Practitioners Corner · 2024-12-20 · 40 min
Mariah Hantis brings 15+ years of payroll and people operations experience to a role managing Deel's global operations across 110 countries. The episode explores the dramatically different complexity levels between domestic and global payroll - US payroll alone involves treating each state as a mini-country with separate tax agencies, employment classification rules, and local compliance requirements. Mariah emphasizes that moving internationally multiplies this complexity through different payment cycles, regulatory environments, and country-specific rules that most companies underestimate before expanding globally. She recommends starting with an Employer of Record model to understand compliance before attempting to establish independent entities. The conversation reveals her unconventional path: after wanting to be an FBI agent, she studied accounting and secondary education history, landed in a board of education doing payroll, then moved into B2B marketing while continuing payroll work. She uses Deel's own platform for core payroll operations and HRIS, demonstrating "drinking our own champagne" - validating product decisions through internal use. Key themes include the importance of transparency when payroll errors occur, the pressure of 100% on-time accurate payroll execution, and why California payroll expertise becomes the gold standard for HR practitioners across the US.
US domestic payroll involves 50 separate jurisdictions with different tax agencies and rules; adding international operations multiplies complexity through country-specific payment cycles, regulatory requirements, and compliance rules that companies often underestimate before expanding.
Deel recommends starting with an Employer of Record to understand compliance requirements and timelines before deciding whether to establish independent entities, reducing the risk of jumping into global expansion without proper knowledge.
Many wake at 3am on payday to verify payroll processed correctly; the stakes are high because payroll represents employees' income needed for bills, making transparency and rapid error correction through off-cycle adjustments critical.
California has the most complex and stringent employment law requirements in the US, so mastering California HR/payroll makes practicing in other states significantly easier and serves as a gold standard skill.
Deel uses its own platform for core payroll operations and HRIS management rather than spreadsheets, allowing leadership to validate product decisions through internal experience while helping shape features based on real business needs.
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
Global payroll isn’t just cutting checks - it’s a minefield of compliance, cultural nuances, and ever-changing regulations. Mariah Hantis, Senior Director of Global People Operations at Deel, unpacks her journey from aspiring FBI agent to HR leader. From payroll anxiety to AI-driven solutions, she shares the realities of managing 5,000 employees across 110 countries. In this episode, we look at HR, global payroll, compliance, people operations, payroll management, employee benefits, onboarding, international HR, career path, workforce management, payroll processing, open enrollment, insurance communication, AI in payroll, career development, HR challenges, and workplace culture. Key Takeaways Managing global payroll for 5,000 employees across 110 countries requires compliance expertise and local knowledge. US payroll is uniquely challenging due to intricate state-level regulations. Expanding into new countries demands thorough compliance research to avoid risks. California’s HR regulations stand out as particularly complex. Mariah’s teaching background enhances her HR approach, focusing on diverse learning styles.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Speaker A: This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more@accenture.com Spotify.
Speaker B: Hey, this is William Tincup and Ryan Leary. You are listening, hopefully watching the Practitioner Corner podcast we have Mariah on today. Mariah, how are you doing? Hello.
Speaker C: Hello. Uh, Oh, I thought you said Ryan. I'm sorry.
Speaker B: Yeah, I usually do say that first.
Speaker D: Yeah, I just.
Speaker B: I just wanted to throw. Throw them off a little bit, and I did.
Speaker C: There we go.
Speaker B: First of all, Mariah, how are you doing?
Speaker D: I'm doing well today. How are you?
Speaker B: Okay now, Ryan, because it's needed. How are you doing? Um, I'm good.
Speaker C: I'm good.
Speaker B: Better now.
Speaker C: My bad.
Speaker B: You're good. Mariah M. Would you do us a favor and introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you.
Speaker D: Sure thing. Um, hello, everyone. My name is Mariah. I am, uh, from Deal. I am their senior director of global people, operations, payroll, and benefit.
Speaker B: Okay, Deal is D, E, L. D, E, L. Did, uh, I just put one E in there?
Speaker D: Just one E's. I gotta do my bad.
Speaker B: Um, my bad. I was trying to teach people how to spell Deal and I couldn't spell it correctly. All right, I see where this is going already.
