For agencies, every hour lost to admin is an hour not spent on billable work or client outcomes. Unfortunately for Curiosity—a full-service ad agency based in Cincinnati—it found that fragmented systems often held its HR team back.

Curiosity’s HR team was spending more time on paperwork than on helping the agency scale. Manual work chipped away at productivity, while project deadlines kept coming. “Everything was super, super manual. Nothing we did was easy” said Julia Snider, HR Specialist at Curiosity. “We spent so much time chasing data that we couldn’t focus as much on strategic initiatives and scaling the business.” 

The HR team felt drained spending hours filling out paper benefits forms and mailing them to insurance carriers during open enrollment, digging through endless Google Drive files to find performance reviews, and working off spreadsheets to reconcile payroll, which caused errors. 

 Curiosity also managed different HR processes, like benefits, performance, and training across multiple tools—creating more admin work and more room for error. Curiosity’s manual operations extended to onboarding—when the company had to go through a third party to configure employee devices, physically driving to and from the vendor to pick up laptops. 

"We wanted a solution that offered a single source of truth, was easy to use, and provided top-notch customer service," Julia said. “It was time we committed to doing something else.”

By switching to Rippling, Curiosity replaced a patchwork of tools with one unified platform—unlocking automation, improving accuracy, and speeding up every back-office process from onboarding to offboarding.

“We leveled up,” Julia said. “Everyone’s seeing that HR’s got something that works way better than what we had before. I think Rippling’s helped us tremendously.”

Rippling minimized the hours our teams would spend bogged down in manual, admin work—freeing us to think strategically, our employees to serve clients, and our leaders to grow the business.

Julia Snider

HR Specialist at Curiosity

Rippling workflows helped Curiosity eliminate tedious manual work across nearly every HR task. “I’ve had such a good time setting up Rippling workflows,” Julia said. “We’ve been able to automate so much that we previously didn’t even know we could.”

From sending 30-60-90 day surveys to generating staff reports and reminding managers about start dates, birthdays, and anniversaries, Curiosity set up Rippling workflows to take care of countless repetitive tasks. Rippling automations help across nearly every HR task, most of which Curiosity handles in a fraction of the time compared to its past processes. 

Now, Curiosity’s HR team can focus on people, not paperwork. And better visibility across the company's projects and staff helps Curiosity stay on top of resourcing and move faster on client-facing work. 

According to Julia, Rippling workflows allow Curiosity to focus more on bringing in new clients and growing the agency. “Rippling minimized the hours our teams would spend bogged down in manual, admin work—freeing us to think strategically,” she said. “Now that we don’t have to worry about all the manual, time-intensive tasks, I feel really confident growing will be fairly easy.”

Another huge Rippling draw: it allows Curiosity to handle all its HR processes within a single, unified platform. That unified platform means fewer tools to manage, no more rekeying data, and less time chasing information—so Curiosity can keep teams staffed, projects moving, and client work profitable.

Julia said she’s in Rippling every day, leaning on the HCM for onboarding, payroll, performance management, headcount planning, recruiting, benefits administration, and reporting. She also administers workplace trainings through Rippling’s Learning Management System (LMS).

Instead of toggling between a tangle of siloed systems, Rippling’s one-stop shop makes it quicker and easier to access employee information. “We like that we can reference performance reviews on employee profiles instead of digging up old documents on somebody’s Google Drive,” Julia said.

Rippling also integrates with most of Curiosity’s existing apps—everything from its Google suite to 401(k) provider—which means the company doesn’t have to go through a third-party vendor to configure laptops anymore. “Now that we can do that all through Rippling, it’s so much easier,” Julia said.

Julia also appreciates Rippling’s handy support features. Whenever she has a question, she can ask it via the in-product chat and get a prompt, helpful response. “I don’t have to sit around and wait for somebody to call or email me,” she said. “I can get them on chat right away if I need something urgent.”

When Curiosity was leaving its last HR provider, the team prioritized finding a system that was easier to use. Rippling delivered.

“Now, our people are way more likely to log into Rippling to check a pay stub, go look at their HSA, and do whatever they need to do,” Julia said. “Rippling is much more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.” 

Employees have an easier time finding the information they need and requesting PTO, which leaves the HR team off the hook from constantly helping employees troubleshoot. A smoother employee experience means fewer interruptions for HR—and fewer blockers for project teams trying to get work done.

 “I’m happy to help, but it’s nice when they can find things on their own,” Julia said.

Julia and David Russell, Curiosity’s EVP of HR, needed to convince the VP of Finance, Jenny Baker, before making the Rippling switch—but that was an easy sell. Jenny saw how much time and risk Rippling would remove from the payroll process, especially during busy project cycles.

With Rippling Payroll, Curiosity now flags discrepancies early, avoids surprises, and closes payroll faster—freeing up leadership to focus on higher-impact work.

“We want our people to think about their work, their clients, and one another—not about whether their pay is going to be correct,” David said. “Rippling delivered.”

With fewer tools to manage and less admin to juggle, the Curiosity team has more time for high-value, strategic work: landing new business, keeping projects on track, and scaling the agency without scaling overhead.

• 20 hours a month saved on admin work 
• 90 minutes saved per new hire onboarded
• 12x faster 401(k) contribution processing
• Fewer tools needed to manage benefits, training, and performance
• Enhanced employee experience and productivity

We want our people to think about their work, their clients, and one another—not about whether their pay is going to be correct. Rippling delivered.

David Russell

EVP of HR at Curiosity