Why Maven Wallet: Q&A with Zynga's Senior Global Benefits Manager

Connecting the world through games is a lofty mission, and it’s one social game developer Zynga Inc.’s employees feel excited and inspired by everyday. As the brand behind well-loved games like Words with Friends and FarmVille, Zynga believes that keeping their employees healthy and happy is foundational to their success. So when they saw a need to provide employees with benefits to support diverse paths to parenthood and fill gaps in healthcare with on-demand access to doctors and specialists, Zynga’s HR team turned to Maven. Most recently, based on what they were hearing from employees, Zynga decided to expand their benefits with the addition of Maven Wallet to manage costs and receipts, and administer reimbursements covering fertility, egg freezing, adoption, or surrogacy.

We spoke with Zynga’s Senior Global Benefits Manager, Bryan Aycock, about why Maven’s support has made all the difference for attracting and retaining talent, improving employees’ health and well-being, and driving inclusivity.

Q&A with Bryan Aycock, Zynga’s Senior Global Benefits Manager

Maven: Zynga has made some amazing investments over the last year or two to expand policies and benefits that are driving a more inclusive, supportive workplace. Can you share more about your approach and some of your new or expanded offerings Zynga’s employees are most excited about?

Bryan: Zynga has made great strides towards being the destination for women in gaming and we wanted our benefit programs to help support that in every way possible. Providing support to working moms and families is key in retaining our talented employees and we continue to review internal and external programs to ensure they support our vision.

Q: Why did you decide to implement Maven?

Bryan: When I started working at Zynga in 2018, I was impressed by the generous leave benefits provided to employees when they become new parents. The missing piece was support for our new parents prior to and during their leave, and, most importantly, support as they are transitioning back into the workforce. So much has changed in their lives, and we wanted to make their reintroduction to Zynga as simple and supportive as possible. Maven’s return-to-work programs with on-demand access to career coaches, pediatric sleep coaches, and Care Advocates has done an amazing job making this transition less daunting.

Q: Zynga rolled out our reimbursement management tool, Maven Wallet, for employees navigating fertility, egg freezing, surrogacy, and adoption at the start of this year. Why did you decide Maven Wallet was the right solution for your employees?

Bryan: The fertility benefits provided under our medical plans were a bit restrictive, and due to medical necessity barriers, lacked support for some of our employees who wanted to start a family. At Zynga, we support whatever “family” means to our individual employees, so we needed a way to extend fertility and other services to everyone. Carving out our existing benefits and implementing Maven Wallet has removed barriers and allowed us to extend coverage for adoption and surrogacy—truly being able to support every employee’s journey on their way to creating their “family”.

Q: Why does Zynga find it so important to provide not only reimbursement for treatments but the navigation, support, Care Advocates, and access to holistic providers via Maven’s virtual clinic—to drive outcomes and lower costs?

Bryan: Most employees interact with benefit plans only when they need them and navigating the healthcare system can be really confusing. We wanted to remove the hassle and offer real-time support to employees and their families throughout the process. Being a mobile gaming company, it just made sense to provide this type of quick access to over 20 different types of women’s and family health providers for employees.

Q: Can you speak as well to your own experience through implementation and why you, as a benefits leader, are happy to have Maven lifting the administrative burden of reimbursement management for you?

Bryan: The Maven Wallet implementation process was very simple and Maven’s team helped us talk through the types of expenses that would be reimbursable to ensure we weren’t missing any services or procedures that should be included (or excluded).  Having Maven manage all reimbursements for expenses makes the process easy on us administratively and makes it super simple for employees, as they can upload any receipts through the app and be reimbursed!

Q: What excites you most in terms of the potential impact at Zynga of adding Maven Wallet along with Maven for pregnancy, fertility, return to work, loss, and more?

Bryan: I love the fact that an employee now has continuous support from Maven through the entire cycle of starting a family.  If an employee uses Maven Wallet for infertility services, becomes pregnant, and goes on leave—they have an unbroken chain of support from their Care Advocate at Maven and access to so many amazing providers and coaches. Having a partner like Maven supporting our employees and their families throughout the entire process is priceless.  

“I love the fact that an employee now has continuous support from Maven through the entire cycle of starting a family.  If an employee uses Maven Wallet for infertility services, becomes pregnant, and goes on leave—they have an unbroken chain of support from their Care Advocate at Maven and access to so many amazing providers and coaches.”

Q: We know you’re constantly talking with your employees and asking for their feedback on benefits. What have you been hearing from Zynga employees about Maven?

Bryan: I received an email from an employee who had just become a father for the second time. Rather than paraphrasing, here is what he said:

“I just wanted to shoot you a quick piece of feedback regarding the Maven benefit you recently added. In short: IT’S AMAZING!

My wife just gave birth to our second daughter three weeks ago. I had signed her up for Maven months ago when I saw the announcement, and we didn’t think much of it until after we got home from the hospital. We were experiencing various small issues / problems: feeding best practices, drug interactions, tips to prevent illness getting to the baby. None of these issues was significant enough to warrant a clinic visit, much less a call to a doctor (who probably wouldn’t return our call anyway). However, within a few hours we were live video chatting with Maven professionals, who were amazingly knowledgeable, helpful, responsive, and overall incredibly nice people. I’m not using figurative language when I say my wife slept better because these questions were not nagging her brain.  

{My wife} INSISTED that I email you and let you know that you knocked it out of the park with this addition to Zynga benefits. Thank you for continuing to find ways to improve an already amazing benefits package. You made at least one mom and baby much happier and healthier because of your efforts!”