Speaker C: This is gonna be a show.
Speaker B: This is gonna be that. This is gonna be that show. So tell us a little bit about. Okay, so people Ops, benefits and payroll. Right? So a lot of people would think core hr, and you also have people ops, which is a little bit different or can be in some companies, a little bit different. So, like, day to day, what are you managing?
Speaker D: So everything from post, think of, uh, candidate after candidate signs, uh, or agrees verbally to an offer, it gets handed off to my team to create employment agreements, get them kicked off with their onboarding, um, get through all the compliance requirements, uh, as far as any health and safety trainings and tax documentation. Um, goes over to payroll, make sure payroll is all set up. Benefits, benefit enrollment, benefit management, negotiating our open enrollments, ensuring we have benefit programs and plans. Um, of course, throughout all of that, we're managing, uh, all the queries we get from team members on what's happening, you know, what's changing, what questions they have on any day to day. Uh, things going On.
Speaker B: And this is, this is global. This isn't just in New Jersey. Right. So when you say offer, ah, letter gets signed pre, ah, boarding, onboarding. You might be pre boarding somebody or onboarding somebody in Brazil.
Speaker D: Absolutely. So we have currently just about 5,000 people in uh, think we're at 110 countries currently. So yes, we are as global as we can get. Not actually as we can get. I think we can get up to 150. So we're not quite there yet but uh, we're close.
Speaker C: You'll be there next year?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker C: You'll be there.
Speaker D: Absolutely. Maybe by Q1.
Speaker B: How much um, how much of deals software that is D E, L2E's uh, deal. How much of deal software do you use for your kind of your own uh, you know, your own clients like you. You use it for your uh, clients that you add to deal. But how much do you use it for your own staff?
Speaker D: We are drinking our own champagne every day. Um, so we are, you know, we do have mitigations for different workflows that are you know, in spreadsheets and various things. But when you talk about our core business and like our core payroll operations, our core um, HRIS management, we are in our own platform. And I think that is the coolest part about um, what I get to do every day because not only am I doing hr, as you know, I would do HR anywhere, um, but I'm also building hr. I'm um, uh, helping build out and be thoughtful about what businesses need, uh, and how we can curate that with our own experiences.
Speaker C: Yeah. So before we jump into you because we're going to learn about your story, right?
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker C: That's why we're here today how for the audience that's listening, who's probably in payroll because why else would they listen to payroll? Right. What is different between global payroll and say just domestic? Well, domestic, yes, but like a 200 person domestic. Like what's the big difference? Yeah, I know. Global versus domestic.
Speaker B: Well, no, I don't think most people understand. No, I actually don't. I've looked at payroll libraries of three different domestic payroll companies and it's very intense. I don't think people understand how intense. Just domestic. Four walls of the U.S. right. I don't think people have any idea how, how complicated that is.
Speaker D: I mean just US payroll alone is complicated. I call it our 50 mini countries. When we talk about if we are deal is operating in all 50 states. So um, it is like 50 mini countries. We're talking separate tax agencies. And processes for, uh, each state, let alone when we talk about Ohio and Pennsylvania, our local taxes and all that, we can go down to just the town and how, uh, critical that is from a payroll processing and tax, uh, perspective. Um, so, yeah, I think the companies out there, who are, we talk domestic, who are in their three states. Like if you're just in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Right. Branch out to all 50 states is a feat of its own. Right. It requires a lot of training and compliance and understanding down to what employment agreements are you offering and then what are you. What rules from, uh, tax, work wage and hour classification perspective that you need to abide by. Because once you go over, especially when you go all the way over to California. Oh, yeah, Very different subset of, of rules and regulations. Um, but when you look outside of the scope of the US and you start going into Canada and then you start going over to, to Europe, you know, it is, uh, quite a, uh, diverse and environment as far as, like, compliance regulations, payment cycles. Um, there's a lot you need to be mindful of. And I think it's underestimated with how much I think, you know, companies who get excited about going out there and wanting to branch out into new, um, countries get overwhelmed by how many requirements they have. And I think that that is the biggest risk some companies have is if you don't do all your research and you just jump into the deep end, um, you can get yourself into trouble. Right. So we see a lot of times, first, employers starting out with like an employer of record, right. Holding hands a little bit, um, so that you can understand what the compliance requirements are, what the standard process as far as payroll requirements, timelines, um, go. So that you can understand, is it right for me to set up my own entity and what do I need to do in order to do that, um, to limit the amount of risk that companies have.
