How It Began

Acterra is a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit with a mission to bring people together to create local solutions for a healthy planet. They focus on helping individuals find ways to lower their carbon footprint and discover new ways of helping themselves, their families, and their communities make a difference. They collaborate with schools, businesses, local organizations, and regional governments to promote and lead education and advocacy around electrification, renewable energy, food sustainability, empowering youth voices and underserved communities, and sustainable practices.

As a nonprofit without a full-time HR expert on staff, Acterra wanted a solution with dedicated, reliable support they could turn to for HR expertise. Justworks met their needs with their bundled HR, payroll, compliance, and benefits access into one offering with robust support.

Quality, Trustworthy Support

Onboarding onto Justworks was smooth with Justworks’ support. Zack Wurtz, Acterra Chief of Staff recalls, “I always had clear instructions as to what information I needed to pull from the old system to the new system, how to set up employees, and things like that.” But his favorite feature of Justworks is having a dedicated account manager, Ravena, who knows and gets their business. Zack shared that he emails Ravena at least once a week with various HR-related questions and he appreciates how responsive and communicative she is. Commenting on support, Zack said,

I think that’s the part that makes it seem like [Justworks] is actually a thought partner in the business for us.

Variety of Benefits Plans

Zack appreciates that Justworks offers access to quality benefits with a variety of health insurance plans to choose from. Plus, Justworks’ online platform makes it easy for employees to make their selections. Zack recalled that with Acterra’s previous provider, he got a lot of questions from employees about where to find everything. Now with Justworks, he doesn’t get any questions, which is an improvement. Access to quality benefits and health coverage has been a great retention tool too. Every year, Zack surveys his team to get their feedback on the current plans Acterra offers and if there’s anything they’d like to see. With that feedback, he goes back to explore the medical, vision, and dental plans and added benefits and perks made accessible through Justworks and is able to adjust to his team’s needs. He shared, “I think that aspect has helped us retain employees as well.”

Always Innovating

Justworks’ continuous work to enhance the user experience is another feature Zack highlighted. Due to California labor law, Acterra needed a time-tracking system that could track hours and minutes, and lunch breaks. But as Acterra was looking for a new solution, Justworks released Justworks Time Tracking which was the timekeeping solution Acterra needed.

Of Justworks Time Tracking, he said, “It’s super easy and it automatically tracks overtime. Approval is two clicks.” Zack added, “Justworks has continuously improved to stay where we need it to.”

For a nonprofit, time can be the most valuable resource. Zack shared, “I think Justworks has definitely helped us run more efficiently. In an organization where we’re trying to make the world a better place, every hour and day that I can save not doing administrative work is work that we can put into our programming and help find solutions to climate change.”