01
What was the HR environment at Trinity like when you arrived, before Martian Logic had been fully embedded?
It came out of the principal’s office — a lot of emails, a lot of hard copies, everything in folders or just entirely manual. Things were missed. There were different versions of documents in circulation. There was no continuity, no consistency, and no clear way for those who needed to see records to actually see them — whether from an HR compliance or a payroll perspective.
It was an all-round mess. Martian Logic helped us streamline that and merge those three areas quite well, and we’ve still got room to continue growing from here.
02
You’ve come from large international organisations to a school setting. What stands out about the way Martian Logic fits the school environment?
This is my first school setting, and I really like the way Martian Logic adapts to it. The support from the team is sensational — they’re always available by phone and email, they’ve got subject matter experts across different areas, and they proactively come to us with ways to improve our processes. We recently had a call on how we’ve set up our packs and how to streamline them, which was hugely valuable.
And being an Australian company matters — no time zone issues, no waiting for an offshore helpdesk to open.
03
What are the top three things that are genuinely better now because of Martian Logic?
The first is the full employee life cycle in one system — from how a candidate applies, through interviews, contract, compliance, and onboarding. That single-system experience makes the candidate journey so much better, and it means we can give the right people visibility at every stage: payroll, IT, compliance, managers.
The second is the integration capability — being able to connect with our other systems across the school is a significant time-saver. The third is the recruitment budgeting and approvals flow. Being able to raise a request to recruit, confirm whether a position is budgeted, and set salary expectations before a role even goes live gives finance the peace of mind that an extra check is in the process. I haven’t seen that in other systems.
04
If you had to name your single favourite feature in Martian Logic, what would it be?
The org chart — and its full automation potential. My org chart isn’t perfect yet; I’m time-poor and it’s very much on my list. But I love what it can do.
Right now we’re still receiving emails saying “I need a science teacher” when a manager could simply go into the system and raise a recruitment request directly. The ability to automate all of those processes that currently land in my inbox — and to get them already configured in the system — is a huge benefit I’m very much looking forward to fully unlocking.
05
You’ve been closely involved in the development of the compliance module. What does it solve for a school like Trinity with multiple employment types?
We have a lot of different types of employment at Trinity, and different groups have very different compliance requirements to be working at the school. What the compliance module allows us to do is differentiate between those roles, and that gives us the security and peace of mind we need.
Right now, we’re manually running reports and manually adding staff to the relevant compliance checks — which is exactly the kind of work the module eliminates. Once it’s fully set up, those checks are sent automatically to the right staff members on the right schedule, whether that’s annually or every three years. The follow-up and escalation functionality is also something I’m particularly looking forward to — automatic reminders to staff who haven’t completed a check, and a clear escalation path. And the visibility layer across HR, compliance, and managers means everyone who needs to know, knows.
06
What would you say to an HR leader at another independent school weighing up whether Martian Logic is right for them?
It’s a great system for a school setting — it can adapt to whatever the school’s needs are, whether that’s the candidate experience, the staff experience, or giving leadership the oversight it needs.
But beyond the product itself, it doesn’t feel like a vendor relationship. It feels like a community. The team listens, they act on feedback, they invite clients into group sessions and genuinely take on board what’s said. If there are areas where the system can go further, they’re always open to hearing that and working with you to build or tweak. That kind of responsiveness is rare, and it matters enormously when you’re relying on a platform day in and day out.
07
Where do you stand on all-in-one school systems that absorb HR, versus integrating a purpose-built HR platform?
We had a system that we thought could do everything. It’s outdated now, potentially at the end of its life. What I’ve come to appreciate about Martian Logic is that it knows what it is. It’s focused in its lane, it does that lane well, and the fact that it integrates with the school information system just adds value on top.
I’m not aware of any system that genuinely does everything a school needs at a high level — and the attempt to do so is usually what compromises the HR component the most. Martian Logic’s strength comes partly from the fact that it works across many industries with frontline and compliance-heavy workforces — teachers, nurses, support workers, aged care. That breadth of real-world use is exactly what makes the HR functionality so complete and so adaptable for us. It’s in its lane, it’s ticking along, and it’s doing it well.