Speaker B: What's the strangest thing that you've seen from a global perspective or not, you know, just something that you never dealt with before, uh, in a different country.
Speaker D: Strangest. That's a trick question. I feel like it's all. Everything is different. It's all strange everywhere. It's all strange. Um, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker C: It's.
Speaker B: It's all strange. Well, you know, the thing like I remember people talking to us, to Ryan and I, about you've got to. With domestic payroll, so true of global. You've got to be on top of it. You got to be working with a company that stays on top of it. So that it becomes a DNA.
Speaker D: Yeah. It's quite, uh, overwhelming when you are operating at such a global stage. But we're fortunate enough to have tools like AI to have at Deal, specifically local country teams, um, that are built out to service our customers, that we get to leverage internally as well. Um, that is extremely helpful to understand what these nuances are, what these updates are. I'd say going back to thinking of kind of the strangest thing. Um, it's domestic, but as far as, like in the U.S. but I, I just don't get the final payout rules. Um, the one thing that I just wish that if they are going to exist.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker D: And they standardize it.
Speaker B: Please.
Speaker C: Never happen.
Speaker B: Please. No. Please. Well, California is its own nightmare. Uh, and I mean, when Sherm. This is 100 years ago, HCI actually did certifications. They did, they had, and they still do. They had a certification for everyone else, the other 49 states and territories, and they had one specific to California. California HR low. Is that different? You know, I find everything in California fascinating because I don't live there.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: You know, and I don't have to practice HR there. I can't. I can't imagine practicing HR in California.
Speaker D: The silver lining, though, is if you can practice HR in California and you know all those rules, you can do it at least almost anywhere in the US you'd say the same about if you can do it in France, you can do it in, you know, anywhere and so forth. But California, uh, is that gold standard as far as, you know, requirements go.
Speaker B: So, yeah, that's advice we should give people young in their HR career. Go there, go to California. Go to California. Do your bit. Do your. Do your bit. And then everything else will be easier.
Speaker D: Yes.
Speaker B: Wherever you go after that, that's the hardest thing that you'll do. Everything else becomes easier.
Speaker D: Absolutely.
Speaker A: This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms, um, that matter most. Learn more@accenture.com Spotify Ryan, you want to go backwards?
Speaker C: Yeah. I want to know, Mariah, how you get into this? How did you get in the payroll and hr? I mean, nobody, I should say. Actually, I shouldn't say nobody, because they do offer HR degrees.
Speaker B: Yes, they do.
Speaker C: And people do go to school to be. They don't go to school to be a recruiter. I'll say that. They go to school to come out and they do hr.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker C: How did you get into this? What was the, uh, what was the dream? Way back when.
Speaker D: So the dream had nothing to do with HR?
Speaker C: No.
Speaker B: Mariah, in the 40 shows that we've done, I don't know where we've had two people that have said the dream was hr.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker B: And Ryan are both, like, stumped. Like, what?
Speaker C: They lost all credibility.
Speaker D: I knew at a certain point, but I did not know.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we've had two. Only two. But we can point to you. Um, like, literally, Ryan, you can see the shock on our faces afterwards. We're like, huh, wow. That was the.
Speaker D: I didn't expect that to happen.
Speaker B: So.
Speaker C: So HR wasn't your dream? What was the dream?
Speaker D: It was not. I had so many. Gosh, it went from I wanted to be an FBI agent to the. Yeah, really cool. Like, really cool stuff.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Speaker D: But I ended up doing something cooler, which is hr. So, um. So I wanted to. I originally went to school for accounting, so I wanted to be an accountant. I went to school, spent some time at, ah, various colleges, um, some in the. In the city. Um, and for some reason I just saw, like, everyone commuting on the train in their suits every day.
Speaker B: Yep.
Speaker D: As I was going to school and something about that. I was like, m. I don't know if I want that to be me. So I was like, let's be a teacher. I want to be a teacher. So I went to school to be a teacher.
