Sikich Revamps Its Pre-Tax Programs and Saves $86K Annually With a Modernized Approach

Background

Sikich is a global company specializing in technology-enabled professional services. With more than 1,800 employees working remote or hybrid roles across 37 states, Sikich’s benefits programs are designed to meet the needs of a diverse workforce. As the company has grown, it has realized the need to deliver top-notch benefits that help them stand out in the marketplace and attract and retain top talent. With that in mind, they sought to improve their benefits programs with a modern, consolidated approach. 

Fixing a pre-tax experience defined by poor customer service and manual reporting

“We had employees calling in and sitting on hold for hours. Even on the admin side, there was no customer support and the technology was clunky.” - Shanda Brown, Senior Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations

Sikich’s previous pre-tax vendor delivered a less-than-stellar employee experience. Employees frequently ran into issues as they tried to access and use their benefits, and the vendor’s customer service team was not very responsive. Employees would often sit on the phone for two to three hours to receive help in setting up their accounts. 

“People couldn’t get their accounts unfrozen or open because of the hurdles they had to go through with this prior organization,” said Shanda Brown, Senior Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations. “I had people’s money just sitting there that they couldn’t use because they couldn’t work with them to get their accounts open.”

For administrators, managing benefits was equally frustrating. Reports were unreliable and lacked key identifiers, such as employee names. Instead, administrators had to deal with reports that included only columns of dates, dollar amounts, and Social Security numbers—reconciliation involved manipulating this data in Excel, performing lookups, and manually matching entries to employees. Between answering employees’ questions and manually adjusting the files and reports needed to administer their benefits, the team spent 3 to 5 hours each week on administrative work. 

“I had to pull a report and it just had columns with dates, dollar amounts, and Social Security numbers with no names associated,” Shanda explained. “We had to manually create and upload our biweekly and semi-monthly contributions into the system because there wasn’t an automated feed. Pulling reports was like pulling teeth—if you didn’t do it exactly right, you’d get garbage data.”

The tedious processes for both employees and administrators created inefficiencies and frustration, making it an urgent necessity to seek a more modern solution with a vendor that prioritized responsive customer service and simplified administration. 

Launching a modern, innovative pre-tax program

“Our main goal was ease of use for employees. Our employees having a better user experience and having a tool we can grow with and utilize for more things—those were our two main goals when we decided to choose Benepass.” - Shanda Brown, Senior Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations

Sikich’s main goals for their benefits overhaul were to improve the employee experience and create a scalable solution. With these objectives in mind, they selected Benepass as their new benefits platform. The transition began in January 2024, consolidating several pre-tax benefits, including health FSAs, dependent care FSAs, HSAs, and commuter benefits, onto the Benepass platform. Benepass’s user-friendly technology and responsive customer support marked a stark improvement.

By mid-2024, Sikich had also integrated their non-taxable workspace accommodation, phone, and internet reimbursement accounts into Benepass. This move simplified the reimbursement process and allowed employees to access all their benefits in one place. 

“It has added an ease of administration,” Shanda said. “When we added in the reimbursement accounts, it just made so much sense because it’s all in one area. Now it’s easier for our employees to understand some of those reimbursement accounts as benefits.” 

The changes not only reduced administrative burdens but also delivered significant cost savings by eliminating licensing fees and cutting expense report submission costs tied to their previous expense reimbursement system. On top of licensing fees, the team paid $12 for each submitted report. Employees were instructed to submit only one report per month to limit the cost, but this lack of flexibility negatively impacted the employee experience. Moving their reimbursement accounts to Benepass eliminated these licensing fees and report submission costs, saving the team money and improving the employee experience with a more flexible and intuitive submission process. 

