Favorite Parts Of Working In The HR Industry As An HR In Startups
Anthony enjoys the "random fun facts" and learning about the "what if situations" that come with working in HR for start-ups, particularly in understanding how insurance works and the logic behind seemingly unusual safety rules, which are often rooted in past incidents of injury or death. Anthony finds it interesting to learn about "unsafe businesses" and why TriNet might avoid working with them due to risk factors, translating into broader understanding of risk assessment in various industries.
Risk Management, Insurance, Human Resources, Start-ups, Compliance
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Anthony M. Gonzales
HR - Start-ups
TriNet Inc.
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey
Arizona State University (ASU) - W. P. Carey, MBA - Supply Chain
Entrepreneurship
Consulting & Related Professional Services, Insurance
Sales and Client Management
Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Learning about the nuances of insurance and risk management in various industries, illustrated by examples like excluding licensed garment manufacturers due to the risks associated with sewing needles and avoiding companies where employees work at heights due to fall risks.
2. The impact of safety regulations, highlighting that these rules are often created as a result of past accidents and injuries, emphasizing the importance of risk management in HR.
3. The transferability of knowledge gained in HR and insurance to other areas of business, using the example of understanding the questions asked when getting a quote for house insurance based on the experience in HR.
Transcript
What do you enjoy most about your industry?
I enjoy learning about all the "what if" situations. I love fun facts, and there are a lot of random fun facts about HR. It might not seem very fun, but there are nuances about insurance and what is risky and what is not risky. All of the problems flow up through us, so you just get to learn about unsafe businesses.
Here's a random fun example: We will not work with any licensed garment manufacturers in the state of California. To have a licensed garment manufacturing license, you need to be in an active sewing environment, which has needles. We deem needles too risky to have on our workers' compensation insurance policy, and we don't want those companies to affect our risk and have our risk go up.
So, we exclude all those companies. It's so random, so ridiculously nuanced, and minutiae, but it's an enjoyable part of the job.
"Oh, very interesting. I had no idea that we could deal with people who do sewing." Another joke we have around here is we're afraid of heights. So, if any of your employees ever leave the ground floor, if they're on a ladder, if they go on a roof, or if they're in a delivery truck, we don't want to work with you.
The likelihood of them falling onto the ground is way higher than for a company whose employees never leave the ground floor. We don't want their risky employees affecting the risk of our large insurance pool. So, we don't work with those companies.
Understanding how insurance works as an industry, even though we're working with health insurance specifically, is translatable to all these other areas of business. When I get a quote for my own house insurance, I think, "Oh, I kind of understand why they're asking all these questions."
I ask a lot of these random questions at work, and it seems unusual. But every question they ask is because someone paid for that lesson. That's where all these safety rules come from: blood, amputation, disability, dismemberment. These aren't rules someone just made up; it's because someone died, and people thought, "We should probably make a rule about that."