Speaker C: There you go.
Speaker B: Um, the commute shorter. Got it.
Speaker D: The commute shorter. Um, I have. I'm a history buff. So. Yeah, school for secondary ed in history. And that's actually what I got my degree in. Um, I have my associates in business administration, my bachelor's, um, in history and secondary ed. I never actually taught, though. So interestingly enough, landed myself an opportunity at a local board of education doing hr, payroll, administration. So how the two you came out
Speaker C: of school into hr?
Speaker B: Dude, I got so many questions. Because. Really, no, no, it's actually. It all makes. See careers for me. Mariah. Always makes sense in the rearview mirror. Like, it always. All the steps, all the pro. Like, it all makes sense because. So the FBI thing, that's your. That's the skill that you need as an investigator when you have to do investigations. So you get to scratch that itch in a way to, like, the, you know, sexual harassment claim or other types of Investigations that you got to be a part of. You get to investigate accounting. When you did, when you got into accounting, you're not afraid of numbers. Teaching makes sense because employees are children. So, like, it all makes sense to me, really.
Speaker D: This is like. This is like a therapy session. I didn't.
Speaker B: It totally makes sense to me. When you said. And then I went here, I'm like, well, of course.
Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. All the. All the pieces connect and.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker D: And, yeah, I mean, I thought. I always thought it was super cool that I landed at a board of education doing payroll. I'm like, how these, like, my business and accounting, then my teaching, even though I wasn't teaching, but it just all landed in the same kind of realm. And, uh, from there, I spent a few years there, and I'll never forget, the boss that I had at the time was like, you. When I had. Was presented with a new opportunity. That was when I moved over to, um, uh, B2B marketing space. They were. I was talking to her about, like, this new opportunity and what should I do? And she was like, you are gonna be bored here. Like, this is just not your flow.
Speaker B: Like, you've already got out of us everything you're gonna get out of us.
Speaker D: A board of education. Like, it was.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker D: Like, it gave you job security. It was like, uh, you know, all of the things. But it was not like, my work style. Right. I was after the chase. I wanted to build things, I wanted to change things I wanted to do.
Speaker B: Oh, they probably got frustrated with you too. Yeah.
Speaker D: They're like, get out of here.
Speaker C: You stop coming in the.
Speaker B: No, because you want to innovate. You've been to a conference. You walked away, went to a webinar, and you're like, oh, man, we could do this. And they're like, hey, stop. Stop all that.
Speaker C: Look at what we can do to actually educate the students and, uh, pay people on time. No, we don't want to do that.
Speaker B: Well, the fact that you learned how to teach is, to me important, because whether or not you ran a classroom or not doesn't really make a difference. You learn the fundamentals of how to carry a topic and get it into. Into people's minds, uh, and get them interested, which, again, how much of those skills. If you go back and look at the classes that you took, how much of those skills that you use today?
Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, just. Even just the different learning styles, it's so helpful to understand that people learn differently, they receive information differently, you know, and it's important skill to carry for Everyone, um, outside of HR, too.
Speaker B: Um, did she say B2B marketing? Right.
Speaker C: Yeah. I wanted to go. Yeah. And I'm assuming that's where we're going, but. So you left the board of education and you jumped into a marketing job.
Speaker B: Reluctantly left. Sorry.
Speaker D: Yeah, it was a B2B marketing company. Uh, and I did their payroll there. Um, I did not go into a marketing career, but I stuck with payroll. Once I was in, I was in. I was committed, and I haven't left. Um, but, yes, we. I did payroll and benefits there. That, uh, scope expanded into total rewards. I was there for four years. Um, so the company there grew from just under 100 to about 200 people, um, in the four years.
Speaker B: A lot of compliance comes in at
Speaker D: a certain point in California. So that was.
Speaker B: Oh, boy.
Speaker D: That was my first run at that.
Speaker B: Did you have to put up posters?
Speaker D: Did you ever have to put up posters? We were in the office.
Speaker B: Was that the funniest? Like. Like the break room. It's like, I remember pinning, uh, up posters in the break room. Like, nobody's gonna look at this stuff. They don'.