Adding a flexible lifestyle spending account 

“Our philosophy is giving employees what they need and what they’re asking for.” - Shanda Brown, Senior Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations

As the company has rapidly grown, the Sikich team recognized the need to provide strong benefits that help them compete for top talent. They added a lifestyle spending account (LSA) to their benefits package to give employees flexible funds they can spend on a variety of health and wellness items, including: 

• Fitness: Gym memberships, exercise classes, equipment, clothing, fitness events (races, marathons, etc.)
• Spa: Massages, facials, beauty products, salons
• Tech-supported wellness: Meditation apps, fitness apps, fitness trackers
• Nutrition: Nutritional programs like Weight Watchers, nutritionists, supplements and vitamins 
• Mental health: Therapy, apps, meditation
• Food: Groceries, restaurants, meal kit delivery, food delivery
• Student debt: Student loan repayment
• Finance: Financial coaching and advisory services 

Employees enjoy the flexibility to tailor their benefits to their individual needs, and the Sikich team has seen employees purchase running shoes, Fitbits, gym memberships, and more. The benefit allows the team to achieve their goal of delivering benefits that equitably serve a diverse employee base. 

When Sikich launched their LSA in 2024, the team provided employees an annual allotment of $120. They leveraged Benepass reports to monitor spending and ended the year at 62% utilization of budget. This data revealed an opportunity to increase their benefit amount to $150 annually in 2025, providing employees with an exciting benefit update while allowing the team to remain within budget. In 2024, employees spent the majority of their LSA dollars on physical and financial wellness, frequently using their benefits on fitness classes and memberships, groceries, and dining. This highlights how employees are leveraging their benefits to not only purchase essential items like groceries during periods of inflation but also to continue prioritizing their physical health. 

“Offering the LSA goes along with our employee-first philosophy and our diversity goals,” Shanda said. “You can use it for many different types of services, which lends itself to our diverse group.” 

Delivering significant cost savings and tangible results

“Participation in our FSA and HSA has increased, and I think a lot of it is having it all in one spot and the simplicity of the site and reimbursement process.” - Shanda Brown, Senior Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations

The partnership with Benepass has delivered transformative results for Sikich. Beyond improving the employee experience, the changes have also brought substantial cost savings. Transitioning away from a costly expense reporting system that charged $12 per report has saved Sikich approximately $86,000 annually. 

Administrative efficiency has also greatly improved, freeing HR staff to focus on strategic initiatives rather than spending hours on manual reconciliations or troubleshooting account issues. The team previously spent 3-5 hours each week auditing HSAs and answering employees’ questions about their FSAs and HSAs. With Benepass’s improved reporting and customer service experience, the team no longer spends significant time auditing accounts or fielding questions every week. 

“Employees have all been very happy with the customer service that they’ve received,” Shanda said. “Our team doesn’t have to spend very much time fixing issues.” 

The streamlined processes have also contributed to higher employee engagement. Participation in FSAs and HSAs has increased significantly, thanks to the platform’s intuitive interface and simplified workflows. Employees benefit from quicker reimbursements and an easier experience, fostering a greater sense of satisfaction and trust in their benefits program.

Partnering to deliver benefits that meet employee needs

“Things are being updated and enhanced literally every day.” - Shanda Brown, Senior Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations

Looking ahead, the Sikich team is eager to explore other ways they can use the Benepass platform to provide more personalized benefits to their employees. The team has enjoyed the partnership with Benepass and appreciates the ongoing technological innovations that allow Sikich to meet employee needs—for example, Benepass recently introduced an update allowing employees to submit DCFSA expenses larger than their available balance and be paid out over time. 

“Benepass is always innovating and trying to make the tool better,” Shanda said. “We’re always trying to improve and streamline, and we see that emulated with everything that Benepass has done.”

Key results 

“When I have talked to my cohorts about Benepass, I talk about the ease of implementing it and how easy it is for employees to use the tool.” - Shanda Brown, Director of Total Rewards and HR Operations

• Enhanced employee experience: The Benepass platform consolidates benefits in one place so employees can easily access and use their benefits, while the flexibility of their LSA program gives them the freedom to tailor their benefits to their unique wants and needs.
• Reduced administrative burden: With Benepass’s advanced reporting capabilities, the Sikich team saves time they previously spent navigating confusing reports and manually uploading contributions. 
• Excellent customer service: Benepass’s responsive customer support team quickly answers questions and resolves issues, and the Sikich team values the partnership as they seek to continuously improve their programs over time. 
• Significant cost savings: Transitioning away from their previous expense reporting system has allowed the Sikich team to streamline their workflows and save $86K annually on report fees.