How Bennie Transformed The Way Nylas Manages Employee Benefits
Case Study Fixed Navigation
Industry
Computer Software
Employees
165
Headquarters
San Francisco, CA
HR Leader
Rachel Ibarra
People Operations Manager
HR Challenge
Benefits Offering and Support for a Growing Workforce
Results
A More Efficient Benefits and Enrollment Process
About Nylas
Productivity Infrastructure Solutions
Nylas is a pioneer and leading provider of productivity infrastructure solutions for modern software. Within the B2B landscape, Nylas powers the productivity layer of the software stack. Nylas gives you everything you need to launch new productivity features without having to build it all on your own from engineering to the product to operations. “We are committed to solving the toughest challenges that developers face when building products and features that increase their users’ productivity.”
Meet Rachel, People Operations Manager
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Rachel studied psychology and criminal justice undergrad. After graduating, Rachel found herself in the People space through a unique path. What was supposed to be an interim position for Rachel, turned into a 20-year stint where Rachel was exposed to facilities work and recruiting. “It was kind of a journey around all these different facets of HR, but it came down to working with people and dealing with people. And I don’t know what it is about me, but everyone seems to want to tell me things or confide in me.”
Now approaching her 1-year mark at Nylas, Rachel works on the People Team as the People Operations Manager. “I am responsible for systems, specifically anything that has to do with employee data and integrations. Whenever someone has some sort of an issue, complaint, something they want to talk through, something confidential I will have those types of conversations and try to figure out how to best help that employee.”
HR Challenges
As the company continued to grow exponentially, Nylas needed a team to support their benefit efforts.
From San Francisco to Amsterdam, the organization sits at 150+ employees across the Americas and Europe, with the expectation to double in the next six months.
Finding the Right HRIS Fit for Nylas
“You can imagine the time and effort it took having to figure out how much an individual owes for health, dental, vision, then having to type that in every single time someone joined the Nylas team.”
Access to Technoloy and Support
“A lot of the things that we’re doing is ensuring our processes are efficient whether it be benefits related, employee training, or other employee relations matters. Do they make sense across the board for the United States? Does it make sense for Canada as well as the UK?”
“They just make it easier for us. Natasha and I don’t come from a benefits background. Benefits are not my forte and so being able to lean on Bennie’s team expertise and having so many questions that they answer for us to help us get a little bit more acclimated to answering any employee questions has been extremely helpful.”
Bennie’s Job Duties
Choosing & Implementing a new HRIS System
“Streamlining the process saved us time.”
Supporting Nylas’ People’s Team
“The Bennie team was able to pull together information that we could share with our employees.”
Individual, Expert Support for Employees
“Bennie is right there to give those answers and support us or point us in the right direction.”
Choosing & Implementing a new HRIS System
“Streamlining the process saved us time.”
Choosing & Implementing a new HRIS System
Bennie helped Rachel choose and implement a new HRIS system from start to finish. With Bennie’s 4-step vetting process to help streamline your technology, the Bennie team was able to help elevate a major pain point for Nylas’ People Team.
“When we finally implemented Bennie and Rippling, our processes were automatic. Everything went into one system. Streamlining the process saved us time. We no longer had to direct members to sign up for Ease and manually input their information. It’s just a better experience, not only for us in the back, but also upfront for that employee on day one.”
Supporting Nylas’ People’s Team
“The Bennie team was able to pull together information that we could share with our employees.”
Supporting Nylas’ People’s Team
In addition to Bennie’s intentional, quarterly touchpoints to develop and manage Nylas’ benefit plan, Bennie acted as a source of truth for the Nylas team. Not coming from a benefits background, Rachel needed a team that was easily accessible to get their benefit questions answered as well as their employee’s questions.
“For us, with the growth that we are having and as many people as we were having coming in, the number of questions we would get regarding employees’ benefits, spousal benefits, requests for insurance comparisons, etc. only increased. Upon requests, the Bennie team was able to pull together spreadsheets for us containing demographic information that we could share with our employees and cut down the amount of time that it would typically take going back and forth.”
Individual, Expert Support for Employees
“Bennie is right there to give those answers and support us or point us in the right direction.”
Individual, Expert Support for Employees
"Turnaround is much quicker and getting responses to people. Benefits are confusing. Claims, deductibles, all of that stuff can be confusing for people. And when we don’t have the answers, we turn to the Bennie team. And Bennie is right there to give those answers and support us or point us in the right direction.”
Our dedicated member support via Ask Bennie allows Nylas’ employees to ask a team of experts any benefits-related question, receive assistance locating a healthcare provider, and more.
“I send everyone to the Ask Bennie feature. The self-service model of the Bennie app is really great on top of storing all your benefits related-information. Requests on our end have gone down since pushing the Bennie app a bit more through open enrollment as a resource we offer.”
Smoother Enrollments, Better Communication, and Solid Support
A Typically Confusing Benefits Process Turned Simple and Efficient for Nylas
Prior to Bennie, Rachel was handling and inputting all things HR data related manually through Bamboo including benefits, expenses, and more.
“After switching over to Rippling, we’d get questions regarding FSA funds, commuter benefits, or access to Rippling cards. After hours, we’d get questions regarding customer support, where employees can find providers, specific questions we don’t know the answers to. That’s when we go to the Bennie team. Just knowing that it is okay to be able to ask them literally anything and everything and have access to them is a lifesaver.”
On top of choosing and implementing a new HRIS system, Bennie took Nylas’ Open Enrollment to a new level with rolling out new employee communication campaigns and conducting open enrollment meetings.
“We had the opportunity to work with Bennie through an open enrollment process this time around. Bennie presented us with the different packages. We had the opportunity to change, add, or remove anything if necessary. Versus when Natasha and I joined, we had no input into a particular package.”
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