After doubling their global headcount in 2021, Snyk was looking to build a strong global benefits package that was consistent across their 20+ offices worldwide.

“Some countries had reimbursements, others stipends, and a few had full global plans,” explained Ryan Higginson-Scott, VP of Global People Services. “The time was right in order to have more centralized control over what we could extend to our people.”

One of Ryan’s first actions in his new role was to expand Snyk’s partnership with Sequoia. Overseeing people operations, total rewards, workplace experience, and more, he had a lot to juggle and wanted a scalable partner that could help him bring cohesion to Snyk’s offerings.

“I started working with Sequoia close to a decade ago, and I’ve brought them along with me to four different companies since then,” said Ryan. “I know they will keep us on top of everything and give our employees the best experience possible.”

Creating Worldwide Employee Benefits that Offer a Global Standard of Care

With Sequoia’s help, Ryan and his team began to look at the basics such as global regulatory compliance and local broker options, but his primary priority was to ensure that every employee experienced the same core components of Snyk’s domestic benefits package, regardless of where they were based.

“It was very important to us that we maintain certain standards across the board to make sure all employees felt equally supported and protected,” said Ryan. “We focused on global coverage for life and disability and added EAPs to enrich our offerings. These often weren’t necessarily local requirements, but we wanted to do this to ensure all Snykers worldwide felt valued and taken care of at every turn.”

To confirm that Synk was offering a competitive global benefits package, Ryan also needed access to market data and people analytics but didn’t have the time to sort through complex and likely outdated datasets. So, he again turned to Sequoia.

“As we brought new countries online, we did real-time benchmarking either directly with our Sequoia team or by looking up resources in the Sequoia People Platform,” explained Ryan. Now, he could make informed decisions by leveraging up-to-date insights into the latest industry trends.

We had an amazing rollout experience with Sequoia’s benefits advisory. I have pretty high standards for what our benefits look like, but Sequoia’s knowledge and support got us to an even better place than I could have imagined.

Amazing Rollout Experience of Worldwide Employee Benefits

Shortly after tightening up their global benefits package, Ryan turned his attention to Snyk’s US offices. Working with Sequoia, Snyk ultimately streamlined their domestic offerings from 12 plans to three, making it much clearer for employees to evaluate each one and decide on the best for their personal circumstances.

“We had an amazing rollout experience with Sequoia’s benefits advisory,” said Ryan. “I have pretty high standards for what our benefits look like, but Sequoia’s knowledge and support got us to an even better place than I could have imagined.”

Ryan and his team also received overwhelmingly positive feedback from employees. Not only did the plans improve, but they now had new resources such as employee advocates and a mobile app to access all their offerings in one place.

“The partnership we have with Sequoia has led to a much clearer and frictionless experience for our employees worldwide,” explained Ryan. “Whether it’s personally leading open enrollment calls in the US or bringing in carriers in each international country to introduce our offerings, being able to rely on Sequoia to help us to maintain that high level of communication, transparency, and availability has been huge.”

Fostering Long-term Partnership through a Domestic and Global Benefits Package

Ryan says he can now focus on refining and enhancing current processes. One such example is the use of company benefits sites, giving potential hires access to discover the details of the domestic or global benefits package available to them before joining the team—which Ryan says makes it much easier for Synk’s talent acquisition team to provide candidates with a complete picture as part of the recruitment process.

“There’s a reason I’ve brought Sequoia in at my last four companies,” Ryan shared, “and it’s because of the true partnership. Sequoia always becomes a critical extension of my team, allowing us to execute that much more seamlessly internally. As we have grown and evolved significantly over the last several years, Sequoia has been a crucial collaborator, helping us to best navigate this exciting growth period.”