Lehi, Utah
Humbly Confident HR & People Operations Specialist
About Us and Why We’re Hiring
We build “You Need a Budget” the best budgeting software around. (But people in the know call us YNAB, which is pronounced “why-nab”). For more than a decade, people have been buying YNAB and then telling their friends what a difference it has made in their lives. Google us, or read some of our reviews on the app store, and you’ll see what we mean. We love building something that has a huge positive impact on people’s lives.
YNAB is growing, and so is our HR team (known internally as People Operations). Our structure currently has three People Operations Specialists assigned to specific departments to serve as the main HR points of contact for those teams. They facilitate the hiring and onboarding processes, help with HR questions and needs, and generally obsess over their team’s overall work experience, engagement, and connectedness.
Requirements (these are real, actual requirements):
- Minimum of 3-5 years of professional work experience, with at least 2 years of that being in Human Resources
- Part of that experience includes involvement with some aspect of the hiring process
Before we go any further, you need to know if you’ll even like working with us. Let’s talk about life at YNAB, and then we’ll go into more detail about what we’re looking for.
We’re profitable, bootstrapped, and growing. YNAB started in 2004 and we haven’t taken any outside funding—we’re in it for the long haul. We have one overarching requirement when it comes to joining our team: our original Core Values Manifesto has to really click with you. If you’re nodding emphatically while reading it, you’ll probably really like it here, and we can’t wait to hear from you!
We live our Core Values every day at YNAB, and we mean it when we say we are an equal opportunity employer. We believe that a diversity of backgrounds, abilities, beliefs, and experiences are critical to our success, and we are passionate about creating a welcoming, supportive, and collaborative environment for all employees. All are encouraged to apply as we continue to grow a smart, hard-working, and diverse team who loves working together to build something that matters.
We also work really hard, together, to make working at YNAB an amazing experience, and we were (humbly) proud to be named Fortune’s #1 Best Small Company to Work For for the last two years. We have a team full of truly exceptional people—the kind you’ll be excited to work with. We’d love to introduce you to a few of them!
Who you’d be working with:
Chance is our Head of Operations. He gets to obsess about building a great company and making sure that people really love their work at YNAB. He cares deeply about YNAB and the people who make it a success. He also oversees the company budget and financials. When he’s not championing the YNAB team experience, you’ll find him with his family outside in Southern Utah, usually on a mountain bike, a tennis court, or out at the lake.
Caitlin is our People Ops Generalist. She currently runs point on most things related to HR— comp, benefits, and state laws to name a few. She loves YNAB and how it allows her to work and be a mom to three ridiculously cute boys. Her happy place is on the beach (preferably Maui) with a Diet Coke in hand. When she’s stuck in the snow in Utah, you can find her reading a book, watching reality TV, and planning her next vacation.
Amber, Emma, and Charlene are our three current People Operations Specialists, who each act as the main point of HR for the teams they serve. They do everything from coordinating hiring and onboarding processes, to answering benefits questions and keeping our YNAB intranet up to date. Outside of work, Amber enjoys exploring the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, Emma is in the thick of new-home projects, and Charlene is probably on an 11-mile run as you read this.
Lauren is our Accounting and Payroll Specialist. This means that she handles all financial reporting, annual budgets, and payroll. One of her favorite parts of working here is getting to help You Need A Budget...budget. YNAB also lets her be a working mom and spend plenty of time with her family! She loves to try new restaurants, especially when exploring new towns on vacation. But most days, you can find her cooking at home and listening to audio books.
Emily is our current Operations Assistant. She is leaving YNAB in April 2022, so there will actually be two new Operations Assistants when you come on board! Emily will talk your ear off about how much she loves the YNAB team, her job, and then the team again. She handles travel, gifts, lots of packaging and shipping, swag, and helping out where needed. She works with the rest of the Ops Team to pull off the annual YNAB Retreats. She also loves to run, hike, and spend time with family.
And then of course you’ll cross paths with--well--probably everyone else at YNAB. People like Buffy and Sebastian (a couple of our developers), Cindy or Alan (both designers), Angela (our Head of Customer Support), or Reema (our Marketing Operations Lead).