Speaker D: There. Right. It's like a suggestion box.
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker C: That nobody ever used or saw.
Speaker B: I. I did a. I did a suggestion. And this is funny. I did a suggestion box once. I, uh, made it. I made it out of wood and painted it, the whole bit. It didn't have a bottom.
Speaker C: Did it sit on the trash can?
Speaker D: No.
Speaker B: I just wanted to see how many people would put something in it. There was no bottom. Uh, because I. I'm like, no one's ever going to put anything in here. If they want to suggest something, they're just going to come to my office.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Or somebody's office. They're just going to walk down. Hey, we should do this. Like, all right, yeah, we'll do this. But I do remember pinning up posters.
Speaker D: Oh, yes.
Speaker B: All of those compliance posters and all that safety and all that stuff.
Speaker C: You know, that would actually be a really cool prank gift for an office. Just like a trash can with a suggestion box on it. And that's the lid. You just throw everything right through there.
Speaker B: Zip. Oh, yeah. There. You're suggesting what I did here. Yeah.
Speaker C: Yeah. Mariah care all the finances and payroll for us. We'll build it.
Speaker B: I know, I noticed. And, uh, this is actually a theme through a lot of practitioners careers is you started with payroll, you got benefits, and then all of a sudden, the company's growing, you get total rewards. Like, it's. You just start getting. Especially if you're competent Right. You just start getting more and more people are like, hey, who can do compensation? Mariah can. She knows numbers. Okay, great.
Speaker D: Absolutely. A catch all base and I, I. We've seen this at Deal, right? Like, in the startup space, as you just kind of learn and as the company is evolving and growing, there's just all these needs that show up and you're just like, well, we need to see what our needs are first. We need to explore what that is. So I guess I'll do it. And then it's like, I'm still doing it.
Speaker B: And we thought I was gonna. Thought I was gonna do it for like a month. And, uh, now I own it, and now they've given me employees. Great. So it looks like I'm going to own it for a while. All right.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result, Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more@accenture.com Spotify question for you, Mariah.
Speaker C: Uh, on, uh, William and I talk about this all. We make jokes about this all the time. We're like, payroll, you can't mess up payroll. Right. So I'm curious. So now you're in your second. This is your second stint in payroll.
Speaker B: Yep.
Speaker C: Right. You're expanding from 100 to 200. And, you know, I'm assuming you're. You're growing more and you're moving on. What's the anxiety level on payroll week? Payroll day. Right. You're hitting without software, you know, or advanced technology. At that point, you're hitting the button, like, how? Like, what's the anxiety level for you?
Speaker D: It's. I think the anxiety for me hits the morning 3:00am on.
Speaker B: Right, right, right.
Speaker D: Because I want to say that I'm confident enough and in teams that I've had to help run, you know, process the payroll. You're confident and competent enough to know that we've done the job well. The question happens of when we press that button and we did all the things, did it work? And so 3:00am Um, I. It hasn't been probably until recently. And sometimes I still wake up at 3:00am um, on payday. It is like a ticket to just make sure that it worked. Because if it worked for me, I'm like, okay, it worked. For everybody else. But, um, yeah, I think that's where the stress and anxiety comes in when that doesn't happen and it has happened where it. Nothing came through.
Speaker B: 3:00am When I. When I was doing. When I ran companies and I had employees, I would do payroll on Thursdays. So I get everything set up in whatever system we'd use. I get everything set up, and then I'd come in on Friday, and I'd go back through it and run payroll. But I, uh. It was, you know, small enough companies, 100, 150 employees, where I would tell people if there's a problem. No, when there's a problem, like, I'd tell them, um, hey, man, listen, I'm doing my best, but I'm not, like, an expert at any of this stuff. So if something's wrong, check your back. Then when we had pay slips. Check your pay slip. If something's wrong, like your PTO or whatever's not right, just. Just come and tell me, like, we'll get it right. I'll make it right. But to Ryan's point, a lot of people don't have that latitude. It's like, it's got to be right.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: And.
