When Sharlonda Scales joined Nativo in 2021, she was tasked with re-building the native advertising technology company’s HR department from the ground up. Their HR team of two at the time, made up of Sharlonda and Chief People Officer Mark Putrus, sought to create an environment in which employees felt supported and taken care of across the board.

Now as Director of Total Rewards, Sharlonda is responsible for building relationships with employees and finding ways to customize support to the individual, from total compensation and benefits, to leave of absences, 401k investments, and overall wellbeing.

“We want our employees to feel like Nativo is one of the best places to work. Yes, we want you to work, but we want you to be in the best possible place to do that,” said Sharlonda. “Whatever it is we can do to lighten our employee’s load, we’re on it.”

Evaluating and improving offerings

When first getting started, Sharlonda partnered with Sequoia to assess Nativo’s current health and wellbeing offerings, and suggest ways they could make them even better.

“Our team at Sequoia was 100% on top of it. They negotiated amazing benefits deals in the market, described what kinds of discounts we could offer our employees, brought in a leave management vendor, and provided us with resources to ensure we stayed compliant,” said Sharlonda.

Beyond benefits advisory, Nativo is also leveraging Sequoia’s compensation management solution, Comp OS, to give leaders real-time view and better control over their global people spend.

“At Nativo, it’s important to us that our packages are always competitive in the market. We’ve laid a lot of groundwork to set up job levels and make sure each employee is getting paid what they deserve,” explained Sharlonda.

Unifying their people data in the Sequoia People Platform, Sharlonda can ensure Nativo is allocating total comp effectively. She can look up a job position, see what Nativo’s compensation range is, confirm current employees are within that range, and benchmark against the larger market, all in one place.

Having Comp OS, I know I’ll be able to find exactly what I’m looking for whenever I need it.

Empowered to feel and do our best

Total rewards encompass many things: money, healthcare benefits, to take care of yourself and your family, investment vehicles, flexible work schedules, and so much more. Nativo’s approach to supporting people from the beginning to end is designed to help employees care for themselves as much as their job responsibilities.

“We’re fully remote, and in that environment, it’s easy to get completely engrossed in the work,” said Sharlonda. “I view myself as a kind of ‘mother of the company’ – it’s my job to create a safe place for our employees to feel comfortable asking for what they need, take time for themselves, and feel fully charged to do their best when they’re ‘on.’”