How You’ll Work at YNAB
Now that you’ve met some of your potential future teammates, let’s talk more about YNAB as a company. Here’s how we operate:
Live (Almost) Anywhere You Want
We’ve always been a fully remote team, and have people all over the world. For this particular position, however, we’re looking for someone based in the United States, due to the increased complexity of employing team members across the U.S. Anywhere in the U.S. is fair game though. Just make sure you have a reliable internet connection.
No Outrageous Hours
We want everyone to have a full life outside of YNAB, and we seldom work more than 40 hours per week. There have been a few occasions where things got busy and people had to put some extra time in. But then they took some extra time off, so it all balances out. We work hard and smart but we’re in this for the long haul.
Take Vacation (Seriously)
We want you to take vacation. In fact, we have a minimum vacation policy of three weeks per year. Five weeks feels about right (plus two extra weeks for our company-wide December break). It’s important to get plenty of downtime and get out and do something. We’ll look forward to seeing pictures of your adventures in our #office_wall Slack channel!
The YNAB Retreat
When the pandemic isn’t keeping us from traveling, we get the teams together once a year to catch up on spreadsheets and powerpoints in a Best Western conference room. Just kidding. So far, we’ve done Costa Rica, a gigantic cabin in the mountains, a beach house in the Outer Banks, a ranch in Montana, and most recently, Laguna Beach. We work together, play together, and reinforce the bonds we’ve made as a team and company. Every year, we leave refreshed, motivated, and excited for the year ahead together.
Up Your Game
We’re serious about helping you improve your craft. We budget for it (hey-o!). Think conferences, online courses and subscriptions, dedicated time away from work to learn something new…it’s really up to you and your manager. But we love to see our people growing.
Benefits
For full-time W2 employees in the U.S., we offer fantastic health, dental, and vision insurance, where we cover 100% of the premium for you and your family. No need to check your vision, you read that right—100%. Although if you did need to check your vision, NBD, we’ve got you covered!
We also have a Traditional and Roth 401(k) option. YNAB matches your contributions up to six percent, and matches vest immediately. (Are you a personal finance junkie like our founder Jesse? He set up YNAB’s 401k to have the lowest fee structure possible, where all plan costs are paid by YNAB, not your retirement nest egg. The investment funds available are fantastic, passively-managed, ultra low-cost index funds. You’re not a PF junkie? Trust us, it’s awesome.)
Competitive Compensation
Typically, the starting salary range for this position is $60,000-$73,000 USD annually. We consider raises every year, and have a bi-annual profit-share bonus, which you’re in on from day one. YNAB wins, you win—that kind of thing.
Other Tidbits
- Once you start, we DEMAND (in a friendly, ALL CAPS IS YELLING way) that you fill out your “Bucket List” spreadsheet with 50 items. (That’s harder than it sounds!)
- The bucket list really helps in deciding what we should give you for your birthday and the holidays.
- We’re all adults. There’s no need to punch a clock, or ask for permission to take off early one afternoon to go see the doctor. We look at what you accomplish, not how long you’re in front of a computer.
- We want you firing on all cylinders so we’ll set you up with a shiny new computer and replace it every three years.
- Did we mention that YNAB makes a huge, positive difference in people’s lives? You may not think that matters much, but then a few months down the road you’ll realize it’s made your job really, really enjoyable. Don’t underestimate this one!
If this sounds like your ideal environment, read on because now we want to talk about you, and how you’ll play a big part in changing people’s lives.
Now, back to you, our new People Operations Specialist...
What Success Looks Like:
Our Operations team (what most people call HR) obsesses over making YNAB an exceptional place to work, and you’ll play a crucial part in making that happen every day, especially for your team (or teams!). As a People Operations Specialist serving your teams, you keep a keen eye on the YNAB work experience, always looking for opportunities to make that experience a little better. That might look like dialing in an onboarding process so things run more smoothly. Or sending out a team-wide communication in a fun and engaging way. Or helping a team member figure out a tricky insurance claim issue. Whatever it is, it’s done in a spirit of service with a genuine desire to help your fellow teammates.
You are our ideal candidate if:
- You understand that HR is much more than employee contracts, benefits, and compliance. It’s about building a great workplace.
