The Jackson Laboratories
Explain Why They Chose AirMason & Have Never Looked BackHow AirMason helped this independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit biomedical research institution achieve HR bliss
How AirMason helped this independent,
501(c)3 nonprofit biomedical research institution achieve HR bliss
Name
The Jackson LaboratoriesType
Independent Biomedical ResearchLocation
USA 🇺🇸Team Members
2,642Admins
7SSO Platform
Microsoft
HRIS Platform
Workday
Name
The Jackson LaboratoriesType
Independent Biomedical ResearchLocation
USA 🇺🇸Team Members
2,642Admins
7SSO Platform
MicrosoftHRIS Platform
WorkdayA Q&A with Linette Poirier,
Senior Manager, People Services at The Jackson Laboratories
How long has Jackson Labs (JAX) been using AirMason, and which HRIS (HR Integration System) and SSO (Single Sign-On) does your organization use?We began using AirMason in 2023. We use Microsoft Azure for our Single Sign-On. Our HRIS system is Workday; that's used for our HCM capital management. These have been in place since Day 1.
What problems were you facing before AirMason? What caused JAX to come to AirMason or start looking for HR solutions in general in HR?The primary purpose was to digitize the employee handbook we had at the time—if you even want to call it that. It was really just a dossier of policies and documents. We literally printed and handed them out to our employees here in Bar Harbor. But we also had two other locations and multiple employees joining our organization who would be working remotely in various states.
Emailing them PDFs to print out for themselves wasn’t ideal or efficient, especially when changes were needed. Plus, keeping up with those changes in the first place was a headache, so we basically avoided it. Obviously, that created compliance issues, given most of the policies and benefits information team members had at the time were out of date and not applicable.
Looking back on it now, I’d describe the whole process as “inefficient chaos.”
You know how they say a new car loses like 10% of its value the moment it’s driven off the lot? It was the same for these policies. The minute they were printed, they were basically outdated. And we couldn’t keep up with it. We made sure that if we had new hires onboarding on a Monday, they were getting copies that were as up to date as possible. But our existing employees were basically left in the dust with outdated information.
We've always had all of our policies on SharePoint, so people could certainly look them up. But let’s be real; that didn’t happen very often. It was anything but a good employee experience, and we were constantly behind the 8-ball playing catch-up. It wasn’t until AirMason came into our lives that we realized we could summarize these massive, constantly changing policies all in one place and link out to the details.
Emailing them PDFs to print out for themselves wasn’t ideal or efficient, especially when changes were needed. Plus, keeping up with those changes in the first place was a headache, so we basically avoided it. Obviously, that created compliance issues, given most of the policies and benefits information team members had at the time were out of date and not applicable.
Looking back on it now, I’d describe the whole process as “inefficient chaos.”
You know how they say a new car loses like 10% of its value the moment it’s driven off the lot? It was the same for these policies. The minute they were printed, they were basically outdated. And we couldn’t keep up with it. We made sure that if we had new hires onboarding on a Monday, they were getting copies that were as up to date as possible. But our existing employees were basically left in the dust with outdated information.
We've always had all of our policies on SharePoint, so people could certainly look them up. But let’s be real; that didn’t happen very often. It was anything but a good employee experience, and we were constantly behind the 8-ball playing catch-up. It wasn’t until AirMason came into our lives that we realized we could summarize these massive, constantly changing policies all in one place and link out to the details.
How did AirMason pop onto your radar as a potential solution, and what set AirMason apart?Unfortunately, it’s not a very exciting story. We came across AirMason and a few of your competitors through Google; some sort of combination of “digital” + “employee” + “handbook” in the search bar. We started from square one. Most of the people in our networks we spoke to about our issue told us they managed their HR documents through their own internal systems or Intranet—and we just didn’t want to go that route at all. Eventually, we narrowed it down to three companies.
Funny enough, it was Justin from your Sales Team. He’s the reason why we went with AirMason. He listened to our needs and presented a focused solution that was catered to us specifically. He wasn’t trying to sell us all of your services or read a robotic script like your competitors. I appreciated that. And in retrospect, I’m so glad he did because our partnership with AirMason has been so beneficial for us. Zero regrets.
Funny enough, it was Justin from your Sales Team. He’s the reason why we went with AirMason. He listened to our needs and presented a focused solution that was catered to us specifically. He wasn’t trying to sell us all of your services or read a robotic script like your competitors. I appreciated that. And in retrospect, I’m so glad he did because our partnership with AirMason has been so beneficial for us. Zero regrets.
