Why Meter picked Sparrow to give their employees a white glove leave experience

Putting our People First

Meter makes it easy for organizations to get great internet, networking, and Wi-Fi in their space. They’re on a mission to turn network infrastructure into a turnkey utility, because whether an organization has an impressive team of network engineers or an IT team of one, Meter believes they should be able to seamlessly get and stay online.

Unlike traditional networking companies, Meter takes a full-stack approach to network engineering, combining hardware, software, and operations. Plus, Meter operates end-to-end, working with companies to install, deploy, and maintain their systems. The result: enterprise-grade networks that are more performant, reliable, and secure.

Meter’s customers span a wide range. Along with warehouses, schools, offices, and retailers, Meter also serves Fortune 500 companies and household name brands like Lyft and Reddit.  Headquartered in San Francisco, Meter is fueled by a small, mighty team of ~100 employees, most of whom work from the company’s HQ.

“We strive to set employees up to do the best work of their careers at Meter,” said Kit Evans, People Operations at Meter. “We’re always thinking about how we can support them to do impactful work.”

“We set the bar high for our employees and have such an ambitious mission, so we want to make leave as easy and supportive as possible. We chose Sparrow because we wanted a white glove leave experience for our employees.”

That’s one of the reasons Meter has invested in making their office a warm, welcoming space, with an in-house chef who prepares breakfast and lunch for employees.

Other benefits designed to support employees in and out of the office include comprehensive health insurance for employees and their families; annual memberships to One Medical, Headspace, and Wellhub; Flexible Time Off (FTO); commuter reimbursements; and 100% paid leave—four months for birthing parents and eight weeks for non-birthing parents.

When Evans and her team wanted to improve Meter’s employee leave experience, they decided to partner with Sparrow.

“We set the bar high for our employees and have such an ambitious mission, so we want to make leave as easy and supportive as possible,” she explained. “We chose Sparrow because we wanted a white glove leave experience for our employees.”

The challenge: Working with a leave vendor who didn’t offer a personalized experience

Before teaming up with Sparrow, Meter worked with a different employee leave vendor. The partnership worked well in the beginning, but Meter’s experience changed over time as their vendor pivoted away from a personalized experience toward a more exclusively technical offering.

“Instead of guiding employees one-on-one through the process of filing for benefits, for example, they just provided PDF instructions on using the EDD website,” Evans explained. In many cases they weren’t able to help troubleshoot if employees had issues, which meant a lot of Meter employees had a difficult leave experience, she said.

“They weren’t meeting our company needs, especially because we have a more mature employee population,” Evans added. “Many of these folks have previously worked at organizations that have handled employee leave for them.”

Evans wanted to give Meter employees an exceptional leave experience—but she also needed more practical help in her own role.

“As the point person from Meter, I didn’t feel supported,” she shared. “Our vendor had one email alias to use if you needed help, and there wasn’t a dedicated person you could work with—all my questions and concerns went into the general support queue.”

To make matters worse, Evans dealt with frequent issues, like missing or late benefit verification notices and interruptions in the vendor’s email services. “Leave is their bread and butter, but their system wasn’t working for us,” she said.

“I don't have the time or subject matter expertise to manage employee leaves, and with Sparrow I don't have to worry about it. There’s a lot less stress and more trust with Sparrow.”

“They weren’t very responsive, they didn’t keep to their word, and their process had many gaps and mistakes that occurred in a very short period of time.”

Frustrated with the lack of support and consistency, Evans began exploring different leave vendors, one of whom was Sparrow. “My experience with Sparrow was very different from the get go,” she said. “I thought it was very impressive that the Sparrow leadership team was so involved in the sales cycle.”

When Evans realized Sparrow offered leave expertise and high-caliber customer service, she made the switch.

“It’s helpful to know I have a point person I can work with directly, and that she can coordinate internally with the appropriate folks. The whole team is super responsive.”

The solution: Partner with Sparrow for a smoother employee leave experience

When Evans brought Sparrow on to overhaul Meter’s employee leave management process, every aspect of leave improved—from administrative tasks to the employee leave experience.

“I don’t have to do anything, thanks to Sparrow,” said Evans. “I just introduce people to Sparrow, then run my payroll report. It’s a super seamless part of my workflow, and I don’t spend much time or energy on leaves at all.”

Sparrow completes and files benefits paperwork on Meter’s behalf, ensuring compliance with leave laws and keeping Evans up to date along the way.

“The Sparrow dashboard is really helpful,” she added. Evans and her team can check the dashboard for a big picture view of current and upcoming leaves at Meter, or dig into nitty-gritty information about leave types and dates.

Payroll is another area Sparrow has helped simplify for Meter. “I love the custom payroll reports because Sparrow makes it incredibly clear what someone is supposed to be paid, and the formatting is very straightforward,” added Evans.

It’s a stark contrast from her experience with Meter’s previous leave vendor. “That was another one of our issues—their payroll report had so many different columns, and it took a lot of manual work to shift it into a usable state for me to run payroll,” she explained.

“Sparrow has turned leave from a headache into a streamlined operational component of my day-to-day—I don't have to be thinking about it, which is a huge win.”

Now, Evans can rest assured that everything is taken care of on the employer end. “I don’t have the time or subject matter expertise to manage employee leaves, and with Sparrow I don’t have to worry about it,” she said. “There’s a lot less stress and more trust with Sparrow.”

Evans also appreciates the close relationship she has with her Sparrow Customer Experience Manager and team of Leave Specialists. “It’s helpful to know I have a point person I can work with directly, and that she can coordinate internally with the appropriate folks,” she explained. “The whole team is super responsive.”

On the employee side, Sparrow ensures Meter employees have a positive, stress-free leave experience from the moment they request a leave to the time they return to work.

Sparrow Leave Specialists arrange one-on-one introductory calls with Meter employees to explain which benefits they’re eligible for, how the state filing process works, and what to expect with their pay and paperwork.

“The employee experience has been really smooth,” said Evans. “In this case, no news from our employees is really good news.”

“The employee experience has been really smooth. In this case, no news from our employees is really good news.”

The result: More time to scale

With Sparrow on their side, Meter’s HR team has more bandwidth to focus on the future. “I get to spend more time on strategic work,” said Evans.

“Sparrow has turned leave from a headache into a streamlined operational component of my day-to-day—I don’t have to be thinking about it, which is a huge win.”

Her favorite part about Sparrow, though, is the team of wonderful people she works with. “It’s very clear that everyone at Sparrow really cares, and the partnership has been seamless,” Evans said.

Now, Meter is focused on scaling fast. “We expect to double in size by the end of this year, which is really exciting,” she shared.

“We signed some large customers this year and we’re working to fulfill those contracts, expand our footprint, and execute our goal to make Meter the next modern utility.”

Sparrow takes the pain out of employee leave management—for all parties involved. Learn more about our solutions or book a demo today.