Speaker D: But the good. The. That is one of the saving graces of payroll is like, yes, there is 100% pressure. This is someone is on the receiving end that needs to pay a bill and has, you know, it's life. Right? This is what people work for, for the majority of people. Right. Um, so, yes, there is that. That, um, okr. That we have 100% on time, accurate payroll. It's not 99. Not 99.9. It is 100. The problem is we're human, right? And with that, even if we were to go completely automated, still computers aren't perfect. And, like, there will be errors at some point, whether it was a tax that wasn't calculated correctly or, you know, uh, a local wasn't added. Those are things that happen but can be fixed. Uh, and I think that as long as you are transparent, um, and you have the proper tools in place to ensure that you're going back and you're reconciling and you're checking so that ideally, you can be the person that says, hey, William, I made a mistake on your paycheck, and I've already done an off cycle and sent you, you know, corrected it. Um, and I think those are the important things, because those are the people skills. Those are the people skills that are needed in payroll. Um, yes, you got to be good at numbers, and you have to. You know, you're not always behind the scenes. You're just as much behind the scenes running the numbers as you are confronting someone about a sensitive matter like their pay.
Speaker B: The hardest. The hardest thing that I had when I had payroll was bonuses. In Texas back then, bonuses were treated differently, taxed differently than regular payroll. And conveying that to salespeople was very difficult. Like, getting them to understand, okay, here's wages and here's bonuses. They're treated differently by the government and the state, and they're taxed differently. And so, like, getting them to understand that, like, it was like I was speaking Mandarin. Yeah, like. Like they just understand. They didn't understand. I'm like, okay, I'll go through it again. Okay, here's what's going on. Here's why. Here's why it's important, and here's why it's important for you, because you're going to get these bonuses based on quota, and it's going to come through differently. And so you should plan for that. And it's like, that was the hardest. I think, at the time, that was my hardest challenge was communicating to salespeople.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker B: The differences.
Speaker D: All of that, plus the, uh, most recently, too, like, the tax form change, I think was 2020, like, under having people understand, like, it's no longer single, zero, married wife. It is.
Speaker B: That's right.
Speaker D: All of these crazy numbers that we have to put on this, uh, form and going through and explaining it. And it. You walk a delicate line of. Between explaining what this is and advising, which we have to steer away from. So, um, it makes it like you want to be this, um, role where you can come. People can come to you and you can talk through these things. But also, like, I'm not telling you what to do. I'm not advising you what to do. But, you know, these are. These are the changes. Here are the resources that you can use. This is what is most closely aligned to what you had elected previously so that you can be a resource for. You know, this is for us. We do this every day. So it's like, this is a W. This is a W.4. This is what you have to do. Um, but to them, they're doing this. When you think about it, if I wasn't in payroll, how many times would I have completed A W? 4. 5? Maybe?
Speaker B: M. Yeah, maybe. So the one of the things I wanted to ask you about is your communications. Like you said, you're not. You know, we're not. We're not hidden. We're talking to people. We're constantly answering questions and also, you know, getting in front of things that are coming down the pike. That's true of payroll, but it's also true in your case of, uh, benefits too.
Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B: What's the most challenging part for you? Good God. We're writing an open enrollment too. This is great, Great timing.
Speaker C: I know. We're keeping her. She get stuff done?
Speaker B: Oh, yeah, she's got a list. What's the most difficult part of open enrollment? More or less the communication of what's coming, what's what they have, uh, available to them.
Speaker D: So I think this will vary based on what the outcome is of whatever your renewal looked like. You know, sometimes companies have to make hard decisions to change up benefits based on costs, um, take away things, change carriers. And that has direct impacts on, um, employees. Right. That are like, oh, I have this specific condition, I go to this specific doctor, and now they're not in network under this new insurance. And those are real problems that happen. Um, we've been fortunate enough not to have to go through so many changes, um, like that. Um, but I'd say like, the hardest part is like, insurance is one of those things. Just like payroll. It's hard to understand. It's hard to understand what a deductible is, what an out of pocket maximum is, what a copay is, and when you have to pay it and why you have to pay it. Uh, people are like, what's the point of insurance if I have to still pay? Every time I go to the doctor,
Speaker C: I'm like, trust me, I still ask
Speaker B: that question 100%, 100% pay so much more.
