their company. We want to get to know our customers, learn about their businesses, and help them do what needs to be done so they can get on with their day.
What advice do you have for small businesses to get HR right from day one?
First, don’t be afraid to be flexible and listen to your employees’ needs. Your employees are your most valuable asset, after all. Second, implementing a system with processes baked in early on can save you time spent creating processes yourself as you grow. For example, People has an approval process for time-off requests right out of the box, as well as processes for employee onboarding and reviews. Making an HR system a part of your ecosystem early can be a huge time-saver down the line, and keep your employee information in one place from the start.
Future
Which aspect of the industry do you see the most growth coming from in the next few years? Do you see any challenges coming?
I think the most growth will be coming from small businesses looking for a system that is “right sized” for them. A lot of systems that incorporate payroll and other aspects of people management are large and expensive, so keeping that in mind as we grow our products will be important. We’d like to give small businesses the right tools they need to do their payroll and HR tasks in an easy and efficient way, with the friendliest service ever.
How can people learn more about People by Wagepoint?
They can head to our website and reach out to us there. We have several options to explore the product – we’re happy to schedule a one-on-one demo, you can sign up for a 14-day trial, chat with us and ask questions, and take a look at our features and pricing. We’re always happy to connect!
