Mario Silva joined MyPlanAdvocate as its first Director of People & Talent Strategy. New to the startup world, he never created an HR department from the ground up. And his lean, three-person team struggled to keep pace with the healthcare company’s ambitious growth plans. 

“Our goal was to scale our headcount to 150-200 employees in six months,” Mario said. “With no systems or processes in place, I wound up handling everything manually in my first year—much as I’d done at past jobs, and found myself working until 9pm, sending email after email to get our new hires set up with IT and payroll.”

Mario said that in order to keep up with MyPlanAdvocate hiring goals, he onboarded up to 20 new employees every few weeks, spending evenings emailing finance team members to set up new hires in payroll and IT team members to issue apps and equipment.

“The process drained my personal time and was a constant source of stress,” Mario said. “One missed or forgotten email could leave a new employee without a laptop.”

What’s more, all the repetitive, manual tasks left little room for the kind of strategic thinking that helps HR show value to the C-suite. “My workload kept me from staying current with labor market trends and state-level legal changes that could affect our business,” Mario said. “We were caught off guard by new local regulations, forcing us to make hasty updates to our policies.”

To meet MyPlanAdvocate’s growth needs while becoming more of a strategic business partner, Mario needed to shake things up. “I began to see that scaling our workforce would take more than the late-night manpower I could give it. That’s when I turned to automation,” he said. 

“I’d worked with systems like Workday and ADP that offered some level of automation, but not the kind of intuitive workflows I was ultimately able to build in Rippling.”

Rippling automations streamlined MyPlanAdvocate’s internal communications during employee transitions (i.e., whenever employees joined, left, or switched roles within the company). 

For instance, whenever the company hires a new employee, Mario teed up a Rippling workflow that handles the entire process—from paperwork and payroll to device distribution and app provisioning—on the company’s behalf, without anyone lifting a finger. And whenever an employee is terminated, Rippling automatically prompts IT to lock devices and notifies payroll to cut the final paycheck. 

“It used to take me two or three weeks to onboard new hires. Now I can wrap up the process in just a few minutes, confident employees will start their jobs fully equipped and ready on day one,” Mario said, whose savvy use cases made him an inaugural Rippling Wavemaker. “Plus, I got my evenings back.”

It used to take me two or three weeks to onboard new hires. Now I can wrap up the process in just a few minutes, confident employees will start their jobs fully equipped and ready on day one.

Mario Silva

Director of People & Talent Strategy at MyPlanAdvocate

Offloading tedious manual work helped MyPlanAdvocate’s HR team work more efficiently. But according to Mario, it’s only half of what Rippling automations can do. “The other half is making good use of your new free time,” he said. “Rippling helped me concentrate on higher-level planning and analysis for the first time.”

Mario now uses Rippling’s workforce analytics tool to pull detailed reports about the average salary and performance metrics of the company’s top performers to help sales agents make informed decisions about office expansion. “I identified our most successful hiring regions and advised our executive team on our talent strategy,” he said.

Mario’s new ability to deliver detailed insights positioned him as a key advisor to the leadership team. MyPlanAdvocate’s CFO and CEO both now involve him early in decision-making processes, relying on the comprehensive data he provides to shape company strategy. 

“Automation changed the trajectory of my career,” he said. “Rippling didn’t just take the busywork off my plate. It transformed my job into something bigger, where I could really dive into strategic planning and help the executive team make data-driven decisions. 

“I see automation in HR as a way to unlock our deeper potential, spark proactive contributions, and create roles that are even richer and more rewarding.”

Rippling didn’t just take the busywork off my plate. It transformed my job into something bigger, where I could really dive into strategic planning and help the executive team make data-driven decisions.

Mario Silva

Director of People & Talent Strategy at MyPlanAdvocate

• Faster onboarding: MyPlanAdvocate’s HR team now handles onboarding 10 times faster, getting new employees up and running in three minutes instead of in three weeks
• Powerful reporting that informs decisions: With Rippling, Mario can pull high-visibility reports that help the company support and retain top talent—both now and as the startups grows 
• A seat at the table: By handling manual work, Rippling automations empowered Mario to become a strategic business partner with the C-suite