Speaker D: I promised his
Speaker B: that, that in every year, like, insurance never goes down.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: We have a running joke. I say, never gets in life. Eyesight never gets better. Insurance never goes down.
Speaker D: Never, never.
Speaker B: Like they were predicting, I think for this year, 11 to 12 increase. Yeah. And some of that's due to the GLPs, the um, the drugs that, uh, that people use for diabetes and weight loss and things like that. So, so some of that is, you know, pharma, uh, related. And some of that is. I just don't think we're ever going to hit a year where people are like, oh, snap, benefits went down 20%. No, our insurance went down 20%. It's like, that's never going to happen.
Speaker D: No, unfortunately, I don't think that will be the case.
Speaker B: And it's like communicating that to employees. It's like this. It goes up higher than the cost of living.
Speaker D: Right. Every year and they want the coverage. Right. And we want to provide that to them. So, like, when. When we talk about things like, oh, I want orthodontic coverage, or I want fertility coverage, all of that costs money. Every single thing that we add. So when we want to do one good thing right, it costs us x percent more. And like, the question is, how much can a business, um, absorb and how much do we have to pass down and what's the value add for how many people that we're looking to cover? Um, so I think that those conversations are definitely hard. I think it's all about positioning your. Your comms and ensuring that, you know, you're. You're touching upon the, the good things that are coming with the plan and the reasons why and where you tried to minimize costs and impact, um, wherever possible. I think one of the more challenging things is actually getting people to complete their open enrollment.
Speaker B: Oh, 100% always. You gotta tie it to, like, payroll or something. Like, you can't get your paycheck until it's filled out. Sorry.
Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, some, some process that has been better with open enrollment, but historically it has been so bad beating that people push it until the last minute. It's like writing a research paper. Nobody really, truly. Well, maybe some people. I don't want to write a research paper. And so I've always waited to the last, to the last minute. And I think that that's open enrollment for me. Even, uh, even I don't even have to enroll. I just have to click.
Speaker B: I think AI is going to make this. I actually, uh, I'm not a big AI, like, oh, my God, AI is going to change everything. Can't wait. But I do believe it's going to demystify insurance in the way of being able to run it through and go put this in English and tell me, like, what does it actually mean? Yeah, I do believe that's actually going to be helpful.
Speaker D: Yeah, it's so, so hard to understand. Ah, so if I just walked one, went into my open enrollment and said deductible, uh, do you want the $500 deductible plan? The no deductible plan. I wanted just that AI summary of what that would mean for me as far, and I wanted to take of my costs that I spent in the prior year and tell me what would make sense.
Speaker B: Choose your own adventure.
Speaker C: Yeah, just look at it and tell me what to do. Mariah, what. What trends are you seeing coming, um, forward in payroll?
Speaker D: Trends? I'd say, um, from like, A support perspective, AI for sure. Um, I think, I don't think AI will ever take over payroll completely. It's, it is a human service that is needed uh, at some point during the process.
Speaker B: But it can answer questions, right?
Speaker D: Yeah. And I think like we get a lot of those, like where could I find my pay slip? What does this tax mean? Right. There's so many questions that we have actual humans answering now that could potentially be replaced by AI, which is helpful because those humans who are answering questions can be doing a lot more meaningful work. Um, you know, whether it's servicing clients, if you're running payroll for clients, or whether it's you know, building, you know, more efficient processes and um, policies for payroll. Um, but I think that it is something that can be explored more from a support perspective of how you can utilize that streamlined self service with AI. I think employees appreciate that too. Like they want answers quick. You know, they just want it 3
Speaker B: o' clock in the morning in Indiana. They want to be able to answer, ask a question. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D: What are you doing on your phone? You're always just googling, getting an answer right away. And I think that there will be some level of a, uh, duty to employers to make that a service for employees. Right. So that I can provide the workers with answers quickly. Um, not just like on your intranet with like you have these pre built frequently asked questions.
Speaker B: I don't believe any of the FAQs are real questions that employees ask. I believe that we create those to make ourselves feel better.
Speaker C: That was somebody in the office, like here it is.