- You have at least 3-5 years of professional experience, with at least 2 years of that being in HR.
- You have a general understanding of HR: health insurance, HR laws, 401k, payroll, state employment laws, etc.
- You have experience using Paylocity or a similar HR system.
- You’re process-minded and can make order of chaotic details. You can follow a process like clockwork, innovate when something could be done better, or create a new process from scratch.
- You’re proficient with technology, comfortable learning new things, and do so quickly.
- You can’t help but notice that things could be done better/faster using this or that method/tool. And then you take the initiative to actually make it better.
- You’re a people person and naturally build genuine relationships with those around you.
- You love when you get to make someone’s day better.
- You’re an excellent communicator both verbally and in writing.
- You manage your time exceptionally well and are comfortable working remotely.
- You’re incredibly organized, flexible, and collaborative.
- You never met a deadline you didn’t love.
- You’re self-motivated and driven by nature.
- You stay laser-focused on the big picture, without losing sight of every. last. detail.
- You’re wildly productive and independent, but a team-player at heart.
Some things you’ll be doing at YNAB:
- You’ll be responsible for shepherding the hiring process for your team from beginning to end. Think of this as a Project Manager for hiring. You won’t do all the work, but you will make sure that it gets done, and done in the YNAB way. This involves lots of coordination with everyone involved and you’ll be the one people look to for guidance along the way.
- You’ll do much of the initial screening of candidates for open jobs. And you’ll continually screen candidates when we don’t have an open role and stay in contact with those that we’d like to talk to down the road. When we’re not in an active round of hiring, you’ll proactively recruit and build relationships with passive candidates.
- When a new team member joins YNAB, you’ll make sure their onboarding experience is as smooth as butter. Part of that is walking the new hire through our policies, benefits and company-wide info yourself. And part of that is ensuring that their team (developers, designers, etc.) has a process in place that gets the new team member up to speed as effectively as possible. (At first, you’ll probably help create that process.)
- As the main HR point of contact for your teams, you’ll be there to assist people with all their questions and needs around benefits, policies, payroll, the list goes on.
- One day you might be answering questions about changing direct deposit information, updating addresses, or completing a verification of employment. Another day you might be answering a tough question about health insurance, researching a state law (we have employees in 35 states!), or working with a manager to figure out a difficult situation with a team member. Every day is a bit different and you thrive in that environment.
- You’ll manage the process when a team member leaves, and coach managers on how to navigate that.
- When you aren’t busy coordinating hiring, you’ll assist the Operations team with projects like helping maintain a company intranet, refining and documenting our processes, and creating a seamless onboarding experience, to name a few.
- And good news! You’ll probably help plan and execute our annual retreat! Whether virtual or in-person, there are approximately one million details to get right, and you’ll help make it feel flawless for everyone there.
How to Apply
- Apply directly on our site here by 11:59PM PST on Sunday, February 13, 2022. Firm. It’s a real deadline. The kind you love.
- Attach a PDF of your cover letter. In your cover letter:
- Introduce yourself and explain why this position is of interest to you, and why you would be a great fit. Please limit this section of the cover letter to one page.
- On a separate page of your cover letter, answer the following questions (with each response being no more than one paragraph in length):
- What criteria do you look for when searching for your next company or position?
- What are your favorite and least favorite parts of your current (or most recent) job?
- Tell us about a time you created a new process that made one of your responsibilities more efficient.
- Tell us about an HR policy or change that you were involved in implementing at your company, what your role was, and how you went about it.
- What is the most important thing you would look for when hiring someone for this role?
- Attach a PDF resume.
- Though we know it’s customary in some areas, we prefer that you don’t share a headshot in your application materials.
- If you'd like to disclose the need for an accommodation in connection with the hiring process, email us at accommodations@youneedabudget.com. Indicate in the subject line that you’re applying for the People Operations Specialist position. (Please note that we can only respond to messages related to accommodations.)
We’re excited to hear from you!
P.S. We'll send you a confirmation email once you apply. Please add that email to your safe sender list, to ensure that future emails come through. (If you don’t receive it, check your spam folder.)
P.P.S. If you’re not interested in this position right now, but know someone who might be, we’d appreciate you passing this along!
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