Pros
This is a great company to work for if you have PEO experience. The compensation is decent, and the training (albeit stressful) is robust, thorough, and vigorous. This is understandable because the PEO industry is incredibly complex and those who may be new to the space need it to be broken down into many pieces in order to have it absorbed. They did a great job in not only training on PEO, but on sales development as well, which provides overall career development. Compensation and benefits are slightly above average. If you are in sales, within the first 6 months you are able to collect commissions while going through training and trying to get up to speed on the complexities of the industry without carrying a quota. I met a lot of great people during my time at TriNet and learned a lot of invaluable experience. From a corporate messaging level, they are always promoting inclusivity and employee satisfaction. Whether that translates to personal experience is what’s somewhat of a gamble.
Cons
To reiterate the above, and I cannot stress this enough – PEO experience (and likely a book of business to bring along with you) as well as an extended referral network is not only ideal, but almost necessary. Even with a decade of sales experience, you will find yourself making 35+ cold calls a day while referencing a SalesForce system that is either lacking information or infiltrated with incorrect information. Additionally, your success is highly dependent on your vertical and your geographic team. There is a SDR/lead gen team, however the amount of inbound leads provided were minute. There was a heavy emphasis on ecosystem building and referral partnerships, and an expectation that you were to build Rome overnight. It is a very high stress job for those who do not come in with this knowledge, but they do offer the compensation and benefits to keep you motivated until you realize you are making zero headway. It is not made clear in the interview process that you will be sourcing your own leads. The day to day responsibilities were not as expected. I received confirmation of this disconnect through a shocking number of other consultants with limited tenure reaching out to me to inquire about seeking new opportunities for themselves because they shared the same concerns. There seems to have been a major re-org and process shift recently which left two camps: those who have been there for 5+ years, and the blissfully unaware newcomers who had no insight to company politics and cultural issues that may have been occurring. It’s a great company, but I would suggest a training program restructure for those who have PEO experience vs. those who don’t. There also appears to be very high turnover, which could be in part to their rapid expansion of new employees, most of which are not familiarized in this specialized field. I value my time at TriNet and would not change my decision to accept their offer due to the continuing education and growth opportunities, but I would not recommend it if you weren’t brought in via referral who could provide transparency on what really is expected.
