Welcome to the Transform Awards Winner Spotlight Series, celebrating innovation and leadership in reshaping industries and workplaces globally. These awards commend individuals and companies at the forefront of transformation, setting new standards and challenging the status quo. Recognized for their people-centric and visionary approaches, our awardees are the global changemakers pioneering advancements in business, entrepreneurship, and beyond. This series shines a light on their achievements and the impactful ways they’re moving the world of work forward, like Roblox, winner of Total Rewards Strategy of the Year.
About The Award: Rewards Trailblazer: Total Rewards Strategy of the Year
Recognizes the company with the most forward-thinking approach to total rewards that includes a compensation, equity, benefits, and perks package that reflects the true value they place in their people.
About Our Transform Awards Winner, Roblox
Roblox’s vision is to reimagine the way people come together. Our mission is to connect a billion people with optimism and civility.
Roblox is a platform where people come together virtually to share experiences. Every day, tens of millions of people from around the world come to Roblox to learn, work, play, connect, communicate, and socialize in immersive digital experiences all built by a global community of creators.
Let’s hear from Swati Bakshi, Director of Compensation Programs, Operations, and Systems, to see what makes them stand out!
Initiative Overview
Transform: What does this recognition mean to your team?
Swati Bakshi, Roblox:
Being recognized by the Transform community is truly a privilege and an honor. It is a testament to our innovative, proactive, and progressive approach to total rewards. And it also affirms our commitment to challenging the status quo and pushing the boundaries of traditional total rewards strategies.
It has taken a lot of hard work and grit to get to where we are today. In 2022, we crafted our vision and mission for the Total Rewards team: “To set the industry standard for Total Rewards.” Receiving this award from Transform validates all of our hard work. We are so proud as a team to receive this recognition!
Picture below: Roblox’s Total Rewards Team
Transform: Can you tell us a bit about the initiative or program that earned you this recognition?
Swati Bakshi, Roblox:
At Roblox, our Total Rewards team has designed a compensation and benefits system that reflects our company values and drives company performance. Our philosophy is centered around enabling employees to bring their best selves to work and thrive both personally and professionally. In practice, our approach is to offer innovative and competitive total rewards that support health, wealth, and happiness.
Health
Measurement
- Roblox provides onsite biometric screenings, onsite DEXA scans, and coverage for wearable devices to equip employees with detailed insights into their health, including a one-month supply of over-the-counter CGMs. These assessments allow for baseline and progress measurement, help facilitate informed decision-making, and promote personalized care.
Nutrition
- Drawing on the knowledge of nutritionists, industry experts, and scientific research, Roblox developed a nutritional philosophy that guides our onsite food program. This includes breakfast, lunch, snacks, and beverages. The nutrition philosophy focuses on Good Energy, as defined by Dr. Casey Means, and Whole Foods, as defined by the UNC food classification system, to recognize food that promotes optimal metabolic health, higher nutrients, and minimal processing. The nutrition philosophy also commits the onsite culinary team to healthy cooking standards, employee engagement, nutrition education, and sustainability.
“Our Total Rewards programs reflect Roblox’s core value of ‘take the long view.”
Movement
- Learning optimal habits and remaining accountable to a plan is paramount. Roblox offers comprehensive onsite and virtual one-on-one health coaching. Health coaches create personalized plans for employees based on their individual priorities and key focus areas, and they establish checkpoints and progress metrics as employees track toward their goals. Not only specializing in fitness and movement, coaches can advise on nutrition and recovery for a holistic approach to health and well-being.
Wealth
Fair and Formulaic Compensation
- At Roblox, fairness is built into our compensation model. We follow a formulaic approach—employees in the same role, level, location, and performance category receive identical pay. This “equal pay for equal work” structure removes ambiguity and helps ensure that compensation is tied directly to measurable impact.
Nimble Equity System
- Our unique quarterly refresh equity program provides consistent equity awards that align with market conditions. Eligible employees’ refresh equity target is based on their performance and divided into four grants to minimize the effects of market volatility. These quarterly refresh grants allow more frequent alignment to our stock price while rewarding performance more frequently than through one-time annual grants.
