The challenge: rebuilding global HR operations and supporting international growth post-divestiture
From its early days as an SMB network security innovator to its time as a public company, five years under Dell, and subsequent private ownership, SonicWall has undergone major corporate transformations. Following its divestiture from Dell, SonicWall faced a massive operational task: building a brand-new HR infrastructure while managing employees scattered across Europe and Asia.
The team needed to establish recruitment systems and onboarding processes from the ground up without disrupting ongoing business operations or losing momentum during a period of unprecedented global growth.
“We had to basically build from the ground up at the same time we were experiencing unprecedented international growth,” said Bryce Ashcraft, Vice President of Global Human Resources at SonicWall. “The challenge was, essentially, that you’ve got a company that has existed for 25-plus years, and we’ve got to continue supporting the operations and managing our talent as seamlessly as possible.”
Because SonicWall already had established footprints worldwide, newly transitioned employees were distributed globally, including regions where setting up standalone legal entities made no operational sense.
“Part of our need for an Employer of Record was because, particularly in Europe and Asia, we had a lot of different regions where we had a relatively small sales office, and we weren’t going to set up a legal entity in those areas," said Ashcraft.
The solution: leveraging a wholly owned EOR model for seamless onboarding and legal compliance
As SonicWall expanded its portfolio toward government and enterprise clients, its talent needs shifted rapidly. Managing localized HR, complex employment laws, and cultural nuances across multiple countries presented significant operational risk.
To navigate this transition without third-party errors or legal compliance missteps, SonicWall partnered with G-P. Choosing G-P's wholly owned infrastructure model — rather than an aggregator model reliant on third-party subcontractors — was critical to protecting employee experience and maintaining accurate global administration.
“We’ve gone through several strategic changes as we have continued to add to our portfolio of cybersecurity solutions and are increasingly focusing on government and enterprise customers,” Ashcraft explained. “That meant that we also had to shift our talent by developing internal talent and adding new people with the skill sets to match our evolving needs.”
G-P provided the legal expertise and day-to-day administrative support required to keep talent management running smoothly across all international jurisdictions.
The wholly owned infrastructure model is really, really important for us because there were so many errors, including miscommunication with subcontractors, under another service provider. We just couldn’t afford to have mistakes like that, because if there’s a mistake, it has a very real impact on the lives of our employees.”
The impact: hitting ambitious hiring goals and expanding into new markets like Eastern Europe
By relying on G-P as an expert advisor, SonicWall streamlined its global onboarding process and successfully accelerated its international recruiting efforts.
G-P’s platform allowed SonicWall to hit aggressive hiring targets on time during critical growth phases, while unlocking immediate access to talent in new regions — like Eastern Europe — where SonicWall previously had no established employee footprint or legal entity.
Being able to rely on G-P is how can we get people in the door as fast as possible. In our first quarter of 2019, we set extremely ambitious hiring goals, expecting that we may have set the bar too high. But then we met those goals on time. And I think part of that is the emphasis that our leadership places on getting the right talent.”
With compliance and daily administration handled seamlessly by G-P, SonicWall gained the flexibility to enter new global markets whenever talent or business opportunities arose.
“Each country is going to be different in terms of its laws," Ashcraft concluded. "But we just hadn’t really had any talent in the Eastern Europe area. And being able to rely on expertise and efficiency, those two things were very, very important to us.”