How are you currently using AirMason?We have a Spanish and English version of our employee handbook for all employees and a compensation guide primarily for our managers and supervisors to better understand the complexities of how our compensation plans are designed.
We also combined some old documents that we use for new hires, including foreign nationals that are relocating to work at one of our locations, and created a welcome book. So three projects, and each involved your talented copy and design teams!
The work has been top-notch and AirMason has really become another resource for us—a cost-effective tool—to create any type of work-related document.
We also combined some old documents that we use for new hires, including foreign nationals that are relocating to work at one of our locations, and created a welcome book. So three projects, and each involved your talented copy and design teams!
The work has been top-notch and AirMason has really become another resource for us—a cost-effective tool—to create any type of work-related document.
Is it easier to make changes to these documents now and notify your employees? Not just easier. Making changes is simple and notifying our employees can be done with a single click of a button.
Oh, and I almost forgot about Automatic Policy Updates. What do you call them? APU?
Those are game changers. We have them in 43 states. We get constant policy update emails from your team and most of the time we just copy and paste them directly into our state addendum books.
Sometimes, we tweak them a little bit, but we love that they’re written in layman’s terms, not legalese. It matches the tone of the rest of our handbook and other documents, which is what we set out to achieve and what your copy team nailed. One of the things that our employees consistently mention about these documents is the tone. The readability. The lightness. We took some very dry material and your team made it, dare I say, fun? Maybe that’s a stretch. Certainly engaging.
Oh, and I almost forgot about Automatic Policy Updates. What do you call them? APU?
Those are game changers. We have them in 43 states. We get constant policy update emails from your team and most of the time we just copy and paste them directly into our state addendum books.
Sometimes, we tweak them a little bit, but we love that they’re written in layman’s terms, not legalese. It matches the tone of the rest of our handbook and other documents, which is what we set out to achieve and what your copy team nailed. One of the things that our employees consistently mention about these documents is the tone. The readability. The lightness. We took some very dry material and your team made it, dare I say, fun? Maybe that’s a stretch. Certainly engaging.
What impact has AirMason had on your business? Well for starters, we're compliant and up-to-date on keeping our employees informed of policy updates. Now, we can see how many times people have opened the handbook, clicked on certain policies, and such. The compensation guide has essentially demystified compensation at JAX and explained some of our more complicated processes in simple terms.
Our compensation team is getting fewer questions about our processes, and it’s been an excellent training guide for newer additions to that department. Plus, the recurring policy updates we receive keep them top of mind for us. Updating the handbook is now a priority; a bit of a point of pride for our team now.
In terms of quantifiable results? It has certainly saved us a lot of time. There’s less frustration for our team and the overall reader experience and the ability to easily reference information has exponentially improved. Employees can now read summaries of longer policies, determine if it applies to them, and then either click on the details if it does or move on to the next one if it doesn’t.
Our compensation team is getting fewer questions about our processes, and it’s been an excellent training guide for newer additions to that department. Plus, the recurring policy updates we receive keep them top of mind for us. Updating the handbook is now a priority; a bit of a point of pride for our team now.
In terms of quantifiable results? It has certainly saved us a lot of time. There’s less frustration for our team and the overall reader experience and the ability to easily reference information has exponentially improved. Employees can now read summaries of longer policies, determine if it applies to them, and then either click on the details if it does or move on to the next one if it doesn’t.
Can you describe the overall experience collaborating with AirMason?Working with your copy and design team has been wonderful. They were both able to run with the materials and directives we gave them, and the final products were excellent, professionally created documents. We're proud to send out these up-to-date, polished books and even use them for recruitment purposes.
And if we ever do run into challenges using the platform, or we have an idea and we’re not sure how to execute it, your team is always so responsive and helpful. I like their approach, to be honest. They don’t just tell me how to fix the problem. They send over a helpful video that walks me through the steps—one I can reference going forward. And if there isn’t a video guide already, I just request one, and they create it and send it to me. Can’t beat that type of support.
In AirMason, we know we have a partner that can help us—no matter the ask.
And if we ever do run into challenges using the platform, or we have an idea and we’re not sure how to execute it, your team is always so responsive and helpful. I like their approach, to be honest. They don’t just tell me how to fix the problem. They send over a helpful video that walks me through the steps—one I can reference going forward. And if there isn’t a video guide already, I just request one, and they create it and send it to me. Can’t beat that type of support.
In AirMason, we know we have a partner that can help us—no matter the ask.
“The work has been top-notch and AirMason has really become another resource for us—a cost-effective tool—to create any type of work-related document.”
How AirMason helped to create MT&Co’s HR Ecosystem
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