Speaker B: Of course they're going to want to know, here's the question, here's the answer. I'm like, yeah, that's bullshit. Yeah, they're not going to ask that. Yeah, Ryan, you're gonna laugh at me. So the second company I ran, 25 employees, everybody's under the age of 25. So young company. I had a benefits broker that I'd worked with. So I came, uh, I came in one day, this is probably in October. So I said, listen, here's the deal. We're going to get benefits. They're going to start January 1st. I want you to look at this two ways. We can do fewer benefits and the company will cover everything. So 100% coverage for you and your family or we can do a lot of benefits, but you're going to take, it's going to be 50, 50 company will cover half, you'll cover half. And because it was a young company, uh, younger employees, they were like, I Don't want to pay anything. When I go to the pharmacy, I just want to pick up something and leave. And it was the easiest thing because of the age group, but also like where they were, nobody had kids. Like everybody was at, ah, kind of a very similar spot. So I did that, I did that actually for three years. And then it got so expensive. I'm like, okay. And then everything changed, right?
Speaker D: Demographics change.
Speaker B: Yeah, demographics changed. And uh, and so it got, you know, and of course it got more expensive. Um, advice that you would give your younger self. What advice would you give Mariah of 17 years old? Hmm.
Speaker D: Mhm. I don't know. I'd say continue to take risks. I think risks are important. Um, and to, you know, not settle, like to always chase something if you want it. Um, you don't have to be complacent in anything really. Um, but when we specifically talk about careers, you don't need to have it all figured out at 18 at your graduation. And you'll need to know exactly where you're going. I changed colleges. Uh, I went to County College, I went to two secondary college, four year universities after that. And like that's fine. There's no stigma. There should. There is a stigma around it, I think. Or at least there was.
Speaker B: There was, yeah.
Speaker D: And it's fine. You don't have it figured out and like your trial and error. Life is a trial and error. A big trial and error. Like you just have to stop, take the risk. Um, because you know, the rewards are great.
Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Uh, Ryan, what do you got?
Speaker A: This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more@accenture.com Spotify Final question for me, Mariah.
Speaker C: Would you have done anything differently career wise? Would coming out and getting into. Into, um, I guess into. I'll say hr, but payroll. Would you have chose something different now that you know what you know?
Speaker D: I don't know. I don't.
Speaker C: We won't show this to deal. Don't worry.
Speaker B: No. No.
Speaker D: Yeah. I sometimes wonder, I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to be an FBI agent.
Speaker B: Fair.
Speaker D: Sometimes. Maybe. I don't know how I do on the physical test these days, but uh, but no, I Don't think I would do anything differently. I do think that there are, and I mean that wholeheartedly. I think I ended up where I was supposed to end up. I think I'm doing the work that I am supposed to do and that I matches my skill set. I think it's just finding the right companies to work for. And like, Deal is a perfect place for me. Always moving and shaking, and it's like what my boss 10 years ago told me to chase. So I think I'm in the right place at the right time. And, yeah, I wouldn't do anything differently.
Speaker B: So the winter months, uh, historically, because you're a history buff, you understand this. The winter months are when we reflect and the reflection can be on 24. You, uh, could also, in some ways be looking forward to 25. So let's do the 25 part. What are you most looking forward to in, um, 2025? Career wise?
Speaker D: Career wise. I'm looking forward to seeing, see how Deal is going to go through some explosive growth in the next year. And I'm looking forward to see, like, what that brings from just all of the changes. Looking back, even two and a half years, I know we weren't looking back. We're looking forward. But to look forward, we got to look back. Uh, looking back to two and a half years ago, when I started at Deal, my role was nothing. What it is now. So I'm curious to see, with all of the evolving growth, um, and trajectory of Deal, what does that mean for how People Ops will scale and what payroll looks like and what benefits will look like? Um, yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker B: They're either going to give you more or they're going to silo you and say, listen, you do People Ops, we got somebody that's a specialist. They're going to do these other things. So I can see the chaos of that being fun, actually, because it's like, you know what, when we, when we talk to her next, Ryan, she's going to be Chro. You know that, right? Like, this is. This is the path.
Speaker C: There is a high potential of that. Yes.
Speaker B: Yeah. All right, Ryan, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story and talking to us about Deal.
Speaker D: Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun to sit with you guys.
Speaker B: Absolutely. And thanks to the audience. We appreciate you.
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