Roblox Recognition Program
- To complement our formulaic compensation and continuous progression system, we recently launched the Roblox Recognition Award, providing leaders across Roblox a discretionary lever to recognize exemplary impact. This equity award is designed for employees who demonstrate an impact that exceeds the expectations of their level.
401(k) Match
- Roblox revised the 401(k) match maximum to be more equitable for employees. Rather than matching up to a percentage of employee salary, Roblox matches up to a percentage of the annual IRS limit. This change offers everyone the same opportunity to save and incentivizes employees to start saving earlier in their careers.
Happiness
Mental and Emotional Health
- Roblox provides 25 covered mental health coaching and/or therapy sessions per year per person (employees and their dependents alike). These sessions can address topics such as resilience, stress management, and other areas crucial for maintaining mental well-being.
Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA)
- Roblox provides an annual allowance to cover perks and lifestyle benefits that empower employees to prioritize what they believe will make the greatest impact to their health, wealth, and happiness. Whether it’s tapping into fitness and wellbeing, remote work equipment, commuter and transit, family support, or financial wellbeing services, employees can take full advantage of the LSA in a meaningful way.
Interested in learning more? We recently published a blog post with more information about our approach to Total Rewards.
“By prioritizing fairness, fostering innovation, and championing
proactive care, we’re empowering long-term growth.”
Impact & Results
Transform: Do you have any photos, stories, or links that show this initiative in action?
Swati Bakshi, Roblox:
Our Total Rewards program offers competitive and innovative solutions that focus on the health, wealth, and happiness of our employees. Recently, we interviewed some of our employees about our Total Rewards program, and below are some quotes from our employees. Watch the testimonial videos here.
- Health: “DEXA scans, onsite nutrition, coaching, all of those are things that might be difficult to acquire through your own insurance or just being able to find that in your local area, so just having it here and convenient is really nice.”
- Wealth: “When I was considering the Roblox offer, honestly the compensation and equity package was the thing that stood out the most for me. I can do things for myself and my family that I had never considered before.”
- Happiness: “Roblox’s benefits package allows me to show up as my best self at work and then also show up as my best self as a mom for my new baby.”
DEXA scans: Roblox offers onsite DEXA scans to help equip employees with detailed insights into their health. These assessments allow for baseline and progress measurement, help facilitate informed decision-making, and promote personalized care.
Dental exams: Roblox offers onsite dental exams, complete with X-rays. This improves the accessibility of care and helps encourage employees, including those who may not have otherwise sought an examination, to conveniently receive preventive dental services.
Health Coaching: Roblox offers on-site and virtual one-on-one health coaching. Coaches can create personalized plans for employees based on their priorities and key focus areas, and establish accountability checkpoints and progress metrics as employees track towards their goals. The following photo is of a tabling event held to raise awareness for health coaching.
Insights & Learning
Transform: What is one lesson or challenge your team faced, and how did you work through it?
Swati Bakshi, Roblox:
An ongoing challenge we face is how to spark intrinsic motivation in employees to take charge of their health proactively. While a substantial portion of our workforce is already engaged in our proactive care initiatives, another segment remains unreached. We often ask ourselves how to connect with them effectively.
Do we need a simpler entry point? How can we better tie these initiatives to their individual health or performance goals? How can we create more impactful communications so employees are aware of the available services?
We’re continuously exploring new strategies to bridge this gap and aim to help employees feel empowered to lead their health one step at a time.
Growth & What’s Ahead
Transform: How does this initiative align with your company’s mission or vision?
Swati Bakshi, Roblox:
Our Total Rewards initiatives directly reflect Roblox’s core value of “take the long view.” By prioritizing fairness, fostering innovation, and championing proactive care, we’re empowering our employees to adopt a long-term approach to their own health, wealth, and happiness.
The current Total Rewards programs, and their inevitable evolution, are designed to equip employees with the tools they need to thrive both personally and professionally for years to come.
Check out our other Transform Spotlights on the blog to learn more about our Global Ambassadors. People-First Leaders, Authors, Award Winners, and more!