Remind Expands Flexibility and Reduces Administrative Burden With a Consolidated Benefits Approach

Background

Remind is a platform for communication and learning that reaches students and families where they are. The Remind platform is home to one of the largest free services in education, a school communication business that supports millions of students, and an online tutoring solution that provides help outside the classroom. With a fully remote workforce dispersed across over 20 states, Remind wanted to revitalize its benefits package with a solution that prioritized flexibility and ease of use. 

Investing in a flexible, user-friendly benefits experience

“We understand that everyone’s in different stages of their lives. How flexible can our benefits be so that they apply to most of our employees?” - Lucy He, Senior Manager, People Operations

When the Remind team began researching benefits solutions, they were primarily motivated by a desire to invest in the employee experience and fill in any gaps in how they were serving their employees’ needs. 

“We wanted to see what kind of benefits will actually help our employees,” said Lucy He, Senior Manager of People Operations. “We don’t want to be a company that just goes off a checklist.” 

Flexible benefits accounts provided the level of flexibility Remind sought in a benefits solution. The team appreciated that Benepass allows employees to tailor their benefits to their individual needs and preferences. 

“We can implement a Calm app or Headspace, for instance,” Lucy said. “But what works for one person might not work for another person. We want to make sure that our benefits are actually making an impact for our employees and possibly their dependents as well. 

Remind employees now use Benepass to access the following benefits accounts:

• Be Well: A $150 quarterly benefit covering mental health, physical health, massage, vitamins, chiropractor appointments, therapy, plants, fitness trackers and wearables, healthy meal delivery, and other wellness items 
• Be Productive: A $300 quarterly benefit covering professional development, training and support, coworking, home office purchases, internet and cell phone, home services, parental support, and healthy meal delivery

Admins take advantage of Benepass’s flexibility to create specialized benefits, too. For example, employees also receive a $20 reward in a Celebration account if 100% of employees complete their annual engagement survey. 

“It’s a very flexible tool for the admin, and you’re able to be creative on how you create the package for your employees,” Lucy said. 

Deploying Benepass also allowed the team to reduce some of their administrative burden. Any type of perk was previously run through Expensify, meaning employees experienced the headache of submitting receipts and waiting for reimbursement, while the finance team struggled to keep up with the administrative burden of reviewing expenses. While the team still uses Expensify for various expenses, transitioning certain programs to Benepass provided some relief. Employees can now use their Benepass card to make purchases without being required to submit receipts for every expense. 

“What is the employee experience?” Lucy said. “If they need to submit something through Expensify, then it goes through the approval for managers, and then it goes to the admin versus now they might say, ‘I’m going to get this desk and that’s something that will make me productive.’ They can just easily use the Benepass card to buy a desk.” 

Simplifying benefits administration with a consolidated approach

“I like to simplify and consolidate systems as much as possible instead of having one benefit here and one benefit there. The fact that Benepass was able to offer pre-tax benefits as well was something that I was really interested in.” - Lucy He, Senior Manager, People Operations

To further simplify their benefits programs and reduce administrative burden, the Remind team consolidated their benefits solutions by also bringing their pre-tax benefits onto the Benepass platform. Employees use Benepass to access the following pre-tax benefits: 

• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Health Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA)
• Parking
• Transit

By transitioning these benefits from Navia, the team improved the user experience for both admins and employees. Admins no longer have to manage multiple platforms and field as many employee questions about how to access their benefits. For employees, consolidation nips this confusion in the bud. 

“Being able to consolidate everything is just easier for employees because if they remember Benepass, that’s all they really need to remember,” Lucy said. “Employees don’t have to log into multiple systems just to get something done. Consolidating systems simplifies a lot of the processes on both ends, and that’s something I look for in a vendor.” 

Measuring the impact of benefits through detailed data 

“We want to make sure that employees are actually using their benefits and that the benefits are helping them.” - Lucy He, Senior Manager, People Operations

When the Remind team evaluates vendors, they also pay attention to the administrative experience of pulling reports and accessing useful analytics. The team is “very data-driven” and works with the Benepass Customer Support team to analyze data every quarter and assess how their programs are performing. 

Within the Benepass platform, admins can pull in-depth spending reports and view detailed data on benefits engagement over time, spending over time, spending by benefit, and benefits utilization. Remind uses this data to understand how employees are using their benefits and whether they need to make any adjustments to improve engagement. 

“We also set a goal for ourselves for engagement,” Lucy said. “We want to make sure that it’s the highest possible number. If it’s not, then we would look at that to make changes or at least look at ways to promote the benefits.”

Lucy noted that the flexibility of Benepass allows the team to easily make those changes when they’re necessary. Admins can customize their programs and work with the Customer Support team to request new configurations.

“We are constantly making changes—it’s not like we just rolled it out and that’s it,” Lucy said. “We always use the Analytics page to look at how we can continue to improve and what we can do differently to drive a higher score if it’s not already a high percentage.” 

Key results

“If you are looking for almost a one-size-fits-all solution where you’re allowing flexibility for different lifestyles or stages of employees’ lives, then Benepass is the tool that can help with that.” - Lucy He, Senior Manager, People Operations

• Enhanced employee experience: The flexibility of Benepass programs coupled with a consolidated, card-first approach to perks and pre-tax benefits results in a simplified user experience and higher rates of employee engagement. 
• Reduced administrative burden: By transitioning their perks from Expensify to Benepass, the Remind team eased the administrative burden of reviewing receipts, approving expenses, and answering questions from employees. 
• Robust program data: The Remind team uses Benepass’s detailed analytics capabilities to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs through in-depth data on spending trends and engagement rates. ‍
• High level of customization: The flexibility of the Benepass platform allows the Remind team to create unique programs that match the needs of their employees and adjust their programs to improve engagement.